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-font-style: italic; -margin-bottom: 2em; -} -.figureHead, .noteref, .pseudonoteref, .marginnote, p.legend, .versenum -{ -color: #660000; -} -.rightnote, .pagenum, .linenum, .pagenum a { -color: #AAAAAA; -} -a.hidden:hover, a.noteref:hover { -color: red; -} -h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 { -font-weight: normal; -} -table { -margin-left: auto; -margin-right: auto; -} -.tablecaption { -text-align: center; -}.pagenum, .linenum { -speak: none; -} -</style> - -<style type="text/css"> -.adTopLine, .adBottomLine { -font-size: large; -font-weight: bold; -text-decoration: underline; -text-align: center; -} -.adTitle { -font-size: x-large; -} -.adByline { -font-size: large; -} -.adPrice { -font-size: xx-large; -position: absolute; -right: 20%; -} -.adReview { -margin: 4ex 2em 4ex 2em; -font-size: small; -} -#ads { -margin: 10px 10px; -border: 2px solid black; -margin: 5em; -padding: 10px; -} -/* CSS rules generated from @rend attributes in TEI file */ -.xd23e100width -{ -width:462px; -} -.xd23e106width -{ -width:410px; -} -.xd23e112 -{ -text-align:center;font-size:large; -} -.xd23e116 -{ -font-size:xx-large; text-align:center; -} -.xd23e167 -{ -text-align:center; -} -.xd23e193 -{ -font-size:smaller; -} -.xd23e5427 -{ -text-align:center; -} -.xd23e5433width -{ -width:117px; -} -.xd23e5442width -{ -width:493px; -} -.xd23e5485 -{ -text-align:right; -} -.xd23e5509 -{ -font-size:small; -} -.xd23e5606 -{ -font-size:small; -} -.xd23e5635 -{ -font-size:small; -} -.xd23e5704 -{ -font-size:small; -} -.xd23e5895 -{ -font-size:x-large; -} -@media handheld -{ -} -</style> -</head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Goslings, by J. D. Beresford - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Goslings - -Author: J. D. Beresford - -Release Date: November 26, 2016 [EBook #53611] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GOSLINGS *** - - - - -Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net/ for Project -Gutenberg (This file was produced from images generously -made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - -</pre> - -<div class="front"> -<div class="div1 cover"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first"></p> -<div class="figure xd23e100width"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt= -"Original Front Cover." width="462" height="720"></div> -<p class="par"></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div1 titlepage"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first"></p> -<div class="figure xd23e106width"><img src="images/titlepage.png" alt= -"Original Title Page." width="410" height="720"></div> -<p class="par"></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div1 frenchtitle"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first xd23e112">Goslings</p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ads" class="div1 ads"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main xd23e116">New 6s. Novels</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first"><b>THE AMBASSADRESS. By William -Wriothesley.</b></p> -<p class="par"><b>THE WEAKER VESSEL. By E. F. Benson</b>, author of -“Account Rendered,” etc.</p> -<p class="par"><b>“WHERE ARE YOU GOING TO...?” By Elizabeth -Robins</b>, author of “The Magnetic North,” etc.</p> -<p class="par"><b>A RUNAWAY RING. By Mrs Henry Dudeney</b>, author of -“The Orchard Thief,” etc.</p> -<p class="par"><b>LU OF THE RANGES. By Eleanor Mordaunt</b>, author of -“The Cost of It,” etc.</p> -<p class="par"><b>THE STORY OF STEPHEN COMPTON. By J. E. Patterson</b>, -author of “Tillers of the Soil,” etc.</p> -<p class="par"><b>THE FRONTIERS OF THE HEART. By Victor -Margueritte.</b></p> -<p class="par"><b>JOHN CHRISTOPHER (IV). Journey’s End. By Romain -Rolland</b>, translated by Gilbert Cannan.</p> -<p class="par"><b>THE HIPPODROME. By Rachel Hayward.</b></p> -<p class="par"><b>GUTTER BABIES. By Dorothea Slade</b>, illustrated by -Lady Stanley.</p> -<p class="par"><b>MINNA. By Karl Gjellerup</b>, author of “The -Pilgrim Kamanita.”</p> -<p class="par"><b>GROWING PAINS. By Ivy Low.</b></p> -<p class="par xd23e167">LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="titlePage"> -<div class="docTitle"> -<div class="mainTitle">Goslings</div> -</div> -<div class="byline">By<br> -<span class="docAuthor">J. D. Beresford</span><br> -Author of “The Hampdenshire Wonder,” etc.</div> -<div class="docImprint">London<br> -William Heinemann<br> -<span class="docDate">1913</span></div> -</div> -<div class="div1 copyright"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first xd23e193"><i>Copyright</i>, 1913] <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb1" href="#pb1" name="pb1">1</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="body"> -<div id="bk1" class="div0 book"> -<h2 class="label">BOOK I</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE NEW PLAGUE</h2> -<p><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb3" href="#pb3" name= -"pb3">3</a>]</span></p> -<div id="ch1" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="divNum">I—</span>THE GOSLING -FAMILY</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">1</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">“Where’s the gels gone to?” -asked Mr Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“Up the ’Igh Road to look at the shops. -I’m expectin’ ’em in every minute.”</p> -<p class="par">“Ho!” said Gosling. He leaned against the -dresser; the kitchen was hot with steam, and he fumbled for a -handkerchief in the pocket of his black tail coat. He produced first a -large red bandanna with which he blew his nose vigorously. “Snuff -’andkerchief; brought it ’ome to be washed,” he -remarked, and then brought out a white handkerchief which he used to -wipe his forehead.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s a dirty ’abit -snuff-taking,” commented Mrs Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, you can’t smoke in the orfice,” -replied Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“Must be doin’ somethin’, I -suppose?” said his wife.</p> -<p class="par">When the recital of this formula had been -accomplished—it was hallowed by a precise repetition every week, -and had been established now for a quarter of a century—Gosling -returned to the subject in hand. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb4" -href="#pb4" name="pb4">4</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“They does a lot of lookin’ at shops,” -he said, “and then nothin’ ’ll satisfy ’em but -buyin’ somethin’. Why don’t they keep away from -’em?”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, well; sales begin nex’ week,” -replied Mrs Gosling. “An’ that’s a thing we -’ave to consider in our circumstances.” She left the -vicinity of the gas-stove, and bustled over to the dresser. -“’Ere, get out of my way, do,” she went on, -“an’ go up and change your coat. Dinner’ll be ready -in two ticks. I shan’t wait for the gells if they ain’t -in.”</p> -<p class="par">“Them sales is a fraud,” remarked Gosling, -but he did not stop to argue the point.</p> -<p class="par">He went upstairs and changed his respectable -“morning” coat for a short alpaca jacket, slipped his cuffs -over his hands, put one inside the other and placed them in their -customary position on the chest of drawers, changed his boots for -carpet slippers, wetted his hair brush and carefully plastered down a -long wisp of grey hair over the top of his bald head, and then went -into the bathroom to wash his hands.</p> -<p class="par">There had been a time in George Gosling’s history -when he had not been so regardful of the decencies of life. But he was -a man of position now, and his two daughters insisted on these -ceremonial observances.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling was one of the world’s successes. He had -started life as a National School boy, and had worked his way up -through all the grades—messenger, office-boy, junior clerk, -clerk, senior clerk, head clerk, accountant—to his present -responsible position as head of the counting-house, with a salary of -£26 a <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb5" href="#pb5" name= -"pb5">5</a>]</span>month. He rented a house in Wisteria Grove, -Brondesbury, at £45 a year; he was a sidesman of the church of St -John the Evangelist, Kilburn; a member of Local Committees; and in -moments of expansion he talked of seeking election to the District -Council. A solid, sober, thoroughly respectable man, Gosling, about -whom there had never been a hint of scandal; grown stout now, and -bald—save for a little hair over the ears, and that one -persistent grey tress which he used as a sort of insufficient wrapping -for his naked skull.</p> -<p class="par">Such was the George Gosling seen by his wife, daughters, -neighbours, and heads of the firm of wholesale provision merchants for -whom he had worked for forty-one years in Barbican, E.C. Yet there was -another man, hardly realized by George Gosling himself, and apparently -so little representative that even his particular cronies in the office -would never have entered any description of him, if they had been -obliged to give a detailed account of their colleague’s -character.</p> -<p class="par">Nevertheless, if you heard Gosling laughing uproariously -at some story produced by one of those cronies, you might be quite -certain that it was a story he would not repeat before his daughters, -though he might tell his wife—if it were not too broad. If you -watched Gosling in the street, you would see that he took a strange, -unaccountable interest in the feet and ankles of young women. And if -many of Gosling’s thoughts and desires had been translated into -action, the Vicar of St John the Evangelist would have dismissed his -sidesman with <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb6" href="#pb6" name= -"pb6">6</a>]</span>disgust, the Local Committees would have had no more -of him, and his wife and daughters would have regarded him as the most -depraved of criminals.</p> -<p class="par">Fortunately, Gosling had never been tempted beyond the -powers of his resistance. At fifty-five, he may be regarded as safe -from temptation. He seldom put any restraint upon his thoughts, outside -business hours; but he had an ideal which ruled his life—the -ideal of respectability. George Gosling counted himself—and -others counted him also—as respectable a man as could be found in -the Metropolitan Police area. There were, perhaps, a quarter of a -million other men in the same area, equally respectable.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">2</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">As he was drying his hands, Gosling heard the -front door slam and his daughters’ voices in the passage below, -followed by a shrill exhortation from the kitchen: “Now, gels, -’urry up, dinner’s all ready and your father’s -waitin’!”</p> -<p class="par">Gosling trotted downstairs and received the usual salute -from his two girls. He noted that they were a shade more effusive than -usual. “Want more money for fal-lals,” was his inward -comment. They were always wanting money for “fal-lals.”</p> -<p class="par">He adopted his usual line of defence through dinner and -constantly brought the subject of conversation back to the need for a -reduction of expenses. He did not see Blanche wink at Millie across the -table, during these strategic exercises; nor catch the glance of -understanding which passed between <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb7" -href="#pb7" name="pb7">7</a>]</span>the girls and their mother. So, as -his dinner comforted and cheered him, Gosling began to relax into his -usual facetiousness; incredibly believing, despite the invariable -precedents of his family history, that his daughters had been convinced -of the hopelessness of approaching him for money that evening.</p> -<p class="par">The credulous creature even allowed them to make their -opening, and then assisted them to a statement of their petition.</p> -<p class="par">They were talking of a friend’s engagement to be -married, and Gosling with an obtuseness he never displayed in business -remarked, “Wish my gels ’ud get married.”</p> -<p class="par">“Talking about us, father?” asked -Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, you’re the only gels I’ve -got—as I know of,” said Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, how can you expect us to get married when -we haven’t got a decent thing to put on?” returned -Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling realized his danger too late. “Pooh! That -don’t make any difference,” he said hastily, adopting a -thoroughly unsound line of defence; “I never noticed what your -mother was wearing when I courted ’er.”</p> -<p class="par">“Dessay you didn’t,” replied Millie, -“I dessay most fellows couldn’t tell you what a girl was -wearing, but it makes just all the difference for all that.”</p> -<p class="par">“Of course it does,” said Blanche. “A -girl’s got no chance these days unless she can look smart. No -fellow’s going to marry a dowdy.”</p> -<p class="par">“It does make a big difference, there’s no -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb8" href="#pb8" name= -"pb8">8</a>]</span>denyin’,” put in Mrs Gosling, as though -she was being convinced against her will.</p> -<p class="par">“And now the sales are just -beginning——”</p> -<p class="par">Poor Gosling knew the game was up. They had made no -direct attack upon his pocket, yet; but they would not relax their grip -of this fascinating subject till they had achieved their object. -Blanche was saying that she was ashamed to be seen anywhere; and -procrastination would be met at once by the argument—how well he -knew it—based on the premise that if you didn’t buy at -sale-time, you had to pay twice as much later.</p> -<p class="par">It was quite useless for Gosling to fidget, throw -himself back in his chair, frown, shake his head, and look horribly -determined; the course of progress was unalterable from the direct -attack: “Do you <i>like</i> to see us going about in rags, -father?” through the stage of “Well, well, ’ow much -do you want? I simply <i>can’t</i> afford——” -and the ensuing haggles down to the despairing sigh as the original -minimum demanded—in this case no less than five pounds—was -forlornly conceded, and clinched by Blanche’s, “We must -have it before the end of the week, dad, the sales begin on -Monday.”</p> -<p class="par">At the end of it all, he received what compensation they -had to offer him; hugs and kisses, offers to do all sorts of impossible -things, assistance in getting his armchair into precisely the right -position, and him into the chair, and the table cleared and the lamp in -just the right place for him to read his half-penny evening paper which -was fetched for him from the pocket of his overcoat. And, finally, the -crux of <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb9" href="#pb9" name= -"pb9">9</a>]</span>Gosling’s whole position, a general air of -complacency, good-temper and comfort.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling was an easy-going man, he hated rows.</p> -<p class="par">“Mind you, you two,” he remarked with a -return to facetiousness as he settled himself with his carpet slippers -spread out to the fire—“mind you, I look on this money as -an investment. You two gels got to get married; and quick or I shall be -in the bankrup’cy Court. Don’t you forget as these -‘fal-lals’ is bought for a purpose.”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, don’t be so horrid, father,” said -Blanche, with a change of front; “it sounds as if we were setting -traps for men.”</p> -<p class="par">“Well, ain’t you?” asked Gosling. -“You said just now——”</p> -<p class="par">“Not like that,” interrupted Blanche. -“It’s very different just wanting to look nice. Personally, -I’m in no ’urry to get married, thank you.”</p> -<p class="par">“You wait till Mr Right comes along,” put in -Mrs Gosling, and then turned the conversation by saying: “Well, -father, what’s the news this evening?”</p> -<p class="par">“Nothin’ excitin’,” replied -Gosling. “Seems this new plague’s spreadin’ in -China.”</p> -<p class="par">“They’re always inventin’ new -diseases, nowadays, or callin’ old ones by new names,” said -Mrs Gosling. The two girls were busy with a sheet of note-paper and a -stump of pencil that seemed to require frequent lubrication; they were -making calculations.</p> -<p class="par">“This one’s quite new, seemingly,” -returned Gosling. “It’s only the men as get it.” -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb10" href="#pb10" name= -"pb10">10</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“No need for us to worry, then,” put in -Millie, more as a duty, some slight return for benefits promised, than -because she took any interest in the subject. Blanche was absorbed; her -unseeing gaze was fixed on the mantelpiece and ever and again she -removed the point of the pencil from her mouth and wrote -feverishly.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, ain’t there?” replied Gosling. He -turned his head in order to argue from so strong a position. “And -where’d you be, and all the rest of the women, if you -’adn’t got no men to look after you?”</p> -<p class="par">“I expect we could get along pretty well, if we -had to,” said Millie.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling winked at his wife, and indicated by an upward -movement of his chin that he was astounded at such innocence. -“Who’d buy your ‘fal-lals’ for you, I should -like to know?” he asked.</p> -<p class="par">“We’d have to earn money for -ourselves,” said Millie.</p> -<p class="par">“Ah! I’d like to see you or Blanche -takin’ over my job,” replied her father. “Why, -I’ll lay there’s ’alf a dozen mistakes in the -figurin’ she’s doing at the present moment. Let me -see!”</p> -<p class="par">Blanche descended suddenly from visions of Paradise, and -put her hand over the sheet of note-paper. “You can’t, -father,” she said.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling looked sly. “Indeed?” he said, with -simulated surprise. “And why not?<a id="xd23e336" name= -"xd23e336"></a> Ain’t I to be allowed to judge of the nature of -the investment I’m goin’ in for? I might give you an -’int or two from the gentleman’s point of view.” -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb11" href="#pb11" name= -"pb11">11</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Blanche shook her head. “I haven’t added it -up yet,” she said.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling did not press the point; he returned to his -original position. “I dunno where you ladies ’ud be if you -’adn’t no gentlemen to look after you.”</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling smirked. “We’ll ’ope it -won’t come to that,” she said. “China’s a long -way off.”</p> -<p class="par">“Appears as there’s been one case in Russia, -though,” remarked Gosling. He saw that he had rather a good thing -in this threat of male extermination, a pleasant, harmless threat to -hold over his feminine dependents; a means to emphasize the facts of -masculine superiority and of the absolute necessity for masculine -intelligence; facts that were not sufficiently well realized in -Wisteria Grove, at times.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling yawned surreptitiously. She was doing her -best to be pleasant, but the subject bored her. She was a practical -woman who worked hard all day to keep her house clean, and received -very feeble assistance from the daughters for whom her one ambition was -an establishment conducted on lines precisely similar to her own.</p> -<p class="par">Millie and Blanche had returned to their calculations -and were completely absorbed.</p> -<p class="par">“In Russia? Just fancy,” commented Mrs -Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“In Moscow,” said Gosling, studying his -<i>Evening News</i>. “’E was an official on the -trans-Siberian Railway. ‘As soon as the disease was identified as -a case of the new plague,’” read Gosling, “‘the -patient was at once removed to the infectious hospital and strictly -isolated. He died within two <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb12" href= -"#pb12" name="pb12">12</a>]</span>hours of his admission. Stringent -measures are being taken to prevent the infection from -spreading.’”</p> -<p class="par">“Was ’e a married man?” asked Mrs -Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“Doesn’t say,” replied her husband. -“But the point is that if it once gets to Europe, who knows where -it’ll stop?”</p> -<p class="par">“They’ll see to that, you may be -sure,” said Mrs Gosling, with a beautiful faith in the scientific -resources of civilization. “It said somethin’ about that in -the bit you’ve just read.”</p> -<p class="par">Gosling was not to be done out of his argument. -“Very like,” he said. “But now, just supposin’ -as this ’ere plague did spread to London, and ’alf the men -couldn’t go to work; where d’you fancy you’d -be?”</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling was unable to grasp the intricacies of this -abstraction. “Well, of course, every one knows as we -couldn’t get on without the men,” she said.</p> -<p class="par">“Ah! well there you are, got it in once,” -said Gosling. “And don’t you gels forget it,” he -added turning to his daughters.</p> -<p class="par">Millie only giggled, but Blanche said, “All right, -dad, we won’t.”</p> -<p class="par">The girls returned to their calculations; they had -arrived at the stage of cutting out all those items which were not -“absolutely necessary.” Five pounds had proved a miserably -inadequate sum on paper.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling returned to his <i>Evening News</i>, which -presently slipped gently from his hand to the floor. Mrs Gosling looked -up from her sewing and put a finger on her lips. The voices of Blanche -and Millie were subdued to sibilant whisperings. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb13" href="#pb13" name="pb13">13</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Gosling had forgotten his economic problems, and his -daring abstractions concerning a world despoiled of male activity, -especially of that essential activity, as he figured it, the making of -money—the wage-earner was enjoying his after-dinner nap, hedged -about, protected and cared for by his womankind.</p> -<p class="par">There may have been a quarter of a million wage-earners -in Greater London at that moment, who, however much they differed from -Gosling on such minor questions as Tariff Reform or the capabilities of -the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, would have agreed with him as a -matter of course, on the essentials he had discussed that evening.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">3</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">At half-past nine the click of the letter-box, -followed by a resounding double-knock, announced the arrival of the -last post. Millie jumped up at once and went out eagerly.</p> -<p class="par">Mr Gosling opened his eyes and stared with drunken -fixity at the mantelpiece; then, without moving the rest of his body, -he began to grope automatically with his left hand for the fallen -newspaper. He found it at last, picked it up and pretended to read with -sleep-sodden eyes.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s the post, dear,” remarked Mrs -Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling yawned enormously. “Who’s it -for?” he asked.</p> -<p class="par">“Millie! Millie!” called Mrs Gosling. -“Why don’t you bring the letters in?”</p> -<p class="par">Millie did not reply, but she came slowly into the -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb14" href="#pb14" name= -"pb14">14</a>]</span>room, in her hands a letter which she was -examining minutely.</p> -<p class="par">“Who’s it for, Mill?” asked Blanche, -impatiently.</p> -<p class="par">“Father,” replied Millie, still intent on -her study. “It’s a foreign letter. I seem to remember the -writing, too, only I can’t fix it exactly.”</p> -<p class="par">“’Ere, ’and it over, my gel,” -said Gosling, and Millie reluctantly parted with her fascinating -enigma.</p> -<p class="par">“I know that ’and, too,” remarked -Gosling, and he, also, would have spent some time in the attempt to -guess the puzzle without looking up the answer within the envelope, but -the three spectators, who were not sharing his interest, manifested -impatience.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, ain’t you going to open it, -father?” asked Millie, and Mrs Gosling looked at her husband over -her spectacles and remarked, “It must be a business letter, if it -comes from foreign parts.”</p> -<p class="par">“Don’t get business letters to this -address,” returned the head of the house, “besides which -it’s from Warsaw; we don’t do nothin’ with -Warsaw.”</p> -<p class="par">At last he opened the letter.</p> -<p class="par">The three women fixed their gaze on Gosling’s -face.</p> -<p class="par">“Well?” ejaculated Millie, after a silence -of several seconds. “Aren’t you going to tell -us?”</p> -<p class="par">“You’d never guess,” said Gosling -triumphantly.</p> -<p class="par">“Anyone we know?” asked Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">“Yes, a gentleman.”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! tell us, father,” urged the impatient -Millie.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s from the Mr Thrale, as lodged with us -once,” announced Gosling. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb15" -href="#pb15" name="pb15">15</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Oh! dear, our Mr Fastidious,” commented -Blanche, “I thought he was dead long ago.”</p> -<p class="par">“It must be over four years since ’e -left,” put in Mrs Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“Getting on for five,” corrected Blanche. -“I remember I put my hair up while he was here.”</p> -<p class="par">“What’s he say?” asked Millie.</p> -<p class="par">“’E says, ‘Dear Mr Gosling, I expect -you will be surprised to ’ear from me after my five years’ -silence——’”</p> -<p class="par">“I said it was five years,” put in Blanche. -“Go on, dad!”</p> -<p class="par">Dad resumed “... ‘but I ’ave been in -various parts of the world and it ’as been quite impossible to -keep up a correspondence. I am writing now to tell you that I shall be -back in London in a few days, and to ask you whether you can find a -room for me in Wisteria Grove?’”</p> -<p class="par">“Well! I should ’ave thought he’d -’ave written to me to ask that!” said Mrs Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“So ’e should ’ave, by rights,” -agreed Gosling. “But ’e’s a queer card is Mr -Thrale.”</p> -<p class="par">“Bit dotty, if you ask me,” said -Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">“’S that all?” asked Mrs Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“No, ’e says: ‘I can’t give you -an address as I go on to Berlin immediately, but I will look you up the -evening after I arrive. Eastern Europe is not safe at the present time. -There ’ave been several cases of the new plague in Moscow, but -the authorities are doing everything they can—which is much in -Russia—to keep the news out of the press, yours sincerely, -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb16" href="#pb16" name= -"pb16">16</a>]</span>Jasper Thrale,<span class="corr" id="xd23e461" -title="Source: ”">’</span> and that’s the lot,” -concluded Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“I do think he’s a cool hand,” -commented Blanche. “Of course you won’t have him as a -paying guest now?”</p> -<p class="par">Gosling and his wife looked at each other, -thoughtfully.</p> -<p class="par">“Well——” hesitated Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“’E might bring the infection,” -suggested Mrs Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! no fear of that,” returned her husband, -“but I dunno as we want a boarder now. Five years ago I -’adn’t got my big rise——”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, no, father; what would the neighbours think -of us if we started to take boarders again?” protested -Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">“It wouldn’t look well,” agreed Mrs -Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“Jus’ what I was thinking,” said the -head of the house. “’Owever, there’s no ’arm in -payin’ us a friendly visit.”</p> -<p class="par">“O’ course not,” said Mrs Gosling, -“though I do think it odd ’e shouldn’t ’ave -written to me in the first place.</p> -<p class="par">“He’s dotty!” said Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling shook his head. “Not by a very long chalk -’e ain’t,” was his firm pronouncement....</p> -<p class="par">“Well, girls, what about bed?” asked Mrs -Gosling, putting away the “bit of mending” she had been -engaged upon.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling yawned again, stretched himself, and rose -grunting to his feet. “I’m about ready for <i>my</i> -bed,” <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb17" href="#pb17" name= -"pb17">17</a>]</span>he remarked, and after another yawn he started his -nightly round of inspection.</p> -<p class="par">When he returned to the sitting-room the others were all -ready to retire. Gosling kissed his daughters, and the two girls and -their mother went upstairs. Gosling carefully took off the larger -pieces of coal from the fire and put them under the grate, rolled up -the hearthrug, saw that the window was securely fastened, extinguished -the lamp and followed his “womenfolk.”</p> -<p class="par">As he was undressing his thoughts turned once more to -the threat of the new disease which was devastating China.</p> -<p class="par">“Rum thing about that new plague,” he -remarked to his wife. “Seems as it’s only men as get -it.”</p> -<p class="par">“They’d never let it spread to -England,” replied Mrs Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! there’s no fear of that, none -whatever,” said Gosling, “but it’s rum that about -women never catching it.”</p> -<p class="par">The attitude of the Goslings faithfully reflected that -of the immense majority of English people. The faith in the hygienic -and scientific resources which were at the disposal of the authorities, -and the implicit trust in the vigilance and energy of those -authorities, were sufficient to allay any fears that were not too -imminent. It was some one’s duty to look after these things, and -if they were not looked after there would be letters in the papers -about it. At last, without question, the authorities would be roused to -a sense of duty and the trouble, whatever it was, would be stopped. -Precisely what authority <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb18" href= -"#pb18" name="pb18">18</a>]</span>managed these affairs none of the -huge Gosling family knew. Vaguely they pictured Medical Boards, or -Health Committees; dimly they connected these things with local -government; at the top, doubtless, was some managing authority—in -Whitehall probably—something to do with the supreme head of -affairs, the much abused but eminently paternal Government. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb19" href="#pb19" name= -"pb19">19</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch2" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="divNum">II—</span>THE OPINIONS OF -JASPER THRALE</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">1</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">“Lord, how I do envy you,” said Morgan -Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">Jasper Thrale sat forward in his chair. -“There’s no reason why you shouldn’t do what -I’ve done—and more,” he said.</p> -<p class="par">“Theoretically, I suppose not,” replied -Gurney. “It’s just making the big effort to start with. You -see I’ve got a very decent berth and good prospects, and -it’s comfortable and all that. Only when some fellow like you -comes along and tells one yarns of the world outside, I get sort of -hankerings after the sea and adventure, and seeing the big things. -It’s only now and then—ordinary times I’m contented -enough.” He stuck his pipe in the corner of his mouth and stared -into the fire.</p> -<p class="par">“The only things that really count are feeling -clean and strong and able,” said Thrale. “You never really -have that feeling if you live in the big cities.”</p> -<p class="par">“I’ve felt like that sometimes after a long -bicycle ride,” interpolated Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">“But then the feeling is wasted, you see,” -said Thrale. “When you feel like that and there is something -tremendous to spend it upon, you get the great emotion as -well.”</p> -<p class="par">“Like the glimmer of St Agnes’ light, after -you’d <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb20" href="#pb20" name= -"pb20">20</a>]</span>been eight weeks out of sight of land?” -reflected Gurney, going back to one of Thrale’s -reminiscences.</p> -<p class="par">“To feel that you are a part of life, not this -dead, stale life of the city, but the life of the whole -universe,” said Thrale.</p> -<p class="par">“I know,” replied Gurney. “To-night -I’ve half a mind to chuck my job and go out looking for -mystery.”</p> -<p class="par">“But you won’t do it,” said -Thrale.</p> -<p class="par">Gurney sighed and began to analyse the instinct within -himself, to find precisely why he wanted to do it.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, I must go,” said Thrale, getting to -his feet, “I’ve got to find some sort of -lodging.”</p> -<p class="par">“I thought you were going to stay with those -Gosling people of yours,” said Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">“No! That’s off. I went to see them last -night and they won’t have me. The old man’s making his -£300 a year now, and the family’s too respectable to take -boarders.” Thrale picked up his hat and held out his hand.</p> -<p class="par">“But, look here, old chap, why the devil -can’t you stay here?” asked Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">“I didn’t know that you’d anywhere to -put me,” said Thrale.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, yes. There’s always a room to be had -downstairs,” said Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">After a brief discussion the arrangement was made.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s understood I’m to pay my -whack,” said Thrale.</p> -<p class="par">“Of course, if you insist——” -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb21" href="#pb21" name= -"pb21">21</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">When Thrale had gone to fetch his luggage from the -hotel, Gurney sat pondering over the fire. He was debating whether he -had been altogether wise in pressing his invitation. He was wondering -whether the curiously rousing personality of Thrale, and the stories of -those still existent corners of the world outside the rules of -civilization were good for a civil servant with an income of £600 -a year. Gurney, faced with the plain alternatives, could only decide -that he would be a fool to throw up a congenial and lucrative -occupation such as his own, in order to face present physical -discomfort and future penury. He knew that the discomforts would be -very real to him at first. His friends would think him mad. And all for -the sake of experiencing some high emotion now and again, in order to -feel clean and fresh and be able to discover something of the unknown -mystery of life.</p> -<p class="par">“I suppose there is something of the poet in -me,” reflected Gurney. “And I expect I should hate the -discomforts. One’s imagination gets led away....”</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">2</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">During the next few evenings the conversations -between these two friends were many and protracted.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale was the teacher, and Gurney was content to sit at -his feet and learn. He had a receptive mind, he was interested in all -life, but Uppingham, Trinity Hall, and the Home Civil had constricted -his mental processes. At twenty-nine he was losing flexibility. Thrale -gave him back his power to think, set him <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb22" href="#pb22" name="pb22">22</a>]</span>outside the formulas of -his school, taught him that however sound his deductions, there was not -one of his premises which could not be disputed.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale was Gurney’s senior by three years, and -when Thrale left Uppingham at eighteen, he had gone out into the world. -He had a patrimony of some £200 a year; but he had taken only a -lump sum of £100 and had started out to appease his furious -curiosity concerning life. He had laboured as a miner in the Klondike; -had sailed, working his passage as an ordinary seaman, from San -Francisco to Southampton; he had been a stockman in Australia, -assistant to a planter in Ceylon, a furnace minder in Kimberley and a -tally clerk in Hong Kong. For nearly nine years, indeed, he had earned -a living in every country of the world except Europe, and then he had -come back to London and invested the accumulation of income that his -trustee had amassed for him. The mere spending of money had no -fascination for him. During the six months he had remained in London he -had lived very simply, lodging with the Goslings in Kilburn, and, -because he could not live idly, exploring every corner of the great -city and writing articles for the journals. He might have earned a -large income by this latter means, for he had an originality of outlook -and a freshness of style that made his contributions eagerly sought -after once he had obtained a hearing—no difficult matter in -London for anyone who has something new to say. But experience, not -income, was his desire, and at the end of six months he had accepted an -offer from the <i>Daily Post</i> as a European <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb23" href="#pb23" name= -"pb23">23</a>]</span>correspondent—on space. He was offered -£600 a year, but he preferred to be free, and he had no wish to -be confined to one capital or country.</p> -<p class="par">In those five years he had traversed Europe, sending in -his articles irregularly, as he required money. And during that time -his chief trustee—a lawyer of the soundest reputation—had -absconded, and Thrale found his private income reduced to about -£40 a year, the interest on one of the investments he had made, -in his own name only, with his former accumulation—two other -investments made at the same time had proved unsound.</p> -<p class="par">This loss had not troubled him in any way. When he had -read in a London journal of his trustee’s abscondence—he -was later sentenced to fourteen years’ penal -servitude—Thrale had smiled and dismissed the matter from his -mind. He could always earn all the money he required, and had never, -not even subconsciously, relied upon his private fortune.</p> -<p class="par">He had now come back to London with a definite purpose, -he had come to warn England of a great danger....</p> -<p class="par">One other distinguishing mark of Jasper Thrale’s -life must be understood, a mark which differentiated him from the -overwhelming majority of his fellow men—women had no fascination -for him. Once in his life, and once only, had he approached and tasted -experience—with a pretty little Melbourne <i>cocotte</i>. That -experience he had undertaken deliberately, because he felt that until -it had been undergone one great factor of life would be unknown to him. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb24" href="#pb24" name= -"pb24">24</a>]</span>He had come away from it filled with a disgust of -himself that had endured for months....</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">3</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Fragments of the long conversations between Thrale -and Gurney, the exchange of a few germane ideas among the irrelevant -mass, had a bearing upon their immediate future. There was, for -instance, a criticism of the Goslings, introduced on one occasion, -which had a certain significance in relation to subsequent -developments.</p> -<p class="par">Some question of Gurney’s prompted Thrale to the -opinion that the Goslings were in the main precisely like half a -million other families of the same class.</p> -<p class="par">“But that’s just what makes them so -interesting,” said Gurney, not because he believed it, but -because at the moment he wanted to lead the conversation into safe -ground, away from the too appealing attractions of the big world -outside the little village of London.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale laughed. “That’s truer than you -guess,” he said. “Every large generalization, however -trite, is a valuable contribution to knowledge—if it’s more -or less accurate.”</p> -<p class="par">“Generalize, then, mon vieux,” suggested -Gurney, “from the characters and doings of your little -geese.”</p> -<p class="par">“I’ve seen glimmerings of the immortal god -in the old man,” said Thrale, “like the hint of sunlight -seen through a filthy pane of obscured glass. He’s a -prurient-minded old beast leading what’s called a <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb25" href="#pb25" name= -"pb25">25</a>]</span>respectable life, but if he could indulge his -ruling desire with absolute secrecy, no woman would be safe with him. -In his world he can’t do that, or thinks he can’t, which -comes to precisely the same thing. He is too much afraid of being -caught, he sees danger where none exists, he looks to all sorts of -possibilities, and won’t take a million-to-one chance because he -is risking his all—which is included in the one word, -respectability.”</p> -<p class="par">“Jolly good thing. What?” remarked -Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">“Good for society as a whole, apparently,” -replied Thrale, “but surely not good for the man. I’ve told -you that I have seen glimmerings of the god in him, but outside the -routine of his work the man’s mind is clogged. He’s not -much over fifty, and he has no outlet, now, for his desires. He’s -like a man with choked pores, and his body is poisoned. And in this -particular Gosling is certainly no exception either to his class or to -the great mass of civilized man. Well, what I wonder is whether in a -society which is built up of interdependent units the whole can be -sound when the greater number of the constituent units are -rotten.”</p> -<p class="par">“But look here, old chap,” protested Gurney, -“if things are as you say, and men rule the country, why -shouldn’t they alter public opinion, and so open the way to do as -they jolly well please?”</p> -<p class="par">“Because the majority are too much ashamed of -their desires to dare the attempt in the first place, and in the second -because they don’t wish to open the way for other men. They -aren’t united in this; they are as jealous as women. If they once -opened <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb26" href="#pb26" name= -"pb26">26</a>]</span>the way to free love, their own belongings -wouldn’t be safe.”</p> -<p class="par">“What’s your remedy, then?”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! a few thousand more years of moral -development,” said Thrale, carelessly, “an evolution -towards self-consciousness, a fuller understanding of the meaning of -life, and a finer altruism.”</p> -<p class="par">“You don’t look far ahead,” remarked -Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">“Do you think anyone can look even a year -ahead?” asked Thrale.</p> -<p class="par">“There have been some pretty good attempts in some -ways—Swedenborg, for instance, and Samuel Butler....”</p> -<p class="par">“Yes, yes, that’s all right, in some -ways—the development of certain sorts of knowledge, for example. -But there is always the chance of the unpredictable element coming in -and upsetting the whole calculation. Some invention may do it, an -unforeseen clash of opinions or an epidemic....”</p> -<p class="par">For a time they drifted further away from their original -topic till some remark reminded Gurney that he had meant to ask a -question and had forgotten it.</p> -<p class="par">“By the way,” he said, “I wanted to -ask you what you meant when you said you had seen a god in old -Gosling?”</p> -<p class="par">“Just a touch of imagination and wonder, now and -again,” replied Thrale. “Something he was quite unconscious -of himself. I remember standing with him on Blackfriars Bridge, and he -looked down at the river and said: ‘I s’pose it was clean -once, banks and sand and so on, before all this muck <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb27" href="#pb27" name= -"pb27">27</a>]</span>came.’ Then he looked at me quickly to see -if I was laughing at him. That was the god in him trying to create -purity out of filth, even though it was only a casual thought. It was -smothered again at once. His training reasserted itself. ‘Lot -better for trade the way it is, though,’ was his next -remark.”</p> -<p class="par">“But how can you alter it?” asked -Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">“My dear chap, you can’t alter these things -by any cut-and-dried plan, any more than you can dam the Gulf Stream. -We can only lay a brick or two in the right place. We aren’t the -architects; the best of us are only bricklayers, and the best of the -best can only lay two or three bricks in a lifetime. Our job is to do -that if we can. We can only guess very feebly at the design of the -building; and often it is our duty partly to pull down the work that -our forefathers built....”</p> -<p class="par">Presently Gurney asked if his companion had ever seen a -god in Mrs Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale shook his head. “It didn’t come -within my experience,” he said. “Don’t condemn her on -that account, but she, like all the women I have ever met, has been too -intent upon the facts of life ever to see its mystery. Mrs Gosling -hadn’t the power to conceive an abstract idea; she had to make -some application of it to her own particular experience before she -could understand the simplest concept. Morality to her signified people -who behaved as she and her family did; wickedness meant vaguely, -criminals, Sarah Jones who was an unmarried mother, and anyone who -didn’t believe in the God of the Established Church. Always -people, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb28" href="#pb28" name= -"pb28">28</a>]</span>you see, in this connexion; in others it might be -things; but ideas apart from people or things she couldn’t grasp. -Her two daughters thought in precisely the same way....”</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">4</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">One Saturday afternoon Thrale came into -Gurney’s chambers and burst out: “Just Heaven! why you -fools stand it I can’t imagine!”</p> -<p class="par">“What’s up now?” asked Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale sat down and drew his chair up to the table. The -pupils of his dark eyes were contracted and seemed to glow as if they -were illuminated from within.</p> -<p class="par">“I was in Oxford Street this morning, watching the -women at the sales,” he said. “All the biggest shops in -London are devoted to women’s clothes. Do you realize that? And -it’s not only that they’re the biggest—there are more -of them than any other six trades put together can show, bar the drink -trade, of course. The north side of Oxford Street from Tottenham Court -Road to the Marble Arch is one long succession of huge drapers and -milliners. And what in God’s name is the sense or reason of it? -What do these huge shops sell?”</p> -<p class="par">“Dresses, I suppose,” ventured Gurney, -“and stockings, underlinen, corsets, hats, and so on.”</p> -<p class="par">“<i>And</i> frippery,” said Thrale, fixing -his brilliant dark eyes on Gurney, “And <i>frippery</i>. Machine -lace, ribbons, yokes, cheap blouses, feathers, insertions, belts, fifty -thousand different kinds of bits and rags to be tacked on here and -there, worn for a few <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb29" href="#pb29" -name="pb29">29</a>]</span>weeks and then thrown away. Millions of -little frivolous, stupid odds and ends that are bought by women and -girls of all classes below the motor-class, to make a -pretence—gauds and tawdry rubbish not one whit better from the -artistic point of view than the shells and feathers of any half-naked -Melanesian savage. In fact, meaningless as the Melanesians’ -decorations are, they do achieve more effect. And what’s it all -for, I ask you?”</p> -<p class="par">Thrale paused, and Gurney offered his solution.</p> -<p class="par">“The sex instinct, fundamentally, isn’t -it?” he said. “The desire—often subconscious, no -doubt—to attract.”</p> -<p class="par">“Well, if that is so,” said Thrale, -“what terribly unintelligent fools women must be! If women really -set out to attract men, they must realize that they are pandering to a -sex instinct. Do you think any man is attracted by a litter of odds and -ends? Doesn’t every woman sneer when they see some Frenchwoman, -perhaps, who dresses to display her figure instead of hiding it? -Don’t they bitterly resent the fact that their own men-folk are -resistlessly drawn to stare at, and inwardly desire, such a woman? -Don’t they know perfectly well that such a woman is attractive to -men in a way their own disguised bodies can never be?”</p> -<p class="par">“Yes, old chap; but your average middle-class -English girl hasn’t got the physical attractions to start -with,” put in Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">“Look at it in another way, then,” replied -Thrale. “Doesn’t every woman know perfectly -well—haven’t you heard them say—that a nurse’s -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb30" href="#pb30" name= -"pb30">30</a>]</span>dress is very becoming—a plain, more or less -tightly-fitting print dress, with linen collars and cuffs? Don’t -you know yourself that that attire is more attractive to you than any -befrilled and bedecorated arrangement of lace, ribbons and gauds? Why -are so many men irresistibly attracted by parlourmaids and -housemaids?”</p> -<p class="par">“Yes,” meditated Gurney, “that’s -all true enough. Well, are women all fools, or what is it?”</p> -<p class="par">“The majority of women are <i>sheep</i>,” -said Thrale. “They follow as they are led, and don’t or -won’t see that they are being led. And the leaders are chiefly -men—men who have trumpery to sell. Why do the fashions change -every year—sometimes more often than that in matters of detail? -Because the trade would smash if they didn’t. New fashions must -be forced on the buyers, or the returns would drop; women would be able -to make their last year’s clothes do for another summer. That -must be stopped at any cost. Those vast establishments must maintain an -enormous turnover if they are to pay their fabulous rents and armies of -assistants. There are two means of keeping up the sales, and both are -utilized to the full. The first is to supply cheap, miraculously cheap, -rubbish which cannot be made to last for more than a season. The second -is to alter the fashions which affect the more durable stuffs, so that -last year’s dresses cannot be used again. This fashion-working -scheme reacts upon the poorer buyers, because it compels them to do -something to imitate the prevailing mode, if they can’t afford to -have entirely new frocks. That is where all these <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb31" href="#pb31" name="pb31">31</a>]</span>bits of -frilling and what-not come in; make-believe stuff to imitate the real -buyers—the large majority of whom don’t buy in Oxford -Street, by the way.</p> -<p class="par">“Mind you, there is a limit to the sheep-like -docility of women in this connexion. They refused, for instance, to -return to the crinoline, and they refused the harem skirt—one of -the very few sensible devices of the fashion-imposers. And this in the -face of the prolonged, strenuous and expensive methods of the fashion -ring. With regard to the crinoline, I think that failure was due to -over-conceit on the part of the fashion-imposers. They had come to -believe that they could make the poor fools of women accept anything, -and on the two marked occasions on which they attempted to introduce -the crinoline, the contrast to the existing mode was too glaring. If -the fraud had been worked more gradually by way of full skirts and -flounces, some modification of the crinoline to the necessities of -’buses and tubes might have been foisted upon the -buyers.”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, my Lord!” ejaculated Gurney; “do -you mean to say that women just accept these fashions without any sense -or reason at all?”</p> -<p class="par">“You’re rather a blithering ass, at times, -Gurney,” remarked Thrale.</p> -<p class="par">Gurney smiled. “You don’t give me time to -think,” he said, “I feel like an accumulator being charged. -I haven’t had time yet to begin working on my own account. -You’re so mighty—so mighty dynamic—and positive, old -chap.”</p> -<p class="par">“Well, it’s so absurdly obvious that there -must be a reason for women accepting the fashions, you <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb32" href="#pb32" name= -"pb32">32</a>]</span>idiot!” returned Thrale. “And the -first and biggest reason is class distinction. The women with money -want to brag of it by differentiating themselves from the ruck of their -sisters, and the poor women try to imitate them to the best of their -ability. Women dress for other women. There is sex rivalry as well as -class rivalry at the bottom of it, but they dare not put sex rivalry -first and dress to please men alone, because they are afraid of the -opinions of other women.”</p> -<p class="par">“Sounds all right,” said Gurney, and -sighed.</p> -<p class="par">“And we, damned fools of men, stand all this -foolishness and <i>pay</i> for it. Pay, by Jove! I should think so! I -should like to see the trade returns of all the stuff of this kind that -is sold in England alone in one year. They would make the naval -estimates look small, I’ll warrant. We even imitate the -women’s foolishness in some degree. There are men’s -fashions too, but the madness is not so marked; fortunately the body of -middle-class men can’t afford to make fools of themselves as well -as of their women—though they are asses enough to wear linen -shirts and collars which are uncomfortable unsightly and expensive to -wash.”</p> -<p class="par">Gurney regarded his lecturer’s canvas shirt and -collar, and then stood up and observed his own immaculate linen in the -glass over the fireplace. “I must say I like stiff collars and -shirts,” he remarked; “gives one a kind of -spruceness.”</p> -<p class="par">Thrale laughed. “It’s only another sex -instinct,” he said. “Women like men to look -‘smart.’ When you are playing games with other men, or -camping <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb33" href="#pb33" name= -"pb33">33</a>]</span>out, you don’t care a hang for your -‘spruceness.’ Oh! and I’ll admit the class -distinction rot comes in too. You’re afraid of public opinion, -afraid of being thought common. If the jeunesse dorée started -the soft shirt in real earnest, you would soon be able to persuade your -women that that looked smart or spruce, or whatever you liked to call -it.”</p> -<p class="par">“Look here, you know,” said Gurney, -“you’re an anarchist, that’s what you are.”</p> -<p class="par">“You’re half a woman, Gurney,” said -Thrale. “You think in names. All people are -‘anarchists’ who think in ideas instead of following -conventions.”</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">5</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Not until he had been staying with Gurney for more -than a week did Thrale speak explicitly of his purpose in London. But -one cold evening at the end of January, as the two men were sitting by -a roaring fire that Gurney had built up, the younger man unknowingly -opened the subject by saying,</p> -<p class="par">“Things are pretty slack at the present moment. -The <i>Evening Chronicle</i> has even fallen back on the ‘New -Plague’ for the sake of news.”</p> -<p class="par">“What do they say?” asked Thrale. He was -lying back in his chair, nursing one knee, and staring up at the -ceiling.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, the usual rot!” said Gurney “That -the thing isn’t understood, has never been -‘described’ by any medical or scientific authority; that it -is apparently confined to one little corner of Asia at the present -time, but that if it got hold in Europe <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb34" href="#pb34" name="pb34">34</a>]</span>it might be serious. And -then a lot of yap about the unknown forces of Nature; special article -by a chap who’s been reading too much Wells, I should -imagine.”</p> -<p class="par">“It seems so incredible to us in twentieth-century -England that anything really serious could happen,” remarked -Thrale. “We are so well looked after and cared for. We sit down -and wait for some authority to move, with a perfect confidence that -when it does move, everything is bound to be all right.”</p> -<p class="par">“With such an organism as society has -become,” said Gurney, “things must be worked like that. A -certain group to perform one function, other groups for other -functions, and so on.”</p> -<p class="par">“Cell-specialization?” commented Thrale. -“Some day to be perfected in socialism.”</p> -<p class="par">“I believe socialism must come in some -form,” said Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">“Yes, it’s an interesting speculation, in -some ways,” said Thrale, “but the higher forces are about -to put a new spoke in the human wheel, and the machinery has to be -stopped for a time.”</p> -<p class="par">“What have you got hold of now?” asked -Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">“The thoughtful man,” went on Thrale, still -staring up at the ceiling, “would have asked me to define my -expression ‘the higher forces.’”</p> -<p class="par">“Well, old man, I knew that was beyond even your -capacity,” returned Gurney, “so I thought we might -‘cut the cackle and come to the ’osses.’”</p> -<p class="par">Thrale suddenly released his knee and sat upright; -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb35" href="#pb35" name= -"pb35">35</a>]</span>then he moved his chair so that he directly -confronted his companion.</p> -<p class="par">“Look here, Gurney,” he said, and the pupils -of his eyes contracted till they looked like black crystal glowing with -dark red light. “Do you realize how some outside control has -always diverted man’s progress; how when nations have tended to -crystallize into specialized government, some irruption from outside -has always broken it up? You can trace the principle through all known -history, but the most marked cases are those of the Egyptians and the -Incas—two nations which had developed specialized government to a -science. There is some power—whether we can credit it with an -intelligence in any way comprehensible to us from the feeble basis of -our own knowledge, I doubt—but there is some outside power which -will not permit mankind to crystallize into an organism. From our, -human, point of view, from the point of view of individual comfort and -happiness, it would be of enormous benefit to us if we could develop a -system of specialization and swamp the individual in the community. And -in times of peace and prosperity that is always the direction in which -civilization tends to evolve. But beyond a certain point—as the -individualists have not failed to point out—that state of perfect -government will lead to stagnation, degeneration, death. Now, in the -little span of time that we know as the history of mankind, there has -been no world-civilization. As soon as a nation tended to become -over-civilized and degenerate, some other, younger, more barbarous -people flowed <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb36" href="#pb36" name= -"pb36">36</a>]</span>over them and wiped them out. In the case of Peru -the process had gone very far, owing to the advantages of the -Incas’ peculiar segregation. But then, you see, the development -in the East, the new world (I ought to explain that I find the oldest -civilization of the present epoch in America) reached a point in Spain -and England which sent them out across a hemisphere to wreck and -destroy the Incas.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, we have now reached a condition when the -nations are in touch with one another and progress becomes more -general. We are in sight of a system of European, Colonial and -Trans-Atlantic Socialism, more or less reciprocal and carrying the -promise of universal peace. Whence, you ask, is any irruption to come -that will break up this strong crystallizing system which is admittedly -to work for the happiness and comfort of the individual? There has been -much talk of an Asiatic invasion, a rebellious India or an invading -China, but those civilizations are older than ours; if we can trust the -precedents of history in this connexion, the conquerors have always -been the younger race.” He broke off abruptly.</p> -<p class="par">Gurney had been sitting fascinated and hypnotized by the -compulsion of Thrale’s personality; he had been held by the keen, -intent stare of those wonderful dark eyes. When Thrale stopped, -however, the tension snapped.</p> -<p class="par">“Well,” remarked Gurney, “I think -that’s a jolly good argument to prove that we have, at last, -reached a stage of universal progress towards the ideal.” -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb37" href="#pb37" name= -"pb37">37</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“You can’t conceive,” asked Thrale, -“of any cataclysm that would involve a return to the old -segregation of nations, and bring about a new epoch beginning with -separated peoples evolving on more or less racial lines?”</p> -<p class="par">Gurney pondered for a moment or two and then shook his -head.</p> -<p class="par">“Little wonder,” said Thrale, “I had -often considered this problem, and I could think of no upheaval which -would bring about the familiar effect of submersion. Years ago there -was always the possibility of a European war, but even that would have -only a temporary effect despite the forecast of Mr Wells in <i>The War -in the Air</i>. No, I considered and wondered if my theory was faulty. -I was willing to reject it if I could find a flaw....”</p> -<p class="par">“And then?” questioned Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale leaned forward again and once more compelled the -other’s fascinated attention.</p> -<p class="par">“And then, when I was in Northern China, seven -weeks ago, I saw a solution, so appalling, so inconceivably ghastly, -that I rejected it with horror. For days I went about fighting my own -conviction. I couldn’t believe it! By God, I <i>would</i> not -believe it!</p> -<p class="par">“There, within a hundred and fifty miles of the -border of Tibet, the outside forces have planted a seed which has been -maturing in secret for more than a year. There that seed has taken -root, and from that centre is spreading more and more rapidly, and it -may spread over the whole world. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb38" -href="#pb38" name="pb38">38</a>]</span>It is like some filthily -poisonous and incredibly prolific weed, and its seeds, now that it has -once established itself, are borne by every wind, dropping here and -there in an ever-widening circle, every seed becoming a fresh centre of -distribution outwards.”</p> -<p class="par">“But what, in Heaven’s name, is the -weed?” whispered Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">“A new disease—a new plague—unknown by -man, against which, so far as we know, he has no weapon. In those -scattered villages among the mountains there are no men left to work. -Everything is done by women. They are prohibited more fiercely than any -leper settlement. No one dares to approach within five miles of them. -But every week or two another village is smitten, and the inhabitants -fly in terror and carry the infection with them.</p> -<p class="par">“Gurney, it’s come to Europe! There are new -centres of distribution in Russia at the present time. If it -isn’t stopped it will come to England. And it doesn’t -decimate the population. It wipes the men clean out of existence; not -one man in ten thousand, the Chinese say, escapes.</p> -<p class="par">“Is it possible that this can be the means of the -‘higher forces’ I spoke of, the means to segregate the -nations once more?” <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb39" href= -"#pb39" name="pb39">39</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch3" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="divNum">III—</span>LONDON’S -INCREDULITY</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">1</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Jasper Thrale’s mission was no easy one. -England, it appeared, was slightly preoccupied at the moment, and had -no ear for warnings. Generally, he was either treated as a fanatic and -laughed at, or he was told that he greatly exaggerated the danger and -that these matters could safely be entrusted to the Local Government -Board, which had brilliantly handled the recent outbreak of -foot-and-mouth disease. But there were some exceptions to this -rule.</p> -<p class="par">His first definite statement had been made to his own -editor, Watson Maxwell of the <i>Daily Post</i>.</p> -<p class="par">“Yes,” said Maxwell, when he had given -Thrale a patient hearing, “it is certainly a matter that needs -attention. Would you care to go out as our special commissioner and -report at length?...”</p> -<p class="par">“There isn’t time,” replied Thrale. -“The thing is urgent.”</p> -<p class="par">Maxwell brought his eyebrows together and looked keenly -at his correspondent. “Do you really think it’s so serious, -Thrale?” he asked. “After all, what evidence have you, -beyond the Chinese reports?”</p> -<p class="par">“I know there are several cases in Russia,” -said Thrale. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb40" href="#pb40" name= -"pb40">40</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Yes, yes; I don’t doubt that,” -returned Maxwell, with a touch of impatience. “But unless you can -bring evidence to show that this new disease is as deadly as you say, -it is not a matter that I could give space to at the present time. For -one thing, the <i>Evening Chronicle</i> has been making rather a -feature of it for the last three or four days, and I don’t see -that I could do much unless we had some special inside information. -Then, the House will be sitting again next week, and it seems to me not -altogether improbable that we shall have a stormy session, which will -mean that a good deal of ordinary matter will have to give -way....” He broke off, and then added, with a friendly smile: -“But if you would go out as our commissioner, we should be glad -to make you a proposal.”</p> -<p class="par">“There will be no need for a commissioner in a -week’s time,” replied Thrale. “You don’t seem -to understand that I’m not looking out for a job. I don’t -want to write articles; I don’t want to be paid for the -information I can supply. I foresee a grave danger, which is growing -more grave hourly by reason of the Russian Government’s -censorship of all reports referring to the plague. It is a danger which -should be understood at once. If you send any commissioner, send the -cleverest physician you can find, and a bacteriologist.”</p> -<p class="par">There could be no doubt of Thrale’s earnestness, -and Maxwell, who was not only a very capable editor, but also an able -and intellectual man, was impressed. Unfortunately, the interests of -his proprietors at that moment necessitated a great effort <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb41" href="#pb41" name="pb41">41</a>]</span>to prop -up the very unstable Liberal Government, which had been in power for -four years and was now on its last legs. It was so essential from the -proprietors’ point of view—three of them were on the -Government front bench—that the dissolution should be postponed -until such time as the Ministry could go to the country with a -reasonable prospect of success. A tentative English Church -Disestablishment Bill was to be introduced in the coming session, and -it was hoped that if the Government had to go to the country they could -make a platform on that one clear issue. It was a good Bill, designed -to win the Nonconformist vote, without completely alienating the High -Church party. In other words, the Government was eager at that moment -to please the majority of the electors, which is, presumably, the -highest object of a representative government.</p> -<p class="par">“If it had been at any other time,” said -Maxwell, and pushed his chair back.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale understood that the interview was at an end. He -rose from his chair and picked up his hat.</p> -<p class="par">“We shall be glad to print any articles you care -to send us,” said Maxwell, with his kind smile, “but I -can’t undertake a campaign, you understand, at the present -moment.”</p> -<p class="par">It was nearly four o’clock, but Thrale just -managed to catch Groves of the <i>Evening Chronicle</i>.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">2</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Groves had his hat on, and was just off to tea at -his club when Thrale’s name was sent in to him. He <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb42" href="#pb42" name="pb42">42</a>]</span>told the -messenger that he would see Mr Thrale in the waiting-room -downstairs.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale had had some experience of newspaper methods, and -he inferred that the reception was equivalent to a refusal to see him. -He knew what those interviews in downstairs waiting-rooms implied. It -was not the first time that he had been treated like an insurance agent -or a tradesman and told, in effect, “Not to-day, thank -you.”</p> -<p class="par">In this case he was mistaken in his inference. Groves -had had an eye on Thrale’s articles for some time past, and -though he thought it a diplomatic essential to keep his man waiting for -ten minutes, he had no intention of offending him.</p> -<p class="par">Groves came into the waiting-room with a slightly -abstracted air. “Sorry to keep you waiting Mr Thrale,” he -said. “The fact is, that I wanted to finish before I left. Did -you want to see me about anything particular?”</p> -<p class="par">“Yes,” returned Thrale; “I have some -facts about the new plague which ought to be given publicity at -once.”</p> -<p class="par">Groves pursed his thick lips and shook his head. -“Well, well,” he said, “will you come and have tea -with me at the club?”</p> -<p class="par">He took Thrale’s assent for granted, and went out -abruptly, leaving his guest to follow.</p> -<p class="par">In the taxicab Groves talked of nothing but the lack of -originality in invention in reference to aeroplanes. He seemed to take -it as a personal affront that no workable adaptation of the aeroplane -had been made to short-distance passenger traffic. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb43" href="#pb43" name="pb43">43</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Indeed, it was not till after “tea”—in -Groves’ case an euphemism for whisky and soda—that he would -approach the subject of Thrale’s visit.</p> -<p class="par">“The fact is, my dear fellow,” he said, -“that our campaign hasn’t caught on. I’m going to let -it down gently and drop it after to-day’s edition. You see, -we’ve got to get the Government out this session, and I’m -going to start a new campaign. Can’t give you any particulars -yet, but you’ll see the beginning of it next Monday.” Like -Maxwell, Groves differentiated between the uses of the singular and -plural pronouns in speaking of his work. There was a distinction to be -inferred between the initiation and responsibilities of the editor and -those of his proprietors.</p> -<p class="par">Groves was not at all impressed by any earnestness or -forebodings. He seemed to think that a touch of the plague in London -might be rather a good thing in some ways. People wanted waking -up—especially to the importance of getting rid of the present -Government.</p> -<p class="par">It appeared that Thrale’s articles on other -subjects would be acceptable to the readers of the <i>Evening -Chronicle</i>, but there was no suggestion that he should go out to -Russia as a special commissioner.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">3</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Grant Lacey, of <i>The Times</i>, listened -seriously to Thrale’s exposition, and then, in a finely delivered -speech which lasted twenty minutes, proved to his own complete -satisfaction that Thrale’s <span class="corr" id="xd23e901" -title="Source: premisses">premises</span>, deductions, and whole -argument were thoroughly <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb44" href= -"#pb44" name="pb44">44</a>]</span>unsound. Lacey, however, was greatly -interested in the condition of Russia, and promised Thrale magnificent -terms if he would tour St Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, Warsaw—and -then return and contribute a special series of articles. References to -the new plague would not be prohibited in the series if Thrale still -found any cause for alarm.</p> -<p class="par">In all, Thrale had interviews with the editors of nine -important journals; the other six developed on the general lines -already indicated—either he was not taken seriously or was told -that the danger was greatly exaggerated. The real causes of his failure -were two:—first, the critical position of the Government; second, -the precocious campaign of the <i>Evening Chronicle</i>—the -latter had taken the wind out of the sails of less enterprising -journals.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale’s next step was to obtain introductions to -Ministers and prominent members of the Opposition; but from them he -received even less attention—he did not obtain interviews on many -occasions—and, if possible, less encouragement. The President of -the Local Government Board informed him that the matter was already -engaging that department’s energies; the others were all -manifestly preoccupied with more immediate interests.</p> -<p class="par">But little less than a fortnight after the initiation of -his campaign Thrale received a special message from the editor of the -<i>Daily Post</i>. It was nearly midnight, and the messenger was -waiting with a taxicab.</p> -<p class="par">The message ran: “Received through news agency -report of three cases of plague in Berlin. Can you come down at -once?—Maxwell.” <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb45" href= -"#pb45" name="pb45">45</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch4" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="divNum">IV—</span>MR BARKER’S -FLAIR</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">1</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Jasper Thrale, in the partial exposition of his -philosophy (if that description is not too large for such vague -imaginings), had included very definite reference to certain -“higher forces” to which he had attributed peculiar powers -of interference in humanity’s management of its own concerns. -Doubtless these powers had control of various instruments, and were -able to exercise their influence in any direction and by any means. In -the present case it would seem that they were working in devious and -subtle ways—and in this at least they differed not at all from -the methods attributable to that we have called Providence, or the Laws -of Nature; any assumed guide or irrefragible, incomprehensible -ordination. It is a common characteristic of these forces that they -seem able to control the inconceivably great and the inconceivably -small with equal certitude.</p> -<p class="par">Not that George Gosling touched any limits. He was -moderately large in body and small in intellect, but neither the -physical excess nor the mental deficiency marked him out from his -fellow men. In the office, indeed, he was regarded by the firm and his -colleagues as a capable man of business whose <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb46" href="#pb46" name= -"pb46">46</a>]</span>embonpoint was quite consistent with his -employment by a firm of wholesale provision merchants.</p> -<p class="par">On the Thursday morning that saw the announcement in the -morning papers that a case of the new plague was reported in Berlin, -Gosling was called into the partners’ private office on some -matter of accountancy.</p> -<p class="par">The senior partner of Barker and Prince was eager, -grasping and imaginative; his name had originally been German, and -ended, in “stein,” but he had changed it for the -convenience of his English connexion. Prince was a large rubicund man, -friendly and noisy in his manners, but accounted a shrewd buyer.</p> -<p class="par">It was not until Gosling was about to depart that the -higher forces turned their attention to Barbican and then they suddenly -urged Gosling to say, without premeditation on his part,</p> -<p class="par">“I see there’s a case of this ’ere new -plague in Berlin.”</p> -<p class="par">Mr Prince laughed and winked at his subordinate. -“Some of us’ll have to start a hareem, soon; who -knows?” he said, and laughed again, more loudly than ever.</p> -<p class="par">“I suppose you haf not heard any other reports, -eh?” asked Mr Barker.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, curiously enough, I ’ave,” said -Gosling. “A young feller who used to lodge with us five years -back, come ’ome from Russia about a fortnight since, and ’e -tells me as the plague’s spreadin’ like wildfire in -Russia.”</p> -<p class="par">Mr Prince laughed again, and Mr Barker seemed -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb47" href="#pb47" name= -"pb47">47</a>]</span>about to turn his attention to other matters, when -the higher forces sent Gosling the one great inspiration of his life. -It came to him with startling suddenness, but he gave utterance to it -as simply and with as little verve as he spoke his “good -morning” to the office-boy.</p> -<p class="par">“I been thinkin’, sir,” he said (he -had never once thought of it until this moment), “as it might be -well to keep a neye on this plague, so to speak.”</p> -<p class="par">“Ah! Zo?” said Mr Barker; a phrase which -Gosling correctly interpreted as the expression of a desire for the -elucidation of his last remark.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, I been thinkin’, if you’ll -excuse me, sir,” he went on, “as though the plague’s -only in the bud, so to speak, at the present time, it seems very likely -to spread so far as we can judge; and that what with quarantine, -p’raps, and p’raps shortage of labour and so on, it might -mean ’igher prices for our stuff.”</p> -<p class="par">“Zo!” said Mr Barker, but this time the -monosyllable was reflective. The great inspiration had found fruitful -soil.</p> -<p class="par">“Brince,” continued Barker after a -minute’s thought, “I haf a flair. We will buy heavily at -once. But not through our London house, no; or others will follow us -too quickly. <i>You</i> must not go, we will zend Ztewart from Dundee, -it will zeem that we prepare for the zhipping strike in the north. We -buy heavily; yes? I haf a flair.”</p> -<p class="par">“But, I say,” said Mr Prince, who had the -greatest confidence in his partner’s insight, “I say, -Barker, d’you think this plague’s serious?” -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb48" href="#pb48" name= -"pb48">48</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“I am putting money on it, ain’t I?” -asked Barker.</p> -<p class="par">Prince and Gosling exchanged a scared glance. Until that -moment it had not come home to either of them that it was possible for -English affairs to be affected by this strange and deadly disease.</p> -<p class="par">The remainder of the conversation was complicated and -exceedingly technical.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">2</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">When he came back into the counting-house, Gosling -looked unnaturally thoughtful.</p> -<p class="par">“Anything gorne wrong?” asked his crony, -Flack.</p> -<p class="par">“There’s nothing wrong with the ’ouse, -if that’s what you mean,” replied Gosling mysteriously.</p> -<p class="par">“What then?” asked Flack.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s this ’ere new plague,” -returned Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“Tchah! That’s all my eye,” said -Flack. He was a narrow-chested, high-shouldered man of sixty, with a -thin grey beard, and he had a consistently incredulous mind.</p> -<p class="par">Out here in the counting-house, Gosling’s thrill -of fear was rapidly subsiding, and he had no intention of passing over -his own important part in the house’s decision to buy for a rise; -so he bulged out his cheeks, shook his head and said:</p> -<p class="par">“Not by a long chalk it ain’t, Flack; not by -a long chalk. There was that young feller, Thrale, as I was -tellin’ you about; ’e gave me a hidea or two, and now -s’mornin’ we ’ave this very serious news from -Berlin.” <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb49" href="#pb49" name= -"pb49">49</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Papers ’ave to make the worst of -everything,” said Flack. “It’s their -livin’.”</p> -<p class="par">“Anyways,” continued Gosling, “I put -it quite straight to the ’ouse this mornin’, as we might do -worse under the circumstances than buy ’eavily....”</p> -<p class="par">“You <i>did</i>?” asked Flack, and he cocked -up his spectacles and looked at Gosling underneath them.</p> -<p class="par">“I did,” replied Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“What did Mr Barker say to that?” asked -Flack.</p> -<p class="par">“He took my advice.”</p> -<p class="par">“Lord’s sakes, you don’t tell me -so?” said Flack, his spectacles on his forehead.</p> -<p class="par">“I’m now about to dictate various letters to -our ’ouse in Dundee,” replied Gosling, dropping his voice -to a whisper, and assuming an air of mysterious importance, -“advising them to send our Mr Stewart to Vienna immediate, from -where ’e is to proceed to Berlin. ’E is, also, to -’ave private instructions from the ’ouse as to the extent -of ‘is buyin’—which I may tell you in confidence, -Flack, will be enormous—e-<i>nor</i>mous.” Gosling raised -his head slowly on the first syllable, brought it down with a jerk on -the second, and left the third largely to the imagination.</p> -<p class="par">“But d’yer mean to tell me,” -expostulated Flack, “as all this is on account of this plague? -They been usin’ that as a blind, my boy.”</p> -<p class="par">Gosling laid a bunch of swollen fingers on his -colleague’s arm. “I tell you, Flack, old boy,” he -said, “that this is serious. When Mr Barker took up my advice, as -’e did very quick, Mr Prince said, ‘You don’t tell me -as you really take this plague serious, Barker?’ ’e said. -And Mr Barker looked up <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb50" href= -"#pb50" name="pb50">50</a>]</span>and says, <span class="corr" id= -"xd23e1025" title="Source: “">‘</span>I’m goin’ -to put all my money on it.’” Gosling paused and then -repeated, “Mr Barker says as ’e’s goin’ to put -all our money on it, Flack.”</p> -<p class="par">“Lord’s sakes!” said Flack. Here, -indeed, was an argument strong enough to break down even his consistent -incredulity. “But d’yer mean to tell me,” he -persisted, “that Mr Barker thinks as it’ll come to -England?”</p> -<p class="par">“We-el, you know,” returned Gosling, -“we need not, p’raps go quite so far as that. But it may go -far enough to interfere with European markets, there may be trouble -with quarantine, and such-like....”</p> -<p class="par">“Ah, well, that,” said Flack with an air of -relief. “Jus’ <i>so</i>, jus’ <i>so</i>. Mr Barker -can see as far through a brick wall as most people, and so I’ve -always said.” He dropped his spectacles on to his nose again, and -returned to his interrupted accountancy.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling went fussily into his own room and rang for his -typist—a competent and presentable young woman, among whose -duties that of turning her superior’s letters into equivalent -English was not the lightest.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">3</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Gosling was very full of importance that day, and -during lunch he wore the air of a man who had secret and valuable -information. He was too well versed in City methods and too loyal to -his own house to give any hint of Barker and Prince’s -speculations in Austria and Germany; but when the subject of the new -plague inevitably came into the conversation, <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb51" href="#pb51" name="pb51">51</a>]</span>he spoke -with an authority that was heightened by the hint of reserve implicit -in his every dictum.</p> -<p class="par">When the latest joke on the subject, fresh from the -Stock Exchange, had been retailed by one of the usual group of -lunchers, and had been received with the guffaws it merited, Gosling -suddenly screwed his face to an unaccustomed seriousness and said, -“But it’s serious, you know, extremely serious.”</p> -<p class="par">And by degrees, from this and many other better informed -sources, the rumour ran through the City that the new plague was -serious, extremely serious. That afternoon there was a slight drop of -prices in certain industrial shares, and a slight rise in wheat and -some other imported food stuffs; fluctuations which could not be -attributed to ordinary causes. Mr Barker’s foresight was -justified once again in the eyes of Gosling and Flack. Before five -o’clock another letter was posted to Dundee, enforcing haste.</p> -<p class="par">In the bosom of his family that evening, Gosling was a -little pompous, and talked of economy. But his wife and daughters, -although they assumed an air of interest, were quite convinced that the -head of the house in Wisteria Grove was making the most of a rumour for -his own purposes.</p> -<p class="par">As Blanche said to Millie, later, father was always -finding some excuse for keeping them short of dress money. That five -pounds had proved inadequate to supply even their immediate -necessities, and they were already meditating another attack.</p> -<p class="par">“We simply must get another three pounds -somehow,” said Millie. And Blanche quite agreed with her. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb52" href="#pb52" name= -"pb52">52</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch5" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="divNum">V—</span>THE CLOSED -DOOR</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">1</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">There was a lull for forty-eight hours after that -announcement of the case of the new plague in Berlin, and Maxwell was -beginning to regret his headlines when the news began to come in, this -time in volume. The Russian censorship had broken down, and the news -agencies were suddenly flooded with reports. There were several -thousand cases of the plague in Eastern Russia; the north and south -were affected, many men were dying in such towns as Kharkov and Rostov; -there were a dozen cases in St Petersburg; there was a such a rush of -reports that it was quite impossible to distinguish between those that -were probably true and those that were certainly false.</p> -<p class="par">The morning papers gave as much space as they could -spare, and had even broken up some of the matter dealing with the -arrangements for the opening of Parliament on that day. But the evening -papers had news that put all previous reports in the shade. Eleven more -cases were reported in Berlin<span class="corr" id="xd23e1073" title= -"Not in source">,</span> three in Hamburg, five in Prague and one in -Vienna<span class="corr" id="xd23e1076" title="Not in source">.</span> -But more important, more thrilling still, was the news that H.I.H. the -Grand Duke Kirylo, the Tsar’s younger brother, had died of the -plague in Moscow, and Professor Schlesinger in Berlin. Until that -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb53" href="#pb53" name= -"pb53">53</a>]</span>startling announcement came, the English public -had incomprehensibly imagined that only peasants, Chinamen and people -of the lower social grades were attacked by this strange new -infection.</p> -<p class="par">In the later editions it was reported on good authority -that Professor Schlesinger had been observing a sample of the blood of -the first case of plague that had been recognized in Berlin.</p> -<p class="par">Nevertheless the majority of readers, after glancing -through the obituary notices of H.I.H. the Grand Duke Kirylo and of the -world-famed bacteriologist, turned to the account—only slightly -abbreviated—of the opening of Parliament. And in many households -the subject of the new plague gave place to the fiercely controversial -topic of the English Church Disestablishment Bill, which had been -indicated in the King’s Speech as a measure that was to be -introduced in the forthcoming session. Many opponents of the Bill -coupled the two chief items of news and said that the plague was a -warning against infidelity. It may be assumed that they found -sufficient warrant for the killing of a few thousand Russians, -including a prince of the blood and a great German scientist, in the -acknowledged importance of England among the nations. The death of half -a million or so Chinamen in the first instance had been a delicate -hint; now came the more urgent warning. Who knew but that if this -sacrilegious Bill were passed, England herself might not be smitten. -When warnings are disregarded, judgments follow. The Evangelicals found -a weapon ready to their hands.... <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb54" -href="#pb54" name="pb54">54</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">But what precisely was the nature of the new plague, -none of the journals was as yet able to say. The symptoms had not as -yet been “described” by any medical authority, for it -appeared that, contrary to modern precedent, the doctor himself, -despite all precautions, was peculiarly subject to infection. Out of -the eleven new cases in Berlin, no less than four were medical men.</p> -<p class="par">From the layman’s point of view the symptoms were -briefly as follows: Firstly, violent pains at the base of the skull, -followed by a period of comparative relief which lasted from two to -five hours. Then, a numbness in the extremities, followed by rapid -paralysis. Death ensued in from twenty-four to forty-eight hours after -the pains were first experienced. No case, as yet, was known to have -recovered. A well-known physician in London gave it as his opinion that -the disease was a hitherto unknown form of cerebro-spinal meningitis of -unexampled virulence. He protested that the word “plague” -was a false description, but that word had already been impressed on -the public mind, and the disease was spoken of as the “new -plague” until the end.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">2</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The next morning all London was reading a -heavily-leaded article by Jasper Thrale. It appeared first in the -<i>Daily Post</i>, with the announcement that it was not copyright, and -all the evening papers took it up, and some of them reprinted it in its -entirety.</p> -<p class="par">The article began by pointing out that in the recent -history of civilization Europe had been subject <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb55" href="#pb55" name="pb55">55</a>]</span>to a -long succession of pestilences. From the fourteenth to the seventeenth -centuries, wrote Thrale, the Black Death, now commonly supposed to be a -form of the bubonic plague, was practically endemic in England. In more -recent times small-pox had been responsible for enormous mortality -among all classes, and, in our own day, tuberculosis. In the two former -examples, Thrale pointed out, and in many other diseases, infectious or -contagious, or both, these pestilences had gradually lost virulence. By -the elimination of those most susceptible to infection and incapable to -resist the onslaught of the disease, and by the survival of those whose -vitality was strong enough either to resist attack or to achieve -recovery, mankind at last were gradually becoming immune against -certain infections which had prevailed in the past. And in a greater or -less degree this immunity was without doubt being obtained against a -whole host of lesser ills. This comparative immunity, in fact, was one -of the means of man’s evolution towards a more perfect physical -body.</p> -<p class="par">“But let us consider for a moment,” wrote -Thrale, “the appalling danger which threatens us when we are -attacked by a pestilence which is entirely new to humanity; new, so far -as we know, to the world. In the middle of the fourteenth century the -Black Death is recorded in some places to have killed two-thirds of the -whole population, and, notwithstanding the modern improvement in -sanitation and general hygiene, there is no inherent reason why another -pestilence may not appear, which may be even more deadly. And we are -faced at the present <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb56" href="#pb56" -name="pb56">56</a>]</span>moment with the awful threat that such a -pestilence has appeared, the pestilence commonly known as the -‘new plague.’ There is no reason why we should consider the -appearance as without precedent in history; there is no reason why we -should regard its coming as outside the laws of common probability; -finally, and most decisively, there is no reason why England should not -be smitten.</p> -<p class="par">“According to report among the Chinese, this -‘new plague’ has been spasmodically epidemic in Tibet for -more than a century. We have, as yet, no certain facts upon which to -base any hypothesis, but is it not credible that during that time some -bacterium or bacillus—hitherto harmlessly parasitic, perhaps, in -the blood of lower animals—has changed its life habit? In the -isolated and sparsely inhabited regions of Tibet, it is possible that -for many thousand years the assumed bacterium was never bred in the -blood of man; it is possible that when it first found a new host it was -comparatively harmless to him, but within a hundred years it may have -become so altered by new conditions that it has developed into what is -practically a new species. If these theories are relatively true, it is -not unlikely that this new bacterium is working out its own destruction -by the destruction of its hosts. It may be that it is one of those -blind alleys of evolution which reach a certain stage of development -and then disappear. But meanwhile what of mankind? We know so little of -the history of microscopic life. There is a whole world of evolution in -process of which we have no conception, and at this stage, whether my -hypothesis be a possible <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb57" href= -"#pb57" name="pb57">57</a>]</span>one or not, we are at least sure that -an unknown organism—animal or vegetable—has become visible -to us in its effects and may alter the whole history of mankind.</p> -<p class="par">“I lay stress on these aspects, because we are so -hide-bound, so restricted, so conventional in our ideas that we assume, -without thought, that the process of life as we know of it from a few -thousand years of history can never be interrupted. In our few years of -individual existence we become accustomed to certain apparent laws of -cause and effect, and will not believe that there can be any exception -to those assumed laws. But, now, in the face of recent evidence, it is -absolutely essential that we should realize instantly and practically -that we are threatened with a new factor in life, which imperils the -whole human race. It is no longer safe to comfort ourselves with the -belief—begotten of our vanity—that the world was -necessarily made for man. It behoves us to take measures for our -protection without delay, to undertake our own cause and trust no -longer in any beneficent Providence that works always for our ultimate -benefit.</p> -<p class="par">“These measures of protection are clearly -indicated. We must close our doors against the invasion of the plague. -Quarantine will not protect us; we must have no traffic with Europe -until the danger is past. By the happy accident of our position we can -become isolated from the rest of the world. We must close our doors -before it is too late.” <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb58" href= -"#pb58" name="pb58">58</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">3</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">If the people had not been seriously scared by the -sudden irruption of news on the day preceding that on which this -article was published, they would have ignored Thrale’s -hyperboles—or laughed. But, caught in a moment of agitation and -fear, a certain section of the crowd took up Thrale’s suggestion, -talked about the “closed door,” held meetings, and started -propaganda. The Press, with its genius for appreciating and following -public opinion, also took up the suggestion, and was automatically -divided into two sections, recognizable as Liberal and -Conservative.</p> -<p class="par"><i>The Times</i> took command of the situation with a -leader, in which Thrale’s argument was pounded, rather than -picked, to pieces; but the <i>Daily Mail</i> produced more effect with -two special articles contributed, one by a bacteriologist, the other by -a professor of economics. The first had little weight—all -argument under that head was as yet founded on the most uncertain -hypotheses. The second was so convincing that the less ardent -supporters of the “closed door” policy were shaken in their -convictions.</p> -<p class="par">The writer of the economic article pointed out that an -England with closed doors could not feed herself for a month. He was -scrupulously fair in his argument, and was at great pains to show that -even if preparation was instantly made to lay in large stores of grain -from Canada, tinned meats from America, and food-stuffs generally from -the many <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb59" href="#pb59" name= -"pb59">59</a>]</span>places which were as yet free from any taint of -plague, it would still be impossible to provide for more than a three -months’ isolation. Then, leaving this aspect of the question, he -went on to show in detail that even if the food could be supplied, the -practical cessation of our enormous foreign trade would mean the -destruction of England’s commerce, and he wound up with an -earnest exhortation to the country at large, warning the people to -beware of scaremongers, pessimists, and opportunists who had their own -ends to serve, and cared nothing for the general welfare. It was an -excellent article in every way; quite one of the best that the <i>Daily -Mail</i> had ever published. And as this, too, was declared free of any -copyright restrictions, it was largely circulated.</p> -<p class="par">The <i>Daily Post</i> replied next morning by pointing -out that the celebrated professor of economics was nullifying all his -own previous utterances on the case for Tariff Reform, but that retort -carried little weight. No one cared if the professor contradicted -himself; anyone, except the faddists, could see that the argument of -the article was sound, in fact incontrovertible. What had to be done -was to put pressure on the Local Government Board. It was true that the -<i>Daily Post</i>, the semi-official organ of the Government, affirmed -that the Board in question was alert and active, but that announcement -was regarded as a cliché; what was wanted were particulars of -the preventive measures that were being taken.</p> -<p class="par">The members of the great Gosling family, in offices, -warehouses and shops followed the line of <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb60" href="#pb60" name="pb60">60</a>]</span>least resistance, while -making some assertion of their rights as citizens.</p> -<p class="par">George Gosling’s arguments with his crony Flack -were excellently representative.</p> -<p class="par">“What yer think of this ‘closed door’ -business?” asked Flack.</p> -<p class="par">“Goin’ a bit <i>too</i> far, in my -opinion,” returned Gosling judicially.</p> -<p class="par">Flack’s natural incredulity had inclined him in -the same direction, but his colleague’s certainty swung him round -at once.</p> -<p class="par">“I ain’t so sure o’ that,” he -said. “Looks to me as things is going pretty bad.”</p> -<p class="par">“Bad enough, I grant you,” returned Gosling. -“But there isn’t no need for us to lose our ’eads -over it. Take it all round, you know, it’s pretty certain as -things isn’t as bad as is made out, whereas, on the other -’and, the ‘closed door’ policy’d mean ruin and -starvation for ’undreds of thousands—there’s no -gettin’ round that.”</p> -<p class="par">“Better a few ’undred thousands than the -’ole male population,” said Flack.</p> -<p class="par">“If it come to that, but it won’t; no fear, -not by a long chalk, it won’t,” replied Gosling. -“What’s got to be done is to get the Local Government Board -to work. We’ve got to ’ave a regular system o’ -quarantine established, that’s what we’ve got to -’ave.”</p> -<p class="par">It did, indeed, appear the most practical form of -prevention at the moment; it is hard to see what other measures could -have been adopted. The supporters of the “closed door” -policy soon began to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb61" href="#pb61" -name="pb61">61</a>]</span>lose adherents. The scheme was obviously -alarmist, far-fetched and utterly impracticable....</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">4</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Through February and the early part of March the -plague spread through Central Europe, but not with an alarming -rapidity.</p> -<p class="par">In the second week of March, Berlin was reporting a -weekly roll of over five hundred deaths attributable to this cause, and -Vienna was second with between four and five hundred. In St Petersburg -and Moscow the figures were no higher, and there were as yet -comparatively few cases in France, and none in Spain or Portugal.</p> -<p class="par">Many authorities were of opinion that the mortality had -reached the maximum, and that the plague would work itself out in the -course of a few more weeks. Moreover it appeared that the early reports -of the highly infectious character of the plague must have been grossly -exaggerated, for as yet there had been not a single case in the British -Isles despite the enormous traffic between England and the Continent. -It is true that the strictest quarantine had been established—it -had been ascertained that the period of gestation of the germ was about -fifty hours—but not one single case had so far been detained in -quarantine ships or hospitals. It was argued from this that the plague -was not infectious at all in the ordinary sense, and only mildly -contagious; that it flourished in certain centres and was not easily -transferable from one centre to another.</p> -<p class="par">The only aspect of the thing that was seriously -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb62" href="#pb62" name= -"pb62">62</a>]</span>alarming was the horrible mortality among doctors -and the specialists who were endeavouring to recognize and isolate the -characteristic germ of the disease. Nine English experts who had dared -martyrdom in the cause of science had gone to Berlin to make -investigations, and not one of them had returned<span class="corr" id= -"xd23e1183" title="Not in source">.</span> As a consequence of this -strange susceptibility of the investigator, whether medical man or -bacteriologist, there was still an extraordinary ignorance of the -general nature and action of the disease.</p> -<p class="par">Nevertheless, despite this one intimidating aspect of -the plague, the general attitude in the middle of March was that the -quarantine arrangements were enormously impeding trade and should be -relaxed<span class="corr" id="xd23e1188" title="Not in source">.</span> -The foreign governments were alive to the seriousness of the scourge, -and were doing all in their power to prevent infection. There had been -a scare, but people were calm again, now, and able to realize the -extent of the earlier exaggerations.</p> -<p class="par">The Government passed the second reading of the English -Church Disestablishment Bill by a majority of nineteen, before the -Easter recess, and the Goslings, who had grown used to the plague, -whose chief attitude towards it was that it was an infernal nuisance -which interfered with trade, turned their attention gladly to the new -topic; they all thought that a general election at that moment would -result in an overwhelming Conservative majority. And as the Liberals -had been in power for more than ten years, that eventuality was -regarded with complacency.</p> -<p class="par">But at this critical moment—to the joy of the -Evangelicals—the new plague set to work in earnest. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb63" href="#pb63" name="pb63">63</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch6" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="divNum">VI—</span>DISASTER</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">1</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Russia was smitten. Once more communication was -cut off from Moscow, this time by a different agent<span class="corr" -id="xd23e1206" title="Not in source">.</span> The work of the city was -paralysed. Men were falling dead in the street, and there were only -women to bury them. A wholesale emigration had begun. The roads were -choked with people on foot and in carriages, for the trains had ceased -to run.</p> -<p class="par">The news filtered in by degrees: it was confirmed, -contradicted and definitely confirmed again every few hours.</p> -<p class="par">Then came final confirmation, with the news that -something approaching war had broken out—a war of defence. -Germany had sent troops to the frontier to stem the tide of emigrants -from smitten Russia and Poland; and Austria-Hungary was following her -example.</p> -<p class="par">Parliament re-assembled before the Easter recess had -expired. The time for more drastic measures had come, and the Premier -explained to the House that it was proposed to bring in a Bill -immediately to cut off communication with Europe.</p> -<p class="par">There can be no doubt that England was now badly scared, -but centuries of protection had established a belief in security which -was not easily shaken.</p> -<p class="par">The enthusiasts for the “closed door” policy -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb64" href="#pb64" name= -"pb64">64</a>]</span>found plenty of recruits, but on the other side -there was a solid body of opinion which maintained that the danger was -grossly exaggerated. And when the <i>Evening Chronicle</i> came out -with a long leader and a backing of expert opinion, to prove that the -“Closed Door” Bill—as it was commonly -called—was a dodge of the Government’s in order to retain -office, a well-marked reaction followed against the last and terrible -step of cutting off all communication with Europe; and the Conservative -party was joined by some avowed Liberals who had personal interests to -consider in this connexion.</p> -<p class="par">In committee-rooms, members of the Opposition were -inclined to be jubilant: “If we can throw out the Government on -this Bill we shall simply sweep the country ... all the manufacturers -in the North will be with us ... even Scotland, most likely ... we -should come back with a record majority....”</p> -<p class="par">The prospects were so magnificent that there could be no -hesitation in making a party question of the Bill.</p> -<p class="par">No time was to be lost, for the Bill was to be rushed, -it was an emergency measure, and it was proposed that it should become -law within four days. Preparations were already in hand to carry out -the provisions enacted.</p> -<p class="par">An urgent rally of the Opposition was made, and when the -Bill came up for the second reading the Premier addressed a well-filled -House. The House was not crowded because a large number of people, -including many members of Parliament, were on their way to America. All -the big liners were packed <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb65" href= -"#pb65" name="pb65">65</a>]</span>on their outward voyage and were -returning, contrary to all precedent, in ballast—this ballast was -exclusively food-stuffs.</p> -<p class="par">The Premier introduced the Bill in a speech which was -remarkable for its sincerity and earnestness. He outlined the -arrangements that were being made to feed the community, and showed -clearly that while communication remained open with America, there was -no fear of any serious shortage. Pausing for a moment on this question -of intercourse with America, he made a point of the fact that American -ports were already closed to emigrants from all European countries with -the one exception of Great Britain, and that if a single case of plague -were reported in these islands the difficulties of obtaining -food-stuffs from America and the Colonies would be enormously -increased. He wound up by almost imploring the House not to make a -party question of so urgent and necessary a measure at a time when the -safety of England was so terribly threatened. He pleaded that at this -critical moment, unparalleled in the history of humanity, it was the -duty of every man to sink his own personal interests, to be ready to -make any sacrifice, for the sake of the community.</p> -<p class="par">Mr Brampton, the leader of the Opposition, then -completely destroyed the undoubted effect which had been made upon the -House. He did not openly speak in a party spirit, but he hinted very -plainly that the Bill under consideration was a mere subterfuge to win -votes. He poured contempt upon the fear of the plague, which he -characterized throughout <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb66" href= -"#pb66" name="pb66">66</a>]</span>as the “Russian -epidemic,” and ended with the advice to keep a cool head, to -preserve the British spirit of sturdy resistance instead of shutting -our doors and bringing the country to commercial ruin. “Are we -all cravens,” he concluded, “scurrying like rabbits to our -burrows at the first hint of alarm?”</p> -<p class="par">The further debate, although lengthy, had comparatively -little influence; the House divided, and the Government was defeated by -a majority of nine.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">2</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The news was all over the country by ten -o’clock that night, and it was noticeable that a large percentage -of the younger generation still regarded the danger as “rather a -lark.” This threat of the plague held a promise of high -adventure; youth can only realize the possibility of death in its -relation to others.</p> -<p class="par">“I say, if this bally old plague did come” -... remarked a young man of twenty-two, who was sitting with a friend -in the little private bar of the “Dun Taw” Hotel.</p> -<p class="par">His friend drew his feet up on to the rungs of his tall -stool and winked at the barmaid.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, go on. What if it did?” remarked that -young woman.</p> -<p class="par">The young man considered for a moment and then said: -“Those that got left would have a rare old time.”</p> -<p class="par">“It’s the women as’d get left, seems -to me,” replied the barmaid, and scored a point. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb67" href="#pb67" name="pb67">67</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“I say, surely you don’t come from this part -of the world?” was the compliment evoked by her wit.</p> -<p class="par">“Not me!” was the answer, “I’m a -Londoner, I am. Only started yesterday, and sha’n’t stay -long if to-day’s a fair sample. There ’asn’t been a -dozen customers in all day, and they were in such a ’urry to get -their tonic and go that I’m sure they couldn’t ’ave -told you whether me ’air was black or ches’nut.”</p> -<p class="par">Both men immediately looked at the crown of pretty fair -hair which had been so churlishly slighted.</p> -<p class="par">“First thing I noticed about you,” said -one.</p> -<p class="par">The other, who had hardly spoken before, took the -cigarette out of his mouth and remarked: “You can never get that -colour with peroxide.”</p> -<p class="par">The barmaid looked a little suspicious.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, he means it all right, kid,” put in the -younger man quickly. “Dicky’s one of the serious sort. -Besides, he’s in that line; travels for a firm of wholesale -chemists.”</p> -<p class="par">Dicky nodded gravely. “I could see at once it was -natural,” he remarked with the air of an expert.</p> -<p class="par">“Ah! you’re one of them that keeps their -eyes open,” returned the barmaid approvingly, and Dicky modestly -acknowledged the compliment by saying that his business necessitated -close observation.</p> -<p class="par">“Most men are as blind as bats,” continued -the barmaid, and the examples she gave from her own experience led to -an absorbing conversation, which was presently interrupted by the -shriek of the swing door.</p> -<p class="par">The new-comer was a small, fair man with a neatly waxed -moustache. He came up to the counter with <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb68" href="#pb68" name="pb68">68</a>]</span>the air of an -habitué, and remarked, “Hallo! where’s Cis? -You’re new here, aren’t you?”</p> -<p class="par">The barmaid, recognizing the marks of a regular -customer, quietly admitted that this was only her second day at the -“Dun Taw.”</p> -<p class="par">“I’ve been away for two months,” -explained the fair man, and ordered “Scotch.” He was -evidently in the mood for company, for he brought up a stool and, -sitting a little way back from the bar, he began to address his three -hearers at large.</p> -<p class="par">“Only came back from Europe this evening,” -he said, “and glad to be home, I assure you.” He raised his -left hand with a gesture intended to convey horror, and drank half his -whisky at a gulp.</p> -<p class="par">Dicky turned to give his serious attention to the -narrative which was plainly to follow, and somewhat ostentatiously -observed the details of the new-comer’s dress. Dicky had a -new-found reputation to maintain. His friend looked bored and a little -sulky, and tried to continue his conversation with the barmaid, but -that young woman, appreciating the difference in value between a casual -and a regular customer, passed a broad hint by with a smile and said: -“Europe? Just fancy!”</p> -<p class="par">“It’s a place to get out of, I assure -you,” said the fair man. “I’ve been over there for -two months—Germany and Austria chiefly—but for the last -fortnight I’ve been wasting my time. There’s nothing -doing.”</p> -<p class="par">“Isn’t there?” commented Dicky with -great seriousness. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb69" href="#pb69" -name="pb69">69</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Oh, we’re sick to death of this bally -plague,” put in the other young man quickly. “There’s -been simply nothing else in the papers for the last I don’t know -how long. I want to forget it.”</p> -<p class="par">The fair man reached forward and put down his empty -glass on the bar counter. “Same again, Miss,” he said, and -then: “We’ll all be more sick of the plague before -we’ve finished with it. It’s a terror. If I was to tell you -a few of the things I’ve seen in the past fortnight, I -don’t suppose you’d believe me.”</p> -<p class="par">“That’s all right; I’d believe you -quick enough,” returned the young man. “Point is, -what’s the good of getting yourself in a funk about it? -Personally I don’t believe it’s coming to England. If it -was it would have been here before this. What I say is ...”</p> -<p class="par">His pronouncement of opinion ceased abruptly. The fair -man’s behaviour riveted attention. He was gazing past the barmaid -at the orderly rows of shining glasses and various shaped bottles -behind her. His mouth was open. He gazed intensely, horribly.</p> -<p class="par">The barmaid backed nervously and looked over her -shoulder. The two young men hastily rose and pushed back their stools. -The same thought was in all their minds. This neat, fair man was on the -verge of delirium tremens.</p> -<p class="par">In a moment the air of intercourse and joviality that -had pervaded the little room was dissipated; in place of it had come -shocked surprise and fear.</p> -<p class="par">There was an interval of slow desolating silence, and -then the convulsive grip of the fair man <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb70" href="#pb70" name="pb70">70</a>]</span>shattered the glass he -held, and the fragments fell tinkling to the floor.</p> -<p class="par">“I say, what’s up?” stammered the -barmaid’s admirer, while the barmaid herself shrank back against -the shelves and watched nervously. She had had experience.</p> -<p class="par">The fair man’s head was being pulled slowly -backwards by some invisible force. His eyes, staring straight before -him, appeared to watch with fierce intensity some point that moved -steadily up the wall of shelves behind the counter; up till it reached -the ceiling and began to move over the ceiling toward him.</p> -<p class="par">Then, quite suddenly, the horrible tension was relaxed; -his head fell loosely forward and he clapped both hands to the nape of -his neck. He was breathing loudly in short quick gasps.</p> -<p class="par">“I say, do you think he’s ill?” asked -the young man. At the suggestion Dicky made a step towards the -sufferer; his knowledge of chemistry gave him a professional air.</p> -<p class="par">“He’s come from Europe.... Suppose -it’s the plague,” whispered the barmaid.</p> -<p class="par">And at that the two young men started back. As the words -were spoken realization swept upon them.</p> -<p class="par">Mumbling something about “get a doctor,” -they rushed for the door. One of them made a wide -détour—he had to pass the man who sat doubled forward in -his chair, frantically gripping the base of his skull.</p> -<p class="par">Hardly had the clatter of the swing door subsided before -he fell forward on to the floor. He was groaning now, groaning -detestably.</p> -<p class="par">The barmaid whimpered and stared. “Women -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb71" href="#pb71" name= -"pb71">71</a>]</span>don’t get it.” she said aloud. But she -kept to her own side of the counter.</p> -<p class="par">Later the owner of the “Dun Taw” identified -the fair man—from a distance—as Mr Stewart, of the firm of -Barker and Prince.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">3</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Thrale’s “higher forces” had -shown their hand.</p> -<p class="par">The humble and rotund instrument of their choice had -served his purpose, and he was probably the first man in London to -receive the news—a delicate acknowledgment, perhaps, of his -services.</p> -<p class="par">The telegram was addressed to the firm, but as neither -of the heads of the house had arrived, Gosling opened it according to -precedent.</p> -<p class="par">“Gosh!” was his sole exclamation, but the -tone of it stirred the interest of Flack, who turned to see his -colleague’s rather protuberant blue eyes staring with a fishy -glare at a flimsy sheet of paper which visibly trembled in the hold of -two clusters of fat fingers.</p> -<p class="par">Flack lifted his spectacles and holding them on a level -with his eyebrows, said, “Bad news?”</p> -<p class="par">Gosling sat down, and in the fever of the moment wiped -his forehead with his snuff handkerchief, then discovered his mistake -and laid the handkerchief carelessly on the desk. This infringement of -his invariable practice produced even more effect upon Flack than the -staring eyes and wavering fingers. Gosling might be guilty of mild -histrionics, but not of such a touch as this. The utter neglect of -decency <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb72" href="#pb72" name= -"pb72">72</a>]</span>exhibited by the display of that shameful bandanna -could only portend calamity.</p> -<p class="par">“Lord’s sakes, man, what’s the -matter?” asked Flack, still taking an observation under his -spectacles.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s come, Flack,” said Gosling -feebly. “It’s in Scotland. Our Mr Stewart died of it in -Dundee this mornin’.”</p> -<p class="par">Flack rose from his seat and grabbed the telegram, which -was brief and pregnant. “Stewart died suddenly five a.m. Feared -plague. Macfie.”</p> -<p class="par">“Tchah!” said Flack, still staring at the -telegram. “‘<i>Feared</i> plague.’ Lost their -’eads, that’s what they’ve done. Pull yourself -together, man. I don’t believe a word of it.”</p> -<p class="par">Gosling swallowed elaborately, discovered his bandanna -on the desk and hastily pocketed it. “Might ’a been -’eart-disease, d’you think?” he said eagerly.</p> -<p class="par">“We-el,” remarked Flack, “I never -’eard as ’is ’eart was affected, did you?”</p> -<p class="par">Gosling held out his hand for the telegram, and made a -further elaborate study of it, without, however, discovering any -hitherto unsuspected evidence relating to the unsoundness of -Stewart’s heart.</p> -<p class="par">“It says ‘feared,’ of course,” -he remarked at last. “Macfie wouldn’t have said feared if -’e’d been sure.”</p> -<p class="par">“They’d ’ardly have mentioned plague -in a telegram if they ’adn’t been pretty certain, -though,” argued Flack.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling was so upset that he had to go out and get a nip -of brandy, a thing he had not done since the morning after Blanche was -born. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb73" href="#pb73" name= -"pb73">73</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">The partners looked grave when they heard the news from -Dundee, and London generally looked very grave indeed, when they read -the full details an hour later in the <i>Evening Chronicle</i>.</p> -<p class="par">Stewart, it appeared, had come straight through from -Berlin to London via Flushing and Port Victoria, and on landing in -England he had managed to escape quarantine. His was not an isolated -case. For some weeks it had been possible for British subjects to get -past the officials. There was nothing in the regulations to allow such -an evasion of the order, but it could be managed occasionally. Stewart -had been told to spare no expense.</p> -<p class="par">The <i>Evening Chronicle</i>, although it made the most -of its opportunity in contents bill and headlines, said that there was -no cause for alarm, that these things were managed better in Great -Britain than on the Continent; that the case had been isolated from the -first moment the plague was recognized (about five hours before death), -that the body had been burned, and that the most extensive and -elaborate process of disinfection was being carried out—even the -sleeping coach in which Stewart had travelled from London to Dundee -twelve hours before, had been identified and burned also.</p> -<p class="par">London still looked grave, but was nevertheless a little -inclined to congratulate itself on the thoroughness of British methods. -“We’ll never get it in England, you see if we do,” -was the remark chiefly in vogue among the great Gosling family.</p> -<p class="par">But twelve hours or so too late, England was beginning -to regret that the Government had been <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb74" href="#pb74" name="pb74">74</a>]</span>defeated. It was rumoured -that the Premier had broken down, had immediately resigned his office, -and would not seek re-election as a private member.</p> -<p class="par">This rumour was definitely confirmed in the later -editions of the evening papers. Mr Brampton had been summoned to -Buckingham Palace and was forming a temporary ministry which was to -take office. In the circumstances it was deemed inadvisable to plunge -the country into a general election at that moment.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">4</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Mr Stewart died in the small hours of Friday -morning, and the next day, Saturday, the 14th of April, was the first -day of panic.</p> -<p class="par">The day began with comparative quiet. No further case -had been notified in Great Britain, but telegraphic communication was -interrupted between London and Russia, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, and -other continental centres. In Germany matters were growing desperate. -There had been riots and looting. Military law had been declared in -several towns; in some cases the mob had been fired upon. Business was -at a standstill, and the plague was spreading like a fire. Between two -and three hundred cases were reported from Reims, and upwards of fifty -from Paris....</p> -<p class="par">Business houses were being closed in the City of London, -and the banks noted a marked tendency among their depositors to -withdraw gold; so marked, indeed, that many banks of high standing -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb75" href="#pb75" name= -"pb75">75</a>]</span>were glad to be able to close their doors at one -o’clock.</p> -<p class="par">It was on this Saturday morning, also, that the bottom -suddenly fell out of the money market. For weeks past, prices had been -falling steadily, but now they dropped to panic figures. Every one was -selling, there were no buyers left. Consols were quoted at -53–1/2.</p> -<p class="par">The air of London was heavy with foreboding, and -throughout the morning the gloom grew deeper. The depressed and worried -faces to be met at every turn contrasted strangely with the brilliance -of the weather. For April had come with clear skies and soft, warm -winds.</p> -<p class="par">As the day advanced the atmosphere of depression became -continually more marked, and how extraordinary was the effect upon all -classes may be judged from the fact that less than 5,000 people paid to -witness the third replay between Barnsley and Everton, in the -semi-final of the English cup....</p> -<p class="par">In London, men and women hung aimlessly about the -streets waiting for the news they dreaded to hear. The theatres were -deserted. The feeling of gloom was so real that many women afterwards -believed that the sky had been overcast, whereas Nature was in one of -her most brilliant moods.</p> -<p class="par">It was a few minutes past three when the pressure was -exploded by the report of the final catastrophe. “Two more cases -of plague in Dundee and one in Edinburgh,” was the first -announcement. That would have been enough to show that all the vaunted -precautions had been useless, and within <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb76" href="#pb76" name="pb76">76</a>]</span>an hour came the -notification of two further cases. Before six o’clock, eight more -were notified in Dundee, three more in Edinburgh, and one in -Newcastle.</p> -<p class="par">The new plague had reached England. It was then that the -panic began. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb77" href="#pb77" name= -"pb77">77</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch7" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="divNum">VII—</span>PANIC</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">1</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Gurney, when he left his office on that Saturday, -was influenced by the general depression. He went to lunch at the -“White Vine,” in the Haymarket, quite determined to keep -himself in hand, to argue himself out of his low spirits.</p> -<p class="par">He made a beginning at once.</p> -<p class="par">“Every one seems to have a fit of the blues. -Ernst,” he remarked to the waiter with a factitious -cheerfulness.</p> -<p class="par">Ernst, less polite than usual, shrugged his shoulders. -“There is enough cause already,” he said.</p> -<p class="par">“Have you had bad news from Germany?” asked -Gurney, feeling that he had probably been rather brutal.</p> -<p class="par">“<span lang="de">Ach Gott! ’s’ist bald -Keiner mehr da</span>,” blubbered Ernst, and he wept without -restraint as he arranged the table, occasionally wiping his eyes with -his napkin.</p> -<p class="par">“I’m most awfully sorry,” murmured the -embarrassed Gurney, and retreated behind the horror of his evening -paper. He found small cause for rejoicing there, however, and discarded -it as soon as his lunch had been brought by the red-eyed Ernst. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb78" href="#pb78" name= -"pb78">78</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“I wonder what Mark Tapley would have done,” -Gurney reflected moodily as he attacked his chop.</p> -<p class="par">There were few other people in the restaurant, and they -were all silent and engrossed. That dreadful cloud hung over England, -the spirit of pestilence threatened to take substance, the air was full -of horror that might at any moment become a visible shape of -destruction.</p> -<p class="par">Gurney did not finish his lunch, he lighted a cigarette, -left four shillings on the table, and hurried out into the air.</p> -<p class="par">He did not look up at the sky as he turned eastwards -towards Fleet Street; no one looked up at the sky that afternoon. Heads -and shoulders were burdened by an invisible weight which kept all eyes -on the ground.</p> -<p class="par">Fleet Street was full of people who crowded round the -windows of newspaper offices, not with the eagerness of a general -election crowd, but with a subdued surliness which ever and again broke -out in spurts of violent temper.</p> -<p class="par">Gurney, still struggling to maintain his composure, -found himself unreasonably irritated when a motor-bus driver shouted at -him to get out of the way. It seemed to Gurney that to be knocked down -and run over was preferable to being shouted at. The noise of those -infernal buses was unbearable, so, also, was that dreadful patter of -feet upon the pavement and the dull murmur of mournful voices. Why, in -the name of God, could not people keep quiet?</p> -<p class="par">He bumped into some one on the pavement as he -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb79" href="#pb79" name= -"pb79">79</a>]</span>scrambled out of the way of the bus, and the man -swore at him viciously. Gurney responded, and then discovered that the -man was known to him.</p> -<p class="par">“Hallo!” he said. “You?”</p> -<p class="par">“Hallo,” responded the other.</p> -<p class="par">For a moment they stood awkwardly, staring; then Gurney -said, “Any more news?”</p> -<p class="par">The man, who was a sub-editor of the <i>Westminster -Gazette</i>, shook his head. “I’m just going back -now,” he said. “There was nothing ten minutes -ago.”</p> -<p class="par">“Pretty awful, isn’t it?” remarked -Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">The sub-editor shrugged his shoulders and hurried -away.</p> -<p class="par">Presently Gurney found himself wedged among the crowd, -watching the <i>Daily Chronicle</i> window.</p> -<p class="par">A few minutes after three, a young man with a very white -face, fastened a type-written message to the glass.</p> -<p class="par">There was a rapid constriction of the crowd. Those -behind, Gurney among them, could not read the message, and pressed -forward. There were cries of “What is it?... I can’t -see.... Read it out....” Then those in front gave way slightly, a -wave of eagerness agitated the mass of watchers, and the news ran back -from the front. “Two more cases of plague in Dundee; one in -Edinburgh.”</p> -<p class="par">And with that the pressure of dread was suddenly -dissipated, giving place to something kinetic, dynamic. Now it was fear -that took the people by the throat: active, compelling fear. Men looked -at each other with terror and something of hate in their <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb80" href="#pb80" name="pb80">80</a>]</span>eyes, -the crowd broke and melted. Every man was going to his own home, -possessed by an instinct to fly before it was too late.</p> -<p class="par">Gurney shouldered his way out, and stopped a taxi that -was crawling past.</p> -<p class="par">“Jermyn Street,” he said.</p> -<p class="par">The driver leaned over and pointed to the <i>Daily -Chronicle</i> window. “What’s the news?” he -asked.</p> -<p class="par">“The plague’s in Dundee and -Edinburgh,” said Gurney, and climbed into the cab and slammed the -door.</p> -<p class="par">“Gawd!” muttered the driver, as he drove -recklessly westwards.</p> -<p class="par">Sitting in the cab, finding some comfort in the feeling -of headlong speed, Gurney was debating whether he would not charter the -man to take him right out of London. But he must go home first for -money.</p> -<p class="par">At the door of the house in Jermyn Street he met Jasper -Thrale.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">2</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">“Have you heard?” asked Gurney -excitedly.</p> -<p class="par">“No. What?” said Thrale, without -interest.</p> -<p class="par">“There are two more cases in Dundee and one in -Edinburgh,” said Gurney. The driver of the cab got down from his -seat, and looked from Gurney to Thrale with doubt and question.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale nodded his head. “I knew it was sure to -come,” he remarked.</p> -<p class="par">“Better get out of this,” put in the -driver.</p> -<p class="par">“Yes, rather,” agreed Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">“Where to?” asked Thrale. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb81" href="#pb81" name="pb81">81</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Well, America.”</p> -<p class="par">Thrale laughed. “They’ll have it in America -before you get there,” he said. “It’ll go there via -Japan and ’Frisco.”</p> -<p class="par">“You seem to know a lot about it,” said the -driver of the cab.</p> -<p class="par">“Do you mean to tell me there’s nowhere we -can go to?” persisted Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale smiled. “Nowhere in this world,” he -said. “This plague has come to destroy mankind.” He spoke -with a quiet assurance that carried conviction.</p> -<p class="par">The driver of the cab scowled. “May as well -’ave a run for my money first, then,” he said, and thus -gave utterance to the thought that was fermenting in many other -minds.</p> -<p class="par">There was no hope of escape for the mass, only the rich -could seek railway termini and take train for Liverpool, Southampton or -any port where there was the least hope of finding some ship to take -them out of Europe.</p> -<p class="par">That night there was panic and riot. The wealthy classes -were trying to escape, the mob was trying to “get a run for its -money.” Yet very little real mischief was done. Two or three -companies of infantry were sufficient to clear the streets, and not -more than forty people in all were seriously injured....</p> -<p class="par">In Downing Street the new Premier sat alone with his -head in his hands, and wondered what could be done to stop the approach -of the pestilence. One of the evening papers had suggested that -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb82" href="#pb82" name= -"pb82">82</a>]</span>a great line of fire should be built across the -north of England. The Premier wondered whether that scheme were -feasible. He had never held high office before; he did not know how to -deal with these great issues. All his political life he had learned -only the art of party tactics. He had learned that art very well, he -was a master of debate, and he had shown a wonderful ability to judge -the bent of the public mind and to make use of his judgments for party -ends. But now that any action of his was divorced from its accustomed -object, he was as a man suddenly forced into some new occupation. -Whenever he tried to think of some means to stay the progress of the -plague his mind automatically began to consider what influence the -adoption of such means would have upon the general election which must -soon come....</p> -<p class="par">“A line of fire across the north,” he was -thinking, “would shut off the whole of Scotland. They would never -forgive us for that. We should lose the entire Scottish -vote—it’s bad enough as it is.” He sat up late into -the night considering what policy he should put before the Cabinet. He -tried honestly to consider the position apart from politics, but his -mind refused to work in that way....</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">3</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">In Jermyn Street Thrale was arguing with Gurney, -trying to persuade him into a philosophic attitude.</p> -<p class="par">“Yes, I suppose there’s absolutely nothing -to be done but sit down and wait,” said Gurney. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb83" href="#pb83" name="pb83">83</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Personally,” returned Thrale, “I have -no intention of spending my time flying from country to country like a -marked criminal. That way leads to insanity. I’ve seen men become -animals before now under the influence of fear.”</p> -<p class="par">“Yes, of course, you’re quite right,” -agreed Gurney. “One must exercise self-control. After all, -it’s only death, and not such a terrible death at that.” He -got up and began to pace the room restlessly, then went to the window -and looked out. Jermyn Street was almost deserted, but distant sounds -of shouting came from the direction of Piccadilly. He left the window -open and turned back into the room.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s so infernally hard just to sit still -and wait,” he said. “If only one could do -something.”</p> -<p class="par">“I doubt, now,” said Thrale, quietly, -“whether one could ever have done anything. The public and the -Government took my warnings in the characteristic way, the only -possible way in which you could expect twentieth-century humanity to -take a warning—a thrill of fear, perhaps, in some cases; frank -incredulity in others; but no result either way that endured for an -hour.... Belief in national and personal security, inertia outside the -routine of necessary, stereotyped employment; these things are -essential to the running of the machine.”</p> -<p class="par">“I suppose they are,” agreed Gurney absently -He had sat down again and was sucking automatically at an extinguished -pipe.</p> -<p class="par">“In a complex civilization,” went on Thrale -“any initiative on the part of the individual outside -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb84" href="#pb84" name= -"pb84">84</a>]</span>his own tiny sphere of energy is just so much grit -in the machine. There are recognized methods, they may not be the best, -the most efficient, but they are accepted and understood. Every clerk -who has to calculate twelve pence to the shilling knows how his work -would be lightened if he had only to calculate ten, but he accepts that -difficulty, because he can do nothing as an individual to introduce the -decimal system. And that spirit of acceptance grows upon him until the -individual has the characteristics of the class. Only when a man is -stirred by too great discomfort does he open his eyes to the -possibility of initiative; then come labour strikes. If labour had a -sufficiency of ease and comfort, if its lot were not so violently -contrasted with that of even the middle-classes, labour would settle -down to complacency. But the contrast is too great, and to attain that -complacency of uninitiative we must level down. That was coming; that -would have come if this plague....”</p> -<p class="par">“What was that?” asked Gurney excitedly, -jumping to his feet. “Did you hear firing?” He went to the -window again, and leaned out. From Piccadilly came the sound of an army -of trampling feet, of confused cries and shouting. “By God, -there’s a riot,” exclaimed Gurney. He spoke over his -shoulder.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale joined him at the window. “Panic,” he -said. “Senseless, hysterical panic. It won’t -last.”</p> -<p class="par">“I think I shall go out of London,” said -Gurney. “I’d sooner ... I’d sooner die in the -country, I <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb85" href="#pb85" name= -"pb85">85</a>]</span>think.” He withdrew from the window and -began to pace up and down the room again.</p> -<p class="par">“Going to stampede with the rest of -’em?” asked Thrale. “Extraordinarily infectious -thing, panic.”</p> -<p class="par">“I don’t think it’s that exactly -...” hesitated Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">“Animal fear,” said Thrale. “The -terror of the wild thing threatened with the unknown. The runaway horse -terrified and rushing to its own destruction. Fly, fly, fly from the -threat of peril as you did once on the prairies, when to fly meant -safety.”</p> -<p class="par">“It’s so infernally depressing in -London,” said Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">“All right, go and brood on death in the -country,” replied Thrale. “That may cheer you up a bit. -But, take my advice, don’t run. Walk at a snail’s pace and -check the least tendency to hurry. Once you begin to quicken your pace, -you will find yourself hurrying desperately—and then stampede the -hell of terror at your heels. After all, you know, you may survive. It -isn’t likely that every man will die.”</p> -<p class="par">Gurney caught eagerly at that. “No, no, of course -it isn’t,” he said. “But wouldn’t one be much -more likely to survive if one were living in the country, or by the -sea—in some fairly isolated place, for example. I meant to go -down to Cornwall for my holiday this year, to a little cottage on the -coast about four miles from Padstow; don’t you think in pure air -and healthy surroundings like that, one would stand a better -chance?” <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb86" href="#pb86" name= -"pb86">86</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Very likely,” said Thrale carelessly. -“But don’t run. In any case you’d better wait till -the middle of the week. The first rush will be over then.”</p> -<p class="par">“Yes. Perhaps. I’ll go on Wednesday, or -Tuesday....”</p> -<p class="par">Thrale smiled grimly. “Well, good night,” he -said. “I’m going to bed.”</p> -<p class="par">When he had gone, Gurney went to the window again. The -sounds of riot from Piccadilly had died down to a low, confused murmur. -A motor-car whizzed by along Jermyn Street, and two people passed on -foot, a man and a woman; the woman was leaning heavily on the -man’s arm.</p> -<p class="par">Gurney turned once more to his pacing of the room. He -was trying to realize the unrealizable fact that the world offered no -refuge. For a full hour he struggled with himself, with that new, -strange instinct which rose up and urged him to fly for his life. At -last weary and overborne he threw himself into a chair by the dying -fire and began to cry like a lost child; even as Ernst, the waiter, had -cried....</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">4</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The panic emigration lasted until Monday evening, -and then came news which checked and stayed the rush for the ports of -Liverpool, Southampton and Queenstown. The plague was already in -America. It had come, as Thrale had prophesied from the West. At the -docks many of those favoured <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb87" href= -"#pb87" name="pb87">87</a>]</span>emigrants who had secured berths, -hesitated; if it was to be a choice between death in America and death -in England, they preferred to die at home.</p> -<p class="par">Yet, even on Tuesday morning, when doubt as to the -coming of the plague was no longer possible, when Dundee could only -give approximate figures of the seizures in that town, reporting them -as not less than a thousand, when it was evident that the whole of -Scotland was becoming infected with incredible rapidity, and two cases -were notified as far south as Durham, there remained still an enormous -body of people who stoutly maintained that, bad as things were, the -danger was grossly exaggerated, who believed that the danger would soon -pass, and who, steadfast to the habits of a lifetime, continued their -routine wherever it was possible so to do, determined to resist to the -last.</p> -<p class="par">To this body, possibly some two-fifths of the whole -urban population, was due the comparative maintenance of law and order. -In face of the growing destitution due to the wholesale closing of -factories, warehouses and offices, necessitated by the now complete -cessation of foreign trade and to the hoarding of food stores and gold -which was already so marked as to have seriously affected the commerce -not dependent on foreign sellers and buyers, a semblance of ordinary -life was still maintained. Newspapers were issued, trains and -’buses were running, theatres and music-halls were open, and many -normal occupations were carried on.</p> -<p class="par">Yet everything was infected. It was as if the cloak of -civilization was worn more loosely. Crime was <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb88" href="#pb88" name= -"pb88">88</a>]</span>increasing and justice was relaxed. Robberies of -food were so common that there was no place for the confinement of -those who were convicted. Shopkeepers were becoming at once more -reliant upon their own defences, and less scrupulous in their dealings -with bona-fide customers. No longer could the protection of the State -be exclusively relied upon, the citizen was becoming lost in the -individual. Public opinion was being resolved into individual opinion; -and with the failing of the great restraint every man was developing an -unsuspected side of his character. Thrown upon his own resources, he -became continually less civilized, more conscious of possibilities to -fulfill long-thwarted tendencies and desires; he began to understand -that when it is a case of <i lang="fr">sauve qui peut</i>, the weakest -are trampled under foot.</p> -<p class="par">So the cloak of civilization gaped and showed the form -of the naked man, with all its blemishes and deformities. And women -blenched and shuddered. For woman, as yet, was little, if at all, -altered in character by the fear that was brutalizing man. Her faith in -the intrinsic rectitude of the beloved conventions was more deeply -rooted. Moreover woman fears the strictures of woman, more than man -fears the judgments of man. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb89" href= -"#pb89" name="pb89">89</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch8" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="divNum">VIII—</span>GURNEY IN -CORNWALL</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">1</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Gurney’s alternative to flying from the -plague was to run away from himself. He shirked the issue in his -conversations with Thrale, shuffled, sophisticated, and in a futile -endeavour to convince his companion, convinced himself that his -reasoning was sound and his motive unprejudiced.</p> -<p class="par">It was not until the following Thursday, however, that -he took train to Cornwall. He had succeeded in realizing between two -and three hundred pounds in gold, and this he took with him. He -intended to lay in stores of flour, sugar and other primary -necessities; to buy and keep two or three cows, to rear chickens, to -grow as much garden produce as possible, especially potatoes; and -generally to provide against the coming scarcity of food and the -cessation of transport.</p> -<p class="par">The bungalow on the shores of Constantine Bay, to which -he departed, was a place well suited to the carrying out of these -prudent arrangements. It belonged to a friend of his, who was rich -enough to indulge his whims, and who had spent a considerable sum of -money in building the place and enclosing ground, but who rarely -occupied the bungalow himself, and was too careless to bother about -letting <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb90" href="#pb90" name= -"pb90">90</a>]</span>it. Gurney had the keys in his possession. When he -had asked his friend for permission to spend his summer holiday there, -he had been told to use the place as if it were his own. “Jolly -good thing for me, you know,” his friend had said. “Keep it -dry and all that.”</p> -<p class="par">Gurney was not an idle man. Arrived at his bungalow, he -lost no time in carrying out the arrangements he had schemed, and for -nearly three weeks he was so absorbed in this work, in learning new -occupations and perfecting his plan, that he did, indeed, achieve his -purpose of running away from himself.</p> -<p class="par">He became imbued with a new feeling of security; he -received neither letters nor papers from the outside, and the old -labourer who assisted him in setting potatoes, who taught him to milk a -cow and instructed him generally in the primitive arts of -self-supporting toil, seemed to regard all rumours of the new plague -which filtered through to the village of St Merryn as some foreign -nonsense which had little bearing on life in the county of Cornwall, as -represented by the twenty-five or thirty square miles which were to him -all the essential world.</p> -<p class="par">Gurney began to believe that the plague would never -cross the Tamar, and one day in early May, when his provisions against -a siege were practically completed, he was stirred to attempt a journey -across the peninsula in order to visit an acquaintance in East Looe. -Gurney had become conscious of a longing for some companionship. Old -Hawken was very good at cows and potatoes, but he was rather deaf and -his range of ideas was severely restricted. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb91" href="#pb91" name="pb91">91</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">2</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">From Padstow to Looe is not an ideal journey by -rail at the best of times, involving as it does, a change of train at -Wadebridge, Bodmin Road and Liskeard; but Gurney was in no hurry, and -the conversations he overheard in his compartment were not destructive -of his new-found complacency. There was, indeed, some mention of the -plague, but only in relation to the scarcity of food supply and its -effect on trade. One passenger, very obviously a farmer, was -congratulating himself that he was getting higher prices for stock than -he had ever known, and that as luck would have it he had sown an -unusual number of acres with wheat that year. “I’ll be -gettun sixty or seventy a quarter, sure ’nough,” he -boasted.</p> -<p class="par">Dickenson—Gurney’s friend in -Looe—regarded the matter more seriously, but he, too, seemed -untouched by any fear of personal infection. He was an ardent Liberal, -and his chief cause for concern seemed to be that the plague should -have come at a time when so much progress was being made with -legislation. He was, also, very distressed at the reports of poverty -and starvation which abounded, and at the terrible blow to trade -generally. But he seemed hopeful that the trouble would pass and be -followed by a new era of enlightened government, founded on sound -Liberal principles.</p> -<p class="par">Gurney stayed the night and the greater part of the next -day at Looe. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb92" href="#pb92" name= -"pb92">92</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">3</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">On his return journey he had to wait at Liskeard -to pick up the main line train for London, which would take him to -Bodmin Road.</p> -<p class="par">It was a glorious May evening. The day had been hot, but -now there was a cool breeze from the sea, and the long shadow from the -high bank of the cutting enwrapped the whole station in a pleasant -twilight.</p> -<p class="par">Gurney, deliberately pacing the length of the platform, -was conscious of physical vigour and a great enjoyment of life. He had -an imaginative temperament, and in his moments of exaltation he found -the world both interesting and beautiful, an entirely desirable setting -for the essential Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">So he strolled up and down the platform, regarded any -female figure with interest, and was in no way concerned that the train -was already an hour late. He had expected it to be late. His own train -from Looe, for no particular reason, had been half an hour late. If he -missed his connexion at Wadebridge he would only have some seven or -eight miles to walk.</p> -<p class="par">Fifteen or twenty other people were waiting on the down -platform, and presently Gurney became conscious that his -fellow-passengers were no longer detached into parties of two and -three, but were collected in groups, discussing, apparently, some -matter of peculiar interest.</p> -<p class="par">Gurney had been lost in his dreams and had hardly -noticed the passage of time. He looked at his watch <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb93" href="#pb93" name="pb93">93</a>]</span>and -found that the train was now two hours overdue. The sun had set, but -there was still light in the sky. A man detached himself from one of -the groups and Gurney approached him.</p> -<p class="par">“Two hours late,” he remarked by way of -introducing himself, and looked at his watch again.</p> -<p class="par">The man nodded emphatically. “Funny thing -is,” he said, “that they’ve had no information at the -office. The stationmaster generally gets advice when the train leaves -Plymouth.”</p> -<p class="par">“Good lord,” said Gurney. “Do you mean -to say that the train hasn’t got to Plymouth yet?”</p> -<p class="par">“Looks like it,” said the stranger. -“They say it’s the plague. It’s dreadfully bad in -London, they tell me.”</p> -<p class="par">“D’you mean it’s possible the train -won’t come in at all?” asked Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! I should hardly think that,” replied -the other. “Oh, no, I should hardly think that, but goodness -knows when it will come. Very awkward for me. I want to get to St Ives. -It’s a long way from here. Have you far to go?”</p> -<p class="par">“Well, Padstow,” said Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">“Padstow!” echoed the stranger. -“That’s a good step.”</p> -<p class="par">“Further than I want to walk.”</p> -<p class="par">“I should say. Thirty miles or so, -anyway?”</p> -<p class="par">“About that,” agreed Gurney. “I wonder -where one could get any information.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s very awkward,” was all the help -the stranger had to offer. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb94" href= -"#pb94" name="pb94">94</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Gurney crossed the line and invaded the -stationmaster’s office. “Sorry to trouble you,” he -said, “but do you think this train’s been taken off, for -any reason?”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, it ’asn’t been taken off,” -said the stationmaster with a wounded air. “It may be a bit -late.”</p> -<p class="par">Gurney smiled. “It’s something over two -hours behind now, isn’t it?” he said.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, I can’t ’elp it, can I?” -asked the stationmaster. “You’ll ’ave to ’ave -patience.”</p> -<p class="par">“You’ve had no advice yet from -Plymouth?” persisted Gurney, facing the other’s -ill-temper.</p> -<p class="par">“No, I ’aven’t; something’s gone -wrong with the wire. We can’t get no answer,” returned the -stationmaster. “Now, if you please, I ’ave my work to -do.”</p> -<p class="par">Gurney returned to the down platform and joined a group -of men, among whom he recognized the man he had spoken to a few minutes -before.</p> -<p class="par">The afterglow was dying out of the sky, in the -south-west a faint young moon was setting behind the high bank of the -cutting. A porter had lighted the station lamps, but they were not -turned full on.</p> -<p class="par">“The stationmaster tells me that something has -gone wrong with the telegraphic communication,” said Gurney, -addressing the little knot of passengers collectively. “He -can’t get any answer it seems.”</p> -<p class="par">“Been an accident likely,” suggested some -one.</p> -<p class="par">“Or the engine-driver’s got the -plague,” said another.</p> -<p class="par">“They’d have put another man on.”</p> -<p class="par">“If they could find one.” <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb95" href="#pb95" name="pb95">95</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“If we ain’t careful we shall be -gettin’ the plague down ’ere.”</p> -<p class="par">After all why not? The horrible suggestion sprang up in -Gurney’s mind with new force. That remote city seemed suddenly -near. He saw in imagination the train leaving Paddington, and only a -journey of six or seven hours divided that departure from its arrival -at Liskeard. It might come in at any moment, bearing the awful -infection. Why should he wait? There was an inn near the station. He -might find a conveyance there.</p> -<p class="par">“Constantine Bay?” questioned the -landlord.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s near St Merryn,” said Gurney, -but still the landlord shook his head.</p> -<p class="par">“Not far from Padstow,” explained -Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">“Pard-stow!” exclaimed the landlord on a -rising note. “Drive over to Pard-stow at this time o’ -night?” He appeared to think that Gurney was joking.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, Bodmin, then,” suggested Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">“Aw, why not take the train?” asked the -landlord.</p> -<p class="par">Gurney shrugged his shoulders. “The train -doesn’t seem to be coming,” he said.</p> -<p class="par">“Bad job, that,” answered the landlord. -“Been an accident, sure ’nough; this new plague or -something.” He was evidently prepared to accept the matter -philosophically.</p> -<p class="par">“You can’t drive me then?” asked -Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">The landlord shook his head with a grin. He was inclined -to look upon this foreigner as rather more foolish than the majority of -his kind. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb96" href="#pb96" name= -"pb96">96</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Gurney came out of the little inn, and looked down into -the station. The number of waiting passengers seemed to be decreasing, -but the light was so dim that he could not see into the shadows.</p> -<p class="par">“I must keep hold of myself,” he was saying. -“I mustn’t run.”</p> -<p class="par">A man was coming up the steep incline towards him, and -Gurney moved slowly to meet him. He found that it was the stranger he -had spoken to on the platform.</p> -<p class="par">“Any news?” asked Gurney.</p> -<p class="par">“Yes, they’ve got a message through from -Saltash,<span class="corr" id="xd23e1773" title= -"Not in source">”</span> replied the stranger. “It’s -the plague right enough. They say they don’t know when -there’ll be another train....”</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">4</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Days grew into weeks, and still there were no -trains. Trade was at a standstill, and the prices of home produce -mounted steadily. Fish there was, but not in great abundance, and the -towns inland, such as Truro and Bodmin, organized a motor service with -coast fishing villages, a service which only lasted for a week, by -reason of the failure of the petrol supply. After that there was a less -effective horse service.</p> -<p class="par">Within three weeks after that last train arrived from -outside, a new system of exchange was coming into vogue. In this little -congeries of communities in Cornwall, men were beginning to learn the -uselessness of gold, silver and bronze coins as tokens. Credit had -collapsed, and a system of barter was being introduced, mainly between -farmer and fisherman. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb97" href="#pb97" -name="pb97">97</a>]</span>In time it was possible that Cornwall might -have become a self-supporting community, for its proportionately few -inhabitants were rapidly being depleted by want and starvation; but, -although it was the last place in the British Isles to become infected, -the plague came there, too, in the end.</p> -<p class="par">A steamer sent out from Cardiff on a plundering -expedition carried the plague to the Scillies, and a fishing vessel -from St Ives carried it on to Newlyn.... <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb98" href="#pb98" name="pb98">98</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch9" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="divNum">IX—</span>THE DEVOLUTION OF -GEORGE GOSLING</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">1</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The progress of the plague through London and the -world in general was marked, in the earlier stages, by much the same -developments as are reported of the plague of 1665. The closed houses, -the burial pits, the deserted streets, the outbreaks of every kind of -excess, the various symptoms of fear, cowardice, fortitude and courage, -evidenced little change in the average of humanity between the -seventeenth and the twentieth centuries. The most notable difference -during these earlier stages was in the enormously increased rapidity -with which the population of London was reduced to starvation point. -Even before the plague had reached England, want had become general, so -general, indeed, as to have demonstrated very clearly the truth of the -great economist’s contention that England could not exist for -three months with closed doors.</p> -<p class="par">The coming of the plague threw London on to its own very -limited resources. That vast city, which produced nothing but the -tokens of wealth, and added nothing to the essentials that support -life, was instantly reduced to the state of Paris in the winter of -1870–71; with the difference, however, that London’s -population could be decreased rapidly <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb99" href="#pb99" name="pb99">99</a>]</span>by emigration, and was, -also, even more rapidly decreased by pestilence. Yet there was a large -section of the population which clung with blind obstinacy to the only -life it knew how to live.</p> -<p class="par">There was, for instance, George Gosling, more fortunate -in many respects than the average citizen, who clung desperately to his -house in Wisteria Grove until forced out of it by the lack of -water.</p> -<p class="par">On the ninth day after the first coming of the plague to -London—it appeared simultaneously in a dozen places and spread -with fearful rapidity—Gosling broke one of the great laws he had -hitherto observed with such admirable prudence. The offices and -warehouse in Barbican had been shut up (temporarily, it was supposed), -and the partners had disappeared from London. But Gosling had a -duplicate set of keys, and, inspired by the urgency of his -family’s need, he determined to dare a journey into the City in -order to <i>borrow</i> (he laid great stress on the word) a few -necessaries of life from the well-stored warehouse of his firm.</p> -<p class="par">In this scheme, planned with some shrewdness, he -co-operated with a friend, a fellow-sidesman at the Church of St John -the Evangelist. This friend was a coal merchant, and thus fortunately -circumstanced in the possession of wagons and horses.</p> -<p class="par">These two arranged the details of their borrowing -expedition between them. Economically, it was a deal on the lines of -the revived methods of exchange and barter. Gosling was willing to -exchange certain advantages of knowledge and possession for the hire of -wagons and horses. It was decided, for obvious <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb100" href="#pb100" name= -"pb100">100</a>]</span>reasons, to admit no other conspirator into the -plot, and Boost, the coal merchant, drove one cart and Gosling drove -the other. Perhaps it should rather be said that he led the other, for, -after a preliminary trial, he decided that he was safer at the -horses’ heads than behind their tails.</p> -<p class="par">The raid was conducted with perfect success. Boost had a -head for essentials. The invaluable loads of tinned meats, fruits and -vegetables were screened by tarpaulins from the possibly too envious -eyes of hungry passers-by—quite a number of vagrants were to be -seen in the streets on that day—and Boost and Gosling, disguised -in coal-begrimed garments, made the return journey lugubriously -calling, “Plague, plague,” the cry of the drivers of the -funeral carts which had even then become necessary. Their only checks -were the various applications they received for the cartage of corpses; -applications easily put on one side by pointing to the piled-up -carts—they had spent six laborious hours in packing them. -“No room; no room,” they cried, and on that day the -applicants who accosted Boost and Gosling were not the only ones who -had to wait for the disposal of their dead.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling arrived at Wisteria Grove, hot and outwardly -jubilant, albeit with a horrible fear lurking in his mind that he had -been in dangerous proximity to those tendered additions to his load. -His booty was stored in one of the downstairs rooms—with the -assistance of Mrs Gosling and the two girls they managed the unpacking -without interruption in two hours and a half—and then, with -boarded windows <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb101" href="#pb101" -name="pb101">101</a>]</span>and locked doors, the Goslings sat down to -await the passing of horror.</p> -<p class="par">Boost died of the plague forty-eight hours after the -great adventure, but as he had a wife and four daughters his plunder -was not wasted.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">2</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">For nearly a fortnight after the raid the Goslings -lay snug in their little house in Wisteria Grove, for they, in company -with the majority of English people at this time, had not yet fully -appreciated the fact that women were almost immune from infection. In -all, not more than eight per cent of the whole female population was -attacked, and of this proportion the mortality was almost exclusively -among women over fifty years of age. When the first faint rumours of -the plague had come to Europe, this curious, almost unprecedented, -immunity of women had been given considerable prominence. It had made -good copy, theories on the subject had appeared, and the point had -aroused more interest than that of the mortality among -males—infectious diseases were commonplace enough; this new phase -had a certain novelty and piquancy. But the threat of European -infection had overwhelmed the interest in the odd predilection of the -unknown bacterium, and the more vital question had thrown this -peculiarity into the background. Thus the Goslings and most other women -feared attack no less than their husbands, brothers and sons, and found -justification for their fears in the undoubted fact that women had died -of the plague. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb102" href="#pb102" name= -"pb102">102</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">The Goslings had always jogged along amiably enough; -their home life would have passed muster as a tolerably happy one. The -head of the family was out of the house from 8.15 a.m. to 7.15 p.m. -five days of the week, and it was only occasionally in the evening of -some long wet Sunday that there was any open bickering.</p> -<p class="par">Now, confinement in that little house, aggravated by -fear and by the absence of any interest or diversion coming from -outside, showed the family to one another in new aspects. Before two -days had passed the air was tense with the suppressed irritation of -these four people, held together by scarcely any tie other than that of -a conventional affection.</p> -<p class="par">By the third day the air was so heavily charged that -some explosion was inevitable. It came early in the morning.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling had run out of tobacco, and he thought in the -circumstances that it would be wiser to send Blanche or Millie than to -go himself. So, with an air of exaggerated carelessness, he said:</p> -<p class="par">“Look here, Millie, my gel, I wish you’d -just run out and see if you can get me any terbaccer.”</p> -<p class="par">“Not me,” replied Millie, with decision.</p> -<p class="par">“And why not?” asked Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">Millie shrugged her shoulders, and called her sister, -who was in the passage. “I say, B., father wants us to go out -shopping for him. Are you on?”</p> -<p class="par">Blanche, duster in hand, appeared at the doorway.</p> -<p class="par">“Why doesn’t he go himself?” she -asked.</p> -<p class="par">“Because,” replied her father, getting very -red, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb103" href="#pb103" name= -"pb103">103</a>]</span>and speaking with elaborate care, -“men’s subject to the infection and women is -not.”</p> -<p class="par">“That’s all my eye,” returned Millie. -“Lots of women have got it.”</p> -<p class="par">“It’s well known,” said Gosling, still -keeping himself in hand, “a matter of common knowledge, that -women is comparatively immune.”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, that’s a man’s yarn, that -is,” said Blanche, “just to save themselves. We all know -what men are—selfish brutes!”</p> -<p class="par">“Are you going to fetch me that terbaccer or are -you not?” shouted Mr Gosling suddenly.</p> -<p class="par">“No, we aren’t,” said Millie, -defiantly. “It isn’t safe for girls to go about the -streets, let alone the risk of infection.” She had heard her -father shout before, and she was not, as yet, at all intimidated.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, then, I say you are!” shouted her -father. “Lazy, good-for-nothing creatures, the pair of you! -’Oose paid for everything you’ve eat or drunk or wore ever -since you was born? An’ now you won’t even go an -errand.” Then, seeing the ready retort rising to his -daughters’ lips, he grew desperate, and, advancing a step towards -them, he said savagely: “If you don’t go, I’ll find a -way to make yer!”</p> -<p class="par">This was a new aspect, and the two girls were a little -frightened. Natural instinct prompted them to scream for their -mother.</p> -<p class="par">She had been listening at the top of the stairs, and she -answered the call for help with great promptitude.</p> -<p class="par">“You ought to be ashamed of yourself, -Gosling,” she said, on a high note. “The streets -isn’t safe for <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb104" href="#pb104" -name="pb104">104</a>]</span>gels, as you know well enough; and why -should my gels risk their lives for the sake of your nasty, dirty, -wasteful ’abit of smoking, I should like to know?”</p> -<p class="par">Gosling’s new-found courage was evaporating at the -attack of this third enemy. He had been incensed against his daughters, -but he had not yet overcome the habit of giving in to his wife, for the -sake of peace. She had managed him very capably for a quarter of a -century, but on the occasions when she had found it necessary to use -what she called the “rough side of her tongue” she had -demonstrated very clearly which of the two was master.</p> -<p class="par">“I should have thought I might ’a been -allowed a little terbaccer,” he said, resentfully. -“’Oo risked his life to lay in provisions, I should like to -know? An’ it’s a matter o’ common knowledge as women -is immune from this plague.”</p> -<p class="par">“And Mrs Carter, three doors off, carried out dead -of it the day before yesterday!” remarked Mrs Gosling, -triumphantly.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, ’ere and there, a case or two,” -replied her husband. “But not one woman to a thousand men gets -it, as every one knows.”</p> -<p class="par">“And how do you know I mightn’t be the -one?” asked Millie, bold now under her mother’s -protection.</p> -<p class="par">For that morning, the matter remained in abeyance; but -Gosling, muttering and grumbling, nursed his injury and meditated on -the fact that his daughters had been afraid of him. Things were altered -now. There was no convention to tie his <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb105" href="#pb105" name="pb105">105</a>]</span>hands. He would work -himself into a protective passion and defy the three of them. Also, -there was an unopened bottle of whisky in the sideboard.</p> -<p class="par">Nevertheless, he would have put off the trial of his -strength if he had had to seek an opportunity. He was, as yet, too -civilized to take the initiative in cold blood.</p> -<p class="par">The opportunity, however, soon presented itself in that -house. The air had been little cleared by the morning’s outbreak, -and before evening the real explosion came. A mere trifle originated -it—a warning from Gosling that their store of provisions would -not last for ever, and a sharp retort from Millie to the effect that -her father did not stint himself, followed by a reminder from Mrs -Gosling that the raid might be repeated.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! yes, you’d be willing enough for -<i>me</i> to die of the plague, I’ve no doubt!” broke out -Gosling. “<i>I</i> can walk six mile to get you pervisions, but -you can’t go to the corner of the street for my -terbaccer.”</p> -<p class="par">“Pervisions is necessary, terbaccer -ain’t,” said Mrs Gosling. She was not a clever woman. She -judged this to be the right opportunity to keep her husband in his -place, and relied implicitly on the quelling power of her tongue. Her -intuitions were those of the woman who had lived all her life in a -London suburb; they did not warn her that she was now dealing with a -specimen of half-decivilized humanity.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! ain’t it?” shouted Gosling, -getting to his feet. His face was purple, and his pale blue eyes were -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb106" href="#pb106" name= -"pb106">106</a>]</span>starting from his head. “I’ll soon -show you what’s necessary and what ain’t, and ’oose -master in this ’ouse. And <i>I</i> say terbaccer is necessary, -an’ what’s more, one o’ you three’s goin’ -to fetch it quick! D’ye -’ear—one—o’—you—three!”</p> -<p class="par">This inclusion of Mrs Gosling was, indeed, to declare -war.</p> -<p class="par">Millie and Blanche screamed and backed, but their mother -rose to the occasion. She did not reserve herself; she began on her top -note; but Gosling did not allow her to finish. He strode over to her -and shook her by the shoulders, shouting to drown her strident -recriminations. “’Old your tongue! ’old your -tongue!” he bawled, and shook her with increasing violence. He -was feeling his power, and when his wife crumpled up and fell to the -floor in shrieking hysterics, he still strode on to victory. Taking the -cowed and terrified Millie by the arm, he dragged her along the -passage, unlocked and opened the front door and pushed her out into the -street. “And don’t you come back without my -terbaccer!” he shouted.</p> -<p class="par">“How much?” quavered the shrinking -Millie.</p> -<p class="par">“’Alf-a-crown’s worth,” replied -Gosling fiercely, and tossed the coin down on the little tiled walk -that led up to the front door.</p> -<p class="par">After Millie had gone he stood at the door for a moment, -thankful for the coolness of the air on his heated face. “I got -to keep this up,” he murmured to himself, with his first thought -of wavering. Behind him he heard the sound of uncontrolled weeping and -little cries of the “first time in twenty-four <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb107" href="#pb107" name= -"pb107">107</a>]</span>years” and “what the -neighbours’ll think, I <i>don’t</i> know.”</p> -<p class="par">“Neighbours,” muttered Gosling, -contemptuously, “there aren’t any neighbours—not to -count.”</p> -<p class="par">A distant sound of slow wheels caught his ear. He -listened attentively, and there came to him the remote monotonous chant -of a dull voice crying: “Plague! Plague!”</p> -<p class="par">He stepped in quickly and closed the door.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">3</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Millie found the Kilburn High Road deserted. No -traffic of any kind was to be seen in the street, and the rare -foot-passengers, chiefly women, had all a furtive air. Starvation had -driven them out to raid. No easy matter, as Millie soon found, for all -shutters were down, and in many cases shop-fronts were additionally -protected by great sheets of strong hoarding.</p> -<p class="par">Millie, recovering from her fright, was growing -resentful. Her little conventional mind was greatly occupied by the -fact that she was out in the High Road wearing house-shoes without -heels, in an old print dress, and with no hat to hide the carelessness -of her hair-dressing. At the corner of Wisteria Grove she stopped and -tried to remedy this last defect; she had red hair, abundant and -difficult to control.</p> -<p class="par">The sight of the deserted High Road did not inspire her -with self-confidence; she still feared the possibility of meeting some -one who might recognize <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb108" href= -"#pb108" name="pb108">108</a>]</span>her. How could one account for -one’s presence in a London thoroughfare at seven o’clock on -a bright May evening in such attire? Certainly not by telling the -truth.</p> -<p class="par">The air was wonderfully clear. Coal was becoming very -scarce, and few fires had been lighted that day to belch forth their -burden of greasy filth into the atmosphere. The sun was sinking, and -Millie instinctively clung to the shadow of the pavement on the west -side of the road. She, too, slunk along with the evasive air that was -common to the few other pedestrians, the majority of them on this same -shadowed pavement. That warm, radiant light on the houses opposite -seemed to hold some horror for them.</p> -<p class="par">So preoccupied was Millie with her resentment that she -wandered for two or three hundred yards up the road without any -distinct idea of what she was seeking. When realization of the futility -of her search came to her, she stopped in the shadow of a doorway. -“What <i>is</i> the good of going on?” she argued. -“All the shops are shut up.” But the thought of her father -in his new aspect of muscular tyrant intimidated her. She dared not -return without accomplishing her errand. “I’ll have another -look, anyway,” she said; and then: “Who’d have -thought he was such a brute?” She rubbed the bruise on her arm; -her mouth was twisted into an ugly expression of spiteful resentment. -Her thoughts were busy with plans of revenge even as she turned to -prosecute her search for the tyrant’s tobacco. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb109" href="#pb109" name="pb109">109</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Here and there shops had been forcibly, burglariously -entered, plate-glass windows smashed, and interiors cleared of -everything eatable; the debris showed plainly enough that these rifled -shops had all belonged to grocers or provision merchants. Into each of -these ruins Millie stared curiously, hoping foolishly that she might -find what she sought. She ventured into one and carried away a box of -soap—they were running short of soap at home. A sense of moving -among accessible riches stirred within her, a desire for further -pillage.</p> -<p class="par">She came at last to a shop where the shutters were still -intact, but the door hung drunkenly on one hinge. A little fearfully -she peered in and discovered that fortune had been kind to her. The -shop had belonged to a tobacconist, and the contents were almost -untouched—there had been more crying needs to satisfy in the -households of raiders than the desire for tobacco.</p> -<p class="par">It was very dark inside, and for some seconds Millie -stared into what seemed absolute blackness, but as her eyes became -accustomed to the gloom, she saw the interior begin to take outline, -and when she moved a couple of steps into the place and allowed more -light to come in through the doorway, various tins, boxes and packets -in the shelves behind the counter were faintly distinguishable.</p> -<p class="par">Once inside, the spirit of plunder took hold of her, and -she began to take down boxes of cigars and cigarettes and packets of -tobacco, piling them up in a heap on the counter. But she had no basket -in which to carry the accumulation she was making, <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb110" href="#pb110" name="pb110">110</a>]</span>and -she was feeling under the counter for some box into which to put her -haul, when the shadows round her deepened again into almost absolute -darkness. Cautiously she peered up over the counter and saw the -silhouette of a woman standing in the doorway.</p> -<p class="par">For ten breathless seconds Millie hung motionless, her -eyes fixed on the apparition. She was very civilized still, and she was -suddenly conscious of committing a crime. She feared horribly lest the -figure in the doorway might discover Millicent Gosling stealing -tobacco. But the intruder, after recognizing the nature of the -shop’s contents, moved away with a sigh. Millie heard her -dragging footsteps shuffle past the window.</p> -<p class="par">That scare decided her movements. She hastily looped up -the front of her skirt, bundled into it as much plunder as she could -conveniently carry, and made her way out into the street again.</p> -<p class="par">She was nearly at the corner of Wisteria Grove before -she was molested, and then an elderly woman came suddenly out of a -doorway and laid a hand on Millie’s arm.</p> -<p class="par">“Whacher got?” asked the woman savagely.</p> -<p class="par">Millie, shrinking and terrified, displayed her -plunder.</p> -<p class="par">“Cigars,” muttered the woman. “Whacher -want with cigars?” She opened the boxes and stirred up the -contents of Millie’s improvised bundle in an eager search for -something to eat. “Gawd’s truth! yer must be crazy, yer -thievin’ little slut!” she grumbled, and pushed the girl -fiercely from her. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb111" href="#pb111" -name="pb111">111</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Millie made good her escape, dropping a box of cigars in -her flight. Her one thought now was the fear of meeting a policeman. In -three minutes she was beating fiercely on the door of the little house -in Wisteria Grove, and, disregarding her father’s exclamations of -pleased surprise when he let her in, she tumbled in a heap on to the -mat in the passage.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling’s first declaration of male superiority -had been splendidly successful.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">4</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">A few minutes after Millie’s return, Mrs -Gosling, red-eyed and timidly vicious, interrupted her husband’s -perfect enjoyment of the long-desired cigar by the announcement: -“The gas is off!”</p> -<p class="par">Gosling got up, struck a match, and held it to the -sitting-room burner. The match burned steadily. There was no pressure -even of air in the pipes.</p> -<p class="par">“Turned off at the meter!” snapped Gosling. -“’Ere, lemme go an’ see!” He spoke with the air -of the superior male, strong in his comprehension of the mechanical -artifices which so perplex the feminine mind. Mrs Gosling sniffed, and -stood aside to let him pass. She had already examined the meter.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, we got lamps!” snarled Gosling when -he returned. He had always preferred a lamp to read by in the -evening.</p> -<p class="par">“No oil,” returned Mrs Gosling, gloomily. -She’d teach him to shake her!</p> -<p class="par">Gosling meditated. His parochial mind was full -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb112" href="#pb112" name= -"pb112">112</a>]</span>of indignation. Vague thoughts of “getting -some one into trouble for this”—even of that last, -desperate act of coercion, writing to the papers about it—flitted -through his mind. Plainly something must be done. -“’Aven’t you got any candles?” he asked.</p> -<p class="par">“One or two. They won’t last long,” -replied his studiously patient partner.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, we’ll ’ave to use them to-night -and go to bed early,” was Gosling’s final judgment. His -wife left the room with a shrug of forbearing contempt.</p> -<p class="par">When she had gone, the head of the house went upstairs -and peered out into the street. The sun had set, and an unprecedented -mystery of darkness was falling over London. The globes of the tall -electric standards, catching a last reflection from the fading sky, -glimmered faintly, but were not illuminated from within by any fierce -glare of violet light. Darkness and silence enfolded the great dim -organism that sprawled its vast being over the earth. The spirit of -mystery caught Gosling in its spell. “All dark,” he -murmured, “and quiet! Lord! how still it is!” Even in his -own house there was silence. Downstairs, three injured, resentful women -were talking in whispers.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling, still sucking his cigar, stood entranced, -peering into the darkness; he had ventured so far as to throw up the -sash. “It’s the stillness of death!” he muttered. -Then he cocked his head on one side, for he caught the sound of distant -shouting. Somewhere in the Kilburn Road another raid was in -progress.</p> -<p class="par">“No light,” murmured Gosling, “and no -fire!” <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb113" href="#pb113" name= -"pb113">113</a>]</span>An immediate association suggested itself. -“By gosh! and no <i>water</i>!” he added. For some seconds -he contemplated with fearful awe the failure of the great essential of -life.</p> -<p class="par">In the cistern room he was reassured by the sound of a -delicious trickle from the ball-cock. “Still going,” he -said to himself; “but we’ll ’ave to be careful. -Surely they’ll keep the water goin’, though; whatever -’appens, they’d surely keep the water on?”</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">5</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Nothing but the failure of the water could have -driven them from Wisteria Grove. Half-a-dozen times every day Gosling -would climb up to the top of the house to reassure himself. And at last -came the day when a dreadful silence reigned under the slates, when no -delicious tinkle of water gave promise of maintained security from -water famine.</p> -<p class="par">“It’ll come on again at night,” said -Gosling to himself. “We’ll ’ave to be careful, -that’s all.”</p> -<p class="par">He went downstairs and issued orders that no more water -was to be drawn that day.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, we must wash up the breakfast -things,” was his wife’s reply.</p> -<p class="par">“You mustn’t wash up nothing,” said -Gosling, “not one blessed thing. It’s better to go dirty -than die o’ thirst. Hevery drop o’ the water in that -cistern must be saved for drinkin’.”</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling noisily put down the kettle she was holding. -“Oh! very well, my lord!” she remarked, sarcastically. She -looked at her two daughters with <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb114" -href="#pb114" name="pb114">114</a>]</span>a twist of her mouth. There -were only two sides in that house; the women were as yet united against -the common foe.</p> -<p class="par">When Gosling, fatuously convinced of his authority, had -gone, his wife quietly filled the kettle and proceeded with her washing -up.</p> -<p class="par">“Your father thinks ’e knows everything -these days,” remarked the mother to her allies.</p> -<p class="par">There was much whispering for some time.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling spent most of the day in the roof, but not until -the afternoon did he realize that the cistern was slowly being emptied. -His first thought was that one of the pipes leaked, his second that it -was time to make a demonstration of force. He found a walking-stick in -the hall....</p> -<p class="par">But even when that precious half-cistern of water was -only called upon to supply the needs of thirst, and the Goslings, -sinking further into the degradation of savagedom, slunk furtive and -filthy about the gloomy house, it became evident that a move must be -made sooner or later. Two alternatives were presented: they might go -north and east to the Lea, or south to the Thames.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling chose the South. He knew Putney; he had been -born there. He knew nothing of Clapton and its neighbourhood.</p> -<p class="par">So one bright, clear day at the end of May, the Goslings -set out on their great trek. The head of the house, driven desperate by -fear of thirst, raided his late partner’s coal sheds and found -one living horse and several dead ones. The living horse was partly -revived by water from an adjacent butt, and the <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb115" href="#pb115" name="pb115">115</a>]</span>next -day it was harnessed to a coal cart and commandeered to convey the -Goslings’ provisions to Putney. It died half-a-mile short of -their destination, but they were able, by the exercise of their united -strength, to get the cart and its burden down to the river.</p> -<p class="par">They found an empty house without difficulty, but they -had an unpleasant half-hour in removing what remained of one of the -previous occupants. Gosling hoped it was not a case of plague. As the -body was that of a woman, and terribly emaciated, there were some -grounds for his optimism.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling was in a state of some bewilderment. When water -had been fetched in buckets from the river, and the three women had -explored, criticized and sniffed over their new home somewhat in the -manner of strange cats, the head of the house settled down to a cigar -and a careful consideration of his perplexities.</p> -<p class="par">In the first place, he wondered why those horses of -Boost’s had not been used for food; in the second, he wondered -why he had not seen a single man during the whole of the long trek from -Brondesbury to Putney. By degrees an unbelievable explanation presented -itself: no men were left. He remembered that the few needy-looking -women he had seen had looked at him curiously; in retrospect he fancied -their regard had had some quality of amazement. Gosling scratched the -bristles of his ten-days’-old beard and smoked thoughtfully. He -almost regretted that he had stared so fiercely and threateningly at -every chance woman they had seen; he <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb116" href="#pb116" name="pb116">116</a>]</span>might have got some -news. But the whole journey had been conducted in a spirit of fear; -they had been defending their food, their lives; they had been -primitive creatures ready to fight desperately at the smallest -provocation.</p> -<p class="par">“No man left,” said Gosling to himself, and -was not convinced. If that indeed were the solution of his perplexity, -he was faced with an awful corollary; his own time would come. He -thought of Barbican, E.C., of Flack, of Messrs Barker and Prince, of -the office staff, and the office itself. He had not been able to rid -his mind of the idea that in a few weeks he would be back in the City -again. He had several times rehearsed his surprise when he should be -told of the depredations in the warehouse; he had wondered only -yesterday if he dared go to the office in his beard.</p> -<p class="par">But to-night the change of circumstance, the breaking up -of old associations, was opening his eyes to new horizons. There might -never be an office again for him to go to. If he survived—and he -was distinctly hopeful on that score—he might be almost the only -man left in London; there might not be more than a few thousand in the -whole of England, in Europe....</p> -<p class="par">For a time he dwelt on this fantastic vision. Who would -do the work? What work would there be to do?</p> -<p class="par">“Got to get food,” murmured Gosling, and -wondered vaguely how food was “got” when there were no -shops, no warehouses, no foreign agents. His mind turned chiefly to -meat, since that had <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb117" href="#pb117" -name="pb117">117</a>]</span>been his trade. “’Ave to rear -sheep and cattle, I suppose,” said Gosling. As an afterthought he -added: “An’ grow wheat.”</p> -<p class="par">He sighed heavily. He realized that he had no knowledge -on the subject of rearing cattle and growing wheat; he also realized -that he was craving for ordinary food again—milk, eggs, and fresh -vegetables. He had a nasty-looking place on his leg which he rightly -attributed to unwholesome diet.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">6</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">After forty-eight hours’ residence in the -new house, Gosling began to pluck up his courage and to dare the perils -of the streets. He was beginning to have faith in his luck, to believe -that the plague had passed away and left him untouched.</p> -<p class="par">And as day succeeded day he ventured further afield; he -went in search of milk, eggs and vegetables, but he only found young -nettles, which he brought home and helped to eat when they had been -boiled over a wood fire. They were all glad to eat nettles, and were -the better for them. Occasionally he met women on these excursions, and -stayed to talk to them. Always they had the same tale to -tell—their men were dead, and themselves dying of starvation.</p> -<p class="par">One day at the beginning of June he went as far as -Petersham, and there at the door of a farmhouse he saw a fine, tall -young woman. She was such a contrast to the women he usually met on his -expeditions that he paused and regarded her with curiosity. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb118" href="#pb118" name= -"pb118">118</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“What do <i>you</i> want?” asked the young -woman, suspiciously.</p> -<p class="par">“I suppose you ’aven’t any milk or -butter or eggs to sell?” asked Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“Sell?” echoed the girl, contemptuously. -“What ’ave you got to give us as is worth food?”</p> -<p class="par">“Well, money,” replied Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“Money!” came the echo again. -“What’s the good of money when there’s nothing to buy -with it? I wouldn’t sell you eggs at a pound apiece.”</p> -<p class="par">Gosling scratched his beard—it looked quite like a -beard by this time. “Rum go, ain’t it?” he asked, and -smiled.</p> -<p class="par">His new acquaintance looked him up and down, and then -smiled in return, “You’re right,” she said. -“You’re the first man I’ve seen since father died, a -month back.”</p> -<p class="par">“’Oo’s livin’ with you?” -asked Gosling, pointing to the house.</p> -<p class="par">“Mother and sister, that’s all.”</p> -<p class="par">“’Ard work for you to get a livin’, I -suppose?”</p> -<p class="par">“So, so. We’re used to farm-work. The -trouble’s to keep the other women off.”</p> -<p class="par">“Ah!” replied Gosling reflectively, and the -two looked at one another again.</p> -<p class="par">“You ’ungry?” asked the girl.</p> -<p class="par">“Not to speak of,” replied Gosling. -“But I’m fair pinin’ for a change o’ diet. Been -livin’ on tinned things for five weeks or more.”</p> -<p class="par">“Come in and have an egg,” said the -girl.</p> -<p class="par">“Thank you,” said Gosling, “I will, -with pleasure.” <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb119" href= -"#pb119" name="pb119">119</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">They grew friendly over that meal—two eggs and a -glass of milk. He ate the eggs with butter, but there was no bread. It -seemed that the young woman’s mother and sister were at work on -the farm, but that one of them had always to stay at home and keep -guard.</p> -<p class="par">They discussed the great change that had come over -England, and wondered what would be the end of it; and after a little -time, Gosling began to look at the girl with a new expression in his -pale blue eyes.</p> -<p class="par">“Ah! Hevrything’s changed,” he said. -“Nothin’ won’t be the same any more, as far as we can -see. There’s no neighbours now, f’rinstance, and no talk of -what’s going on—or anythin’.”</p> -<p class="par">The girl looked at him thoughtfully. “What we miss -is some man to look after the place,” she said. -“We’re robbed terrible.”</p> -<p class="par">Gosling had not meant to go as far as that. He was not -unprepared for a pleasant flirtation, now that there were no neighbours -to report him at home, but the idea that he could ever separate himself -permanently from his family had not occurred to him.</p> -<p class="par">“Yes,” he said, “you want a man about -these days.”</p> -<p class="par">“Ever done any farm work?” asked the -girl.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling shook his head.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, you’d soon learn,” she went -on.</p> -<p class="par">“I must think it over,” said Gosling -suddenly. “Shall you be ’ere to-morrow?”</p> -<p class="par">“One of us will,” said the girl.</p> -<p class="par">“Ah! but shall <i>you</i>?” <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb120" href="#pb120" name="pb120">120</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Why me?”</p> -<p class="par">“Well, I’ve took a fancy to you.”</p> -<p class="par">“Very kind of you, I’m sure,” said the -girl, and laughed.</p> -<p class="par">Gosling kissed her before he left.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">7</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">He returned the next afternoon and helped to cut -and stack sainfoin, and afterwards he watched the young woman milk the -cows. It was so late by the time everything was finished that he was -persuaded to stay the night.</p> -<p class="par">In the new Putney house three women wondered what had -happened to “father.” They grew increasingly anxious for -some days, and even tried in a feeble way to search for him. By the end -of the week they accepted the theory that he too had died of the -plague.</p> -<p class="par">They never saw him again. <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb121" href="#pb121" name="pb121">121</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch10" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="divNum">X—</span>EXODUS</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">1</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">In West Hampstead a Jewess, who had once been fat, -looked out of the windows of her gaudy house. She was partly dressed in -a garish silk negligé. Her face was exceedingly dirty, but the -limp, pallid flesh was revealed in those places where she had wiped -away her abundant tears. Her body was bruised and stiff, for in a -recent raid on a house suspected of containing provisions she had been -hardly used by her sister women. She had made the mistake of going out -too well dressed; she had imagined that expensive clothes would command -respect....</p> -<p class="par">As she looked out she wept again, bewailing her misery. -From her earliest youth she had been pampered and spoilt. She had -learnt that marriage was her sole object in life, and she had sold -herself at a very respectable price. She had received the applause and -favour of her family for marrying the man she had chosen as most likely -to provide her with the luxury which she regarded as her -birth-right.</p> -<p class="par">Two days ago she had cooked and eaten the absurdly -expensive but diminutive dog upon which she had lavished the only love -of which she had been capable. She had wept continuously as she ate her -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb122" href="#pb122" name= -"pb122">122</a>]</span>idol, but for the first time she had regretted -his littleness.</p> -<p class="par">Hunger and thirst were driving her out of the house of -which she had been so vain; the primitive pains were awakening in her -primitive instincts that had never stirred before. From her window she -could see naught but endless streets of brick, stone and asphalt, but -beyond that dry, hot, wilderness she knew there were fields—she -had seen them out of the corner of her eye when she had motored to -Brighton. Fields had never been associated in her mind with food until -the strange new stirring of that unsuspected instinct. Food for her -meant shops. One went to shops and bought food and bought the best at -the lowest price possible. With all her pride of position, she had -never hesitated to haggle with shopkeepers. And when the first pinch -had come, when her husband had selfishly died of the plague, and her -household had deserted her, it was to the shops she had gone, -autocratically demanding her rights. She had learned by experience now -that she had no longer any rights.</p> -<p class="par">She dressed herself in her least-conspicuous clothes, -dabbed her face with powder to cover some of the dirt—there was -no water, and in any case she did not feel inclined to -wash—carefully stowed away all her money and the best of her -jewels in a small leather bag, and set out to find the country where -food grew out of the ground.</p> -<p class="par">Instinct set her face to the north. She took the road -towards Hendon.... <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb123" href="#pb123" -name="pb123">123</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">2</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">In every quarter of London, in every great town -and city throughout Europe, women were setting their faces towards the -country.</p> -<p class="par">By the autumn London was empty. The fallen leaves in -park squares and suburban streets were swept into corners by the wind, -and when the rain came the leaves clung together and rotted, and so -continued the long routine of decay and birth.</p> -<p class="par">When spring came again, Nature returned with delicate, -strong hands to claim her own. For hundreds of years she had been -defied in the heart of this great, hard, stone place. Her little -tentative efforts had been rudely repulsed, no tender thread of grass -had been allowed to flourish for an hour under the feet of the crushing -multitude. Yet she had fought with a steady persistence that never -relaxed a moment’s effort. Whenever men had given her a -moment’s opportunity, even in the very heart of that city of -burning struggle, she had covered the loathed sterility with grass and -flowers, dandelions, charlock, grounsel and other life that men call -weeds.</p> -<p class="par">Now, when her full opportunity came, she set to work in -her slow, patient way to wreck and cover the defilement of earth. Her -winds swept dust into every corner, and her rain turned it into a -shallow bed of soil, ready to receive and nurture the tiny seeds that -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb124" href="#pb124" name= -"pb124">124</a>]</span>sailed on little feathered wings, or were -carried by bird and insect to some quiet refuge in which they might -renew life, and, dying, add fertility to the mother who had brought -them forth.</p> -<p class="par">Nature came, also, with her hurricanes, her lightnings -and her frosts, to rend and destroy. She stripped slates from roofs, -thrust out gables and overturned solid walls. She came with fungi to -undermine and with the seeds of trees to split asunder.</p> -<p class="par">She asked for but a few hundred years of patient, -continuous work in order to make of London once more a garden; where -the nightingale might sing in Oxford Street and the children of a new -race pluck sweet wild flowers over the site of the Bank of -England....</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">3</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The spirit of London had gone out of her, and her -body was crumbling and rotting. There was no life in all that vast -sprawl of bricks and mortar; the very dogs and cats, deserted by -humanity, left her to seek their only food, to seek those other living -things which were their natural quarry.</p> -<p class="par">In her prime, London had been the chief city of the -world. Men and women spoke of her as an entity, wrote of her as of a -personality, loved her as a friend. This aggregate of streets and -parks, this strange confusion of wealth and squalor, had stood to men -and women for something definitely lovable. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb125" href="#pb125" name="pb125">125</a>]</span>It -was not her population they loved, not the polyglot crowd that swarmed -in her streets, but she herself and all the beauty and intoxication of -life she had gathered into her embrace.</p> -<p class="par">Now she was dead. Whatever fine qualities she had -possessed, whatever vices, had gone from her. She sprawled in all her -naked ugliness, a huge corpse rotting among the hills, awaiting the -slow burial which Nature was tediously preparing.</p> -<p class="par">All those wonderful buildings, the great emporiums in -the West End, the magnificent banks and insurance offices, museums and -picture galleries, regarded as the storehouses of incalculable wealth, -vast hotels, palatial private residences, the thundering railway -termini, Government offices, Houses of Parliament, theatres, churches -and cathedrals, all had become meaningless symbols. All had represented -some activity, some ambition of man, and man had fled to the country -for food, leaving behind the worthless tokens of wealth that had -intrigued him for so many centuries.</p> -<p class="par">Gold and silver grew tarnished in huge safes that none -wished to rifle, banknotes became mildewed, damp and fungus crept into -the museums and picture galleries, and in the whole of Great Britain -there was none to grieve. Every living man and woman was back at the -work of their ancestors, praying once more to Ceres or Demeter, working -with bent back to produce the first essentials of life.</p> -<p class="par">Each individual must produce until such time as there -was once more a superfluity, until barns were filled and wealth -re-created, until the strong had <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb126" -href="#pb126" name="pb126">126</a>]</span>seized from the weak and -demanded labour in return for the use of the stolen instrument, until -civilization had sprung anew from the soil.</p> -<p class="par">Meanwhile London was not a city of the dead, but a dead -city. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb127" href="#pb127" name= -"pb127">127</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="bk2" class="div0 book"> -<h2 class="label">BOOK II</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE MARCH OF THE GOSLINGS</h2> -<p><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb129" href="#pb129" name= -"pb129">129</a>]</span></p> -<div id="ch11" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="divNum">XI—</span>THE SILENT -CITY</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">1</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">July came in with temperate heat and occasional -showers, ideal weather for the crops; for all the precious growths -which must ripen before the famine could be stayed. The sudden stoppage -of all imports, and the flight of the great urban population into the -country, had demonstrated beyond all question the poverty of -England’s resources of food supply, and the demonstration was to -prove of value although there was no economist left to theorize. -England was once again an independent unit, and no longer a member of a -great world-body. Indeed England was being subdivided. The unit of -organization was shrinking with amazing rapidity. The necessity for -concentration grew with every week that passed, the fluidity of the -superfluous labour was being resolved by death from starvation. The -women who wandered from one farm to the next died by the way.</p> -<p class="par">In the Putney house, Mrs Gosling and her daughters were -faced by the failure of their food supply. The older woman had little -initiative. She was a true Londoner. Her training and all the -circumstances of her life had narrowed her imaginative grasp till she -was only able to comprehend one issue. And as yet her daughters, and -more particularly Millie, were so <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb130" -href="#pb130" name="pb130">130</a>]</span>influenced by their -mother’s thought that they, also, had shown little evidence of -adaptability to the changed conditions.</p> -<p class="par">“We shall ’ave to be careful,” was Mrs -Gosling’s first expression of the necessity for looking to the -future. She had arranged the bulk of her stores neatly in one room on -the second floor, and although a goodly array of tins still faced her -she experienced a miserly shrinking from any diminishment of their -numbers. Moreover, she had long been without such necessities as flour. -Barker and Prince had not dealt in flour.</p> -<p class="par">Returning from her daily inspection one morning in the -second week of July, Mrs Gosling decided that something must be done at -once. Fear of the plague was almost dead, but fear of invasion by -starving women had kept them all close prisoners. That house was a -fortress.</p> -<p class="par">“Look ’ere, gels,” said Mrs Gosling -when she came downstairs. “Somethin’ ’ll ’ave -to be done.”</p> -<p class="par">Blanche looked thoughtful. Her own mind had already -begun to work on that great problem of their future. Millie, lazy and -indifferent, shrugged her shoulders and replied: “All very well, -mother, but what <i>can</i> we do?”</p> -<p class="par">“Well, I been thinking as it’s very likely -as things ain’t so bad in some places as they are just about -’ere,” said Mrs Gosling. “We got plenty o’ -money left, and it seems to me as two of us ’ad better go out and -’ave a look about, London way. One of us could look after the -’ouse easy enough, now. We ’aven’t ’ardly seen -a soul about the past fortnight.” <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb131" href="#pb131" name="pb131">131</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">The suggestion brought a gleam of hope to Blanche. She -visualized the London she had known. It might be that in the heart of -the town, business had begun again, that shops were open and people at -work. It might be that she could find work there. She was longing for -the sight and movement of life, after these two awful months of -isolation.</p> -<p class="par">“I’m on,” she said briskly. “Me -and Millie had better go, mother, we can walk farther. You can lock up -after us and you needn’t open the door to anyone. Are you on, -Mill?”</p> -<p class="par">“We must make ourselves look a bit more decent -first,” said Millie, glancing at the mirror over the -mantelpiece.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, of course,” returned Blanche, -“we brought one box of clothes with us.”</p> -<p class="par">They spent some minutes in discussing the resources of -their wardrobe.</p> -<p class="par">“Come to the worst we could fetch some more things -from Wisteria. I don’t suppose anyone has touched -’em,” suggested Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">At the mention of the house in Wisteria Grove, Mrs -Gosling sighed noticeably. She was by no means satisfied with the place -at Putney, and she could not rid herself of the idea that there must be -accessible gas and water in Kilburn, as there had always been.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, you might go up there one day and -’ave a look at the place,” she put in. “It’s -quite likely they’ve got things goin’ again up -there.”</p> -<p class="par">In less than an hour Blanche and Millie had made -themselves presentable. Life had begun to stir again in humanity. The -atmosphere of horror which the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb132" -href="#pb132" name="pb132">132</a>]</span>plague had brought was being -lifted. It was as if the dead germs had filled the air with an -invisible, impalpable dust, that had exercised a strange power of -depression. The spirit of death had hung over the whole world and -paralyzed all activity. Now the dust was dispersing. The spirit was -withdrawing to the unknown deeps from which it had come.</p> -<p class="par">“It is nice to feel decent again,” said -Blanche. She lifted her head and threw back her shoulders.</p> -<p class="par">Millie was preening herself before the glass.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, I’m sure you <i>’ave</i> made -yourselves look smart,” said their mother with a touch of pride. -“They were good girls,” she reflected, “if there had -been more than a bit of temper shown lately. But, then, who could have -helped themselves? It had been a terrible time.”</p> -<p class="par">The July sun was shining brilliantly as the two young -women, presentable enough to attend morning service at the Church of St -John the Evangelist, Kilburn, set out to exhibit their charms and to -buy food in the dead city.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">2</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">They crossed Putney Bridge and made their way -towards Hammersmith.</p> -<p class="par">The air was miraculously clear. The detail of the -streets was so sharp and bright that it was as if they saw with -wonderfully renewed and sensitive eyes. The phenomenon produced a sense -of exhilaration. They <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb133" href= -"#pb133" name="pb133">133</a>]</span>were conscious of quickened -emotion, of a sensation of physical well-being.</p> -<p class="par">“Isn’t it <i>clean</i>?” said -Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">“H’m! Funny!” returned Millie. -“Like those photographs of foreign places.”</p> -<p class="par">Under their feet was an accumulation of sharp, dry dust, -detritus of stone, asphalt and steel. In corners where the fugitive -rubbish had found refuge from the driving wind, the dust had -accumulated in flat mounds, broken by scraps of paper or the torn flag -of some rain-soaked poster that gave an untidy air of human refuse. -Across the open way of certain roads the dust lay in a waved pattern of -nearly parallel lines, like the ridged sand of the foreshore.</p> -<p class="par">For some time they kept to the pavements from force of -habit.</p> -<p class="par">“I say, Mill, don’t you feel -adventurous?” asked Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">Millie looked dissatisfied. “It’s so lonely, -B.,” was her expression of feeling.</p> -<p class="par">“Never had London all to myself before,” -said Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">Near Hammersmith Broadway they saw a tram standing on -the rails. Its thin tentacle still clung to the overhead wire that had -once given it life, as if it waited there patiently hoping for a -renewal of the exhilarating current.</p> -<p class="par">Almost unconsciously Blanche and Millie quickened their -pace. Perhaps this was the outermost dying ripple of life, the furthest -outpost of the new activity that was springing up in central -London.</p> -<p class="par">But the tram was guarded by something that in -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb134" href="#pb134" name= -"pb134">134</a>]</span>the hot, still air seemed to surround it with an -almost visible mist.</p> -<p class="par">“Eugh!” ejaculated Millie and shrank back. -“Don’t go, Blanche. It’s awful!”</p> -<p class="par">Blanche’s hand also had leapt to her face, but she -took a few steps forward and peered into the sunlit case of steel and -glass. She saw a heap of clothes about the framework of a grotesquely -jointed scarecrow, and the gleam of something round, smooth and -white.</p> -<p class="par">She screamed faintly, and a filthy dog crept, with a -thin yelp, from under the seat and came to the door of the tram. For a -moment it stood there with an air that was half placatory, wrinkling -its nose and feebly raising a stump of propitiatory tail, then, with -another protesting yelp, it crept back, furtive and ashamed, to its -unlawful meat.</p> -<p class="par">The two girls, handkerchief to nose, hurried by -breathless, with bent heads. A little past Hammersmith Broadway they -had their first sight of human life. Two gaunt faces looked out at them -from an upper window. Blanche waved her hand, but the women in the -house, half-wondering, half-fearful, at the strange sight of these two -fancifully dressed girls, shook their heads and drew back. Doubtless -there was some secret hoard of food in that house and the inmates -feared the demands of charity.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, we aren’t quite the last, -anyway,” commented Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">“What were they afraid of?” asked -Millie.</p> -<p class="par">“Thought we wanted to cadge, I expect,” -suggested Blanche. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb135" href="#pb135" -name="pb135">135</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Mean things,” was her sister’s -comment.</p> -<p class="par">“Well! <i>we</i> weren’t so over-anxious to -have visitors,” Blanche reminded her.</p> -<p class="par">“<i>We</i> didn’t want their beastly -food,” complained the affronted Millie.</p> -<p class="par">The shops in Hammersmith did not offer much inducement -to exploration. Some were still closely shuttered, others presented -goods that offered no temptation, such as hardware; but the majority -had already been pillaged and devastated. Most of that work had been -done in the early days of the plague when panic had reigned, and many -men were left to lead the raids on the preserves of food.</p> -<p class="par">Only one great line of shuttered fronts induced the two -girls to pause.</p> -<p class="par">“No need to go to Wisteria for clothes,” -suggested Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">“How could we get in?” asked Millie.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! get in some way easy enough.”</p> -<p class="par">“It’s stealing,” said Millie, and -thought of her raid on the Kilburn tobacconist’s.</p> -<p class="par">“You can’t steal from dead people,” -explained Blanche; “besides, who’ll have the things if we -don’t?”</p> -<p class="par">“I suppose it’d be all right,” -hesitated Millie, obviously tempted.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, of course,” returned Blanche and -paused. “I say, Mill,” she burst out suddenly. -“There’s all the West-end to choose from. Come -on!”</p> -<p class="par">For a time they walked more quickly.</p> -<p class="par">In Kensington High Street they had an adventure. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb136" href="#pb136" name= -"pb136">136</a>]</span>They saw a woman decked in gorgeous silks, -strung and studded with jewels from head to foot. She walked with a -slow and flaunting step, gesticulating, and talking. Every now and -again she would pause and draw herself up with an affectation of -immense dignity, finger the ropes of jewels at her breast, and make a -slow gesture with her hands.</p> -<p class="par">“She’s mad,” whispered Blanche, and -the two girls, terrified and trembling, hastily took refuge in a great -square cave full of litter and refuse that had once been a -grocer’s shop.</p> -<p class="par">The woman passed their hiding-place in her stately -progress westward without giving any sign that she was conscious of -their presence. When she was nearly opposite to them she made one of -her stately pauses. “Queen of all the Earth,” they heard -her say, “Queen and Empress. Queen of the Earth.” Her hand -went up to her head and touched a strange collection of jewels pinned -in her hair, of tiaras and brooches that flashed brighter than the high -lights of the brilliant sun. One carelessly fastened brooch fell and -she pushed it aside with her foot. “You understand,” she -said in her high, wavering voice, “you understand, Queen and -Empress, Queen of the Earth.”</p> -<p class="par">They heard the refrain of her gratified ambition -repeated as she moved slowly away.</p> -<p class="par">A long submerged memory rose to the threshold of -Millie’s mind. “Thieving slut,” she murmured. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb137" href="#pb137" name= -"pb137">137</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">3</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">As they came nearer to representative London the -signs of deserted traffic were more numerous. By the Albert Memorial -they saw an overturned motor-bus which had smashed into the park -railings, and a little further on were two more buses, one standing -decently at the curb, the other sprawling across the middle of the -road. The wheels of both were axle deep in the dust which had blown -against them, and out of the dust a few weak threads of grass were -sprouting. There were other vehicles, too, cabs, lorries and carts: not -a great number altogether, but even the fifty or so which the girls saw -between Kensington and Knightsbridge offered sufficient testimony to -the awful rapidity with which the plague had spread. For it seems -probable that in the majority of cases the drivers of these deserted -vehicles must have been attacked by the first agonizing pains at the -base of the skull while they were actually employed in driving their -machines. There were few skeletons to be seen. The lull which -intervened between the first unmistakable symptoms of the plague and -the oncoming of the paralysis had given men time to obey their instinct -to die in seclusion, the old instinct so little altered by -civilization. Those vestiges of humanity which remained had, for the -most part, been cleansed by the processes of Nature, but twice the -girls disturbed a horrible cloud of blue flies which rose with an angry -buzzing so loud that the girls screamed and ran, leaving the scavengers -to swoop eagerly back upon <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb138" href= -"#pb138" name="pb138">138</a>]</span>their carrion. Doubtless the thing -in the Hammersmith tram had been the body of a woman, recently-dead -from starvation. Even from the houses there was now little -exhalation.</p> -<p class="par">In Knightsbridge, a little past the top of Sloane -Street, Blanche and Millie came to a shop which diverted them from -their exploration for a time. Most of the huge rolling shutters had -been pulled down and secured, but one had stopped half way, and, -beyond, the great plate-glass windows were uncovered. One of ten -million tragedies had descended swiftly to interrupt the closing of -that immense place, and some combination of circumstances had followed -to prevent the completion of the work. The imaginative might stop to -speculate on the mystery of that half-closed shutter; the two Goslings -stopped to admire the wonders behind the glass.</p> -<p class="par">For a time the desolation and silence of London were -forgotten. In imagination Blanche and Millie were once again units in -the vast crowd of antagonists striving valiantly to win some prize in -the great competition between the boast of wealth and the pathetic -endeavour of make-believe.</p> -<p class="par">They stayed to gaze at the “creations” -behind the windows, at dummies draped in costly fabrics such as they -had only dreamed of wearing. The silks, satins and velvets were -whitened now with the thin snow of dust that had fallen upon them, but -to Blanche and Millie they appeared still as wonders of beauty.</p> -<p class="par">For a minute or two they criticized the models. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb139" href="#pb139" name= -"pb139">139</a>]</span>They spoke at first in low voices, for the deep -stillness of London held them in unconscious awe, but as they became -lost in the fascination of their subject they forgot their fear. And -then they looked at one another a little guiltily.</p> -<p class="par">“No harm in seeing if the door’s locked, -anyway,” said Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">Millie looked over her shoulder and saw no movement in -the frozen streets, save the sweep of one exploring swallow. Even the -sparrows had deserted the streets. She did not reply in words, but -signified her agreement of thought by a movement towards the -entrance.</p> -<p class="par">The swing doors were not fastened, and they entered -stealthily.</p> -<p class="par">They began with the touch of appraising fingers, -wandering from room to room. But most of the rooms on the ground floor -were darkened by the drawn shutters, and no glow of light came in -response to the clicking of the electric switches that they -experimented with with persistent futility. So they adventured into the -clearly lit rooms upstairs and experienced a fallacious sense of -security in the knowledge that they were on the floor above the -street.</p> -<p class="par">Fingering gave place to still closer inspection. They -lifted the models from the stands and shook them out. They held up -gorgeous robes in front of their own suburban dresses and admired each -other and themselves in the numerous cheval glasses.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! bother!” exclaimed Blanche at last, -“I’m going to try on.”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! B.” expostulated the more timid Millie. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb140" href="#pb140" name= -"pb140">140</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Well! why to goodness not?” asked her elder -sister. “Who’s to be any the wiser?”</p> -<p class="par">“Seems wrong, somehow,” replied Millie, -unable to shake off the conventions which had so long served her as -conscience.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, I am,” said Blanche, and retired into -a little side room to divest herself of her own dress. She had always -shared a bedroom with her sister, and they observed few modesties -before each other, but Blanche was mentally incapable of changing her -dress in the broad avenues of that extensive show-room. It is true that -the tall casement windows were wide open and the place was completely -overlooked by the massive buildings opposite, but even if the windows -had been screened she would not have changed her skirt in the publicity -of that open place, though every human being in the world were -dead.</p> -<p class="par">When she emerged from her dressing-room she was -transformed indeed. She went over to her still hesitating sister.</p> -<p class="par">“Do me up, Mill,” she said.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche had chosen well; the fine cloth walking dress -admirably fitted her well-developed young figure. When she had -discarded her hat and touched up her hair before the glass, only her -boots and her hands remained to spoil the disguise. Well gloved and -well shod, she might have passed down the Bond Street of the old -London, and few women and no man would have known that she had not -sprung from the ruling classes.</p> -<p class="par">She posed. She stepped back from the mirror and -half-unconsciously fell to imitating the manners of <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb141" href="#pb141" name="pb141">141</a>]</span>the -revered aristocracy she had respectfully studied from a distance.</p> -<p class="par">In a few minutes she was joined by Millie, also arrayed -in peacock’s feathers and anxious to be -“fastened.”</p> -<p class="par">Their excitement increased. Walking dresses gave place -to evening gowns. They lost their sense of fear and ran into other -departments searching for long white gloves to hide the disfigurements -of household work. They paraded and bowed to each other. The climax -came when they discovered a Court dress, immensely trained, and -embroidered with gold thread, laid by with evidences of tenderest care -in endless wrappings of tissue paper. Surely the dress of some elegant -young duchess!</p> -<p class="par">For a moment they wrangled, but Blanche triumphed. -“You shall have it afterwards,” she said, as she ran to her -dressing-room.</p> -<p class="par">Millie followed in an elaborate gown of Indian silk; a -somewhat sulky Millie, inclined to resent her duty of lady’s -maid. She dragged disrespectfully at the innumerable fastenings.</p> -<p class="par">“My!” ejaculated Blanche when she could -indulge herself in the glory of full examination before a cheval glass -in the open show-room. She struggled with her train and when she had -arranged it to her satisfaction, threw back her shoulders and lifted -her chin haughtily.</p> -<p class="par">“I ought to have some diamonds,” she -reflected.</p> -<p class="par">“It drags round the hips,” was -Millie’s criticism.</p> -<p class="par">“You should say ‘Your Majesty,’” -corrected Blanche. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb142" href="#pb142" -name="pb142">142</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Oh! a Queen, are you?” asked Millie.</p> -<p class="par">“Rather——”</p> -<p class="par">“Queen of all the Earth,” sneered -Millie.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche’s face suddenly fell. “I wonder if -she began like this,” she said, and a note of fear had come into -her voice.</p> -<p class="par">Millie’s eyes reflected her sister’s -alarm.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! let’s get out of this, B.,” she -said, and began to tear at the neck of her Indian silk gown.</p> -<p class="par">“I wanted diamonds, too,” persisted -Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! B., it <i>isn’t</i> right,” said -Millie. “I said it wasn’t right and you <i>would</i> -come.”</p> -<p class="par">Silence descended upon them for a moment, and then both -sisters suddenly screamed and ducked, putting up their hands to their -heads.</p> -<p class="par">“Goodness! What was that?” cried -Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">A swallow had swept in through the open window, had -curved round in one swift movement, and shot out again into the -sunlight.</p> -<p class="par">“Only a bird of some sort,” said Millie, but -she was trembling and on the verge of hysterics. “Do let’s -get out, B.”</p> -<p class="par">After they had put on their own clothes once more they -became aware that they were hungry.</p> -<p class="par">“We <i>have</i> wasted a lot of time here,” -said Blanche as they made their way out.</p> -<p class="par">She did not pause to wonder how many women had spent the -best part of their lives in a precisely similar manner.</p> -<p class="par">“And we ought to have been looking for -food,” she added. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb143" href= -"#pb143" name="pb143">143</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Come on,” replied Millie. “That place -has given me the creeps.”</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">4</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Growing rather tired and footsore they made their -way to Piccadilly Circus, and so on to the Strand. Everywhere they -found the same conditions: a few skeletons, a few deserted vehicles, -young vegetation taking hold wherever a pinch of soil had found an -abiding place, and over all a great silence. But food there was none -that they were able to find, though it is probable that a careful -investigation of cellars and underground places might have furnished -some results. The more salient resources of London had been effectively -pillaged so far as the West-end was concerned. They were too late.</p> -<p class="par">In Trafalgar Square, Millie sat down and cried. Blanche -made no attempt to comfort her, but sat wide eyed and wondering. Her -mind was opening to new ideas. She was beginning to understand that -London was incapable of supporting even the lives of three women; she -was wrestling with the problem of existence. Every one had gone. Many -had died; but many more, surely, must have fled into the country. She -began to understand that she and her family must also fly into the -country.</p> -<p class="par">Millie still sobbed convulsively now and again.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! Chuck it, Mill,” said Blanche at last. -“We’d better be getting home.”</p> -<p class="par">Millie dabbed her eyes. “I’m -starving,” she blubbered. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb144" -href="#pb144" name="pb144">144</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Well, so am I,” returned Blanche. -“That’s why I said we’d better get home. -There’s nothing to eat here.”</p> -<p class="par">“Is—is every one dead?”</p> -<p class="par">“No, they’ve gone off into the country, and -that’s what we’ve got to do.”</p> -<p class="par">The younger girl sat up, put her hat straight, and blew -her nose. “Isn’t it awful, B.?” she said.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche pinched her lips together. “What are you -putting your hat straight for?” she asked. “There’s -no one to see you.”</p> -<p class="par">“Well, you needn’t make it any worse,” -retorted Millie on the verge of a fresh outburst of tears.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! come on!” said Blanche, getting to her -feet.</p> -<p class="par">“I don’t believe I <i>can</i> walk -home,” complained Millie; “my feet ache so.”</p> -<p class="par">“You’ll have to wait a long time if -you’re going to find a bus,” returned Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">Three empty taxicabs stood in the rank a few feet away -from them, but it never occurred to either of the two young women to -attempt any experiment with these mechanisms. If the thought had -crossed their minds they would have deemed it absurd.</p> -<p class="par">“Let’s go down by Victoria,” suggested -Blanche. “I believe it’s nearer.”</p> -<p class="par">In Parliament Square they disturbed a flock of rooks, -birds which had partly changed their natural habits during the past few -months and, owing to the superabundance of one kind of food, were -preying on carrion. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb145" href="#pb145" -name="pb145">145</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Crows,” commented Blanche. “Beastly -things.”</p> -<p class="par">“I wonder if we could get some water to -drink,” was Millie’s reply.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, there’s the river,” suggested -Blanche, and they turned up towards Westminster Bridge.</p> -<p class="par">In one of the tall buildings facing the river -Blanche’s attention was caught by an open door.</p> -<p class="par">“Look here, Mill,” she said, -“we’ve only been looking for shops. Let’s try one of -these houses. We might find something to eat in there.”</p> -<p class="par">“I’m afraid,” said Millie.</p> -<p class="par">“What of?” sneered Blanche. “At the -worst it’s skeletons, and we can come out again.”</p> -<p class="par">Millie shuddered. “You go,” she -suggested.</p> -<p class="par">“Not by myself, I won’t,” returned -Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">“There you are, you see,” said Millie.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, it’s different by -yourself.”</p> -<p class="par">“I hate it,” returned Millie with -emphasis.</p> -<p class="par">“So do I, in a way, only I’m fair -starving,” said Blanche. “Come on.”</p> -<p class="par">The building was solidly furnished, and the ground -floor, although somewhat disordered, still suggested a complacent -luxury. On the floor lay a copy of the <i>Evening Chronicle</i>, dated -May 10; possibly one of the last issues of a London journal. Two of the -pages were quite blank, and almost the only advertisement was one -hastily-set announcement of a patent medicine guaranteed as a sure -protection against the plague. The remainder of the paper was filled -with reports of the devastation that was being wrought, reports which -were nevertheless marked by a faint spirit of simulated confidence. -Between the lines could <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb146" href= -"#pb146" name="pb146">146</a>]</span>be read the story of desperate men -clinging to hope with splendid courage. There were no signs of panic -here. Groves had come out well at the last.</p> -<p class="par">The two girls hovered over this piece of ancient history -for a few minutes.</p> -<p class="par">“You see,” said Blanche triumphantly, -“even then, more’n two months ago, every one was making for -the country. We shall have to go, too. I told you we should.”</p> -<p class="par">“I never said we shouldn’t,” returned -Millie. “Anyhow there’s nothing to eat here.”</p> -<p class="par">“Not in this room, there isn’t,” said -Blanche, “but there might be in the kitchens. Do you know what -this place has been?”</p> -<p class="par">Millie shook her head.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s been a man’s club,” -announced Blanche. “First time you’ve been in one, old -dear.”</p> -<p class="par">“Come on, let’s have a look downstairs, -then,” returned Millie, careless of her achievement.</p> -<p class="par">In the first kitchen they found havoc: broken china and -glass, empty bottles, empty tins, cooking utensils on the floor, one -table upset, everywhere devastation and the marks of struggle; but in -none of the empty tins was there the least particle of food. Everything -had been completely cleaned out. The rats had been there, and had -gone.</p> -<p class="par">Exploring deeper, however, they were at last rewarded. -On a table stood a whole array of unopened tins and in one of them was -plunged a tin-opener, a single stab had been given, and then, possibly, -another of these common tragedies had begun. Had <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb147" href="#pb147" name="pb147">147</a>]</span>he -been alone, that plunderer, or had his companions fled from him in -terror?</p> -<p class="par">Here the two girls made a sufficient meal, and -discovered, moreover, a large store of unopened beer-bottles. They -shared the contents of one between them, and then, feeling greatly -reinvigorated, they sought for and found two baskets, which they filled -with tinned foods. They only took away one bottle of beer—a -special treat for their mother—on account of the weight. They -remembered that they had a long walk before them; and they were not -over-elated by their discovery; they were sick to death of tinned -meats.</p> -<p class="par">In looking for the baskets they came across a single -potato that the rats had left. From it had sprung a long, thin, -etiolated shoot which had crept under the door of the cupboard and was -making its way across the floor to the light of the window. Already -that shoot was several feet in length.</p> -<p class="par">“Funny how they grow,” commented Millie.</p> -<p class="par">“Making for the country, I expect,” replied -Blanche, “same as we shall have to do.”</p> -<p class="par">It was a relief to them to find their way into the -sunlight once more. Those cold, forsaken houses held some suggestion of -horror, of old activities so abruptly ended by tragedy. From these -interiors Nature was still shut off. That ghostly tendril aching -towards the light had no chance for life and reproduction.... -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb148" href="#pb148" name= -"pb148">148</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">5</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The two Gosling girls had yet one more adventure -before they toiled home with their load.</p> -<p class="par">They were growing bolder, despite the gloom and -oppression of those human habitations, and some freakish spirit -prompted Blanche to suggest that they should visit the Houses of -Parliament. After a brief demur, Millie acceded.</p> -<p class="par">That great stronghold was open to them now. They might -walk the floor of the House, sit in the Speaker’s chair, -penetrate into the sacred places of the Upper Chamber.</p> -<p class="par">Gone were all the rules and formulas, the intricacies -and precedents of an unwritten constitution, the whole cumbrous -machinery for the making of new laws. The air was no longer disturbed -by the wranglings, evasions and cunning shifts of those who had found -here a stage for their personal ambitions. The high talk of progress -had died into silence along with the struggle of parties which had -played the supreme game, side against side, for the prize of power. -Progress had been defined in this place, in terms of human activity, -human comfort. The end in sight had been some vague conception of -general welfare through accumulated riches. And from the sky had fallen -a pestilence to change the meaning of human terms. In three months the -old conception of wealth was gone. Money, precious stones, a thousand -accepted forms of value had become suddenly worthless, of no more -account than the symbol of <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb149" href= -"#pb149" name="pb149">149</a>]</span>power which lay coated with dust -on the table of the House of law-makers. Even law itself, that slow -growth of the centuries, had become meaningless. Who cared if some mad -woman plundered every jeweller’s shop in the whole City? Who was -to forbid theft or avenge murder? The place of traffic was empty. Only -one law was left and only one value; the law of self-preservation, the -value of food.</p> -<p class="par">The sunlight fell in broad coloured shafts upon two -half-educated girls come on a plundering expedition, and they might sit -in the high places if they would, and make new laws for themselves.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche sat for a few moments in the Speaker’s -chair.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s a fine big place,” she -remarked.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! come on, B., do,” replied Millie. -“I want to get home.”</p> -<p class="par">As they crossed the Square, Millie looked up at Big Ben. -“Quarter-past nine,” she said. “It must have -stopped.”</p> -<p class="par">“Well, of course, silly,” replied Blanche. -“All the clocks have stopped. Who’s to wind -’em?” <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb150" href="#pb150" -name="pb150">150</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch12" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="divNum">XII—</span>EMIGRANT</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">1</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">For some time Mrs Gosling was quite unable to -grasp the significance of her daughters’ report on the condition -of London. During the past two months she had persuaded herself that -the traffic of the town was being resumed and that only Putney was -still desolate. She had always disapproved of Putney; it was damp and -she had never known anyone who had lived there. It is true that the -late lamented George Gosling had been born in Putney, but that was more -than half a century ago, the place was no doubt quite different then; -and he had left Putney and gone to live in the healthy North before he -was sixteen. Mrs Gosling was half inclined to blame Putney for all -their misfortunes—it was sure to breed infection, being so near -the river and all—and she had become hopeful during the past -month that all would be well with them if they could once get back to -Kilburn.</p> -<p class="par">“D’you mean to say you didn’t see no -one at all?” she repeated in great perplexity.</p> -<p class="par">“Those three we’ve told you about, -that’s all,” said Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, o’ course, they’re all shut up -in the ’ouses, still; afraid o’ the plague and -’anging on to what provisions they’ve got put by, same as -us,” was the hopeful explanation Mrs Gosling put forward. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb151" href="#pb151" name= -"pb151">151</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“They ain’t,” said Millie, and Blanche -agreed.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, but ’ow d’you know?” -persisted the mother. “Did you go in to the -’ouses?”</p> -<p class="par">“One or two,” returned Blanche evasively, -“but there wasn’t no need to go in. You could -see.”</p> -<p class="par">“Are you quite sure there was no shops open? Not -in the Strand?” Mrs Gosling laid emphasis on the last sentence. -She could not doubt the good faith of the Strand. If that failed her, -all was lost.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! can’t you understand, mother,” -broke out Blanche petulantly, “that the whole of London is -absolutely deserted? There isn’t a soul in the streets. -There’s no cabs or buses or trams or anything, and grass growing -in the middle of the road. And all the shops have been broken into, all -those that had food in ’em, and——” words failed -her. “Isn’t it, Millie?” she concluded lamely.</p> -<p class="par">“Awful,” agreed Millie.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, I can’t understand it,” said -Mrs Gosling, not yet fully convinced. She considered earnestly for a -few moments and then asked: “Did you go into Charing Cross Post -Office? They’d sure to be open.”</p> -<p class="par">“Yes!” lied Blanche, “and we could -have taken all the money in the place if we’d wanted, and no one -any the wiser.”</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling looked shocked. “I ’ope my -gels’ll never come to that,” she said. Her girls, with a -wonderful understanding of their mother’s opinions, had omitted -to mention their raid on the Knightsbridge emporium.</p> -<p class="par">“No one’d ever know,” said Millie.</p> -<p class="par">“There’s One who would,” replied Mrs -Gosling <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb152" href="#pb152" name= -"pb152">152</a>]</span>gravely, and strangely enough, perhaps, the two -girls looked uneasy, but they were thinking less of the commandments -miraculously given to Moses than of the probable displeasure of the -Vicar of St John the Evangelist’s Church in Kilburn.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, we’ve got to do something, -anyhow,” said Blanche, after a pause. “I mean we’ll -have to get out of this and go into the country.”</p> -<p class="par">“We might go to your uncle’s in -Liverpool,” suggested Mrs Gosling, tentatively.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s a long walk,” remarked -Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling did not grasp the meaning of this objection. -“Well, I think we could afford third-class,<span class="corr" id= -"xd23e2688" title="Not in source">”</span> she said. -“Besides, though we ’aven’t corresponded much of late -years, I’ve always been under the impression that your uncle is -doin’ well in Liverpool; and at such a time as this I’m -sure ’e’ll do the right thing, though whether it would be -better to let ’im know we’re comin’ or not I’m -not quite sure.”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! dear!” sighed Blanche, “I -<i>do</i> wish you’d try to understand, mother. There -aren’t any trains. There aren’t any posts or telegraphs. -Wherever we go we’ve just got to walk. Haven’t we, -Millie?”</p> -<p class="par">Millie began to snivel. “It’s -’orrible,” she said.</p> -<p class="par">“Well I <i>can’t</i> understand it,” -repeated Mrs Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">By degrees, however, the controversy took a new shape. -Granting for the moment the main contention that London was -uninhabitated, Mrs Gosling urged that it would be a dangerous, even a -foolhardy, thing to venture into the country. If there was no -Government there would be no law and order, was the <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb153" href="#pb153" name= -"pb153">153</a>]</span>substance of her argument; government in her -mind being represented by its concrete presentation in the form of the -utterly reliable policeman. Furthermore, she pointed out, that they did -not know anyone in the country, with the exception of a too-distant -uncle in Liverpool, and that there would be nowhere for them to go.</p> -<p class="par">“We shall have to work,” said Blanche, who -was surely inspired by her glimpse of the silent city.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, we’ve got nearly a ’undred -pounds left of what your poor father drew out o’ the bank before -we shut ourselves up,” said her mother.</p> -<p class="par">“I suppose we <i>could</i> buy things in the -country,” speculated Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">“You seem set on the country for some -reason,” said Mrs Gosling with a touch of temper.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, we’ve got to get food,” -returned Blanche, raising her voice. “We can’t live on -air.”</p> -<p class="par">“And if food’s to be got cheaper in the -country than in London,” snapped Mrs Gosling, “my -experience goes for nothing, but, of course, you know best, if I -<i>am</i> your mother.”</p> -<p class="par">“There isn’t any food in London, cheap or -dear, I keep telling you,” said Blanche, and left the room -angrily, slamming the door behind her.</p> -<p class="par">Millie sat moodily biting her nails.</p> -<p class="par">“Blanche lets ’er temper get the better of -’er,” remarked Mrs Gosling addressing the spaces of the -kitchen in which they were sitting.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s right, worse luck,” said Millie. -“We shall have to go. I ’ate it nearly as much as you -do.”</p> -<p class="par">The argument thus begun was continued with few -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb154" href="#pb154" name= -"pb154">154</a>]</span>intermissions for a whole week. A thunderstorm, -followed by two days of overcast weather, came to the support of the -older woman. One thing was certain among all these terrible -perplexities, namely, that you couldn’t start off for a trip to -the country on a wet day.</p> -<p class="par">Meanwhile their stores continued to diminish, and one -afternoon Mrs Gosling consented to take a walk with Blanche as far as -Hammersmith Broadway.</p> -<p class="par">The sight of that blank desert impressed her. Blanche -pointed out the house in which she had seen the two women five days -before, but no one was looking out of the window on that afternoon. -Perhaps they had fled to the country, or were occupied elsewhere in the -house, or perhaps they had left London by the easier way which had -become so general in the past few months.</p> -<p class="par">When she returned to the Putney house, Mrs Gosling wept -and wished she, too, was dead, but she consented at last to -Blanche’s continually urged proposition, in so far as she -expressed herself willing to make a move of some sort. She thought they -might, at least, go back and have a look at Wisteria Grove. And if -Kilburn had, indeed, fallen as low as Hammersmith, then there was -apparently no help for it and they must try their luck in the waste and -desolation of the country. Perhaps some farmer’s wife might take -them in for a time, until they had a chance to look about them. They -had nearly a hundred pounds in gold.</p> -<p class="par">The girls found a builder’s trolley in a yard near -by, a truck of sturdy build on two wheels with a long <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb155" href="#pb155" name= -"pb155">155</a>]</span>handle. It bore marks of having held cement, and -there were weeds growing in one end of it, but after it had been -brought home and thoroughly scrubbed, it looked quite a presentable -means for the transport of the “necessaries” they proposed -to take with them.</p> -<p class="par">They made too generous an estimate of essentials at -first, piling their truck too high for safety and overtaxing their -strength; but that problem, like many others, was finally solved for -them by the clear-sighted guidance of necessity.</p> -<p class="par">They started one morning—a Monday if their -calculations were not at fault—about two hours after breakfast. -Mrs Gosling and Millie pushed behind, and Blanche, the inspired one, -went before, pulled by the handle of the pole and gave the others their -direction.</p> -<p class="par">It is possible that they were the last women to leave -London.</p> -<p class="par">By chance they discovered the Queen of all the Earth on -a doorstep near Addison Road. She was quite dead, but they did not -despoil her of the jewels with which she was still covered.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">2</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Mrs Gosling was a source of trouble from the -outset. She had lived her life indoors. In the Wisteria Grove days, she -never spent two hours of the twenty-four out of the house. Some times -for a whole week she had not gone out at all. It was a mark of their -rise in the world that all the tradesmen called for orders. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb156" href="#pb156" name= -"pb156">156</a>]</span>She had found little necessity to buy in shops -during recent years. And so, very surely, she had grown more and more -limited in her outlook. Her attention had become concentrated on the -duties of the housewife. She had not kept any servant, a charwoman who -came for a few hours three times a week had done all that the mistress -of the house had not dared, in face of neighbourly criticism—in -her position she could not be seen washing down the little tiled path -to the gate nor whitening the steps.</p> -<p class="par">The effect of this cramped existence on Mrs Gosling -would not have been noticeable under the old conditions. She had become -a specialized creature, admirably adapted to her place in the old -scheme of civilization. No demand was ever made upon her resources -other than those familiar demands which she was so perfectly educated -to supply. Even when the plague had come, she had not been compelled to -alter her mode of life. She had made trouble enough about the lack of -many things she had once believed to be necessary—familiar foods, -soap and the thousand little conveniences that the twentieth century -inventor had patented to assist the domestic economy of the small -householder; but the trouble was not too great to be overcome. The -adaptability required from her was within the scope of her specialized -vision. She could learn to do without flour, butter, lard, milk, sugar -and the other things, but she could not learn to think on unfamiliar -lines.</p> -<p class="par">That was the essence of her trouble. She was divorced -from a permanent home. She was asked to walk long miles in the open -air. Worst of all, she was <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb157" href= -"#pb157" name="pb157">157</a>]</span>called upon for initiative, -ingenuity; she was required to exercise her imagination in order to -solve a problem with which she was quite unfamiliar. She was expected -to develop the potentialities of the wild thing, and to extort food -from Nature. The whole problem was beyond her comprehension.</p> -<p class="par">The sight of Kilburn was a great blow to her. She had -hoped against hope that here, at least, she would find some semblance -of the life she had known. It had seemed so impossible to her that -Aiken, the butcher’s, or Hobb’s, the grocer’s, would -not be open as usual, and the vision of those two desolated and -ransacked shops—the latter with but a few murderous spears of -plate-glass left in its once magnificent windows—depressed her to -tears.</p> -<p class="par">So shaken was she by the sight of these horrors that -Blanche and Millie raised no objection to sleeping that night in the -house in Wisteria Grove. Indeed, the two girls were almost tired out, -although it was yet early in the afternoon. The truck had become very -heavy in the course of the last two miles; and they had had -considerable difficulty in negotiating the hill by Westbourne Park -Station.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling was still weeping as she let herself in to -her old home, and she wept as she prowled about the familiar rooms and -noted the dust which had fallen like snow on every surface which would -support it. And for the first time the loss of her husband came home to -her. She had been almost glad when he had vanished from the Putney -house—in that place she had only seen him in his new character of -tyrant. Here, among familiar associations, she <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb158" href="#pb158" name= -"pb158">158</a>]</span>recalled the fact that he had been a -respectable, complacent, hard-working, successful man who had never -given her cause for trouble, a man who did not drink nor run after -other women, who held a position in the Church and was looked up to by -the neighbourhood. According to her definition he had certainly been an -ideal husband. It is true that they had dropped any pretence of being -in love with one another after Blanche was born, but that was only -natural.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling sat on the bed she had shared with him so -long and hoped he was happy. He was; but if she could have seen the -nature of his happiness the sight would have given her no comfort. -Vaguely she pictured him in some strange Paradise, built upon those -conceptions of the mediæval artists, mainly Italians, which have -supplied the ideals of the orthodox. She saw an imperfectly -transfigured and still fleshly George Gosling, who did unaccustomed -things with a harp, was dressed in exotic garments and was on terms -with certain hybrids, largely woman but partly bird, who were clearly -recognizable as the angelic host. If she had been a Mohammedan, her -vision would have accorded far more nearly with the fact.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">3</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The successful animal is that which is adapted to -its circumstances. Herbert Spencer would appear foolish and incapable -in the society of the young wits who frequent the private bar; he might -be described by them as an old Johnny who knew nothing about -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb159" href="#pb159" name= -"pb159">159</a>]</span>life. Mrs Gosling in her own home had been a -ruler; she had had authority over her daughters, and, despite the usual -evidences of girlish precocity, she had always been mistress of the -situation. In the affairs of household management she was <i lang= -"fr">facile princeps</i>, and she commanded the respect accorded to the -eminent in any form of specialized activity. But even on this second -morning of their emigration it became clear to Blanche that her mother -had ceased to rule, and must become a subordinate. A certain respect -was due to her in her parental relation, but if she could not be coaxed -she must be coerced.</p> -<p class="par">“She’ll be better when we get her right away -from here,” was Blanche’s diagnosis, and Millie, who had -also achieved some partial realization of the necessities imposed by -the new conditions, nodded in agreement.</p> -<p class="par">“She wants to stop here altogether, and, of -course, we can’t,” she said.</p> -<p class="par">“We shall starve if we do,” said -Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">From that time Mrs Gosling dropped into the humiliating -position of a kind of mental incapable who must be humoured into -obedience.</p> -<p class="par">The first, and in many ways the most difficult, task was -to persuade her away from Kilburn. She clung desperately to that -stronghold of her old life.</p> -<p class="par">“I’m too old to change at my age,” she -protested, and when the alternative was clearly put before her, she -accepted it with a flaccidity that was as aggravating as it was -unfightable.</p> -<p class="par">“I’d sooner die ’ere,” said Mrs -Gosling, “than go trapesing about the fields lookin’ for -somethin’ to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb160" href="#pb160" -name="pb160">160</a>]</span>eat. I simply couldn’t do it. -It’s different for you two gels, no doubt. You go and leave me -’ere.”</p> -<p class="par">Millie might have been tempted to take her mother at her -word, but Blanche never for a moment entertained the idea of leaving -her mother behind.</p> -<p class="par">“Very well, mother,” she said, desperately, -“if you won’t come we must all stop here and starve, I -suppose. We’ve got enough food to last a fortnight or -so.”</p> -<p class="par">As she spoke she looked out of the window of that little -suburban house, and for the first time in her life a thought came to -her of the strangeness of preferring such an inconvenient little box to -the adventure of the wider spaces of open country. Outside, the sun was -shining brilliantly, but the windows were dim with dust and -cobwebs.</p> -<p class="par">Yet her mother was comparatively happy in this hovel; -she would find delight in cleaning it, although there was no one to -appraise the result of her effort. She was a specialized animal with -habits precisely analogous to the instincts of other animals and -insects. There were insects who could only live in filth and would die -miserably if removed from their natural surroundings. Mrs Gosling was a -suburban-house insect who would perish in the open air. After all, the -chief difference between insects and men is that the insect is born -perfectly adapted to its specialized existence, man finds, or is forced -into, a place in the scheme after he has come to maturity....</p> -<p class="par">“I can’t see why you shouldn’t leave -me behind,” pleaded Mrs Gosling. <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb161" href="#pb161" name="pb161">161</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Well, we won’t,” replied Blanche, -still looking out of the window.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s wicked of you to make us stop here and -starve,” put in Millie. “And even you must see that we -<i>shall</i> starve.”</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling wept feebly. She had wept much during the -past twenty-four hours. “Where can we go?” she wailed.</p> -<p class="par">“There’s country on the other side of -Harrow,” said Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">The thought of Harrow or Timbuctoo was equally repugnant -to Mrs Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">Then Millie had an idea. “Well, we only brought -four bottles of water with us,” she said, “where are we -going to get any more in Kilburn?”</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling racked her brain in the effort to remember -some convenient stream in the neighbourhood. “It may rain,” -she said feebly at last.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche turned from the window and pointed to the -blurred prospect of sunlit street. “We might be dead before the -rain came,” she said.</p> -<p class="par">They wore her out in the end.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">4</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">With Harrow as an immediate objective, they toiled -up Willesden Lane with their hand-cart early the next morning. Blanche -took that route because it was familiar to her, and after passing -Willesden Green, she followed the tram lines.</p> -<p class="par">As they got away from London they came upon evidences of -the exodus which had preceded them. <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb162" href="#pb162" name="pb162">162</a>]</span>Bodies of women, for -the most part no longer <span class="corr" id="xd23e2849" title= -"Source: maladorous">malodorous</span>, were not infrequent, and pieces -of household furniture, parcels of clothing, boxes, trunks and smaller -impedimenta lay by the roadside, the superfluities of earlier loads -that had been lightened, however reluctantly.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling blenched at the sight of every -body—only a few of them could be described as skeletons—and -protested that they were all going to their death, but Blanche kept on -resolutely with a white, set face, and as Millie followed her example, -if with rather less show of temerity, there was no choice but to -follow. When the gradients were favourable the girls helped their -mother on to the truck and gave her a lift. She was a feeble -walker.</p> -<p class="par">Not till they reached Sudbury did they see another -living being of their own species, or any sign of human habitation in -the long rows of dirty houses.</p> -<p class="par">The great surge of migration had spread out from the -centre and become absorbed in circles of ever-widening amplitude. The -great entity of London had eaten its way so far outwards in to arable -and pasturage that within a ten-mile radius from Charing Cross not a -thousand women could be found who had been able to obtain any promise -of security from the products of the soil. And although there were -great open spaces of land, such as Wembley Park, which had to be -crossed in the journey outwards, the exiles had been unable to wait -until such time as seed could be transformed into food by the alchemy -of Nature. So the pressure had been continually outwards, forcing the -emigrants toward the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb163" href="#pb163" -name="pb163">163</a>]</span>more distant farms where some fraction of -them, at least, might find work and food until the coming of the -harvest. In Kent, vegetables were comparatively plentiful. In Northern -Middlesex and Buckinghamshire the majority had to depend upon animal -food. But in all the Home Counties and in the neighbourhood of every -large town, famine was following hard upon the heels of the plague, and -70 per cent of the town-dwelling women and children who had escaped the -latter visitation died of starvation and exposure before the middle of -August.</p> -<p class="par">In the first inner ring, still sparsely populated, were -to be found those who had had vegetable gardens and had been vigorous -enough to protect themselves against the flood of migration which had -swept up against them.</p> -<p class="par">It was the first signs of this inner ring that the -Goslings discovered at Sudbury.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">5</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">They came upon a little row of cottages, standing -back a few yards from the road. All three women had been engaged in -pushing their trolly up an ascent, and with heads down, and all their -physical energies concentrated upon their task, they did not notice the -startling difference between these cottages and other houses they had -passed, until they stopped to take breath at the summit of the -hill.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling had immediately seated herself upon the -sloping pole of the trolly handle. She was breathing heavily and had -her hands pressed to her sides. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb164" -href="#pb164" name="pb164">164</a>]</span>Millie leaned against the -side of the trolly, her eyes still on the ground. But Blanche had -thrown back her shoulders and opened her lungs, and she saw the banner -of smoke that flew from the middle of the three -chimney-stacks—smoke, in this wilderness, smoke the sign of human -life! To Blanche it seemed the fulfilment of a great hope. She had -begun to wonder if all the world were dead.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh!” she gasped. “Look!”</p> -<p class="par">They looked without eagerness, anticipating some -familiar horror.</p> -<p class="par">“Ooh!” echoed Millie, when she, too, had -recognized the harbinger. But Mrs Gosling did not raise her eyes high -enough.</p> -<p class="par">“What?” she asked stupidly.</p> -<p class="par">“There’s some one living in that -cottage,” said Blanche, and pointed upwards to the soaring -pennant.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling’s face brightened. “Well, to be -sure,” she said, “I wonder if they’d let me sit down -and rest for a few minutes? And perhaps they might be willing to sell -me a glass of milk. I’m sure I’d pay a good price for -it.”</p> -<p class="par">“We can see, anyway,” replied Millie, and -they roused themselves and pushed on eagerly. The cottage was not more -than thirty yards away.</p> -<p class="par">Before they reached it, a woman came to the doorway, -stared at them for a moment and then came down to the little wooden -gate.</p> -<p class="par">She was a thick-set woman of fifty or so, with iron grey -hair cut close to her head. She wore a tweed skirt which did not reach -the tops of her heavily <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb165" href= -"#pb165" name="pb165">165</a>]</span>soled, high boots. She looked -capable, energetic and muscular. And in her hand she carried about -three feet of stout broomstick.</p> -<p class="par">She did not speak until the little procession halted -before her gate, and then she pointed meaningly up the road with her -broomstick and said: “Go on. You can’t stop here.” -She spoke with the voice and inflection of an educated woman.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche paused in the act of setting down the trolly -handle. Mrs Gosling and Millie stared in amazement; they had been -prepared to weep on the neck of this human friend, found at last in the -awful desert of Middlesex.</p> -<p class="par">“We only wanted to buy a little milk,” -stammered Blanche, no less astonished than her mother and sister.</p> -<p class="par">The big woman looked them over with something of pity -and contempt. “I can see you’re not dangerous,” she -sneered and crossed her great bare fore-arms over the top of the gate. -“Only three poor feckless idiots going begging.”</p> -<p class="par">“We’re <i>not</i> begging,” retorted -Blanche. “We’ve got money and we’re willing to -pay.”</p> -<p class="par">“Money!” repeated the woman. She looked up -at the sky and nodded her head, as though beseeching pity for these -feeble creatures. “My dear girl,” she went on, “what -do you suppose is the good of money in this world? You can’t eat -money, nor wear it, nor use it to light a fire. Now, if you’d -offered me a box of matches, you should have had all the milk I can -spare.”</p> -<p class="par">“Well, I never,” put in Mrs Gosling, who had -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb166" href="#pb166" name= -"pb166">166</a>]</span>feebly come to rest again on the handle of the -trolly.</p> -<p class="par">“No, my good woman, you never did,” said the -stranger. “You never could and I should say the chances are that -you never will.”</p> -<p class="par">Millie was intimidated and shrinking, even Blanche -looked a little nervous, but Mrs Gosling was incapable of feeling fear -of a fellow-woman. “You can’t mean as you won’t sell -us a glass of milk?” she said.</p> -<p class="par">“Have you got a box of matches you’ll -exchange for it?” asked the stranger. “I’ve got a -burning glass I stole in Harrow, but you can’t depend on the -sun.”</p> -<p class="par">“No, nor ’aven’t ’ad, the last -three weeks,” said Mrs Gosling. “But if you’ve more -money a’ready than you know what to do with, I should ’ave -thought as you’d ’a been willing to spare a glass o’ -milk for charity’s sake.”</p> -<p class="par">The stranger regarded her petitioner with a hard smile. -“Charity’s sake?” she said. “Do you realize -that I’ve had to defend this place like a fort against thousands -of your sort? I’ve killed three madwomen who fought me for -possession and buried ’em in the orchard like cats. I held out -through the first rush and I can hold out now easily enough. You three -are the first I’ve seen for a month, and before that they’d -begun to get weak and poor. These are your daughters, I suppose, and -the three of you had always depended upon some fool of a man to keep -you. Yes? Well, you deserve all you’ve got. Now you can start and -do a little healthy, useful work for <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb167" href="#pb167" name="pb167">167</a>]</span>yourselves. -I’ve no pity for you. I’ve got a damned fool of a sister -and an old fool of a mother to keep in there,” she pointed to the -cottage with her broomstick. “Parasitic like you, both of -’em, and pretty well all the use they are is to keep the fire -alight. No, my good woman, you get no charity from me.”</p> -<p class="par">When she had finished her speech, which she delivered -with a fluency and point that suggested familiarity with the platform, -the stranger crossed her arms again over the gate and stared Mrs -Gosling out of countenance.</p> -<p class="par">“Come along, my dears,” said that outraged -lady, getting wearily to her feet. “I wouldn’t wish your -ears soiled by such language from a woman as ’as forgotten the -manners of a lady. But, there, poor thing, I’ve no doubt -’er ’ead’s been turned with all this -trouble.”</p> -<p class="par">The stranger smiled grimly and made no reply, but as the -Goslings were moving away, she called out to them suddenly: “Hi! -You! There’s a witless creature along the road who’ll -probably help you. The house is up a side road. Bear round to the -right.”</p> -<p class="par">“What a beast,” muttered Blanche when they -had gone on a few yards.</p> -<p class="par">“One o’ them ‘new’ women, my -dear,” panted Mrs Gosling, who remembered the beginning of the -movement and still clung to the old terminology. <span class="corr" id= -"xd23e2936" title="Not in source">“</span>’Orrible unsexed -creatures! I remember how your poor father used to ’ate -’em!”</p> -<p class="par">“I’d like to get even with her,” said -Millie. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb168" href="#pb168" name= -"pb168">168</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">They bore to the right, and so avoided two turnings -which led up repulsive-looking hills, but they missed the side -road.</p> -<p class="par">“I’m sure we must have passed it,” -complained Mrs Gosling at last. Her sighs had been increasing in volume -and poignancy for the past half-mile, and the prospect of uninhabited -country which lay immediately around her she found infinitely -dispiriting.</p> -<p class="par">“There isn’t an ’ouse in sight,” -she added, “and I really don’t believe I <i>can</i> walk -much farther.”</p> -<p class="par">Blanche stopped and looked over the fields on her right -towards London. In the distance, blurred by an oily wriggle of heat -haze, she could see the last wave of suburban villas which had broken -upon this shore of open country. They had left the town behind them at -last, but they had not found what they sought. This little arm of land -which cut off Harrow and Wealdstone from the mother lake of London had -not offered sufficient temptation to delay their forerunners in the -search for food. Most of them, with a true instinct for what they -sought, had followed the main road into the Chiltern Hills, and those -who for some cause or another had wandered into this side track had -pushed on, even as Blanche and Millie would have done had they not been -dragged back by their mother’s complaints. The sun was falling a -little towards the west, and bird and animal life, which had seemed to -rest during the intenser heat of mid-day, was stirring and calling all -about them. A rabbit lolloped into the road, a few yards away, pricked -up its ears, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb169" href="#pb169" name= -"pb169">169</a>]</span>stared for an instant, and then scuttled to -cover. A blackbird flew out of the hedge and fled chattering up the -ditch. The air was murmurous with the hum of innumerable insects, and -above Mrs Gosling’s head hovered a group of flies which ever and -again bobbed down as if following some concerted plan of action, and -tried to settle on the poor woman’s heated face.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! get away, do!” she panted, and flapped -a futile handkerchief.</p> -<p class="par">“How quiet it is!” said Blanche; and -although the air was full of sound it did indeed appear that a great -hush had fallen over the earth. No motor-horn threateningly bellowed -its automatic demand for right of way; there was no echo of hoofs nor -grind of wheels; no call of children’s voices, nor even the bark -of a dog. The wild things had the place to themselves again, and the -sound of their movements called for no response from civilized minds. -The ears of the Goslings heard, but did not note these, to them, -useless evidences of life. They were straining and alert for the voice -of humanity.</p> -<p class="par">“I don’t know when I’ve felt the -’eat so much,” said Mrs Gosling suddenly, and Blanche and -Millie both started.</p> -<p class="par">“Hush!” said Blanche, and held up a warning -finger.</p> -<p class="par">In the distance they heard a sound like the closing of a -gate, and then, very clear and small, a feminine voice. -“<i>Chuck!</i> chuck! chuck!” it said. “Chuck! chuck! -<i>chuck!!!</i>”</p> -<p class="par">“I told you we’d passed it,” said Mrs -Gosling <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb170" href="#pb170" name= -"pb170">170</a>]</span>triumphantly. They turned the trolly and began -to retrace their footsteps. Their eager eyes tried to peer through the -spinney of trees which shut them off from the south. Once or twice they -stopped to listen. The voice was fainter now, but they could hear the -squawk of greedily competitive fowls. <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb171" href="#pb171" name="pb171">171</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch13" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class= -"divNum">XIII—</span>DIFFERENCES</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">1</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The only side road they could find proved to be no -more than a track through the little wood. They almost passed it a -second time, and hesitated at the gate—a sturdy five-barred gate -bearing “Private” on a conspicuous label—debating -whether this “could be right.” They still suffered a spasm -of fear at the thought of trespass, and to open this gate and march up -an unknown private road pushing a hand-cart seemed to them an act of -terrible aggression.</p> -<p class="par">“We might leave the cart just inside,” -suggested Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">“And get our food stole,” said Mrs -Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“There’s no one about,” urged -Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">“There’s that broomstick woman,” said -Millie. “She may have followed us.”</p> -<p class="par">“I’m sure I dunno if it’s safe to go -foragin’ in among them trees, neither,” continued Mrs -Gosling. “Are you sure this is right, Blanche?”</p> -<p class="par">“Well, of course, I’m not sure,” -replied Blanche, with a touch of temper.</p> -<p class="par">They peered through the trees and listened, but no sign -of a house was to be seen, and all was now silent save for the long -drone of innumerable bees about their afternoon business. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb172" href="#pb172" name="pb172">172</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Oh! come on!” said Blanche at last. She was -rapidly learning to solve all their problems by this simple -formula....</p> -<p class="par">In the wood they found refuge from those attendant flies -which had hung over them so persistently.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling gave a final flick with her handkerchief and -declared her relief. “It’s quite pleasant in -’ere,” she said, “after the ’eat.”</p> -<p class="par">The two girls also seemed to find new vigour in the -shade of the trees.</p> -<p class="par">“We <i>have</i> got a cheek!” said Millie, -with a giggle.</p> -<p class="par">“Well! needs must when the devil drives,” -returned Mrs Gosling, “and our circumstances is quite out of the -ordinary. Besides which, there can’t be any ’arm in -offerin’ to buy a glass of milk.”</p> -<p class="par">Blanche tugged at the trolley handle with a flicker of -impatience. Why would her mother be so foolish? Surely she must see -that everything was different now? Blanche was beginning to wonder at -and admire the marvel of her own intelligence. How much cleverer she -was than the others! How much more ready to appreciate and adapt -herself to change! They could not understand this new state of things, -but she could, and she prided herself on her powers of -discrimination.</p> -<p class="par">“Everything’s different now,” she said -to herself. “We can go anywhere and do anything, almost. -It’s like as if we were all starting off level again, in a -way.” She felt uplifted: she took extraordinary pleasure in her -own realization of facts. A strange, <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb173" href="#pb173" name="pb173">173</a>]</span>new power had come to -her, a power to enjoy life, through mastery. “Everything’s -different now,” she repeated. She was conscious of a sense of -pity for her mother and sister.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">2</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The road through the wood curved sharply round to -the right, and they came suddenly upon a clearing, and saw the house in -front of them. It was a long, low house, smothered in roses and -creepers, and it stood in a wild garden surrounded by a breast-high -wall of red brick. At the edge of the clearing several cows were lying -under the shade of the trees, reflectively chewing the cud with slow, -deliberate enjoyment, while one, solitary, stood with its head over the -garden gate, motionless, save for an occasional petulant whisp of its -ropey tail.</p> -<p class="par">“Now, then, what are we going to do?” asked -Mrs Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">The procession halted, and the three women regarded the -guardian cow with every sign of dismay.</p> -<p class="par">“Shoo!” said Millie feebly, flapping her -hands; and Blanche repeated the intimidation with greater force; but -the cow merely acknowledged the salutation by an irritable sweep of its -tail.</p> -<p class="par">“’Orrid brute!” muttered Mrs Gosling, -and flicked her handkerchief in the direction of the brute’s -quarters.</p> -<p class="par">“I know,” said Blanche, conceiving a subtle -strategy. “We’ll drive it away with the cart.” She -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb174" href="#pb174" name= -"pb174">174</a>]</span>turned the trolly round, and the three of them -grasping the pole, they advanced slowly and warily to the charge, -pushing their siege ram before them. They made a slight detour to -achieve a flank attack and allow the enemy a clear way of retreat.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, dear! what <i>are</i> you doing?” said -a voice suddenly, and the three startled Goslings nearly dropped the -pole in their alarm—they had been so utterly absorbed in their -campaign.</p> -<p class="par">A young woman of sixteen or seventeen, very brown, hot -and dishevelled, was regarding them from the other side of the garden -wall with a stare of amazement that even as they turned was flickering -into laughter.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s that great brute by the gate, my -dear,” said Mrs Gosling, “and we’ve -just——”</p> -<p class="par">“You don’t mean Alice?” interrupted -the young woman. “Oh! you couldn’t go charging poor dear -Alice with a great cart like that! Three of you, too!”</p> -<p class="par">“Is its name Alice?” asked Blanche stupidly. -She did not feel equal to this curious occasion.</p> -<p class="par">“<i>Its</i> name!” replied the young woman, -with scorn. “<i>Her</i> name’s Alice, if that’s what -you mean.” She shook back the hair from her eyes and moved down -to the gate. The cow acknowledged her presence by an indolent toss of -the head.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! but my sweet Alice!” protested the -young woman; “you must move and let these funny people come in. -It really isn’t good for you, dear, to stand about in the sun -like this, and you’d much better go and lie down in the shade for -a bit!” She gently pulled the gate from under the cow’s -chin, and then, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb175" href="#pb175" -name="pb175">175</a>]</span>laying her hands flat on its side, made as -if to push it out of the way.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, I never!” declared Mrs Gosling, -regarding the performance with much the same awe as she might have -vouchsafed to a lion-tamer in a circus. “’Oo’d -’ave thought it’d ’a been that tame?”</p> -<p class="par">The cow, after a moment’s resistance, moved off -with a leisurely walk in the direction of the wood.</p> -<p class="par">“Now, you funny people, what <i>do</i> you -want?” asked the young woman.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling began to explain, but Blanche quickly -interposed. “Oh! do be quiet, mother; you don’t -understand,” she said, and continued, before her mother could -remonstrate, “We’ve come from London.”</p> -<p class="par">“Goodness!” commented the young woman.</p> -<p class="par">“And we want——” Blanche -hesitated. She was surprised to find that in the light of her wonderful -discovery it was not so easy to define precisely what they ought to -want. As the broomstick woman had said, they were -“beggars.” Fairly confronted with the problem, Blanche saw -no alternative but a candid acknowledgment of the fact.</p> -<p class="par">“You want feeding, of course,” put in the -young woman. “They all do. You needn’t think you’re -the first. We’ve had dozens!”</p> -<p class="par">A solution presented itself to Blanche. “We -don’t really want food,” she said. “We’ve got a -lot of tinned things left still, only we’re ill with eating -tinned things. I thought, perhaps, you might be willing to let us have -some milk and eggs and vegetables in exchange?” <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb176" href="#pb176" name="pb176">176</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“That’s sensible enough,” commented -the young woman. “If you only knew the things we have been -offered! Money chiefly, of course”—Mrs Gosling opened her -mouth, but Blanche frowned and shook her head—“and it does -seem as if money’s about as useless as buttons. In fact, -I’d sooner have buttons—you <i>can</i> use them. But the -other funny things—bits of old furniture, warming-pans, -jewellery! You should have heard Mrs Isaacson! She was a Jewess who -came from Hampstead a couple of months ago, and she had a lot of jewels -she kept in a bag tied round her waist under her skirt; and when Aunt -May and I simply had to tell her to go she tried to bribe us with an -old brooch and rubbish. She was a terror. But, I say”—she -looked at the sun—“I’ve got lots of things to do -before sunset.” She paused, and looked at the three Goslings. -“Look here,” she went on, “are you all right? You -seem all right.”</p> -<p class="par">Again Mrs Gosling began to reply, but Blanche was too -quick for her. “Tell me what you mean by ‘all -right’?” she asked, raising her voice to drown her -mother’s “Well, I never did ’ear -such——”</p> -<p class="par">“Well, of course, mother’ll give you any -mortal thing you want,” replied the young woman at the gate. -“Dear old mater! She simply won’t think of what we’re -going to do in the winter; and I mean, if you come in for to-night, -say, and we let you have a few odd things, you won’t go and plant -yourselves on us like that Mrs Isaacson and one or two others, because -if you do, Aunt May and I will have to turn you out, you know.” -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb177" href="#pb177" name= -"pb177">177</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“What we ’ave we’ll pay for,” -said Mrs Gosling with dignity.</p> -<p class="par">The young woman smiled. “Oh, I dare say!” -she said; “pay us with those pretty little yellow counters that -aren’t the least good to anyone. You wait here half a jiff. -I’ll find Aunt May.”</p> -<p class="par">She ran up the path and entered the house. A moment -later they heard her calling “Aunt May! -Auntie—Aun-<i>tee</i>!” somewhere out at the back.</p> -<p class="par">“Let’s ’ope ’er Aunt -May’ll ’ave more common sense,” remarked Mrs -Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche turned on her almost fiercely. “For -goodness sake, mother,” she said, “do try and get it out of -your head, if you can, that we can buy things with money. Can’t -you see that everything’s different? Can’t you see that -money’s no good, that you can’t eat it, or wear it, or -light a fire with it, like that other woman said? <i>Can’t</i> -you understand, or <i>won’t</i> you?”</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling gaped in amazement. It was incredible that -the mind of Blanche should also have been distorted by this terrible -heresy. She turned in sympathy to Millie, who had taken her -mother’s seat on the pole of the trolly, but Millie frowned and -said:</p> -<p class="par">“B.’s right. You can’t buy things with -money; not here, anyway. What’d they do with money if they got -it?”</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling looked at the trees, at the cows lying at -the edge of the wood, at the sunlit fields beyond the house, but she -saw nothing which suggested an immediate use for gold coin. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb178" href="#pb178" name= -"pb178">178</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Lemme sit down, my dear,” she said. -“What with the ’eat and all this -walkin’——Oh! what wouldn’t I give for a cup -o’ tea!”</p> -<p class="par">Millie got up sulkily and leaned against the wall. -“I suppose they’ll let us stop here to-night, B.?” -she asked.</p> -<p class="par">“If we don’t make fools of ourselves,” -replied Blanche, spitefully.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling drooped. No inspiration had come to her as -it had come to her daughter. The older woman had become too -specialized. She swayed her head, searching—like some great larva -dug up from its refuse heap—confused and feeble in this new -strange place of light and air.</p> -<p class="par">And as Blanche had repeated to herself -“Everything’s different,” so Mrs Gosling seized a -phrase and clung to it as to some explanation of this horrible -perplexity. “I can’t understand it,” she said; -“I <i>can’t</i> understand it!”</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">3</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Aunt May appeared after a long interval—a -thin, brown-faced woman of forty or so. She wore a very short skirt, a -man’s jacket and an old deerstalker hat, and she carried a -pitchfork. She must have brought the pitchfork as an emblem of -authority, but she did not handle it as the other woman had handled her -broomstick. The murderous pitchfork appeared little more deadly in her -keeping than does the mace in the House of Commons, but as an emblem -the pitchfork was infinitely more effective. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb179" href="#pb179" name="pb179">179</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Aunt May’s questions were pertinent and searching, -and after a few brief explanations had been offered to her she drove -off the young woman, her niece, whom she addressed as -“Allie,” to perform the many duties which were her share of -the day’s work.</p> -<p class="par">Allie went, laughing.</p> -<p class="par">“You can sleep here to-night,” announced -Aunt May. “We shall have a meal all together soon after sunset. -Till then you can talk to my sister, who’s an invalid. -She’s always eager for news.”</p> -<p class="par">She took charge of them as if she were the matron of a -workhouse receiving new inmates.</p> -<p class="par">“You’d better bring your truck into the -garden,” she said, “or Alice will be turning everything -over. Inquisitive brute!” she added, snapping her fingers at the -cow, who had returned, and stood within a few feet of them, eyeing the -Goslings with a slow, dull wonder—a mournfully sleepy beast whose -furiously wakeful tail seemed anxious to rouse its owner out of her -torpor.</p> -<p class="par">The invalid sister sat by the window of a small room -that faced west and overlooked the luxuriance of what was still -recognizably a flower-garden.</p> -<p class="par">“My sister, Mrs Pollard,” said Aunt May -sharply, and then addressing the woman who sat huddled in shawls by the -window, she added: “Three more strays, Fanny—from London, -Allie tells me.” She went out quickly, closing the door with a -vigour which indicated little tolerance for invalid nerves.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Pollard stretched out a delicate white hand. -“Please come and sit near me,” she said, “and tell -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb180" href="#pb180" name= -"pb180">180</a>]</span>me about London. It is so long since I have had -any news from there. Perhaps you might be able——” she -broke off, and looked at the three strangers with a certain pathetic -eagerness.</p> -<p class="par">“I’ll take me bonnet off, ma’am, if -you’ll excuse me,” remarked Mrs Gosling. She felt at home -once more within the delightful shelter of a house, although slightly -overawed by the aspect of the room and its occupant. About both there -was an air of that class dignity to which Mrs Gosling knew she could -never attain. “I don’t know when I’ve felt the -’eat as I ’ave to-day,” she remarked politely.</p> -<p class="par">“Has it been hot?” asked Mrs Pollard. -“To me the days all seem so much alike. I want you to tell me, -were there any young men in London when you left? You haven’t -seen any young man who at all resembles this photograph, have -you?”</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling stared at the silver-framed photograph which -Mrs Pollard took from the table at her side, stared and shook her -head.</p> -<p class="par">“We haven’t seen a single man of any kind -for two months,” said Blanche, “not a single one. Have we, -Millie?”</p> -<p class="par">Millie, sitting rather stiffly on her chair, shook her -head. “It’s terrible,” she said. “I’m -sure I don’t know where they can have all gone to.”</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Pollard did not reply for a moment. She looked -steadfastly out of the window, and tears, which she made no attempt to -restrain, chased each other in little jerks down her smooth pale -cheeks. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb181" href="#pb181" name= -"pb181">181</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling pinched her mouth into an expression of -suffering sympathy, and shook her head at her daughters to enforce -silence. Was she not, also, a widow?</p> -<p class="par">After a short pause, Mrs Pollard fumbled in her lap and -discovered a black-bordered pocket-handkerchief—a reminiscence, -doubtless, of some earlier bereavement. Her expression had been in no -way distorted as she wept, and after the tears had been wiped away no -trace of them disfigured her delicate face. Her voice was still calm -and sweet as she said:</p> -<p class="par">“I am very foolish to go on hoping. I loved too -much, and this trial has been sent to teach me that all love but One is -vain, that I must not set my heart upon things of the earth. And yet I -go on hoping that my poor boy was not cut off in Sin.”</p> -<p class="par">“Dear, dear!” murmured Mrs Gosling. -“You musn’t take it to ’eart too much, ma’am. -Boys will be a little wild and no doubt our ’eavenly Father will -make excuses.”</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Pollard shook her head. “If it had only been a -little wildness,” she said, “I should have hope. He is, -indeed, just and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, but my -poor Alfred became tainted with the terrible doctrines of Rome. It has -been the greatest grief of my life, and I have known much -pain....” And again the tears slowly welled up and fell silently -down that smooth, unchanging face.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling sniffed sympathetically. The two girls -glanced at one another with slightly raised <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb182" href="#pb182" name= -"pb182">182</a>]</span>eyebrows and Blanche almost invisibly shrugged -her shoulders.</p> -<p class="par">The warm evening light threw the waxen-faced, -white-shawled figure of the woman in the window into high relief. Her -look of ecstatic resignation was that of some wonderful mediæval -saint returned from the age of vision and miracle to a recently -purified earth in which the old ideas of saintship had again become -possible. Her influence was upon the room in which she sat. The sounds -of the world outside, the evening chorus of wild life, the familiar -noise of the farm, seemed to blend into a remote music of -prayer—“Kyrie Eleison! Christe Eleison!” Within was a -great stillness, as of a thin and bloodless purity; the long -continuance of a single thought found some echo in every material -object. While the silence lasted everything in that room was responsive -to this single keynote of anæmic virtue.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling tried desperately to weep without noise, and -even the two girls, falling under the spell, ceased to glance covertly -at one another with that hint of criticism, but sat subdued and -weakened as if some element of life had been taken from them.</p> -<p class="par">The lips of the woman in the window moved noiselessly; -her hands were clasped in her lap. She was praying.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">4</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Firm and somewhat clumsy steps were heard in the -passage, the door was pushed roughly open, banging back against the -black oak chair which was set <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb183" -href="#pb183" name="pb183">183</a>]</span>behind it, and Aunt May -entered carrying a large tray.</p> -<p class="par">“Here’s your dinner, Fanny,” she said. -“We’ve done earlier to-night, in spite of -interruptions.<span class="corr" id="xd23e3206" title= -"Not in source">”</span> She bustled over to the little table in -the window, pushed back the Bible and photograph with the edge of the -tray until she could release one hand, and then, having driven the tray -into a position of safety, moved Bible and photograph to the centre -table.</p> -<p class="par">There was something protestingly vigorous about her -movements, as though she endeavoured to combat by noise and energy the -impoverished vitality of that emasculate room.</p> -<p class="par">“Now, you three!” she went on. “You -had better come out into the kitchen and take your things off and -wash.”</p> -<p class="par">As the Goslings rose, Mrs Pollard turned to them and -stretched out to each in turn her delicate white hand. “There is -only one Comforter.” she said. “Put your trust in -Him.”</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling gulped, and Blanche and Millie looked as -they used to look when they attended the Bible-classes held by the -vicar’s wife.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche gave a shiver of relief as they came out into -the passage. Her mind was suddenly filled by the astounding thought -that everything was not different....</p> -<p class="par">Supper was laid on the kitchen table—cold chicken, -potatoes and cabbage, stewed plums and cream, and warm, new milk in a -jug; no bread, no salt, and no pepper.</p> -<p class="par">As the three Goslings washed at the scullery sink -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb184" href="#pb184" name= -"pb184">184</a>]</span>they chattered freely. They felt pleasure at -release from some cold, draining influence; they felt as if they had -come out of church after some long, dull service, into the air and -sunlight.</p> -<p class="par">“I’m sure she’s a very ’oly -lady,” was Mrs Gosling’s final summary.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche shivered again. “Oh! freezing!” was -her enigmatic reply.</p> -<p class="par">Millie said it gave her “the creeps.”</p> -<p class="par">They were a party of seven at supper—the meal was -referred to as “supper,” although to Mrs Pollard it had -been dignified by the name of “dinner”—including two -young women whom the Goslings had not hitherto seen; strong, -brown-faced girls, who spoke with a country accent. They had something -still of the manner of servants, but they were treated as equals both -by Allie and Aunt May.</p> -<p class="par">There was little conversation during the meal, however, -for all of them were too intent on the business in hand. To the -Goslings that meal was, indeed, a banquet.</p> -<p class="par">When they had all finished, Aunt May rose at once. -“Thank Heaven for daylight,” she remarked; “but we -must set our brains to work to invent some light for the winter. We -haven’t a candle or a drop of oil left,” she went on, -addressing the Goslings, “and for the past five weeks we have had -to bustle to get everything done before sunset, I can tell you. Last -night we couldn’t wash up after supper.”</p> -<p class="par">“We know,” replied Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">Aunt May nodded. “We all know,” she said. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb185" href="#pb185" name= -"pb185">185</a>]</span>“Now, you three girls, get busy!” -And Allie and the two brown-faced young women rose a little -wearily.</p> -<p class="par">“I’m getting an old woman,” remarked -Aunt May, “and I’m allowed certain privileges, chief of -them that I don’t work after supper. She paused and looked keenly -at the three Goslings. “Which of you three is in command?” -she asked.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, it seems as if my eldest, Blanche, that is, -’as sort o’ taken the lead the past few days,” began -Mrs Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“Ah! I thought so,” said Aunt May. -“Well, now, Blanche, you’d better come out into the garden -and have a talk with me, and we’ll decide what you had better do. -If your mother and sister would like to go to bed, Allie will show them -where they can sleep.<span class="corr" id="xd23e3250" title= -"Not in source">”</span></p> -<p class="par">She moved away in the direction of the garden and -Blanche followed her. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb186" href= -"#pb186" name="pb186">186</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch14" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="divNum">XIV—</span>AUNT MAY</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The sun had set, but as yet the daylight was -scarcely faded. Under the trees the fowls muttered in subdued -cluckings, and occasionally one of them would flutter up into the lower -branches with a squawk of effort and then settle herself with a great -fluttering and swelling of feathers, and all the suggestion of a fussy -matron preparing for the night—preparing only, for these early -roosters sat open-eyed and watchful, as if they knew that there was no -chance of sleep for them until every member of that careless crowd -below had found its appointed place in the dormitory.</p> -<p class="par">“We put ’em inside in the winter,” -remarked Aunt May, as she and Blanche paused, “but they prefer -the trees. We haven’t any foxes here, but I’ve noticed that -the wild things seem to be coming back.”</p> -<p class="par">Blanche nodded. She was thinking how much there was to -learn concerning those matters which appertained to the production of -food.</p> -<p class="par">“They’re rather a poor lot,” Aunt May -continued, “but they have to forage for themselves, except for -the few bits of vegetable and such things we can spare them. -We’ve no corn or flour or meal of any kind for ourselves yet. But -a farmer’s wife <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb187" href= -"#pb187" name="pb187">187</a>]</span>about a mile from here has got a -few acres of wheat and barley coming on, and we shall help her to -harvest and take our share later. We shall be rich then,” she -added, with a smile.</p> -<p class="par">“I’m town-bred, you know,” said -Blanche. “We’ve got an awful lot to learn, Millie and -me.”</p> -<p class="par">“You’ll learn quickly enough,” was the -answer. “You’ll have to.”</p> -<p class="par">“I suppose,” returned Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">At the end of the orchard through which they had been -passing they came to a knoll, crowned by a great elm. Round the trunk -of the elm a rough seat had been fixed, and here Aunt May sat down with -a sigh of relief.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s a blessed thing to earn your own bread -day by day,” she said. “It’s a beautiful thing to -live near the earth and feel physically tired at night. It’s -delightful to be primitive and agricultural, and I love it. But I have -a civilized vice, Blanche. I have a store of cigarettes I stole from a -shop in Harrow, and every night when it’s fine I come out here -after supper and smoke three; and when it’s wet I smoke ’em -in my own bedroom, and—I dream. But to-night I’m going to -talk to you, because you want help.”</p> -<p class="par">She produced a cigarette case and matches from a side -pocket of her jacket, lit a cigarette, inhaled the smoke with a long -gasp of intensest enjoyment, and then said: “Men weren’t -fools, my dear; they had pockets in their coats.”</p> -<p class="par">“Yes?” said Blanche. She felt puzzled and a -little awkward. She knew that this woman was a <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb188" href="#pb188" name= -"pb188">188</a>]</span>friend, but the girl’s town-bred, -objective mind was critical and embarrassed.</p> -<p class="par">“Do you smoke?” asked Aunt May. “I can -spare you a cigarette, though I know the time must come when there -won’t be any more. Still, it’s a long way off yet. Bless -the clever man who invented air-tight tins!”</p> -<p class="par">“No, I don’t smoke, thanks,” replied -Blanche, conventionally; and, try as she would, she could not keep some -hint of stiffness out of her voice. Modern manners take a long time to -influence suburban homes of the Wisteria Grove type.</p> -<p class="par">“Ah! well, you miss a lot!” said Aunt May; -“but you’re better without it, especially now, when tobacco -isn’t easy to get, and will soon be impossible.”</p> -<p class="par">“But do you think,” asked Blanche, drawing -her eyebrows together, “that this sort of thing is going on -always?”</p> -<p class="par">“I dare say. Don’t ask me, my dear; the -problem’s beyond me. What we poor women have got to do is to keep -ourselves alive in the meantime. And that’s what we’ve come -out here to talk about. What about your mother and you two girls? Where -are you going? And what are you proposing to do?”</p> -<p class="par">“<i>I</i> don’t know,” said Blanche. -“I—I’ve been trying to think.”</p> -<p class="par">“Good!” remarked Aunt May. “I believe -you’ll do. I’m doubtful about your sister.”</p> -<p class="par">“We’ll have to work on a farm, I -suppose.”</p> -<p class="par">“It’s the only way to live.”</p> -<p class="par">“Only where?” <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb189" href="#pb189" name="pb189">189</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“That’s what I’ve been trying to worry -out,” said Aunt May. “We do get news here, of a sort. Our -girls work in Mrs Jordan’s fields, and meet girls and women who -come from Pinner, and the Pinner people hear news from Northwood, and -the Northwood people from somewhere else; and so we get into touch with -half a county. But, coming to your affairs; you see, we here are just -the innermost circle. Most of the women who came from London missed -this place and passed us by, thanks be!... Now, that poor unfortunate -Miss Grant, down the road, had to defend herself with weapons. -Fortunately she’s strong.”</p> -<p class="par">“Is Miss Grant the awful woman with the -broomstick?” asked Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">“She’s not really awful, my dear,” -said Aunt May, smiling; “she’s a very good sort. A little -rough in her manners, perhaps, and quite mad about the uselessness of -the creatures we used to know as men, but a fine, generous, unselfish -woman, if she does boast of her three murders. Did she tell you that, -by the way?”</p> -<p class="par">Blanche nodded.</p> -<p class="par">“She would, of course; and I believe it’s -true; but her theory was to defend her own people. She said -they’d <i>all</i> have died if she hadn’t. I’m not -sure about the ethic, but I know dear old Sally Grant meant well. -However, I’m wandering—I often do when I talk like this. -The point was that just this little circle here, close to London, is -very thickly populated, and there’s precious little food ready to -be got any way; but you’ll have to pass through the <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb190" href="#pb190" name= -"pb190">190</a>]</span>country beyond Pinner before you’ll find a -place where they’ll give you work and keep you. There’s a -surplus in the next ring, I gather, too much labour and too little to -grow. You’ll have to push out into the Chilterns, out to Amersham -at the nearest. It’s all on the main road, of course, which is -bad in a general way, because that’s the road they all took. But -I think if you’ll cut across towards Wycombe you might, perhaps, -find a place of some sort, though whether they’ll feed your -mother free gratis I can’t say. Women are of all sorts, but this -plague hasn’t made ’em more friendly to one another, or -perhaps it is we notice it more, and the worst of the lot are the -farmers’ wives and daughters who’ve got the land. They get -turned out, though, sometimes. We hear about it. The London women have -made raids; only, you see, the poor dears don’t know what to do -with the land when they get it, so they have to keep the few who do -know to teach ’em—when they’re sensible -enough—the raiders, I mean. They aren’t always.”</p> -<p class="par">“It’ll be an adventure,” remarked -Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">Aunt May threw away the very short end of her second -cigarette and lighted her third. “Adventure will do you -good,” she said.</p> -<p class="par">It was nearly dark under the elm. The things of the -night were coming out. Occasionally a cockchafer would go humming past -them, the bats were flitting swiftly and silently about the orchard, -and presently an owl swept by in one great stride of soundless -flight.</p> -<p class="par">“How they are all coming back!” murmured -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb191" href="#pb191" name= -"pb191">191</a>]</span>Aunt May. “All the wild things. I never -saw an owl here before this year.”</p> -<p class="par">“I should be frightened if you weren’t -here,” said Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">“Nothing to be frightened of, yet.”</p> -<p class="par">“Yet?”</p> -<p class="par">“In a few years’ time, perhaps. I -don’t know. We killed a wild cat who came after the chickens a -few days ago. The cats have gone back already, and the dogs -aren’t so respectful as they used to be. The dogs’ll -interbreed, I suppose, and evolve a common form—strike some kind -of average in a beast which will be somewhere near the ancestral type, -smaller, probably, I don’t know. It’s a wonderful world, -and very interesting. I could almost wish man wouldn’t return for -twenty years or so—just to see how much of his handiwork Nature -could undo in the interval. I often think about it out here in the -evenings.”</p> -<p class="par">“I wish I knew more about it,” said Blanche -timidly. “Are there any books, do you know, -that——”</p> -<p class="par">“You won’t want books, my dear. Keep your -eyes open and think.”</p> -<p class="par">They lapsed into silence again. The third cigarette was -finished, but Aunt May gave no indication of a desire to get back to -the house, and Blanche’s mind was so excited with all the new -ideas which were pouring in upon her that she had forgotten her -tiredness.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s awfully interesting,” she said -at last. “It’s all so different. Mother and Millie hate it, -and they’d <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb192" href="#pb192" -name="pb192">192</a>]</span>like all the old things back; but I -don’t think I would.”</p> -<p class="par">“You’re all right. You’ll do,” -replied her companion. “You’re one of the new sort, though -you might never have found it out if it hadn’t been for the -plague. Now, your sister will do one of two things, in my opinion; -either she’ll stop in some place where there’s a -man—there’s one at Wycombe, by the way—and have -children, or she’ll turn religious.”</p> -<p class="par">Blanche was about to ask a question, but Aunt May -stopped her. “Never mind about the man, my dear,” she said. -“You’ll learn quickly enough. It’s like Heaven now, -you see—no marrying or giving in marriage. With one man to every -thousand women or so, what can you expect? It’s no good kicking -against it. It’s got to be. That’s where -Fanny——” She broke off suddenly, with a little snort -of impatience. “I think to-night’s an exception,” she -went on. “I like talking to you, and one simply can’t talk -to Allie yet, so just to-night I’ll have one more.” She -took out her cigarette case with a touch of impatience.</p> -<p class="par">It was dark under the elm now, and she had to hold up -her cigarette case close to her face in order to see the contents. -“Two more,” she announced. “It’s a festival, -and for once I can speak my mind to some one. An imprudence, perhaps, -like this habit of smoking, but I shall probably never see you again, -and I’m sure you won’t tell.”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, no!” interposed Blanche eagerly.</p> -<p class="par">“You’re not tired? You don’t want to -go to bed?” <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb193" href="#pb193" -name="pb193">193</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Not a bit. I love being out here.”</p> -<p class="par">“I can’t see you, but I know you’re -speaking the truth,” said Aunt May, after a pause. “In the -darkness and silence of the night I will make a confession. I look -weather-worn and fifty, I know, but I feel absurdly romantic, only -there’s no man in this case. I used to write novels, my -dear—an absurd thing for any spinster to do, but they paid, and -I’ve got the itch for self-expression. That’s the one -outlet I miss in this new world of ours. Sally Grant and I can’t -agree, and, in any case, she wants to do all the talking. And sometimes -I’m idiot enough to go on writing little bits even now when I -have become a capable, practical woman with at least four lives -dependent upon me. Well, it shows, anyhow, that we writing women -weren’t all fools....” She hung on that for a moment or -two, and then continued.</p> -<p class="par">“Are you religious?”</p> -<p class="par">“I don’t know—I suppose so. We always -went to Church at home,” said Blanche. “I thought every one -was, almost. Not quite like Mrs Pollard, of course.”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, well!” said Aunt May. -“There’s no harm and a lot of good in being religious, if -you go about it in the right way. I don’t want to change your -opinions, my dear. It’s just a question to me of the right way. -And I <i>can’t</i> see that Fanny’s way is right. Here we -are, and we’ve got to make the best of it; and to my mind that -means facing life, and not shutting yourself into one room with a Bible -and spending half your time on your knees. Fanny never <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb194" href="#pb194" name="pb194">194</a>]</span>was -good for much. She brought up Alfred—my nephew, you -know—with only one idea, and she stuffed him so full of holiness -that the English Church couldn’t hold him, and he had to work -some of it off by going over to Rome. He thought he’d have better -chances of saintship there. He was a poor, pale thing, anyway. Of -course, that was anathema to Fanny. She might have forgiven him for -committing a murder, but to become a Roman Catholic——! Oh, -Lord! She’s been praying for him ever since. And, my dear, what -difference can it make? Alfred’s apostasy, I mean. Do you think -it matters what particular form of worship or pettifogging details of -belief you adopt? Why can’t the Churches take each other for -granted, and be generous enough to suppose that all roads lead to -Heaven, which is, according to all accounts, a much better place than -Rome? But, oh! above all, if you have a religion, do be practical! Come -out and do your work, instead of sighing and psalm-singing, and -wearying dumb Heaven with fulsome praise and lamentations of your -unworthiness, as if you were trying to propitiate a rich customer!</p> -<p class="par">“There, my dear, I won’t say any more. My -last cigarette’s done, and wasted, because I was too excited to -enjoy it. I know I’ve been disloyal; but it’s my -temperament. I could slap Fanny sometimes. And she shan’t have -Allie.... It’s the night that has affected me. To-morrow I shall -be just as practical as ever, and you’ll forget that you’ve -seen this side of me. Come along. We must go to bed.”</p> -<p class="par">“This is the greatest night of my life,” -thought <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb195" href="#pb195" name= -"pb195">195</a>]</span>Blanche as they walked back in silence to the -house.</p> -<p class="par">Even when she was in bed, she did not go to sleep at -once. She lay and listened to the heavy breathing of her mother and -Millie, and she wondered. Everything, indeed, was different, but -everybody was just the same, only, in some curious way, individualities -seemed more pronounced.</p> -<p class="par">Could it be that everybody was more natural, that there -was less restraint?</p> -<p class="par">Blanche was not introspective. She did not test the -theory on herself. She thought of the women she had met that day, and -of her mother and Millie.</p> -<p class="par">She fell asleep, determined to be more like Aunt May. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb196" href="#pb196" name= -"pb196">196</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch15" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="divNum">XV—</span>FROM SUDBURY TO -WYCOMBE</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">1</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Allie knocked on the Goslings’ door at -sunrise the next morning, and Blanche, who had come to bed two hours -after her mother and sister, was the only one to respond. She woke with -the feeling that she had something important to do, and that the affair -was in some way pleasant and inspiring.</p> -<p class="par">Millie was not easily roused. She had slept heavily, and -did not approve the suggestion that she should get up and dress -herself.</p> -<p class="par">“All right, B., all right!” she mumbled, and -cuddled down under the bedclothes like a dormouse into its straw.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! do get up!” urged Blanche, impatiently, -and at last resorted to physical force.</p> -<p class="par">“What <i>is</i> the matter?” snapped Millie, -struggling to maintain her hold of the blankets. “Why -<i>can’t</i> you leave me alone?”</p> -<p class="par">“Because it’s time to get up, lazy!” -said Blanche, continuing the struggle.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, I said I’d get up in a -minute.”</p> -<p class="par">“Well, get up then.”</p> -<p class="par">“In a minute.”</p> -<p class="par">“No—now!”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, bother!” said Millie.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche succeeded at last in obtaining possession of the -blankets. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb197" href="#pb197" name= -"pb197">197</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“You’ll wake mother!” was -Millie’s last, desperate shaft.</p> -<p class="par">“I’m going to try,” replied -Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">Millie sat up in the bed and wondered vaguely where she -was. These scenes had often been enacted at Wisteria Grove, and her -mind had gone back to those delightful days of peace and security. When -full consciousness returned to her, she was half inclined to cry, and -more than half inclined to go to sleep again.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling was quite as difficult.</p> -<p class="par">“What’s the time?” was her first -question.</p> -<p class="par">“I don’t know,” said Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">“I’m sure it’s not seven,” -murmured Mrs Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">Millie, still sitting on the bed, wondered whether -Blanche would let her get to the blankets which were tumbled on the -floor a few feet away.</p> -<p class="par">“No, you don’t!” exclaimed Blanche, -anticipating the attempt.</p> -<p class="par">Finally she lost her temper and shook her mother -vigorously.</p> -<p class="par">At that, Mrs Gosling sat up suddenly and stared at her. -“What in ’eaven’s name’s wrong, gel?” she -asked. Her instinct told her with absolute certainty that it was still -the middle of the night by Wisteria Grove standards.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! my goodness! I’m going to have my hands -full with you two!” broke out Blanche impatiently. Her -imagination pictured for her in that instant how great the trouble -would be. She would never be able to wake them up.... <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb198" href="#pb198" name="pb198">198</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">They took the road before eight o’clock. Aunt May -was generous in the matter of eggs and fruit, and she left her many -urgent duties to point the way for the inexperienced explorers.</p> -<p class="par">“Get right out as far as you can,” was her -parting word of advice.</p> -<p class="par">They did not see Mrs Pollard again. She was still in bed -when they set out.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">2</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Despite the promise of another cloudless day, none -of the three travellers set out in high spirits. To all of them, even -to Blanche, it seemed a return to weariness and pain to start out once -more pushing that abominable truck. That truck represented all their -troubles. It had become associated with all the discomforts they had -endured since they left the Putney house. It indicated the paucity of -their possessions, and yet it was intolerably heavy to push. After -their brief return to the comfort and stability of a home and natural -food, this adventuring out into the inhospitable country appeared more -hopeless than ever. If they could have gone without the truck, they -might, at least, have avoided that feeling of horrible certainty. They -might have cheated themselves into the belief that they would return. -The truck was the brand of their vagabondage.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling did not spare her lamentations concerning -the hopelessness of their endeavour, and <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb199" href="#pb199" name="pb199">199</a>]</span>gave it as her -opinion that they had been most heartlessly treated by Aunt May.</p> -<p class="par">“Turning out a woman of my age into the -roads,” she grumbled. “She might ’ave kept us a day -or two, I should ’ave thought. It ain’t as if we were -beggars. We could ’ave paid for what we ’ad.”</p> -<p class="par">She had, indeed, made the suggestion and been repulsed. -Aunt May had firmly put the offer on one side without explanation. She -understood that explanations would be wasted on Mrs Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">Millie was inclined to agree with her mother.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche, at the handle, did not interrupt the statement -of their grievances. She was occupied with the problem of the future, -trying to think out some plan in her own confused inconsecutive -way.</p> -<p class="par">Their progress was tediously slow. Against the combined -brake of the truck and Mrs Gosling, they did not average two miles an -hour; and even before they came to Pinner it was becoming obvious to -the two girls that they might as well let their mother ride on the -trolly as allow her to lean her weight upon it as she walked.</p> -<p class="par">They took the road through Wealdstone to avoid the hill -and found that they were still in the track of one wing of the foraging -army which had preceded them. That first rush of emigrants had ravaged -the stores and houses as locusts will ravage a stretch of country. The -suburb of regular villas and prim shops had been completely looted. -Doors stood open and windows were smashed; the spread of ugly houses -lay among the fields like an unwholesome eruption, awaiting the healing -process of Nature. Wealdstone <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb200" -href="#pb200" name="pb200">200</a>]</span>also was deserted by -humanity. The flood had swept on towards the open country.</p> -<p class="par">But as they approached Pinner the signs of devastation -and desertion began to give way. Here and there women could be seen -working in the fields; one or two children scuttled away before the -approach of the Goslings and hid in the hedges, children who had -evidently grown furtive and suspicious, intimidated by the experiences -of the past two months; and when the outlying houses were -reached—detached suburban villas, once occupied by relatively -wealthy middle-class employers—it was evident that efforts were -being made to restore the wreckage of kitchen gardens.</p> -<p class="par">The Goslings had reached the point at which the wave had -broken after its great initial energy was spent. Somewhere about this -fifteen-mile limit, varying somewhat according to local conditions, the -real disintegration of the crowd had begun. As the numerous tokens of -the road had shown, a great number of women and children—possibly -one-fifth of the whole crowd—had died of starvation and disease -before any harbour was reached. From this fifteen-mile circle outwards, -an increasing number had been stayed in their flight by the -opportunities of obtaining food. Work was urgently demanded for the -future, but the determining factor was the present supply of food, and -the constriction of immediate supply had decided the question of how -great a proportion of the women and children should remain. Here, about -Pinner, was more land than the limited number of workers could till, -but little <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb201" href="#pb201" name= -"pb201">201</a>]</span>of it was arable, and this year there would be -almost no harvest of grain.</p> -<p class="par">Vaguely, Blanche realized this. She remembered Aunt -May’s advice to keep her eyes open, and looking about her as she -walked she found little promise of security in the grass fields and the -rare signs of human activity.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling, eager to find some home at any price, -expressed her usual optimistic opinion with regard to the value of -money. She saw signs of life again, at last, conditions familiar to -her. She thought that they were returning once more to some kind of -recognizable civilization, and began, with some renewal of her old -vigour, to advise that they should find an hotel or inn and take -“a good look round” before going any further.</p> -<p class="par">Millie, heartened by her mother’s belief, was of -much the same opinion, and Blanche was summoned from the pole to listen -to the proposition.</p> -<p class="par">She shook her head stubbornly.</p> -<p class="par">“I’m not going to argue it out all over -again,” she said. “You can just look round and see for -yourselves that there’s no food to be got here. We must get -further out.”</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling refused to be convinced, and advanced her -superior knowledge of the world to support her judgment of the -case.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! very well,” said Blanche, at last. -“Come on to the inn and see for yourselves.”</p> -<p class="par">The inn, however, was deserted. All its available supply -of food, solid and liquid, had long been exhausted, and the gardenless -house had offered no <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb202" href="#pb202" -name="pb202">202</a>]</span>particular attractions as a residence. -Houses were cheap in that place, the whole population of Pinner, -including children, did not exceed three hundred persons.</p> -<p class="par">They found a woman working in a garden near by, and she, -with perhaps unnecessary harshness, warned them that they could not -stay in the village. “There’s not enough food for us as it -is,” she said, and made some reference to “silly -Londoners.”</p> -<p class="par">That was an expression with which the Goslings were to -become very familiar in the near future.</p> -<p class="par">The appeal for pity fell on deaf ears. Mrs Gosling -learned that she was only one of many thousands who had made the same -appeal.</p> -<p class="par">The sun was high in the sky as they trudged out of -Pinner on the road towards Northwood. It was then Blanche suggested -that her mother should always ride on the trolly, except when they were -facing a hill; and after a few weak protestations the suggestion was -accepted. The trolly was lightened of various useless articles of -furniture—a grudging sacrifice on the part of Mrs -Gosling—and the party pushed on at a slightly improved pace.</p> -<p class="par">After her disappointment in Pinner, Mrs Gosling’s -interest in life began rapidly to decline. Seated in her truck, she -fell into long fits of brooding on the past. She was too old and too -stereotyped to change, the future held no hope for her, and as the -meaning and purpose of her existence faded, the life forces within her -surely and ever more rapidly ebbed. Reality to her became the -discomfort of the sun’s heat, the dust of the road, the creak and -scream <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb203" href="#pb203" name= -"pb203">203</a>]</span>of the trolly wheels. She was incapable of -relating herself to the great scheme of life, her consciousness was -limited, as it had always been limited, to her immediate surroundings. -She saw herself as a woman outrageously used by fate, but to fate she -gave no name; the very idea, indeed, was too abstract to be appreciated -by her. Blanche, Millie and that horrible truck were all that was left -of her world, and in spirit she still moved in the beloved, familiar -places of her suburban home.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">3</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">As the Goslings trudged out into the Chilterns -they came into new conditions. Soon they found over-crowding in place -of desolation. The harvest was ripening and in a month’s time the -demand for labour would almost equal the supply, for the labour offered -was quite absurdly unskilled and ten women would be required to perform -the work of one man equipped with machines. But at the end of July the -surplus of women, almost exclusively Londoners, had no employment and -little food, and many were living on grass, nettles, leaves, any green -stuff they could boil and eat, together with such scraps of meat and -vegetables as they could steal or beg. Their experiments with wild -green stuffs often resulted in some form of poisoning, and dysentery -and starvation were rapidly increasing the mortality among them. -Nevertheless, in Rickmansworth houses were still at a premium, and many -of those who camped perforce in fields or by the roadside <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb204" href="#pb204" name="pb204">204</a>]</span>were -too enfeebled by town-life to stand the exposure of the occasional -cold, wet nights. The majority of the women in this ring were those who -had been too weak to struggle on. They represented the class least -fitted to adapt themselves to the new conditions. The stronger and more -capable had persisted, and left these congested areas behind them; and -it was evident that in a very few months a balance between labour and -supply would be struck by the relentless extermination of the weakest -by starvation and disease.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche, if she was unable to grasp the problem which -was being so inevitably solved by the forces of natural law, was at -least able to recognize clearly enough that she and her two dependents -must not linger in the district to which they had now come. Aunt May -had warned her that she must push out as far as Amersham at the -nearest, but Millie was too tired and footsore to go much further than -Rickmansworth that night, and after a fruitless search for shelter they -camped out half a mile from the town in the direction of Chorley -Wood.</p> -<p class="par">They made some kind of a shield from the weather by -emptying and tilting the trolly, and they hid their supply of food -behind them at the lowest point of this species of lean-to roof. The -two girls had realized that that supply would soon be raided if the -fact of its existence were to become known. They had been the object of -much scrutiny as they passed, and their appearance of well-being had -prompted endless demands for food, from that pitiful crowd of emaciated -women and children. It had been a demand <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb205" href="#pb205" name="pb205">205</a>]</span>quickly put on one -side by lying. Their applicants found it only too easy to believe that -the Goslings had no food hidden in the truck.</p> -<p class="par">“I hated to refuse some of ’em,” -Blanche said as they carefully hid what food was left to them, before -turning in for the night, “but what good would our little bit -have done among all that lot? It would have been gone in half a -jiff.”</p> -<p class="par">“Well, of course,” agreed Millie.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Gosling had taken little notice of the starving -crowd. “We’ve got nothin’ to give you,” was her -one form of reply. She might have been dealing with hawkers in Wisteria -Grove.</p> -<p class="par">She was curiously apathetic all that afternoon and -evening, and raised only the feeblest protestation against the -necessity for sleeping in the open air. But she was very restless -during the night, her limbs twitched and she moved continually, -muttering and sometimes crying out. And as the three women were all -huddled together, partly to make the most of their somewhat -insufficient lean-to, and partly because they were afraid of the -terrors of the open air, both Blanche and Millie were constantly -aroused by their mother’s movements. Once they heard her calling -urgently for “George.”</p> -<p class="par">“Mother’s odd, isn’t she?” -whispered Blanche after one such disturbance. “Do you think -she’s going to be ill?”</p> -<p class="par">“Shouldn’t wonder,” muttered Millie. -“Who wouldn’t be?”</p> -<p class="par">In the morning Blanche was very careful with their food. -For breakfast they ate only part of a tin of <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb206" href="#pb206" name= -"pb206">206</a>]</span>condensed beef between them—Mrs Gosling -indeed ate hardly anything. The eggs which they had brought from -Sudbury they reserved, chiefly because they had neither water nor -fire.</p> -<p class="par">They drank from a stream, later, and at midday Blanche -and Millie each ate one of the eggs raw. Mrs Gosling refused all food -on this occasion. She had been very quiet all the morning, and had made -little complaint when she had been forced to walk the many hills which -they were now encountering.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche was uneasy and tried to induce her mother to -talk. “Do you feel bad, mother?” she asked continually.</p> -<p class="par">“I wish I could get ’ome,” was all the -reply she received.</p> -<p class="par">“She’ll be all right when we can get settled -somewhere,” grumbled Millie. “If such a time ever -comes.”</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">4</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">They came to Amersham in the afternoon. The signs -of misery and starvation were here less marked. They were approaching -the outer edge of this ring of compression, having passed through the -node at Rickmansworth. The faint relief of pressure was evidenced to -some extent in the attitude of the people they addressed. It is true -that no immediate hope of food and employment were held out to them, -but on the one hand Blanche’s inquiries were answered with less -acerbity and on the other they were less besieged by importunate -demands for charity. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb207" href="#pb207" -name="pb207">207</a>]</span>Blanche gave an egg to one precocious girl -of thirteen or so, who insisted on helping them to push the truck -uphill, and she and Millie watched the deft way in which the child -broke the shell at one end and sucked out the contents. Their own -methods had been both unclean and wasteful.</p> -<p class="par">They turned off the Aylesbury Road, towards High Wycombe -late in the afternoon and about a mile from Amersham came to a farm -where they made their last inquiry that day.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche saw signs of life in the outbuildings and went -to investigate, leaving Millie and her mother to guard the truck. She -found three women and a girl of fourteen or so milking. For some -minutes she stood watching them, the women, after one glance at her, -proceeding with their work without paying her any further attention. -But, at last, the eldest of the three rose from her stool with a sigh -of relief, picked up her wooden bucket of milk, gave the cow a -resounding slap on the side, and then, turning to Blanche, said, -“Well, my gal, what’s for you?”</p> -<p class="par">“Will you change two pints of milk for a small tin -of tongue?” asked Blanche. It was the first time she had offered -any of their precious tinned meats in exchange for other food, but she -wanted milk for her mother, who had hardly eaten anything that day.</p> -<p class="par">The two other women and the girl looked round and -regarded Blanche with the first signs of interest they had shown.</p> -<p class="par">“Tongue, eh?” said the older woman. -“Where from did you get tongue, my gal?”</p> -<p class="par">“London,” replied Blanche tersely. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb208" href="#pb208" name= -"pb208">208</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“When did you leave there?” asked the woman, -and then Blanche was engaged in a series of searching questions -respecting the country she had passed through.</p> -<p class="par">“You can have the milk if you’ve anything to -put it in,” said the woman at last, and Blanche went to fetch the -tongue and the two bottles that they had had from Aunt May.</p> -<p class="par">The bottles had to be scalded, a precaution that had not -occurred to Blanche, and one of the other women was sent to carry out -the operation.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, your tale don’t tell us much,” -said the woman of the farm, “but we always pass the news here, -now. Where are you going to sleep to-night?”</p> -<p class="par">Blanche shrugged her shoulders.</p> -<p class="par">“You can sleep here in the outhouses, if -you’ve a mind to,” said the woman, “but I warn you we -get a crowd. Silly Londoners like yourself for the most part, but we -find a use for ’em somehow, though I’d give the lot for -three labourers.”</p> -<p class="par">She paused and twisted her mouth on one side -reflectively. “Ah! well,” she went on with a sigh, -“no use grieving over them that’s gone; all I was -goin’ to say was, if you sleep here you’d better keep an -eye on what food you’ve got with you. My lot’ll have it -before you can say knife, if they get half a chance.”</p> -<p class="par">“It isn’t us girls, me and my sister,” -explained Blanche. “It’s my mother. She’s bad, -I’m afraid. If she could sleep in your kitchen...? <i>She</i> -wouldn’t steal anything.”</p> -<p class="par">After a short hesitation the woman consented. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb209" href="#pb209" name= -"pb209">209</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Yet neither the glory of being once more within the four -walls of a house, nor the refreshment of the milk which she drank -readily enough, seemed appreciably to rouse Mrs Gosling’s -spirits.</p> -<p class="par">The woman of the farm, a kindly enough creature, plied -the old lady with questions, but received few and confused answers in -reply. Mrs Gosling seemed dazed and stupid. “A touch of the -sun,” the farmer’s widow thought.</p> -<p class="par">“The sun’s been cruel strong the past -week,” she said, “but she’ll be all right in a day or -two, get her to shelter.”</p> -<p class="par">“Ah! that’s the trouble,” said -Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">That night the farmer’s widow said no more on that -subject. She allowed the three Goslings to sleep in an upstair room, in -which there was one small bed for the mother, and the two girls slept -on the floor. Exchanging confidence for confidence, they brought their -truck into the kitchen; and then the farmer’s widow proceeded to -lock up for the night, an elaborate business, which included the -fastening of all ground-floor windows and shutters.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s a thievin’ crowd we’ve got -about here,” she explained, “and you can’t blame them -or anyone when there ain’t enough food to go round. But we have -to be careful for ’em. Let ’em go their own way and -they’d eat up everything in a week and then starve. It looks like -<span class="corr" id="xd23e3626" title= -"Source: your">you’re</span> being hard on ’em, but -it’s for their own good. There’s some, of course,” -she went on, “as you have got to get shut of. Only yesterday I -had to send one of ’em packing. A Jew <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb210" href="#pb210" name= -"pb210">210</a>]</span>woman she was, called ’erself Mrs Isaacson -or something. She was a caution.”</p> -<p class="par">Blanche wondered idly if this were the same Mrs Isaacson -who had stayed too long with Aunt May.</p> -<p class="par">The woman of the farm roused the Goslings at sunrise, -and she, like Aunt May, had a brisk, practical, morning manner.</p> -<p class="par">She gave the travellers no more food, but when they were -nearly ready to take the road again she gave them one valuable piece of -information.</p> -<p class="par">“If I was you,” she said, “I’d -make through Wycombe straight along the road here, and go up over the -hill to Marlow. Mind you, they won’t let every one stop there. -But you look two healthy gals enough and it’s getting on towards -harvest when there’ll be work as you <i>can</i> do.”</p> -<p class="par">“Marlow?” repeated Blanche, fixing the name -in her memory.</p> -<p class="par">The farmer’s widow nodded. “There’s a -man there,” she said. “A queer sort, by all accounts. Not -like Sam Evans, the butcher at Wycombe, he ain’t. Seems as this -Marlow chap don’t have no truck with gals, except setting -’em to work. However, time’ll show. He may change his mind -yet.”</p> -<p class="par">They had some difficulty with Mrs Gosling. She refused -feebly to leave the house. “I ain’t fit to go out,” -she complained, and when they insisted she asked if they were going -home.</p> -<p class="par">“Best say ‘yes,’” whispered the -woman of the farm. “The sun’s got to her head a bit. -She’ll be all right when you get her to Marlow.”</p> -<p class="par">Blanche accepted the suggestion, and by this subterfuge -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb211" href="#pb211" name= -"pb211">211</a>]</span>Mrs Gosling was persuaded into the truck. The -girl found the ruins of an umbrella, which they rigged up to protect -her from the sun.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche and Millie were quite convinced now that their -mother was suffering from a slight attack of sunstroke.</p> -<p class="par">Both the girls were still footsore, and one of -Millie’s boots had worn into a hole, but they had a definite -objective at last, and only some ten or twelve miles to travel before -reaching it.</p> -<p class="par">“We shall be there by midday,” said Blanche, -hopefully.</p> -<p class="par">Unconsciously, every one was using a new measure of -time. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb212" href="#pb212" name= -"pb212">212</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch16" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="divNum">XVI—</span>THE YOUNG -BUTCHER OF HIGH WYCOMBE</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">1</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Near Wycombe a woman rose from under the hedge as -the Goslings approached, and came out into the middle of the road. She -was a stout, florid woman, whose age might have been anything between -forty and fifty. Her gait and the droop of her shoulders, rather than -the flaccidity of her rather loose skin, gave her the appearance of -being past middle age.</p> -<p class="par">“Goot morning,” she said as the Goslings -came up. “If it iss no inconvenience I would like to come with -you.” She spoke with a foreign accent, thickening her final -consonants and giving a different value to some of her vowels.</p> -<p class="par">“Where to?” asked Blanche curtly.</p> -<p class="par">“Ah! that! what does it matter?” returned -the woman. “I have been living with a farmer’s wife further -back along the road there. But she was not company for me. She was -common. Now I see that you and your mother are not common. And I do not -care to live with farmers’ wives. But where we go? Does it -matter? We all go to find work in the fields—aristocrat as much -as peasant. But iss it not better that we who are not peasants should -go together?” <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb213" href="#pb213" -name="pb213">213</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Millie giggled surreptitiously, and Mrs Gosling appeared -conscious of the fact that some one was addressing them.</p> -<p class="par">“We’re goin’ ’ome,” she -remarked, and Millie gently prodded her in the back.</p> -<p class="par">“Goin’ ’ome,” repeated Mrs -Gosling firmly.</p> -<p class="par">“Ach! You are lucky. There are few that have homes -now,” replied the strange woman. “I had a home, once, how -long ago. Now, during two months, I have no home.” She was -evidently on the verge of tears.</p> -<p class="par">“Mother’s got a touch of the sun,” -Blanche said in a low voice, “and we have to pretend we’re -going home. You needn’t tell her we’re not.”</p> -<p class="par">“Have no fear,” replied the stranger. -“I am all that is most discreet, yes.”</p> -<p class="par">Blanche hardened her heart. This woman took too much for -granted. “I don’t see it’s any use your coming with -us,” she said.</p> -<p class="par">“Ach! we others, we should cling together,” -said the stranger, with a large gesture.</p> -<p class="par">“We’re nobody,” replied Blanche, -curtly.</p> -<p class="par">“It iss well to say that. I know. There iss good -reason. I, too, must tell the common people that I am a nobody, I call -myself, even, Mrs Isaacson. But between us there iss no need to say -what iss not true. I can see what you are. Although I am not English, I -have lived many years already in England, and I can see. It iss well -that we cling together? Yes?”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh!” burst out Blanche. “You’re -Mrs Isaacson, are you? I’ve heard of you.” <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb214" href="#pb214" name="pb214">214</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">For one moment Mrs Isaacson’s fine eyes seemed to -look inwards in an instantaneous review of her past. “Ach! so! -Then we are friends already,” she said cautiously.</p> -<p class="par">“I heard of you from Aunt May,” said -Blanche, and the faint air of respect with which she pronounced the -name did not escape the notice of the alert Jewess.</p> -<p class="par">“Ach! the so dear and so clever Auntie May,” -she said. “But she iss too kind, and work so hard while her -sister do always nothing. See, I will help you to draw your poor mother -who has a touch of the sun. You and I at the handle and your beautiful -sister to push, while we talk a little of the clever Auntie May. -Yes?”</p> -<p class="par">Blanche had been forewarned. She could only put one -construction on the little she had heard of Mrs Isaacson. But the -Jewess’s manner no less than her conversation was subtly -flattering. Moreover, she had made no appeal for help; finally there -was a certain urgency about her, a force of will which Blanche found it -difficult to resist. And as the girl still hesitated Mrs Isaacson -bravely seized her side of the trolly handle and the procession moved -on.</p> -<p class="par">The Goslings found a use for her when they came to the -drop of Amersham Hill, going down into High Wycombe. Blanche proposed -that Mrs Gosling should walk down, but the old lady did not seem to -understand her. She looked perplexed and kept saying, “I -don’t remember this road. Are you sure we’re goin’ -right, Blanche?”</p> -<p class="par">“Ah! she must not walk in this heat,” put in -Mrs <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb215" href="#pb215" name= -"pb215">215</a>]</span>Isaacson. “We three can manage very -well.” And, indeed, although she manifestly suffered greatly from -the exertion, the Jewess was of very great assistance in retarding the -speed of the trolly as they made the perilous descent.</p> -<p class="par">After that there could be no question of calmly telling -her to go her own way.</p> -<p class="par">By the time they had crossed the almost deserted -town—at that hour nearly all the women were either in their -houses or working in gardens and fields—and had found their way -to the Marlow road, Mrs Isaacson had quite become one of the party, and -by no means the least energetic.</p> -<p class="par">“We’ll have something to eat and some milk, -when we get through the town,” said Blanche as they faced the -long hill up to Handy Cross.</p> -<p class="par">“Presently, presently,” replied the heaving -Mrs Isaacson, as though food were of little importance to her, but -accepting the admission that she had earned the right to share equally -with the others.</p> -<p class="par">Their first burst of energy after they had faced the -ascent brought them to the gates of Wycombe Abbey, and there they -decided to rest and lunch, blissfully ignorant of the long climb which -lay before them.</p> -<p class="par">“It will be nice and quiet here in the -shade,” suggested Mrs Isaacson.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">2</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The old conventions would not have suffered them -to sit and eat thus under the walls, at the <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb216" href="#pb216" name="pb216">216</a>]</span>very -gates of Wycombe Abbey. Their clothes and their boots were wearing -badly, and Mrs Isaacson, at least, was not too clean. It was -noticeable, however, that, despite the dryness of the weather, little -dust clung to them. The surface of the roads had not been pounded and -crushed into powder during the past six weeks by the constant passage -of wheeled traffic, and even in the tracks frequented by farm carts the -roads were stained with green. Indeed, everything was greener than in -the old days, everything was more vigorous. Whether because the year -had been favourable, or because it was relieved from the burden of -choking dust which it had had to endure in other years from May -onwards, the vegetation in hedges and by the wayside appeared to grow -more strongly and with a greater self-assertion. And by contrast with -this vigour and cleanness of plant life, the four women in their -tumbled clothes and untidy hats, feeble and unsightly remnants of -forgotten fashion, were as much out of place as if they had been set -down in ancient Greece. The dowdy foolishness of their apparel marked -them out from every other living thing about them, they were intruders, -despoilers of beauty.</p> -<p class="par">Some dim consciousness of this came to Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">They had spoken little as they ate—Mrs Gosling -would touch nothing but milk, and Mrs Isaacson strove desperately and -with some success to control the greed that showed in the concentrated -eagerness of her eyes and the grasping crook of her fingers—and -when they had finished, lingering in the relief of the shade, they were -still silent. It seemed as if the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb217" -href="#pb217" name="pb217">217</a>]</span>first word spoken must -necessarily hasten the continuation of their journey.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! bother this old hat,” said Blanche at -last. “I’m going to take mine off,” and she drew out -the solitary pin which remained to her and cast the hat into the -ditch.</p> -<p class="par">“That won’t do it any good,” remarked -Millie but she, too, took off her hat with a sigh of relief.</p> -<p class="par">“I’m going to chuck hats,” said -Blanche. “What’s the good of ’em?”</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Isaacson looked doubtful. “They are a -protection from the sun,” she said.</p> -<p class="par">“Allie never wore a hat, and she didn’t come -to any harm,” returned Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">“No?” said Mrs Isaacson, and looked -thoughtful.</p> -<p class="par">Millie was running her fingers through the masses of her -red-brown hair, loosening it and lifting it from her head.</p> -<p class="par">“It <i>is</i> a relief,” she remarked. -“My head gets so hot.”</p> -<p class="par">“Ah!” said Mrs Isaacson, “and what -beautiful hair! It does not seem right to hide it. I haf a comb in my -bag. It is almost all I haf left. Let me now comb your beautiful hair -for you.”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! don’t you bother,” said Millie -sheepishly, but she allowed herself to be persuaded. “Don’t -lose the hair-pins,” she warned her newly-found lady’s -maid.</p> -<p class="par">“It seems so funny out here in the open -road,” giggled Millie.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Isaacson’s praise was fulsome.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche watched without comment. Mrs Gosling -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb218" href="#pb218" name= -"pb218">218</a>]</span>was plunged in meditation. She was involved in -an immense problem relating to the housekeeping at Wisteria Grove. She -was debating whether the lace curtains at the front windows could be -washed at home when they went back.</p> -<p class="par">Suddenly the attention of the three younger women was -caught by unnatural sounds that came from the further side of the wall -against which they were leaning—sounds of voices, laughing and -singing, the crunch of wheels and the stamping of horses.</p> -<p class="par">The two girls jumped to their feet. Mrs Isaacson rose -more deliberately, with a grunt of expostulation. Mrs Gosling was in a -world far removed and continued to debate her problem.</p> -<p class="par">Millie’s hands were fumbling at her hair, and -Blanche was first at the gate.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! my!” she exclaimed. “Why, -whatever....”</p> -<p class="par">“Goody!” squealed Millie, still struggling -with her loose mane.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">3</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The centre and object of the curious crowd which -moved slowly down the drive was a landau and pair. The horses were -decorated as if for a May-day fête, grotesquely, foolishly -decorated with roses, syringa and buttercups made into shapeless -bunches and tied to the harness. Three or four women walked at the -horses’ heads, leading them with absurdly beflowered ropes. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb219" href="#pb219" name= -"pb219">219</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Round the landau a dozen girls and young women were -dancing, chattering, singing, laughing; constantly turning to the -occupant of the carriage, for whose benefit the whole performance was -being conducted. Some of them had their necks and breasts bare, and all -appeared to be frankly shameless. They twisted and danced with clumsy -eagerness, threw themselves about, screamed and shrieked, unaware of -any observer but the one whose notice they were seeking to attract. -They were graceless, civilized savages; Bacchantes who had never known -the beauty of unconscious abandonment. There was the ugliness of -conscious purpose in their every attitude, and no trace of the freedom -that comes from careless rapture.</p> -<p class="par">In the carriage a man and a woman were sitting side by -side. The man was young, with strong claims to physical -beauty—tall, broad-shouldered, swarthy, with boldly modelled -features and heavily lidded eyes. But his skin was coarse; the bulk of -his body was too gross for clean, muscular strength; his curly, -well-oiled hair was thinning at the temples; his loose mouth leered and -gaped. He was dressed in a suit of broadly-patterned tweed, his great -red fingers were covered with rings, he wore a heavy gold bangle on -each thick, round wrist, and a sweet, frail rose was thrust into his -black and greasy hair.</p> -<p class="par">The woman beside him was the typical courtesan of the -ages, low-browed and full-lipped. Her eyes were eloquent with the -subtleties of love, with invitation, retreat, fear and desire. Had she -been dressed becomingly she would have been beautiful; <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb220" href="#pb220" name="pb220">220</a>]</span>but -she was English and modern, and her great meaningless hat and senseless -garments were of the fashion that had been in vogue just before the -plague. This reigning sultana and her lover were more incongruous in -that setting than the two dishevelled, travel-worn girls, who retreated -timidly to let the landau pass out between the great iron gates.</p> -<p class="par">The Bacchantes eyed the Goslings with obvious disfavour, -but the beauty in the landau seemed unaware of their presence until her -lord’s attention was attracted by the sight of Millie’s -hair—it was all down again, rippling and spreading to her -waist.</p> -<p class="par">The young butcher had been lolling back in a corner of -his carriage, magnificently indolent, sure of worship; but his satiety -was pierced by the sight of that flaming mane. He sat up and looked at -Millie with the experienced eyes which had served him so well in his -judgment of cattle.</p> -<p class="par">“’Ere, ’alf a jiff,” he -commanded the nymphs at his horses’ bridles, and the carriage was -stopped.</p> -<p class="par">Millie, covered with shame, shrank back, and cowered -behind Blanche, who threw up her chin and met the butcher’s eyes -with all the contempt of which she was capable—little enough, -perhaps, for she, too, was weak with unreasoning terror. Behind their -backs the Jewess grimaced her scorn of them.</p> -<p class="par">“You needn’t be afraid of me—I -ain’t goin’ to ’urt yer——” began -the butcher, but his lady interrupted him. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb221" href="#pb221" name="pb221">221</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Her fine eyes grew bright with anger. “If you stop -here, I shall get out,” she said, and her inflexion was not that -of the people.</p> -<p class="par">The butcher visibly hesitated. It may be that this chain -had held him too long and was beginning to gall him, but he looked at -her and wavered.</p> -<p class="par">“No ’arm in stoppin’,” he -muttered. “Pass the news an’ that.”</p> -<p class="par">“Are you going on?” demanded the beauty -fiercely.</p> -<p class="par">“All right, all right,” he returned -sullenly. “You needen’ get so blasted ’uffy about it, -old gal. Oh, gow on, you!” he added to the nymphs. “Wot the -’ell are yer starin’ at?”</p> -<p class="par">As the landau moved on, he looked back once at -Millie.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">4</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">“What a brute,” said Blanche when the -procession had passed on down the hill towards Wycombe.</p> -<p class="par">“How he stared at my hair,” said Millie, -with a giggle. “I did try to get it up, but it’s that -stubborn with the heat or something.”</p> -<p class="par">“Lucky for us he had that creature with -him,” commented Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">Millie assented without fervour. She was bold enough now -the danger had passed.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Isaacson looked from one to the other and attempted -no criticism of the adventure.</p> -<p class="par">“You must let me do up your beautiful hair,” -she said to the simpering Millie.</p> -<p class="par">Millie was grateful. “It <i>is</i> kind of you, -Mrs <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb222" href="#pb222" name= -"pb222">222</a>]</span>Isaacson, I’m sure,” she said. -“My hair is a trouble. I sometimes think I’ll cut it all -off and be done with it....”</p> -<p class="par">She appeared excited and chatted incessantly while the -hair-dressing continued, and Blanche restored the remains of their meal -to the trolly.</p> -<p class="par">With some difficulty they succeeded in getting Mrs -Gosling back into her carriage. She had taken no notice of the -procession, but as they were starting again she awoke from her -abstraction to ask: “When d’you expect we’ll be -’ome, Blanche? I’ve been thinkin’ about them curtains -in the drawin’-room....”</p> -<p class="par">“We’ll be home in an hour or two, -now,” Blanche said, reassuringly. She did not know what a -struggle awaited them before they should top the hill at Handy -Cross.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Isaacson had forsaken her place at the pole. -“I shall be able to push more strongly behind,” she had -said, but despite the theoretical gain in mechanical advantage obtained -by the new arrangement, the hill seemed never-ending. They had to rest -continually, and always they looked with increasing irritation at the -quiet figure in the trolly, chief cause of their distress.</p> -<p class="par">“I believe she could walk all right,” Millie -broke out at last.</p> -<p class="par">“If it was for a little way, it would help,” -commented Mrs Isaacson.</p> -<p class="par">But when Blanche put the proposition to her mother, Mrs -Gosling seemed unable to comprehend it, and pity influenced them to -renew the struggle. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb223" href="#pb223" -name="pb223">223</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">So they toiled on with growing impatience until they -reached level ground again; and presently, looking down over the long -slope of the valley, saw, two miles and a half away, the spire of -Marlow Church.</p> -<p class="par">They rested under a hedge for a time, and when they -started again Millie followed her sister’s example and discarded -her hat. Blanche, with a certain courage of opinion, had left hers -under the walls of Wycombe Abbey, but Millie’s hat found a place -in the trolly.</p> -<p class="par">The ease of the long descent permitted a renewal of -conversation, and Mrs Isaacson and Millie talked in undertones as they -made their way down towards Marlow. Blanche took little notice of them; -she was struggling perplexedly with the problems of life. Mrs -Gosling’s presence was negligible.</p> -<p class="par">“That was a very handsome fellow in the -carriage,” remarked Mrs Isaacson suddenly, “I think you do -well not to go near that place again.” Her fine eyes fixedly -regarded the broad, rusty back of Mrs Gosling and the broken ribs of -her umbrella.</p> -<p class="par">Millie simpered. “Oh! I should be safe enough. His -wife’d see to that.”</p> -<p class="par">“She was not his wife,” returned Mrs -Isaacson. “Men would not marry now that they are so -few.”</p> -<p class="par">“Well! there’s a thing to say!” -exclaimed Millie on a note of expostulation, interested -nevertheless.</p> -<p class="par">“It iss true,” continued Mrs Isaacson. -“I haf heard of this handsome young fellow. He iss a butcher, and -he goes every day to kill the sheep and <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb224" href="#pb224" name="pb224">224</a>]</span>cows, because the -women do not like that work. And he iss very strong, and clever also. -He teach a few of the women how to cut up the sheep and the cows. And -he iss much admired, it iss of course, by all the young women; but he -does not marry because he is one man among so many women, and it would -not be right that he should love only one, for so there would be so few -children and the world would die. Yes! But he has for a time one who -iss favourite, for another time another favourite. And that iss why I -warn you not to return. Because I see that he admire your so beautiful -hair. And I see that if you had not been so modest and so good, and -hide behind your sister, he would have come down from his carriage and -put you up there beside him. And he would have said to that bold ugly -woman. ‘Go, I tire of you, I will haf beside me this one who iss -young and beautiful and has hair of gold.’ It iss not safe for -you, there.”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! I say,” commented Millie.</p> -<p class="par">“It iss true,” nodded Mrs Isaacson, with -intensest conviction.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! well, thank goodness, I’m not one of -that sort,” said Millie, warm in the knowledge of her virtue.</p> -<p class="par">“Truly not,” assented Mrs Isaacson. -“You must not be displeased that I warn you. It iss not your -goodness that I doubt. It iss that this man iss so powerful. He iss -able to do what he wishes. He iss a king.”</p> -<p class="par">“Goody!” was the mark of surprise with which -Millie punctuated this remarkable piece of information, <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb225" href="#pb225" name="pb225">225</a>]</span>and -for several yards they trudged on in silence.</p> -<p class="par">But Millie soon revived this fascinating subject by -saying thoughtfully, “Well, you don’t catch me over there -again.”</p> -<p class="par">“Truly not. It iss not wise,” agreed Mrs -Isaacson, and proceeded to enlarge upon Millie’s dangerous -beauty.</p> -<p class="par">It was a topic entirely new to Millie. She simpered and -giggled, disclaimed her attractions, protested that Mrs Isaacson was -“getting at” her, and became so absorbed in the fascination -of her disavowal that she forgot her weariness, her tender -feet—naked to the road in two places—and all her -discouragements. She walked with a more conscious air, straightening -her back and lifting her head. The blood moved more freely in her -veins, and she presently became so vivacious in her replies that -Blanche was aroused to a sense of something unfamiliar. She checked the -trolly and looked back at her sister, past the quiet brooding figure of -Mrs Gosling.</p> -<p class="par">“What is it, Mill?” she asked.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! nothing!” replied Millie. “We -were just talking.”</p> -<p class="par">“Seem to be enjoying yourselves,” said -Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">“We were saying that we shall soon now arrive at -some place where we can rest. Yes?” put in Mrs Isaacson, and thus -established a ground of confidence between herself and Millie.</p> -<p class="par">“P’raps. I dunno!” returned Blanche. -She sighed and looked round her. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb226" -href="#pb226" name="pb226">226</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">In the fields between them and Marlow they could see -here and there little figures stooping and straightening.</p> -<p class="par">“Ooh!” exclaimed Millie, suddenly.</p> -<p class="par">“What?” asked Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">“There’s another man,” said Millie, -pointing. “We’d better scoot!”</p> -<p class="par">But they made no attempt to put such an impossible plan -into action. The man had evidently seen them. He was coming towards -them across one of the fields, shouting to attract their attention. -“Hi! wait a minute!” they thought he was saying.</p> -<p class="par">“<i>Mill!</i>” exclaimed Blanche, with -extraordinary emphasis.</p> -<p class="par">“What?” asked Millie, nervously. She was -flushed and trembling.</p> -<p class="par">“Do you see who it is?”</p> -<p class="par">“It isn’t the one out of the -carriage....” hesitated Millie.</p> -<p class="par">“<i>No!</i> Silly. It’s that young fellow -who used to live with us, our Mr Fastidious. What was his name? Thrale! -You remember.”</p> -<p class="par">“Goody!” said Millie. She was conscious of a -quite inexplicable feeling of disappointment.</p> -<p class="par">“He iss a friend? Yes?” asked Mrs Isaacson. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb227" href="#pb227" name= -"pb227">227</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="bk3" class="div0 book"> -<h2 class="label">BOOK III</h2> -<h2 class="main">WOMANKIND IN THE MAKING</h2> -<p><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb229" href="#pb229" name= -"pb229">229</a>]</span></p> -<div id="ch17" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="divNum">XVII—</span>LONDON TO -MARLOW</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">1</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The history of mankind is the history of human -law. The larger ordinances of the universe are commonly referred to -some superior lawgiver, under such names as God and physico-chemical -action; names which appear mutually subversive only to the bigot, -whether theologian or biologist. These larger ordinances sometimes -appear inflexible, as in the domain of physics and chemistry, sometimes -empirical as in the development of species, but we may believe that if -they change at all, the period of change is so great as to be outside -any possibility of observation by a few thousand generations of -mankind.</p> -<p class="par">Human law, on the other hand, is tentative, without -sound precedent and in its very nature mutable. In our miserably -limited record of history, that paltry ten thousand years which is but -a single tick of the cosmic watch, we have been unable to formulate any -overruling law to which other laws are subject. Climate, race and -condition impose certain limitations, and within that enceinte -civilizations have developed a system of rules, increasing always in -complexity, and have then failed to maintain their place in the -competitive struggle. It has been rashly suggested that the overriding -law of laws <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb230" href="#pb230" name= -"pb230">230</a>]</span>is that rigidity is fatal to the nation. An -analogy has been found in the growth of the child. Here and there some -bold spirit has ventured the daring hypothesis that if a young child be -confined within a perfectly fitting iron shell he will not grow. Such -speculations, however, do not appeal to mankind as a whole. Perhaps the -truth of the matter is that nothing appals us so much as the idea that -man is capable of growth. Is it not inconceivable that any race of men -could be wiser, more perfect than ourselves?</p> -<p class="par">Nevertheless, out of all vague speculation one -deliciously certain axiom presents itself, namely that mankind cannot -live without law of some kind. The most primitive savage has his -ordinances. The least primary concussion of individuals develops a rule -of practice, whether it takes such diverse forms as “hit -first,” or “present the other cheek”; although the -latter rule has not yet been developed beyond the stage of theory.</p> -<p class="par">In the unprecedented year of the new plague, the old -rules were thrown into the melting pot, but within three months -humanity was evolving precedents for a new statute book. The -concussions of these three months were fierce and destructive. Women, -in the face of death, killed and stole in the old primitive ways, -unhampered now by the necessity to kill and steal according to the -tedious rules of twentieth-century civilization, rules that women had -never been foolish enough to reverence in the letter. All those complex -and incomprehensible laws had been made by men for men, and -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb231" href="#pb231" name= -"pb231">231</a>]</span>after the plague there was none to administer -them, for no women and few men had ever had the least idea what the law -was. Even the lawgivers themselves had had to wait for the -pronouncement of some prejudiced or unprejudiced judge. Women had long -known what our Bumbles can only learn by bitter experience, inspired to -vision in some moment of fury or desolation.</p> -<p class="par">But within three months of the first great exodus of -women from the town, one dominant law was being brought to birth. It -was not written on tables of stone, nor incorporated in any swollen, -dyspeptic book of statutes; it was not formulated by logic, nor was it -the outcome of serious thought by any individual or by a solemn -committee. The law rose into recognition because it was a necessity for -the life of the majority, and although that majority was not compact, -had no common deliberate purpose, and had never formulated their demand -in precise language, the new law came into being before harvest and was -accepted by all but a small resentful minority of aristocrats and -landowners, as a supreme ordinance, indisputably just.</p> -<p class="par">This law was that every woman had a right to her share -in the bounty of Nature, and the corollary was that she earned her -right by labour.</p> -<p class="par">In those days the justice of the principle was perfectly -obvious; so obvious, indeed, that the law came to birth without the -obstetric skill of any parliament whatever. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb232" href="#pb232" name="pb232">232</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">2</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">It is now impossible to say why such different -types of male humanity as Jasper Thrale, George Gosling or the Bacchus -of Wycombe Abbey escaped the plague. The bacillus (surely a strangely -individual type, it must have been) was never isolated, nor the -pathology of the disease investigated. The germ was some new -unprecedented growth which ran through a fierce cycle of development -within a few months, changed its nature as it swarmed into every corner -of the earth, and finally expired more quickly than it had come into -being.</p> -<p class="par">If the male survivors in Europe and the East had been of -one type, some theory might be formulated to account for their -immunity; but so far as science can pronounce an opinion, the living -male residue can only be explained by the doctrine of chances. A few -escaped, by accident. In the British Isles there may have been 1,500 -men who thus survived. In the whole of Europe, besides, there were less -than a thousand. It seems probable that even before Scotland was -attacked the climax had been reached; by the time the plague reached -England the first faint evidences of a decline in virulence may be -marked....</p> -<p class="par">From the first, Jasper Thrale ventured his life without -an afterthought. He was fearless by nature. He did not lack those -powers of imagination which are commonly supposed to add so greatly to -the terror of death, he simply lacked the feeling of fear. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb233" href="#pb233" name="pb233">233</a>]</span>In -all his life he had never experienced that sickness of apprehension -which dissolves our fibre into a quivering jelly—as though the -spirit had already withdrawn from the trembling inertia of the flesh. -Perhaps Thrale’s spirit was too dominant for such retreat, was -more completely master of its material than is the spirit of the common -man. For the spirit cannot know bodily fear, it is the apprehensive -flesh that wilts and curdles at the approach of danger. And it is -worthy of notice that in the old days, up to the early twentieth -century, these rare cases of fearlessness in individuals were more -often found among women than among men.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale, with his perfectly careless courage, found -plenty of work for himself in London during May and early June. He -acted as a scavenger, and still went far afield with his burial cart -long after every trace of living male humanity had disappeared from the -streets of London.</p> -<p class="par">Then one day, at the end of June, he realized that his -task was futile, and it came to him that there was work awaiting him of -more importance than this purification of streets which might never -again echo to the traffic of humanity.</p> -<p class="par">So he chose the best bicycle he could find in Holborn -Viaduct, stripped a relay of four tyres from other machines, and with -these and a reserve of food made into a somewhat cumbrous parcel, he -set out to explore the new world.</p> -<p class="par">He took the Bath Road, intending to make exploration of -the fertile West Country. He had Cornish blood in his veins, and his -ultimate goal <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb234" href="#pb234" name= -"pb234">234</a>]</span>was the county which had almost escaped -urbanization. As he then visualized the problem, it appeared that life -would offer greater possibilities in such places.</p> -<p class="par">But before he reached Colnbrook, he had recognized that -work was required of him nearer home. The exodus was then in progress. -He came through armies of helpless women and children flying from -starvation; women who had no object in view save that of escape to the -country; “Silly Londoners” with no knowledge of how food -was to be obtained when their goal was reached.</p> -<p class="par">He did not stay there, however. He was beginning to see -the outline of his plan, and at the same time the limitation of his own -powers. He saw that enough food could not be raised near London to -support the multitude, that the death of the many was demanded by the -needs of the few if any were to survive, and that communities must be -formed with the common purpose of tilling the land and excluding those -who could not earn their right to support. In such a catastrophe as -this, charity became a crime.</p> -<p class="par">He intended even then to push on beyond Reading, but in -Maidenhead he met a woman who influenced him to a nearer goal.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">3</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">She stepped into the road and held up her -hand.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale stopped; he thought she was about to make the -familiar demand either for food or a direction. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb235" href="#pb235" name="pb235">235</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Well?” he said curtly.</p> -<p class="par">“Where are you going?” she asked.</p> -<p class="par">He shrugged his shoulders. “To find room,” -he said.</p> -<p class="par">“There is room for you near here,” said the -woman, “if you’ll work.”</p> -<p class="par">“At what?” he asked.</p> -<p class="par">“Machinery, harvesting machinery, agricultural -machinery of all sorts.”</p> -<p class="par">“Where?” asked Thrale.</p> -<p class="par">She dropped her voice and looked about her. -“Marlow,” she said. “It—it’s an eddy. Off -the main roads and by the river. There are less than a thousand women -there at present, and we are keeping the others out; at least until -after harvest. There is plenty of land about, and we’re keeping -ourselves at present. Only we <i>do</i> want a man for the machines. -Will you come and help us?”</p> -<p class="par">“I’ll come and see what I can do,” -said Thrale “I won’t promise to stay.”</p> -<p class="par">“Aren’t there any other men, there?” -he added after a moment’s hesitation.</p> -<p class="par">“One at Wycombe,” said the women. -“He’s a butcher, but——”</p> -<p class="par">“I understand,” said Thrale.</p> -<p class="par">“And meanwhile you might help me,” said the -woman. “I come over here with a horse and cart to raid the -seedsmen’s shops. If we leave them the women would eat all the -beans and peas and things, you know; enough to feed us for the winter -gone in a week, and no one any the better. Isn’t it awful how -careless we are?” <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb236" href= -"#pb236" name="pb236">236</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">4</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">She was a fair, clear-eyed girl, with the figure -and complexion of one who had devoted considerable attention to outdoor -sports. She was wearing a man’s Norfolk jacket (men’s -clothing was so plentiful), and a skirt that barely reached her knees, -and did not entirely hide cloth knickerbockers which might also have -been adapted from a man’s garment. Below the knickerbockers she -displayed thick stockings and sandals. Her splendid fair hair furnished -sufficient protection for her head, and she had dressed a pillow of it -into the nape of her neck as a shield for the sun.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale looked at her with a frank curiosity as they made -their way up the town to a seedsman’s shop. She had left the -horse and cart there, she explained, while she explored other streets -of the town.</p> -<p class="par">“Who are you?” he asked.</p> -<p class="par">“Eileen, of Marlow,” she said. “There -doesn’t seem to be another Eileen there, so one name’s -enough.”</p> -<p class="par">“Is that how your community feel about it?” -he asked.</p> -<p class="par">She smiled. “We’re beginning,” she -said.</p> -<p class="par">He pondered that for a time, and then asked, “Who -<i>were</i> you?”</p> -<p class="par">“Does it matter?” was the answer.</p> -<p class="par">“Not in the least,” said Thrale. -“Never did much so far as I was concerned, but I have a memory of -having seen your photographs in the illustrated <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb237" href="#pb237" name= -"pb237">237</a>]</span>papers. I was wondering whether you had been -actress, peeress, scandal; or perhaps all three.”</p> -<p class="par">She laughed. “I’m the eldest daughter of the -late Duke of Hertford,” she said, “the ci-devant Lady -Eileen Ferrar, citizen.”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, was that it?” replied Thrale -carelessly. “Where’s this shop of yours?”</p> -<p class="par">The loot was heavier than Eileen had anticipated. The -shop had been ransacked, but they found an untouched store, containing -such valuables as beans, potatoes and a few small sacks of turnip seed -at the bottom of a yard. When these had been placed in the cart, they -decided that the load was sufficient for one horse.</p> -<p class="par">They took the longer road to Marlow, through Bourne End, -to avoid the hill. Eileen walked at the horse’s head, with Thrale -beside her wheeling his bicycle, and during those two hours he learnt -much of the little community which he proposed to serve for a time.</p> -<p class="par">It seemed that in Marlow—and the same thing must -have happened in a hundred other small towns throughout the -country—a few women had taken control of the community. These -women were of all classes and the committee included an Earl’s -widow, a national schoolmistress, a small green-grocer, and an -unmarried woman of property living half a mile out of the town. These -women had worked together in an eminently practical way; at first to -relieve distress, and then to plan the future. They had wasted little -time in discussions among themselves—none of them had the -parliamentary sense <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb238" href="#pb238" -name="pb238">238</a>]</span>of the uses of debate. When they had -disagreed, they had had plenty of scope to carry out varying methods -within their own spheres of influence.</p> -<p class="par">Their first and most difficult task had been to teach -the members of their community to work for the common good, and that -task was by no means perfected as yet. Co-operation was agreeable -enough to those who had nothing to lose, but the women in temporary -possession of the sources of food supply were not so easily convinced. -In many instances the committee’s arguments had been suddenly -clenched by an exposition of <i lang="fr">force majeure</i>, and -property owners had discovered to their amazement that they had no -remedy.</p> -<p class="par">But the head and leader of Marlow was a farmer’s -daughter of nineteen, a certain Carrie Oliver. Her father had had a -small farm in the Chilterns not far from Fingest. He had been a lazy, -drunken creature, and from the time Carrie had left the national school -she had practically carried on the work of the farm single handed. She -liked the work; the interest of it absorbed her.</p> -<p class="par">The Marlow schoolmistress had remembered her when the -committee had first faced the daunting task of providing for the -future. They had been more or less capable of organizing a majority of -the women, but no member of the committee knew the secrets of -agriculture and stock-breeding, and in all Marlow and the neighbourhood -no woman had been found who was capable of instructing them in all that -was necessary.</p> -<p class="par">A deputation of three had been sent to Fingest, -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb239" href="#pb239" name= -"pb239">239</a>]</span>and had discovered Miss Oliver in the midst of -plenty, cultivating her farm in comfort now that she had been relieved -of her father’s unwelcome presence.</p> -<p class="par">She had been covered with confusion when requested to -leave her retreat and take command of a town and the surrounding twenty -thousand acres or so within reach of the new community.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! I can’t,” she had said, blushing -and ducking her head. “It’s easy enough; I’ll tell -you if there’s anything you want to know.”</p> -<p class="par">The deputation had then put the case very clearly before -her, pointing out that in Miss Oliver’s hands lay the future of a -thousand lives.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, dear. I dunno. What can <i>I</i> do?” -Carrie had said, and when the deputation had urged that she should -return with them and take charge forthwith, she had replied that that -was quite impossible, that there were the cows to milk, the calves, -pigs and chickens to feed, and goodness knew how many other necessary -things to be done before sunset.</p> -<p class="par">The deputation had said that cows, calves, horses, -sheep, pigs and chickens might and should be transferred forthwith to -the neighbourhood of Marlow.</p> -<p class="par">It had taken three days to convince her, Eileen said, -and added, “But she’s splendid, now. It’s wonderful -what a lot she knows; and she rides about on a horse everywhere and -sees to everything. The difficulty is to stop her getting down and -doing the work herself.”</p> -<p class="par">Thrale understood that, exceptional male as he was, his -position in Marlow would be subordinate to that of Miss Oliver. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb240" href="#pb240" name= -"pb240">240</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Does she understand agricultural -machinery?” he asked.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, yes,” returned Eileen. “But she -hasn’t time, you see, to attend to all that, and it’s so -jolly difficult to learn. I’ve been doing a bit. I’m better -at it than most of ’em. But when I saw you it struck me how -ripping it would be if you’d come and take over that side. Men -are so jolly good at machinery. We shouldn’t miss them much if it -weren’t for that.”</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">5</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">After a marked preliminary hesitation the -committee appointed Jasper Thrale chief mechanic of Marlow. The -hesitation was understandable. Their only experience of the ways of men -in this altered civilization had been drawn from observations of Mr -Evans at Wycombe. His manner of life appeared representative of what -they might expect. Nevertheless they did not openly condemn him, -although he proved an immediate source of trouble, even to these -organizers in Marlow. The youth of the place was apt to wander over the -hill in the evenings; “just for fun,” they said. They went -in twos and threes, and occasionally one of them stayed behind. These -evening walks interfered with work. “Later on I shouldn’t -mind so much,” Lady Durham had said, commenting on the loss of a -young and active worker, “but there is so much to do just -now.” Her comment showed that even then the situation was being -accepted, and that many women were prepared to adapt their old opinions -to new conditions. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb241" href="#pb241" -name="pb241">241</a>]</span>It also showed why the committee hesitated -to accept Thrale’s services.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale understood their difficulty, and went straight to -the point.</p> -<p class="par">“You are afraid that the young women will be -wasting time, running after me,” he said. “Set your minds -at rest. That won’t last. And if you give me pupils for my -machinery I should prefer women over forty in any case. I believe I -shall find them more capable.”</p> -<p class="par">He was right in one way. When the excitement of his -coming had subsided, he was not the cause of much wasted time. He -adopted a manner with the younger women which did not encourage -advances. He was, in fact, quite brutally frank. When the young women -devised all kinds of impossible excuses to linger in his vicinity he -sent them away with hot indignant faces. Among those who sought their -sterile amusements in Wycombe it became the fashion openly to express -hatred and contempt for “that engine fellow.” It was agreed -that he “wasn’t a proper man.” Another section, -however, talked scandal, and hinted that assistant-engineer Eileen was -the cause of Thrale’s pretended misogyny.</p> -<p class="par">The committee found their work more complicated in some -respects after Thrale’s coming.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale, himself, was supremely indifferent to any -scandal or expression of hatred. He had his hands full, his hours of -work were only limited by daylight, and six hours sleep was all he -asked for or desired. After a very brief introduction to the -intricacies of reaper and rake at the hands of Miss Oliver—her -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb242" href="#pb242" name= -"pb242">242</a>]</span>father had never been able to afford a binder, -but the days of corn-harvest were still far ahead—he set himself -to learn the mysteries of all the agricultural machinery in the -neighbourhood; traction engines, steam ploughs and thrashing machines, -and to pass on the knowledge he gained to his pupils. He found them -stupid at first, but they were patient and willing for the most -part.</p> -<p class="par">Then, handicapped by the lack of coal, he rode over to -Bourne End and discovered two locomotives. One of them was standing on -the line a mile out of the station with a full complement of coaches -attached, the other was an unencumbered goods engine in a siding. He -chose the latter for his first experiment, and succeeded in driving it -back to Marlow. It groaned and screamed in a way that indicated serious -organic trouble, but after he had overhauled it, it proved capable of -taking him to Maidenhead, where he found a sound engine in a shed.</p> -<p class="par">After that he devoted three days to getting a clear line -to Paddington, a tedious process which involved endless descents from -the cab, and mountings into signal boxes, experiments with levers and -the occasional necessity for pushing whole trains out of his path into -some siding. But at last he returned with magnificent loot of coal from -the almost untouched London yards beyond Ealing.</p> -<p class="par">London was still the storehouse of certain valuable -commodities.</p> -<p class="par">His passage through the surrounding country was hailed -with cries of amazement and jubilant <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb243" href="#pb243" name="pb243">243</a>]</span>acclamation. The -first railway surely excited less astonishment than did Thrale on his -solitary engine. Doubtless the unfortunate women who saw him pass -believed that the gods of machinery had returned once more to bring -relief from all the burden of misery and unfamiliar work.</p> -<p class="par">And once the points were set and the way open to London -by rail he could go and return with tools and many other necessaries -that had offered no temptation to the starving multitude who had fled -from the town.</p> -<p class="par">Marlow was greatly blessed among the communities in -those days.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">6</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The harvest was early that year, and Miss Oliver -decided to cut certain fields of barley at the end of July.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale’s energies were then diverted to the -superintendence of the reapers and binders, and he rode from field to -field, overlooking the work of his pupils or spending furious hours in -struggle with some refractory mechanism.</p> -<p class="par">One Saturday, an hour or two after midday, he was -returning from some such struggle, when he saw a strange procession -coming down that long hill from Handy Cross, which some pious women -regarded as the road to hell.</p> -<p class="par">Casual immigration had almost ceased by that time, but -the sight indicated the necessity for immediate action. The immigration -laws of Marlow, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb244" href="#pb244" -name="pb244">244</a>]</span>though not coded as yet, were strict; and -only bona fide workers were admitted, and even those were critically -examined.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale shouted to attract attention and the procession -stopped.</p> -<p class="par">When he came through the gate on to the road, he was -accosted by name.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, Mr Thrale, fancy finding you,” said the -young woman at the pole of the truck.</p> -<p class="par">The meeting of Livingstone and Stanley was far less -amazing.</p> -<p class="par">An old woman perched on the truck and partly sheltered -by the remains of an umbrella, regarded his appearance with some show -of displeasure.</p> -<p class="par">“By rights ’e should ’ave written to -me in the first place,” she muttered.</p> -<p class="par">“Mother’s got a touch of the sun,” -explained Blanche hurriedly.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale had not yet spoken. He was considering the -problem of whether he owed any duty to these wanderers, which could -override his duty to Marlow.</p> -<p class="par">“Where have you come from?” he asked.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche and Millie explained volubly, by turns and -together.</p> -<p class="par">“You see, we don’t let anyone stay -here,” said Thrale.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche’s eyebrows went up and she waved her too -exuberant sister aside. “We’re willing to work,” she -said.</p> -<p class="par">“And your mother?” queried Thrale. -“And this other woman?” <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb245" href="#pb245" name="pb245">245</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Ach! I work too,” put in Mrs Isaacson. -“I have learnt all that is necessary for the farm. I milk and -feed chickens and everything.”</p> -<p class="par">“You’ll have to come before the -committee,” said Thrale.</p> -<p class="par">“Anywhere out of the sun,” replied Blanche, -“and somewhere where we can put mother. She’s very bad, -I’m afraid.”</p> -<p class="par">“You can stay to-night, anyway,” returned -Thrale.</p> -<p class="par">Millie made a face at him behind his back, and whispered -to Mrs Isaacson, who pursed her mouth.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, you do seem more civilized here,” -remarked Blanche as the procession restarted towards Marlow. Thrale, -with something of the air of a policeman, was walking by the side of -the pole.</p> -<p class="par">“You’ve come at a good time,” was his -only comment.</p> -<p class="par">Millie had another shock before they reached the town. -She saw what she thought was a second man, on horseback this time, -coming towards them. Marlow, she thought, was evidently a place to live -in. But the figure was only that of Miss Oliver in corduroy trousers, -riding astride.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">7</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Fate had dropped the Goslings into Buckinghamshire -to fulfil their destiny. They had been led to Marlow by a casual -direction, here and there, after the first propulsion of -Blanche’s instinct had sent them into the country beyond Harrow. -And fate, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb246" href="#pb246" name= -"pb246">246</a>]</span>doubtless with some incomprehensible purpose of -its own in view, had quietly decided that in Marlow they were to stay. -They had been dropped at a season when, for the first time in the long -three months’ history of the community, there was a shortage of -labour; and Blanche and Millie, browned by exposure and generally -improved by their first six days of healthy life, were quite acceptable -additions to the population at that moment. As for Mrs Isaacson, a lady -of sufficient initiative and force of character to require no kindly -interposition of Providence on her behalf, she arranged her own future -as an expert of farm management, and incidentally as the -Goslings’ housemate. Mrs Isaacson was a burr that would stick -anywhere for a time. She displayed an unexpected and highly specialized -knowledge of the management of farms, when confronted with the expert -Miss Oliver who was far too embarrassed to press her questions home. -The casual remarks of Aunt May and her helpers had been retained in Mrs -Isaacson’s brilliant memory and she displayed her knowledge to -the best possible advantage, filling the gaps with irrelevant -volubility, gesture and histrionic struggles with the English language, -which proved suddenly inadequate to the expression of these recondities -that the German would have so aptly expressed. It was inferred that in -her native Bavaria, Mrs Isaacson had farmed in the grand style.</p> -<p class="par">Only Mrs Gosling, useless and ineligible, remained for -consideration, and she for once took a firm line of her own, and defied -the committee, Marlow <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb247" href= -"#pb247" name="pb247">247</a>]</span>generally, and the negligible -remainder of the cosmos, to alter her determination.</p> -<p class="par">The home at which they had finally arrived did not suit -her. The tiny cottage of three rooms in the little street that runs -down to the town landing stage had no lace curtains in the front -window, no suites of furniture, no hall to save the discreet caller -from stepping through the front door straight into the single -living-room, no accumulation of dustable ornaments, not even a strip of -carpet or linoleum to cover the nakedness of a bricked floor. It was -not civilized; it was not decent according to the refined standards of -Wisteria Grove; it was an impossible place for any respectable woman to -live in, and Mrs Gosling, with unexpected force of character, chose the -obvious alternative. She did not, however, make any announcement of her -determination; she was wrapped in a speculative depression that found -no relief in words. She had been so ordered, hoisted, dragged and -bumped through the detested country during the past six days that all -show of authority had been taken from her. It may be that deep in her -own mind she cherished a sullen and enduring resentment against her -daughters, and had vowed to take the last and unanswerable revenge of -which humanity is capable. But outwardly she preserved that air of -incomprehension which had marked her during the last stages of their -journey, and committed herself to no statement of the enormous plan -which must have been forming in her mind.</p> -<p class="par">When they took her into the small, brick-paved -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb248" href="#pb248" name= -"pb248">248</a>]</span>room and deposited her temporarily on a -wooden-seated chair, while they unpacked what <span class="corr" id= -"xd23e4227" title="Source: remainded">remained</span> to them in the -accursed trolly, Mrs Gosling took one brief but comprehensive survey of -her naked surroundings.</p> -<p class="par">“She’s a bit touched, isn’t -she?” whispered Millie to her sister. “Do you think she -understands where we are or what we’re doing?”</p> -<p class="par">Blanche shook her head. “I expect she’ll be -all right in a day or two,” she ventured, “It’s the -sun.”</p> -<p class="par">The two girls, stirred to a new outlook on life by the -extraordinary experiences of the past months, were on the threshold of -diverse adventures. After the toil and anxiety of their tramp through -inhospitable country, and the hazard of the open air, this reception -into a community and settlement into a permanent shelter afforded a -relief which was too unexpected to be qualified as yet by criticism, or -any comparison with past glories. They were young and plastic, and to -each of them the future seemed to hold some promise; to them the -silence and immobility of their mother could only be evidence of -impaired faculties.</p> -<p class="par">“We must get her to bed,” said Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">Even when Mrs Gosling asked with perfect relevance, -“Are we going to stop ’ere, Blanche?” they humoured -her with evasive replies. “Well, for a day or two, -perhaps,” and “Look here, don’t you worry about that. -We’re going to put you to bed.”</p> -<p class="par">Her head dropped again and she fell back into her moody -silence. Doubtless she meditated on the many wrongs her daughters had -done her, and <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb249" href="#pb249" name= -"pb249">249</a>]</span>wondered why she should have been brought out to -die in this wilderness?</p> -<p class="par">During the nine days that elapsed before her plan -matured, she made no further comment on her surroundings. She lay in -the upstairs room, sleeping little, with no desire ever again to face -the terror of a world which demanded a new mode of thought. -Unconsciously she had adopted Blanche’s phrase, -“Everything’s different,” but to her the message was -one of doom, she could not live in a different world.</p> -<p class="par">And Blanche on her side was puzzled at her -mother’s apathy and said, “I can’t understand -it.” Yet both the changed conditions and Mrs Gosling’s -unchangeable habit were fundamental things. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb250" href="#pb250" name="pb250">250</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch18" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="divNum">XVIII—</span>MODES OF -EXPRESSION</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">1</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">In Marlow that year harvesting and thrashing were -carried on simultaneously. August was very dry, and the greater part of -the corn was never stacked at all. Thrale took his engines into the -fields, and the shocks were loaded on to carts and fed directly into -the thrasher. This method entailed some disadvantages, chief among them -the retarding of the actual harvest-work, but on the whole it probably -economized labour. The scheme would doubtless have been impracticable -in the days of small private ownership, but it worked well in this -instance, favoured as it was by the drought.</p> -<p class="par">The saving of labour during those six weeks of furious -toil was a matter of the first importance. The work, indeed, was too -heavy for many of the women who were unable to stand the physical -strain of hoisting sheaves from the waggons into the thrasher; and the -sacks of grain proved so unmanageable that Thrale had to devise a -makeshift hoist for loading them into the carts. In Marlow, at least, -machinery was still triumphant, and the committee sighed their relief -in the sentence: “I don’t know what we should have done -without Jasper Thrale.” Nevertheless it is quite certain that -they would have done without him if it had not been for that fortuitous -meeting in Maidenhead. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb251" href= -"#pb251" name="pb251">251</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">For Thrale there was no rest possible, even when the -last field had been cleared and the last clumsily-built stack of straw -or unthrashed corn erected. Besides the necessity for some form of -thatching—or, failing efficiency in that direction, for -completing the thrashing operations—he had to turn his attention -to the immensely difficult problem of turning the grain into flour. He -knew vaguely that the grain ought to be cleaned and conditioned before -grinding, and that the actual separation of the constituents of the -berry was a matter of importance; but he had no practical knowledge of -the various operations, and in this matter Miss Oliver was quite unable -to help him.</p> -<p class="par">The mill beside the lock presented itself as an -intricate and enormously detailed problem which must be solved by a -concentrated effort of induction. The only person who appeared to be of -real assistance to him was Eileen, and she was apt to tire and fall -into despair when the detail of involved and often concealed machinery -baffled them for hour after hour. Nevertheless Thrale solved this -problem also. His first concern was for a head of water. The weirs had -not been touched since the beginning of May, and the river was very -low, but by mid-September there was enough water to work for a few -hours every day, and, despite endless mistakes and setbacks, the mill -was turning out a sufficient supply of fairly respectable looking -flour.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale had that wonderful masculine faculty for thus -applying himself to a mechanical problem, and, like his predecessors in -mechanical invention, it was <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb252" href= -"#pb252" name="pb252">252</a>]</span>the problem and not any promise of -future reward which interested him. He became absorbed for the time in -that problem of grinding corn, grudging the hours he was obliged to -devote to other activities; and when he felt the throb of life running -through the mill, saw the women he had taught attending each to their -own appointed task in the economy, and felt the touch of the fine, -smooth flour between his fingers, he needed no thanks from the -committee nor promise of independence to reward him for his labour. The -sight of this thing he had created was sufficient recompense. He loved -this beautiful efficient toy that changed wheat into flour, and oats -into meal, it was his to father and to fight for; the perfect child of -his ingenuity and toil.</p> -<p class="par">But if Thrale’s time was tremendously occupied the -women found that they had more opportunities for leisure after harvest. -They were still employed in field and garden, and there was still much -to be done, but their hours were shorter and the work seemed light in -contrast with the heroic labour that had been necessary at the -harvest.</p> -<p class="par">And with this first coming of comparative ease, this -first opportunity for reflection since the terrible plague had thrust -upon them the necessity for fierce and unremitting effort to produce -the essentials of life, women began to express themselves in their -various ways. Aspirations and emotions that had been crushed by the -fatigues of physical labour began to revive; personal inclinations, -jealousies and resentments became manifest in the detail of -intercourse; old prejudices, religious and social, once <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb253" href="#pb253" name="pb253">253</a>]</span>more -assumed an aspect of importance in the interactions of individuals. -There was a faint stir in the community, the first sign of a trouble -which was steadily to increase as winter laid its bond upon the -storehouses of earth.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">2</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The two Goslings, working only six or seven hours -a day in the mill during the latter part of September, found plenty of -time for chatter and speculation. They, and more especially Blanche, -had shown themselves capable workers in the harvest field, but when -hands had been required in his mill Thrale had chosen the Goslings and -those whom he considered less adapted to field work; and among them Mrs -Isaacson and a member of the committee, Miss Jenkyn, the -schoolmistress. (The education problem was in abeyance for the time -being. The children had run wild for three months, and been subject -only to the discipline of their mothers, but it was understood that the -children were to receive attention when the winter brought -opportunity.)</p> -<p class="par">Blanche soon distinguished herself as a picked worker in -this sphere. Her intelligence was of a somewhat more masculine quality -in some respects than that of the average woman; she was slower, more -detailed, more logical in her methods. And now that those male -characteristics—so often deplored by women in the days before the -plague—had been withdrawn from the flux of life, it had become -evident that they had been an essential part <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb254" href="#pb254" name="pb254">254</a>]</span>of -the whole, if only a part. Masculine characteristics were at a premium -in Marlow that autumn, and as a natural consequence were being rated at -an ever higher value. There was a tendency among some women to become -more male....</p> -<p class="par">Millie, however, was not among the progressives. She was -not gifted intellectually; she had no swift intuitions—such as -Eileen had—which enabled her to comprehend her work; she was -naturally indolent, and all her emotions came to her through -sensation.</p> -<p class="par">When she was put to work in the mill she was secretly -elated. She did not believe the stories told of Jasper Thrale’s -insensibility to feminine attractions, and if she believed those other -stories which coupled his name with that of Lady Eileen, Millie was of -opinion that such an entanglement was not necessarily final.</p> -<p class="par">The first week of her association with Thrale in the -work of the mill brought disillusionment.</p> -<p class="par">When she looked up from her work and caught his eye as -he passed her, he either stared coldly or stopped and asked in a -businesslike, austere voice whether she wanted assistance. Such -intimations should have been sufficient, but in this thing, at least, -Millie was persistent. She thought that he did not understand—men -were proverbially stupid in these matters. So she waited for an -opportunity and within ten days one was presented.</p> -<p class="par">A hesitation in some of the machinery she overlooked -provided sufficient excuse for calling the head engineer. She looked -down the step-ladder <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb255" href="#pb255" -name="pb255">255</a>]</span>which communicated with the floor below and -called hesitatingly, “Oh! Please. Mr Thrale.”</p> -<p class="par">He heard her and looked up, “What is it?” he -asked.</p> -<p class="par">“Something gone wrong,” she said blushing, -“I’ve stopped the rollers, but I don’t -know——”</p> -<p class="par">“All right, I’m coming,” he returned, -and presently joined her.</p> -<p class="par">“By the way,” he remarked as he began to -examine the machine, “we don’t say ‘Mister,’ -now. I thought you’d learnt that.”</p> -<p class="par">Millie simpered. “It sounds so familiar not -to,” she said.</p> -<p class="par">“Rubbish,” grunted Thrale. “You can -call me ‘engineer,’ I suppose?<span class="corr" id= -"xd23e4311" title="Not in source">”</span></p> -<p class="par">“Now, look here,” he continued, “do -you see this hopper in here?”</p> -<p class="par">She came close to him and peered into the machine.</p> -<p class="par">“It gets clogged, do you see?” said Thrale, -“and when the meal stutters you’ve just got to put your -hand in and clear it. Understand?”</p> -<p class="par">“I think so,” hesitated Millie. She was -leaning against him and her body was trembling with delicious -excitement. Almost unconsciously she pressed a little closer.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale suddenly drew back. “Do you -understand?” he said harshly.</p> -<p class="par">“Ye-yes, I think so,” returned Millie; and -she straightened herself, looked up at him for a moment and then -dropped her eyes, blushing.</p> -<p class="par">“Very well,” said Thrale, “and -here’s another <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb256" href="#pb256" -name="pb256">256</a>]</span>piece of advice for you. If you want to -stay in the mill keep your attention on your work. You’re a man -now, for all intents and purposes; you’ve got a man’s work -to do, and you must keep your mind on it. If there’s any -foolishness you go out into the turnip fields. You won’t have -another warning,” he concluded as he turned and left her.</p> -<p class="par">“Beast,” muttered Millie when she was alone. -She was shaken with furious anger. “I hate you, you silly stuck -up thing,” she whispered fiercely shaking with passion. -“Oh, I wish you only knew how I hate you. I won’t touch -your beastly machines again. I’d sooner a million times be out in -the turnip field than in the same mill with <i>you</i>, you stuck up -beast. I <i>won’t</i> work, I won’t do a thing, -I’ll—I’ll——”</p> -<p class="par">For a time she was hysterical.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche coming down from the floor above found her -sister tearing at her hair.</p> -<p class="par">“Good heavens, Mill, what’s up?” she -asked.</p> -<p class="par">Millie had passed through the worst stages of her -seizure by then, and she dropped her hands. “I dunno,” she -said. “It’s this beastly mill, I suppose.”</p> -<p class="par">“I like it,” returned Blanche.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, <i>you</i>,” said Millie, full of scorn -for Blanche’s frigidity. “You ought to have been a man, you -ought.”</p> -<p class="par">“I dunno what’s come to you,” was -Blanche’s comment.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">3</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">It was maturity that had come to Millie. Her new -life of air and physical exercise had set the blood <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb257" href="#pb257" name= -"pb257">257</a>]</span>running in her veins. In the Wisteria Grove days -she had had an anæmic tendency; the limited routine of her -existence and all the suppressions of her narrow life had retarded her -development. Now she was suddenly ripe. Two months of sun and air had -brought superabundant vitality, and the surplus had become the most -important factor in her existence<span class="corr" id="xd23e4363" -title="Not in source">.</span> She found no outlet for her new vigour -in the work of the mill. Something within her was crying out for joy. -She wanted to find expression.</p> -<p class="par">There were many other young women in Marlow that autumn -in similar case, and a rumour was current among them that this was a -favourable time for crossing the hill. It was said that the lord of -Wycombe was seeking new favourites.</p> -<p class="par">Millie heard the rumour and tossed her head -superciliously.</p> -<p class="par">“Let him come here. I’d give him a piece of -my mind,” she said.</p> -<p class="par">“He doesn’t come ’ere,” returned -the gossip. “’E’s afeard of our Mr Thrale.”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! Jasper Thrale!” said Millie. -“That fellow from Wycombe could knock his head off in no -time.”</p> -<p class="par">The gossip was doubtful.</p> -<p class="par">Millie was incapable of formulating a plan in this -connexion, but she was seized with a desire for spending the still -September evenings in the open air, and always something drew her -towards the hill at Handy Cross. That way lay interest and excitement. -There was a wonderful fascination in going as far as the top of the -descent into Wycombe. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb258" href= -"#pb258" name="pb258">258</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Usually she joined one or two other young women in these -excursions. It was understood between them that they went “for -fun,” and they would laugh and scream when they reached the dip -past the farm, pretend to push each other down the slope, and cry out -suddenly: “He’s coming! Run!”</p> -<p class="par">But one afternoon, some ten days after Jasper Thrale had -threatened her with the turnip field, Millie went alone.</p> -<p class="par">She had left work early. The rain had not come yet, and -Thrale was becoming anxious with regard to the shortage of water. He -had the sluices of Marlow and Hedsor weirs closed, and had opened the -sluices of the weirs above as far as Hambledon, but so little water was -coming down that he decided to work shorter hours for the present.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche had stayed on at the mill to help with repairs. -She was rapidly developing into a capable engineer. So Millie, whose -only service was that of machine minder, found herself alone and -unoccupied.</p> -<p class="par">Every one else seemed to be working. Her friends of the -evening excursions were mostly in the fields on the Henley side of the -town.</p> -<p class="par">Millie decided she would lie down on the bed and go to -sleep for a bit; but even before she came to the cottage she changed -her mind. It was a deliciously warm, still afternoon.</p> -<p class="par">Almost automatically she took the road towards Little -Marlow; a desire for adventure had overtaken her. Why, she argued, -shouldn’t she go into Wycombe? There were plenty of other women -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb259" href="#pb259" name= -"pb259">259</a>]</span>there. She would be quite safe. She only wanted -to see what the place was like.</p> -<p class="par">Her consciousness of perfect rectitude lasted until she -reached the dip beyond Handy Cross. Farther than this she had not -ventured before. Some mystery lay beyond the turn of the road.</p> -<p class="par">She sat down in the grass by the wayside and called -herself a fool, but she was afraid to go further. She and those friends -of hers had made this place the entrance to a terrible and fascinating -beyond. She remembered how they had feared to stay there in the failing -light, daring each other to remain there alone after sunset. There was -nothing to be afraid of, she said to herself; and yet she was -afraid.</p> -<p class="par">She was hot with her long climb, and the place was quite -deserted. She decided to take down her hair to cool herself.</p> -<p class="par">Curiously, she looked upon this simple act as -deliciously daring and in some way wicked. She cast half-fearful -glances at the green girt shadows of the descending road, as she shook -out the masses of her hair. “If anyone should come!” she -thought. “If <i>he</i> should come...!”</p> -<p class="par">She giggled nervously, and shivered.</p> -<p class="par">But as time passed, and no one came, she began to lose -her fear, and presently she lay full length on the grass, and stared up -into the pale blue dome of the sky until her eyes ached and she had to -close them. The deep hush of the still afternoon enveloped her in a -great calm.</p> -<p class="par">For a time she slept peacefully, and then she dreamed -that she was rushing through the air, and <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb260" href="#pb260" name="pb260">260</a>]</span>that some one chased -her. She wanted desperately to be captured, but it was ordained that -she must fly, and she flew incredibly fast. She flew through the -sunlight into darkness, and awoke to find that some one was standing -between her and the sun.</p> -<p class="par">She lay still, paralysed with terror. She bitterly -regretted her coming. She would have given ten years of life to be safe -home in Marlow.</p> -<p class="par">“Now, where’ve I seen you before?” -asked Sam Evans....</p> -<p class="par">It was nearly dark when Blanche accosted a knot of women -in the High Street with a question as to whether they had seen anything -of her sister.</p> -<p class="par">One of the women laughed sneeringly. “Ah! She went -over the hill this afternoon,” she said. “We were in the -fields that side, and saw her go.”</p> -<p class="par">Blanche’s face burned. “She hasn’t! I -know she hasn’t!” she blurted out. “She isn’t -one of that sort.”</p> -<p class="par">The woman laughed again.</p> -<p class="par">“She’s one of the lucky ones,” another -woman remarked. “You can expect her back in a week or two’s -time.”</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">4</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">On the same evening that Millie crossed the hill, -Lady Eileen Ferrar encountered the spirit of passion in another -shape.</p> -<p class="par">The thought of a lonely bathe tempted her, and she -crossed the river, made her way through deserted Bisham, and back to -the stream along a narrow, overhung lane beyond Bisham Abbey. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb261" href="#pb261" name= -"pb261">261</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">The sun had set, but when she came out from the trees -there was light in the sky and on the water. Overhead a few wisps of -cirrus, sailing in the far heights of air, still caught the direct rays -of the sun. Eileen paused on the bank, rejoicing in the glow of colour -about her; but as she gazed, the little fleet of salmon-tinted clouds -were engulfed in the great earth-shadow, and the delicate crisp -rose-leaves were transfigured into flat stipples of steel grey.</p> -<p class="par">A slight chill had come into the air, but the water was -deliciously soft and warm. Eileen swam a couple of hundred yards -up-stream, towards the gloom of shadows that obscured the course of the -river. The after-glow was fading now, and though the surface of the -water seemed to catch some reflection of light from an unknown source, -the near distance loomed dark and mysterious. She trod water for a few -moments, but could not decide whether the river turned to right or -left. To all appearances, it terminated abruptly fifty yards -ahead....</p> -<p class="par">A new sound was forcing itself upon her -attention—a low, steady booming. She stopped swimming, and, -keeping herself afloat by slow, silent movements of hands and feet -under water, she listened attentively. The dull boom seemed changed -into a low, ceaseless moan.</p> -<p class="par">She remembered then the recently opened sluices of -Temple Weir, but quite suddenly she was aware of fear. She thought she -saw a movement among the reeds by the bank. She thought she heard -laughter and the thin pipe of a flute.</p> -<p class="par">Were the old gods coming back to witness the -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb262" href="#pb262" name= -"pb262">262</a>]</span>death of man, as they had witnessed his birth? -Now that machinery and civilization were being re-absorbed into the -nature-spirit from which they had been wrung by the force of -man’s devilish and alien intelligence, were the old things -returning for one mad revel before the creatures of their sport -disappeared for ever, these representatives of a species which had -failed to hold its own in the struggle for existence?</p> -<p class="par">Night was coming up like a shadow, and in the east a -red, enormous moon was rising, coming not to dissipate, but to enhance -the mysteries of the dark, coming to countenance the wild and blind the -eyes of man.</p> -<p class="par">Eileen, almost motionless, was floating down with the -drift of the sluggish stream. She was afraid to intrude upon the -natural sounds of the night, the stealthy trickle of the river, and the -furtive rustle of secret movement whose origin she could not guess. And -again she thought that she heard the trembling reed of a distant -flute.</p> -<p class="par">She touched bottom near her landing-place, and waded out -of the river, crouching, afraid even in the black shadow of the trees -to exhibit the white column of her slim body. She dried and dressed -hastily, and when she felt again the touch of her familiar clothes -about her, she knew that she was safe from the wiles of nymph or satyr. -She had come out of the half-world that interposes between man and -Nature; her clothes made her invisible to the earth-gods, and hid them -from her knowledge. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb263" href="#pb263" -name="pb263">263</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">But she was still trembling and afraid. The flesh had -terrors great as those of the spirit.</p> -<p class="par">A little uncertain wind was coming out of the -south-west, and the trees were stirred now and again into hushed -whisperings. A dead leaf brushed her face in falling, and she started -back, thrusting at an imaginary enemy with nervously agitated -hands.</p> -<p class="par">The thought of her remoteness from life terrified her. -She was alone, face to face with implacable, brutal Nature. Man, the -boastful, full of foolish pride, was vanishing from the earth. He had -been an alien, ever out of place, defiling and corrupting the order of -growth. Now he was beaten and a fugitive. All around her, the -representative of this vile destructive species, was the slow, -persistent hatred of the earth, which longed to be at peace again. -There was no god favourable to man, now that he was dying; the gods of -man’s creation would perish with him. Only a few women were left -to realize that they were strangers in the world of Nature which hated -them. The world was not theirs, had never been theirs; they were only -some horrible, unnatural fungus that had disfigured the Earth for a -time....</p> -<p class="par">She moved cautiously and slowly under the darkness of -the trees, and even when she came back to the road she could not shake -off her fear. On her right she could see the black cliff of the -woods<a id="xd23e4468" name="xd23e4468"></a> transfigured by the light -of the moon. In the day she knew them for woods; now they were strange -and threatening; they menaced her with <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb264" href="#pb264" name="pb264">264</a>]</span>invasion. She knew -that they would march down from the hills and swarm across the valley. -In a hundred, two hundred years, Marlow would be a few heaps of brick -and stone lost in the heart of the forest.</p> -<p class="par">Ashamed of her race, she hurried on stealthily towards -the bridge.</p> -<p class="par">But before she reached it, she heard the sound of a -firm, defiant step coming towards her. She paused and listened, and her -fear fell from her. In the old days she would have feared man more than -Nature, feared robbery or assault, but now, man was united in a common -cause; the sound of humanity was the sound of a friend.</p> -<p class="par">“Hullo!” she called, and the voice of Jasper -Thrale answered. “Hullo! Who’s that?” he said.</p> -<p class="par">“Me—Eileen,” she replied. -“I’ve been for a bathe.”</p> -<p class="par">He paused opposite her, and they looked at one -another.</p> -<p class="par">“Jolly night,” he remarked.</p> -<p class="par">“I’ve seen the great god Pan,” said -Eileen. “Those sailors in the Ionian Sea were misinformed. -He’s not dead.”</p> -<p class="par">“Why should Pan die and Dionysus live?” -returned Thrale. “I hear that Dionysus has claimed one of our -hands, by the way.”</p> -<p class="par">“Millie?”</p> -<p class="par">“Yes.”</p> -<p class="par">“Are you angry?”</p> -<p class="par">“Yes. Not with Millie. If <i>you</i> saw Pan, why -shouldn’t <i>she</i> see Dionysus? No, I’m angry with the -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb265" href="#pb265" name= -"pb265">265</a>]</span>Jenkyn woman. She’s saying that we ought -not to have Millie back if she wants to come.”</p> -<p class="par">“How silly!” commented Eileen.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! if that were all!” replied Thrale. -“The real trouble is that the Jenkyn woman is proselytizing. She -wants to revive Church services and Sunday observances. We’re -going to have a split before the winter’s over, and all the old -misunderstandings and antagonisms back again.”</p> -<p class="par">“Why, of course we are,” returned Eileen, -after a pause. “We are going to divide into those that are afraid -and those that aren’t. It’s fear that’s got hold of -us, now we’ve time to think. It’s all about us to-night; -I’ve seen it, and Millie has seen it; and Clara Jenkyn and all -those who are going with her have seen it; and we’ve all got to -find our own way out.” She hesitated for a moment, and then said: -“And what about you? Have you seen it?”</p> -<p class="par">“Yes, for the first time. Within the last ten -minutes,” said Thrale.</p> -<p class="par">The moon was above the trees now, and she could see his -face clearly. “Have you?” she asked. “I can’t -picture it. It can’t be Pan or Dionysus, or fear of the Earth or -of humanity. No; and it can’t be the most terrible of all, the -fear of an idea. What are you afraid of?”</p> -<p class="par">“I’m afraid of you,” said Thrale, and -he turned away quickly and hurried on in the direction of the -river.</p> -<p class="par">“I <i>did</i> see Pan,” affirmed Eileen, as -she returned, happy and unafraid, towards Marlow. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb266" href="#pb266" name="pb266">266</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">5</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">That mood of the night had suggested to Eileen the -idea of a single cause which seemed sufficient to account for the -revivalist tendencies of Miss Jenkyn and certain other women in Marlow. -Fear was presented as a simple explanation, and Eileen, like many other -philosophers who had preceded her, was too eager for the simple and -inclusive explanation.</p> -<p class="par">At first the revivalist tendency was feeble and -circumscribed. Twenty or thirty women met in the schoolroom and talked -and prayed by the light of a single, tenderly nursed oil-lamp. The -absence of any minister kept them back at first; the less earnest -needed some concrete embodiment of religion in the form of a black coat -and white tie.</p> -<p class="par">But when the rain came in early October, came and -persisted; when the beeches, instead of flaring into scarlet, grew -sodden and dead; when the threat of flood grew even more imminent, and -the distraction of physical toil almost ceased, this little nucleus of -women was joined by many new recruits, and their comparatively harmless -prostrations, lamentations and worshippings of the abstract, developed -into an attempt to enforce a moral law upon the community.</p> -<p class="par">Millie Gosling, returning to Marlow in mid-October, gave -the religionists splendid opportunity for a first demonstration.</p> -<p class="par">Millie returned with a bold face and a shrinking heart. -She had fled from Wycombe because she could not meet the taunts of the -women who had so lately <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb267" href= -"#pb267" name="pb267">267</a>]</span>envied her as she rode, prime -favourite for a time, in the Dionysian landau. A great loneliness had -come over her after she was dethroned; she needed sympathy, and she -hoped that Blanche might be made to understand. Millie came back from -over the hill prepared with a long tale of excuses.</p> -<p class="par">She found her sister perfectly complacent.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche was a fervent disciple of Jasper Thrale and -machinery, and Thrale had anticipated Millie’s return and in some -ways prepared for it. At odd moments he had preached the new gospel, -the tenets of which Blanche had begun to formulate for herself.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s no good going back to the old morality -for a precedent,” had been the essential argument used by Thrale; -“we have to face new conditions. If a man is only to have one -wife now, the race will decline, probably perish. It is a woman’s -duty to bear children.”</p> -<p class="par">Eileen, Blanche and a few other young women had wondered -that he made no application of the argument to his own case, but his -opinion carried more weight by reason of his continence. Even Miss -Jenkyn could not urge that his opinion was framed to defend his own -mode of life, and, failing that casuistical support, she had to fall -back on the second alternative of her kind, namely, to assert that this -preacher of antagonistic opinions was either the devil in person or -possessed by him—a line of defence which took longer to establish -than the simple accusation of expediency.</p> -<p class="par">So Millie, returning one wet October afternoon, found -that no excuses were required of her. Blanche <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb268" href="#pb268" name= -"pb268">268</a>]</span>welcomed her and asked no questions, and Jasper -Thrale and Eileen came to the little cottage in St Peter’s Street -at sunset and treated the prodigal Millie with a new and altogether -delightful friendliness. It was understood that she would return at -once to her work in the Mill. But in the school-house opposite another -reception was being prepared for her.</p> -<p class="par">The more advanced of the Jenkynites were for taking -immediate action. Prayer, worship, and the acknowledgment of personal -sin fell into the background that evening, Millie appeared not as a -brand to be saved from the burning, but as an abandoned and evil -creature who must be thrust out of the community if any member of it -was to save her soul alive. Every one of these furious religionists -could stand up and declare that she was innocent of the commission of -this particular sin of Millie’s, and every one was willing and -anxious to cast the first stone.</p> -<p class="par">The meeting simmered, and at last boiled over into St -Peter’s Street. A band of more than a dozen rigidly virtuous and -ecstatically Christian women beat at the door of the Goslings’ -cottage. They had come to denounce sin and thrust the sinner out of the -community with physical violence. Each of them in her own heart thought -of herself as the bride of Christ.</p> -<p class="par">The door was opened to them by Jasper Thrale.</p> -<p class="par">“We have come to cast out the evil one!” -cried Miss Jenkyn in a high emotional voice.</p> -<p class="par">“What are you talking about?” asked Thrale. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb269" href="#pb269" name= -"pb269">269</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“She shall be cast forth from our midst!” -shrilled Miss Jenkyn; and her supporters raised a horrible screaming -cry of agreement.</p> -<p class="par">“Cast her forth!” they cried, finding full -justification for their high pitch of emotion in the use of Biblical -phrase.</p> -<p class="par">“Cast forth your grandmother!” replied -Thrale calmly. “Get back to your homes, and don’t be -foolish.”</p> -<p class="par">“He is possessed of the devil!” chanted Miss -Jenkyn. “The Lord has called upon us to vindicate his honour and -glory. This man, too, must not be suffered to dwell in the -congregation.”</p> -<p class="par">“Down with him! down with him!” assented the -little crowd, now so exalted with the glory of their common purpose -that they were ready for martyrdom.</p> -<p class="par">Miss Jenkyn was an undersized, withered little spinster -of forty-five, and physically impotent; but, drunk with the fervour of -her emotion, and encouraged by the sympathy of her followers and the -fury of her own voice, she flung herself fiercely upon the calm figure -of Jasper Thrale. Her thwarted self-expression had found an outlet. She -desired the blood of Millie Gosling and Jasper Thrale with the same -intensity that women had once desired a useless vote.</p> -<p class="par">Jasper Thrale put out a careless hand and pushed her -back into the arms of the women behind her; but she was up again -instantly, and, backed by the crowd, who, encouraging themselves by -shrill screams of “Cast them forth!” were now thrusting -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb270" href="#pb270" name= -"pb270">270</a>]</span>forward into the narrow doorway, she renewed the -assault with all the fierce energy of a struggling kitten.</p> -<p class="par">“I shall lose my temper in a minute,” said -Thrale, as he took a step forward and, bracing himself against the door -frame, drove the women back with vigorous thrusts of his powerful -arms.</p> -<p class="par">To lose his temper, indeed, seemed the only way of -escape; to give way to berserk rage, and so to injure these muscularly -feeble creatures that they would be unable to continue the struggle. -But the babble of screaming voices was bringing other helpers to his -aid, chief among them Lady Durham, and her cold, clear voice fell on -the hysterical Jenkynites like a douche of cold water.</p> -<p class="par">“Clara Jenkyn, what are you doing?” asked -Elsie Durham.</p> -<p class="par">“Millie Gosling must be cast forth,” wavered -the little dishevelled woman; but this time there was no reponse from -her disciples.</p> -<p class="par">“That is a question for the committee,” -replied Elsie Durham. “Now, please go to your homes, all of -you.”</p> -<p class="par">Miss Jenkyn tried to explain.</p> -<p class="par">Elsie Durham walked into the cottage and shut the -door.</p> -<p class="par">Inside, Eileen and Blanche were trying to reassure the -trembling Millie. Outside, the Jenkynites were suffering a more brutal -martyrdom than that they had sought. The tongues of the new arrivals, -the fuller-blooded, more physically vigorous members of the community, -were making sport of these brides of Christ. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb271" href="#pb271" name="pb271">271</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">6</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">But the women of Marlow were to learn afresh the -old lesson that religious enthusiasm is not to be killed by ridicule or -oppression. Jasper Thrale understood and appreciated that fact, but the -policy he suggested could not be approved by the committee.</p> -<p class="par">“This emotion is a fundamental thing,” he -said to Lady Durham, “and history will show you that persecution -will intensify it to the point of martyrdom. There is only one way to -combat it. Give it room. Let them do as they will. The heat of the fire -is too fierce for you to damp it down; you only supply more fuel. Fan -it, throw it open to the air, and it will burn itself harmlessly -out.”</p> -<p class="par">Elsie Durham shrugged her shoulders. “That’s -all very well,” she said. “I believe it’s perfectly -true. But they make you the bone of contention. If it were only Millie -Gosling—well—she might go. We could find a place for -her—at Fingest, perhaps. But we can’t spare you.”</p> -<p class="par">“I don’t know why not,” returned -Thrale. “I never intended to stay indefinitely. You can carry on -now without me, and I can fulfil my original intention and push on into -the West.”</p> -<p class="par">“My dear man! we can’t, and we -won’t!” said Elsie Durham. “You are -indispensable.”</p> -<p class="par">“No one is indispensable,” replied -Thrale.</p> -<p class="par">“Bother your metaphysics, Jasper!” was the -answer. “We are not going to let you go. ‘We’ is -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb272" href="#pb272" name= -"pb272">272</a>]</span>the majority of Marlow, not only the committee. -We’ll fight the fanatics somehow.”</p> -<p class="par">The majority referred to by Elsie Durham was fairly -compact in relation to this issue of retaining Jasper Thrale, and -included the two greater of the three recognizable parties in the -community. Of these three, the greatest was the moderate party, made up -of Episcopalians, Nonconformists and a few Roman Catholics, who found -relief for their emotion one day in seven either in the Town Hall or -Marlow Church, in which places services and meetings were -held—the former by certain approved individuals, notably Elsie -Durham and the widow of the late Rector of Marlow. The second party in -order of size included all those who either denied the Divine -revelation or were careless of all religious matters. The third -party—the Jenkynites, as they were dubbed by their -opponents—had drawn their numbers from every old denomination. -The Jenkynites were differentiated from the other two parties by -certain physical differences. For instance, the Jenkynites numbered few -members under the age of thirty-five; very few of them were fat, and -very few of them were capable field workers; they were hungry-eyed, and -had a certain air of disappointed eagerness about them; they looked as -though they had for ever sought something, and, finding it, had -remained unsatisfied. In all, there were some seventeen women who might -have been regarded as quite true to type, and about this vivid nucleus -were clustered nearly a hundred other women, many of whom exhibited -some characteristic <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb273" href="#pb273" -name="pb273">273</a>]</span>mark of the same type, while the remainder, -perhaps 40 per cent of the whole body, had joined the party out of -bravado, to seek excitement, or for some purpose of expediency.</p> -<p class="par">Among the last was Mrs Isaacson, who was the ultimate -cause of the Jenkynite defeat.</p> -<p class="par">Ever since she had passed her examination in farm -supervision, Mrs Isaacson had exhibited an increasing tendency to rest -on her laurels. She had grown very stout again during her stay in -Marlow, and complained of severe heart trouble. The least exertion -brought on violent palpitation accompanied by the most alarming -symptoms. The poor lady would gasp for breath, press her hands -convulsively to a spot just below her left breast, and roll up her eyes -till they presented only a terrifying repulsive rim of blood-streaked -white, if the least exertion were demanded from her, and yet she would -persist in the effort until absolutely on the verge of collapse. -“No, no! I must work!” she would insist. “It iss not -fair to the others that I do no work. I will try once more. It iss only -fair.”</p> -<p class="par">At times they had to insist that she should return home -and rest.</p> -<p class="par">And as the winter closed in, Mrs Isaacson’s rests -became more and more protracted. Jasper Thrale grinned and said: -“I suppose we’ve got to keep her”; but there was a -feeling among the other members of the committee that they were -creating an undesirable precedent. Mrs Isaacson’s example was -being followed by other women who preferred rest to work. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb274" href="#pb274" name="pb274">274</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Heart weakness was becoming endemic in Marlow.</p> -<p class="par">Then came the news that Mrs Isaacson had joined the -Jenkynites. The seventeen received her somewhat doubtfully at first, -but the body of the sect were in favour of her reception. Possibly they -were rather proud of counting one more fat woman among them; the -average member was so noticeably thin.</p> -<p class="par">Even the seventeen were satisfied within a fortnight of -Mrs Isaacson’s conversion. She had a wonderful fluency, and she -said the right and proper things in her own peculiar English—a -form of speech which had a certain piquancy and interest and afforded -relief and variety after the somewhat stereotyped formulas of the -seventeen.</p> -<p class="par">But early in December, before the floods came, Mrs -Isaacson was convicted of a serious offence against the community. One -of the committee’s first works had been to store certain -priceless valuables. Tea, coffee, sugar, soap, candles, salt, baking -powder, wine and other irreplaceable commodities had been locked up in -one of the bank premises. In all, they had a fairly large store, upon -which they had hardly drawn as yet. It was not intended to hoard these -luxuries indefinitely. After harvest a dole had been made to all the -workers as acknowledgment of their services, and it had been decided to -hold another festival on Christmas Day.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Isaacson, with unsuspected energy, had burglariously -entered this storehouse of wealth. She had found an accessible window -at the rear, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb275" href="#pb275" name= -"pb275">275</a>]</span>which she had succeeded in forcing, and, despite -her bulk and the delicate state of her heart, she had effected an -entrance and stolen tea, sugar, candles and whisky.</p> -<p class="par">She was, indeed, finally caught in the act; but her -thefts would probably have escaped notice—she worked after dark, -and with a cunning and caution that would have placed her high in the -profession before the plague—had it not been for Blanche.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">7</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">It seems that Mrs Isaacson had formed the habit of -staying up in the evening. She pleaded that she could not sleep during -the early hours of the night, which was not surprising in view of the -fact that she slept much during the day; and as she was diligent in -picking up or begging sufficient wood to maintain the fire, there was -no reason why Blanche and Millie should offer any objection. Thrale had -rigged up a dynamo at the mill now to provide artificial light, and the -girls’ hours of work were so prolonged that they were glad to get -to bed at half-past seven. By eight o’clock Mrs Isaacson -evidently counted herself safe from all interruption.</p> -<p class="par">She might have continued her enjoyment of luxury -undiscovered throughout the winter if Blanche had not suffered from -toothache.</p> -<p class="par">She had been in bed and asleep nearly two hours when her -dreams of discomfort merged into a consciousness of actual pain. She -sighed and pressed her cheek into the pillows, made agonizing -exploration <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb276" href="#pb276" name= -"pb276">276</a>]</span>with her tongue, and tried to go to sleep again. -Possibly she might have succeeded had not that unaccountable smell of -whisky obtruded itself upon her senses.</p> -<p class="par">At first she thought the house was on fire. That had -always been her one fear in leaving Mrs Isaacson alone; and she sat up -in bed and sniffed vigorously. “Funny,” she murmured; -“it smells like—like plum pudding.” The analogy was -probably suggested to her by the odour of burning brandy.</p> -<p class="par">She got up and opened the door of the bedroom.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Isaacson slept on a sort of glorified landing, and -when Blanche stepped outside her own door she could see at once by the -light of a watery full moon that her lodger had not yet come to -bed.</p> -<p class="par">The smell of the spirit was stronger on the landing, and -Blanche, forgetting her toothache in the excitement of the moment, -stole quietly down the short flight of crooked stairs. The door giving -on to the living-room was latched, but there were two convenient -knot-holes, and through one of them she saw Mrs Isaacson seated by the -fire drinking hot tea. On the table stood an open whisky bottle and two -lighted wax candles.</p> -<p class="par">Blanche was thunderstruck. Tea, whisky and candles were -inexplicable things. The thought of witchcraft obtruded itself, and so -fascinated her that she stood on the stairs gazing through the knothole -until a sudden rigour reminded her that she was deadly cold.</p> -<p class="par">She did not interrupt the orgy. She crept back to bed, -and after much difficulty awakened Millie. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb277" href="#pb277" name="pb277">277</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">The sound of their voices must have alarmed Mrs -Isaacson, for the girls presently heard her stumbling upstairs. They -stopped their discussion then, and Blanche’s toothache being -mysteriously cured by her excitement, they were soon asleep again.</p> -<p class="par">Neither of the girls spoke of their discovery to anyone -the next day, but Blanche returned to the cottage at half-past four, -when Mrs Isaacson was at a meeting over the way, and explored her -bedroom<span class="corr" id="xd23e4673" title="Not in source">.</span> -She found a small store of tea, sugar and candles under the -mattress—the whisky bottle had disappeared—and so came to -an understanding of Mrs Isaacson’s self-sacrificing insistence -that she should perform all work connected with her own -sleeping-place—it could hardly be called a room.</p> -<p class="par">After consultation with Millie, Blanche decided that she -must inform Jasper Thrale of the contraband.</p> -<p class="par">“She’s been stealing, of course,” he -said. “I suppose we shall have to bring it home to her.” -But he laughed at Blanche’s indignation.</p> -<p class="par">“She’s stealing from <i>us</i>!” said -Blanche, who had developed a fine sense of her duty towards and -interest in the community.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, yes! you’re quite right,” said -Thrale. “I’ll inform the committee—at least, the -non-Jenkynites.”</p> -<p class="par">The five non-Jenkynites were furious.</p> -<p class="par">“We must make an example,” Elsie Durham -said. “It isn’t that we shall miss what the Isaacson woman -has taken—or will take. It’s the question of precedent. -This is where we are facing the beginning <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb278" href="#pb278" name="pb278">278</a>]</span>of -law—isn’t it? Somebody has to protect the members of the -community against themselves. If one steals and goes unpunished, -another will steal<span class="corr" id="xd23e4693" title= -"Not in source">.</span> We shall have the women divided into stealers -and workers.”</p> -<p class="par">“What are you going to do with her?” asked -Thrale.</p> -<p class="par">“Turn her out,” replied Elsie Durham.</p> -<p class="par">“The Jenkynites won’t let her go,” -said Thrale raising the larger question.</p> -<p class="par">“We shall see,” said Elsie Durham, -“But that reminds me that we must catch the woman <i lang= -"la">flagrante delicto</i>; we must have no quibbles about the -facts.”</p> -<p class="par">Thrale agreed with the wisdom of this policy, but -refused to take any part in either the detection or the prosecution of -Mrs Isaacson. “They’ll say its a put-up job if I have -anything to do with it,” he argued.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">8</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The Jenkynites blazed when Rebecca Isaacson was -finally caught and denounced. The culprit, when caught in the act of -entering the bank premises had made a slight error of judgment, and -pleaded the excuse that she was a sleepwalker and quite unconscious of -what she was doing; but she afterwards adopted a sounder line of -defence. She made full confession to the seventeen, pleaded extravagant -penitence with all the necessary references to the blood of the Lamb, -and displayed all the well-known <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb279" -href="#pb279" name="pb279">279</a>]</span>signs that she would become -fervent in well-doing after the ensanguined ablutions had been -metaphorically performed.</p> -<p class="par">The Jenkynites were enraptured with so real a case of -sin. They had been compelled to content themselves with so many minor -failures from grace that the performances were becoming slightly -monotonous.</p> -<p class="par">The “Sister Rebecca” case was refreshingly -real and genuine, and they meant to make the most of it. Also, this -case gave them occasion to assert themselves once more against the -opinions of the community.</p> -<p class="par">It must not be supposed that the seventeen deliberately -adopted a practical and apparently promising policy. They were not -consciously seeking to obtain civil power as were the priests of the -old days before the plague. The seventeen had no sense of the State as -represented by the community; they were without question perfectly -sincere in their beliefs and actions. Their fault, if it can be so -described, was their inability to adapt themselves to their conditions. -They were as unchangeable as the old lady who had died sooner than be -permanently separated from the glories of a house in Wisteria Grove. -She and the seventeen and many other women in Marlow were demonstrating -that rigidity of opinion is detrimental to the interests of the growing -State. The same proposition had been clearly demonstrated by a few -exceptional individuals in the old days, but progress was so slow, the -property owners so content, and the average of <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb280" href="#pb280" name= -"pb280">280</a>]</span>mankind so intensely conservative, that their -arguments received no attention. For every man who believed in the -broad principle of maintaining an open mind, there were ten thousand -who were quite incapable of putting the principle into practice. With -these women in Marlow the conditions were completely changed. Moreover, -women are by nature more broad-minded than men in practical affairs. -Where intuition rather than the hard-and-fast methods of an -intellectual logic is being brought into play, new and wonderful -possibilities of adaptation may enter the domain of politics.</p> -<p class="par">The Jenkynites and such individuals as the late Mrs -Gosling became suddenly conspicuous in the new conditions. The type -that they represent cannot persist. They are the bonds on a vigorous -and increasing growth; the tree will grow and burst away all inflexible -restraints.</p> -<p class="par">In Marlow the new and vigorous growth was the sense of -the community. The majority of the women were realizing, consciously or -unconsciously, that they must work with and for each other. The -Jenkynite affair served the committee as a valuable object-lesson.</p> -<p class="par">Mrs Isaacson was free to do as she would while the -discussion raged. Imprisonment would have been utterly futile. The -committee did not wish to punish her for her offence against common -property, they merely wished to rid themselves of an undesirable member -and to make public announcement that they would in like manner exclude -any other <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb281" href="#pb281" name= -"pb281">281</a>]</span>member who proved herself a burden to the -community.</p> -<p class="par">The Jenkynites were characteristically unable to -comprehend this argument. They had their own definitions of heinous and -venial sins, definitions based on ancient precedent, and they counted -the fault of Millie Gosling in the former and that of Rebecca Isaacson -in the latter category. They were not susceptible to argument. As they -saw the problem, no argument was admissible. They had the old law and -the old prophets on their side, and maintained that what was true once -was true for all time. In their opinion, changed conditions did not -affect morality.</p> -<p class="par">If the need for labour had been great, the affair might -have been shelved for a time as of less importance than the dominant -economic demand which takes precedence of all other problems. But -although the floods had not yet come, there was not enough work for all -the members of the community, and this comparative idleness reacted -upon the importance of the Isaacson case in another and probably more -influential direction than the abstract consideration of justice and -humanity.</p> -<p class="par">The women had time to talk, and a new and fascinating -subject was given them to discuss. And they talked; and their talk -ripened into action. The affair Isaacson, which included also the -affair Jenkyns, was brought to a climax at a mass meeting in the Town -Hall.</p> -<p class="par">It was decided, noisily, but with considerable emphasis, -that for the good of the community the <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb282" href="#pb282" name="pb282">282</a>]</span>Jenkynites must go. -The seventeen were specifically indicated, but it was understood that -certain of their more advanced adherents would go with them.</p> -<p class="par">The Jenkynites accepted the decision in the spirit of -their belief. They were martyrs in a great cause. They would leave this -accursed city (their terminology was always Biblical) and cast off its -dust from their feet—although the roads were deep in mud at the -time. They would go forth to regenerate the world, upheld by their love -of truth and their zeal for the Word.</p> -<p class="par">Only Mrs Isaacson dissented, but she was compelled to go -with them.</p> -<p class="par">They went forth in the rain, thirty-nine of them in all, -exalted with conscious righteousness and faint with enthusiasm. The -women of Marlow were kind to them. They turned out and jeered the -little procession as it marched out of the town by the Henley Road.</p> -<p class="par">“’Oo stole the tea?” was the most -popular taunt, and no doubt the exiles would have preferred that the -taunts should have been cast at their faith rather than at the social -misdemeanour of an obscure convert. But any form of martyrdom was -better than none, and they held their heads high and sang “Glory! -glory!” with magnificent fervour.</p> -<p class="par">“I’m sure we’ve done right,” -commented Elsie Durham. “But we should never have had all the -women with us if there had been no offence against property. That -touched them—communal property. I’m not sure that it -isn’t become almost dearer than personal property.” -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb283" href="#pb283" name= -"pb283">283</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch19" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="divNum">XIX—</span>ON THE -FLOOD</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">1</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">From the middle of November onwards, the river had -been running nearly bank-high, and so much power was available that -Thrale had been considering the possibility of lighting some of the -nearer houses by electricity. He had made three journeys to London, and -with half a dozen assistants he had rifled two dynamos from the power -station just outside Paddington, and had brought back twenty -truck-loads of coal.</p> -<p class="par">The dynamos, however, were still in the truck, covered -by tarpaulin. Thrale had decided that the luxury of artificial lighting -could not be provided until all the grain had been thrashed and milled. -The end of that work was now in sight, and the accumulated wealth of -flour in Marlow was calculated to be sufficient to last the community -for at least twelve months. But before the lighting scheme could be put -in hand, a new trouble had threatened.</p> -<p class="par">During the first week of December there was almost -continuous rain, and the river began to top its banks, spreading itself -over the meadowland below the lock and creeping up the end of St -Peter’s Street. No serious matter as yet, and a short spell of -frost and clear skies followed; but before Christmas heavy rains came -again, and Thrale began to grow anxious. <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb284" href="#pb284" name="pb284">284</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“The weirs down-stream ought to be opened,” -he explained to Eileen. “They are probably all up; we need never -be afraid of shortage here; if we close our own weir we can always hold -up all the water we want.”</p> -<p class="par">“Is it serious?” she asked.</p> -<p class="par">“Not yet, but it may be,” he said, looking -up at the sky. “All Marlow might be flooded.”</p> -<p class="par">And still the rain fell, and soon the girls had to wade -through a foot of water to reach the mill.</p> -<p class="par">“I must go down-stream and open all the -weirs,” Thrale announced on Christmas Eve. “I’ve been -looking at a steam launch over at the boat-house; it’s in quite -good condition. I shall bring it up to the town landing-stage to-morrow -and get enough coal and food aboard to last a week.”</p> -<p class="par">“You’re not going alone?” said -Eileen.</p> -<p class="par">“No! I <i>must</i> take some one to work the -engine and the locks,” returned Thrale.</p> -<p class="par">“I’ll come!” announced Eileen, with -glee.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale shook his head. “You’ll have to run -this place,” he said.</p> -<p class="par">Since that night in September no reference had been made -by either of them to his strange revelation of fear. They had worked -together as two men might have worked. Neither of them had exhibited -the least consciousness of sex. Thrale believed that he had put the -fear away from him, and Eileen was content to wait. She was barely -twenty.</p> -<p class="par">“Blanche could run the mill,” she suggested. -“There isn’t much to do now.” <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb285" href="#pb285" name="pb285">285</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Thrale turned away from her with a touch of impatience. -“Blanche had better come with me,” he said.</p> -<p class="par">“I <i>want</i> to come,” pleaded Eileen.</p> -<p class="par">“Why?” he asked.</p> -<p class="par">“It’ll be sport.”</p> -<p class="par">“I don’t care to trust Blanche with the -mill,” he persisted.</p> -<p class="par">“She’s every bit as good as I am,” was -her reply.</p> -<p class="par">He shook his head.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, look here,” said Eileen, “you -might let me come, or are you—are you afraid of—of what the -women will say?” She was standing by one of the flour-encrusted -mill windows and she began to scratch a clean place on it with her -nail.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale did not answer for a moment and then he came and -stood near her. “What is it?” he asked. “Are you sick -of your work here?”</p> -<p class="par">“I shouldn’t mind a change,” she said, -intent on enlarging her peep-hole.</p> -<p class="par">“One forgets that you are women,” said -Thrale. “I suppose women are never content with work for -work’s sake.”</p> -<p class="par">“If you like,” returned Eileen -inconsequently. “I can see out now. Why don’t we have these -windows cleaned sometimes?”</p> -<p class="par">“You can have them done while I’m -away,” he suggested.</p> -<p class="par">“I’m coming with you,” said -Eileen.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! you can come if you like,” he said. He -thought he was perfectly safe, despite this unusual display of -femininity. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb286" href="#pb286" name= -"pb286">286</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“You’ll have to run the engine,” he -concluded.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! I’ll run the engine,” she agreed -and looked down at her capable, frankly dirty little hands.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">2</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The weirs at Marlow and Hedsor had been roaring -open-mouthed for ten days before Thrale and Eileen began their journey; -but the water had been piling up from below and the floods were working -back up river. The fact that none of the weirs above Henley was closed -had served to protect Marlow in some degree. There were great floods -above Sonning, and from Goring to Culham the country was a vast sheet -of water. This water, however, only came down comparatively slowly -owing to the dammed condition of the main channel, and a greater -proportion of it was absorbed. If the upper weirs had been open, Marlow -would have been under water by the middle of December.</p> -<p class="par">Not until the launch had been manœuvred with some -difficulty through Boulter’s Lock did Thrale begin to realize the -full significance of the situation.</p> -<p class="par">He had had very great difficulty first in reaching and -second in raising the paddles of the Taplow weir. In one place the -force of the flood had broken away the structure, but even with the -relief this passage had afforded the pressure of water on the paddles -was so great that he had been working for more than two hours before -the last valve was opened. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb287" href= -"#pb287" name="pb287">287</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">Eileen had been waiting for him with the launch warped -up just below the lock where the force of the stream was not so -great.</p> -<p class="par">“I don’t know whether we shall be able to -carry out this job,” remarked Thrale when he rejoined her.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, but we must,” she expostulated.</p> -<p class="par">“Do you see what has happened?” he -explained. “All the water is piled up below us. We shall probably -find the next locks flood-high, which means that we sha’n’t -be able to open them.”</p> -<p class="par">“We must navigate,” said Eileen. -“Steam round them; shoot the weirs.”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, well,” said Thrale, “I’m -wondering how far our responsibility goes. If we don’t open the -river right down to Richmond, we shall only be increasing the flood in -the lower reaches, and there may be women living there. After all, -Marlow isn’t the only place on the river. And there is another -thing; we may never get back. It’s a risky thing we are proposing -to do. No one could swim against this current. If we were upset and -carried into a weir, we should be smashed to pieces in no time. Do you -think the community can spare us?”</p> -<p class="par">“Bother the community!” replied Eileen.</p> -<p class="par">The community and its activities were already in the -background of her mind. Marlow had receded into a little distant place -with which she was no longer connected. The world of adventure and -romance lay open before her. She wanted only to explore this turbulent -river, widened now into a miniature Amazon, from which arose the -islands of <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb288" href="#pb288" name= -"pb288">288</a>]</span>half-submerged houses and trees that composed -the strange archipelago of Maidenhead.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, well,” said Thrale again. -“We’ll try. It’s no use waiting for the stream to go -down. We’d better go on now.”</p> -<p class="par">“Shall I cast off?” asked Eileen.</p> -<p class="par">“Steady, steady,” Thrale warned her. -“The next quarter of a mile is simply a rapid. You must be ready -to get the engines going full ahead the moment we start, or I -sha’n’t be able to steer her. And, now, we must both cast -off together or we shall be across the stream in two ticks. Just loosen -the rope round the cleats and let go, and then start the engine. Let -the loose end of the rope drag till we’ve time to pick it up. Are -you ready? All right—cast off!”</p> -<p class="par">The little launch swept out into the current with a -bound the instant she was released from her moorings, and almost before -the engines began to revolve she was caught in the rapids that surged -down from the newly-opened weir. She was only a light draught -pleasure-boat, designed to navigate the placid surface of the summer -Thames, and when she entered the curling broken water below the island -she threw up her nose and plunged like a nervous mare.</p> -<p class="par">“Full steam ahead,” shouted Thrale at the -toy wheel. Eileen nodded, crouching over her little engine; the roar of -the stream had drowned Thrale’s voice, but she guessed his -order.</p> -<p class="par">Her eyes were bright with excitement. She had no sense -of fear. She was exhilarated by the sense <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb289" href="#pb289" name="pb289">289</a>]</span>of rapid movement. -The launch, indeed, was travelling at a remarkable pace. In the narrow -channel between the islands and the town, the river must have been -running at nearly ten miles an hour, and the engines were probably -adding another eight. In the wide spaces of the ocean eighteen miles an -hour may appear a safe and controllable speed, but this little launch -was running down hill, she could not be stopped at command, and the -restricted course was beset with many and dangerous obstacles.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale, handling the little brass wheel forward, was -conscious of uneasiness. The launch steered after a fashion, but he had -little control of her. The trees on the banks appeared to be flying -upstream at the pace of an express train, and ahead of him was the town -bridge.</p> -<p class="par">He decided instantly that they could not pass under it, -and put the wheel over, intending to shoot out of the stream into the -calm of the flood water over the new open bank. But as the launch -turned and came across, the current took her stern and turned her half -round. For a moment her lee rail was under water, and she trembled and -rocked on the verge of capsize. Then her engines drove her out of the -stream and she righted herself again and began to cut through the -almost still, shallow flood water.</p> -<p class="par">“Stop her!” roared Thrale.</p> -<p class="par">“I say, what’s up?” replied Eileen, -coolly, as she obeyed the order.</p> -<p class="par">“No room to pass under the bridge,” said -Thrale. “I suppose we’ll have to navigate, as you call it. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb290" href="#pb290" name= -"pb290">290</a>]</span>Go dead slow, and be prepared to stop her at a -moment’s notice.”</p> -<p class="par">They spent over an hour in finding a passage round the -approach to the bridge. They had laboriously to pole the launch through -the tops of hedges, and in one place they were aground for ten minutes. -But after they had returned to the stream once more they had a rapid -and easy passage down to Bray. They shot the great arch of the -Maidenhead railway bridge triumphantly. Eileen said it was -“glorious.”</p> -<p class="par">The weir at Bray proved even more difficult to negotiate -than the one above, and by the time it was fully opened the dull -December afternoon was closing in.</p> -<p class="par">They spent that night moored to two of the elms that -ring the isolated little church in the meadows by Boveney.</p> -<p class="par">“At this rate,” remarked Thrale as they -settled themselves for the night, “it’ll take us a week to -get to Richmond. We’ve done two weirs out of thirteen, so -far.”</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">3</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Thrale’s estimate proved excessive. They -reached Richmond on the fourth day out from Marlow, having opened -another nine weirs—the one at Old Windsor had been swept away, -and the one below Richmond Bridge Thrale opened that afternoon.</p> -<p class="par">During those four days they had seen few signs of life. -They had moved, keeping to the main stream <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb291" href="#pb291" name="pb291">291</a>]</span>for -the most part, in the midst of a wide expanse of water; exploring a -desolate and wasted country.</p> -<p class="par">Once they had been hailed by three women, who looked out -at them from a house in Windsor, and shouted something they did not -catch; and a woman had been standing on Staines Bridge as they careered -intrepidly through the centre arch—they had no time even to -distinguish her dress. But with these exceptions they might have come -through the land of an extinct civilization, devoid of life; a land in -which deserted houses and church towers stood up from the silver sheet -of a vast lake, that was threaded by this one impetuous torrent of -swelling river.</p> -<p class="par">Richmond, also, was deserted. The emigrants had passed -on over the river or southwards to Petersham and so into Surrey.</p> -<p class="par">“Well!” said Eileen, wiping her -oil-blackened hands on a bunch of cotton waste, “that job’s -done. We’ve fairly drawn the plug of the cistern now. And how are -we going to get back?”</p> -<p class="par">“We’ll find a couple of bicycles somewhere -here,” said Thrale.</p> -<p class="par">It had been a clear day, and there was a suggestion of -frost in the air. The sun was setting very red and full behind the bare -trees across the river. Save for the gurgle and hiss of the eddying -flood, everything was very still. The little launch which had served -them so well, and bore the marks of its great adventure in broken rails -and bruised sides, was run aground by the side of the bridge. Thrale -was standing in the road, but Eileen still sat by her engine. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb292" href="#pb292" name= -"pb292">292</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“I hate to leave the launch,” she said, -after a long pause.</p> -<p class="par">“We can come back and fetch her up when the flood -goes down,” returned Thrale.</p> -<p class="par">“We’ve done pretty well, the three of -us.”</p> -<p class="par">“Yes, the three of us,<span class="corr" id= -"xd23e4929" title="Not in source">”</span> he echoed.<a id= -"xd23e4932" name="xd23e4932"></a></p> -<p class="par">“It has been great fun,” sighed Eileen.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale did not reply. He was thinking himself back into -the past. He saw a street in Melbourne on a burning December evening, -and the figure of a gaily-clad little brunette who spoke purest cockney -and asked him why he looked so glum. “We ain’t goin’ -to a funeral,” she had said. Yet afterwards he had believed that -something had been buried that night. He had faced his own passion and -the sight of it had disgusted him. He had seen the shadow of a demon -who might master him, and he had grappled with it; he believed that he -had slain and buried lust in Melbourne ten years ago. It had not risen -up to confront him when the plague had put a world of women at his -command. He had not been forced to fight, he was not -tempted—surely the thing was dead and buried. Only once, on that -warm September night, had he felt a sudden furious desire to take this -girl into his arms and fly with her into the woods. The desire had come -and gone, he was master of it, and in any case it bore no resemblance -to the brutal thing he had faced in Melbourne.</p> -<p class="par">Nor, as he stood now by Richmond Bridge watching the -vault of the sky deepen to an intenser blue, did the feeling that -possessed him in any way resemble that old cruel passion which had -flared up and <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb293" href="#pb293" name= -"pb293">293</a>]</span>died—surely it had died. He could not -analyse his feeling for this brave, clear-eyed companion, who had faced -with him all the dangers of the past four days without a sign of fear. -She had made no advances to him, they were friends, she might have been -some delightfully clean, wholesome boy. And then his thought was -pierced and broken by a horrible suggestion.</p> -<p class="par">A picture of the hill to Handy Cross flashed before him, -and he saw a little lonely figure creeping furtively away from Marlow. -He drove his nails into his palms and suddenly cried out.</p> -<p class="par">“What’s up?” said Eileen, turning -round and looking up at him. “Have you forgotten -anything?”</p> -<p class="par">He stepped into the boat and sat down beside her. -“I want to know—I must know,” he said.</p> -<p class="par">She looked at him and smiled. “All right, old -man,” she said. “Fire away.”</p> -<p class="par">“I told you once that I was frightened of -you,” said Thrale. “I want to know if you have ever been -frightened of yourself—or of me?”</p> -<p class="par">“I could never be frightened of you,” she -replied, and looked away towards the rising darkness of the shadows -across the hurrying river, “and I haven’t been afraid of -myself—yet. I don’t think——”</p> -<p class="par">“Wouldn’t you be frightened of me if I -picked you up and ran shouting into the woods?” he asked, -fiercely.</p> -<p class="par">Her eyes met his without reserve. “Dear old -man,” she said. “I should love it. I’m so glad you -understand. That was the one thing that prevented our being real -friends. I’ve wanted so much to be frank <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb294" href="#pb294" name="pb294">294</a>]</span>and -open with you. It’s all these silly reserves that make love -abominable. Now we can be two jolly, clean human beings who understand -each other, can’t we? And we shall be such ripping good friends -always; quite open and honest with each other.”</p> -<p class="par">He drew a deep, sighing breath and put his arms round -her, drew her close to him and laid his face against hers. -“I’ve been such an awful ass,” he said. -“I’ve always thought that love was unclean. I’ve been -like that Jenkyn woman. I’ve been prurient and suspicious and -evil-minded. I’ve been like the people who cover up statues. But -there was an excuse for me—and for them, too. I didn’t -know, because there was no woman like you to teach me. All the women -I’ve known have been secretive and sly. They’ve fouled love -for me by making it seem a hidden, disreputable thing. Oh! we shall be -ripping good friends, little Eileen—magnificent -friends.”</p> -<p class="par">“This is a jolly old boat, isn’t it?” -replied Eileen, inconsequently. “Don’t smother me, old man. -And, I say, do you think we’ll be able to raid some soap from -somewhere? Do look at my hands! You couldn’t be friends with a -chap who had hands like that!” ...</p> -<p class="par">“There’s one thing I’d like to -remark,” said Eileen the next morning. There had been a frost in -the night, and there was every promise of an easy ride back to -Marlow.</p> -<p class="par">“Yes?” said Thrale, examining the deflated -tyres of two bicycles they had chosen from a shop in the High -Street.</p> -<p class="par">“We’d never have understood each other so -well <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb295" href="#pb295" name= -"pb295">295</a>]</span>if we hadn’t worked together on the same -job,” said Eileen.</p> -<p class="par">“Well, of course not,” returned Thrale. His -tone seemed to imply that she had stated a truth that must always have -been obvious to sensible people.</p> -<p class="par">“That and there being no footle about -marriage,” concluded Eileen.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">4</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">A third factor that had contributed to the -perfection of that complete understanding was not realized by either -until they were descending the hill into Bisham.</p> -<p class="par">“I rather wish we weren’t going back,” -said Eileen. “Let’s stop a moment. I want to talk. -We’ve never thought of what we’re going to do.”</p> -<p class="par">“Do?” said Jasper, as he dismounted. -“Well, we’ve just got to make an announcement and -that’s the end of it. The Jenkyns lot have all gone.”</p> -<p class="par">“It isn’t the end, it’s the -beginning,” replied Eileen. “Don’t you see that we -can’t even explain?”</p> -<p class="par">“We sha’n’t try.”</p> -<p class="par">“We shall. We shall have to—in a way. -It’ll take years and years to do it. But the point is that they -won’t understand, now, none of them, not even Elsie Durham. We -aren’t free any longer.”</p> -<p class="par">“We aren’t alone,” she added, bringing -the hitherto unacknowledged factor into prominence.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale frowned and looked up into the thin brightness of -the frosty sky. “Yes, I understand,” <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb296" href="#pb296" name="pb296">296</a>]</span>he -said. “It’s public opinion that compels one to regard love -as shameful and secret. Alone together, free from every suspicion, we -hadn’t a doubt. But now, we have to explain and we can’t -explain, and we are forced against our wills to wonder whether we can -be right and all the rest of the world wrong.”</p> -<p class="par">“We <i>are</i> right,” put in Eileen.</p> -<p class="par">“Only we can’t prove it to anyone but -ourselves.”</p> -<p class="par">“And we shouldn’t want to, if we -hadn’t got to live with them.”</p> -<p class="par">For a moment they looked at one another -thoughtfully.</p> -<p class="par">“No, we mustn’t run away,” Jasper -said, with determination, after a pause. “Look, the flood has -begun to go down already. That’s our work. There’s other -work for us to do yet.”</p> -<p class="par">For a time they were silent, looking down on to Marlow -and out over the valley.</p> -<p class="par">“We didn’t go over <i>that</i> hill,” -said Eileen, at last, pointing to the distant rise of Handy Cross.</p> -<p class="par">“No,” replied Jasper, and then, “we -won’t hide behind hills. Damn public opinion.”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, yes, damn public opinion,” agreed -Eileen. “But we won’t stay in Marlow always.” -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb297" href="#pb297" name= -"pb297">297</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch20" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="divNum">XX—</span>THE TERRORS OF -SPRING</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">1</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The frost gave way on the third night, and for ten -days there was a spell of mild weather with some rain. Carrie Oliver -began to contemplate the possibility of getting forward with such -ploughing as still remained to be done. She proposed to have an -increased acreage of arable that year, and less pasture, less hay and -less turnips; the arable was to include potatoes, beans and peas. For -the community was rapidly tending towards vegetarianism. They had no -butcher in Marlow, and the women revolted against the slaughter of -cattle and sheep. They were hesitating and clumsy in the attack, and so -inflicted wounds which were not fatal, they turned sick at the sight of -the brute’s agonies and at the appalling spurts of blood, and -finally when the animal was at last mercifully dead, they bungled the -dissection of the carcase.</p> -<p class="par">“I’d sooner starve than do it again,” -was the invariable decision pronounced by any new volunteer who had -heroically offered to provide Marlow with meat, and even Carrie Oliver -admitted that it was a “beastly dirty job.”</p> -<p class="par">“Only,” she added “we’ll -’ave to go on breeding <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb298" href= -"#pb298" name="pb298">298</a>]</span>calves or we won’t get no -milk, an’ what are we goin’ to do with the -bullocks?”</p> -<p class="par">The committee wondered if some form of barter might not -be introduced. Wycombe and Henley might have something to offer in -exchange, or, failing that, might be urged to accept these superfluous -beasts as a present, returning the skins and horns, for which there -might be a use in the near future. Sheep must be reared for their -wool—the clothes of the community would not last for ever. The -subjects of tanning and weaving were being studied by certain members -of the now enlarged committee. Neither operation presented insuperable -difficulties.</p> -<p class="par">Now that a certain supply of food was provided for, the -community was already turning its energy towards the industries. Many -schemes were being planned and debated. Marlow was well situated, with -such abundance of water and wood at its gates; and the question of -attracting desirable immigrants had been raised.</p> -<p class="par">Time was afforded for the consideration of all these -schemes by the great frost which began on New Year’s Day and -lasted until the end of February.</p> -<p class="par">The frost came first from the south-west, and for three -days the country was changed into a fairy world built of sharp white -crystals, a world that was seen dimly through a magic veil of mist. -Then followed a black and bitter wind from the north-east, that bought -a thin and driving snow, and when the wind fell the country was locked -in an iron shell that was not relaxed for six weeks. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb299" href="#pb299" name="pb299">299</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">The flood had nearly subsided before the first frost -came, but the river was still high, and presently the water came down -laden with ice-floes, that jammed against the weir and the mill, and -formed a sheet of ice that gradually crept back towards the bridge.</p> -<p class="par">All field and mill work was stopped, and Thrale and -Eileen spent two or three days a week making excursions to London, -bringing back coal and other forms of riches.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">2</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Their fear of being misunderstood had proved to -have been an exaggeration. In that exalted mood of theirs, which had -risen to such heights, after four days of adventurous solitude, they -had come a little too near the stars. In finding themselves they had -lost touch with the world.</p> -<p class="par">Elsie Durham had smiled at their defensive -announcement.</p> -<p class="par">“My dear children,” she had said, -“don’t be touchy about it. I am so glad; and, of course, -I’ve known for months that you would come to an understanding. -And there’s no need to tell me that your—agreement, did you -say?—was entirely different to any other. I know. But be human -about it. Don’t apologize for it by being superior to all of -us.”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, you’re a dear,” Eileen had said -enthusiastically.</p> -<p class="par">Nevertheless there were many women still left in -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb300" href="#pb300" name= -"pb300">300</a>]</span>Marlow who were less spiritually-minded than -Elsie Durham. Comparative idleness induced gossip, and there was more -than one party in the community which regarded Thrale and Eileen with -disfavour.</p> -<p class="par">The old ruts had been worn too deep to be smoothed out -in a few months, however heavy had been the great roller of necessity. -And, strangely enough, the life of Sam Evans at High Wycombe was -regarded by many of the more bigoted with less displeasure than this -perfectly wholesome and desirable union of Thrale and Eileen. The -prostitution of Sam Evans was a new thing outside the experience of -these women, and it was accepted as an outcome of the new conditions. -The other affair was familiar in its associations, and was condemned on -both the old and the new precedents.</p> -<p class="par">The mass of the women were quite unable to think out a -new morality for themselves....</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">3</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">Relief from all these foolish criticisms, -gossipings and false emotions came when the frost broke. A warm rain in -the first week of March released the soil from its bonds, and as the -retarded spring began to move impatiently into life there was a great -call for labour.</p> -<p class="par">But as the year ripened the temperament of the community -exhibited a new and alarming symptom.</p> -<p class="par">There was a terrible spirit of depression abroad.</p> -<p class="par">All Nature was warm with the movement of reproduction. -Nature was growing and propagating, <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb301" href="#pb301" name="pb301">301</a>]</span>thrusting out and -taking a larger hold upon life. Nature was coming to the fight with new -reserves and allies, a fruitful and increasing army, eager for the -struggle against this little decreasing band of sterile humanity. -Nature was prolific and these women were barren.</p> -<p class="par">And in some inexplicable way the consciousness of -futility had spread through the Marlow community. Some posthumous -children had been born since the plague, a few young girls—Millie -among them—were pregnant, but death had been busier than life -during the winter, and from outside came stray reports that in other -communities death had been busier still.</p> -<p class="par">What hope was there for that generation? They were too -few to cope with their task. Grass was growing in their streets, their -houses were in need of repair, and after their day’s labour in -the fields to provide themselves with food, they had neither strength -nor inclination to take up the battle anew.</p> -<p class="par">Moreover, the spice was gone from life. Some inherent -need for emulation was gone. They were ceasing to take any pride in -their persons, and in their clothes. They wore knickerbockers or -trousers for convenience in working, and suffered a strange loss of -self-esteem in consequence. Many of the younger women still returned in -the evenings to what skirts and ribbons they still possessed, but the -habit was declining. The uselessness of it was growing even more -apparent. There were no sex distinctions or class distinctions among -them. Of what account was it that one girl was prettier or better -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb302" href="#pb302" name= -"pb302">302</a>]</span>dressed than her neighbour? What mattered was -whether she was a stronger or more intelligent worker.</p> -<p class="par">Above all, the woman’s need for love and -admiration could find no outlet. They realized that they were becoming -hardened and unsexed, and revolted against the coming change. Something -within them rose up and cried for expression, and when it was thwarted -it turned to a thing of evil....</p> -<p class="par">The mind of the community was becoming distorted. -Hysteria, sexual perversions, and various forms of religious mania were -rife. Young women broke into futile and unsatisfying orgies of foolish -dancing, and middle-aged women became absorbed in the contemplation of -a male and human god.</p> -<p class="par">Even the committee did not escape the influence of the -growing despair. They looked forward to a future when such machines and -tools as they possessed would be worn out, and they had no means of -replacing them.</p> -<p class="par">Thrale had reported that the line to London was becoming -unsafe for the passage of his trucks. Rust was at work upon the rails; -rain and floods had weakened embankments; young growths were springing -up on the permanent way, and it was hopeless to contemplate any work of -repair. In the old days an army of men had been needed for that work -alone. The country roads needed re-metalling, and the houses -restoration; they had not the means or the labour to undertake half the -necessary work. There were breaches in the river bank and a large and -apparently permanent lake was forming in the low <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb303" href="#pb303" name= -"pb303">303</a>]</span>meadows towards Bourne End. All about them -Nature was so intensely busy in her own regardless way, and they were -helpless, now, to oppose her.</p> -<p class="par">The age of iron and machinery was falling into a swift -decline. All that the community could look for in the future was a -return to primitive conditions and the fight for bare life. Every year -their tools and machines would grow less efficient, every year Nature -would return more powerful to the attack. In ten years they would be -fighting her with rude and tedious weapons of wood, grinding their -scanty corn between two stones, and living from hand to mouth. In the -bountiful South such a life might have its rewards, but how could they -endure it in this uncertain and cruel North?</p> -<p class="par">So while the sun rose higher in the sky and the earth -was wonderfully reclothed, the women of Marlow fell deeper and deeper -into the horrors of mental depression. What had they to work for, and -to hope for, save this miserable possession of unsatisfied life? -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb304" href="#pb304" name= -"pb304">304</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="ch21" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="main"><span class="divNum">XXI—</span>SMOKE</h2> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">1</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">One bright morning, at the end of April, Jasper -and Eileen sat on the cliffs at the Land’s End and talked of the -future.</p> -<p class="par">Ten days before, they had left Marlow on bicycles to -make exploration. They intended to return; they had explained they -would be away for a month at the outside, but in view of the growing -depression and the loss of spirit shown by the community, they -considered it necessary to go out and discover what conditions obtained -in other parts of England. It might be, they urged, that the plague had -been less deadly in other districts.</p> -<p class="par">“We should not know, here,” Jasper had -argued. “There may be many men left elsewhere; but they might not -have been able to communicate with us yet. Their attention, like ours, -would have been concentrated upon local conditions for a time. Eileen -and I will find out. Perhaps we may be able to open up communication -again. In any case we’ll come back within a month and -report.”</p> -<p class="par">His natural instinct had taken him into the West -Country.</p> -<p class="par">They had left Elsie Durham slightly more cheerful. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb305" href="#pb305" name= -"pb305">305</a>]</span>They had given her a gleam of hope, given her -something, at last, to which she might look forward.</p> -<p class="par">Their own hopes had quickly faded and died as they rode -on into the West. By the time they reached Plymouth they were thinking -of Marlow as a place peculiarly favoured by Providence.</p> -<p class="par">At first they had passed through communities conducted -on lines resembling their own, greater or smaller groups of women -working more or less in co-operation. In many of these communities a -single man was living—in some cases two men—who viewed -their duty towards society in the same light as the Adonis of -Wycombe.</p> -<p class="par">But the unit grew steadily smaller as they progressed. -It was no longer the town or village community but the farm which was -the centre of activity, and the occupied farms grew more scattered. For -it appeared that here in the West the plague had attacked women as well -as men. Another curious fact they learned was that the men had taken -longer to die. One woman spoke of having nursed her husband for two -months before the paralysis proved fatal....</p> -<p class="par">And if the depression in Marlow had been great, the -travellers soon learned that elsewhere it was greater still. The women -worked mechanically, drudgingly. They spoke in low, melancholy voices -when they were questioned, and save for a faint accession of interest -in Thrale’s presence there, and the signs of some feeble flicker -of hope as they asked of conditions further north and east, they -appeared to have no thought beyond the instant necessity of sustaining -the life to which they clung so feebly. <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb306" href="#pb306" name="pb306">306</a>]</span>Thrale and Eileen -rode on into Cornwall, not because they still hoped, but because they -both felt a vivid desire to reach the Land’s End and gaze out -over the Atlantic. They wanted to leave this desolate land behind them -for a few hours, and rest their minds in the presence of the -unchangeable sea.</p> -<p class="par">“Let us go on and forget for a few days,” -Eileen had said, and so they had at last reached the furthest limit of -land.</p> -<p class="par">Cornwall had proved to be a land of the dead. Save for a -few women in the neighbourhood of St Austell, they had not seen a -living human being in the whole county.</p> -<p class="par">And so, on this clear April morning, they sat upon this -ultimate cliff and talked of the future.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">2</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">The water below them was delicately flecked with -white. No long rollers were riding in from the Atlantic, but the fresh -April breeze was flicking the crests of little waves into foam; and, -above, an ever-renewed drift of scattered white clouds threw coursing -shadows upon the blues and purples of the curdling sea.</p> -<p class="par">Eileen and Thrale had walked southwards as far as Carn -Voel to avoid the obstruction to vision of the Longships, and on three -sides they looked out to an unbroken horizon of water, which on that -bright morning was clearly differentiated from the impending sky. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb307" href="#pb307" name= -"pb307">307</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“One might forget—here,” remarked -Eileen, after a long silence.</p> -<p class="par">“If it were better to forget,” said -Jasper.</p> -<p class="par">Eileen drew up her knees until she could rest her chin -upon them, embracing them with her arms. “What can one do?” -she asked. “What good is it all, if there is no -future?”</p> -<p class="par">“Just to live out one’s own life in the best -way,” was the answer.</p> -<p class="par">She frowned over that for a time. “Do you really -believe, dear,” she said, when she had considered Jasper’s -suggestion, “do you really believe that this is the end of -humanity?”</p> -<p class="par">“I don’t know,” he said. “I have -changed my mind half a dozen times in the last few days. There may be a -race untouched somewhere—in the archipelagos of the South Seas, -perhaps—which will gradually develop and repeople the world -again.”</p> -<p class="par">“Or in Australia, or New Zealand,” she -prompted.</p> -<p class="par">“We should have heard from them before -this,” he said. “We must have heard before this.”</p> -<p class="par">“And is there no hope for us, here in England, in -Marlow? There are a few boys—infants born since the plague, you -know—and there will be more children in the -future—Evans’s children and those others. There were two -men in some places, you remember.”</p> -<p class="par">“Can they ever grow up? It seems to me that the -women are dying. They’ve nothing to live for. It’s only a -year since the plague first came, and look at them now. What will they -be like in five years’ time? They’ll die of hopelessness, -or commit suicide, or <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb308" href= -"#pb308" name="pb308">308</a>]</span>simply starve from the lack of any -purpose in living, because work isn’t worth while. And the -others, the mothers, that have some object in living, will fall back -into savagery. They’ll be so occupied in the necessity for work, -for forcing a living out of the ground somehow, that they’ll have -neither time nor wish to teach their children. I don’t know, but -it seems to me that we are faced with decrease, gradually leading on to -extinction.</p> -<p class="par">“And I doubt,” he continued, after a little -hesitation, “I doubt whether these sons of the new conditions -will have much vitality. They are the children of lust on the -father’s side, worse still, of tired lust. It does make a -difference. Perhaps if we were a young and vigorous people like the old -Jews the seed would be strong enough to override any inherent weakness. -But we are not, we are an old civilization. Before the plague, we had -come to a consideration of eugenics. It had been forced upon us. A -vital and growing people does not spend its time on such a question as -that. Eugenics was a proposition that grew out of the necessity of the -time. It was easy enough to deny decadence, and to prove our fitness by -apparently sound argument, but, to me, it always seemed that this -growing demand for some form of artificial selection of parents, by -restriction of the palpably unfit, afforded the surest evidence. Things -like that are only produced if there is a need for them. Eugenics was a -symptom.”</p> -<p class="par">Eileen sighed. “And what about us?” she -asked.</p> -<p class="par">“We’re happy,” replied Jasper. -“Probably the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb309" href="#pb309" -name="pb309">309</a>]</span>happiest people in the world at the present -time. And we must try to give some of our happiness to others. We must -go back to Marlow and work for the community. And I think we’ll -try in our limited way to do something for the younger generation. -Perhaps, it might be possible for us to go north and try our hands at -making steel, there are probably women there who would help us. But I -don’t think it’s worth while, unless to preserve our -knowledge and hand it on. We can only lessen the difficulty in one -little district for a time. As the pressure of necessity grows, as it -must grow, we shall be forced to abandon manufacture. The need for food -will outrun us. We are too few, and it will be simpler and perhaps -quicker to plough with a wooden plough than to wait for our faulty and -slowly-produced steel. The adult population, small as it is, must -decrease, and I’m afraid it will decrease more rapidly than we -anticipate, owing to these causes of depression and lack of -stimulus....”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, well,” said Eileen at last, getting to -her feet, “we’re happy, as you say, and our job seems -pretty plain before us. To-morrow, I suppose, we ought to be getting -back, though I hate taking the news to Elsie.”</p> -<p class="par">Jasper came and stood beside her, and put his arm across -her shoulders. “We, at any rate, must keep our spirits up,” -he said. “That, before everything.”</p> -<p class="par">“I’m all right,” said Eileen, -brightly. “I’ve got you and, for the moment, the sea. -We’ll come back here sometimes, if the roads don’t get too -bad.” <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb310" href="#pb310" name= -"pb310">310</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Yes, if the roads don’t get too -bad.”</p> -<p class="par">“And, already, the briars are creeping across the -road from hedge to hedge. The forest is coming back.”</p> -<p class="par">“The forest and the wild.”</p> -<p class="par">He drew her a little closer and they stood looking out -towards the horizon.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div2 section"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h3 class="main">3</h3> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">In the south-west the clear line had been wiped -out and what looked like mist was sweeping towards them.</p> -<p class="par">“There’s a shower coming,” said -Thrale.</p> -<p class="par">They stood quietly and let the sharp spatter of rain -beat in their faces, and then the shadow of the storm moved on and the -horizon line was clear again.</p> -<p class="par">“That’s a queer cloud out there,” said -Eileen. “Is it another shower?”</p> -<p class="par">She pointed to a tiny blur on the far rim of the -sea.</p> -<p class="par">“It <i>is</i> queer,” said Thrale. -“It’s so precisely like the smoke of a steamer.”</p> -<p class="par">For a few seconds they gazed in intent silence.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s getting bigger,” broke out -Eileen, suddenly excited. “What is it, Jasper?”</p> -<p class="par">“I don’t know. I can’t make it -out,” he said. He moved away from her and shaded his eyes from -the glare of the momentarily cloudless sky.</p> -<p class="par">“I can’t make it out,” he repeated -mechanically.</p> -<p class="par">The blur was widening into a grey-black smudge, into a -vaguely diffused smear with a darker centre. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb311" href="#pb311" name="pb311">311</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“With the wind blowing towards -us——” said Jasper, and broke off.</p> -<p class="par">“Yes, yes—what?” asked Eileen, and -then as he did not answer, she gripped his arm and repeated -importunately. “What? Jasper, what? With the wind blowing towards -us?”</p> -<p class="par">“By God it is,” he said in a low voice, -disregarding her question. “By God it <i>is</i>,” he -repeated, and then a third time, “It <i>is</i>.”</p> -<p class="par">“Oh! what, what? Do answer me! I can’t -see!” pleaded Eileen.</p> -<p class="par">But still he did not answer. He stood like a rock and -stared without wavering at the growing cloud on the horizon.</p> -<p class="par">And then the cloud began to grow more diffused, to die -away, and Eileen could see tiny indentations on the sky line, -indentations which pushed up and presently revealed themselves as -attached to a little black speck in the remotest distance.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, Jasper!” she cried, and her eyes filled -with inexplicable tears, so that she could see only a misty field of -troubled blue.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s a liner,” said Jasper at last, -turning to her. He looked puzzled and his eyes stared through her. -“And its coming from America. Do you suppose the American -women——”</p> -<p class="par">The boat was revealed now. They could see the shape of -her, the high deck, the two tall funnels and the three masts. She was -passing across, fifteen miles or so to the south of them, making up -Channel.</p> -<p class="par">For a moment they felt like shipwrecked sailors on a -lonely island, who see a vessel pass beyond hail. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb312" href="#pb312" name="pb312">312</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“Oh, Jasper, what can it be?” Eileen -besought him.</p> -<p class="par">“It’s a White Star boat,” he said, and -he still spoke as if his mind was far away. “Is it possible, is -it anyway possible that America has survived? Is it possible that there -is traffic between America and Europe, and that they pass us by for -fear of infection? How do we know that vessels haven’t been -passing up the Channel for months past? Why should we think that this -is the first?”</p> -<p class="par">“It <i>is</i> the first,” proclaimed Eileen. -“I feel it. Oh, let us hurry. Let us ride and ride as fast as we -can to Plymouth or Southampton. I know they’ll be coming to -Plymouth or Southampton. Men, Jasper, men! No women would dare to run a -boat at that pace. See how fast she is going. Oh hurry, -hurry!”</p> -<p class="par">He caught fire then. They ran back to find their -bicycles. They ran, and presently they rode in silence, with fierce -intensity. They rode at first as if they had but ten miles to go, and -the lives of all the women in England depended upon their speed.</p> -<p class="par">And though they slackened after the first few miles they -still rode on with such eager determination that they reached Plymouth -at sunset.</p> -<p class="par">But they could see no sign of the liner in the waters -about Plymouth. They saw only the deserted hulks of a hundred vessels -that had ridden there untouched for twelve months, futile battleships -and destroyers among them; great, venomous, useless things that had -become void of all meaning in the struggle of humanity. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb313" href="#pb313" name="pb313">313</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“It’s not here. Let’s go on!” -said Eileen.</p> -<p class="par">Jasper shrugged his shoulders. “It’s well -over a hundred miles to Southampton,” he said. “Nearer a -hundred and fifty, I should say.”</p> -<p class="par">“But we must go on, we must,” urged -Eileen.</p> -<p class="par">It was evident that Jasper, too, felt a compelling -desire to go on. He stood still with a look of intense concentration on -his face. Eileen had seen him look thus, when he had been momentarily -frustrated by some problem of mill machinery. She waited expectant for -the solution she was sure would presently emerge.</p> -<p class="par">“A motor,” he said, speaking in short -disconnected sentences. “If we can find paraffin and petrol and -candles—light of some sort. The engines wouldn’t rust, but -they’d clog. It must be paraffin. We daren’t clean with -petrol by artificial light. It’s possible. Let’s -try....”</p> -<p class="par">That night Jasper did not sleep, but Eileen, as she sat -beside him in the softly moving motor, soon lost consciousness of the -dim streak of road and black river of hedge. The moon, in her third -quarter, had risen before midnight, and when they started was riding -deep in the sky, half veiled by a vast wing of dappled cirrus. And -that, too, merged into her dream. She thought she was driving out into -the open sea in a ship which became miraculously winged and soared up -towards an ever-approaching but unincreasing moon. She woke with a -start to find that it was broad daylight and that a thin misty rain was -coming up from the sea. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb314" href= -"#pb314" name="pb314">314</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par">“The Solent,” said Jasper, pointing to a -distant gleam below them.</p> -<p class="par">On the common they stopped and stood up in the car, -watching a distant smear of smoke that stained the thin mist.</p> -<p class="par">“She’ll be coming up Southampton Water with -the lead going,” said Jasper, trying desperately to be calm. -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb315" href="#pb315" name= -"pb315">315</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div id="epi" class="div0 book"> -<h2 class="main">EPILOGUE</h2> -<p><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb317" href="#pb317" name= -"pb317">317</a>]</span></p> -<div id="epi1" class="div1 chapter"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divHead"> -<h2 class="super">EPILOGUE</h2> -<h2 class="main">THE GREAT PLAN</h2> -</div> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first">On the evening of that day Jasper and Eileen dined -on board the “Bombastic,” that latest development of the -old trans-Atlantic competition in shipbuilding, the boat that had made -her first journey to New York carrying fugitives from England in the -days when the threat of the plague grew hourly more imminent. The -“Bombastic” had not justified her name, she had fled from -Southampton without ceremony, and she had not returned for over a year. -The “Apologetic” would have been more apt.</p> -<p class="par">And on this evening of her return, the demeanour of that -crowd of quiet serious men in the huge over-decorated saloon, gave no -hint of bombast. As they listened intently to the rapid story of their -two travel-stained and somewhat ragged guests, there was no hint of -brag or boast among them all. They came not as conquerors but as -friends.</p> -<p class="par">“But oh, it’s <i>your</i> story we want to -hear,” broke in Eileen at last.</p> -<p class="par">She had been strangely quiet so far, she had become -suddenly conscious of the defects of her dress. The old associations -were swarming about her. Eighteen months ago she had sat in just such -another saloon as this, courted and flattered, the daughter -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb318" href="#pb318" name= -"pb318">318</a>]</span>of a great aristocrat, a creature on a remote -and gorgeous pedestal. Now it seemed that she was neither greater nor -less than any man present. She was one of them, not set apart. She -looked down at her hands, still oil-stained by her struggles with the -motor on the previous night.</p> -<p class="par">Jasper had been more patient. He was not less eager than -Eileen to hear the explanation of this wonderful visit, of the -resurrection of these twelve hundred men from a dead and silent world. -But he had restrained his impatience and told his story first. He knew -that so he would be more quickly satisfied. He would be able to listen -to men who were not tense with an anxiety to ask questions.</p> -<p class="par">They were sitting now at one end of a long table in the -saloon, after eating a meal that had provided once more the longed-for -satisfaction of salt.</p> -<p class="par">“Well,” said an American at the head of the -table, turning to Eileen in answer to her protest, “we’ve -maybe been selfish in putting all these questions but we’re -looking ahead. We aren’t forgetting that we’ve a big work -to do.”</p> -<p class="par">“But how did you get here?” asked Eileen -impetuously. “How is it that you’re all alive?”</p> -<p class="par">“Well, as to that, you’d better ask the -doctor, there,” replied the American. “He’s a -countryman of yours, and he’s been in the thick of it and knows -the life story of that plague microbe like the history of -England.”</p> -<p class="par">The doctor, a bearded, grave-eyed man, looked up and -smiled.</p> -<p class="par">“Hardly that,” he said. “We shall -never know <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb319" href="#pb319" name= -"pb319">319</a>]</span>now, I hope, the history of the plague organism. -It was never studied under the microscope—we were too -busy—and now we trust that the bacillus—if it were a -bacillus—has encompassed its own destruction. What interests you, -however, is that this sudden, miraculously sudden, development of its -deadly power as regards humanity ran through a determinable cycle of -evolution. From what you’ve told us, already, it seems clear, I -think, that even in England the bacillus was losing what I may call its -effectiveness. The men in the West Country you’ve described, -probably died from starvation and neglect.”</p> -<p class="par">He paused for a moment and then continued: “Now in -America both men and women were attacked. There was certainly a greater -percentage of male cases, but I suppose something like half the female -population was infected as well. As far as one can judge the bacillus -was simply losing power. But for all we know it may have developed, it -may be entering on a new stage of evolution, and in some apparently -haphazard way now be beneficial to man instead of deadly. Such things -may be happening every day below the reach of our knowledge. The little -world is hidden from us, even as the great world is hidden....</p> -<p class="par">“However,” he went on more briskly, -“the thing we do know is that the symptoms of the new plague in -America differed materially from our expectation of them, gathered from -the accounts that had reached us from the Old World. In England the -paralysis lasted, I believe, some forty-eight hours and ended in death. -In America the paralysis <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb320" href= -"#pb320" name="pb320">320</a>]</span>rarely ended fatally, but it -lasted in some cases for six months. ‘Paresis,’ we called -it. The patient was perfectly conscious but practically unable to move -hand or foot.”</p> -<p class="par">“That paresis gave us time to do some very clear -and consecutive thinking, I may remark,” put in an American. -“I had four months to study my ideas of life.”</p> -<p class="par">The doctor nodded thoughtfully. “America is no -less changed than England,” he said, “but it is another -change. Well, you understand that we did not all get the plague over -there; the thing was less deadly in attack and about ten per cent of us -were left to look after the patients.”</p> -<p class="par">“And find food,” interpolated one of the -listeners.</p> -<p class="par">“That was a time we won’t ever -forget,” agreed another.</p> -<p class="par">“Sure thing,” said some one, and a general -murmur of assent ran round the table.</p> -<p class="par">“And all the machines were idle, of course,” -continued the doctor, “and even when the tide of recovery began -to flow we had to turn our attention first to the getting of -food.”</p> -<p class="par">“If it hadn’t been for that we’d have -been here before this,” said a young man. “I feel we owe -England and Europe some kind of an apology, but we just had to get busy -on food growing right away. We couldn’t spare a ship’s crew -till three weeks ago.”</p> -<p class="par">“And the others are hard at it over there -still,” put in another. “This is just a pioneer -party.”</p> -<p class="par">“It’s all so comprehensible now,” said -Thrale <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb321" href="#pb321" name= -"pb321">321</a>]</span>after a silence, “but we had no idea, we -never thought there could be any one living in America. We thought that -somehow we must have heard. One forgets....”</p> -<p class="par">“We tried to get on to you,” said one of the -party, “by cable and wireless. We kept on tapping away for -months, but we got no reply. We thought you must be all dead -too.”</p> -<p class="par">“Well, we guessed you were having a real bad time -anyway,” amended another. “You see we knew the way that -plague had taken Europe but we kept hoping and trying to get on to you -all the same.”</p> -<hr class="tb"> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">“We’ve got a message for Elsie, after -all,” Eileen said to Jasper the next day. “There’s -hope for us yet.”</p> -<p class="par">“Yes, there’s hope,” said Jasper.</p> -<p class="par">They had been up at the town railway station assisting a -party of Americans to investigate the condition of the rolling stock -and the permanent way. Neither could be pronounced satisfactory. A few -women had come in from the neighbouring country that morning attracted -by the sight of an inexplicable pillar of smoke, and their report of -local conditions had been equally uninspiring. They had spoken of -famine and failure, but their faces had been lit by a new brightness at -the sight of this miraculous little army of men. There had been hope in -the faces and bearing of these toil-worn women, faith in the promise of -support and succour.</p> -<p class="par">Now Jasper and Eileen stood looking down towards the -harbour. The tide was creeping in to <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb322" href="#pb322" name="pb322">322</a>]</span>efface the repulsive -ugliness of the mud flats, and the sluggish water rippled faintly -against the foul sloping sides of small boats that had lain anchored -there for more than twelve months. Behind them, across the line, was a -row of unsightly houses, hung with weather-slating.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, there’s hope,” repeated -Jasper.</p> -<p class="par">He was thinking of all the work that lay before them, -and yet he had faith that a new and better civilization would arise. -“We must get things going again,” had been the -Americans’ phrase, and they apparently faced the future without a -qualm.</p> -<p class="par">But Jasper’s mind was perplexed with the detail of -the mechanical work that must be faced, detail so intricate and -confused that he was bewildered by its complexity. It appeared to him -that the crux of the whole problem lay in the North, in the counties of -coal and iron. Coal and steel were the first essentials, he thought. -They must begin there in however small a way, and America must send out -more men, continually more men. To-morrow he was going back in the -motor, with two experts, to the cable hut in Sennen Cove. They were -going to test the cable and hoped to re-establish communication with -America, and then more ships would come and more men, ever more -men.</p> -<p class="par">And, even so, they could do little at first, and beyond -lay the whole of Europe and still further the whole of Asia. Were women -there, also, maintaining the terrible fight against Nature in the awful -struggle to find food? Steel and coal we must have, <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb323" href="#pb323" name="pb323">323</a>]</span>was -the burden of his thought, and in his imagination he pictured the -waking of factories and mines, he had a vision of little engines -running....</p> -<p class="par">Eileen’s thought had flown ahead. With one -magnificent leap she had passed from the contemplation of present -necessity to a realization of the dim future. And <i>her</i> thought -found words.</p> -<p class="par">“Hope, lots of hope,” she said. “Hope -of a new clean world. We’ve got such a chance to begin all over -again, and do it better. No more sweated labour, Jasper, and no more -living on the work of others. We’ve just got to pull together and -work for each other. If we can get enough food, and we can now with all -these dear men come to help us, we can do such wonderful things -afterwards. There’ll be lots of children growing up in a few -years’ time, and we shall teach them the things we’ve had -to learn by the force of necessity. They’ll begin so differently -because, although we have had the experience of all history, we -sha’n’t be bound by all the foolish conventions that grew -out of it. Such a silly incongruous growth, wasn’t it? But I -suppose it couldn’t be helped in one way. We were so penned in. -We all had our rotten little places to keep and that took all our time. -We never had a chance to consider the broad issues, the real -fundamental things. But you’ve got to consider the fundamental -things when you start clean away from a new beginning.</p> -<p class="par">“And, oh! Jasper, surely we have all learnt -certain things to avoid, haven’t we? I mean class distinctions -and sex distinctions, and things like that. Women won’t trouble -any more about titles and all that rot <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb324" href="#pb324" name="pb324">324</a>]</span>now, and anyway there -aren’t any left to trouble about. And social conditions will be -so different now that there won’t be any more marriage. Marriage -was a man’s prerogative; he wanted to keep his woman to himself, -and keep his property for his children. It never really protected -women, and anyway they were capable of protecting themselves if -they’d been given a chance. I know the children were a difficulty -in the old days, but they won’t be now. It’ll be -everybody’s business to see that the children get looked after, -and a woman won’t starve just because she hasn’t got a -husband to keep her. She’ll get better wages than that. The women -who have children will be the most precious things we shall have. -They’ll live healthier lives, too, and they won’t be -incapacitated as they used to be. They’ll work and be strong -instead of spending all their time either in doing nothing or pottering -about the house in an eternal round of cleaning the stupid, ugly things -we used. We shall have to have all new houses, Jasper, when we get -things going again.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, it <i>will</i> be splendid,” she broke -out in a great burst of enthusiasm, “and we begin to-day. We have -begun.”</p> -<p class="par">Jasper nodded. “It’s a wonderful -opportunity,” he said.</p> -<p class="par">“Wonderful, wonderful,” repeated Eileen. -“We all, men and women, start level again. Equality, Jasper, -It’s a beautiful word—Equality. Of course I know how -unequal we all are from one point of view, and there must come a sort -of aristocracy of intellect and efficiency. But underneath there will -<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb325" href="#pb325" name= -"pb325">325</a>]</span>be a true equality for all that, and we shall -see to it that no man or woman can abuse their powers by making slaves -again. What a world of slaves it used to be, and we weren’t even -slaves to intellect and efficiency, only to wealth and to money, and to -some foolish idea of position and power.”</p> -<p class="par">“Well, we’ve got <i>our</i> work to do, here -and now,” said Jasper after a long pause.</p> -<p class="par">“Work? Of course, and I love it,” returned -Eileen, “and while we work we’ve got to think and -teach.”</p> -<p class="par">The tide was coming in steadily, and near them an old -boat that had been lying on the mud was now afloat once more and had -taken on some of its old dignity.</p> -<p class="par">Eileen pointed to it. “We’re afloat -again,” she remarked.</p> -<p class="par">“Embarked on the greatest plan the world has ever -known,” added Jasper.</p> -<p class="par">“Oh, it’s all part of the great plan,” -concluded Eileen.</p> -<p class="trailer xd23e5427">THE END</p> -</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="back"> -<div class="div1 imprint"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first"></p> -<div class="figure xd23e5433width"><img src="images/logo.png" alt="" -width="117" height="125"> -<p class="par first">THE ARDEN PRESS<br> -LETCHWORTH</p> -</div> -<p class="par"><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb329" href="#pb329" name= -"pb329">1</a>]</span></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="div1 titlepage"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first"></p> -<div class="figure xd23e5442width"><img src="images/adtitlepage.png" -alt="Title page for advertisement section." width="493" height= -"720"></div> -<p class="par"></p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="titlePage"> -<div class="docTitle"> -<div class="mainTitle">A LIST OF<br> -CURRENT FICTION</div> -</div> -<div class="byline">PUBLISHED BY <span class="docAuthor">WILLIAM -HEINEMANN</span></div> -<div class="docImprint">AT 21 BEDFORD ST., LONDON, W.C.</div> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb330" href="#pb330" name= -"pb330">2</a>]</span></p> -<div class="div1 ads"><span class="pagenum">[<a href= -"#toc">Contents</a>]</span> -<div class="divBody"> -<p class="par first adTopLine">MR. WILLIAM HEINEMANN’S -<span class="corr" id="xd23e5462" title="Source: NE">NEW</span> -FICTION</p> -<p class="par adTitle">BETWEEN TWO THIEVES</p> -<p class="par adByline">by RICHARD DEHAN (2nd Impression) <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par">Author of “The Dop Doctor,” etc.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“The book is really an amazing piece of -work. Its abounding energy, its grip on our attention, its biting -humour, its strong, if sometimes lurid word painting have an effect of -richness and fullness of teeming life, that sweeps one with it. What an -ample chance for praise and whole hearted enjoyment. The thing unrols -with a vividness that never fails.”—<i>Daily News and -Leader.</i></p> -<p class="par">BY THE SAME AUTHOR</p> -<p class="par adTitle"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27966">THE DOP DOCTOR</a></p> -<p class="par xd23e5485">[<i>Now in its 13th Edition.</i></p> -<p class="par adReview">“Pulsatingly real—gloomy, tragic, -humorous, dignified, real. The cruelty of battle, the depth of -disgusting villainy, the struggles of great souls, the irony of -coincidence are all in its pages.... Who touches this book touches a -man. I am grateful for the wonderful thrills ‘The Dop -Doctor’ has given me. It is a novel among a -thousand.”—<i>The Daily Express.</i></p> -<p class="par adTitle"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12154">THE WEAKER VESSEL</a></p> -<p class="par adByline">by E. F. BENSON <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par adReview">A really good “Benson novel” than -which no more can be said.</p> -<p class="par xd23e167">Author of</p> -<div class="table"> -<table class="xd23e5509"> -<tbody> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft cellTop"></td> -<td class="cellRight cellTop">JUGGERNAUT</td> -<td class="cellDoubleUp"></td> -<td class="cellLeft">*</td> -<td class="cellRight">THE LUCK OF THE VAILS</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">*</td> -<td class="cellRight">ACCOUNT RENDERED</td> -<td class="cellDoubleUp"></td> -<td class="cellLeft">*</td> -<td class="cellRight"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40797">MAMMON & CO.</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft"></td> -<td class="cellRight">AN ACT IN A BACKWATER</td> -<td class="cellDoubleUp"></td> -<td class="cellLeft">*</td> -<td class="cellRight">PAUL</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">*</td> -<td class="cellRight"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44210">THE ANGEL OF PAIN</a></td> -<td class="cellDoubleUp"></td> -<td class="cellLeft"></td> -<td class="cellRight">THE PRINCESS SOPHIA</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">*</td> -<td class="cellRight">THE BOOK OF MONTHS</td> -<td class="cellDoubleUp"></td> -<td class="cellLeft">*</td> -<td class="cellRight">A REAPING</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">*</td> -<td class="cellRight">THE CHALLONERS</td> -<td class="cellDoubleUp"></td> -<td class="cellLeft"></td> -<td class="cellRight"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46057">THE RELENTLESS CITY</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">*</td> -<td class="cellRight">THE CLIMBER</td> -<td class="cellDoubleUp"></td> -<td class="cellLeft">*</td> -<td class="cellRight"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40795">SCARLET AND HYSSOP</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft"></td> -<td class="cellRight"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45800">THE HOUSE OF DEFENCE</a></td> -<td class="cellDoubleUp"></td> -<td class="cellLeft cellBottom">*</td> -<td class="cellRight cellBottom">SHEAVES</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">*</td> -<td class="cellRight">THE IMAGE IN THE SAND</td> -</tr> -</tbody> -</table> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par xd23e167">Each Crn. 8vo. Price 6/-.</p> -<p class="par">Those volumes marked * can also be obtained in the Two -Shilling net Edition (Heinemann’s Two Shilling Novels), uniformly -bound, with coloured picture wrapper and frontispiece, and also the -following volumes</p> -<table class="splitlisttable"> -<tr> -<td> -<ul class="xd23e5606"> -<li>THE OSBORNES</li> -</ul> -</td> -<td> -<ul class="xd23e5606"> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46782">THE VINTAGE</a></li> -</ul> -</td> -<td> -<ul class="xd23e5606"> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44486">DODO</a></li> -</ul> -</td> -</tr> -</table> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par">⁂ “The Book of Months” and “A -Reaping” form one volume in this Edition. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb331" href="#pb331" name="pb331">3</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par adTitle"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2774">THE PATRICIAN</a></p> -<p class="par adByline">by JOHN GALSWORTHY <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par adReview">“I cannot find better praise in which to -sum up Mr. Galsworthy’s ‘Patrician’ than the one that -it is ‘deeply interesting’. Indeed, there is a vividness -about the whole story which is absolutely fascinating. It lingers in -the memory long, long after other novels of a less distinguished but -more thrilling nature have been completely -forgotten.”—<i>The Tatler</i>.</p> -<p class="par xd23e167">Author of</p> -<table class="splitlisttable"> -<tr> -<td> -<ul class="xd23e5635"> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2772">THE COUNTRY HOUSE</a></li> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2773">FRATERNITY</a></li> -<li>A MOTLEY</li> -</ul> -</td> -<td> -<ul class="xd23e5635"> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2771">THE ISLAND -PHARISEES</a></li> -<li>THE MAN OF PROPERTY</li> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2903">THE INN OF <span class= -"corr" id="xd23e5652" title= -"Source: TRANQUILLITY">TRANQUILITY</span></a></li> -</ul> -</td> -</tr> -</table> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par adTitle">MINNA</p> -<p class="par adByline">by KARL GJELLERUP <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par adReview">A charming idyllic love story set in the -beautiful “Saxon Switzerland.” A simpler, sweeter theme -than the author’s last book, but written with the same -distinction of style and thought.</p> -<p class="par xd23e167">By THE SAME AUTHOR.</p> -<p class="par adTitle">THE PILGRIM KAMANITA</p> -<p class="par adReview">“Behind the imagination which floats -‘The Pilgrim Kamanita’ above the common there is a solid -background of historical study which enables Mr. Gjellerup to make his -characters and his scenes real<span class="corr" id="xd23e5671" title= -"Source: ,">.</span> He has managed to catch the atmosphere of ancient -India, and so wrap it about every place and act and speech in the story -that the illusion and spell are on us from beginning to end.... It is a -real romance, full of life and colour—and such colour as only -India, in the full sensuous splendour of Hindu rites, can offer.... It -is a beautiful allegory of the higher life, full of suggestion and even -inspiration for those who have ears to hear. Mr. Gjellerup is to be -congratulated not only on a noble idea, most skilfully presented, but -also upon a translator who hardly ever lets us feel that we are not -reading the original.”—<i>Times</i>. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb332" href="#pb332" name="pb332">4</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par adTitle"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44773">A LIKELY STORY</a></p> -<p class="par adByline">by WILLIAM DE MORGAN <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par adReview">“How delightful it all is.... Mr. De -Morgan is worth having for himself alone and for the point of view of -the world that he shows us.”—<i>Standard</i>.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“The book is great fun.... Much -amusement, much cause for sly chuckling throughout the book.... I have -enjoyed every line of it.”—<i>T.P.’s Weekly</i>.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“You cannot resist the charm of the -narrator, who makes you feel as if you were listening to an -improvisation.”—<i>The Spectator</i>.</p> -<p class="par xd23e167">Author of</p> -<table class="splitlisttable"> -<tr> -<td> -<ul class="xd23e5704"> -<li>JOSEPH VANCE</li> -<li>ALICE FOR SHORT</li> -<li>AN AFFAIR OF DISHONOUR</li> -</ul> -</td> -<td> -<ul class="xd23e5704"> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46228">IT NEVER CAN HAPPEN -AGAIN</a></li> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28345">SOMEHOW GOOD</a></li> -</ul> -</td> -</tr> -</table> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par adTitle">SIR GUY AND LADY RANNARD</p> -<p class="par adByline">by H. N. DICKINSON <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par">Author of “Keddy,” etc.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“<span class="corr" id="xd23e5730" title= -"Source: Extraodinarily">Extraordinarily</span> clever indeed in this -study. Apart from the absorbing interest of the two central characters, -the book is full of able and suggestive studies. The whole book is one -of the most remarkable that a young man has produced for many a long -year.”—<i>Morning Post</i>.</p> -<p class="par adTitle">THE MAGNATE</p> -<p class="par adByline">by ROBERT ELSON <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par adReview">“It is a story that every reader will -recommend after reading it—and with excellent reason, for it is -fresh, original, and powerfully written.”—<i>Daily -Graphic</i>.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“Mr. Elson has what Dickens and Thackeray -and other great writers of fiction have. He has a personality. -‘The Magnate’ is quite the freshest story that we have read -for a long time. We have no hesitation in recommending it to all -persons who like a novel which is full of thought and detail and brims -over with optimism.”—<i>Daily Mail</i>. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb333" href="#pb333" name="pb333">5</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par adTitle"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/113">THE SECRET GARDEN</a></p> -<p class="par adByline">by Mrs. HODGSON BURNETT <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par">Author of “The Shuttle,” “Little Lord -Fauntleroy,” etc.</p> -<p class="par">Large Cr. 8vo, with coloured Illustrations by CHARLES -ROBINSON.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“The treatment by the authoress is as -skilled in technique and vivid in human interest as the reader would -expect from her.... The illustrations by Mr. Charles Robinson are the -work of an artist rarely gifted.”—<i>Daily -Telegraph</i>.</p> -<p class="par adTitle">HE WHO PASSED</p> -<p class="par adByline">To M. L. G. (Anon.) <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par adReview">“As a story, it is one of the most -enthralling I have read for a long time.... Six—seven -o’clock struck—half-past-seven—and yet this -extraordinary narrative of a woman’s life held me absolutely -enthralled.... I forgot the weather; I forgot my own grievances; I -forgot everything, in fact, under the spell of this wonderful book.... -In fact the whole book bears the stamp of reality from cover to cover. -There is hardly a false or strained note in it. It is the ruthless -study of a woman’s life.... If it is not the novel of the season, -the season is not likely to give us anything much -better.”—<i>The Tatler</i>.</p> -<p class="par">Ready shortly, by the same author: “The Life -Mask.”</p> -<p class="par adTitle">LESS THAN THE DUST</p> -<p class="par adByline">by MARY AGNES HAMILTON <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par adReview">“There is something delightfully fresh in -the method of treatment, something that seems to mark the passing of -another milestone in the work of the literary woman. Literary is the -right word, for Miss Hamilton’s style bears the stamp of a -natural purity of diction, while her analysis of emotion and character -is keen without being over-protracted.”—<i>Daily -Telegraph</i>. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb334" href="#pb334" name= -"pb334">6</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par adTitle"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39794">KING ERRANT</a></p> -<p class="par adByline">by FLORA ANNIE STEEL <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par">Author of “<a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40140">On the Face of the -Waters</a>,” etc.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“Mrs. Steel has made for herself a high -reputation by the excellence of her Indian novels; in the vividness of -the Oriental picture which it presents her ‘King Errant’ -stands on quite as high a level as her other books.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“Historically accurate and sufficiently -absorbing, and the results of Mrs. Steel’s careful study of his -character is that Baber stands out from the mists of nearly four -centuries as a very real and attractive -person.”—<i>Times</i>.</p> -<p class="par xd23e167">Author of</p> -<table class="splitlisttable"> -<tr> -<td> -<ul> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39810">A PRINCE OF -DREAMERS</a></li> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39987">THE FLOWER OF -FORGIVENESS</a></li> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39821">FROM THE FIVE -RIVERS</a></li> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39991">THE HOSTS OF THE -LORD</a></li> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39795">IN THE GUARDIANSHIP OF -GOD</a></li> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39832">IN THE PERMANENT -WAY</a></li> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40142">MISS STUART’S -LEGACY</a></li> -</ul> -</td> -<td> -<ul> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40140">ON THE FACE OF THE -WATERS</a></li> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39985">THE POTTER’S -THUMB</a></li> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40141">RED ROWANS</a></li> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39813">A SOVEREIGN -REMEDY</a></li> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40045">VOICES IN THE -NIGHT</a></li> -<li>and other stories.</li> -</ul> -</td> -</tr> -</table> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par adTitle">ESSENCE OF HONEYMOON</p> -<p class="par adByline">by H. PERRY ROBINSON <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par adReview">“Mr. Perry Robinson has never written a -more fascinating and delightful little story than ‘Essence of -Honeymoon’.... Mr. Perry Robinson says exactly the right -thing.... An inimitable piece of sporting fun, admirably carried out, -and we can recommend no better literature for all young people about to -be married, or even after they have taken that sobering step, than Mr. -Perry Robinson’s delightful pages.”—<i>The -Field</i>.</p> -<p class="par adTitle">A PRISON WITHOUT A WALL</p> -<p class="par adByline">by RALPH STRAUS <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par">Author of “The Scandalous Mr. Waldo.”</p> -<p class="par adReview">“This beautiful, whimsical, tragic -biography. We are lost in admiration of Mr. Straus’ skill to -portray the quintessential don. His pictures of combination room -etiquette are literally to the life. But be knows also a wider world, -and his touch is sure in drawing the eccentric great lady, the -old-school politician, the passionate mondaine, and the fashionable -charlatan.... This perfectly told story.”—<i>Daily -Mail</i>. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb335" href="#pb335" name= -"pb335">7</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par adTitle">JOHN CHRISTOPHER:</p> -<div class="table"> -<table class="xd23e5895"> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft cellTop">I.</td> -<td class="cellRight cellTop"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7979">Dawn and Morning</a>.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">II.</td> -<td class="cellRight">Storm and Stress.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft">III.</td> -<td class="cellRight"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8149">John Christopher in -Paris</a><span class="corr" id="xd23e5914" title= -"Not in source">.</span></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="cellLeft cellBottom">IV.</td> -<td class="cellRight cellBottom"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7967">The Journey’s -End</a><span class="corr" id="xd23e5922" title= -"Not in source">.</span></td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par adByline">by ROMAIN ROLLAND <span class="adPrice">each -6/-</span></p> -<p class="par">Translated by GILBERT CANNAN. Author of “Little -Brother,” etc.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“To most readers he will be a revelation, -a new interest in their lives. Take the book up where you will, and you -feel interested at once. You can read it and re-read it. It never -wearies nor grows irritating.”—<i>The Daily -Telegraph</i>.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“His English exercises so easy an effect -that the reader has never for an instant the irritating sense of -missing beauties through the inadequacies of a borrowed language; we -have also compared it in many cases with the original and found it -remarkably accurate. Readers may then be assured that they will lose -but little of Mr. Rolland’s beauty and wisdom, even though they -are unable to read him in the original, and Mr. Cannan is to be warmly -congratulated.”—<i>The Standard</i>.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“A noble piece of work, which must, -without any doubt whatever, ultimately receive the praise and attention -which it so undoubtedly merits.... There is hardly a single book more -illustrative, more informing and more inspiring ... than M. Romain -Rolland’s creative work, ‘John -Christopher’.”—Extract from descriptive review in -<i>The Daily Telegraph</i>. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb336" href= -"#pb336" name="pb336">8</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par adTitle">WHERE ARE YOU GOING TO...?</p> -<p class="par adByline">by ELIZABETH ROBINS</p> -<p class="par">Author of “Come and Find Me,” etc.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“She has, indeed, in this fine novel, -splendidly fulfilled the high purpose that inspired her to draw -attention to a social danger and existing evil, no less horrible than -real.”—<i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“Never, not even when Charles Reade, -making robust romance from Blue books, was denouncing our prison and -madhouse systems, has such determined and forceful use been made of -fiction for the purpose of undoing a grevious social -evil.”—<i>The Daily Chronicle</i>.</p> -<p class="par adTitle">MOLYNEUX OF MAYFAIR</p> -<p class="par adByline">by DUNCAN SCHWANN</p> -<p class="par">Author of “The Book of a Bachelor,” etc.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“This the third of Mr. Schwann’s -novels, is by a very long way his best. Mr. Schwann has beyond question -written a book that may be termed light and frivolous, if you wish, but -that nevertheless, as a picture of a certain section of modern London -Society, has its more important side to it. In deftness, interest, and -human nature it shows a great advance on ‘The Book of a -Bachelor.’”—<i>Standard</i>.</p> -<p class="par">BY THE SAME AUTHOR</p> -<p class="par adTitle">THE MAGIC OF THE HILL</p> -<p class="par adReview">“The book is in fact, to be read for its -light-hearted pictures of modern Paris, Paris seen with eyes of someone -who knows it intimately and loves it. Mr. Schwann has more than a -little of Thackeray’s absorbing interest in minor characters, -minor events, and minor problems. The book proves that Mr. Schwann, as -a student of life, has the right touch and the right -humour.”—<i>The Standard</i>. <span class="pagenum">[<a id= -"pb337" href="#pb337" name="pb337">9</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par adTitle"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1845">ZULEIKA DOBSON</a></p> -<p class="par adByline">by MAX BEERBOHM <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par">Author of “<a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14667">A Christmas -Garland</a>,” etc.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“In a word, he has achieved a -masterpiece. He has written a book in which wit and invention never -flag: a book, the writing of which he has enjoyed so tremendously that -the reader enjoys it with him, as it were, personally, a book that is -all of a piece, never halts, never drops; a book that is a sheer -delight from cover to cover.”—Alfred Sutton in <i>The Daily -Mail</i>.</p> -<p class="par adTitle"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39145">THE DEVOURERS</a></p> -<p class="par adByline">by ANNIE VIVANTI CHARTRES <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par adReview">“The book is delightfully written.... -Mrs. Chartres has humour, she has style, she has -pathos.”—<i>The Standard</i>.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“It is a great feat for any author to -succeed in interesting her readers in three successive generations of -heroines within the covers of a single novel without diminution of -sympathy; yet that feat has been accomplished in ‘The -Devourers’ ... it is an irresistible story and full of -sympathetic charm.”—<i>The Evening Standard</i>.</p> -<p class="par adTitle"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5964">LOVE’S PILGRIMAGE</a></p> -<p class="par adByline">by UPTON SINCLAIR <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par">Author of “<a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/140">The Jungle</a>,” -“<a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4923">King Midas</a>,” etc.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“Mr. Upton Sinclair has written around -such a great subject with such marvellous intuition and skill, and has -presented so many problems which are engaging general attention, that -all feminists and theorists upon social subjects will be eager to read -his latest book.”—<i>Daily Telegraph</i>. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb338" href="#pb338" name="pb338">10</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par adTitle">PASSION FRUIT</p> -<p class="par adByline">by E. C. VIVIAN <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par adReview">“The interest all through depends mainly -upon the male characters, who are drawn with unusual vigour and -certainty.... The book as a whole is marked by a breadth of handling -which sets it apart from the average novel.”—<i>Morning -Post</i>.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“‘Passion Fruit’ is the work -of a past-master in story telling.”—<i>Sheffield -Independent</i>.</p> -<p class="par adTitle">BORROWERS OF FORTUNE</p> -<p class="par adByline">by JESSIE LECKIE HERBERTSON <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par">Author of “Young Life,” etc.</p> -<p class="par adReview">A novel of happier vein than has sometimes been -the case with Miss Herbertson. Her lighter heart is as infectious as -her gravity was impressive.</p> -<p class="par adTitle">THE DECLENSION OF HENRY D’ALBIAC</p> -<p class="par adByline">by V. GOLDIE <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par">Author of “Nigel Thomson,” and -“Majorie Stevens.”</p> -<p class="par adReview">“It is by far the best and the liveliest -of the suffragist stories we have come across, though by the way, the -particular propaganda is by no means the chief object of the book. -Indeed, propaganda of any kind is in its pages always subordinate to -the author’s abundant and vivacious sense of -humour.”—<i>Manchester Guardian</i>. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb339" href="#pb339" name="pb339">11</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par adTitle">THE NOVELS OF HALL CAINE</p> -<p class="par">(of which over 3 million copies have been sold).</p> -<p class="par adReview">“These volumes are in every way a -pleasure to read. Of living authors, Mr. Hall Caine must certainly sway -as multitudinous a following as any living man. A novel from his pen -has become indeed for England and America something of an international -event.”—<i>Times</i>.</p> -<p class="par xd23e167">Author of</p> -<table class="splitlisttable"> -<tr> -<td> -<ul> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33999">THE BONDMAN</a></li> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25572">CAPT’N <span class= -"corr" id="xd23e6112" title="Source: DAVEYS">DAVY’S</span> -HONEYMOON</a></li> -<li>MY STORY</li> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52342">THE WHITE -PROPHET</a></li> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19732">THE ETERNAL CITY</a></li> -</ul> -</td> -<td> -<ul> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25570">THE MANXMAN</a></li> -<li>THE PRODIGAL SON</li> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1303">THE SCAPEGOAT</a></li> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8407">THE CHRISTIAN</a></li> -</ul> -</td> -</tr> -</table> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par adTitle">A PORTENTOUS HISTORY</p> -<p class="par adByline">by ALFRED TENNYSON <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par adReview">“With considerable skill we are shown how -ignorant and conventional prejudice of all the normal inhabitants of -the village are roused against the poor, good giant, only because he is -greater than they are. Mr. Tennyson gives a vivid and unpleasant -picture of prejudice and instinctive cruelty. In Mr. Tennyson we have a -new novelist with something real and weighty to -say.”—<i>Westminster Gazette</i>.</p> -<p class="par adTitle">THE MARRIAGE OF CAPTAIN KETTLE</p> -<p class="par adByline">by C. J. CUTCLIFFE HYNE <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par">Author of “Captain Kettle,” etc.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“When one has once opened ‘The -Marriage of Kettle’ it is impossible to put it down unfinished. -Mr. Cutcliffe Hyne has such a vivid pen and seems so intimately -acquainted with the sea and seafaring life, and introduces us to so -many humorous and realistic characters, that we feel as if we had -actually sailed with the great Kettle on his adventurous voyages, and -had shared his hairbreadth escapes.”—<i>Evening Standard -and St. James’s Gazette</i>. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb340" -href="#pb340" name="pb340">12</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par adTitle">TALES OF THE UNEASY</p> -<p class="par adByline">by VIOLET HUNT <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par">Author of “The Wife of Altamont.”</p> -<p class="par adReview">“Miss Violet Hunt is eminently skilful, -albeit a relentless ‘raconteuse’, the light of her -inspiration burns with a hard gemlike flame. Miss Hunt has gained -greatly in craftsmanship during the last few years: her style is -excellent, her grip of subjects sure, and her insight exceptionally -clear and sane.”—<i>The Athenæum</i>.</p> -<p class="par adTitle">ESTHER</p> -<p class="par adByline">by AGNES E. JACOMB <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par adReview">“The book is well written and the -characters are well drawn.”—<i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“Miss Jacomb has written in -‘Esther’ a very interesting novel; its situations are -original, and the characters are sufficiently individual to make a -convincing whole....”—<i>Morning Post</i>.</p> -<p class="par adTitle"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3728">THE GETTING OF WISDOM</a></p> -<p class="par adByline">by HENRY HANDEL RICHARDSON <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par">Author of “<a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3727">Maurice Guest</a>.”</p> -<p class="par adReview">“An extraordinarily intimate and -sympathetic study of a little girl and of the influence school-life has -upon her gives unusual charm and interest to this -story.”—<i>Daily Mail</i>.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“‘Stalky for Girls’ might -very well be the sub-title of Mr. Richardson’s story. What -‘Stalky & Co.’ did for the boy, ‘The Getting of -Wisdom’ tries to do for the girl. It is a bright, vivid piece of -character writing.”—<i>Saturday Review</i>. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb341" href="#pb341" name="pb341">13</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par adTitle"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/746">BURNING DAYLIGHT</a></p> -<p class="par adByline">by JACK LONDON <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par">Author of “<a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/215">The Call of the Wild</a>,” -“<a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1056">Martin Eden</a>,” -etc.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“I have long regarded the stories of Mr. -Jack London as a welcome relief from the dulness of most contemporary -fiction, and his latest, ‘Burning Daylight,’ did not -disappoint me in this respect. No one who has read the author’s -previous works will need to be told with what wonderful skill the -atmosphere of this grim and unfriendly land is conveyed. There is one -chapter, especially, which tells how, for a bet, Daylight raced two -thousand miles over an unbroken trail of ice in sixty days that seems -to me absolutely the best piece of descriptive writing of its kind that -ever I read.”—<i>Punch</i>.</p> -<p class="par adTitle"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38561">THE WHITE PEACOCK</a></p> -<p class="par adByline">by D. H. LAWRENCE <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par adReview">“A book of real distinction, both of -style and thought. Many of the descriptive passages have an almost -lyrical charm, and the characterisation is, generally speaking, deft -and life-like. ‘The White Peacock’ is a book not only worth -reading but worth reckoning with, for we are inclined to think that its -author has come to stay.”—<i>Morning Post</i>.</p> -<p class="par adTitle">LOVE LIKE THE SEA</p> -<p class="par adByline">by J. E. PATTERSON <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par">Author of “Tillers of the Soil,” etc.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“He tells his story to the sound of wind -and waves, and if now and again his ardour for and knowledge of the sea -leads him aside from the purpose of his scheme, the digressions are so -admirably done that the book would lose from the point of view of -literary interest were they omitted.... The three principal characters -are well drawn (there are minor ones also excellently -delineated).”—<i>The Globe</i>. <span class= -"pagenum">[<a id="pb342" href="#pb342" name="pb342">14</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par adTitle">ADNAM’S ORCHARD</p> -<p class="par adByline">by SARAH GRAND <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par xd23e167">Author of</p> -<table class="splitlisttable"> -<tr> -<td> -<ul> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8676">THE HEAVENLY -TWINS</a></li> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6855">IDEALA</a></li> -<li><a class="pglink xd23e43" title="Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" -href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28088">THE BETH BOOK</a></li> -</ul> -</td> -<td> -<ul> -<li>OUR MANIFOLD NATURE</li> -<li>etc., etc.</li> -</ul> -</td> -</tr> -</table> -<p class="par"></p> -<p class="par adReview">“Admirers of Mrs. Grand will be glad to -find in her new book ‘Adnam’s Orchard’ the same -vivacity and the same provocative spirit that gave its wide currency to -her ‘Heavenly Twins,’ Both qualities sustain and inspire -her to the last page of the six hundred and thirty which make up her -latest novel.”—<i>Morning Post</i>.</p> -<p class="par adTitle">THE REWARD OF VIRTUE</p> -<p class="par adByline">by AMBER REEVES <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par adReview">“There is cleverness enough and to spare, -but it is ... a spontaneous cleverness, innate, not laboriously -acquired.... The dialogue ... is so natural, so unaffected, that it is -quite possible to read it without noticing the high artistic quality of -it.... For a first novel Miss Reeves’s is a remarkable -achievement; it would be a distinct achievement even were it not a -first novel.”—<i>Daily Chronicle</i>.</p> -<p class="par adTitle">THE COST OF IT</p> -<p class="par adByline">by ELEANOR MORDAUNT <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par">Author of “The Garden of Contentment.”</p> -<p class="par adReview">“Packed full of character and real -life.... The character of the heroine is admirably drawn upon quite -unconventional lines ... the situation is worked out with remarkable -vigour and intensity. This is a fine, powerful and impressive novel, -triumphing over inadequacies of literary training by sheer force of -sincerity and of glowing human sentiment.<span class="corr" id= -"xd23e6324" title="Not in source">”</span>—<i>Daily -Telegraph</i>. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb343" href="#pb343" name= -"pb343">15</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par adTitle">A RUNAWAY RING</p> -<p class="par adByline">by Mrs. HENRY E. DUDENEY <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par">Author of “Maids’ Money,” “The -Orchard Thief,” “A Large Room,” etc.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“Her previous work has been good, but in -‘A Runaway Ring’ she has surpassed her best previous -efforts, and it is no easy matter to do her sufficient honour. To make -a romance from life’s ‘fedious afternoon’ without -being simply sentimental is a task which scarcely any accomplish, and -so, when the thing is done, it can only be judged on its own merits and -without comparison.”—<i>The Standard</i>.</p> -<p class="par adTitle">THE ADJUSTMENT</p> -<p class="par adByline">by MARGUERITE BRYANT <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par">Author of “Christopher Hibbault, Roadmaker,” -etc.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“‘The Adjustment’ ... is a -notable novel.”—<i>Westminster Gazette</i>.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“It is an admirable book, of an original -and impressive nature, the authoress well understands the portrayal of -human passions, whether love or hate, and makes her characters -singularly attractive.... Many excellent situations add to the general -interest.... We advise all who enjoy a thoroughly good novel to add -‘The Adjustment’ to their library list.”—<i>The -Globe</i>.</p> -<p class="par adTitle"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19943">THE HIPPODROME</a></p> -<p class="par adByline">by RACHEL HAYWARD <span class= -"adPrice">6/-</span></p> -<p class="par">Illustrated by CLARA WATERS.</p> -<p class="par adReview">A brightly coloured story, the scene of which -is laid in Barcelona. A young Irish girl who is dependent on herself -for a means of subsistence becomes a “star” turn at a -circus. While in the back-waters of that existence she falls in with -certain gentlemen of international importance. She becomes their dupe -and slave and passes through many adventures. But there is a way of -escape and she takes it. Decidedly a book of swift movement and keen -excitement. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb344" href="#pb344" name= -"pb344">16</a>]</span></p> -<p class="par adTitle">THE NOVELS OF LEO TOLSTOY</p> -<p class="par adByline">Translated by CONSTANCE GARNETT</p> -<p class="par adTitle"><a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1399">ANNA <span class="corr" id= -"xd23e6387" title="Source: KARENIN">KARENINA</span></a> <span class= -"adPrice">2/6 net</span></p> -<p class="par adTitle">WAR AND PEACE <span class="adPrice">3/6 -net</span></p> -<p class="par adReview">“Mrs. Garnett’s translations from -the Russian are always distinguished by most careful accuracy and a -fine literary flavour. In this new rendering of Tolstoy she has -surpassed herself.”—<i>The Bookman</i>.</p> -<p class="par adReview">“Mrs. Garnett’s translation has all -the ease and vigour which Matthew Arnold found in French versions of -Russian novels and missed in English. She is indeed so successful that, -but for the names, one might easily forget he was reading a foreign -author.”—<i>The Contemporary Review</i>.</p> -<p class="par adTitle">THE NOVELS OF DOSTOEVSKY</p> -<p class="par adByline">Translated by CONSTANCE GARNETT</p> -<p class="par adReview">“By the genius of Dostoevsky you are -always in the presence of living, passionate characters. They are not -puppets, they are not acting to keep the plot in motion. They are men -and women—I should say you can hear them -breathe—irresistibly moving to their appointed -ends.”—<i>Evening News</i>.</p> -<p class="par adTitle">I. <a class="pglink xd23e43" title= -"Link to Project Gutenberg ebook" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28054">THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV</a> -<span class="adPrice">3/6 net</span></p> -<p class="par adReview">“No other writer perhaps has given to -materials so ugly, not merely strength and life, but grave pathos and -tragic beauty.”—<i>Times</i>.</p> -<p class="par adTitle">II. THE IDIOT</p> -<p class="par">Ready Shortly:</p> -<p class="par">Now for the first time translated in full from the -Russian by CONSTANCE GARNETT, translator of the Novels of TURGENEV and -TOLSTOY.</p> -<p class="par adBottomLine">21 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div class="transcribernote"> -<h2 class="main">Colophon</h2> -<h3 class="main">Availability</h3> -<p class="par first">This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no -cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give -it away or re-use it under the terms of the <a class="seclink xd23e43" -title="External link" href="https://www.gutenberg.org/license" rel= -"license">Project Gutenberg License</a> included with this eBook or -online at <a class="seclink xd23e43" title="External link" href= -"https://www.gutenberg.org/" rel="home">www.gutenberg.org</a>.</p> -<p class="par">This eBook is produced by the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at <a class="exlink xd23e43" title="External link" -href="http://www.pgdp.net/">www.pgdp.net</a>.</p> -<h3 class="main">Encoding</h3> -<p class="par first"></p> -<h3 class="main">Revision History</h3> -<ul> -<li>2016-11-24 Started.</li> -</ul> -<h3 class="main">External References</h3> -<p>This Project Gutenberg eBook contains external references. These -links may not work for you.</p> -<h3 class="main">Corrections</h3> -<p>The following corrections have been applied to the text:</p> -<table class="correctiontable" summary= -"Overview of corrections applied to the text."> -<tr> -<th>Page</th> -<th>Source</th> -<th>Correction</th> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e336">10</a>, -<a class="pageref" href="#xd23e4932">292</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">”</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">[<i>Deleted</i>]</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e461">16</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">”</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">’</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e901">43</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">premisses</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">premises</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e1025">50</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">“</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">‘</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e1073">52</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">[<i>Not in source</i>]</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">,</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e1076">52</a>, -<a class="pageref" href="#xd23e1183">62</a>, <a class="pageref" href= -"#xd23e1188">62</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd23e1206">63</a>, -<a class="pageref" href="#xd23e4363">257</a>, <a class="pageref" href= -"#xd23e4673">277</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd23e4693">278</a>, -<a class="pageref" href="#xd23e5914">7</a>, <a class="pageref" href= -"#xd23e5922">7</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">[<i>Not in source</i>]</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e1773">96</a>, -<a class="pageref" href="#xd23e2688">152</a>, <a class="pageref" href= -"#xd23e3206">183</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd23e3250">185</a>, -<a class="pageref" href="#xd23e4311">255</a>, <a class="pageref" href= -"#xd23e4929">292</a>, <a class="pageref" href="#xd23e6324">14</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">[<i>Not in source</i>]</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">”</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e2849">162</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">maladorous</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">malodorous</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e2936">167</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">[<i>Not in source</i>]</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">“</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e3626">209</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">your</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">you’re</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e4227">248</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">remainded</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">remained</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e4468">263</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">,</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">[<i>Deleted</i>]</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e5462">2</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">NE</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">NEW</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e5652">3</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">TRANQUILLITY</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">TRANQUILITY</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e5671">3</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">,</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e5730">4</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Extraodinarily</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">Extraordinarily</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e6112">11</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">DAVEYS</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">DAVY’S</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="width20"><a class="pageref" href="#xd23e6387">16</a></td> -<td class="width40 bottom">KARENIN</td> -<td class="width40 bottom">KARENINA</td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -<div class="div1" id="toc"> -<h2 class="main">Table of Contents</h2> -<table> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum">I.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="2"><a href="#bk1">THE NEW -PLAGUE</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#bk1">1</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">I.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#ch1">THE GOSLING -FAMILY</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch1">3</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">II.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#ch2">THE OPINIONS OF -JASPER THRALE</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch2">19</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">III.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#ch3">LONDON’S -INCREDULITY</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch3">39</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">IV.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#ch4">MR BARKER’S -FLAIR</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch4">45</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">V.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#ch5">THE CLOSED -DOOR</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch5">52</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">VI.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#ch6">DISASTER</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch6">63</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">VII.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#ch7">PANIC</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch7">77</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">VIII.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#ch8">GURNEY IN -CORNWALL</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch8">89</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">IX.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#ch9">THE DEVOLUTION OF -GEORGE GOSLING</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch9">98</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">X.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#ch10">EXODUS</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch10">121</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum">II.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="2"><a href="#bk2">THE MARCH OF THE -GOSLINGS</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#bk2">127</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">XI.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#ch11">THE SILENT -CITY</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch11">129</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">XII.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#ch12">EMIGRANT</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch12">150</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">XIII.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href= -"#ch13">DIFFERENCES</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch13">171</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">XIV.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#ch14">AUNT MAY</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch14">186</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">XV.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#ch15">FROM SUDBURY TO -WYCOMBE</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch15">196</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">XVI.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#ch16">THE YOUNG BUTCHER -OF HIGH WYCOMBE</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch16">212</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum">III.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="2"><a href="#bk3">WOMANKIND IN THE -MAKING</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#bk3">227</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">XVII.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#ch17">LONDON TO -MARLOW</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch17">229</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">XVIII.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#ch18">MODES OF -EXPRESSION</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch18">250</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">XIX.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#ch19">ON THE -FLOOD</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch19">283</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">XX.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#ch20">THE TERRORS OF -SPRING</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch20">297</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum">XXI.</td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#ch21">SMOKE</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#ch21">304</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="2"><a href="#epi">EPILOGUE</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#epi">315</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td></td> -<td class="tocDivNum"></td> -<td class="tocDivTitle" colspan="1"><a href="#epi1">THE GREAT -PLAN</a></td> -<td class="tocPageNum"><a class="pageref" href="#epi1">317</a></td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> -</div> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Goslings, by J. 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