Classic Audiobook Collection - Howards End by E. M. Forster ~ Full Audiobook [drama]

Starting point is 00:00:01 Howard's End by E. M. Forster. Chapter 1 One may as well begin with Helen's letters to her sister. Howard's End, Tuesday. Dearest Meg. It isn't going to be what we expected. It is old and little, and altogether delightful, red brick. We can scarcely pack in as it is, and the dear knows what will happen when Paul,

Starting point is 00:00:34 younger son, arrives tomorrow. From Hall you go right or left into dining-room, a drawing-room. Hall itself is practically a room. You open another door in it, and there are the stairs going up in a sort of tunnel to the first floor. Three bedrooms in a row there, and three attics in a row above. That isn't all the house, really, but it's all that one notices, nine windows as you look up from the front garden. Then there's a very big witch elm, to the left as you look up, leaning a little over the house, and standing on the boundary between the garden and meadow. I quite love that tree already. Also ordinary elms, oaks, no nastier than ordinary oaks, pear trees, apple trees, and a vine. No silver birches, though. However, I must get on to my host and hostess. I only want to

Starting point is 00:01:32 to show that it isn't the least what we expected. Why did we settle that their house would be all gables and wiggles, and their garden or gambage-coloured paths? I believe simply because we associate them with expensive hotels, Mrs. Wilcox trailing in beautiful dresses down long corridors, Mr. Wilcox, bullying porters, etc. We females are that unjust. I shall be back Saturday.

Starting point is 00:02:01 We'll let you know train later. They are as angry as I am that you did not come too. Really, Tibby is too tiresome. He starts a new mortal disease every month. How could he have got hay fever in London? And even if he could, it seems hard that you should give up a visit to hear a schoolboy sneeze. Tell him that Charles Wilcox, the son who is here, has hay fever too, but he's brave. and gets quite cross when we inquire after it.

Starting point is 00:02:34 Men like the Wilcoxes would do Tibby a power of good. But you won't agree, and I'd better change the subject. This long letter is because I'm writing before breakfast. Oh, the beautiful vine leaves. The house is covered with a vine. I looked out earlier, and Mrs. Wilcox was already in the garden. She evidently loves it. No wonder she sometimes looks tired.

Starting point is 00:02:59 she was watching the large red poppies come out then she walked off the lawn to the meadow whose corner to the right i can just see trail trail went her long dress over the sopping grass and she came back with her hands full of the hay that was cut yesterday i suppose for rabbits or something as she kept on smelling it the air here is delicious later on i heard the noise of croquet balls and looked out again and it was charles wilcox practising They are keen on all games. Presently he started sneezing and had to stop. Then I hear more cliqueting, and it is Mr. Wilcox practicing, and then a tissue, a tissue. He has to stop, too. Then Evie comes out, and does some calisthenic exercises on a machine that is

Starting point is 00:03:50 tacked onto a green gauge tree. They put everything to use. And then she says, a tissue! And in she goes. And finally, Mrs. as Wilcox reappears, trail, trail, still smelling hay and looking at the flowers. I inflict all this on you, because once you said that life is sometimes life, and sometimes only a drama, and one must learn to distinguish Tother from which, and up to now I have always put that

Starting point is 00:04:18 down as Meg's clever nonsense. But this morning, it really does seem not life, but a play, and it did amuse me enormously to watch the W's. "'Now Mrs. Wilcox has come in. "'I am going to wear—' "'Omission.' "'Last night Mrs. Wilcox, Warren, omission. "'And Evey, omission.' "'So it isn't exactly a go-as-you-please place,

Starting point is 00:04:45 "'and if you shot your eyes it still seems the Wiggly Hotel that we expected. "'Not if you open them. "'The dog-roses are too sweet. "'There is a great hedge of them over the lawn, "'magnificantly tall, so that they fall down in garlands, and nice and thin at the bottom, so that you can see ducks through it and a cow. These belong to the farm, which is the only house near us. There goes the breakfast gong. Much love, modified love to Tibby.

Starting point is 00:05:13 Love to Aunt Julie. How good of her to come and keep you company, but what a bore. Burn this. We'll write again Thursday. Helen Howard's End, Friday. dearest Meg I am having a glorious time I like them all Mrs. Wilcox, if quieter

Starting point is 00:05:34 than in Germany, is sweeter than ever and I never saw anything like her steady unselfishness, and the best of it is that the others do not take advantage of her. They are the very happiest, jolliest family that you can imagine. I do really feel that we are making friends. The fun of it is that they think me a noodle,

Starting point is 00:05:54 and say so. At least Mr. Wilcox does. And when that happens, and one doesn't mind, it's a pretty sure test, isn't it? He says the most horrid things about women's suffrage so nicely. And when I said I believed in equality, he just folded his arms and gave me such a setting down as I've never had. Meg, shall we ever learn to talk less? I never felt so ashamed of myself in my life. I couldn't point to a time when men had been equal,

Starting point is 00:06:24 nor even to a time when the wish to be equal had made them happier in other ways. I couldn't say a word. I had just picked up the notion that equality is good from some book, probably from poetry, or you. Anyhow, it's been knocked into pieces, and like all people who are really strong, Mr. Wilcox did it without hurting me. On the other hand, I laugh at them for catching hay fever. We live like fighting-cocks, and Charles takes us out every day in the motor. A tomb with trees in it. A hermit's house. A wonderful road that was made by the kings of Mercia. Tennis. A cricket match. Bridge. And at night we squeeze up in this lovely house.

Starting point is 00:07:08 The whole clan's here now. It's like a rabbit warren. Evey is a dear. They want me to stop over Sunday. I suppose it won't matter if I do. Marvelous weather and the views marvellous. Views westward to the high ground. Thank you for your letter. Burn this. Your affectionate, Helen. Howard's End. Sunday.

Starting point is 00:07:33 Dearest, dearest Meg. I do not know what you will say. Paul and I are in love. The youngest son who only came here Wednesday. End of Chapter 1. Chapter 2 of Howard Zend. This is a Librevox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public.

Starting point is 00:08:09 domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit librovocs.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clette Howard's End by E. M. Forster Chapter 2 Margaret glanced at her sister's note and pushed it over the breakfast table to her aunt. There was a moment's hush, and then the floodgates opened. I can tell you nothing, Aunt Julie. I know no more than you, do. We met—we only met the father and mother abroad last spring. I know so little that I didn't even know their son's name. It's all so—' she waved her hand and laughed a little.

Starting point is 00:08:55 In that case, it is far too sudden. Who knows, Aunt Julie? Who knows? But Margaret, dear, I mean, we mustn't be unpractical now we've come to fact. It is too sudden, surely. Who knows? but margaret dear i'll go for her other letters said margaret no i won't i'll finish my breakfast in fact i haven't them we met the wilcox's on an awful expedition that we made from heidelberg to schpere helen and i had got it into our heads that there was a grand old cathedral at shpair the archbishop of shpair was one of the seven electors you know sheper meyre mints and coon those three seas once commanded the rhine valley and got of the name of Priest Street. I still feel quite uneasy about this business, Margaret.

Starting point is 00:09:47 The train crossed by a bridge of boats, and at first sight it looked quite fine. But, oh, in five minutes, we had seen the whole thing. The cathedral had been ruined, absolutely ruined by restoration, not an inch left of the original structure. We wasted a whole day, and came across the Wilcoxes as we were eating our sandwiches in the public gardens. They, too, poor things had been taken. in. They were actually stopping at Spare, and they rather liked Helen insisting that they

Starting point is 00:10:16 must fly with us to Heidelberg. As a matter of fact, they did come on next day. We all took some drives together. They knew us well enough to ask Helen to come and see them. At least I was asked too, but Tibby's illness prevented me, so last Monday she went alone. That's all. You know as much as I do now. It's a young man out the unknown. She was to have come back Saturday, but put off till Monday, perhaps on account of—I don't know. She broke off, and listened to the sounds of a London morning. Their house was in Wickham Place, and fairly quiet, for a lofty promontory of buildings separated it from the main thoroughfare.

Starting point is 00:10:59 One had the sense of a backwater, or rather of an estuary, whose waters flowed in from the invisible sea, and ebbed into a profound silence while the waves without were still beating. Though the promontory consisted of flats, expensive with cavernous entrance halls, full of concierges and palms, it fulfilled its purpose, and gained for the older houses opposite a certain measure of peace. These two would be swept away in time, and another promontory would rise upon their sight, as humanity piled itself higher and higher on the precious soil of London. Mrs. Munt had her own method of interpreting her nieces. She decided that Margaret was a little hysterical, and was trying to gain time by a torrent of talk. Feeling very diplomatic, she lamented the fate of Schpere, and declared that never, never should she be so misguided as to visit it,

Starting point is 00:11:55 and added of her own accord that the principles of restoration were ill understood in Germany. The Germans, she said, are too thorough. and this is all very well sometimes, but at other times it does not do." "'Exactly,' said Margaret. "'Germans are too thorough.' And her eyes began to shine. "'Of course I regard you Schlegels as English,' said Mrs. Mund hastily. "'English to the backbone.'

Starting point is 00:12:28 Margaret leaned forward and stroked her hand. "'And that reminds me. "'Helen's letter?' "'Oh, yes, Aunt Julie, I am thinking all right about Helen's letter. I know. I must go down and see her. I am thinking about her all right. I am meaning to go down.' "'But go with some plan,' said Mrs. Munt, admitting into her kindly voice a note of exasperation. Margaret, if I may interfere, don't be taken by surprise.

Starting point is 00:13:02 What do you think of the Wilcoxes? Are they are sort? Are they likely people? Could they appreciate Helen, who is to my mind a very special sort of person? Do they care about literature and art? That is most important when you come to think of it. Literature and art. Most important.

Starting point is 00:13:23 How old would the son be? She says younger son, would he be in a position to marry? Is he likely to make Helen happy? Did you gather— I gathered nothing. They began to talk at once. Then in that case— In that case I can make no plans, don't you see?

Starting point is 00:13:43 On the contrary, I hate plans. I hate lines of action. Helen isn't a baby. Then in that case, my dear, why go down? Margaret was silent. If her aunt could not see why she must go down she was not going to tell her. She was not going to say, I love my dear sister, I must be near her at this crisis of her life.

Starting point is 00:14:09 The affections are more reticent than the passions, and their expression more subtle. If she herself should ever fall in love with a man, she, like Helen, would proclaim it from the house-tops. But as she loved only a sister, she used the voiceless language of sympathy. I consider you odd girls, continued Mrs. Munt, and very wonderful girls, and in many ways far older than your years, but you won't be offended. Frankly, I feel you are not up to this business.

Starting point is 00:14:41 It requires an older person. Dear, I have nothing to call me back to Swanage. She spread out her plump arms. I am all at your disposal. "'Let me go down to this house, whose name I forget, instead of you.' "'Aunt Julie,' she jumped up and kissed her. "'I must, must go to Howard's end myself. "'You don't exactly understand, though I can never thank you properly for offering.'

Starting point is 00:15:09 "'I do understand,' retorted Mrs. Munt with immense confidence. "'I go down in no spirit of interference, but to make inquiries.' inquiries are necessary. Now I am going to be rude. You would say the wrong thing. To a certainty you would. In your anxiety for Helen's happiness, you would offend the whole of these Wilcoxes

Starting point is 00:15:32 by asking one of your impetuous questions. Not that one minds offending them. I shall ask no questions. I have it in Helen's writing that she and a man are in love. There is no question to ask, as long as she keeps to that. All the rest isn't worth a question. straw. A long engagement, if you like, but inquiries, questions, plans, lines of action, no, Aunt Julie, no. A way she hurried, not beautiful, not supremely brilliant, but filled with

Starting point is 00:16:05 something that took the place of both qualities, something best described as a profound vivacity, a continual and sincere response to all that she encountered in her path through life. If Helen had written the same to me about a shop assistant or a penniless Clark, dear Margaret, do come into the library and shut the door, your good maids are dusting the banisters. Or if she had wanted to marry the man who calls for Carter Patterson, I should have said the same. Then, with one of those turns that convinced her aunt that she was not mad, really,

Starting point is 00:16:39 and convinced observers of another type that she was not a barren theorist, she added. Though in the case of Carter-Patterson, "'Madison, I should want it to be a very long engagement, indeed, I must say.' "'I should think so,' said Mrs. Munt. "'And indeed I can scarcely follow you.' "'Now just imagine if you said anything of that sort to the Wilcoxes. "'I understand it, but most good people would think you mad.' "'Imagine how disconcerting for Helen.

Starting point is 00:17:09 "'What is wanted is a person who will go slowly, slowly in this business, and see how things are and where they are likely to lead to. Margaret was down on this. But you implied just now that the engagement must be broken off. I think probably it must, but slowly. Can you break an engagement off slowly? Her eyes lit up. What's an engagement made of, do you suppose?

Starting point is 00:17:38 I think it's made of some hard stuff that may snap but can't break. It is different to the other times. ties of life. They stretch or bend, they admit of degree, they're different. Exactly so. But won't you let me just run down to Howard's house and save you all the discomfort? I will really not interfere, but I do so thoroughly understand the kind of thing you Schlegel's want, that one quiet look round will be enough for me. Margaret again thanked her, again kissed her, and then ran upstairs to see her brother. He was not so well. The hay fever had worried him a good deal all night. His head ached, his eyes were wet,

Starting point is 00:18:20 his mucous membrane, he informed her, was in a most unsatisfactory condition. The only thing that made life worth living was the thought of Walter Savage Landor, from whose imaginary conversation she had promised to read at frequent intervals during the day. It was rather difficult. Something must be done about Helen. She must be assured that it is not a criminal offense to love at first sight. A telegram to this effect would be cold and cryptic. A personal visit seemed each moment more impossible. Now the doctor arrived and said that Tibby was quite bad. Might it really be best to accept Aunt Julie's kind offer and to send her down to Howard's end with a note? Certainly Margaret was impulsive. She did swing rapidly from one decision to another.

Starting point is 00:19:08 Running downstairs into the library, she cried. "'Yes, I have changed my mind. I do wish that you would go.' There was a train from King's Cross at eleven. At half-past ten, Tibby, with rare self-effacement, fell asleep, and Margaret was able to drive her aunt to the station. You will remember, Aunt Julie, not to be drawn into discussing the engagement. Give my letter to Helen, and say whatever you feel yourself, but do keep clear of the relatives. We have scarcely got their name straight. yet, and besides, that sort of thing is so uncivilized and wrong.

Starting point is 00:19:45 "'So uncivilized?' queried Mrs. Munt, fearing that she was losing the point of some brilliant remark. "'Oh, I used an affected word. I only meant—' "'Would you please only talk the thing over with Helen?' "'Only with Helen.' "'Because—' "'But it was no moment to expound the personal nature of love. Even Margaret shrank from it, and contended herself with stroking her good aunt's

Starting point is 00:20:10 and with meditating, half sensibly and half poetically, on the journey that was about to begin from King's Cross. Like many others who have lived long in a great capital, she had strong feelings about the various railway termini. They are our gates to the glorious and the unknown. Through them we pass out into adventure and sunshine, and to them, alas, we return. In Paddington, all Cornwall is latent, and the remoter west. Down the inclines of Liverpool Street lie Fenlands and the illimitable broads.

Starting point is 00:20:46 Scotland is through the pylons of Houston, Wessex behind the poised chaos of Waterloo. Italians realize this, as is natural. Those of them who are so unfortunate as to serve as waiters in Berlin call the Anhalt Bonhoff, the Staccione d'Italia, because by it they must return to their homes.

Starting point is 00:21:07 And he is a chilly Londoner who does not endow his stations with some personality, and extend to them, however shyly, the emotions of fear and love. To Margaret, I hope that it will not set the reader against her, the station of King's Cross had always suggested infinity. Its very situation, withdrawn a little behind the facile splendors of St. Pancras, implied a comment on the materialism of life. Those two great arches, colourless, indifferent, shouldering between them an unlovely clock,

Starting point is 00:21:42 were fit portals for some eternal adventure, whose issue might be prosperous, but would certainly not be expressed in the ordinary language of prosperity. If you think this ridiculous—remember that it is not Margaret who was telling you about it, and let me hasten to add that they were in plenty of time for the train, that Mrs. Munt, though she took a second-class ticket, was put by the— the guard into a first, only two seconds on the train, one smoking in the other babies, one cannot be expected to travel with babies, and that Margaret, on her return to Wickham Place, was confronted with the following telegram. All over. Wish I had never written. Tell no one.

Starting point is 00:22:25 Helen. But Aunt Julie was gone. Gone irrevocably, and no power on earth could stop her. of Chapter 2. Chapter 3 of Howard's End. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clet. Howard's End by E. M. Forster. Chapter 3 Most complacently did Mrs. Munt rehearse her mission. her nieces were independent young women and it was not often that she was able to help them emily's daughters had never been quite like other girls they had been left motherless when tibby was born when helen was five and margaret herself but thirteen it was before the passing of the deceased wife's sister bill so mrs munt could without impropriety offer to go and keep house at wickham place but her brother-in-law who was peculiar and a german had referred the question to margaret who with the crudity of youth had answered, No, they could manage much better alone.

Starting point is 00:23:58 Five years later Mr. Schlegel had died too, and Mrs. Munt had repeated her offer. Margaret, crude no longer, had been grateful and extremely nice, but the substance of her answer had been the same. I must not interfere a third time, thought Mrs. Munt. However, of course, she did.

Starting point is 00:24:19 She learnt to her horror that Margaret, now of age, was taking her money out of the old safe investments and putting it into foreign things, which always smash. Silence would have been criminal. Her own fortune was invested in home rails, and most ardently did she beg her niece to imitate her. Then we should be together, dear! Margaret, out of politeness, invested a few hundreds in the Nottingham and Darby railway,

Starting point is 00:24:46 and though the foreign things did admirably, and the Nottingham and Darby declined with the steady dignity of, which only home rails are capable, Mrs. Munt never ceased to rejoice, and to say, I did manage that at all events. When the smash comes, poor Margaret will have a nest-egg to fall back on. This year Helen came of age, and exactly the same thing happened in Helen's case. She also would shift her money out of consoles, but she, too, almost without being pressed, consecrated a fraction of it to the Nottingham and Darby Railway. So far, so good. But in so matters, their aunt had accomplished nothing.

Starting point is 00:25:25 Sooner or later the girls would enter on the process known as throwing themselves away, and if they had delayed hitherto it was only that they must throw themselves more vehemently in the future. They saw too many people at Wickham Place, unshaven musicians, an actress even, German cousins, one knows what foreigners are, acquaintances picked up at continental hotels. One knows what they are, too. was interesting, and down at Swanage no one appreciated culture more than Mrs. Munt, but it was dangerous, and disaster was bound to come. How right she was, and how lucky to be on the spot

Starting point is 00:26:05 when the disaster came. The train sped northward, under innumerable tunnels. It was only an hour's journey, but Mrs. Munt had to raise and lower the window again and again. She passed through the south wellwind tunnel, saw light for a moment, and entered the north wellwind tunnel of tragic fame. She traversed the immense viaduct, whose arches span on troubled meadows, and the dreamy flow of two in water. She skirted the parks of politicians. At times the great north road accompanied her, more suggestive of infinity than any railway, awakening after a nap of a hundred years, to such life as is conferred by the stench of motor-cars, and to such culture as is implied by the advertisements of anti-bilius pills. To history, to tragedy, to the past, to the future,

Starting point is 00:26:58 Mrs. Munt remained equally indifferent, hers but to concentrate on the end of her journey, and to rescue poor Helen from this dreadful mess. The station for Howard's End was at Hilton, one of the large villages that are strung so frequently along the north road, and that owe their size to the traffic of coaching and pre-coaching days. Being near London, it had not shared in the rural decay, and its long High Street had butted out right and left into residential estates. For about a mile a series of tiled and slated houses passed before Mrs. Month's inattentive eyes, a series broken at one point by six Danish tumuli that stood shoulder to shoulder along the high road, tombs of soldiers. Beyond these tumuli habitations thickened, and the train came to a standstill

Starting point is 00:27:48 in a tangle that was almost a town. The station, like the scenery, like Helen's letters, struck an indeterminate note. Into which country will it lead? England or suburbia? It was new. It had island platforms on a subway, and the superficial comfort exacted by businessmen. But it held hints of local life, personal intercourse, as even Mrs. Munt was to discover. "'I want a house,' she confided to the ticket-boy. "'It's name is Howard's Lodge. Do you know where it is?' "'Mr. Wilcox,' the boy called. A young man in front of them turned round.

Starting point is 00:28:32 "'She's wanting Howard's end.' there was nothing for it but to go forward though mrs munt was too much agitated even to stare at the stranger but remembering that there were two brothers she had the sense to say to him excuse me asking but are you the younger mr wilcox or the elder the younger can i do anything for you oh well she controlled herself with dignity really are you i-i i She moved herself away from the ticket-boy and lowered her voice. "'I am Miss Schlegel's aunt. I ought to introduce myself, oughtn't I? My name is Mrs. Munt.' She was conscious that he raised his cap and said quite coolly, "'Oh, rather, Miss Schlegel is stopping with us. Did you want to see her?'

Starting point is 00:29:25 "'Possibly. I'll call you a cab.' "'No, wait a-mo,' he thought. "'Our motor's here. I'll run you up. in it. "'Oh, that is very kind. Not at all. If you'll just wait till they bring out a parcel from the office. This way.' "'My niece is not with you by any chance. No, I came over with my father. He has gone on north in your train. You'll see, Mishlegel at lunch. You're coming up to lunch, I hope.' "'I should like to come up,' said Mrs. Munt, not committing herself to nourishment until she had studied Helen's lover a little more.

Starting point is 00:30:04 He seemed a gentleman, but had so rattled her round that her powers of observation were numbed. She glanced at him stealthily. To a feminine eye there was nothing amiss in the sharp depressions at the corners of his mouth, nor in the rather box-like construction of his forehead. He was dark, clean-shaven, and seemed accustomed to command. In front or behind? Which do you prefer?

Starting point is 00:30:29 It may be windy in front. In front, if I may, then we can talk. But excuse me one moment. I can't think what they're doing with that parcel. He strode into the booking office and called with a new voice. Hi! How are you there? Are you going to keep me waiting all day?

Starting point is 00:30:48 Parcel for Wilcox, Howard's End. Just look sharp. Emerging, he said in quieter tones. This station's abominably organised. If I had my way, the whole lot of them should get the sack. May I help you in? "'This is very good of you,' said Mrs. Munt, as she settled herself into a luxurious cavern of red leather, and suffered her person to be padded with rugs and shawls.

Starting point is 00:31:12 She was more civil than she had intended, but really this young man was very kind. Moreover, she was a little afraid of him. His self-possession was extraordinary. "'Very good indeed,' she repeated, adding. "'It is just what I should have wished.' "'Very good of you to say so.' He replied, with a slight look of surprise, which, like most slight looks, escaped Mrs. Munt's attention. I was just tooling my father over to get to the down train. You see, we heard from Helen this morning.

Starting point is 00:31:45 Young Wilcox was pouring in petrol, starting his engine and performing other actions with which this story has no concern. The great car began to rock, and the form of Mrs. Munt, trying to explain things, sprang agreeably up and down among the red cushions. "'The major will be very glad to see you,' he mumbled. "'Hi, I say, parcel for Howard's End. Bring it out. Hi!' A bearded porter emerged with the parcel in one hand and an entry-book in the other. With the gathering were of the motor these ejaculations mingled.

Starting point is 00:32:19 Sign, must I? Why the—should I sign after all this bother? Not even got a pencil on you? "'Remember next time I report you to the station-master. "'My time's a value, though yours mayn't be. "'Here.' "'Here being a tip.' "'Extreingly sorry, Mrs. Munt.' "'Not at all, Mr. Wilcox.'

Starting point is 00:32:41 "'And do you object to going through the village?' "'It is rather a longer spin, but I have one or two commissions.' "'I should love going through the village. "'Naturally I am very anxious to talk things over with you.' As she said this she felt ashamed, for she was disobeying Margaret's instructions. Only disobeying them in the letter, surely. Margaret had only warned her against discussing the incident with outsiders. Surely it was not uncivilized or wrong, to discuss it with the young man himself,

Starting point is 00:33:12 since Chance had thrown them together. A reticent fellow, he made no reply. Mounting by her side he put on gloves and spectacles, and off they drove, the bearded porter, life is a mysterious business, looking after them with admiration. The wind was in their faces down the station road, blowing the dust into Mrs. Munn's eyes. But as soon as they turned into the Great North Road, she opened fire. You can well imagine, she said, that the news was a great shock to us. What news?

Starting point is 00:33:47 Mr. Wilcox, she said frankly. Margaret has told me everything. everything. I have seen Helen's letter.' He could not look her in the face, as his eyes were fixed on his work. He was travelling as quickly as he dared down the high street. But he inclined his head in her direction and said, "'I beg your pardon. I didn't catch.'

Starting point is 00:34:09 "'About Helen. Helen, of course.' Helen is a very exceptional person. I am sure you will let me say this feeling towards her as you do. Indeed all the Schlagels are exceptional. I come in no spirit of interference, but it was a great shock. They drew up outside a draper's. Without replying, he turned round in his seat, and contemplated the cloud of dust that they had

Starting point is 00:34:35 raised in their passage through the village. It was settling again, but not all into the road from which he had taken it. Some of it had percolated through the open windows. Some had whitened the roses and gooseberries of the wayside gardens, while a certain proportion had entered the lungs of the villagers. "'I wonder when they'll learn wisdom in tar the roads,' was his comment. Then a man ran out of the drapers with a roll of oilcloth, and off they went again. Margaret could not come herself, on account of poor Tibby,

Starting point is 00:35:08 so I am here to represent her, and to have a good talk. "'I'm sorry to be so dense,' said the young man, again drawing up outside a shop, but I still haven't quite understood. Helen, Mr. Wilcox, my niece, and you. He pushed up his goggles and gazed at her, absolutely bewildered. Horror smote her to the heart, for even she began to suspect that they were at cross-purposes, and that she had commenced her mission by some hideous blunder. Mischlegel and myself, he asked, compressing his lips.

Starting point is 00:35:46 I trust there has been no misconduct. understanding?' quavered Mrs. Munt. Her letter certainly read that way? What way? That you and she—' She paused, then drooped her eyelids. "'I think I catch your meaning,' he said stickily. "'What an extraordinary mistake.'

Starting point is 00:36:07 "'Then you didn't the least!' she stammered, getting blood-red in the face and wishing she had never been born. "'Scarcely, as I am already engaged to another lady.' There is a moment's silence, and then he caught his breath and exploded with, "'Oh, good God! Don't tell me at some silliness of Paul's!' "'But you are Paul?' "'I'm not.' "'Then why did you say so at the station?'

Starting point is 00:36:37 "'I said nothing of the sort.' "'I beg your pardon, you did. "'I beg your pardon I did not. My name is Charles.' "'Younger may mean son as opposed to father.' or second brother as opposed to first. There is much to be said for either view, and later on they said it, but they had other questions before them now.

Starting point is 00:37:00 Do you mean to tell me that, Paul? But she did not like his voice. He sounded as if he was talking to a porter, and certain that he had deceived her at the station, she too grew angry. Do you mean to tell me that Paul and your niece? Mrs. Munt, such as.

Starting point is 00:37:19 human nature, determined that she would champion the lovers. She was not going to be bullied by a severe young man. "'Yes, they care for what another very much indeed,' she said. "'I dare say they will tell you about it by and by. We heard this morning.' And Charles clenched his fist and cried, "'The idiot! The idiot! The little fool!' Mrs. Munt tried to divest herself of her rugs. If that is your attitude, Mr. Wilcox, I prefer to walk. I beg you will do no such thing.

Starting point is 00:37:53 I'll take you up this moment to the house. Let me tell you the thing's impossible and must be stopped. Mrs. Mund did not often lose her temper, and when she did it was only to protect those whom she loved. On this occasion she blazed out. I quite agree, sir. The thing is impossible, and I will come up and stop it. My niece is a very exceptional person, and I am not inclined to sit still while while she throws herself away on those who will not appreciate her."

Starting point is 00:38:22 Charles worked his jaws. "'Considering she has only known your brother since Wednesday, and only met your father and mother at a stray hotel! Could you possibly lower your voice? The shopman will overhear.' "'A spree de class,' if one may coin the phrase, was strong in Mrs. Munt. She sat quivering while a member of the lower orders

Starting point is 00:38:43 deposited a metal funnel, a saucepan, and a garden squirt beside the roll of oil-cloth. Right behind?" "'Yes, sir.' And the lower orders vanished in a cloud of dust. "'I warn you. Paul hasn't a penny. It's useless.' "'No need to warn us, Mr. Wilcox, I assure you. The warning is all the other way. My niece has been very foolish, and I shall give her a good scolding and take her back to London with me.'

Starting point is 00:39:12 He has to make his way out in Nigeria. He couldn't think of marrying for years, and when he does it must have been be a woman who can stand the climate, and is in other ways— Why hasn't he told us? Of course he's ashamed. He knows he's been a fool. And so he has, a damned fool. She grew furious.

Starting point is 00:39:33 Whereas Miss Schlegel has lost no time in publishing the news. If I were a man, Mr. Wilcox, for that last remark, I'd box your ears. You're not fit to clean my niece's boots, to sit in the same room with her, and you dare, you actually dare. I decline to argue with such a person. All I know is she spread the thing and he hasn't, and my father's away, and I—and all that I know is, might I finish my sentence, please? No.

Starting point is 00:40:01 Charles clenched his teeth and sent the motor swerving all over the lane. She screamed. So they played the game of capping families, a round of which is always played when love would unite two members of our race. But they played it with unusual vigor. stating in so many words that Schlegel's were better than Wilcoxes, Wilcox's better than Schlegel's. They flung decency aside. The man was young, the woman deeply stirred. In both a vein of coarseness was latent. Their quarrel was no more surprising than our most quarrels, inevitable at the time, incredible afterwards. But it was more than usually futile.

Starting point is 00:40:40 A few minutes, and they were enlightened. The motor drew up at Howard's end, and Helen, looking very pale, ran out to meet her aunt. Aunt Julie, I have just had a telegram from Margaret. I—I meant to stop your coming. It isn't—it's over. The climax was too much for Mrs. Munt. She burst into tears. Oh, Aunt Julie, dear, don't. Don't let them know I've been so silly. It wasn't anything. Do bear up for my sake. "'Paul!' cried Charles Wilcox, pulling his gloves off. "'Don't let them know. They are never to know.' "'Oh, my darling, Helen!'

Starting point is 00:41:24 "'Paul! Paul!' A very young man came out of the house. "'Paul, is there any truth in this?' "'I didn't. I don't.' "'Yes or no, man, plain question, plain answer. Did or didn't, Miss Schlegel?' charles dear said a voice from the garden charles dear charles one doesn't ask plain questions there aren't such things they were all silent it was mrs wilcox she approached just as helen's letter had described her trailing noiselessly over the lawn and there was actually a wisp of hay in her hands she seemed to belong not to the young people and their motor but to the house and to the tree that overshadowed it one knew that she worshipped the past and that the instinctive wisdom the past can alone bestow had descended upon her that wisdom to which we give the clumsy name of aristocracy

Starting point is 00:42:25 high-born she might not be but assuredly she cared about her ancestors and let them help her when she saw charles angry paul frightened and mrs munt in tears she heard her ancestors say separate those human beings who will hurt each other most the rest can wait so she did not ask questions still less did she pretend that nothing had happened as a competent society hostess would have done she said miss schlegel would you take your aunt up to your room or to my room whichever you think best paul do find evie and tell her lunch for six but i'm not sure whether we shall all be downstairs for it and when they had obeyed her she turned to her elder son who still stood in the throbbing stinking car and smiled at him with tenderness and without a word turned away from him towards her flowers "'Mother!' he called. "'Are you aware that Paul has been playing the fool again?' "'It's all right, dear. They have broken off the engagement.'

Starting point is 00:43:33 "'Engagement!' "'They do not love any longer, if you prefer it put that way,' said Mrs. Wilcox, stooping down to smell a rose. End of Chapter 3. Chapter 4 of Howard's End. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clet.

Starting point is 00:44:24 Howard's End by E. M. Forster. Chapter 4 Helen and her aunt returned to Wickham Place in a state of collapse, and for a little time Margaret had three invalids on her hands. Mrs. Munt soon recovered. She possessed, to a remarkable degree, the power of distorting the past, and before many days were over she had forgotten the part played by her own imprudence in the catastrophe. Even at the crisis she had cried, "'Thank goodness poor Margaret has saved this!'

Starting point is 00:44:55 Which during the journey to London evolved into. "'It had to be gone through by someone.' Which in its turn ripened into the permanent form of—' "'The one time I really did help Emma. these girls was over the Wilcox business. But Helen was a more serious patient. New ideas had burst upon her like a thunder-clap, and by them and by her reverberations she had been stunned.

Starting point is 00:45:22 The truth was that she had fallen in love, not with an individual, but with a family. Before Paul arrived, she had, as it were, been tuned up into his key. The energy of the Wilcoxes had fascinated her. had created new images of beauty in her responsive mind. To be all day with them in the open air, to sleep at night under their roof, had seemed the supreme joy of life, and had led to that abandonment of personality that is a possible prelude to love.

Starting point is 00:45:54 She had liked giving in to Mr. Wilcox, or Evie or Charles. She had liked being told that her notions of life were sheltered or academic, that equality was nonsense, votes for women nonsense, socialism nonsense, art and literature, except when conducive to strengthening the character, nonsense. One by one the Schlegel fetishes had been overthrown, and though professing to defend them, she had rejoiced. When Mr. Wilcox said that one sound man of business did more good to the world than a dozen of your social reformers, she had swallowed the curious assertion without a gasp, and had lent back luxuriously among the cushions of his motor-car. When Charles said,

Starting point is 00:46:36 Why be so polite to servants? They don't understand it. She had not given the Schlegel retort of, If they don't understand it, I do. No, she had vowed to be less polite to servants in the future. I am swathed in cant, she thought, and it is good for me to be stripped of it. And all that she thought or did or breathed

Starting point is 00:47:01 was a quiet preparation for Paul. Paul was inevitable. Charles was taken up with another girl. Mr. Wilcox was so old, Evie so young, Mrs. Wilcox so different. Round the absent brother she began to throw the halo of romance, to irradiate him with all the splendor of those happy days, to feel that in him she should draw nearest to the robust ideal. He and she were about the same age, Evie said.

Starting point is 00:47:31 Most people thought Paul handsomer than his brother. He was certainly a better shot, though not so good at golf. And when Paul appeared, flushed with the triumph of getting through an examination, and ready to flirt with any pretty girl, Helen met him halfway, or more than halfway, and turned towards him on the Sunday evening. He had been talking of his approaching exile in Nigeria, and he should have continued to talk of it and allowed their guests to recover. But the heave of her bosom flattered him.

Starting point is 00:48:03 Passion was possible, and he became passionate. Deep down in him something whispered, "'This girl would let you kiss her. You might not have such a chance again.' "'That was how it happened, or rather how Helen described it to her sister, using words even more unsympathetic than my own. But the poetry of that kiss, the wonder of it,

Starting point is 00:48:26 the magic that there was in life for hours after it. Who can describe that? It is so easy for an Englishman to sneer at these chance collisions of human beings. To the insular cynic and the insular moralist they offer an equal opportunity. It is so easy to talk of passing emotion, and how to forget how vivid the emotion was ere it passed. Our impulse to sneer, to forget, is at root a good one. We recognize that emotion is not enough, and that men and women are personalities capable of sustained relations, not mere opportunities for an electrical discharge.

Starting point is 00:49:05 Yet we rate the impulse too highly. We do not admit that by collisions of this trivial sort, the doors of heaven may be shaken open. To Helen, at all events, her life was to bring nothing more intense than the embrace of this boy who played no part in it. He had drawn her out of the house, where there was danger of surprise and light. He had led her by a path he knew, until they stood under the column of the vast witch-elm. A man in the darkness, he had whispered, I love you, when she was desiring love. In time his slender personality faded. The scene that he had evoked endured.

Starting point is 00:49:46 In all the variable years that followed, she never saw the like of it again. "'I understand,' said Margaret. "'At least I understand as much as ever is understood of these things. "'Tell me now what happened on the Monday morning.' "'It was over at once.' "'How, Helen?' "'I was still happy while I dressed. "'But as I came downstairs I got nervous,

Starting point is 00:50:14 "'and when I went into the dining-room, I knew it was no good. "'There was Evie. "'I can't explain. managing the tea urn and mr wilcox reading the times was paul there yes and charles was talking to him about the stocks and shares and he looked frightened by slight indications the sisters could convey much to each other margaret saw horror latent in the scene and helen's next remark did not surprise her somehow when that kind of man looks frightened it is too too awful. It is all right for us to be frightened, or for men of another sort, the father, for instance, but for men like that. When I saw all the others so placid, and Paul mad with terror in case I said the wrong thing, I felt for a moment that the whole Wilcox family was a fraud, just a wall of

Starting point is 00:51:13 newspapers and motor-cars and golf clubs, and that, if it fell, I should find nothing behind it but panic and emptiness. I don't think that. The Wilcox has struck me as being genuine people, particularly the wife. No, I don't really think that. But Paul was so broad-shouldered. All kinds of extraordinary things made it worse,

Starting point is 00:51:41 and I knew that it would never do, never. I said to him after breakfast, when the others were practising strokes, we rather lost our heads. And he looked better at once, though frightfully ashamed. He began a speech about having no money to marry on, but it hurt him to make, and I stopped him. Then he said, I must beg your pardon over this, Mishlegel. I can't think what came over me last night. And I said, nor what over me, never mind.

Starting point is 00:52:13 And then we parted. At least until I remembered that I had written straight off to tell you the night before, and that frightened him again. I asked him to send a telegram for me, for he knew you would be coming or something, and he tried to get hold of the motor, but Charles and Mr. Wilcox wanted it to go to the station, and Charles offered to send the telegram for me,

Starting point is 00:52:35 and then I had to say that the telegram was of no consequence, for Paul said Charles might read it, and, though I wrote it out several times, he always said people would suspect something. He took it himself at last, pretending that he must walk down to get cartridges, and what with one thing in the other it was not handed in at the post-office until too late. It was the most terrible morning.

Starting point is 00:52:59 Paul disliked me more and more, and Evie talked cricket averages until I nearly screamed. I cannot think how I stood her all the other days. At last Charles and his father started for the station, and then came your telegram warning me that Aunt Julie was coming by that train. And Paul, oh, rather horrible, said that, that I had muddled it. But Mrs. Wilcox knew. "'Knew what?'

Starting point is 00:53:26 "'Everything. Though we neither of us had told her a word—' "'I'd known all along, I think.' "'Oh, she must have overheard you.' "'I suppose so. But it seemed wonderful. When Charles and Aunt Julie drove up calling each other names, Mrs. Wilcox stepped in from the garden and made everything less terrible. Well, but it has been a disgusting business. To think that—she sighed.

Starting point is 00:53:57 To think that because you and a young man meet for a moment there must be all these telegrams and anger, supplied Margaret. Helen nodded. I've often thought about it, Helen. It's one of the most interesting things in the world. The truth is that there is a great outer life that you and I have never touched. a life in which telegrams and anger count. Personal relations, that we think supreme, are not supreme there. Their love means marriage settlements, death, death duties.

Starting point is 00:54:31 So far I'm clear. But here my difficulty. This outer life, though obviously horrid, often seems the real one. There's grit in it. It does breed character. do personal relations lead to stoppiness in the end oh meg that's what i felt only not so clearly when the wilcoxes were so competent and seemed to have their hands on all the ropes don't you feel it now i remember paul at breakfast said helen quietly i shall never forget him he had nothing to fall back on i know that personal relations are the real life for ever and ever Amen. So the Wilcox episode fell into the background, leaving behind it memories of sweetness and horror

Starting point is 00:55:26 that mingled, and the sisters pursued the life that Helen had commended. They talked to each other and to other people. They filled the tall, thin house at Wickham Place with those whom they liked or could be friend. They even attended public meetings. In their own fashion they cared deeply about politics, though not as politicians would have us care. They desire to be that public life should mirror whatever is good in the life within. Temperance, tolerance, and sexual equality were intelligible cries to them. Whereas they did not follow our forward policy in Tibet with the keen attention that it merits, and would at times dismiss the whole British Empire with a puzzled, if reverent, sigh. Not out of them are the shows of history erected. The world

Starting point is 00:56:10 would be a grey, bloodless place where it entirely composed of Mishlegals. But the world being what it is, perhaps they shine out in it like stars. A word on their origin. They were not English to the backbone, as their aunt had piously asserted. But on the other hand, they were not Germans of the dreadful sort. Their father had belonged to a type that was more prominent in Germany fifty years ago than now. He was not the aggressive German, so dear to the English journalist, nor the domestic German, so dear to the English wit. If one classed him at all, it would be as the countrymen of Hegel and Kant, as the idealist,

Starting point is 00:56:52 inclined to be dreamy, whose imperialism was the imperialism of the air. Not that his life had been inactive. He had fought like blazes against Denmark, Austria, France, but he had fought without visualizing the results of victory. A hint of the truth broke out on him after Sedan, when he saw the dyed moustaches of Napoleon going gray. another when he entered Paris and saw the smashed windows of the twelery. Peace came.

Starting point is 00:57:20 It was all very immense. One had turned into an empire. But he knew that some quality had vanished, for which not all Al-Sas-Lorraine could compensate him. Germany a commercial power. Germany a naval power. Germany with colonies here and a forward policy there, and legitimate aspirations in the other place might appeal to others,

Starting point is 00:57:40 and be fitly served by them. For his own part, he abstained from the fruits of victory, and naturalized himself in England. The more earnest members of his family never forgave him, and knew that his children, though scarcely English of the dreadful sort, would never be German to the backbone. He had obtained work in one of our provincial universities, and there married poor Emily, or de englandren, as the case may be, and as she had money they proceeded to London, and came to know a good many people but his gaze was always fixed beyond the sea it was his hope that the clouds of materialism obscuring the fatherland would part in time and the mild intellectual light re-emerge to you implies that the germans are stupid uncle ernst exclaimed a hearty and magnificent nephew uncle ernst replied to my mind you use the intellect but you no longer care about it

Starting point is 00:58:43 that i call stupidity as the hearty nephew did not follow he continued you only care about the things that you can use and therefore arrange them in the following order money supremely useful intellect rather useful imagination of no use at all no for the other had protested your pan-germanist is no more imaginative than is our imperialism over here. It is the vice of a vulgar mind to be thrilled by bigness, to think that a thousand square miles are a thousand times more wonderful than one square mile, and that a million square miles are almost the same as heaven. That is not imagination. No, it kills it.

Starting point is 00:59:39 When their poets over here try to celebrate bigness, they are dead at once, and naturally. Your poets, too, are dying, your philosophers, your musicians, to whom Europe has listened for two hundred years. Gone. Gone with the little courts that nurtured them. Gone with Estahas and Weimar.

Starting point is 01:00:06 What? What's that? Your universe? Oh, yes, you have learned men, who collect more facts and do the learned men of England. They collect facts, and facts and empires of facts. But which of them will rekindle the light within? To all this, Margaret listened, sitting on the haughty nephew's knee. It was a unique education for the little girls.

Starting point is 01:00:37 The haughty nephew would be at Wickham Place one day, bringing with him and he, even haughtier wife, both convinced that Germany was appointed by God to govern the world. Aunt Julie would come the next day, convinced that Great Britain had been appointed to the same post by the same authority. Were both these loud-voiced parties right? On one occasion they had met, and Margaret with clasped hands had implored them to argue the subject out in her presence. Whereat they blushed and began to talk about the weather. "'Papa!' she cried. She was a most offensive child. Why will they not discuss this most clear question?

Starting point is 01:01:15 Her father, surveying the parties grimly, replied that he did not know. Putting her head on one side, Margaret then remarked, To me one of two things is very clear. Either God does not know his own mind about England and Germany, or else these do not know the mind of God. A hateful little girl, but at thirteen she had grasped a dilemma that most people travel through life without perceiving. Her brain darted up and down. It grew pliant and strong. Her conclusion was that any human being lies nearer to the unseen than any organization, and from this she never varied. Helen advanced along the same lines, though with a more irresponsible tread. In character she resembled her sister, but she was pretty, and so apt to have a more amusing time. People gathered round her more readily, especially when they were, and she resembled her sister, but she was pretty, and so apt to have a more amusing time. People gathered round her more readily, especially when

Starting point is 01:02:11 they were new acquaintances, and she did enjoy a little homage very much. When their father died and they ruled alone at Wickham Place, she often absorbed the whole of the company, while Margaret, both were tremendous talkers, fell flat. Neither sister bothered about this. Helen never apologized afterwards. Margaret did not feel the slightest rancor. But looks have their influence upon character. The sisters were alike as little girls, but at the time of the Wilcox episode their methods were beginning to diverge. The younger was rather apt to entice people, and in enticing them to be herself enticed. The elder went straight ahead, and accepted an occasional failure as part of the game. Little need be premised about Tibby.

Starting point is 01:03:00 He was now an intelligent man of sixteen, but dyspeptic and difficile. End of Chapter 4. 5 of Howard's End. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Klett. Howard's End by E. M. Forster. Chapter 5 It will be generally admitted that Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is the most sublime noise that has ever penetrated into the ear of man. All sorts and conditions are satisfied by it. Whether you are like Mrs. Munt, and tap surreptitiously when the tunes come, of course not so as to disturb the others,

Starting point is 01:04:11 or like Helen, who can see heroes and shipwrecks in the music's flood, or like Margaret, who can only see the music, or like Tibby, who is profoundly versed in counterpoint, and holds the full score open on his knee. Or like their cousin, Frouline Mosabach, who remembers all the time that Beethoven is Echt Deutsch, or like Frouline Mosabach's young man, who can remember nothing but Frouline Mosabach. In any case, the passion of your life becomes more vivid, and you are bound to admit that such a noise is cheap at two shillings. It is cheap even if you hear it in the Queen's Hall, dreariest music room in London, though not as dreary as the free train. Hall, Manchester, and even if you sit on the extreme left of that hall, so that the brass

Starting point is 01:04:59 bumps at you before the rest of the orchestra arrives, it is still cheap." "'Who is Margaret talking to?' said Mrs. Munt, at the conclusion of the first movement. She was again in London on a visit to Wickham Place. Helen looked down the long line of their party, and said that she did not know. "'Would it be some young man or other whom she takes an interest in?' "'I expect so,' Helen replied. "'Music enrapped her, "'and she could not enter into the distinction "'that divides young men whom one takes an interest in

Starting point is 01:05:35 "'from young men whom one knows. "'You girls are so wonderful in always having— "'Oh dear, one mustn't talk!' "'For the Andante had begun. "'Very beautiful, "'but bearing a family likeness "'to all the other beautiful Andantes "'that Beethoven had written,

Starting point is 01:05:54 and to Helen's mind rather disconnecting the heroes and shipwrecks of the first movement from the heroes and goblins of the third. She heard the tune through once, and then her attention wandered, and she gazed at the audience, or the organ, or the architecture. Much did she censure the attenuated cupids who encircled the ceiling of the Queen's Hall, inclining each to each with vapid gesture, and clad in sallow pantaloons on which the October sunlight struck. How awful to marry a man like those cupids, thought Helen. Here Beethoven started decorating his tune, so she heard him through once more, and then she smiled at her cousin Frida.

Starting point is 01:06:35 But Frida, listening to classical music, could not respond. Herr Lysic, too, looked as if wild horses could not make him inattentive. There were lines across his forehead, his lips were parted, his pince-nez at right angles to his nose, and he had laid a thick, white hand on either knee. And next to her was Aunt Julie, so British and wanting to tap. How interesting that row of people was! What divers influences had gone to the making! Hear Beethoven, after humming and hawing with great sweetness, said,

Starting point is 01:07:10 Hey-ho, and the Andante came to an end. Aplause, and a round of Wunderschurning, and pracht-volying from the German contingent. margaret started talking to her new young man helen said to her aunt now comes the wonderful movement first of all the goblins and then a trio of elephants dancing and tibby implored the company generally to look out for the transitional passage on the drum on the what dear on the drum aunt julie no look out for the part where you think you have done with the goblins and they come back breathed helen as the music started with a goblin walking quietly over the universe from end to end others followed him they were not aggressive creatures it was that that made them so terrible to helen they merely observed in passing that there was no such thing as splendour or heroism in the world after the interlude of elephants dancing they returned and made the observation for the second time helen could not contradict them for once at all events she had felt the same, and had seen the reliable walls of youth collapse. Panic and emptiness.

Starting point is 01:08:28 Panic and emptiness. The goblins were right. Her brother raised his finger. It was a transitional passage on the drum. For as if things were going too far, Beethoven took hold of the goblins and made them do what he wanted. He appeared in person. He gave them a little push,

Starting point is 01:08:48 and they began to walk in major key instead of, of in minor, and then he blew with his mouth and they were scattered. Guests of splendor, gods and demigods contending with vast swords, color and fragrance broadcast on the field of battle, magnificent victory, magnificent death. Oh, it all burst before the girl, and she even stretched out her gloved hands as if it was tangible. Any fate was titanic, any conquest desirable, conqueror and conquered would alike be applauded by the angels of the utmost stars. And the goblins? They had not really been there at all. They were only the phantoms of cowardice and unbelief. One healthy human impulse would dispel them. Men like the Wilcoxes, or President Roosevelt, would say yes. Beethoven knew better. The goblins really had been there. They might return. And they did. And they did.

Starting point is 01:09:47 It was as if the splendor of life might boil over and waste to steam and froth. In its dissolution one heard the terrible, ominous note, and a goblin, with increased malignity, walked quietly over the universe from end to end. Panic and emptiness! Panic and emptiness! Even the flaming ramparts of the world might fall. Beethoven chose to make all right in the end. He built the ramparts up. He blew with his mouth for the second time, and again the goblins were scattered.

Starting point is 01:10:23 He brought back the gusts of splendor, the heroism, the youth, the magnificence of life and of death, and amid vast roarings of a superhuman joy, he led his fifth symphony to its conclusion. But the goblins were there. They could return. He had said so bravely, and that is why one can trust Beethoven when he says other things. Helen pushed her way out during the applause. She desired to be alone. The music summed up to her all that had happened or could happen in her career. She read it as a tangible statement, which could never be superseded. The notes meant this and that to her, and they could have no

Starting point is 01:11:06 other meaning, and life could have no other meaning. She pushed right out of the building, and walked slowly down the outside staircase, breathing the autumnal air, And then she strolled home. Margaret, called Mrs. Munt. Is Helen all right? Oh, yes. She is always going away in the middle of a programme, said Tibby. Some music has evidently moved her deeply, said Froulein Mosabach.

Starting point is 01:11:39 Excuse me, said Margaret's young man, who had for some time been preparing a sentence, but that lady has, uh, quite inadvertently, taken my umbrella. Oh, good gracious me! I am so sorry. Tibby run after Helen. I shall miss the four serious songs if I do. Tibby, love, you must go. It isn't of any consequence, said the young man, in truth a little uneasy about his umbrella. But of course it is. "'Tibby!'

Starting point is 01:12:15 "'Tibby!' "'Tibby rose to his feet and willfully caught his person on the backs of the chairs. By the time he had tipped up the seat and found his hat and had deposited his full score and safety, it was too late to go after Helen. The four serious songs had begun, and one could not move during their performance. "'My sister is so careless,' whispered Margaret.

Starting point is 01:12:41 "'Not at all,' replied the young. young man, but his voice was dead and cold. If you would give me your address. Oh, not at all, not at all. And he wrapped his great coat over his knees. Then the four serious songs rang shallow in Margaret's ears. Brahms, for all his grumbling and grizzling, had never guessed what it felt like to be suspected of stealing an umbrella.

Starting point is 01:13:08 For this fool of a young man thought that she and Helen and Tibby had been playing the confidence trick on him, and that if he gave his address they would break into his room some midnight or other, and steal his walking-stick, too. Most ladies would have laughed, but Margaret really minded, for it gave her a glimpse into squalor. To trust people is a luxury, in which only the wealthy can indulge. The poor cannot afford it. As soon as Broms had grunted himself out, she gave him her card and said, "'That is where we live. If you preferred, you could call for the umbrella after the concert, but I didn't like to trouble you when it has all been our fault.' His face brightened a little when he saw that Wickham Place was W. It was sad to see him corroded with suspicion,

Starting point is 01:13:56 and yet not daring to be impolite, in case these well-dressed people were honest, after all. She took it as a good sign that he said to her, "'It's a fine programme this afternoon, is it not?' for this was the remark with which he had originally opened before the umbrella intervened the beethoven's fine said margaret who was not a female of the encouraging type i don't like the brahms though nor the mendelssohn that came first and ugh i don't like this elgar that's coming what what called herlisic overhearing the pomp and circumstance will not be fine "'Oh, Margaret, you tiresome girl!' cried her aunt. "'Here I have been persuading Herr Leesick to stop for pomp and circumstance, and you are undoing all my work.

Starting point is 01:14:48 I am so anxious for him to hear what we are doing in music. You mustn't run down our English composers, Margaret.' "'For my parts, I have heard the composition at Stettin,' said Fräulein-master-Bark. "'On two occasions. It is dramatic, a little. "'Fri, do you despise English music? You know you do. And English art and English literature, except Shakespeare, and he's a German. Very well, Frida, you may go.' The lovers laughed and glanced at each other. Moved by a common impulse, they rose to their feet and fled from pomp and circumstance. "'We have this call to pay in Finsbury Circus, it is true,' said Herlesic, as he edged past her and reached the gangway,

Starting point is 01:15:36 just as the music started. Margaret! loudly whispered by Aunt Julie. Margaret! Margaret! Fraulein Mouserbach has left her beautiful little bag behind her on the seat. Sure enough, there was Frida's reticule, containing her address-book, her pocket dictionary, her map of London, and her money. Oh, what a bother! What a family we are!

Starting point is 01:16:01 Frida! Hush! said all those who thought the music fine. but it's the number they want in finsbury circus might i couldn't i said the suspicious young man and got very red oh i would be so grateful he took the bag money clinking inside it and slipped up the gangway with it he was just in time to catch them at the swing door and he received a pretty smile from the german girl and a fine bow from her cavalier he returned to his seat upsides with the world the train The trust that they had reposed in him was trivial, but he felt that it cancelled his mistrust for them, and that probably he would not be had over his umbrella. This young man had been had in the past, badly, perhaps overwhelmingly, and now most of his energies went in defending himself against the unknown. But this afternoon, perhaps on account of music, he perceived that one must slack off occasionally, or what is the good of being alive. Wickham Place, W., though a risk, was as safe as most things, and he would risk it.

Starting point is 01:17:12 So when the concert was over and Margaret said, We live quite near, I am going there now. Could you walk around with me and we'll find your umbrella? He said, thank you, peaceably, and followed her out of the Queen's Hall. She wished that he was not so anxious to hand a lady downstairs, or to carry a lady's program for her. His class was near enough her own for its manners to vex her. But she found him interesting on the whole.

Starting point is 01:17:42 Everyone interested the Schlegel's on the whole at that time. And while her lips talked culture, her heart was planning to invite him to tea. How tired one gets off to music, she began. Do you find the atmosphere of Queen's Hall oppressive? Yes, horribly. But surely the airs' off to music, she began. atmosphere of Covent Garden is even more oppressive.

Starting point is 01:18:06 Do you go there much? When my work permits I attend the gallery for the Royal Opera. Helen would have exclaimed, So do I, I love the gallery, and thus have endeared herself to the young man. Helen could do these things. But Margaret had an almost morbid horror of drawing people out, of making things go. She had been to the gallery at Covent Garden, but she did not attend it, preferring the more expensive seats, still less did she love it.

Starting point is 01:18:37 So she made no reply. This year I have been three times, to Faust, Toska, and—was it Tannhauser, or Tannhoiser? Better not risk the word. Margaret disliked Toska and Faust, and so for one reason and another they walked on in silence, chaperoned by the voice of Mrs. Munt, who was getting into difficulties with her nephew. I do in a way remember the passage, Tibby, but when every instrument is so beautiful, it is difficult to pick out one thing rather than another. I am sure that you and Helen take me to the very nicest concerts,

Starting point is 01:19:17 not a dull note from beginning to end. I only wish that our German friends would have stayed till it finished. But surely you haven't forgotten the drum, steadily beating on the low sea, Aunt Julie," came Tibby's voice. No one could, it's unmistakable." "'A specially loud part?' Hazarded Mrs. Munt. "'Of course I do not go in for being musical,' she added, the sharp failing.

Starting point is 01:19:43 "'I only care for music—a very different thing. But still I will say this for myself. I do know when I like a thing and when I don't. Some people are the same about pictures. They can go into a picture gallery. conda can, and say straight off what they feel, all round the wall. I never could do that. But music is so different to pictures, to my mind. When it comes to music I am as safe as houses, and I assure you, Tibby, I am by no means pleased by everything. There was a thing—something

Starting point is 01:20:17 about a fawn—in French, which Helen went into ecstasies over, but I thought it most tinkling and superficial, and said so, and I held to my opinion, too. "'Do you agree?' asked Margaret. "'Do you think music is so different to pictures?' "'I—I should have thought so—kind of,' he said. "'So should I. Now my sister declares they're just the same. We have great arguments over it. She says I'm dense. I say she's sloppy.' "'Geting underway,' she cried,

Starting point is 01:20:55 "'now doesn't it seem absurd to you? "'What is the good of the arts if they are interchangeable? "'What is the good of the ear if it tells you the same as the eye?' "'Helen's one aim is to translate tunes into the language of painting "'and pictures into the language of music. "'It's very ingenious, and she says several pretty things in the process. "'But what's gained I'd like to know?' "'Oh, it's all rubbish, radically false.

Starting point is 01:21:21 If Monet's really Debussy and Debussy's really Monet, neither gentleman is worth his salt. That's my opinion. Evidently, these sisters quarreled. Now, this very symphony that we've just been having, she won't let it alone. She labels it with meanings from start to finish, turns it into literature. I wonder if the day will ever return when music will be treated as music. Yet I don't know. There's my brother, behind us.

Starting point is 01:21:51 He treats music as music, and, oh, my goodness, he makes me angrier than anyone, simply furious. With him I daren't even argue. An unhappy family, if talented. But, of course, the real villain is Wagner. He has done more than any man in the nineteenth century towards the muddling of arts. I do feel that music is in a very serious state just now, though extraordinarily interesting. Every now and then in history there do come these terrible geniuses, like Wagner, who stir up all the wells of thought at once. For a moment it's splendid, such a splash as never was.

Starting point is 01:22:30 But afterwards, such a lot of mud and the wells, as it were, they communicate with each other too easily now, and not one of them will run quite clear. That's what Wagner's done. Her speeches fluttered away from the young man like birds. If only he could talk like this, he would have caught the world. Oh, to acquire culture, oh, to pronounce foreign names correctly, oh, to be well-informed, discoursing at ease on every subject that a lady started. But it would take one years. With an hour at lunch at a few shattered hours in the evening, how is it possible to catch up with leisured women who had been reading steadily from childhood? His brain might be full of names. He might have even heard of Monet and Debussy. The trouble was

Starting point is 01:23:18 that he could not string them together into a sentence. He could not make them tell. He could not quite forget about his stolen umbrella. Yes, the umbrella was the real trouble. Behind Monet and Debussy the umbrella persisted, with the steady beat of a drum. "'I suppose my umbrella will be all right,' he was thinking. "'I don't really mind about it. I will think about music instead. I suppose my umbrella will be all right.' Earlier in the afternoon he had worried about seats. ought he to have paid as much as two shillings? Earlier still he had wondered, shall I try to do without a program?

Starting point is 01:23:55 There had always been something to worry him ever since he could remember, always something that distracted him in the pursuit of beauty, for he did pursue beauty, and therefore Margaret's speeches did flutter away from him like birds. Margaret talked ahead,

Starting point is 01:24:11 occasionally saying, "'Don't you think so? Don't you feel the same?' And once she stopped and said, "'Oh, do interrupt me!' which terrified him. She did not attract him, though she filled him with awe. Her figure was meager, her face seemed all teeth and eyes. Her references to her sister and brother were uncharitable.

Starting point is 01:24:32 For all her cleverness and culture, she was probably one of those soulless, atheistical women who have been so shown up by Miss Corelli. It was surprising, and alarming, that she should suddenly say, I do hope that you'll come in and have some tea. I do hope that you'll come in and have some tea. We should be so glad. I have dragged you so far out of your way. They had arrived at Wickham Place.

Starting point is 01:24:58 The sun had set, and the backwater in deep shadow was filling with a gentle haze. To the right of the fantastic skyline of the flats towered black against the hues of evening. To the left the older houses raised a square-cut, irregular parapet against the grey. Margaret fumbled for her latch-key. Of course she had forgotten it. So grasping her umbrella by its ferule, she leant over the area and tapped the dining-room window. Helen, let us in! All right, said a voice.

Starting point is 01:25:29 You've been taking this gentleman's umbrella! Taken a what? said Helen, opening the door. Oh, what's that? Oh, do come in! How do you do? Helen, you must not be so ramshackly. You took this gentleman's umbrella. away from Queen's Hall, and he has had the trouble of coming for it." "'Oh, I am so sorry!' cried Helen, all her hair flying.

Starting point is 01:25:54 She had pulled off her hat as soon as she returned, and had flung herself into the big dining-room chair. "'I do nothing but steal umbrellas. I am so very sorry. Do come in and choose one. Is yours a hokey or a nobly? Mine's a nobly. At least I think it is.' The light was turned on, and they began to search the hall. Helen, who had abruptly parted with the Fifth Symphony, commenting with shrill little cries. "'Don't you talk, Meg! You stole an old gentleman's silk-top hat.

Starting point is 01:26:26 Yes, she did, Aunt Julie. It is a positive fact. She thought it was a muff. Oh, heavens! I've knocked the in-and-out card down. Where's Frida? Tibby, why don't you ever—' No, I can't remember what I was going to say. That wasn't it, but do tell the maids to hurry tea up. What about this umbrella?" She opened it. No, it's all gone along the seams.

Starting point is 01:26:52 It's an appalling umbrella. It must be mine. But it was not. He took it from her, murmured a few words of thanks, and then fled with the lilting step of the clerk. "'But if you will stop!' cried Margaret. "'Now, Helen, how stupid you've been! Whatever have I done!

Starting point is 01:27:14 you see that you frightened him away. I meant him to stop to tea. You oughtn't to talk about stealing or holes in an umbrella. I saw his nice eyes getting so miserable. No, it's not a bit of good now. For Helen had darted into the street, shouting, "'Oh, do stop!' I dare say it is all for the best,' opined Mrs. Munt. "'I know nothing about the young man, Margaret, and your drawing-room is full of very tempting little things.' But Helen cried, "'Aunt Julie, how can you? You make me more and more ashamed. I'd rather he had been a thief and taken all the Apostle Spoons than that I—' Well, I must shunt the front door, I suppose. One more failure for Helen.'

Starting point is 01:28:00 "'Yes, I think the Apostle Spoons could have gone as Rent,' said Margaret. Seeing that her aunt did not understand, she added, "'You remember Rent. It was one of Father's words. Rent to the ideal, to his his own faith in human nature. You remember how he would trust strangers, and if they fooled him he would say, "'It's better to be fools than to be suspicious. That the confidence trick is the work of the man, but the want of confidence trick is the work of the devil.'

Starting point is 01:28:30 "'I remember something of the sort now,' said Mrs. Munt, rather tartly, for she longed to add, "'It was lucky that her father married a wife with money. But this was unkind, and she contented. presented herself with, "'Why, he might have stolen the little ricketts' picture as well?' "'Better that he had,' said Helen stoutly. "'No, I agree with Aunt Julie,' said Margaret. "'I'd rather mistrust people than lose my little rickets. There are limits.'

Starting point is 01:29:01 Their brother, finding the incident commonplace, had stolen upstairs to see whether there were scons for tea. He warmed the teapot, almost too deftly, rejected the orange pico that the part had provided, poured in five spoonfuls of a superior blend, filled up with a really boiling water, and now called to the ladies to be quick or they would lose the aroma. "'All right, Auntie Tibby,' called Helen, while Margaret, thoughtful again, said, "'In a way, I wish we had a real boy in the house, the kind of boy who cares for men. It would make entertaining so much easier.' "'So do I,' said her sister.

Starting point is 01:29:43 "'one cares for cultured female singing Brahms.' "'And when they joined him,' she said rather sharply. "'Why didn't you make that young man welcome, Tibby? "'You must do the host a little, you know. "'You ought to have taken his hat and coaxed him into stopping, "'instead of letting him be swamped by screaming women.' "'Tibby sighed and drew a long strand of hair over his forehead. "'Oh, it's no good-looking superior, I mean what I say.'

Starting point is 01:30:10 "'Leave Tibby alone,' said that. Margaret, who could not bear her brother to be scolded. "'Here's the house a regular hen-coop,' grumbled Helen. "'Oh, my dear,' protested Mrs. Munt. "'How can you say such dreadful things? The number of men you get here has always astonished me. If there is any danger, it's the other way round.' "'Yes, but it's the wrong sort of men,' Helen means.

Starting point is 01:30:37 "'No, I don't,' corrected Helen. "'We get the right sort of man but the wrong side of him, and I say that's Tibby's fault. There ought to be something about the house, and I don't know what. A touch of the W's, perhaps? Helen put out her tongue. Who are the W's? asked Tibby. The W's are things I and Meg and Aunt Julie know about, and you don't, so there.

Starting point is 01:31:05 I suppose that ours is a female house, said Margaret, and one must just accept it. "'No, Aunt Julie, I don't mean that this house is full of women. I am trying to say something much more clever. I mean that it was irrevocably feminine, even in father's time.' "'Now I'm sure you understand.' "'Well, I'll give you another example. It'll shock you, but I don't care.

Starting point is 01:31:32 Suppose Queen Victoria gave a dinner-party, and that the guests had been Leighton, Millay, Swinburne, Rosetti, Meredith Fitzgerald, etc. Do you suppose that the atmosphere of that dinner would have been artistic? Heavens no. The very chairs on which they sat would have seen to that. So with our house. It must be feminine. And all we can do is to see that it isn't effeminate.

Starting point is 01:31:56 Just as another house that I can mention, but I won't, sounded irrevocably masculine, and all its inmates can do is to see that it isn't brutal. That house being the W's house, I presume, said Tibby. "'You're not going to be told about the W's, my child,' Helen cried. "'So don't you think it. And on the other hand, I don't the least mind if you find out. So don't think you've done anything clever in either case.

Starting point is 01:32:23 Give me a cigarette.' "'You do what you can for the house,' said Margaret. The drawing-room reeks of smoke. If you smoked, too, the house might suddenly turn masculine. Atmosphere is probably a question of touch and go. Even at Queen Victoria's dinner-party, if something had been just a little different, perhaps if she'd worn a clinging liberty tea-gown instead of a magenta satin, with an Indian shawl over her shoulders, fastened at the bosom with a can-gorn pin, bursts of disloyal laughter. You must remember that they are half-German, greeted these suggestions, and Margaret said pensively, how inconceivable it would be if the royal family cared about art. And the conversation drifted away and away, and Helen's cigarette turned to a spot in the darkness, and the great flats opposite were sewn with lighted windows, which vanished and were re-lit again,

Starting point is 01:33:19 and vanished incessantly. Beyond them the thoroughfare roared gently, a tide that could never be quiet, while in the east, invisible behind the smokes of whopping, the moon was rising. That reminds me, Margaret. We might have taken that young man into the dining-room at all events, Only the Majolica plate, and that is so firmly set in the wall, I am really distressed that he had no tea. For that little incident had impressed the three women more than might be supposed. It remained as a goblin football, as a hint that all is not for the best in the best of all possible worlds, and that beneath these superstructures of wealth and art there wanders an ill-fed boy, who has recovered his umbrella indeed, but who has left no address behind him.

Starting point is 01:34:07 and no name. End of chapter 5. Chapter 6 of Howard's End. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clet. Howard's End by E.M. Forster.

Starting point is 01:34:45 Chapter 6. We are not concerned with the very poor. they are unthinkable and only to be approached by the statistician or the poet this story deals with gentlefolk or with those who are obliged to pretend that they are gentlefolk the boy leonard bast stood at the extreme verge of gentility he was not in the abyss but he could see it and at times people whom he knew had dropped in and counted no more he knew that he was poor and would admit it he would have sooner died than confess any inferiority to the rich this may be splendid of him but he was inferior to most rich people there is not the least doubt of it he was not as courteous as the average rich man nor as intelligent nor as healthy nor as lovable his mind and his body had been alike underfed because he was poor and because he was modern they were always craving better food Had he lived some centuries ago, in the brightly colored civilizations of the past, he would have had a definite status, his rank and his income would have corresponded.

Starting point is 01:36:00 But in his day the angel of democracy had arisen, enshadowing the classes with leathern wings, and proclaiming, all men are equal, all men, that is to say, who possess umbrellas. And so he was obliged to assert gentility, lest he slipped into the abyss. where nothing counts, and the statements of democracy are inaudible. As he walked away from Wickham Place, his first care was to prove that he was as good as the Mishlegel's. Obscurely wounded in his pride, he tried to wound them in return. They were probably not ladies. Would real ladies have asked him to tea? They were certainly ill-natured and cold. At each step his feeling of superiority increased. Would a real lady have talked about stealing an

Starting point is 01:36:48 umbrella. Perhaps they were thieves, after all. And if he had gone into the house, they could have clapped a chloroformed handkerchief over his face. He walked on complacently as far as the houses of Parliament. There an empty stomach asserted itself, and told him he was a fool. Evening, Mr. Bast? Evening, Mr. Deltree. Nice evening. Evening. Mr. Deltrie, a fellow clerk, passed on, and Leonard stood wondering whether he would take the tram as far as a penny would take him, or whether he would walk. He decided to walk. It is no good giving in, and he had spent money enough at Queen's Hall, and he walked over Westminster Bridge, in front of St. Thomas's Hospital, and through the immense tunnel that passes under the southwestern main line at Vauxhall. In the tunnel he paused and listened to the roar of the trains. a sharp pain darted through his head and he was conscious of the exact form of his eye-sockets he pushed on for another mile and did not slacken speed until he stood at the entrance of a road called camellia road which was at present his home here he stopped again and glanced suspiciously to right and left like a rabbit that is going to bolt into its hole a block of flats constructed with extreme cheapness towered on either hand Farther down the road two more blocks were being built, and beyond these an old house was being demolished to accommodate another pair.

Starting point is 01:38:22 It was the kind of scene that may be observed all over London, whatever the locality, bricks and mortar rising and falling, with the restlessness of the water in a fountain, as the city receives more and more men upon her soil. Camelia Road would soon stand out like a fortress, and command for a little an extensive view, only for a little. Plans were out for the erection of flats and Magnolia Road also, and again a few years, and all the flats in either road might be pulled down, and new buildings of a vastness at present unimaginable might arise where they had fallen. Evening, Mr. Bast? evening, Mr. Cunningham. Very serious thing this decline of the birth rate in Manchester. I beg your pardon? Very serious thing this decline of the birth rate in Manchester,

Starting point is 01:39:17 repeated Mr. Cunningham, tapping the Sunday paper in which the calamity in question had just been announced to him. Ah, yes, said Leonard, who was not going to let on that he had not bought a Sunday paper. This kind of thing goes on, the population of England will be stationary in 1960. You don't say so. I call it a very serious thing, eh? Good evening, Mr. Cunningham. Good evening, Mr. Bast.

Starting point is 01:39:48 Then Leonard entered Block B of the flats, and turned, not upstairs, but down, into what is known to house agents as a semi-basement, and to other men as a cellar. He opened the door and cried, Hello! With the pseudo-geniality of the cockney, there was no reply. Hello! He repeated. The sitting room was empty,

Starting point is 01:40:12 though the electric light had been left burning. A look of relief came over his face, and he flung himself into the armchair. The sitting room contained, besides the armchair, two other chairs, a piano, a three-legged table, and a cozy corner. Of the walls one was occupied by the window, the other by a draped mantel-shelf bristling with cupids. Opposite the window was the door, and beside the door a bookcase, while over the piano there extended one of the masterpieces of Maude Goodman.

Starting point is 01:40:45 It was an amorous and not unpleasant little hole when the curtains were drawn and the lights turned on, and the gas stove unlit. But it struck that shallow makeshift note that is so often heard in the modern dwelling-in-law. place. It had been too easily gained, and could be relinquished too easily. As Leonard was kicking off his boots, he jarred the three-legged table, and a photograph frame, honorably poised upon it, slid sideways, fell off into the fireplace, and smashed. He swore in a colorless sort of way, and picked the photograph up. It represented a young lady called Jackie, and had been taken at the time when young ladies called Jackie were often photographed with their mouths open. Teeth of dazzling whiteness extended along either of Jackie's jaws,

Starting point is 01:41:34 and positively weighted her head sideways, so large were they and so numerous. Take my word for it, that smile was simply stunning, and it is only you and I who will be fastidious, and complain that true joy begins in the eyes, and that the eyes of Jackie did not accord with her smile. were anxious and hungry. Leonard tried to pull out the fragments of glass, and cut his fingers and swore again. A drop of blood fell on the frame, another followed, spilling over onto the exposed photograph. He swore more vigorously and dashed to the kitchen where he bathed his hands.

Starting point is 01:42:11 The kitchen was the same size as the sitting-room, through it was a bedroom. This completed his home. He was renting the flat furnished. Of all the objects that encumbered it, none were his own except the photograph frame, the Cupid's, and the books. Damn, damnation! he murmured, together with such other words as he had learnt from older men. Then he raised his hand to his forehead and said, Oh, damn it all! Which meant something different. He pulled himself together. He drank a little tea, black and silent, that still survived upon an upper shelf. He swallowed some dusty crumbs of cake. Then he went back to the

Starting point is 01:42:55 to the sitting-room, settled himself anew, and began to read a volume of Ruskin. Seven miles to the north of Venice! How perfectly the famous chapter opens! How supreme its command of admonition and of poetry! The rich man is speaking to us from his gondola! Seven miles to the north of Venice the banks of sand which near the city rise little above low water-mark, attained by degrees a higher level, and knit themselves at least at least last into fields of salt morass, raised here and there into shapeless mounds, and intercepted by

Starting point is 01:43:31 narrow creeks of sea. Leonard was trying to form his style on Druskin. He understood him to be the greatest master of English prose. He read forward steadily, occasionally making a few notes. Let us consider a little each of these characters in succession, and first, for of the shafts enough has been said already, what is very peculiar to the church, it's like. luminousness. Was there anything to be learnt from this fine sentence? Could he adapt it to the needs of daily life? Could he introduce it, with modifications,

Starting point is 01:44:07 when he next wrote a letter to his brother, the lay reader? For example, let us consider a little each of these characters in succession, and first, for of the absence of ventilation enough has been said already, what is very peculiar to this flat, its obscurity. Something told him that the modifications would not do, and that something, had he known it, was the spirit of English prose.

Starting point is 01:44:35 My flat is dark, as well as stuffy. Those were the words for him. And the voice in the gondola rolled on, piping melodiously of effort and self-sacrifice, full of high purpose, full of beauty, full even of sympathy and the love of men, yet somehow eluding all that was actual and insistent in Leonard's life, for it was the voice of one who had never been dirty or hungry,

Starting point is 01:45:03 and had not guessed successfully what dirt and hunger are. Leonard listened to it with reverence. He felt that he was being done good to, and that if he kept on with Ruskin and the Queen's Hall concerts, and some pictures by Watts, he would one day push his head out of the grey waters and see the universe. He believed in sudden conversion, a belief which may be right, but which is peculiarly attractive to a half-baked mind.

Starting point is 01:45:33 It is the bias of much popular religion. In the domain of business it dominates the stock exchange, and becomes that bit of luck by which all successes and failures are explained. If only I had a bit of luck, the whole thing would come straight. He's got a most magnificent place down at Streetham, and a 20-hp fiat. But then, mind you, he's had luck. I'm sorry the wife so late,

Starting point is 01:46:00 but she never has any luck over catching trains. Leonard was superior to these people. He did believe in effort and in a steady preparation for the change that he desired. But of a heritage that may expand gradually, he had no conception. He hoped to come to culture suddenly, much as the revivalist hopes to come to Jesus.

Starting point is 01:46:23 Those Miss Schlegel's had come to it. They had done the trick. Their hands were upon the ropes once and for all. And meanwhile, his flat was dark, as well as stuffy. Presently there was a noise on the staircase. He shut up Margaret's card in the pages of Ruskin and opened the door. A woman entered, of whom it is simplest to say that she was not respectable. Her appearance was awesome. She seemed all strings. and bell-poles, ribbons, chains, bead necklaces that clinked and caught, and a boa of azure feathers hung around her neck, with the ends uneven. Her throat was bare, wound with a double row of pearls, her arms were bare to the elbows, and might again be detected at the shoulder through cheap lace.

Starting point is 01:47:14 Her hat, which was flowery, resembled those pannets covered with flannel which we sewed with mustard and cress in our childhood, and which germinated here yes and there no. She wore it on the back of her head. As for her hair, or rather hairs, they are too complicated to describe, but one system went down her back, lying in a thick pad there, while another created for a lighter destiny, rippled around her forehead. The face—the face does not signify. It was the face of the photograph, but older, and the teeth were not so new. as the photographer has suggested, and certainly not so white. Yes, Jackie was past her prime, whatever that prime may have been. She was descending quicker than most women into the colorless

Starting point is 01:48:02 years, and the look in her eyes confessed it. "'What-ho?' said Leonard, greeting that apparition with much spirit, and helping it off with its boa. Jackie in husky tones replied, "'What-ho?' "'Been out?' he asked. The question sounds superfluous, but it cannot have been really for the lady answered. "'No,' adding. "'Oh, I'm so tired.'

Starting point is 01:48:31 "'You tired?' "'A?' "'I'm tired,' said he, hanging the boa up. "'Oh, Len, I am so tired.' "'I've been to that classical concert I told you about,' said Leonard. "'What's that?' i came back as soon as it was over anyone been round to our place asked jackie not that i've seen i met mr cunningham outside and we passed a few remarks what not mr cunningham yes oh you mean mr cunningham yes mr cunningham i've been out to tea lady friends her secret

Starting point is 01:49:19 being at last given to the world, and the name of the lady friend being even adambrated, Jackie made no further experiments in the difficult and tiring art of conversation. She never had been a great talker. Even in her photographic days she had relied upon her smile and her figure to attract, and now that she was, On the shelf, on the shelf, boys, boys, I'm on the shelf. She was not likely to find her tongue. occasional bursts of song, of which the above is an example, still issued from her lips,

Starting point is 01:49:55 but the spoken word was rare. She sat down on Leonard's knee and began to fondle him. She was now a massive woman of thirty-three, and her weight hurt him, but he cannot very well say anything. Then she said, Is that a book you're reading? And he said, that's a book? And drew it from her unreluctant grasp. Margaret's card fell out of it. It fell face downwards, and he murmured, bookmarker. "'Len—what is it?' he asked, a little wearily, for she had only one topic of conversation when she sat upon his knee. "'You do love me?' Jackie, you know that I do. How can you ask such questions?'

Starting point is 01:50:42 "'But you do love me, Len, don't you?' of course i do a pause the other remark was still due len well what is it len you will make it all right i can't have you ask me that again said the boy flaring up into a sudden passion i've promised to marry you when i'm of age and that's enough my word's my word i've promised to marry you as soon as ever i'm twenty-one and i can't keep a-one and i can't keep a-mary you when i'm of age and that's enough my word i've promised to marry you as soon as ever i'm twenty-one and i can't keep on being worried. I've worries enough. It isn't likely I'd throw you over, let alone my word, when I've spent all this money. Besides, I'm an Englishman, and I never go back on my word. Jackie, do be reasonable. Of course I'll marry you, and they do stop badgering me. When's your birthday, Len? I've told you again and again, the 11th of November next. Now get off my knee a bit. Someone must get supper, I suppose. Jackie went through to the bedroom and began to see to her hat. This meant blowing at it with short, sharp puffs. Leonard tidied up the sitting-room and began to prepare their evening meal. He put a penny into the slot of the gas-meter, and soon the flat was reeking with metallic fumes. Somehow he could not recover his temper, and all the time he was cooking he continued to complain bitterly.

Starting point is 01:52:13 too bad when a fellow isn't trusted. Makes one feel so wild. When I've pretended to the people here that you're my wife—'all right, you shall be my wife. And I've brought you the ring to wear, and I've taken this flat furnished, and it's far more than I can afford. And yet you aren't content. And I've also not told the truth when I've written home. He lowered his voice. He'd stop it. In a tone of horror that was a little luxurious, he repeated. My brother had stop it. He'd stop I'm going against the whole world, Jackie. That's what I am, Jackie. I don't take any heed of what anyone says.

Starting point is 01:52:52 I just go straight forward, I do. It's always been my way. I'm not one of your weak, knock-kneed chaps. If a woman's in trouble, I don't leave her in the lurch. It's not my street. No, thank you. I'll tell you another thing, too. I care a good deal about improving myself by means of literature and art,

Starting point is 01:53:12 and so getting a wider outlook. For instance, when you came in I was reading Ruskin's Stones of Venice. I don't say this to boast, but just to show you the kind of man I am. I can tell you I enjoyed that classical concert this afternoon. To all his moods, Jackie remained equally indifferent. When supper was ready, and not before, she emerged from the bedroom, saying, But you do love me, don't you? They began with a soup square,

Starting point is 01:53:42 which Leonard had just dissolved in some hot water. It was followed by the tongue, a freckled cylinder of meat with a little jelly at the top, and a great deal of yellow fat at the bottom, ending with another square dissolved in water, jelly, pineapple, which Leonard had prepared earlier in the day. Jackie ate contentedly enough, occasionally looking at her man with those anxious eyes, to which nothing else in her appearance corresponded, and which yet seemed to mirror her soul. And Leonard managed to convince his stomach that it was having a nourishing meal. After supper they smoked cigarettes and exchanged a few statements. She observed that her likeness had been broken. He found occasion to remark for the second time that he had come straight

Starting point is 01:54:28 back home after the concert at Queen's Hall. Presently she sat upon his knee. The inhabitants of Camellia Road tramped to and fro outside the window, just on a level with their heads, and the family in the flat on the ground floor began to sing, Hark my soul, it is the Lord. That tune fairly gives me the hump, said Leonard. Jackie followed this and said that, for her part, she thought it a lovely tune. No, I'll play you something lovely. Get up, dear, for a minute.

Starting point is 01:55:01 He went to the piano and jingled out a little Greek. He played badly and vulgarly, but the performance was not without its effect, for Jackie said she thought she'd be going to bed. As she receded, a new set of interests possessed the boy, and he began to think of what had been said about music by that odd Miss Schlegel, the one that twisted her face about so when she spoke. Then the thoughts grew sad and envious.

Starting point is 01:55:27 There was the girl named Helen who had pinched his umbrella, and the German girl who had smiled at him pleasantly, and Hare someone, and Aunt someone, and the brother— All, all was a little. their hands on the ropes. They had all passed up that narrow, rich staircase at Wiccan Place, to some ample room, whether he could never follow them, not if he read for ten hours a day. Oh, it was not good, this continual aspiration. Some are born cultured. The rest had better go in for whatever comes easy. To see life steadily, and to see it whole, was not for the likes of him.

Starting point is 01:56:04 From the darkness beyond the kitchen a voice called, Len. You in bed, he asked, his forehead twitching. Hmm. All right. Presently she called him again. I must clean my boots ready for the morning, he answered. Presently she called him again.

Starting point is 01:56:28 I rather want to get this chapter done. What? He closed his ears again. against her. "'What's that?' "'All right, Jackie, nothing. I'm reading a book.' "'What?'

Starting point is 01:56:44 "'What?' he answered, catching her degraded deafness. Presently she called him again. Ruskin had visited Torchello by this time, and was ordering his gondoliers to take him to Morano. It occurred to him, as he glided over the whispering lagoons, that the people power of nature could not be shortened by the folly, nor her beauty altogether saddened by the misery of such as Leonard. End of Chapter 6

Starting point is 01:57:15 Chapter 7 of Howard's End This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clet Howard's End by E. M. Forster Chapter 7 Oh, Margaret, cried her aunt next morning.

Starting point is 01:57:51 Such a most unfortunate thing has happened. I could not get you alone. The most unfortunate thing was not very serious. One of the flats and the ornate block opposite had been taken furnished by the Wilcox family. Coming up, no doubt, in the hope of getting into London society. that mrs munch should be the first to discover the misfortune was not remarkable for she was so interested in the flats that she watched their every mutation with unwearying care In theory she despised them. They took away that old-world look. They cut off the sun.

Starting point is 01:58:28 Flats house a flashy type of person. But if the truth had been known, she found her visits to Wickham Place twice as amusing since Wickham mansions had arisen, and would, in a couple of days, learn more about them than her nieces in a couple of months, or her nephew in a couple of years. She would stroll across and make friends with the porters,

Starting point is 01:58:48 and inquire what the rents were, exclaiming, for example, "'What? A hundred and twenty for a basement! You'll never get it!' And they would answer, "'One can but try, madam.' The passenger lifts, the provision lifts, the arrangement for coals, a great temptation for a dishonest porter,

Starting point is 01:59:09 were all familiar matters to her, and perhaps a relief from the politico-economic, aesthetic atmosphere that reigned at the Schlegelz. Margaret received the information calmly, and did not agree that it would throw a cloud over poor Helen's life. "'Oh, but Helen isn't a girl with no interests,' she explained. "'She has plenty of other things and other people to think about. She made a full start with the Wilcoxes, and she'll be as willing as we are to have nothing more to do with them.' "'For a clever girl, dear, how very oddly you do talk!

Starting point is 01:59:44 "'Helen'll have to have something more to do with them now that they're all opposite. "'She may meet that Paul in the street. "'She cannot very well not bow.' "'Of course she must bow. "'But look here, let's do the flowers. "'I was going to say the will to be interested in him has died and what else matters. "'I look on that disastrous episode, over which she was so kind, "'as the killing of a nerve in Helen.

Starting point is 02:00:13 It's dead, and she'll never be troubled with it again. The only things that matter are the things that interest one. Bowing, even calling and leaving cards, even a dinner-party. We can do all those things to the Wilcoxes, if they find it agreeable. But the other thing, the one important thing, never again. Don't you see? Mrs. Munt did not see, and indeed Margaret was making a most questionable statement, that any emotion, any interest, once vividly aroused, can wholly die.

Starting point is 02:00:50 I also have the honour to inform you that the Wilcox is a-bord with us. I didn't tell you at the time. It might have made you angry, and you had enough to worry you. But I wrote a letter to Mrs. W., and apologised for the trouble that Helen had given them. She didn't answer it. How very rude! I wonder. Or was it sensible?

Starting point is 02:01:13 no margaret most rude in either case one can clothe as reassuring mrs munt sighed she was going back to swanage on the morrow just as her nieces were wanting her most other regrets crowded upon her for instance how magnificently she would have cut charles if she had met him face to face she had already seen him giving an order to the porter and very common he looked in a tall hat But unfortunately his back was turned to her, and though she had cut his back she could not regard this as a telling snub. "'But you will be careful, won't you?' she exhorted. "'Oh, certainly, fiendishly careful.' "'And Helen must be careful, too.' "'Careful over what?' cried Helen, at that moment coming into the room with her cousin. "'Nothing,' said Margaret, seized with a momentary awkwardness.

Starting point is 02:02:13 "'Careful over what, Aunt Julie?' Mrs. Munt assumed a cryptic air. "'It is only that a certain family, "'whom we know by name but do not mention, "'as you said yourself last night after the concert, "'have taken the flat opposite from the Mathesons, "'where the plants are in the balcony.' "'Helen began some laughing reply,

Starting point is 02:02:39 "'and then disconcerted them all by blushing. Mrs. Munt was so disconcerted that she exclaimed, "'What, Helen, you don't mind them coming, do you?' And deepen the blush to crimson. "'Of course I don't mind,' said Helen a little crossly. "'It is that you and Meg are both so absurdly grave about it, where there's nothing to be grave about at all.' "'I'm not grave,' protested Margaret, a little cross in her turn.

Starting point is 02:03:10 "'Well, you look, grave, doesn't she, Frida?' "'I don't feel, grave. That's all I can say. You're going quite on the wrong tack.' "'No, she does not feel grave,' echoed Mrs. Munt. "'I can bear witness to that. She disagrees.' "'Hark!' interrupted Froulein Mosabach. "'I hear Bruno entering the hall.' "'For Herr Lysick was due at Wickham Place to call for the two younger girls. He was not entering the hall. In fact, he did not enter it for quite five minutes. But Frida detected a delicate situation, and said that she and Helen had much better wait for Bruno down below, and leave Margaret and Mrs. Munt to finish arranging the flowers. Helen acquiesced.

Starting point is 02:03:55 But as if to prove that the situation was not delicate really, she stopped in the doorway and said, "'Did you say the Matheson's flat, Aunt Judy? How wonderful you are! I never knew that the woman who laced too tightly's name was Matheson.' "'Come, Helen,' said her cousin. "'Go, Helen,' said her aunt, and continued to Margaret almost in the same breath. "'Helen cannot deceive me. She does mind.' "'Oh, hush!' breathed Margaret. "'Freetil hear you, and she can be so tiresome.' "'She minds,' persisted Mrs. Munt, moving thoughtfully about the room and pulling the dead

Starting point is 02:04:36 chrysanthemums out of the vases. "'I knew she'd mind, and I'm sure a girl ought to. Such an experience, such awful coarse-grained people. I know more about them than you do, which you forget, and if Charles had taken you that motor-drive, well, you'd have reached the house a perfect wreck. Oh, Margaret, you don't know what you were in for. They're all bottled up against the drawing-room window. There's Mrs. Wilcox, I've seen her.

Starting point is 02:05:09 There's Paul. There's Evie, who was a minx. There's Charles, I saw him to start with. And who would an elderly man with a moustache and a copper-coloured face be? Mr. Wilcox, possibly. I knew it. And there's Mr. Wilcox. It's a shame to call his face copper-colour, complained Margaret.

Starting point is 02:05:33 He has a remarkably good complexion for a man of his age. Mrs. Munt, triumphant elsewhere, could afford to concede Mr. Wilcox's his complaint. collection. She passed on from it to the plan of campaign that her nieces should pursue in the future. Margaret tried to stop her. Helen did not take the news quite as I expected, but the Wilcox nerve is dead in her really, so there's no need for plans. It's as well to be prepared. No, it's as well not to be prepared. Because—her thoughts drew being from the obscure borderland. She could not explain in so many words, but she felt that those who prepare for all the emergencies of life beforehand may equip themselves at the expense of joy. It is necessary to prepare for an

Starting point is 02:06:22 examination, or a dinner party, or a possible fall in the price of stock. Those who attempt human relations must adopt another method or fail. Because I'd sooner risk it, was her lame conclusion. But imagine the evenings! exclaimed her aunt, pointing to the mansions with the spout of the watering can. Turn the electric light on here or there in it's almost the same room. One evening they may forget to draw their blinds down, and you'll see them, and the next, you yours, and they'll see you.

Starting point is 02:07:01 Impossible to sit out on the balconies. Impossible to water the plants, or even speak. Imagine going out of the front door, and they come out opposite at the same moment. And yet you tell me that plans are unnecessary, and you'd rather risk it. I hope to risk things all my life. Oh, Margaret, most dangerous. But after all, she continued with a smile, there's never any great risk as long as you have money.

Starting point is 02:07:33 Oh, shame! What a shocking speech! "'Money pads the edges of things,' said Mishlegel. "'God help those who have none.' "'But this is something quite new,' said Mrs. Munt, who collected new ideas as a squirrel collects nuts, and was especially attracted by those that are portable. New for me. Sensible people have acknowledged it for years.

Starting point is 02:08:03 You and I and the Wilcoxes stand upon me, money as upon islands. It is so firm beneath our feet that we forget its very existence. It's only when we see someone near us tottering, that we realise all that an independent income means. Last night, when we were talking up here round the fire, I began to think that the very soul of the world is economic, and that the lowest abyss is not the absence of love, but the absence of coin. I call that rather cynical. So do I.

Starting point is 02:08:40 But Helen and I we ought to remember when we are tempted to criticise others, that we are standing on those islands, and that most of the others are down below the surface of the sea. The poor cannot always reach those whom they want to love, and they can hardly ever escape from those whom they love no longer. We rich can. Imagine the tragedy last June, if Helen and Paul Wilcox had been poor people, and couldn't invoke railways and motor-cars to part

Starting point is 02:09:09 them. "'That's more like socialism,' said Mrs. Munt suspiciously. "'Call it what you like. I call it, going through life with one's hand spread open on the table. I'm tired of these rich people who pretend to be poor, and think it shows a nice mind to ignore the piles of money that keep their feet above the waves. I stand each year upon six hundred pounds, and Helen upon the same, and Tibby will stand upon eight, And as fast as our pounds crumble away into the sea they are renewed, from the sea, yes, from the sea. And all our thoughts are the thoughts of six hundred pounders, and all our speeches,

Starting point is 02:09:55 and because we don't want to steal umbrellas ourselves, we forget that below the sea people do want to steal them, and do steal them sometimes, and that what's a joke up here is down there, reality. There they go. There goes Frelein Moserbach. Really, for a German, she does dress charmingly. Oh! What is it? Helen was looking up at the Wilcox's flat.

Starting point is 02:10:25 Why shouldn't she? I beg your pardon, I interrupted you. What was it you were saying about reality? I had worked it round to myself as usual, answered Margaret, in tones that were suddenly preoccupied. "'Do tell me this at all events. Are you for the rich or for the poor?' "'Too difficult.

Starting point is 02:10:49 Ask me another. Am I for poverty or for riches?' "'For riches. Hurrah for riches!' "'For riches!' echoed Mrs. Munt, having, as it were, at last, secure, her nut. "'Yes, for riches, money for ever.' "'So am I, and so I am afraid are most of my acquaintances at Swanage, but I am surprised that you agree with us.'

Starting point is 02:11:17 "'Thank you so much, Aunt Julie. While I have talked theories, you have done the flowers.' "'Not at all, dear. I wish you would let me help you in more important things.' "'Well, would you be very kind? Would you come from, round with me to the registry office. There's a housemaid who won't say yes but doesn't say no. On their way thither they too looked up at the Wilcox's flat. Evie was in the balcony, staring most rudely, according to Mrs. Munt. Oh, yes, it was a nuisance, there was no doubt of it. Helen was proof against a passing encounter, but Margaret began to lose confidence. might it reawake the dying nerve if the family were living close against her eyes?

Starting point is 02:12:04 And Frida Mosbach was stopping with them for another fortnight. And Frida was sharp, abominably sharp, and quite capable of remarking, You love one of the young gentlemen opposite, yes? The remark would be untrue, but of the kind which, if stated often enough, may become true, just as the remark, England and Germany are bound to fight, renders war a little more likely each time that it is made, and is therefore made the more readily by the gutter press of either nation. Have the private emotions also their gutter press? Margaret thought so, and feared that good Aunt Julie and Frida were typical specimens of it. They might, by continual chatter,

Starting point is 02:12:48 lead Helen into a repetition of the desires of June. into a repetition they could not do more they could not lead her into lasting love they were she saw it clearly journalism her father with all his defects and wrong-headedness had been literature

Starting point is 02:13:06 and had he lived he would have persuaded his daughter rightly the registry office was holding its morning reception a string of carriages filled the street Michel waited her turn and finally had to be content with an insidious temporary being rejected by genuine housemaids on the ground of her numerous stairs. Her failure depressed her, and though she forgot the failure, the depression remained.

Starting point is 02:13:32 On her way home she again glanced up at the Wilcoxes flat, and took the rather matronly step of speaking about the matter to Helen. Helen, you must tell me whether this thing worries you. If what? said Helen, who was washing her hands for lunch. "'The W's coming.' "'No, of course not.' "'Really?' "'Really.'

Starting point is 02:13:58 Then she admitted that she was a little worried on Mrs. Wilcox's account. She implied that Mrs. Wilcox might reach backward into deep feelings, and be pained by things that never touched the other members of that clan. "'I shan't mind if Paul points at our house and says, "'There lives the girl who try to catch me.' but she might if even that worries you we could arrange something there's no reason we should be near people who displease us or whom we displease thanks to our money we might even go away for a little well i am going away frieda's just asked me to stettin and i shan't be back till after the new year will that do or must i fly the country altogether really meg what has come over you to make such a first Oh, I'm getting an old maid, I suppose.

Starting point is 02:14:52 I thought I minded nothing, but really I—I should be bored if you fell in love with the same man twice, and—she cleared her throat. You did go red, you know, when Aunt Julie attacked you this morning. I shouldn't have referred to it otherwise. But Helen's laugh rang true, as she raised a soapy hand to heaven, and swore that never, nowhere and know how would she again fall in love with any of the Wilcox family down to its remotest collaterals. End of Chapter 7 Chapter 8 of Howard's End

Starting point is 02:15:39 This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clet. Howard's End by E. M. Forster Chapter 8 The friendship between Margaret and Mrs. Wilcox, which was to develop so quickly and with such strange results, may perhaps have had its beginnings at Schpere in the spring.

Starting point is 02:16:13 Perhaps the elder lady, as she gazed at the vulgar, ruddy cathedral, and listened to the talk of Helen and her husband, may have detected in the other, and less charming of the sisters, a deeper sympathy, a sounder judgment. She was capable of detecting such things. Perhaps it was she who had desired the Miss Schlegos to be invited to Howard's End, and Margaret whose presence she had particularly desired. All this is speculation. Mrs. Wilcox has left few clear indications behind her.

Starting point is 02:16:45 It is certain that she came to call at Wickeme Place a fortnight later, the very day that Helen was going with her cousin to Stetton. "'Helen!' cried Froulein Mosabacher. in awe-struck tones. She was now in her cousin's confidence. "'His mother has forgiven you!' And then, remembering that in England the newcomer ought not to call before she is called upon, she changed her tone from awe to disapproval, and opined that Mrs. Wilcox was kind of dumb.

Starting point is 02:17:17 "'Oh, bother the whole family!' snapped Margaret. "'Helen, stop giggling and pirouetting and go and finish your packing. Why can't the woman leave us alone? I don't know what I shall do with Meg, Helen retorted, collapsing upon the stairs. She's got Wilcox and box upon the brain. Meg, Meg, I don't love the young gentleman. I don't love the young gentleman, Meg, Meg, can a body speak plainer? Most certainly her love has died, asserted Frowline Moserbach.

Starting point is 02:17:53 Most certainly it has, Frieda, but that will not prevent me from being bored with the Wilcoxes if I return the call. Then Helen simulated tears, and Frowline Moserbach, who thought her extremely amusing, did the same. Oh, boo-hoo, boo-hoo! Booh-hoo! Meg's going to return the call, and I can't, because why? Because I'm going to German-I. If you are going to Germany, go and pack. If you aren't, go and call on the Wilcoxes instead of me. But Meg, Meg, I don't love the young gentleman. I don't love the young—oh, lud! Who's that coming down the stairs?

Starting point is 02:18:39 I vow, tis my brother! Oh, crimin! A male, even such a male as Tibby, was enough to stop the foolery. the barrier of sex, though decreasing among the civilized, is still high, and higher on the side of women. Helen could tell her sister all, and her cousin much about Paul. She told her brother nothing. It was not prudishness, for she now spoke of the Wilcox ideal, with laughter, and even with a growing brutality. Nor was it precaution, for Tibby seldom repeated any news that did not concern himself.

Starting point is 02:19:16 It was rather the feeling that she betrayed a secret into the camp of men, and that however trivial it was on this side of the barrier, it would become important on that. So she stopped, or rather began to fool on other subjects, until her long-suffering relatives drove her upstairs. Frouline Mosabach followed her, but lingered to say heavily over the banisters to Margaret. "'It is all right. She does not love the young man. He has not been worthy of her.' her. "'Yes, I know. Thanks very much.' "'I thought I did right to tell you.'

Starting point is 02:19:54 "'Ever so many thanks.' "'What's that?' asked Tibby. No one told him, and he proceeded into the dining-room to eat Elvis Plums. That evening Margaret took decisive action. The house was very quiet, and the fog—we are in November now—pressed against the windows like an excluded it ghost. Frieda and Helen and all their luggage had gone. Tibby, who was not feeling well, lay stretched on a sofa by the fire. Margaret sat by him, thinking.

Starting point is 02:20:29 Her mind darted from impulse to impulse, and finally marshalled them all in review. The practical person, who knows what he wants at once, and generally knows nothing else, will excuse her of indecision. But this was the way her mind worked. When she did act, no one could accuse her of indecision then. She hid out as lustily as if she had not considered the matter at all. The letter that she wrote Mrs. Wilcox glowed with the native hue of resolution. The pale cast of thought was with her a breath rather than a tarnish, a breath that leaves

Starting point is 02:21:03 the colours all the more vivid when it has been wiped away. Dear Mrs. Wilcox, I have to write something discourteous. It would be better if we did not meet. Both my sister and my aunt have given displeasure to your family, and in my sister's case the grounds for displeasure might recur. As far as I know, she no longer occupies her thoughts with your son. But it would not be fair, either to her or to you, if they met, and it is therefore right that our acquaintance, which began so pleasantly, should end.

Starting point is 02:21:40 I fear that you will not agree with this. Indeed, I know that you will not, since you have been good enough to call on us. It is only an instinct on my part, and no doubt the instinct is wrong. My sister would undoubtedly say that it is wrong. I write without her knowledge, and I hope that you will not associate her with my discurtesy. Believe me, yours truly, M. J. Schlegel. Margaret sent this letter round by post. Next morning she received the following reply by hand.

Starting point is 02:22:13 dear miss schlegel you should not have written me such a letter i called to tell you that paul has gone abroad ruth wilcox margaret's cheeks burnt she could not finish her breakfast she was on fire with shame helen had told her that the youth was leaving england but other things had seemed more important and she had forgotten all her absurd anxieties fell to the ground and in their place arose the certainty that she had been rude to mrs wilcox rudeness affected margaret like a bitter taste in the mouth it poisoned life At times it is necessary, but woe to those who employ it without due need. She flung on a hat and shawl, just like a poor woman, and plunged into the fog which still continued. Her lips were compressed, the letter remained in her hand, and in this state she crossed the street, entered the marble vestibule of the flats, eluded the concierges, and ran up

Starting point is 02:23:14 the stairs till she reached the second floor. She sent in her name, and to her surprise was shown straight into Mrs. Wilcox's bedroom. Oh, Mrs. Wilcox, I have made the baddest blunder. I am more, more ashamed and sorry than I can say. Mrs. Wilcox bowed gravely. She was offended and did not pretend to the contrary. She was sitting up in bed, writing letters on an invalid table that spanned her knees. A breakfast-tray was on another table beside her. The light of the fire, the light from the window, and the light of a candle-lamp which through a quivering halo round her hands, combined to create a strange atmosphere of dissolution. I knew he was going to India in November, but I forgot.

Starting point is 02:24:01 He sailed on the 17th for Nigeria, in Africa. I knew, I know. I have been too absurd all through. I am very much ashamed. Mrs. Wilcox did not answer. I am more sorry than I can say. and I hope that you will forgive me. It doesn't matter, Miss Schlegel.

Starting point is 02:24:26 It is good of you to have come round so promptly. It does matter, cried Margaret. I have been rude to you, and my sister is not even at home, so there was not even that excuse. Indeed? She has just gone to Germany. She gone as well,

Starting point is 02:24:47 murmured the other. Yes, certainly it is quite safe. Safe absolutely now. "'You've been worrying, too,' exclaimed Margaret, getting more and more excited and taking a chair without invitation. "'How perfectly extraordinary! I can see that you have! You felt as I do. Helen mustn't meet him again.' I did think it best.

Starting point is 02:25:14 "'Now why?' "'That's a most difficult question,' said Mrs. Wilcox. smiling, and a little losing her expression of annoyance. I think you put it best in your letter. It was an instinct, which may be wrong. It wasn't that your son still— Oh, no. He often—

Starting point is 02:25:39 My pool is very young, you see. Then what was it? She repeated. An instinct, which may be wrong. In other words. they belong to types that can fall in love but couldn't live together. That's dreadfully probable. I'm afraid that in nine cases out of ten nature pulls one way and human nature another.

Starting point is 02:26:07 These are indeed other words, said Mrs. Wilcox. I had nothing so coherent in my head. I was merely alarmed when I knew that my boy cared for your sister. Ah, I have always been wanting to ask you. How did you know? Helen was so surprised when her aunt drove up and you stepped forward and arranged things. Did Paul tell you? There is nothing to be gained by discussing that, said Mrs. Wilcox after a moment's pause.

Starting point is 02:26:40 Mrs. Wilcox, were you very angry with us last June? I wrote to you a letter, and you didn't answer it. I was certainly against taking Mrs. Matheson's flat. I knew it was opposite your house. But it's all right now? I think so. You only think? You aren't sure.

Starting point is 02:27:07 I do love these little muddles tidied up. Oh, yes, I'm sure, said Mrs. Wilcox, moving with uneasiness beneath the clothes. I always sound uncertain over things. It is my way of speaking. That's all right. And I'm sure, too. Here the maid came in to remove the breakfast-tray. They were interrupted, and when they resumed conversation it was on more normal lines.

Starting point is 02:27:35 I must say good-bye now. You will be getting up. No, please, stop a little longer. I am taking a day in bed. Now and then I do. I thought of you as one of the early rises. At how its end, yes. There is nothing to get up for in. London. "'Nothing to get up for,' cried the scandalised Margaret, "'when there are all the autumn exhibitions, and you say playing in the afternoon.

Starting point is 02:28:05 Not to mention people.' The truth is, I am a little tired. First came the wedding, and then Paul went off, and, instead of resting yesterday, I paid a round of calls. "'A wedding?' "'Yes, Charles, my elder son, is married.' "'Indeed!' We took the flat chiefly on that account, and also that Paul could get his African outfit. The flat belongs to a cousin of my husband's, and she most kindly offered it to us.

Starting point is 02:28:41 So before the day came we were able to make the acquaintance of Dolly's people, which we had not yet done. Margaret asked who Dolly's people were. Fussell. The father is in the Indian army. Retired. The brother is in the army. The mother is dead. So perhaps these were the chinless sunburnt men whom Helen had espied one afternoon through the window. Margaret felt mildly interested in the fortunes of the Wilcox family. She had acquired the habit on Helen's account, and it still clung to her. She asked for more information about Miss Dolly Fustle that was, and was given it in even unemotional tones. Mrs. Milcox's voice, though sweet and compelling, had little range of expression.

Starting point is 02:29:28 It suggested that pictures, concerts, and people are all of small and equal value. Only once had it quickened, when speaking of Howard's end. Charles and Albert Fussell have known one another some time. They belong to the same club, and are both devoted to golf. Dolly plays golf too, though I believe not so well, and they first met in a mixed fawcum. We all like her, and are very much pleased. They were married on the eleventh, a few days before Paul sailed.

Starting point is 02:30:05 Charles was very anxious to have his brother as best man, so he made a great point of having it on the eleventh. The fuzzles would have preferred it after Christmas, but they were very nice about it. There is Dolly's photograph, in that double frame. Are you quite certain that I'm not interrupting Mrs. Wilcox? Yes, quite. Then I will stay. I'm enjoying this. Dolly's photograph was now examined.

Starting point is 02:30:35 It was signed, For Dear Mims, which Mrs. Wilcox interpreted as the name she and Charles had settled that she should call me. Dolly looked silly, and had one of those triangular faces that's so often prove attractive to a robust man. She was very pretty. From her Margaret passed to Charles, whose features prevailed opposite. She speculated on the forces that had drawn the two together till God parted them. She found time to hope that they would be happy. They have gone to Naples for their honeymoon. Lucky people! I can hardly imagine Charles in Italy. Doesn't he care for travelling? He likes travel, but he does see-through foreigners so. What he most enjoys is a motor-tour

Starting point is 02:31:25 in England, and I think that would have carried the day if the weather had not been so abominable. His father gave him a car of his own for a wedding-present, which for the present is being stored at Howard's end. I suppose you have a garage there? Yes, my husband built a little one only last month to the west of the house, not far from the witch elm, in what used to be the paddock for the pony. The last words had an indescribable ring about them. Where's the pony gone? asked Margaret after a pause. The pony? No, dead, ever so long ago. The witch-elm I remember. Helen spoke of it as a very splendid tree. It is the finest witch elm in Hertfordshire.

Starting point is 02:32:19 Did your sister tell you about the teeth? No. Oh, it might interest you. There are pig's teeth stuck into the trunk, about four feet from the ground. The country people put them in long ago, and they think that if they chew a piece of the bark, it will cure the toothache. The teeth are almost grown ever now, and no one comes to the tree.

Starting point is 02:32:45 I should. I love folklore and all festering superstitions. Do you think that the tree really did cure toothache, if one believed in it? Of course it did. It would cure anything once. Certainly, I remember cases. You see, I lived at Howard's End long, long before Mr. Wilcox knew it. I was born there. The conversation again shifted. At the time it seemed little more than aimless chatter.

Starting point is 02:33:19 She was interested when her hostess explained that Howard's End was her own property. She was bored when too minute an account was given of the Fussell family, of the anxieties of Charles concerning Naples, of the movements of Mr. Wilcox and Evie who were motoring in Yorkshire. Margaret could not bear being bored. She grew in attentive, played with the photograph frame, dropped it, smashed Dolly's glass, apologized, was pardoned, cut her finger thereon, was pitied, and finally said she must be going. There was all the housekeeping to do, and she had to interview Tibby's riding

Starting point is 02:33:55 master. Then the curious note was struck again. Good-bye, Miss Schlegel, good-bye. Thank you for coming. You have chaired me up. I'm so glad. I—I wonder whether you ever think about your sense. I think of nothing else, said Margaret, blushing, but letting her hand remain in that of the invalid. I wonder, I wondered at Heidelberg. I'm sure. I almost think. Yes, asked Margaret, for there was a long pause, a pause that was somehow akin to the flicker of the fire,

Starting point is 02:34:39 the quiver of the reading-lamp upon their hands, the white blur from the wind-dellar, a pause of shifting in eternal shadows. "'I almost think you forget you're a girl.' Margaret was startled, and a little annoyed. "'I'm twenty-nine,' she remarked. "'That's not so wildly girlish,' Mrs. Wilcox smiled. "'What makes you say that? Do you mean that I have been gauche and rude?'

Starting point is 02:35:09 A shake of the head. I only meant that I am 51, and that to me both of you— Read it all in some book or other. I cannot put things clearly. No, I've got it. Inexperience. I'm no better than Helen, you mean, and yet I presume to advise her. Yes, you have got it.

Starting point is 02:35:37 Inexperience is the word. Inexperience. repeated Margaret in serious yet buoyant tones. "'Of course I have everything to learn, absolutely everything, just as much as Helen. Life's very difficult and full of surprises. At all events I've got as far as that. To be humble and kind. To go straight ahead, to love people rather than pity them.

Starting point is 02:36:03 To remember the submerged—well, one can't do all these things at once. worse luck, because they're so contradictory. It's then that proportion comes in, to live by proportion. Don't begin with proportion. Only prigs do that. Let proportion come in as a last resource, when the better things have failed, and a deadlock— Oh, gracious me, I've started preaching. Indeed, you put the difficulties of life splendidly, said Mrs. Wilcox, withdrawing her hand into the deeper shadows.

Starting point is 02:36:41 It is just what I should have liked to say about them myself. End of Chapter 8. Chapter 9 of Howard's End. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clet. Howard's End by E. M. Forster.

Starting point is 02:37:17 chapter nine mrs wilcox cannot be accused of giving margaret much information about life and margaret on the other hand has made a fair show of modesty and has pretended to an inexperience that she certainly did not feel she had kept house for over ten years she had entertained almost with distinction she had brought up a charming sister and was bringing up a brother surely if experience is attainable she had attained it yet the little luncheon-party that she gave in mrs wilcox's honour was not a success the new friend did not blend with the one or two delightful people who had been asked to meet her and the atmosphere was one of polite bewilderment her tastes were simple her knowledge of culture slight and she was not interested in the new english art club nor in the dividing line between journalism and literature which was started as a conversational hair The delightful people darted after it with cries of joy, Margaret leading them, and not till the meal was half over did they realize that the principal guest had taken no part in the chase. There was no common topic. Mrs. Wilcox, whose life had been spent in the service of husband and sons, had little to say to strangers who had never shared it, and whose age was half her own. Clever talk alarmed her and withered her delicate imaginings. It was the social counterpart of a motor-car, all jerks, and she was a wisp of hay, a flower. Twice she deplored the weather, twice criticized the

Starting point is 02:38:57 train service on the Great Northern Railway, they vigorously assented and rushed on. And when she inquired whether there was any news of Helen, her hostess was too much occupied in placing Rothenstein to answer. The question was repeated. I hope that your sister is safe in Germany by now. Margaret checked herself and said, Yes, thank you, I heard on Tuesday. But the demon of ossiferation was in her, and the next moment she was off again. Only on Tuesday, for they live right away at Stettin. Did you ever know anyone living at Stettin? Never, said Miss.

Starting point is 02:39:40 Mrs. Wilcox gravely, while her neighbour, a young man lowed down on the education office, began to discuss what people who lived at Stetten ought to look like. Was there such a thing as Stettininity? Margaret swept on. People at Stettin drop things into boats out of overhanging warehouses. At least our cousins do, but aren't particularly rich. The town isn't interesting, except for a clock that rolls its eyes, and the view of the odour which truly is something special.

Starting point is 02:40:14 Oh, Mrs. Wilcox, you would love the odour. The river, or rather rivers, there seemed to be dozens of them, are intense blue, and the plain they run through an intensest green. Indeed, that sounds most beautiful view, Miss Schlegel. So I say, but Helen, who will muddle things, says no, it's like music. The course of the odour is to be. like music. It's obliged to remind her of a symphonic poem. The part by the landing stage is in B minor, if I remember rightly, but lower down things get extremely mixed. There is a slodgy

Starting point is 02:40:53 theme in several keys at once, meaning mud banks, and another for the navigable canal, and the exit into the Baltic is in C-sharp major, pianissimo. What do the overhanging warehouses make of that? asked the man, laughing. They make a great deal of it, replied Margaret, unexpectedly rushing off on a new tack. I think it's affectation to compare the odour to music, and so do you, but the overhanging warehouses of Stetten take beauty seriously, which we don't, and the average Englishman doesn't, and despises all who do. Now don't say Germans have no taste, or I shall scream.

Starting point is 02:41:36 They haven't. But, but, such a tremendous but, they take poetry seriously. They do take poetry seriously. Is anything gained by that? Yes, yes, the German is always on the lookout for beauty. He may miss it through stupidity or misinterpret it, but he is always asking beauty to enter his life, and I believe that in the end it will come.

Starting point is 02:42:05 At Heidelberg I met a fat veterinary surgeon, whose voice broke with sobs as he repeated some mawkish poetry. So easy for me to laugh. I, who never repeat poetry good or bad, and cannot remember one fragment of verse to thrill myself with, my blood boils. Well, I'm half German, so put it down to patriotism, when I listen to the tasteful contempt of the average islander for things teutonic, whether the—' their bocklin or my veterinary surgeon.

Starting point is 02:42:38 Oh, Boclin, they say. He strains after beauty. He peoples' nature with gods, too, consciously. Of course, Boclin strains, because he wants something, beauty, and all the other intangible gifts that are floating about the world. So his landscapes don't come off, and ladders do. I'm not sure that I agree. Do you?

Starting point is 02:43:03 said he, turning to Mrs. Wilcox. She replied, I think Mischlegel puts everything splendidly. And a chill fell on the conversation. Oh, Mrs. Wilcox, say something nicer than that. It's such a snub to be told you put things splendidly. I do not mean it as a snub. Your last speech interested me so much.

Starting point is 02:43:29 Generally, people do not seem quite to like Germany. I have long wanted to hear what is said on the other side. The other side? Then you do disagree. Oh, good, give us your side. I have no side. But my husband—her voice softened, the chill increased. Has very little faith in the continent,

Starting point is 02:43:54 and our children have all taken after him. On what grounds? Do they feel that the continent is in bad form? Mrs. Wilcox had no idea. She paid little attention to grounds. She was not intellectual, nor even alert, and it was odd that all the same she should give the idea of greatness. Margaret, zigzagging with her friends over thought and art, was conscious of a personality that transcended their own, and dwarfed their activities. There was no bitterness in Mrs. Wilcox. There was not even criticism. She was lovable.

Starting point is 02:44:33 and no ungracious or uncharitable word had passed her lips. Yet she and daily life were out of focus. One or the other must show blurred. And at lunch she seemed more out of focus than usual, and nearer the line that divides life from a life that may be of greater importance. You will admit, though, that the continent— it seems silly to speak of the continent,

Starting point is 02:44:58 but really it is all more like itself than any part of it is like England. England is unique. I do have another jelly first. I was going to say that the continent, for good or for evil, is interested in ideas. Its literature and art have what one might call the kink of the unseen about them, and this persists even through decadence and affectation. There is more liberty of action in England, but for liberty of thought go to bureaucratic Prussia.

Starting point is 02:45:29 "'People will there discuss with humility "'vital questions that we here think ourselves "'too good to touch with tongs.' "'I do not want to go to Prussian,' said Mrs. Wilcox, "'not even to see that interesting view that you were describing. "'And for discussing with humility, I am too old. "'We never discuss anything at Howard's end.' "'Then you ought to,' said Margaret.

Starting point is 02:45:57 "'Discution keeps the house of. alive. It cannot stand by bricks and mortar alone. It cannot stand without them, said Mrs. Wilcox, unexpectedly catching on to the thought, and rousing for the first and last time, a faint hope in the breasts of the delightful people. It cannot stand without them, and I sometimes think— But I cannot expect your generation to agree, for even my daughter disagrees with me here. never mind us or her do say i sometimes think that it is wiser to leave action and discussion to men there was a little silence

Starting point is 02:46:45 one admits that the arguments against the suffrage are extraordinarily strong said a girl opposite leaning forward and crumbling her bread are they i never follow any arguments i am only too thankful not not to have a vote myself." "'We didn't mean the vote, though, did we?' supplied Margaret. "'Aren't we differing on something much wider, Mrs. Wilcox, whether women are to remain what they have been since the dawn of history, or whether since men have moved forward so far, they too may move forward a little now. I say they may.

Starting point is 02:47:22 I would even admit to biological change.' "'I don't know. I don't know.' I must be getting back to my overhaul. hanging warehouse, said the man. They've turned disgracefully strict. Mrs. Wilcox also rose. Oh, but come upstairs for a little.

Starting point is 02:47:42 Miss Quested plays? Do you like McDowell? Do you mind him only having two noises? If you really must go, I'll see you out. Won't you even have coffee? They left the dining-room, closing the door behind them, and as Mrs. Wilcox buttoned up her jacket, she said, "'What an interesting life you all lead in London.'

Starting point is 02:48:05 "'No, we don't,' said Margaret, with a sudden revulsion. "'We lead the lives of gibbering monkeys.' "'Mrs. Wilcox, really, we have something quiet and stable at the bottom. We really have. All my friends have.' "'Don't pretend you enjoyed lunch, for you loathed it. But forgive me by coming again, alone, or by asking, me to you?' I am used to young people, and with each word she spoke the outlines of known things grew dim.

Starting point is 02:48:41 I hear a great deal of chatter at home, for we, like you, entertain a great deal. With us it is more sport and politics, but—I enjoyed my lunch very much, Miss Schlegel, dear, and am not pretending, and only wish I could have joined in more. For one thing, I'm not particularly well just today. For another, you younger people move so quickly that it dazes me. Charles is the same, Dolly the same. But we are all in the same boat, old and young. I never forget that.

Starting point is 02:49:22 They were silent for a moment. Then with a newborn emotion they shook hands. The conversation ceased suddenly when Margaret re-entered the diner. room. Her friends had been talking over her new friend and had dismissed her as uninteresting. End of Chapter 10 of Howard's End. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clet. Howard's End by E. M. Forster.

Starting point is 02:50:13 Chapter 10 Several days passed Was Mrs. Wilcox one of the unsatisfactory people, there are many of them, who dangle intimacy and then withdraw it? They evoke our interests and affections, and keep the life of the spirit dawdling round them. Then they withdraw. When physical passion is involved, there is a definite name for such behavior, flirting,

Starting point is 02:50:40 and if carried far enough, it is punishable by law. But no law, not public opinion even, punishes those who coquette with friendship, though the dull ache that they inflict, the sense of misdirected effort and exhaustion, may be as intolerable, was she one of these? Margaret feared so at first, for, with a Londoner's impatience, she wanted everything to be settled up immediately. She mistrusted the periods of quiet that are essential to true growth. desiring to book Mrs. Wilcox as a friend, she pressed on the ceremony, pencil as it were in hand,

Starting point is 02:51:18 pressing the more because the rest of the family were away, and the opportunity seemed favorable. But the elder woman would not be hurried. She refused to fit in with a Wickham Place set, or to reopen discussion of Helen and Paul, whom Margaret would have utilized as a shortcut. She took her time, or perhaps let time take her, and when the Christ, The crisis did come. All was ready. The crisis opened with a message. Would Miss Schlegel come shopping? Christmas was nearing and Mrs. Wilcox felt behind hand with the presents. She had taken some more days in bed and a must make up for lost time. Margaret accepted, and at eleven o'clock one cheerless morning, they started out in a broim. First of all, began Margaret. We must make a list and tick off the people's names. My aunt, always does, and this fog may thicken up at any moment. Have you any ideas?' "'I thought we would go to Harrods, or the Haymarket stores,' said Mrs. Wilcox rather

Starting point is 02:52:22 hopelessly. "'Everything is sure to be there. I am not a good shopper. The din is so confusing, and your aunt is quite right, one ought to make a list. Take my notebook, then, and write your own name at the top of the page.' "'Oh, hooray!' said Marry,' said Marry. writing it. How very kind of you to start with me. But she did not want to receive anything expensive. Their acquaintance was singular rather than intimate, and she divined that the Wilcox clan would resent any expenditure on outsiders, the more compact families do. She did not want to be thought a second Helen, who would snatch presents since she could not snatch young men, nor to be exposed like a second Aunt Julie to the insults of Charles. A certain austerity

Starting point is 02:53:11 of demeanour was best, and she added, "'I don't really want a Yule-tide gift, though. In fact, I'd rather not.' "'Why?' "'Because I've odd ideas about Christmas. Because I have all that money can buy. I want more people, but no more things.' "'I should like to give you something worth your acquaintance, Miss Schlegel,

Starting point is 02:53:36 in memory of your kindness to me during my lonely fortnight. It has so happened that I have been left alone, and you have stopped me from brooding. I am too apt to brood.' "'If that is so,' said Margaret, "'if I have happened to be of use to you, which I didn't know, you cannot pay me back with anything tangible.' "'I suppose not, but one would like to. Perhaps I shall think of something as we go about.'

Starting point is 02:54:07 Her name remained at the head of the list, but nothing was written up They drove from shop to shop. The air was white, and when they alighted it tasted like cold pennies. At times they passed through a clot of grey. Mrs. Wilcox's vitality was low that morning, and it was Margaret who decided on a horse for this little girl, a galley-wog for that, for the rector's wife a copper-warming tray. We always give the servants money. Yes, do you, yes, much easier, replied Margaret. but felt the grotesque impact of the unseen upon the scene,

Starting point is 02:54:45 and saw issuing from a forgotten manger at Bethlehem this torrent of coins and toys. Vulgarity reigned. Public houses, besides their usual exhortation against temperance reform, invited men to, join our Christmas goose club, one bottle of gin, etc., or two according to subscription. A poster of a woman in tights heralded the Christmas pantomime, and Little Red Devils, who had come in again that year, were prevalent upon the Christmas cards. Margaret was no morbid idealist. She did not wish this spate of business and self-advertisement checked.

Starting point is 02:55:22 It was only the occasion of it that struck her with amazement annually. How many of these vacillating shoppers and tired shop assistants realized that it was a divine event that drew them together? She realized it, though standing outside in the matter. She was not a Christian in the accepted sense. She did not believe that God had ever worked among us as a young artisan. These people, or most of them, believed it, and if pressed, would affirm it in words. But the visible signs of their belief were Regent Street, or Drury Lane, a little mud displaced, a little money spent, a little food cooked, eaten and forgotten.

Starting point is 02:56:06 Inadequate. but in public who shall express the unseen adequately it is private life that holds out the mirror to infinity personal intercourse and that alone that ever hints at a personality beyond our daily vision no i do like a christmas on the home she announced in its clumsy way it does approach peace and good-will but oh it is clumsier every year is it i am only used to country christmases we are usually in london and play the game with vigour carols at the abbey clumsy midday meal clumsy dinner for the maids followed by christmas-tree and dancing of poor children with songs from helen the drawing-room does very well for that we put the tree in the powder-closet and draw a curtain when the candles are lighted and with a looking-glass behind it looks quite pretty I wish we might have a powder-closet in our next house. Of course the tree has to be very small, and the presents don't hang on it. No, the presents reside in a sort of rocky landscape made of crumpled brown paper.

Starting point is 02:57:21 You spoke of your next house, Miss Schlegel. Then are you leaving, Wickham Place? Yes, in two or three years when the lease expires. We must. Have you been there long? All our lives? You will be very sorry to leave it." "'I suppose so.

Starting point is 02:57:42 We scarcely realize it yet. My father!' She broke off, for they had reached the stationary department of the Haymarket stores, and Mrs. Wilcox wanted to order some private greeting cards. "'If possible, something distinctive,' she sighed. At the counter she found a friend, bent on the same errand, and conversed with her insipidly, wasting much time. My husband and our daughter are motoring.

Starting point is 02:58:11 Birth a two! Oh, fancy, what a coincidence! Margaret, though not practical, could shine in such company as this. While they talked, she went through a volume of specimen cards, and submitted one for Mrs. Wilcox's inspection. Mrs. Wilcox was delighted, so original, words so sweet, She would order a hundred like that and could never be sufficiently grateful. Then, just as the assistant was booking the order, she said, "'Do you know, I'll wait.

Starting point is 02:58:42 On second thoughts, I'll wait. There's plenty of time still, isn't there, and I shall be able to get Evie's opinion.' They returned to the carriage by devious paths. When they were in, she said, "'But couldn't you get it renewed?' "'I beg your pardon,' asked Margaret. "'The lease, I mean.' "'Oh, the lease! Have you been thinking of that all the time? How very kind of you.'

Starting point is 02:59:11 "'Surely something could be done.' "'No. Values have risen too enormously. They mean to pull down Wickham Place and build flats like yours.' "'But how horrible!' "'Landlords are horrible.' Then she said vehemently, "'It is monstrous, Miss Schlegel. It isn't right. I had no idea that this was hanging over you. I do pity you from the bottom of my heart.

Starting point is 02:59:39 To be parted from your house, your father's house, it oughtn't to be allowed. It is worse than dying. I would rather die than— Oh, poor girls! Can what they call civilization be right if people mayn't die in the room where they were born? My dear, I am so sorry. Margaret did not know what to say. Mrs. Wilcox had been overtired by shopping and was inclined to hysteria.

Starting point is 03:00:08 Howard's End was nearly pulled down once. It would have killed me. Howard's End must be a very different house to ours. We are found of ours, but there is nothing distinctive about it. As you saw, it is an ordinary London house. We shall easily find another. So you think. Again my lack of experience.

Starting point is 03:00:29 I suppose," said Margaret, easing away from the subject. "'I can't say anything when you take up that line, Mrs. Wilcox. I wish I could see myself as you see me, foreshortened into a back-fish. Quite the enjuneu. Very charming, wonderfully well-read for my age, but incapable.' Mrs. Wilcox would not be deterred. "'Come down with me to Howard's End now,' she said, more vehemently than ever. I want you to see it. You have never seen it. I want to hear what you say about it, for you do put things so wonderfully."

Starting point is 03:01:09 Margaret glanced at the pitiless air, and then at the tired face of her companion. "'Later on I should love it,' she continued. But it's hardly the weather for such an expedition, and we ought to start when we're fresh. Isn't the house shut up, too?' she received no answer mrs wilcox appeared to be annoyed might i come some other day mrs wilcox bent forward and tapped the glass back to wickin place please was her order to the coachman margaret had been snubbed a thousand thanks miss schlegel for all your help not at all it is such a comfort to get the presents off my mind the christmas cards especially I do admire your choice. It was her turn to receive no answer.

Starting point is 03:02:01 In her turn, Margaret became annoyed. My husband and Evie will be back the day after to-morrow. That is why I dragged you out shopping to-day. I stayed in town chiefly to shop, but got through nothing, and now he writes that they must cut their tour short, the weather is so bad, and the police traps have been so bad, nearly as bad as in Surrey. "'Ours are such a careful chauffeur, "'and my husband feels it particularly hard

Starting point is 03:02:29 "'they should be treated like roadhogs.' "'Why?' "'Well, naturally, he—he isn't a roadhog.' "'He was exceeding the speed limit, I conclude. "'He must expect to suffer with the lower animals.' "'Mrs. Wilcox was silenced. "'In growing discomfort they drove homewards. "'The city seemed satanic.

Starting point is 03:02:54 the narrower streets oppressing like the galleries of a mine. No harm was done by the fog to trade, for it lay high, and the lighted windows of the shops were thronged with customers. It was rather a darkening of the spirit which fell back upon itself to find a more grievous darkness within. Margaret nearly spoke a dozen times, but something throttled her. She felt petty and awkward, and her meditations on Christmas grew more cynical.

Starting point is 03:03:24 It may bring other gifts, but is there a single Londoner to whom Christmas is peaceful? The craving for excitement and for elaboration has ruined that blessing. Goodwill? Had she seen any example of it in the hordes of purchasers? Or in herself? She had failed to respond to this invitation merely because it was a little queer, and imaginative. She, whose birthright it was to nourish imagination. Better to have accepted, to have tired themselves a little by the journey, than coldly to reply,

Starting point is 03:04:00 Might I come some other day? Her cynicism left her. There would be no other day. This shadowy woman would never ask her again. They parted at the mansions. Mrs. Wilcox went in after due civilities, and Margaret watched the tall, lonely figures sweep up the hall to the lift. As the glass doors closed on it, she had the same. sense of an imprisonment. The beautiful head disappeared first, still buried in the muff,

Starting point is 03:04:28 the long trailing skirt followed. A woman of undefinable rarity was going up heavenward, like a specimen in a bottle. And into what a heaven? A vault as of hell, sooty black, from which soots descended. At lunch her brother, seeing her inclined for silence, insisted on talking. Tibby was not. Tibby was not ill-natured, but from babyhood something drove him to do the unwelcome and the unexpected. Now he gave her a long account of the day-school that he sometimes patronized. The account was interesting, and she had often pressed him for it before, but she could not attend now, for her mind was focused on the invisible. She discerned that Mrs. Wilcox, though a loving

Starting point is 03:05:17 wife and mother, had only one passion in life, her house. And her house, and her own. And, and her that the moment was solemn when she invited a friend to share this passion with her. To answer, another day, was to answer as a fool. Another day will do for brick and mortar, but not for the holy of holies into which Howard's end had been transfigured. Her own curiosity was slight. She had heard more than enough about it in the summer. The nine windows, the vine, and the witchelm, had no pleasant connections for her,

Starting point is 03:05:52 and she would have preferred to spend the afternoon at a concert. But imagination triumphed. While her brother held forth, she determined to go, at whatever cost, and to compel Mrs. Wilcox to go, too. When lunch was over, she stepped over to the flats. Mrs. Wilcox had just gone away for the night. Margaret said that it was of no consequence, hurried downstairs, and took a hansom to King's Cross.

Starting point is 03:06:19 She was convinced that the escapade was important. though it would have puzzled her to say why. There was a question of imprisonment and escape, and though she did not know the time of the train, she strained her eyes for the St. Pancras' clock. Then the clock of King's Cross swung into sight, a second moon in that infernal sky, and her cab drew up at the station.

Starting point is 03:06:42 There was a train for Hilton in five minutes. She took a ticket, asking in her agitation for a single. As she did so, a grave and happy voice saluted, her and thanked her. I will come if I still may, said Margaret, laughing nervously. You are coming to sleep, dear, too. It is in the morning that my house is most beautiful. You are coming to stop.

Starting point is 03:07:06 I cannot show you my meadow properly except at sunrise. These fogs, she pointed at the station roof, never spread far. I dare say they are sitting in the sun in Hertfordshire, and you will never repent joining them. I shall never repent joining you. It is the same. They began the walk up the long platform. Far at its end stood the train, breasting the darkness without.

Starting point is 03:07:34 They never reached it. Before imagination could triumph, there were cries of, Mother! Mother! And a heavy-browed girl darted out of the cloak-room and seized Mrs. Wilcox by the arm. Eiffy! she gasped. "'Evy, my pet!' The girl called, "'Father, I say, look who's here!'

Starting point is 03:07:57 "'Evy, dearest girl, why aren't you in Yorkshire?' "'No, motor-smash, change plans. Father's coming!' "'Why, Ruth,' cried Mr. Wilcox, joining them. "'What in the name of all that's wonderful are you doing here, Ruth?' Mrs. Wilcox had recovered herself. "'Oh, Henry, dear, here's a lovely surprise. "'But let me introduce—'

Starting point is 03:08:22 "'But I think you know Miss Schlegel.' "'Oh, yes,' he replied, not greatly interested. "'But how's yourself, Ruth?' "'Fit as a fiddle,' she answered gaily. "'So were we, and so was our car, which ran A-1 as far as Rippon, "'but there are a wretched horse and cart which are fool of a driver. "'Miss Schlegel, our little outing must be for another day.' "'I was saying that this fool of a driver, as the policeman himself admits,

Starting point is 03:08:50 "'Another day, Mrs. Wilcox, of course.' "'But as we've ensured against third-party risks, it won't so much matter. Cart and car being practically at right angles.' The voices of the happy family rose high. Margaret was left alone. No one wanted her. Mrs. Wilcox walked out of King's Cross between her husband and her daughter, listening to both of them. End of Chapter 10

Starting point is 03:09:21 Chapter 11 of Howard's End This is a Libravox recording All Libravox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer Please visit Libravox.org Recording by Elizabeth Clet Howard's End By E. M. Forster

Starting point is 03:09:50 Chapter 11 The funeral was over The carriages rolled away through the soft mud and only the poor remained. They approached to the newly dug shaft and looked their last at the coffin, now almost hidden beneath the spadefuls of clay. It was their moment.

Starting point is 03:10:10 Most of them were women from the dead woman's district, to whom black garments had been served out by Mr. Wilcox's orders. Pure curiosity had brought others. They thrilled with the excitement of a death, and of a rapid death, and stood in groups or moved between the graves like drops of ink. the sun of one of them a woodcutter was perched high above their heads pollarding one of the churchyard elms from where he sat he could see the village of hilton strung upon the north road with its accreting suburbs the sun set beyond scarlet and orange winking at him beneath brows of gray the church the plantations and behind him an unspoilt country of fields and farms but he too was rolling the event luxuriously in his mouth

Starting point is 03:10:57 He tried to tell his mother down below all that he had felt when he saw the coffin approaching, how he could not leave his work, and yet did not like to go on with it, how he had almost slipped out of the tree he was so upset. The rooks had cawed, and no wonder, it was as if rooks knew too. His mother claimed the prophetic power herself. She had seen a strange look about Mrs. Wilcox for some time. London had done the mischief, said others. She had been a kind lady. Her grandmother had been kind, too. A plainer person, but very kind.

Starting point is 03:11:35 Ah, the old sort was dying out. Mr. Wilcox, he was a kind, gentleman. They advanced to the topic again and again, dully, but with exaltation. The funeral of a rich person was to them what the funeral of Alcestis or Ophelia is to the educated. It was art. Though remote from life,

Starting point is 03:11:55 It enhanced life's values, and they witnessed it avidly. The gravediggers, who had kept up an undercurrent of disapproval, they disliked Charles. It was not a moment to speak of such things, but they did not like Charles Wilcox. The gravediggers finished their work and piled up the wreaths and crosses above it. The sun set over Hilton. The grey brows of the evening flushed a little, and were cleft with one scarlet frown. Chattering sadly to each other, the mourners passed through the lich gate and traversed the chestnut avenues that led down to the village. The young woodcutter stayed a little longer, poised above the silence and swaying rhythmically.

Starting point is 03:12:37 At last the bow fell beneath his saw. With a grunt he descended, his thoughts dwelling no longer on death, but on love, for he was mating. He stopped as he passed the new grave, a sheaf of tawny chrysanthemums had his eye. They didn't ought to have colored flowers at bearings, he reflected. Trudging on a few steps, he stopped again, looked furtively at the dusk, turned back, wrenched a chrysanthemum from the sheaf, and hid it in his pocket. After him came silence absolute. The cottage that abutted on the churchyard was empty, and no other house stood near. Hour after hour the scene of the interment remained without an eye to witness it. Clouds drifted over it from the west, or the church may have been a ship, high proud, steering with all its company towards

Starting point is 03:13:28 infinity. Towards morning the air grew colder, the sky clearer, the surface of the earth hard and sparkling above the prostrate dead. The woodcutter returning after a night of joy reflected, They lilies, they crescents. It's a pity I didn't take them all. Up at Howard's end, they were attempting breakfast. Charles and Evie sat in the dining-room with Mrs. Charles. Their father, who could not bear to see a face, breakfasted upstairs. He suffered acutely. Pain came over him in spasms, as if it was physical, and even while he was about to eat, his eyes would fill with tears, and he would lay down the morsel untasted. He remembered his wife's even goodness during thirty years. Not anything in detail, not courtship or early raptures, but just the

Starting point is 03:14:19 unvarying virtue that seemed to him a woman's noblest quality. So many women are capricious, breaking into odd flaws of passion or frivolity. Not so, his wife. Year after year, summer and winter, as bride and mother, she had been the same. He had always trusted her. Her tenderness, her innocence, the wonderful innocence that was hers by the gift of God. Ruth knew no more of worldly wickedness and wisdom than did the flowers in her garden or the grass in her field. Her idea of business— Henry, why do people who have enough money try to get more money? Her idea of politics.

Starting point is 03:15:03 I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet there would be no more wars. Her idea of religion—ah, this had been a cloud, but a cloud that passed. She came of Quakerstock, and he and his family, formerly dissenters, were now members of the Church of England. The rector's sermons had at first repelled her, and she had expressed a desire for a more inward light, adding, Not so much for myself as for baby, Charles. Inward light must have been granted, for he heard no complaints in later years. They brought up their three children without dispute. they had never disputed.

Starting point is 03:15:45 She lay under the earth now. She had gone, and as if to make her going the more bitter, had gone with a touch of mystery that was all unlike her. Why didn't you tell me you knew of it? He had moaned, and her faint voice had answered, I didn't want to, Henry. I might have been wrong, and everyone hates illnesses. He had been told of the horror by a strange doctor,

Starting point is 03:16:11 whom she had consulted during his absence from town. Was this altogether just? Without fully explaining she had died. It was a fault on her part, and, tears rushed into his eyes. What a little fault! It was the only time she had deceived him in those thirty years. He rose to his feet and looked out of the window, for Evie had come in with the letters, and he could meet no one's eye.

Starting point is 03:16:38 Ah, yes, she had been a good woman. She had been steady. He chose the word deliberately. To him steadiness included all praise. He himself, gazing at the wintry garden, is in appearance a steady man. His face was not as square as his sons, and indeed the chin, though firm enough in outline,

Starting point is 03:17:00 retreated a little, and the lips, ambiguous, were curtained by a moustache. But there was no external hint of weakness. The eyes, if capable of kindness and good fellowship, if ruddy for the moment with tears, were the eyes of one who could not be driven. The forehead, too, was like Charles's, high and straight, brown and polished, merging abruptly into temples and skull. It has the effect of a bastion that protected his head from the world.

Starting point is 03:17:30 At times it had the effect of a blank wall. He had dwelt behind it, intact and happy, for fifty-year. years. The posts come, father, said Evie awkwardly. Thanks. Put it down. Has the breakfast been all right? Yes, thanks. The girl glanced at him, and at it with constraint. She did not know what to do. Charles says, do you want the times? No, I'll read it later. Ring if you want anything, father, won't you? i've all i want having sorted the letters from the circulars she went back to the dining-room father's eaten nothing she announced sitting down with wrinkled brows behind the tea urn charles did not answer but after a moment he ran quickly upstairs opened the door and said look here father you must eat you know and having paused for a reply that did not come stole down again he's going to read his letters first i think he said evasively

Starting point is 03:18:39 i dare say he will go on with his breakfast afterwards then he took up the times and for some time there was no sound except the clink of cup against saucer and of knife on plate poor mrs charles sat between her silent companions terrified at the course of events and a little bored she was a rubbishy little creature and she knew it a telegram had dragged her from naples to the death-bed of a woman whom she had scarcely known a word from her husband had plunged her into mourning she desired to mourn inwardly as well but she wished that mrs wilcox since faded to die could have died before the marriage for then less would have been expected of her crumbling her toast and too nervous to ask for the butter she remained almost motionless thankful only for this that her father-in-law was having his breakfast upstairs at last charles spoke they had no business to be polding those elms yesterday he said to his sister no indeed i must make a note of that he continued i am surprised that the rector allowed it perhaps it may not be the rector's affair whose else could it be the lord of the manor impossible butter dolly thank you evie dear charles yes dear i didn't know one could pollard elms i thought one of the pollarded willows. Oh, no, one can, Pollard Elms.

Starting point is 03:20:15 Then why oughtn't the Elms in the churchyard to be polluted? Charles frowned a little and turned again to his sister. Another point. I must speak to Chalkley. Yes, rather, you must complain to Chalkley. It's no good him saying he is not responsible for those men. He is responsible. Yes, rather.

Starting point is 03:20:37 Brother and sister were not callous. They spoke thus, partly because they desired to keep chalkley up to the mark, a healthy desire in its way, partly because they avoided the personal note in life. All Wilcoxes did. It did not seem to them of supreme importance. Or it may be, as Helen supposed, they realized its importance, but were afraid of it. Panic and emptiness could one glance behind. They were not callous, and they left the breakfast table with aching hearts. Their mother never had come into breakfast. It was in the other rooms, and especially in the garden that they felt her lost most. As Charles went out to the garage, he was reminded at every step of the woman who had loved him in whom he could never replace. What battles he had fought

Starting point is 03:21:24 against her gentle conservatism, how she had disliked improvements, yet how loyally she had accepted them when made. He and his father, what trouble they had had to get this very garage. With what difficulty had they persuaded her to yield them to the paddock for it, the paddock that she loved more dearly than the garden itself. The vine, she had got her way about the vine, it still encumbered the south wall with its unproductive branches, and so with Evie as she stood talking to the cook. Though she could take up her mother's work inside the house, just as the man could take it up without, she felt that something unique had fallen out of her life. Their grief, though less poignant than their fathers, grew from deeper roots, for a wife may be replaced,

Starting point is 03:22:10 a mother never. Charles would go back to the office. There was little to do at Howard's end. The contents of its mother's will had long been known to them. There were no legacies, no annuities, none of the posthumous bustle with which some of the dead prolong their activities. Trusting her husband, she had left him everything without reserve. She was quite a poor woman. The house had been all her dowry, and the house would come to Charles in time. Her watercolors Mr. Wilcox intended to reserve for Paul, while Evie would take the jewelry and lace. How easily she slipped out of life! Charles thought the habit laudable, though he did not intend to adopt it himself, whereas Margaret

Starting point is 03:22:51 would have seen in it an almost culpable indifference to earthly fame. Cynicism—not the superficial cynicism that snarls and sneers, but the cynicism that can go with courtesy and tenderness. That was the note of Mrs. Wilcox's will. She wanted, not to vex people. That accomplished, the earth might freeze over her forever. No, there was nothing for Charles to wait for. He could not go on with his honeymoon, so he would go up to London and work. He felt too miserable hanging about. He and Dolly would have the furnished flat while his father rested quietly in the country with Evie. He could also keep an eye on his own little house, which was being painted and decorated for him in one of the Surrey suburbs, and in which he hoped to install himself soon

Starting point is 03:23:36 after Christmas. Yes, he would go up after lunch in his new motor, and the town servants, who had come down for the funeral, would go up by train. He found his father's chauffeur in the garage, and said, morning, without looking at the man's face, and bending over the car continued, "'Hello, my new car's been driven.' "'Has it, sir?' "'Yes,' said Charles, getting rather red, "'And whoever's driven it hasn't cleaned it properly, for there's mud on the axle. "'Take it off.' The man went for the cloths without a word.

Starting point is 03:24:10 He was a chauffeur as ugly as sen, not that this did him disservice with Charles, who thought charm and a man rather wrought, and had soon got rid of the little Italian beast with whom they had started. "'Charles!' his bride was tripping after him over the whore-frost, a dainty black column, her little face an elaborate morning hat forming the capital thereof. "'One minute, I'm busy.' "'Well, Crane, who's been driving it, do you suppose?' "'Don't know, I'm sure, sir. No one's driven it since I've been back,

Starting point is 03:24:41 but of course there's the fortnight I've been away with the other car in Yorkshire.' The mud came off rather easily. "'Charles, your father's down. Something's happened. He wants you in the house at once.' "'Oh, Charles!' "'Wait, dear, wait a minute. Who had the key? to the garage while you were away, Crane. The gardener, sir? Do you mean to tell me that old Penny can drive a motor?

Starting point is 03:25:06 No, sir. No one's had the motor out, sir. Then how to you account for the mud on the axle? A car, of course, say for the time I've been in Yorkshire. No more mud now, sir. Charles was vexed. The man was treating him as a fool, and if his heart had not been so heavy he would have reported him to his father. But it was not a mourning for complaints.

Starting point is 03:25:27 Ordering the motor to be round after lunch, he joined his wife, who had all the while been pouring out some incoherent story about a letter and a Miss Schlegel. Now, Dolly, I can attend to you. Miss Schlegel, what does she want? When people wrote a letter, Charles always asked what they wanted. Want was to him the only cause of action, and the question in this case was correct, for his wife replied, She wants Howard's End! Howard's End! Now, Crane, just don't forget to put on the stepney wheel. No, sir.

Starting point is 03:26:01 Now, mind you don't forget, for I—come, little woman. When they were out of the chauffeur's sight, he put his arm around her waist and pressed her against him. All his affection and half his attention. It was what he granted her throughout their happy married life. "'But you haven't listened, Charles? What's wrong?' "'I keep on telling you Howard's end. Miss Schlegel's got it.'

Starting point is 03:26:25 "'Got what?' asked Charles, unclasping her. "'What the dickens are you talking about?' "'Now, Charles, you promised not to say those naughty. "'Look here, I'm in no mood for foolery. It's no mourning for it either.' "'I tell you, I keep on telling you, Miss Schlegel, she's got it. Your mother's left it to her, and you've all got to move out.' "'Howard's end?' "'Howard's end!' she screamed, mimicking him,

Starting point is 03:26:52 and as she did so, Evie came dashing out of the shrubbery. Dolly, go back at once. My father's much annoyed with you. Charles! She hit herself wildly. Come in at once to father. He's had a letter that's too awful. Charles began to run, but checked himself,

Starting point is 03:27:09 and stepped heavily across the gravel path. There the house was, the nine windows, the unprolific vine. He exclaimed, "'Schlegel's again!' And as if to complete chaos, Daly said. "'Oh, no, the matron of the nursing home is written instead of her.' "'Come in, all three of you,' cried his father, no longer inert. "'Dolly, why have you disobeyed me?'

Starting point is 03:27:34 "'Oh, Mr. Wilcox!' "'I told you not to go out to the garage. I have heard you all shouting in the garden. I won't have it. Come in.' He stood in the porch, transformed letters in his hand. "'In to the dining-room every one of you. We can't discuss private matters in the middle of all the servants. Here, Charles, here, read these. See what you make. Charles took two letters and read them as he followed the procession.

Starting point is 03:28:00 The first was a covering note from the matron. Mrs. Wilcox had desired her when the funeral should be over to forward the enclosed. The enclosed, it was from his mother herself. She had written, To my husband, I should like Miss Schlegel, Margaret, to have Howard's end. I suppose we're going to have a talk about it. this, he remarked, ominously calm. Certainly, I was coming out to you when Dolly, Well, let's sit down. Come, Evie, don't waste time, sit down. In silence they drew up to the

Starting point is 03:28:36 breakfast table. The events of yesterday, indeed of this morning, suddenly receded into a past so remote that they seemed scarcely to have lived in it. Heavy breathings were heard. They were calming themselves. Charles, to steady them further, read the enclosure out loud. A note, in my mother's handwriting, in an envelope addressed to my father, sealed. Inside, I should like Miss Schlegel, Margaret, to have Howard's end, no date, no signature, forwarded through the matron of that nursing home. Now the question is, Daly interrupted him. But I say that note isn't legal. Houses ought to be done by a lawyer, Charles, surely. Her husband worked his jaw severely. Little lumps appeared in front of either ear, a symptom that she had not yet

Starting point is 03:29:27 learnt to respect, and she asked whether she might see the note. Charles looked at his father for permission, who said abstractedly, give it her. She seized it, and at once exclaimed, "'Why, it's only in pencil! I said so. Pencil never counts.' "'We know that it is not legally binding, Dolly,' said Mr. Wilcox, speaking from out of his fortress. We are aware of that. Legally, I should be justified in tearing it up and throwing it into the fire. Of course, my dear, we consider you as one of the family. But it will be better if you do not interfere with what you do not understand.

Starting point is 03:30:06 Charles vexed both with his father and his wife, then repeated, The question is, he had cleared a space of the breakfast table from plates and knives so that he could draw patterns on the tablecloth. The question is whether Miss Schlegel, during the question is, whether Miss Schlegel, during the fortnight we were all away. Whether she unduly—' he stopped. "'I don't think that,' said his father, whose nature was nobler than his sons. "'Don't think what?' "'That she would have—that it is a case of undue influence. No, to my mind the question is the—'

Starting point is 03:30:43 "'The invalid's condition at the time she wrote. "'My dear father, consult an expert if you like, but I don't admit. that it is my mother's writing." "'Why, you just said it was!' cried Dolly. "'Never mind if I did,' he blazed out. "'And hold your tongue.' The poor little wife colored at this, and drawing her handkerchief from her pocket, shed a few tears. No one noticed her.

Starting point is 03:31:10 Evie was scowling like an angry boy. The two men were gradually assuming the manner of the committee room. They were both at their best when serving on committees. They did not make the mistake of handling human affairs in the bulk, but disposed of them item by item sharply. Calligraphy was the item before them now, and on it they turned their well-trained brains. Charles, after a little demur, accepted the writing as genuine, and they passed on to the next point. It is the best, perhaps the only way of dodging emotion.

Starting point is 03:31:42 They were the average human article, and had they considered the note as a whole it would have driven them miserable or mad. Considered item by item, the emotional content was minimized, and all went forward smoothly. The clock ticked, the coals blazed higher, and contended with the white radiance that poured in through the windows. Unnoticed, the sun occupied his sky, and the shadows of the tree stems, extraordinarily solid, fell like trenches of purple across the frosted lawn. It was a glorious winter morning. Evie's fox-torn. Evey's fox-torned who had passed for white, was only a dirty gray dog now, so intense was the purity that surrounded him. He was discredited, but the blackbirds that he was chasing glowed with

Starting point is 03:32:27 Arabian darkness, for all the conventional coloring of life had been altered. Inside, the clock struck ten with a rich and confident note. Other clocks confirmed it, and the discussion moved toward its close. To follow it is unnecessary. It is rather a moment when the commentator should step forward. Ought the Wilcoxes to have offered their home to Margaret? I think not. The appeal was too flimsy. It was not legal.

Starting point is 03:32:57 It had been written in illness, and under the spell of a sudden friendship. It was contrary to the dead woman's intentions in the past, contrary to her very nature, so far as that nature was understood by them. To them, Howard's End was a house. They could not know that to her it had been a spirit, for which she sought a spiritual air. and pushing one step farther in these mists may they not have decided even better than they supposed is it credible that the possessions of the spirit can be bequeathed at all has the soul offspring a witch elm tree a vine a wisp of hay with dew on it can passion for such things be transmitted where there is no bond of blood no the wilcoxes are not to be blamed the problem is too terrific and they could not even pursue a problem. No, it is natural and fitting that after due debate they should tear the note

Starting point is 03:33:52 up and throw it on to their dining-room fire. The practical moralist may acquit them absolutely. He who strives to look deeper may acquit them, almost. For one hard fact remains. They did neglect a personal appeal. The woman who had died did say to them, do this, and they answered, we will not. The incident made a most painful impression on them. Grief mounted into the brain and worked there disquietingly. Yesterday they had lamented, she was a dear mother, a true wife, in our absence she neglected her health and died. Today they thought, she was not as true, as dear as we supposed. The desire for a more inward light had found expression at last, the unseen had impacted on the scene, and all that they could see.

Starting point is 03:34:44 say was treachery. Mrs. Wilcox had been treacherous to the family, to the laws of property, to her own written word. How did she expect Howard's End to be conveyed to Miss Schlegel? Was her husband, to whom it legally belonged, to make it over to her as a free gift? Was the said Ms. Schlegel to have a life interest in it, or to own it absolutely? Was there to be no compensation for the garage and other improvements that they had made under the assumption that all would be there some day? Tretcherous. treacherous and absurd when we think the dead both treacherous and absurd we have gone far towards reconciling ourselves to their departure that note scribbled in pencil sent through the matron was unbusinesslike as well as cruel and decreased at once the value of the woman who had written it ah well said mr wilcox rising from the table i shouldn't have thought it possible mother couldn't have meant it said evie

Starting point is 03:35:44 still frowning. No, my girl, of course not. Mother believed so in ancestors, too. It isn't like her to leave anything to an outsider who'd never appreciate. The whole thing is unlike her, he announced. If Miss Schlegel had been poor, if she had wanted a house, I could understand it a little. But she has a house of her own.

Starting point is 03:36:08 Why should she want another? She wouldn't have any use of Howard's end. "'That time may prove,' murmured Charles. "'How?' asked his sister. "'Presumably she knows. Mother will have told her. "'She got twice or three times into the nursing home. "'Presumably she is awaiting developments.' "'What a horrid woman!'

Starting point is 03:36:31 "'And Daly, who had recovered, cried. "'Why, she may be coming down to turn us out now!' Charles put her right. "'I wish she would,' he said ominously. I could then deal with her." So could I, echoed his father, who was feeling rather in the cold. Charles had been kind in undertaking the funeral arrangements and in telling him to eat his breakfast, but the boy, as he grew up, was a little dictatorial, and assumed the post of chairman

Starting point is 03:37:00 too readily. I could deal with her if she comes, but she won't come. You're all a bit hard on Miss Schlegel. That pool business was pretty scandalous, though. I want no more of the poor business, Charles, as I said at the time. And besides, it is quite apart from this business. Margaret Schlegel has been officious and tiresome during this terrible week, and we have all suffered under her.

Starting point is 03:37:27 But upon my soul she's honest. She's not in collusion with the matron. I'm absolutely certain of it. Nor was she with the doctor. I'm equally certain of that. She did not hide anything from us, for up to that very afternoon she was as ignorant as we are. She, like ourselves, was a dupe. He stopped for a moment. You see, Charles, in her terrible pain your poor mother put us all in false positions.

Starting point is 03:37:54 Paul would not have left England. You would not have gone to Italy. Nor Evie and I and to Yorkshire, if only we had known. Well, Miss Schlegel's position has been equally false. Take all in all she has not come out of it badly. Evey said, "'But those chrysanthemums?' "'Or coming down to the funeral at all?' echoed Daly. "'Why shouldn't she come down?

Starting point is 03:38:20 She had the right to, and she stood far back among the Hilton women. The flowers—' certainly we should not have sent such flowers, but they may have seemed the right thing to her, Evie, and for all you know they may be the custom in Germany.' "'Oh, I forget, she isn't really English,' cried Evie. that would explain a lot. She's a cosmopolitan, said Charles, looking at his watch.

Starting point is 03:38:45 I admit, I'm rather down on cosmopolitans. My fault, doubtless. I cannot stand them, and a German cosmopolitan is the limit. I think that's about all, isn't it? I want to run down and see Chalkley. A bicycle will do. And, by the way, I wish you'd speak to Crane some time. I'm certain he's had my new car out.

Starting point is 03:39:06 Has he done it any harm? No. In that case I shall let it pass. It's not worth while having a row. Charles and his father sometimes disagreed. But they always parted with an increased regard for one another, and each desired no doubtier comrade when it was necessary to voyage for a little past the emotions. So the sailors of Ulysses voyaged past the sirens, having first stopped one another's ears with wool. End of Chapter 11. of Howard's End. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth

Starting point is 03:40:03 Clett. Howard's End by E. M. Forster. Chapter 12. Charles need not have been anxious. Miss Schlegel had never heard of his mother's strange request. She was to hear of it in after years, when she had built up her life differently, and it was to fit into position as the headstone of the corner. Her mind was bent on other questions now, and by her also it would have been rejected as the fantasy of an invalid. She was parting from these Wilcoxes for the second time. Paul and his mother, ripple and great wave,

Starting point is 03:40:45 had flowed into her life and ebbed out of it forever. The ripple had left no traces behind. The wave had strewn at her feet fragments torn from the unknown. A curious seeker, she stood for a while at the verge of the sea that tells so little, but tells a little, and watched the outgoing of this last tremendous tide. Her friend had vanished in agony, but not, she believed, in degradation. Her withdrawal had hinted at other things besides disease and pain. Some leave our life with tears, others with an insane frigidity.

Starting point is 03:41:26 Mrs. Wilcox had taken the middle course, which only rarer natures can pursue. She had kept proportion. She had told a little of her grim secret to her friends, but not too much. She had shut up her heart, almost, but not entirely. it is thus if there is any rule that we ought to die neither as victim nor as fanatic but as the seafarer who can greet with an equal eye the deep that he is entering and the shore that he must leave the last word whatever it would be had certainly not been said in hilton churchyard she had not died there a funeral is not death any more than baptism is birth or marriage union. All three are the clumsy devices, coming now too late, now too early, by which society would register the quick motions of man. In Margaret's eyes Mrs. Wilcox had escaped

Starting point is 03:42:30 registration. She had gone out of life vividly, her own way, and no dust was so truly dust as the contents of that heavy coffin, lowered with ceremonial until it rested on the dust of the earth. No flowers so utterly wasted as the chrysanthemums that the frost must have withered before morning. Margaret had once said she loved superstition. It was not true. Few women had tried more earnestly to pierce the accretions in which body and soul are enrapped. The death of Mrs. Wilcox had helped her in her work. She saw a little more clearly than hitherto what a human being is, and to what he made. aspire. Trueer relationships gleamed. Perhaps the last word would be hope. Hope even on this side of the

Starting point is 03:43:25 grave. Meanwhile, she could take an interest in the survivors. In spite of her Christmas duties, in spite of her brother, the Wilcoxes continued to play a considerable part in her thoughts. She had seen so much of them in the final week. They were not her sort. They were often suspicious and stupid and deficient where she excelled. But collision with them stimulated her, and she felt an interest that verged into liking, even for Charles. She desired to protect them, and often felt that they could protect her, excelling where she was deficient. Once passed the rocks of emotion, they knew so well what to do, whom to send for. Their hands were on all the ropes. They had grit, as well as grittiness, and she valued grit enormously. They led a life that she could not attain to,

Starting point is 03:44:23 the outer life of telegrams and anger, which had detonated when Helen and Paul had touched in June, and had detonated again the other week. To Margaret, this life was to remain a real force. She could not despise it as Helen and Tibby affected to do. It fostered such virtues as neatness, decision, and obedience. Virtues of the second rank, no doubt, but they have formed our civilization. They form character, too. Margaret could not doubt it. They keep the soul from becoming sloppy. How dare Schlagels despise Wilcoxes when it takes all sorts to make a world. Don't brew too much, she wrote to Helen. On the superiority of the unscifulty of the unsexuals. scene to the scene. It's true, but to brood on it is medieval. Our business is not to contrast the two,

Starting point is 03:45:23 but to reconcile them. Helen replied that she had no intention of brooding on such a dull subject. What did her sister take her for? The weather was magnificent. She and the Mossabachs had gone to bargaining on the only hill that Pomerania boasted. It was fun. but overcrowded, for the rest of Pomerania had gone there too. Helen loved the country, and her letter glowed with physical exercise and poetry. She spoke of the scenery, quiet yet august, of the snow-clad fields with their scampering herds of deer, of the river and its quaint entrance into the Baltic Sea, of the Oderbergh, only three hundred feet high, from which one slid all too quickly back into the Pomeranian plain.

Starting point is 03:46:13 and yet these Oderberge were real mountains, with pine forests, streams, and views complete. It isn't size that counts so much as the way things are arranged. In another paragraph she referred to Mrs. Wilcox sympathetically, but the news had not bitten into her. She had not realized the accessories of death, which are, in a sense, more memorable than death itself. The atmosphere of precautions and recriminations. nations, and in the midst a human body growing more vivid because it was in pain, the end of that

Starting point is 03:46:50 body in Hilton Churchyard, the survival of something that suggested hope, vivid in its turn against life's workaday cheerfulness, all these were lost to Helen, who only felt that a pleasant lady could now be pleasant no longer. She returned to Wickham Place full of her own affairs. She had had another proposal. And Margaret, after a moment of her most of her own. She had, after a moment of moment's hesitation, was content that this should be so. The proposal had not been a serious matter. It was the work of Fraulein Moserbach, who had conceived the large and patriotic notion of winning back her cousins to the fatherland by matrimony. England had played Paul Wilcox, and lost. Germany played Herr Forstmeister someone. Helen could

Starting point is 03:47:38 not remember his name. Herr Forstmeister lived in a wood. and standing on the summit of the oderbergh he had pointed out his house to helen or rather had pointed out the wedge of pines in which it lay she had exclaimed oh how lovely that's the place for me and in the evening frieda appeared in her bedroom i have a message dear helen etc and so she had but had been very nice when helen laughed quite understood a forest too solitary and damp quite agreed but herr forestmeister believed he had assurance to the contrary germany had lost but with good humour holding the manhood of the world she felt bound to win and there will even be some one for tibby concluded helen there now tibby think of that frieda is saving up a little girl for you in pig-tails and white worsted stockings but the feet of the stockings are pink as if the little girl had trodden in strawberries I've talked too much. My headaches. Now you talk. Tibby consented to talk. He too was full of his own affairs, for he had just been up to try for a scholarship at Oxford. The men were down, and the candidates had been housed in various colleges, and had dined in hall. Tibby was sensitive to beauty. The experience was new, and he gave a description of his visit that was almost glowing. The august and men had been Mello University, soaked with the richness of the western counties that it has served for a thousand years, appealed at once to the boy's taste. It was the kind of thing he could understand,

Starting point is 03:49:26 and he understood it all the better because it was empty. Oxford is—Oxford, not a mere receptacle for youth, like Cambridge. Perhaps it wants its inmates to love it rather than to love one another. Such, at all events, was to be its effect on Tibby. His sisters sent him there that he might make friends, for they knew that his education had been cranky, and had severed him from other boys and men. He made no friends. His Oxford remained Oxford empty,

Starting point is 03:49:59 and he took into life with him, not the memory of a radiance, but the memory of a colour scheme. It pleased Margaret to hear her brother and sister talking. They did not get on. unover well as a rule. For a few moments she listened to them, feeling elderly and benign. Then something occurred to her, and she interrupted. Helen, I told you about poor Mrs. Wilcox, that sad business? Yes. I have had a correspondence with her son.

Starting point is 03:50:32 He was winding up the estate, and wrote to ask me whether his mother had wanted me to have anything. I thought it good of him, consider that he. I knew her so little. I said that she had once spoken of giving me a Christmas present, but we both forgot about it afterwards. I hope Charles took the hint. Yes, that is to say, her husband wrote later on and thanked me for being a little kind to her, and actually gave me her sylva of a regret. Don't you think that is extraordinarily generous? It has made me like him very much. He hoped. He hoped. that this will not be the end of our acquaintance, but that you and I will go and stop with

Starting point is 03:51:15 Evie some time in the future." I like Mr. Wilcox. He is taking up his work—rubber—it is a big business. I gather he is launching out, rather. Charles is in it, too. Charles is married, a pretty little creature, but she doesn't seem wise. They took on the flat, but now they have gone off to a house of their own. Helen, after a decent pause, continued her account of Stetton.

Starting point is 03:51:44 How quickly a situation changes. In June she had been in a crisis. Even in November she could blush and be unnatural. Now it was January, and the whole affair lay forgotten. Looking back on the past six months, Margaret realized the chaotic nature of our daily life and its difference from the orderly sequence that has been fabricated by historians. actual life is full of false clues and sign-posts that lead nowhere with infinite effort we nerve ourselves for a crisis that never comes the most successful career must show a waste of strength that might have removed mountains and the most unsuccessful is not that of the man who has taken unprepared but of him who has prepared and is never taken

Starting point is 03:52:32 on a tragedy of that kind our national morality is duly silent it assumes that preparation against danger is in itself a good and that men like nations are the better for staggering through life fully armed The tragedy of preparedness has scarcely been handled, save by the Greeks. Life is indeed dangerous, but not in the way morality would have us believe. It is indeed unmanageable, but the essence of it is not a battle. It is unmanageable because it is a romance, and its essence is romantic beauty. Margaret hoped that for the future she would be less cautious, not as well. more cautious than she had been in the past. End of Chapter 12.

Starting point is 03:53:35 Chapter 13 of Howard's End. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Glet. Howard's End by E. M. Forster. Chapter 13. Over two years passed, and the Schlegel household continued to lead its life of cultured but not ignoble ease, still swimming gracefully on the grey tides of London.

Starting point is 03:54:10 Concerts and plays swept past them. Money had been spent and renewed. Reputations won and lost, and the city herself, emblematic of their lives, rose and fell in a continual flux, while her shallows washed more widely against the hills of Surrey and over the fields of Hertfordshire. This famous building had arisen. That was doomed. Today Whitehall had been transformed. It would be the turn of Regent Street tomorrow.

Starting point is 03:54:41 And month by month, the roads smelt more strongly of petrol and were more difficult to cross, and human beings heard each other speak with greater difficulty, breathed less of the air and saw less of the sky. Nature withdrew. The leaves were falling by midsummer. The sun shone through dirt with an admired obscurity.

Starting point is 03:55:05 To speak against London is no longer fashionable. The earth as an artistic cult has had its day, and the literature of the near future will probably ignore the country and seek inspiration from the town. One can understand the reaction. of pan and the elemental forces the public has heard a little too much they seem victorian while london is georgian and those who care for the earth with sincerity may wait long ere the pendulum swings back to her again certainly london fascinates one visualizes it as a tract of quivering grey intelligent without purpose and excitable without love as a spirit that has altered before for it can be chronicled, as a heart that certainly beats, but with no pulsation of humanity.

Starting point is 03:55:58 It lies beyond everything. Nature, with all her cruelty, comes nearer to us than do these crowds of men. A friend explains himself. The earth is explicable. From her we came, and we must return to her. But who can explain Westminster Bridge Road, or Liverpool Street in the morning, the city inhaling? or the same thoroughfares in the evening the city exhaling her exhausted air we reach in desperation beyond the fog beyond the very stars the voids of the universe are ransacked to justify the monster and stamped with a human face london is religion's opportunity not the decorous religion of theologians but anthropomorphic crude yes the continuous flow would be tolerable if a man of our own sort not any one pompous or tearful were caring for us up in the sky the londoner seldom understands his city until it sweeps him away too from his moorings and margaret's eyes were not open until the lease of wickham place expired she had always known that it must expire but the knowledge only became vivid about nine months before the event then the house was suddenly ringed with pathos it had seen so much happiness why had it to be swept away in the streets of the city she noted for the first time the architecture of hurry and heard the language of hurry on the mouths of its inhabitants

Starting point is 03:57:34 clipped words formless sentences potted expressions of approval or disgust month by month things were stepping livelier but to what goal the population still rose but what was the quality of the men born the particular millionaire who owned the freehold of wickham place and desired to erect babylonian flats upon it what right had he to stir so large a portion of the quivering jelly he was not a fool she had heard him expose socialism but true insight began just where his intelligence ended and one gathered that this was the case with most millionaires What right had such men?' But Margaret checked herself. That way lies madness. Thank goodness she, too, had some money, and could purchase a new home. Tibby, now in his second year at Oxford, was down for the Easter vacation,

Starting point is 03:58:33 and Margaret took the opportunity of having a serious talk with him. Did he at all know where he wanted to live? Tibby didn't know that he did know. Did he at all know what he wanted to do? He was equally uncertain, but when pressed, remarked that he should prefer to be quite free of any profession. Margaret was not shocked, but went on sewing for a few minutes before she replied, I was thinking of Mr. Weiss.

Starting point is 03:59:02 He never strikes me as particularly happy. Yes, said Tibby, and then held his mouth open in a curious quiver, as if he, too, had thoughts of Mr. Weiss, had seen round, through, over and beyond Mr. Weiss, had weighed Mr. Weiss, grouped him, and finally dismissed him as having no possible bearing on the subject under discussion. That bleat of Tibby's infuriated Helen. But Helen was now down in the dining-room preparing a speech about political economy. At times her voice could be heard declaiming through the floor. But Mr. Weiss is rather a wretched, weedy man, don't you think? Then there's Guy. That was a pitiful business. Besides, shifting to the general, everyone is the better for some regular work.

Starting point is 03:59:54 Growns. I shall stick to it, she continued, smiling. I am not saying it to educate you. It is what I really think. I believe that in the last century men have developed the desire for work, and they must not starve it. It's a new desire. It goes with a great deal that's bad, but in itself it's good, and I hope that for women, too, not to work, will soon become as shocking as not to be married was a hundred years ago. I have no experience of this profound desire to which you allude, anunciated Tibby. Then we'll leave the subject till you do.

Starting point is 04:00:38 I'm not going to rattle you round. take your time only do think over the lives of the men you like most and see how they've arranged them i like guy and mr vice most said tibby faintly and lent so far back in his chair that he extended in a horizontal line from knees to throat and don't think i'm not serious because i don't use the traditional arguments making money a sphere awaiting you and so on all of which are for various reasons "'Can't,' she sewed on. "'I'm only your sister. I haven't any authority over you, and I don't want to have any. Just to put before you what I think the truth.' "'You see,' she shook off the pants nay to which she had recently taken. "'In a few years we shall be the same age, practically, and I shall want you to help me.

Starting point is 04:01:34 Men are so much nicer than women.' "'Laboring under such a delusion, why do you not? marry?" "'I sometimes jolly well think I would if I got the chance,' has nobody asked you. Only ninny's. Do people ask Helen?' "'Plentifully.' "'Tell me about them.'

Starting point is 04:01:57 "'No.' "'Tell me about your ninnees, then.' "'They were men who had nothing better to do,' said his sister, feeling that she was entitled to score this point. So take warning. You must work, or else you must pretend to work, which is what I do. Work, work, work if you'd save your soul and your body. It is honestly a necessity, dear boy.

Starting point is 04:02:25 Look at the Wilcoxes. Look at Mr. Pembroke. With all their defects of temper and understanding, such men give me more pleasure than many who are better equipped, and I think it is because they have worked regularly and honestly. "'Spaire me the Wilcoxes,' he moaned. "'I shall not, they are the right sort.' "'Oh, goodness me, Meg!' he protested, suddenly sitting up alert and angry.

Starting point is 04:02:55 Tibby, for all his defects, had a genuine personality. "'Well, there is near the right sort as you can imagine—' "'No, no, oh no!' "'I was thinking of the younger son, whom I once classed as a ninny, but who came back so ill from Nigeria. He's gone out there again, Evie Wilcox tells me, out to his duty. Duty, always elicited aground. He doesn't want the money, it is work he wants, though it is beastly work.

Starting point is 04:03:28 Dull country, dishonest natives, an eternal fidget over fresh water and food. A nation who can produce men of that sort may well be proud. No wonder England has become a good. an empire. Empire! I can't bother over results, said Margaret a little sadly. They are too difficult for me. I can only look at the men.

Starting point is 04:03:54 An empire bores me so far, but I can appreciate the heroism that builds it up. London bores me. But what thousands of splendid people are laboring to make London? What it is! he sneered. What it is worse luck. I want activity without civilization. How paradoxical! Yet I expect that is what we shall find in heaven.

Starting point is 04:04:23 And I, said Tibby, want civilization without activity, which I expect is what we shall find in the other place. You needn't go as far as the other place, Tibikins, if you want that. You can find it at Oxford. "'Stupid! If I'm stupid, get me back to the house-hunting. I'll even live in Oxford, if you like—north, Oxford. I'll live anywhere except Bournemouth, Torquay, and Cheltenham. Oh, yes, or Ilfrakham or Swanage and Tumbridge, and Surbiton and Bedford, there on no account. London, then. I agree, but Helen rather wants to get away from London. However, there's no reason we should not. have a house in the country and also a flat in town, provided we all stick together and contribute. Though, of course. Oh, how does one monder on, and to think, to think of the people who are really poor?

Starting point is 04:05:24 How do they live? Not to move about the world would kill me. As she spoke, the door was flung open, and Helen burst in in a state of extreme excitement. Oh, my dears, what do you think? You'll Never guess. A woman's been here asking me for her husband. Her what? Helen was fond of supplying her own surprise. Yes, for her husband, and it really is so. Not anything to do with Bracknell, cried Margaret, who had lately taken on an unemployed of that name to clean the knives and boots. I offered Bracknell, and he was rejected. So was Tibby. Oh, cheer up, Tibby. It's no one we know. I said, hunt my good woman, have a good look round, hunt under the tables, poke up the chimney, shake out the ante-macassas, husband, husband?

Starting point is 04:06:23 Oh, and she's so magnificently dressed and tinkling like a chandelier. Now, Helen, what did happen really? What I say! I was, as it were, orating, my speech. Annie opens the door like a fool and shows a female straight in on me with my mouth open. Then we began, very civilly. I want my husband, what I have reason to believe is here. No, how unjust one is.

Starting point is 04:06:57 She said, whom, not what. She got it perfectly. So I said, name, please. And she said, land, miss. and there we were. Lan? Lan or Len. We were not nice about our vowels.

Starting point is 04:07:18 Lano-Len. That what an extraordinary! I said, my good, Mrs. Lannolin, we have some grave misunderstanding here. Beautiful as I am, my modesty is even more remarkable than my beauty, and never, never has Mr. Lannelin rested his eyes on mine. "'I hope you were pleased,' said Tibby. "'Of course,' Helen squeaked.

Starting point is 04:07:43 "'A perfectly delightful experience!' "'Oh, Mrs. Lennelan, said dear, "'she asked for a husband as if he was an umbrella. "'She mislaid him Saturday afternoon, "'and for a long time suffered no inconvenience. "'But all night and all this morning her apprehensions grew. "'Breakfast didn't seem the same. "'No, no more did lunch,

Starting point is 04:08:05 "'and so she strolled up to two, place as being the most likely place for the missing article. But how on earth? Don't begin how on earthing. I know what I know, she kept repeating, not uncivilly, but with extreme gloom. In vain I asked her what did she know. Some knew what others knew, and others didn't, and if they didn't, then others again and better be careful.

Starting point is 04:08:35 Oh, dear, she was incompetent. She had a face like a silkworm in the dining-room reeks of Orris-Root. We chatted pleasantly a little about husbands, and I wondered where hers was, too, and advised her to go to the police. She thanked me. We agreed that Mr. Lannalin's a naughty, naughty man, and hasn't no business to go on the la-di-da. But I think she suspected me up to the last.

Starting point is 04:09:02 Bag's eye writing to Aunt Julie about this. Now, Meg, remember! Bag's eye. Baggett by all means, murmured Margaret, putting down her work. I'm not sure that this is so funny, Helen. It means some horrible volcano smoking somewhere, doesn't it? I don't think so. She doesn't really mind.

Starting point is 04:09:27 The admirable creature isn't capable of tragedy. Her husband may be, though, said Margaret, moving to the window. Oh, no, not likely. No one capable of tragedy could have married Mrs. Lanolin. Was she pretty? Her figure may have been good once. The flats, their only outlook, hung like an ornate curtain between Margaret and the welter of London. Her thoughts turned sadly to house-hunting. Wickham Place had been so safe.

Starting point is 04:10:01 She feared fantastically that her own little flock might be moving in. into turmoil and squalor, into nearer contract with such episodes as these. "'Tibby and I have again been wondering we will live next September,' she said at last. "'Tibby had better first wonder what he'll do,' retorted Helen. And that topic was resumed, but with acrimony. Then tea came, and after tea Helen went on preparing her speech, and Margaret prepared one too, for they were going out to a discussion society on the morrow. But her thoughts were poisoned. Mrs. Lanolin had risen out of the

Starting point is 04:10:41 abyss, like a faint smell, a goblin football, telling of a life where love and hatred had both decayed. End of Chapter 13 of Howard's End. This is a Librevox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librovocs.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clet Howard's End by E. M. Forster Chapter 14

Starting point is 04:11:29 The mystery, like so many mysteries, was explained. Next day, just as they were dressed to go out to dinner, a Mr. Bast called. He was a clerk in the employment of the Porphyrian Fire Insurance Company, thus much from his card. He had come, about the lady, yes. yesterday, thus much from Annie, who had shown him into the dining-room. "'Chea's children!' cried Helen.

Starting point is 04:11:59 "'It's Mrs. Ladolin!' Tibby was interested. The three hurried downstairs to find not the gay dog they expected, but a young man, colourless, toneless, who had already the mournful eyes above a drooping moustache that are so common in London, and that haunt some streets of the city like accusing presences. One guessed him as the third generation, grandson to the shepherd or ploughboy, whom civilization had sucked into the town, as one of the thousands who have lost the life of the body, and failed to reach the life of the spirit. Hints of robustness survived in him, more than a hint

Starting point is 04:12:40 of primitive good looks, and Margaret noting the spine that might have been straight, and the that might have broadened, wondered whether it paid to give up the glory of the animal for a tailcoat and a couple of ideas. Culture had worked in her own case, but during the last few weeks she had doubted whether it humanized the majority, so wide and so widening is the gulf that stretches between the natural and the philosophic man, so many the good chaps who are wrecked in trying to cross it. She knew this type very well, the vague aspirations the mental dishonesty, the familiarity with the outsides of books. She knew the very tones in which he would address her.

Starting point is 04:13:24 She was only unprepared for an example of her own visiting card. You wouldn't remember giving me this, Miss Schlegel, said he, uneasily familiar. No, I can't say I do. Well, that was how it happened, you see. "'Where did we meet, Mr. Bast? For the minute I don't remember.' "'It was a concert at the Queen's Hall. I think you will recollect,' he added pretentiously, when I tell you that it included a performance of the Fifth Symphony of Beethoven. "'We hear the Fifth practically every time it's done, so I'm not sure. Do you remember Helen?'

Starting point is 04:14:09 "'Was at the time the Sandy Cat walked round the Ballastrophe?' He thought not. Then I don't remember. That's the only Beethoven I ever remember specially. And you, if I may say so, took away my umbrella, inadvertently, of course. Likely enough, Helen laughed, for I steal umbrellas even oftener than I hear Beethoven. Did you get it back? Yes, thank you, Mishlegel.

Starting point is 04:14:41 The mistake arose out of my cup. hard did it," interposed Margaret. "'Yes, the mystic arose. It was a mistake.' "'The lady who called here yesterday thought that you were calling to, and that she could find you,' she continued, pushing him forward, for though he had promised an explanation he seemed unable to give one. "'That's so, calling to. A mistake.' "'Then why?' began Helen.

Starting point is 04:15:10 but Margaret laid a hand on her arm. I said to my wife, he continued more rapidly, I said to Mrs. Bast, I have to pay a call on some friends, and Mrs. Bassst said to me, do go. While I was gone, however, she wanted me on important business, and thought I had come here, owing to the card, and so came after me, and I begged to tender my apologies and hers as well for any inconvenience we may have inadvertently caused you. "'No inconvenience,' said Helen. "'But I still don't understand.' An air of evasion characterized Mr. Bast.

Starting point is 04:15:49 He explained again, but was obviously lying, and Helen didn't see why he should get off. She had the cruelty of youth. Neglecting her sister's pressure, she said, "'I still don't understand. When did you say you paid this call?' "'Call. What call?' said he,

Starting point is 04:16:08 staring as if her question had been a foolish one, a favourite device of those in midstream. This afternoon call? In the afternoon, of course, he replied, and looked at Tibby to see how the repartee went. But Tibby, himself a repartee, was unsympathetic and said, Saturday afternoon or Sunday afternoon? Saturday. Really? said Helen.

Starting point is 04:16:37 And you were still calling on Sunday when your wife came here? A long visit. I don't call that fair, said Mr. Bast, going scarlet and handsome. There was fight in his eyes. I know what you mean, and it isn't so. Oh, don't let us mind, said Margaret, distressed again by odors from the abyss. It was something else, he asserted, his elaborate manner breaking down. I was somewhere else to what you think, so there.

Starting point is 04:17:08 It was good of you to come and explain, she said. The rest is naturally no concern of ours. Yes, but I want—I wanted— Have you ever read the ordeal of Richard Feverell? Margaret nodded. It's a beautiful book. I wanted to get back to the earth. Don't you see, like Richard does in the end?

Starting point is 04:17:33 Or have you ever read— Stevenson's Prince Otto. Helen and Tibby groaned gently. That's another beautiful book. You get back to the earth and that. I wanted—' He mouthed effectively. Then through the mists of his culture came a hard fact, hard as a pebble.

Starting point is 04:17:52 I walked all than Saturday night, said Leonard. I walked. A thrill of approval ran through the sisters. But culture closed in again. He asked whether they had ever read E. V. Lucas's Open Road. Said Helen, no doubt it's another beautiful book, but I'd rather hear about your road. Oh, I walked. How far?

Starting point is 04:18:19 I don't know. Nor for how long. Got too dark to see my watch. Were you walking alone, may I ask? Yes, he said, straightening himself. But we'd been talking it over. at the office. There's been a lot of talk at the office lately about these things. The fellows there said one's steers by the pole-star, and I looked it up in the celestial atlas, but once out

Starting point is 04:18:43 of doors everything gets so mixed. "'Don't talk to me about the pole-star,' interrupted Helen, who was becoming interested. I know its little ways. It goes round and round, and you go round after it. Well, I lost it entirely. First of all the street-lamps, then the trees, and towards morning it got cloudy. Tibby, who preferred his comedy undiluted, slipped from the room. He knew that this fellow would never attain to poetry, and did not want to hear him trying. Margaret and Helen remained. Their brother influenced them more than they knew. In his absence they were stirred to enthusiasm more easily. "'Where did you start from?' cried Margaret. "'Do tell us more.' "'I took the underground to Wimbledon. As I came out to the office I said,

Starting point is 04:19:33 said to myself, I must have a walk once in a way. I don't take this walk now, I shall never take it. I had a bit of dinner at Wimbledon, and then—' "'But not good country there, is it?' It was gas-lamps for hours. Still, I had all the night, and being out was the great thing. I did get into woods, too, presently. "'Yes, go on,' said Helen. "'You've no idea how difficult, uneven ground is when it's dark.' "'Did you actually go off the roads?' "'Oh, yes. I always meant to go off the roads, but the worst of it is that it's more difficult to find one's way.'

Starting point is 04:20:10 "'Mr. Bast, you're a born adventurer,' laughed Margaret. "'No professional athlete would have attempted what you've done. It's a wonder your walk didn't end in a broken neck. "'Whatever did your wife say?' "'Professional athletes never move without lanterns and compasses,' said Helen. "'Besides, they can't walk. It tires them.' "'Go on.' "'I felt like RLS. L.S. You probably remember how in Viginibus.' "'Yes, but the wood. This here wood. How did you get out of it?'

Starting point is 04:20:43 I managed one wood, and found a road the other side which went a good bit uphill. I rather fancy it was those north downs, for the road went off into grass, and I got into another wood. That was awful, with gorse bushes. I did wish I'd never come. But suddenly it got light, just while I seemed going under one tree. Then I found a road down to a station, and I took the first train I could back to London. But was the dawn wonderful? asked Helen. With unforgettable sincerity, he replied, no. The word flew again like a pebble from the sling.

Starting point is 04:21:23 Down-topled all that had seemed ignoble or literary in his talk. Down-toppeled tiresome R-L-S and the love of the love of the love of all that had seemed ignoble or literary in his talk, down-toppeled tiresome R-L-S and the love of the earth and his silk-top hat. In the presence of these women Leonard had arrived, and he spoke with a flow and exultation that he had seldom known. The dawn was only grey. It was nothing to mention. Just a grey evening turned upside down. I know. And I was too tired to lift up my head to look at it, and so cold, too. I'm glad I did it, and yet at the same time it bore me. It was a little time it bored. me more than I can say. And besides, you can believe me or not as you choose, I was very hungry.

Starting point is 04:22:07 That dinner at Wimbledon, I meant it to last me all night, like other dinners. I never thought that walking would make such a difference. Why, when you're walking, you want, as it were, a breakfast and luncheon and tea during the night as well, and I had nothing but a packet of woodbines. Lord, did I feel bad. Looking back, it wasn't what you may call enjoyment. It was more a case of sticking to it. I did stick. I was determined. Oh, hang it all. What's the good? I mean, the good of living in a room forever. There one goes on day after day, same old game, same up and down to town, until you forget there is any other game. You ought to see once in a way what's going on outside, if it's only nothing particular after all. I should just think you ought, said Helen.

Starting point is 04:22:59 sitting on the edge of the table. The sound of a lady's voice recalled him from sincerity, and he said, Curious it should all come about from reading something of Richard Jeffries. Excuse me, Mr. Bast, but you're wrong there. It didn't. It came from something far greater. But she could not stop him. Barrow was imminent after Jeffreys. Barrow, Thoreau and sorrow. R.L.S. brought up the rear, and the outburst ended. in a swamp of books. No disrespect to these great names. The fault is ours, not theirs. They mean us to use them for signposts, and are not to blame if, in our weakness, we mistake the signpost for the destination.

Starting point is 04:23:44 And Leonard had reached the destination. He had visited the county of Surrey when darkness covered its amenities, and its cozy villas had re-entered ancient night. Every twelve hours this miracle happens, but he had trouble to go and see for himself. Within his cramped little mind dwelt something that was greater than Geoffrey's books, the spirit that led Jeffreys to write them, and his dawn, though revealing nothing but monotones, was part of the eternal sunrise that shows George Borough Stonehenge. "'Then you don't think I was foolish,' he asked,

Starting point is 04:24:22 becoming again the naive and sweet-tempered boy for whom nature had intended him. Heaven's no, replied Margaret. Heaven help us if we do, replied Helen. Very glad you say that. Now my wife would never understand, not if I explained for days. No, it wasn't foolish, cried Helen, her eyes aflame.

Starting point is 04:24:46 You've pushed back the boundaries. I think it's splendid of you. You've not been content to dream as we have, though we have walked too. I must show you a picture upstairs.' Here the doorbell rang. The handsome had come to take them to their evening party. Oh, bother, not to say dash.

Starting point is 04:25:07 I had forgotten we were dining out. But do, do come round again and have a talk. Yes, you must do, echoed Margaret. Leonard, with extreme sentiment, replied, No, I shall not. It's better like this. "'Why better?' asked Margaret. "'No, it is better not to risk a second interview.

Starting point is 04:25:32 "'I shall always look back on this talk with you as one of the finest things in my life. "'Really, I mean this. We can never repeat. "'It has done me real good, and there we had better leave it.' "'That's rather a sad view of life, surely.' "'The thing so often gets spoiled.' "'I know,' Flach. But people don't. He could not understand this. He continued in a vein which mingled true imagination and faults. What he said wasn't wrong, but it wasn't right, and a false note jarred. One little twist they felt and the instrument might be in tune. One little strain and it might be silent forever. He thanked the ladies very much, but he would not call again. There was a moment's awkwardness and then Helen said, go then perhaps you know best but never forget you'll better than jeffreys and then he went their handsome caught him up at the corner passed with a waving of hands and vanished with its accomplished load into the evening

Starting point is 04:26:41 london was beginning to illuminate herself against the night electric lights sizzled and jagged in the main thoroughfare gas lamps in the side streets glimmered a canary gold or green the sky was beginning to illuminate herself against the night electric lights sizzled and jagged in the main thoroughfare gas lamps in the side streets glimmered a canary gold or green the sky was a crimson battlefield of spring but london was not afraid her smoke mitigated the splendor and the clouds down oxford street were a delicately painted ceiling which adorned while it did not distract she has never known the clear-cut armies of the purer air leonard hurried through her tinted wonders very much a part of the picture his was a gray life and to brighten it he had ruled off a few corners for romance the mishlegels or to speak more accurately his interview with them were to fill such a corner nor was it by any means the first time that he had talked intimately to strangers the habit was analogous to a debauch an outlet though the worst of outlets for instincts that would not be denied terrifying him it would beat down his suspicions and prudence until he was confiding secrets to people whom he had scarcely seen it brought him many fears and some pleasant memories perhaps the keenest happiness he had ever known was during a railway journey to cambridge where a decent mannered undergraduate had spoken to him They had gone into conversation, and gradually Leonard flung reticence aside, told some of his domestic troubles, and hinted at the rest. The undergraduate, supposing they could start a friendship, asked him to coffee after Hall, which he accepted, but afterwards grew shy, and took care not to stir from the commercial hotel where he lodged.

Starting point is 04:28:24 He did not want romance to collide with the Porphyrian, still less with Jackie, and people with fuller, happier lives are slow to understand. this. To the Schlegel's, as to the undergraduate, he was an interesting creature, of whom they wanted to see more. But they to him were denizens of romance, who must keep to the corner he had assigned them pictures that must not walk out of their frames. His behavior over Margaret's visiting card had been typical. His had scarcely been a tragic marriage. Where there is no money and no inclination to violence, tragedy cannot be generated. He could not be generated. He could not leave his wife, and he did not want to hit her. Petulance and squalor were enough. Here that card had come in. Leonard, though furtive, was untidy, and left it lying about. Jackie found it, and then

Starting point is 04:29:18 began, "'What's that card, eh?' "'Yes, don't you wish you knew what that card was?' "'Lenus Bischlegel,' etc. Months passed, and the card, now as a joke, now as a grievance, was handed about, getting dirtier and dirtier. It followed them when they moved from Cornelia Road to Tulsa Hill. It was submitted to third parties. A few inches of pasteboard. It became the battlefield on which the souls of Leonard and his wife contended. Why did he not say—

Starting point is 04:29:53 A lady took my umbrella. Another gave me this that I might call for my umbrella. Because Jackie would have disbelieved him? Partly, but chiefly because he was sentimental. No affection gathered round the card, but it symbolized the life of culture that Jackie should never spoil. At night he would say to himself, Well, at all events she doesn't know about that card. Yeah, done her there! Poor Jackie! She was not a bad sort, and had a great deal to bear. She drew her own conclusion. She was only capable of drawing one conclusion. and in the fullness of time she acted upon it. All the Friday, Leonard had refused to speak to her,

Starting point is 04:30:37 and had spent the evening observing the stars. On the Saturday he went up as usual to town, but he came not back Saturday night nor Sunday morning, nor Sunday afternoon. The inconvenience grew intolerable, and though she was now of a retiring habit and shy of women, she went up to Wickham Place. Leonard returned in her absence.

Starting point is 04:30:59 The card, the fatal, card was gone from the pages of Ruskin, and he guessed what had happened. "'Well,' he had exclaimed, greeting her with peals of laughter, "'I know where you've been, but you don't know where I've been.' Jackie sighed, said, "'Len, I do think you might explain,' and resumed domesticity. Explanations were difficult at this stage, and Leonard was too silly, or it is tempting to write too sound a chap to attempt them.

Starting point is 04:31:32 His reticence was not entirely the shoddy article that a business life promotes, the reticence that pretends that nothing is something and hides behind the daily telegraph. The adventurer also is reticent, and it is an adventure for a clerk to walk for a few hours in darkness. You may laugh at him, you who have slept nights on the veld, with your rifle beside you and all the atmosphere of adventure, past. And you also may laugh who think adventure silly. But do not be surprised if Leonard is shy whenever he meets you, and if the Schlagels, rather than Jackie, hear about the dawn. That the Schlagels had not thought him foolish became a permanent joy. He was at his best when he

Starting point is 04:32:15 thought of them. It buoyed him as he journeyed home beneath fading heavens. Somehow the barriers of wealth had fallen, and there had been—he could not phrase it—a general assertion of the wonder of the world. My conviction, says the mystic, gains infinitely the moment another soul will believe in it, and they had agreed that there was something beyond life's daily grey. He took off his top hat and smoothed it thoughtfully. He had hitherto suppose the unknown to be books, literature, clever conversation, culture. One raised oneself by study, and got upsides with the world.

Starting point is 04:32:55 But in that quick interchange, a new light dawned. Was that something walking in the dark among the suburban hills? He discovered that he was going bare-headed down Regent Street. London came back with a rush. Few were about at this hour, but all whom he passed looked at him with hostility that was the more impressive because it was unconscious. He put his hat on.

Starting point is 04:33:20 It was too big. His head disappeared like a pudding into a basin, the ears bending outwards at the touch of the curly brim. He wore it a little backwards, and its effect was greatly to elongate the face, and to bring out the distance between the eyes and the moustache. Thus equipped, he escaped criticism. No one felt uneasy, as he tutped along the pavements, the heart of a man ticking fast in his chest.

Starting point is 04:33:51 End of Chapter 14. Chapter 15 of Howard's End. this is a Libervox recording All Libervox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer Please visit Libravox.org Recording by Elizabeth Clett Howard's End

Starting point is 04:34:21 By E. M. Forster Chapter 15 The sisters went out to dinner full of their adventure And when they were both full of the same subject there were few dinner parties that could stand up against them. This particular one, which was all ladies, had more kick in it than most, but succumbed after a struggle. Helen, at one part of the table, Margaret at the other,

Starting point is 04:34:46 would talk of Mr. Bast and of no one else, and somewhere about the entree, their monologues collided, fell ruining, and became common property. Nor was this all. The dinner party was really an informal discussion club. There was a paper after it, read amid coffee-cups and laughter in the drawing-room, but dealing more or less thoughtfully with some topic of general interest. After the paper came a debate, and in this debate Mr. Bast also figured, appearing now as a bright spot in civilization, now as a dark spot, according to the temperament of the speaker. The subject of the paper had been, How ought I to dispose of my money?

Starting point is 04:35:27 The reader professing to be a millionaire on the point of death, inclined to bequeath her fortune for the foundation of local art galleries, but opened to conviction from other sources. The various parts had been assigned beforehand, and some of the speeches were amusing. The hostess assumed the ungrateful role of the millionaire's eldest son, and implored her expiring parent not to dislocate society by allowing such vast sums to pass out of the family. Money was the fruit of self-denial, and the second generation had a right to profit by the self-denial of the first. What right had Mr. Bast to profit? The National Gallery was good enough for the likes of him. After property had had its say, a saying that is necessarily ungracious, the various philanthropists stepped forward. Something must be done for Mr. Bast. His conditions must be improved without impairing his independence. He must have a free library,

Starting point is 04:36:25 or free tennis courts. His rent must be paid in such a way that he did not know it was being paid. It must be made worth his while to join the territorials. He must be forcibly parted from his uninspiring wife, the money going to her as compensation. He must be assigned a twin star, some member of the leisured classes who would watch over him ceaselessly, groans from Helen. He must be given food, but no clothes. Clothes, but no food, a third return ticket to Venice, without either food or clothes when he arrived there. In short, he might be given anything and everything, so long as it was not the money itself. And here Margaret interrupted. "'Order! Order! Miss Schlegel!' said the reader of the paper. "'You are here, I understand,

Starting point is 04:37:13 to advise me in the interests of the Society for the preservation of places of historic interest or natural beauty. I cannot have you speaking out of your role. It makes my poor head go round and I think you forget that I am very ill." Your head won't go round if only you'll listen to my argument," said Margaret. "'Why not to give him the money itself? You're supposed to have about thirty thousand a year.' "'Have I?' "'I thought I had a million.'

Starting point is 04:37:42 "'Wasn't a million your capital? Dear me, we ought to have settled that.' "'Still, it doesn't matter. Whatever you've got, I order you to give as many poor men as you can, three hundred a year each. But that would be pauperising them, said an earnest girl, who liked the Schlegel's, but thought them a little unspiritual at times. Not if you gave them so much.

Starting point is 04:38:07 A big windfall would not pauperise a man. It is these little dribblets distributed among too many that do the harm. Money's educational. It's far more educational than the things it buys. There was a protest. In a sense, added Margaret. But the protest continued, "'Well, isn't the most civilized thing going

Starting point is 04:38:28 "'the man who has learnt to wear his income properly?' "'Exactly what all Mr. Basts won't do.' "'Give them a chance. Give them money. "'Don't dole them out poetry books and railway tickets like babies. "'Give them the wherewithal to buy these things. "'When your socialism comes, it may be different, "'and we may think in terms of commodities instead of cash. "'Till it comes, give people,

Starting point is 04:38:54 cash, for it is the warp of civilization, whatever the woof may be. The imagination ought to play upon money, and realise it vividly, for it's the—the second most important thing in the world. It is so sloughed over and hushed up, there is so little clear thinking—oh, political economy, of course, but so few of us think clearly about our own private incomes, and admit that independent thoughts are in nine cases out of ten the results of independent means. Money. Give Mr. Baster, give Mr. Baster, money and don't bother about his ideals, he'll pick up those for himself. She lent back while the more earnest members of the club began to misconstrue her. The female mind, though cruelly practical and daily life, cannot bear to hear ideals

Starting point is 04:39:39 belittled in conversation. And Miss Schlegel was asked however she could say such dreadful things, and what it would profit Mr. Bast if he gained the whole world and lost his own soul. She answered, nothing, but he would not gain his soul. he had gained a little of the world. Then they said, no, they did not believe it, and she admitted that an overworked Clark may save his soul in the superterrestrial sense, where the effort will be taken for the deed, but she denied that he will ever explore the spiritual resources of this world, will ever know the rarer joys of the body, or attain to clear and passionate

Starting point is 04:40:15 intercourse with his fellows. Others had attacked the fabric of society, property, interest, etc. she only fixed her eyes on a few human beings, to see how under present conditions they could be made happier. Doing good to humanity was useless, the many-colored efforts there too spreading over the vast area like films, and resulting in an universal gray. To do good to one, or, as in this case, to a few, was the utmost she dared hope for. Between the idealists and the political economists, Margaret had a bad time. Disagreeing elsewhere, they agreed in disowning her, and in keeping the administration of the millionaire's money in their own hands. The earnest girl brought forward a scheme of personal supervision and mutual help, the effect of which was to alter

Starting point is 04:41:04 poor people until they became exactly like people who were not so poor. The hostess pertinently remarked that she, as eldest son, might surely rank among the millionaire's legatees. Margaret it weakly admitted the claim, and another claim was at once set up by Helen, who declared that she had been the millionaire's housemaid for over forty years, overfed and underpaid, was nothing to be done for her, so corpulent and poor? The millionaire then read out her last will and testament, in which she left the whole of her fortune to the chancellor of the exchequer. Then she died. The serious parts of the discussion had been of higher merit than the playful. In an immense debate is the reverse more general? But the meeting broke up.

Starting point is 04:41:45 up hilariously enough, and a dozen happy ladies dispersed to their homes. Helen and Margaret walked the earnest girl as far as Battersea Bridge Station, arguing copiously all the way. When she had gone they were conscious of an alleviation and of the great beauty of the evening. They turned back towards Oakley Street. The lamps and the plain trees, following the line of the embankment, struck a note of dignity that is rare in English cities. The seats, almost deserted, were here and there occupied by gentlefolk in evening dress, who had strolled out from the houses behind to enjoy fresh air and the whisper of the rising tide. There is something continental about Chelsea Embankment. It is an open space used rightly, a blessing more frequent in Germany than here.

Starting point is 04:42:34 As Margaret and Helen sat down, the city behind them seemed to be a vast theatre, an opera-house in which some endless trilogy was performing, and they themselves a pair of satisfied suburb. subscribers, who did not mind losing a little of the second act. Cold? No. Tired? Doesn't matter. The earnest girl's train rumbled away over the bridge.

Starting point is 04:43:00 I say Helen. Well, Are we really going to follow up, Mr. Bast? I don't know. I think we won't. As you like. It's no. good, I think, unless you really mean to know people. The discussion brought that home to me.

Starting point is 04:43:21 We got on well enough with him in a spirit of excitement, but think of rational intercourse. We mustn't play at friendship. No, it's no good. There's Mrs. Lannelin, too, Helen yawned, so dull. Just so, and possibly worse than dull. I should like to know how he got hold of your card. but he said something about a concert and an umbrella then did the card see the wife helen come to bed no just a little longer it is so beautiful tell me oh yes did you say money is the warp of the world yes then what's the woof very much what one chooses said margaret it's something that isn't money one can't say more walking at night probably for tibby oxford it seems so for you now that we have to leave we can place i begin to think it's that for mrs wilcox it was certainly howards end one's own name will carry immense distances mr wilcox who was sitting with friends many seats away heard him

Starting point is 04:44:46 rose to his feet and strolled along towards the speakers. It is sad to suppose that places may ever be more important than people, continued Margaret. Why, Meg? They're so much nicer, generally. I'd rather think of that Forrester's house in Pomerania than of the fat Herr Faustmeister who lived in it. I believe we shall come to care about people less and less, Helen.

Starting point is 04:45:12 The more people one knows, the easier it becomes to replace them. It's one of the curses of London. I quite expect to end my life caring most for a place. Here Mr. Wilcox reached them. It was several weeks since they had met. How do you do? he cried. I thought I recognised your voices. Whatever are you both doing down here?

Starting point is 04:45:36 His tones were protective. He implied that one ought not to sit out on Chelsea embankment without a male escort. Helen resented this, but Margaret accepted it as part of of the good man's equipment. What an age it is since I've seen you, Mr. Wilcox. I met Evie in the tube, though, lately. I hope you have good news of your son. Paul, said Mr. Wilcox, extinguishing his cigarette and sitting down between them.

Starting point is 04:46:03 Oh, Paul's all right. We had a line for Madeira. He'll be at work again by now. Ugh, said Helen, shuddering from complex causes. I beg your pardon. Isn't the climate of Nigeria too horrible? Someone's got to go, he said simply. England will never keep her trade overseas unless she is prepared to make sacrifices.

Starting point is 04:46:27 Unless we get firm in West Africa, j'er, untold complications may follow. Now tell me all your news. Oh, we've had a splendid evening, cried Helen, who always woke up at the advent of a visitor. We belong to a kind of club that we belong to a kind of club that reads papers, Margaret and I, all women, but there is a discussion after. This evening it was on how one ought to leave one's money, whether to one's family or to the poor, and if so how? Oh, most interesting. The man of business smiled. Since his wife's death he had almost doubled his income. He was an important figure at last, a reassuring name on company prospectuses, and life had treated him very well.

Starting point is 04:47:11 The world seemed in his grasp as he listened to the River Thames, which still flowed inland from the sea. So wonderful to the girls, it held no mysteries for him. He had helped to shorten its long tidal trough by taking shares in the lock at Teddington, and if he and other capitalists thought good, someday it could be shortened again. With a good dinner inside him, and an amiable but academic woman on either flank, He felt that his hands were on all the ropes of life, and that what he did not know could not be worth knowing. "'Sounds the most original entertainment,' he exclaimed, and laughed in his pleasant way. "'I wish Evie would go to that sort of thing. But she hasn't the time. She's taken to breed Aberdeen Terriers, jolly little dogs.'

Starting point is 04:47:58 "'I expect we'd better be doing the same, really.' "'We pretend we're improving ourselves, you see,' said Helen a little sharply, for the Wilcox's glamour is not of the kind that returns, and she had bitter memories of the days when a speech, such as he had just made, would have impressed her favourably. We suppose it is a good thing to waste an evening once a fortnight over a debate, but, as my sister says, it may be better to breed dogs. Not at all. I don't agree with your sister.

Starting point is 04:48:30 There's nothing like a debate to teach one quickness. I often wish I had gone in for them when I was a youngster. it would have helped me no end. Quickness? Yes, quickness in argument. Time after time I've missed scoring a point because the other man has the gift of gab and I haven't. Oh, I believe in these discussions.

Starting point is 04:48:51 The patronising tone, thought Margaret, came well enough from a man who was old enough to be their father. She had always maintained that Mr. Wilcox had a charm. In times of sorrow or emotion, his inadequacy had pained her, but it was pleasant to listen to him now, and to watch his thick brown mustache and high forehead confronting the stars. But Helen was nettled. The aim of their debates, she implied, was truth. Oh, yes, it doesn't much matter what subject you take, said he. Margaret laughed and said, But this is going to be far better than the debate itself.

Starting point is 04:49:28 Helen recovered herself and laughed too. "'No, I won't go on,' she declared. "'I'll just put our special case to Mr. Wilcox.' "'About Mr. Bast?' "'Yes, do. "'He'll be more lenient to a special case.' "'But Mr. Wilcox do first light another cigarette. "'It's this.

Starting point is 04:49:49 "'We've just come across a young fellow, "'who's evidently very poor, and who seems interest—' "'What's his profession?' "'Clark.' "'What in?' "'Do you remember, Margaret?' Porfirian Fire Insurance Company Oh yes, the nice people who gave Aunt Julia a new hearthrug

Starting point is 04:50:07 He seems interesting, in some ways very, and one wishes one could help him He is married to a wife whom he doesn't seem to care for much He likes books and what one may roughly call adventure, and if he had a chance But he is so poor He lives alive where all the money is apt to go on nonsense and clothes One is so afraid that circumstances will be too strong for him and that he will sink. Well, he got mixed up in our debate. He wasn't the subject of it, but it seemed to bear on his point. Suppose a millionaire died and desired to leave money to help such a man. How should he be helped?

Starting point is 04:50:45 Should he be given £300 a year direct, which was Margaret's plan? Most of them thought that this would pauperise him. Should he and those like him be given free libraries? I said no. He doesn't want more books to read, but to read books rightly. My suggestion was that he should be given something every year towards a summer holiday. But then there is his wife, and they said she would have to go too. Nothing seemed quite right. Now what do you think? Imagine that you were a millionaire, and wanted to help the poor.

Starting point is 04:51:18 What would you do? Mr. Wilcox, whose fortune was not so very far below the standard indicated, laughed exuberantly. My dear Miss Schlegel, I will not rush in where your sex has been unable to tread. I will not add another plan to the numerous excellent ones that have already been suggested. My only contribution is this. Let your young friend clear out of the Porphyrian Fire Insurance Company with all possible speed.

Starting point is 04:51:46 Why? said Margaret. He lowered his voice. This is between friends. It will be in the receiver's hand. before Christmas. It'll smash," he added, thinking that he had not been understood. "'Dear me, Helen, listen to that! And he'll have to get another place.'

Starting point is 04:52:05 "'We'll have. Let him leave the ship before it sinks. Let him get one now.' "'Rather than wait to make sure?' Decidedly. "'Why's that?' Again the Olympian laugh and the lowered voice. Naturally, the man who's in a situation when he applies stands a better chance is in a stronger position than the man who isn't.

Starting point is 04:52:30 It looks as if he's worth something. I know by myself, this is letting you into the state secrets, it affects an employer greatly. Human nature, I'm afraid. I hadn't thought of that, murmured Margaret, while Helen said, Our human nature appears to be the other way around. We employ people because they're unemployed, the bootman for a man for instance. And how does he clean the boots? Not well, confessed Margaret. There you are. Then do you really advise us to tell this youth? I advise nothing, he interrupted, glancing up and

Starting point is 04:53:07 down the embankment in case his indiscretion had been overheard. I oughtn't to have spoken, but I happen to know being more or less behind the scenes. The Perthirians are bad, bad concern. Now, don't say I said so. It's outside the tariff ring. "'Certainly I won't say. In fact, I don't know what that means.' "'I thought an insurance company never smashed,' was Helen's contribution. "'Don't the others always run in and save them?' "'You're thinking of re-insurance,' said Mr. Wilcox mildly. "'It is exactly there that the Perthyrion is weak.

Starting point is 04:53:42 It has tried to undercut and has been badly hit by a long series of small fires, and it hasn't been able to re-insure. I'm afraid that public companies don't save one another for love. Human nature, I suppose, quoted Helen, and he laughed and agreed that it was. When Margaret said that she supposed that Clarks, like everyone else, found it extremely difficult to get situations in these days, he replied, yes, extremely, and rose to rejoin his friends. He knew by his own office, seldom a vacant post, and hundreds of applicants for it, at present no vacant post.

Starting point is 04:54:21 "'And how's Howard's End looking?' said Margaret, wishing to change the subject before they parted. Mr. Wilcox was a little apt to think one wanted to get something out of him. "'It's let.' "'Really? And you wandering homeless in long-haired Chelsea? How strange are the ways of fate?' "'No, it's let unfurnished.

Starting point is 04:54:43 We've moved.' "'Why, I thought of you both is anchored there forever. "'Evee never told me?' "'I dare say when you met Evie the thing wasn't settled. We only moved a week ago. Paul has rather a feeling for the old place, and we held on for him to have his holiday there. But really it is impossibly small. Endless drawbacks. I forget whether you've been up to it.' "'As far as the house, never.'

Starting point is 04:55:09 "'Well, Howard's End is one of those converted farms. They don't really do. Spend what you will on them. we messed away with a garage all among the witch elm roots, and last year we enclosed a bit of the meadow and attempted a mockery. Evie got rather keen on alpine plants. But it didn't do. No, it didn't do. You remember, or your sister will remember, the farm with those abominable guinea fowls and the hedge that the old woman would never cut properly,

Starting point is 04:55:38 so that it all went thin at the bottom. And inside the house the beams, and the staircase through a door, "'Picturesque enough, but not a place to live in.' He glanced over the parapet cheerfully. "'Full-tide.' "'And the position wasn't right either. "'The neighbourhood's getting suburban.

Starting point is 04:55:57 "'Either be in London or out of it, I say. "'So we've taken a house in Deucy Street, close to Sloan Street, "'and a place right down in Shropshire, Oniton Grange. "'Ever heard of Onerton? "'Do come and see us, right away from everywhere, up towards Wales.' "'What a change,' said Margaret. But the change was in her own voice, which had become most sad. "'I can't imagine Howard's end or Hilton without you.'

Starting point is 04:56:24 "'Hilton isn't without us,' he replied. "'Charles is there still.' "'Still,' said Margaret, who had not kept up with the Charles's, "'but I thought he was still at Epsom. They were furnishing that Christmas—one Christmas. How everything altered—' I used to admire Mrs. Charles from our windows very often. Wasn't it Epsom?

Starting point is 04:56:49 Yes, but they moved eighteen months ago. Charles, the good chap, his voice dropped, thought I should be lonely. I didn't want him to move, but he would, and took a house at the other end of Hilton, down by the six hills. He had a motor, too. There they all are, a very jolly party, he and she and the two grandchildren. I manage other people's affairs so much. better than they manage them themselves," said Margaret as they shook hands. "'When you moved out of Howard's end, I should have moved Mr. Charles Wilcox into it.

Starting point is 04:57:21 I should have kept so remarkable a place in the family.' "'So it is,' he replied. "'I haven't sold it, and don't mean to.' "'No, but none of you are there.' "'Oh, we've got a splendid tenant. Hamar Bryce, an invalid. If Charles ever wanted it—' But he won't. Dolly is so dependent on modern conveniences.

Starting point is 04:57:43 No, we have all decided against Howd's End. We like it in a way, but now we feel that it is neither one thing nor the other. One must have one thing or the other. And some people are lucky enough to have both. You're doing yourself proud, Mr. Wilcox. My congratulations. And mine, said Helen. Do remind Evie to come and see us.

Starting point is 04:58:06 Two wick and place. We shan't be there very long, either. "'You too on the move.' "'Next September,' Margaret sighed. "'Every one moving. Good-bye.' The tide had begun to ebb. Margaret leant over the parapet and watched it sadly. Mr. Wilcox had forgotten his wife, Helen, her lover.

Starting point is 04:58:27 She herself was probably forgetting. Everyone moving. Is it worthwhile attempting the past when there is this continual flux even in the hearts of men? Helen roused her by saying, "'What a prosperous Fulgarian Mr. Wilcox has grown. I have very little use for him in these days. However, he did tell us about the Porphyrian. Let us write to Mr. Bass as soon as ever we get home,

Starting point is 04:58:53 and tell him to clear out of it at once.' "'Do, yes, that's worth doing. Let us.' "'Let's ask him to tea.' End of Chapter 15. Chapter 16 of Howard's End. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clette. Howard's End by E. M. Forster. Chapter 16. Leonard accepted the invitation to tea next Saturday. But he was right. The visit proved a conspicuous failure. "'Sugar,' said Margaret.

Starting point is 04:59:50 "'Cake,' said Helen. "'The big cake, or the little deadlies. "'I'm afraid you thought my letter rather odd, "'but we'll explain. "'We aren't odd, really. "'Not affected, really. "'We're over-expressive, that's all.' "'As a lady's lap-dog, Leonard did not excel.

Starting point is 05:00:07 "'He was not an Italian, still less, a Frenchman, "'in whose blood there runs the very spirit "'of percivledge and of gracious repartee. "'His wit was the cock-kneys. It opened no doors into imagination, and Helen was drawn up short by, the moral idea has to say, the better, administered waggishly. "'Oh, yes,' she said. "'Ladies Brighton, yes, I know, the darlings are regular sunbeams.

Starting point is 05:00:34 Let me give you a plate.' "'How do you like your work?' interposed Margaret. He too was drawn up short. He would not have these women prying into his work. They were romance, and so much. was the room to which he had last penetrated, with the queer sketches of people bathing upon its walls, and so were the very teacups, with their delicate borders of wild strawberries. But he would not let romance interfere with his life. There is the devil to pay then.

Starting point is 05:01:05 Oh, well enough, he answered. Your company is the Porfarian, isn't it? Yes, that's so, becoming rather offended. It's funny how things get round. why funny asked helen who did not follow the workings of his mind it was written as large as life on your card and considering we wrote to you there and that you replied on the stamped paper would you call the porphyrian one of the big insurance companies pursued margaret it depends what you call big i mean by big a solid well-established concern that offers a reasonably good career to its employees i couldn't say some would tell you one thing and others another said the employee uneasily for my own part he shook his head i only believe half i hear not that even it's safer those clever ones come to the worst grief i've often noticed ah you can't be too careful he drank and wiped his moustache which was going to be one of those mustaches that always droop into teacups more bother than their worth surely and not fashionable either. I quite agree, and that's why I was curious to know. Is it a solid, well-established concern?

Starting point is 05:02:25 Leonard had no idea. He understood his own corner of the machine, but nothing beyond it. He desired to confess neither knowledge nor ignorance, and under these circumstances another motion of the head seemed safest. To him, as to the British public, the Porphyrian was the Porphyrian of the advertisement, a giant in the classical style, but draped sufficiently, who held in one hand a burning torch, and pointed with the other to St. Paul's and Windsor Castle. A large sum of money was inscribed below, and you drew your own conclusions. This giant caused Leonard to do arithmetic, and write letters, and to explain the regulations to new clients, and re-explain them to old ones. A giant was of an impulsive morality. One knew that much. He would pay for Mrs.

Starting point is 05:03:13 months hearthrug with ostentatious haste, a large claim he would repudiate quietly and fight court by court. But his true fighting weight, his antecedents, his armours with other members of the commercial pantheon, all these were as uncertain to ordinary mortals, as were the escapades of Zeus. While the gods are powerful, we learn little about them. It is only in the days of their decadence that a strong light beats into heaven. We were told the Porfirian's no-go, blurted Helen. We wanted to tell you, that's why we wrote. A friend of ours did think that it is unsufficiency reinsured, said Margaret.

Starting point is 05:03:55 Now Leonard had his cue. He must praise the Porphyrian. You can tell your friend, he said, that he's quite wrong. Oh, good! The young man coloured a little. In his circle to be wrong was fatal. The Miss Schlegel's did not. mind being wrong. They were genuinely glad that they had been misinformed. To them nothing was fatal

Starting point is 05:04:16 but evil. "'Wrong, so to speak,' he added. "'How, so to speak?' "'I mean, I wouldn't say he's right altogether.' But this was a blunder. "'Then he is right partly,' said the elder woman, quick as lightning. Leonard replied that everyone was right partly if it came to that. Mr. Bast, I don't understand business, and I dare say my questions are stupid, but can you tell me what makes a concern right or wrong?' Leonard sat back with a sigh. Our friend, who was also a businessman, was so positive. He said before Christmas, and advised you to clear out of it, concluded Helen, but I don't see why he should know better

Starting point is 05:05:03 than you do. Leonard rubbed his hands. He was tempted to say that he knew nothing about the thing at all, but a commercial training was too strong for him. Nor could he say it was a bad thing, for this would be giving it away, nor yet that it was good, for this would be giving it away equally. He attempted to suggest that it was something between the two, with vast possibilities in either direction, but broke down under the gaze of four sincere eyes. And yet he scarcely distinguished between the two sisters. One was more beautiful and more lively, but the Mischlegels still remained a composite Indian god, whose waving arms and contradictory speeches were the product of a single mind. One can but see, he remarked, adding, as Ibsen says, things happen. He was itching to talk about

Starting point is 05:05:52 books, and make the most of his romantic hour. Minute after minute slipped away, while the ladies with imperfect skill discussed the subject of reinsurance or praise their anonymous friend. Leonard grew annoyed, perhaps rightly. He made vague remarks about not being one of those who minded their affairs being talked over by others, but they did not take the hint. Men might have shown more tact. Women, however tactful elsewhere, are heavy-handed here. They cannot see why we should shroud our incomes and our prospects and avail. How much exactly have you, and how much do you expect to have next June? And these were women with a theory, who held that reticence about money matters is absurd, and that life would be truer if each would state the exact size of the golden island upon which he stands, the exact stretch of warp over which he throws the woof that is not money.

Starting point is 05:06:46 How can we do justice to the pattern otherwise? And the precious minutes slipped away, and Jackie and squalor came nearer. At last he could bear it no longer, and broke in, reciting the names of books feverishly. There was a moment of piercing joy when Margaret said, "'So you like Carlisle!' And then the door opened and—' "'Mr. Wilcox? Miss Wilcox!' entered, proceeded by two prancing puppies.

Starting point is 05:07:14 "'Oh, the dears! Oh, Evie! How too impossibly sweet!' screamed Helen, falling on her hands and knees. "'We brought the little vellows round,' said Mr. Wilcox. "'I bred him myself.' "'Oh, really, Mr. Bast, come and play with puppies?' "'I've got to be going now,' said Leonard sourly. "'But play with puppies a little first.' "'This is Ahab. That's Jezebel,' said Evie,

Starting point is 05:07:44 who was one of those who name animals after the less successful characters of Old Testament history. "'I've got to be going.' Helen was too much occupied with puppies to notice him. Mr. Wilcox, Mr. B, Mr. B, must you be really? Good-bye. Come again, said Helen from the floor. Then Leonard's gorge arose. Why should he come again? What was the good of it?

Starting point is 05:08:09 He said roundly. No, I shan't. I knew it would be failure. Most people would have let him go. A little mistake we tried knowing another class, impossible. But the Schlagels had never played with life. They had attempted friendship, and they would take the consequences. Helen retorted, I call that a very rude remark. What do you want to turn on me like that for? And suddenly

Starting point is 05:08:37 the drawing-room re-echoed to a vulgar row. You ask me why I turn on you. Yes. What do you want to have me here for? To help you, you silly boy, cried Helen, and don't shout I don't want your patronage. I don't want your tea. I was quite happy. What do you want to unsettle me for?' He turned to Mr. Wilcox. I put it to this gentleman. I ask you, sir, am I to have my brains picked? Mr. Wilcox turned to Margaret with the air of humorous strength that he could so well command. Are we intruding, Miss Schlegel? Can we be of any use, or shall we go? But Margaret ignored him. I'm connected with a leading insurance company, sir.

Starting point is 05:09:22 I receive what I take to be an invitation from these ladies, he drawled the word. I come, and it's to have my brain picked. I ask you, is it fair? Highly unfair, said Mr. Wilcox, drawing a gasp from Evie, who knew that her father was becoming dangerous. Now, you hear that? Most unfair, the gentleman says, There, not content with, pointing at Margaret. "'You can't deny it.'

Starting point is 05:09:50 His voice rose. He was falling into the rhythm of a scene with Jackie. "'But as soon as I'm useful, it's a very different thing. "'Oh, yes, send for him, cross-question him, pick his brains. "'Oh, yes!' "'Now take me on the whole. I'm a quiet fellow. "'I'm law-abiding, I don't wish any unpleasantness, but I—I—' "'You!' said Margaret. "'You—you—'

Starting point is 05:10:12 "' Laughter from Evie, as at a repartee. "'You are the man who tried to walk by the pole. Star." More laughter. You saw the sunrise! Laughter. You tried to get away from the fogs that are stifling us all. Away past books and houses to the truth.

Starting point is 05:10:30 You were looking for a real home. I failed to see the connection, said Leonard, hot with stupid anger. So do I. There is a pause. You were that last Sunday. You are this to-day. "'Mr. Bast, I and my sister have talked you over. We wanted to help you. We also supposed you might help us. We did not have you here out of charity, which bores us, but because we hoped there would be a connection between last Sunday and other days. What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise, and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives? They have never entered into mine, but into yours we thought, haven't we all to struggle against life's daily greyness, against pettiness, against

Starting point is 05:11:21 pettiness, against mechanical cheerfulness, against suspicion? I struggle by remembering my friends. Others I have known by remembering some place, some beloved place or tree. We thought to one of these. Of course, if there's been any misunderstanding, mumbled Leonard, all I can do is to go. But I beg to state—' He paused. "'Ahab and Jezebel danced at his boots and made him look ridiculous. "'You are picking my brain for official information.

Starting point is 05:11:51 "'I can prove it. I—' "'He blew his nose and left them. "'Can I help you now?' said Mr. Wilcox, turning to Margaret. "'May I have one quiet word with him in the hall?' "'Helen, go after him, do anything, anything to make the noodle understand.' "'Helen hesitated. "'But really,' said their visitor. "'Ought she to?'

Starting point is 05:12:15 At once she went. He resumed. "'I would have chimed in, but I felt that you could polish him off for yourselves. I didn't interfere. You were splendid, Miss Schlegel, absolutely splendid. You can take my word for it, but there are very few women who could have managed him.' "'Oh, yes,' said Margaret distractedly. "'Bowling him over with those long sentences was what fetched me,' cried Evie.

Starting point is 05:12:42 "'Yes, indeed.' chuckled her father. All that part about mechanical cheerfulness, oh, fine. I'm very sorry, said Margaret, collecting herself. He's a nice creature, really. I cannot think what's set him off. It has been most unpleasant for you. Oh, I didn't mind.

Starting point is 05:13:04 Then he changed his mood. He asked if he might speak as an old friend, and permission given said, "'Oughtn't you really to be more careful?' Margaret laughed, though her thoughts still strayed after Helen. "'Do you realize that it's all your fault?' she said. "'You're responsible?' "'I?'

Starting point is 05:13:23 "'This is the young man whom we were to warn against the Porphyrian. We warn him, and look!' Mr. Wilcox was annoyed. "'I hardly consider that a fair deduction,' he said. "'Obviously unfair,' said Margaret. "'I was only thinking how tangled things are. "'It's our fault, mostly, neither yours nor his.' "'Not his?'

Starting point is 05:13:48 "'No.' "'Miss Schlegel, you are too kind.' "'Yes, indeed,' nodded Evie, a little contemptuously. "'You behave much too well to people, and then they impose on you. "'I know the world and that type of man, "'and as soon as I entered the room I saw you had not been treating him properly. "'You must keep that type at a distance. "'Otherwise they forget themselves.

Starting point is 05:14:12 "'Sad, but true. They aren't our sort, and one must face the fact.' "'Yes.' "'To admit that we should never have had the outburst if he was a gentleman.' "'I admit it willingly,' said Margaret, who was pacing up and down the room. "'A gentleman would have kept his suspicions to himself.' Mr. Wilcox watched her with a vague uneasiness. "'What did he suspect you of?' "'Of wanting to make money out of him.'

Starting point is 05:14:41 "'Intolerable brute! But how are you to benefit?' "'Exactly! How indeed? Just horrible, corroding suspicion. One touch of thought or of goodwill would have brushed it away. Just the senseless fear that does make men intolerable brutes.' "'I come back to my original point. You ought to be more careful, Miss Schlegel. Your servants ought to have orders not to let such people in.' she turned to him frankly let me explain exactly why we like this man and want to see him again that's your clever way of thinking i shall never believe you like him i do firstly because he cares for physical adventure just as you do yes you go motoring and shooting he would like to go camping out secondly he cares for something special in adventure it is quickest to call that special something poetry Oh, he's one of that writer sort. No, oh no. I mean he may be, but it would be loathsome stuff.

Starting point is 05:15:44 His brain is filled with the husks of books, culture. Horrible. We want him to wash out his brain and go to the real thing. We want to show him how he may get upsides with life. As I said, either friends or the country, some—' She hesitated. Either some very dear person or some very dear place seems necessary to relieve life's daily grey, and to show that it is grey. If possible,

Starting point is 05:16:11 one should have both. Some of her words ran past Mr. Wilcox. He let them run past. Others he caught and criticised with admirable lucidity. Your mistake is this, and it is a very common mistake. This young bounder has a life of his own. What right have you to conclude that it is an unsuccessful life, or, as you call it, grey? Because, "'One minute. You know nothing about him. He probably has his own joys and interests. "'Wife, children, snug little home. That's where we practical fellows,' he smiled, "'are more tolerant than you intellectuals. We live and let live, and assume that things are jogging on fairly well elsewhere, and that the ordinary plain man may be trusted to look after his own affairs.'

Starting point is 05:16:59 I quite grant. I look at the faces of the clerks in my own office, and observe them to be dull, but I don't know what's going on beneath. So, by the way, with London. I have heard you rail against London, Miss Schlegel, and it seems a funny thing to say, but I was very angry with you. What do you know about London? You only see civilisation from the outside. I don't say in your case, but in too many cases that attitude leads to morbidity,

Starting point is 05:17:26 discontent, and socialism. She admitted the strength of his position, though it undermined imagination. as he spoke some outposts of poetry and perhaps of sympathy fell ruining, and she retreated to what she called her second line, to the special facts of the case. "'His wife is an old ball,' she said simply. "'He never came home last Saturday night because he wanted to be alone, and she thought he was with us.' "'With you?'

Starting point is 05:17:56 "'Yes,' Evie tittered. "'He hasn't got the cosy home that he assumed. he needs outside interests. Nauty young man, cried the girl. Nauty, said Margaret, who hated naughtiness more than sin. When you're married, Miss Wilcox, won't you want outside interests? He has apparently got them, put in Mr. Wilcox slyly. Yes, indeed, father.

Starting point is 05:18:25 He was tramping in Surrey, if you mean that, said Margaret, pacing away rather crossly. Oh, I dare say. Miss Wilcox, he was. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, from Mr. Wilcox, who thought the episode amusing, if risque. With most ladies he would not have discussed it, but he was trading on Margaret's reputation as an emancipated woman. He said so, and about such a thing he wouldn't lie. They both began to laugh. That's where I differ from you.

Starting point is 05:18:59 Men lie about their positions and prospects, but not only. about a thing of that sort?" He shook his head. "'Mishlegel, excuse me, but I know the type.' "'I said before he isn't a type. He cares about adventures rightly. He's certain that our smug existence isn't all. He's vulgar and hysterical and bookish, but I don't think that sums him up.

Starting point is 05:19:22 There's manhood in him as well. Yes, that's what I'm trying to say. He's a real man.' As she spoke, their eyes met. and it was as if Mr. Wilcox's defences fell. She saw back to the real man in him. Unwittingly she had touched his emotions. A woman and two men.

Starting point is 05:19:44 They had formed the magic triangle of sex, and the male was thrilled to jealousy in case the female was attracted by another male. Love, say the ascetics, reveals our shameful kinship with the beasts. Be it so. One can bear that. Jealousy is the real shame.

Starting point is 05:20:04 It is jealousy, not love, that connects us with the farmyard intolerably, and calls up visions of two angry cocks and a complacent hen. Margaret crushed complacency down because she was civilized. Mr. Wilcox, uncivilized, continued to feel anger long after he had rebuilt his defenses, and was again presenting a bastion to the world. Mishlegel, you're a pair of dear creatures, but you really must be careful. in this uncharitable world. What does your brother say?

Starting point is 05:20:36 I forget. Surely he has some opinion. He laughs if I remember correctly. He's very clever, isn't he? said Evie, who had met and detested Tibby at Oxford. Yes, pretty well, but I want what Helen's doing. She is very young to undertake this sort of thing, said Mr. Wilcox. Margaret went out into the land.

Starting point is 05:21:01 She heard no sound, and Mr. Baste's topper was missing from the hall. Helen! she called. Yes, replied a voice from the library. Are you in there? Yes, he's gone some time. Margaret went to her. Why you're all alone, she said. Yes, it's all right, Meg.

Starting point is 05:21:26 Poor, poor creature. Come back to the Wilcoxes and tell me later. Mr. W., much concerned and slightly titillated. Oh, I've no patience with him. I hate him. Poor dear Mr. Bast! He wanted to talk literature, and we would talk business. Such a muddle of a man, and yet so worth pulling through. I like him extraordinarily. Well done, said Margaret, kissing her. But come into the drawing-room now, and don't talk about him to the Wilcoxes. make light of the whole thing.

Starting point is 05:22:04 Helen came and behaved with a cheerfulness that reassured their visitor. This hen at all events was fancy-free. He's gone with my blessing, she cried, and now for puppies. As they drove away, Mr. Wilcox said to his daughter, I am really concerned at the way those girls go on. They are clever as you make them, but unpractical. God bless me!

Starting point is 05:22:28 One of these days they'll go too far. Girls like that oughtn't to live alone in London. Until they marry, they ought to have someone to look after them. We must look in more often, we're better than no one. You like them, don't you, Evie? Evie replied, Helen's right enough, but I can't stand the toothy one, and I shouldn't have called either of them girls.

Starting point is 05:22:52 Evie had grown up handsome, dark-eyed with the glow of youth under Sunburn, built firmly and firm-lipped. She was the best the Wilcox's could do in the way of feminine beauty. For the present, puppies and her father were the only things she loved, but the net of matrimony was being prepared for her, and a few days later she was attracted to a Mr. Percy Cahill, an uncle of Mrs. Charles, and he was attracted to her.

Starting point is 05:23:21 End of Chapter 16. Chapter 17 of Howard's End. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer. here, please visit Librevox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clett Howard's End by E. M. Forster

Starting point is 05:23:51 Chapter 17 The age of property holds bitter moments even for a proprietor. When a move is imminent, furniture becomes ridiculous, and Margaret now lay awake at nights wondering where, where on earth they and all their belongings would be deposited in September next. Chairs, tables, pictures, books that had rumbled down to them through the generations, must rumble forward again like a slide of rubbish to which she longed to give the final push and send toppling into the sea.

Starting point is 05:24:24 But there were all their father's books. They never read them, but they were their fathers and must be kept. There was the marble-topped chiffonier, their mother had set store by it, they could not remember why. Round every knob and cushion in the house, sentiment gathered, a sentiment that was at times personal, but more often a faint piety to the dead, a prolongation of rights that might have ended at the grave. It was absurd if you came to think of it. Helen and Tibby came to think of it. Margaret was too busy with the house agents. The feudal ownership of land did bring dignity, whereas the modern ownership of movables is reducing us again to a nomadic

Starting point is 05:25:03 horde. We are reverting to the civilization of luggage, and historians of the future will note how the middle classes accreted possessions without taking root in the earth, and may find in this the secret of their imaginative poverty. The Schlegel's were certainly the poorer for the loss of Wickham Place. It had helped to balance their lives, and almost to counsel them. Nor is their ground landlord spiritually the richer. He has built flats on its sight, his motor-cars grow swifter, his exposures of socialism more trenchant, but he has spilt the precious distillation of the years, and no chemistry of his can give it back to society again. Margaret grew depressed. She was anxious to settle on a house before they left town to pay their

Starting point is 05:25:50 annual visit to Mrs. Bunt. She enjoyed this visit, and wanted to have her mind at ease for it. Swanage, though dull, was stable, and this year she longed more than usual for its fresh air and for the magnificent downs that guarded on the north. But London thwarted her. In its atmosphere she could not concentrate. London only stimulates, it cannot sustain, and Margaret, hurrying over its surface for a house without knowing what sort of house she wanted, was paying for many a thrilling sensation in the past. She could not even break loose from culture, and her time was wasted by concerts which it would be a sin to miss, and invitations which it would never do to refuse. At last she grew desperate. She resolved that she would go nowhere and be at home to no one

Starting point is 05:26:37 until she found a house and broke the resolution in half an hour. Once she had humorously lamented that she had never been to Simpson's restaurant in the Strand. Now a note arrived from Miss Wilcox, asking her to lunch there. Mr. Cahill was coming, and the three would have such a jolly chat, and perhaps end up at the hippodrome. Margaret had no strong regard for Evie, and no desire to meet her fiancée, and she was surprised that Helen, who had been far funnier about Simpsons, had not been asked instead. But the invitation touched her by its intimate tone. She must know Evie Wilcox better than she supposed, and declaring that she simply must, she accepted. But when she saw Evie at the entrance of the restaurant, staring fiercely at nothing after the fashion of athletic women,

Starting point is 05:27:25 her heart failed her anew. Miss Wilcox had changed perceptibly since her engagement. Her voice was gruffer, her manner more downright, and she was inclined to patronize the more food. foolish virgin. Margaret was silly enough to be pained at this. Depressed at her isolation, she saw not only houses and furniture, but the vessel of life itself slipping past her with people like Evie and Mr. Cahill on board. There are moments when virtue and wisdom fail us, and one of them came to her at Simpsons in the Strand. As she trod the staircase, narrow but carpeted thickly, as she entered the eating-room where saddles of mutton were being trundled up to expectant clergymen, she had a strong, if erroneous, conviction of her own

Starting point is 05:28:10 futility, and wished she had never come out of her backwater, where nothing happened except art and literature, and where no one ever got married or succeeded in remaining engaged. Then came a little surprise. Father might be of the party. Yes, father was. With a smile of pleasure she moved forward to greet him, and her feeling of loneliness vanished. I thought I'd get round if I could, said he. Evie told me of her little plan, so I just slipped in and secured a table. Always secure a table first. Evie, don't pretend you want to sit by your old father, because you don't.

Starting point is 05:28:47 Mishlegel come in my side out of pity. My goodness, but you look tired. Been worrying round after your young clerks. No, after houses, said Margaret, edging past him into the box. I'm hungry, not tired, I want to eat heaps. That's good. What do you have?" "'Fish pie,' said she, with a glance at the menu.

Starting point is 05:29:10 "'Fish pie? Fancy coming for fish-pie de Simpsons. It's not a bit the thing to go for here.' "'Go something for me, then,' said Margaret, pulling off her gloves. Her spirits were rising, and his reference to Leonard Bast had warmed her curiously. "'Saddle of mutton,' said he, after profound reflection, "'and cider to drink. That's the type of thing. I like this place for a joke once in a way. It is so thoroughly old English. Don't you agree?

Starting point is 05:29:41 Yes, said Margaret, who didn't. The order was given, the joint rolled up, and the carver under Mr. Wilcox's direction cut the meat where it was succulent, and piled their plates high. Mr. Cahill insisted on sirloin, but admitted that he had made a mistake later on. He and Evie soon fell into a conversation of the

Starting point is 05:30:01 no i didn't yes you did type conversation which though fascinating to those who are engaged in it neither desires nor deserves the attention of others it's a golden rule to tip the cover tip everywhere's my motto perhaps it does make life more human then the fellows know one again especially in the east if you tip they remember you from years end to years end have you been in the east oh greece and the levant I used to go out for sport and business to Cyprus. Some military society of a sort there. A few piastas, properly distributed, helped to keep one's memory green. But you, of course, think this shockingly cynical. How's your discussion society getting on? Any new utopias lately?

Starting point is 05:30:50 No, I'm house-hunting, Mr. Wilcox, as I've already told you once. Do you know of any houses? I'm afraid I don't. Well, what's the point of being practical? if you can't find two distressed females a house. We merely want a small house with large rooms and plenty of them." "'Evy, I like that. Miss Legel expects me to turn house-agent for her.' "'What's that, father?'

Starting point is 05:31:15 "'I want a new home in September, and someone must find it. I can't.' "'Persie, do you know of anything?' "'Can't say I do,' said Mr. Carhill. "'How like you? You're never any good.' "'Never any good. Just listen to her. Never any good. Oh, come!' "'Well, you aren't. Miss Schlegel, is he?' The torrent of their love, having splashed these drops at Margaret, swept away on its habitual course. She sympathised with it now, for a little comfort had restored her geniality.

Starting point is 05:31:49 Speech and silence pleased her equally, and while Mr. Wilcox made some preliminary inquiries about cheese, her eyes surveyed the restaurant, and admired its well-calculated tributes to the solidity of our past. Though no more Old English than the works of Kipling, it had selected its reminiscences so adroitly that her criticism was lulled, and the guests whom it was nourishing for imperial purposes wore the outer semblance of Parson Adams, or Tom Jones. Scraps of their talk jarred oddly on the ear. Right you are, I'll cable it out to Uganda this evening. came from the table behind their emperor once wore well let him have it was the opinion of a clergyman she smiled at such incongruities next time she said to mr wilcox you shall come to lunch with me at mr eustace miles's

Starting point is 05:32:41 with pleasure no you'd hate it she said pushing her glass towards him for some more cider it's all proteids and body-buildings and people come up to you and beg your pardon but you have such a beautiful aura." "'A what?' "'Never heard of an aura. Oh, happy, happy man. I scrub it mine for hours. Nor of an astral plane.' He had heard of astral planes and censured them.

Starting point is 05:33:11 Just so. Luckily it was Helen's aura, not mine, and she had to chaperone it and do the politenesses. I just sat with my handkerchief to my mouth till the man went. Funny experiences seem to come to you two girls. No one's ever asked me about my—what do you call it? Perhaps I've not got one. You're bound to have one, but it may be such a terrible colour that no one dares mention it. Tell me, though, Miss Legall, do you really believe in the supernatural and all that?'

Starting point is 05:33:40 Too difficult to question. Why is that? Gruyre or Stilton. A, grouier, please. Better have Stiltern. Stilton. because, though I don't believe in Oras, and I think theosophy is only a halfway house. Yet there may be something in it all the same,' he concluded with a frown.

Starting point is 05:34:02 "'Not even that. It may be halfway in the wrong direction. I can't explain. I don't believe in all these fads, and yet I don't like saying that I don't believe in them.' He seemed unsatisfied and said, "'So you wouldn't give me your word that you don't hold with astral bodies and all the rest of it?' "'I could,' said Margaret, surprised that the point was of any importance to him. "'Indeed I will. When I talked about scrubbing my aura, I was only trying to be funny. "'But why do you want this settled?' "'I don't know.' "'Now, Mr. Wilcox, you do know.'

Starting point is 05:34:40 "'Yes, I am—' "'No, you're not,' burst from the lover's opposite. Margaret was silent for a moment and then changed the subject. How's your house? Much the same as when you honoured it last week. I don't mean Ducy Street. Howard's End, of course. Why, of course?

Starting point is 05:35:01 Can't you turn out your tenant and let it to us? We're nearly demented. Let me think. I wish I could help you. But I thought you wanted to be in town. One bit of advice. Fix your district, then fix your price, and then don't bunch. That's how I got both Ducy Street

Starting point is 05:35:18 and Onerton. I said to myself, I mean to be exactly here, and I was, and onotons are a place in a thousand. But I do budge. Gentlemen seem to mesmerise houses, cow them with an eye, and up they come, trembling. Ladies can't. It's the houses that are mesmerising me.

Starting point is 05:35:40 I have no control over the saucy things. Houses are alive. No. I'm out of my depth, he said, and added, "'Didn't you talk rather like that to your office-boy?' "'Did I?' "'I mean I did, more or less. I talk the same way to everyone, or try to.'

Starting point is 05:36:01 "'Yes, I know. And how much do you suppose that he understood of it?' "'That's his lookout. I don't believe in suiting my conversation to my company. One can doubtless hit upon some medium of exchange that seems to do well enough, but it's no more like the real thing than money is like food. There's no nourishment in it. You pass it to the lower classes, and they pass it back to you.

Starting point is 05:36:25 And this you call social intercourse or mutual endeavour, when it's mutual prignishness if it's anything. Our friends at Chelsea don't see this. They say one ought to be at all costs intelligible, and sacrifice lower classes, interrupt Mr. Wilcox, as it were thrusting his hand, under her speech. "'Well, you do admit that there are rich and poor. That's something.'

Starting point is 05:36:51 Margaret could not reply. "'Was he incredibly stupid, or did he understand her better than she understood herself?' "'You do admit that if wealth was divided up equally, and a few years there would be rich and poor again just the same, the hard-working man would come to the top, the wastrel sink to the bottom.' "'Everyone admits that.' "'Your socialist don't.' My socialist do. Yours mayn't, but I strongly suspect yours of not being socialist, but nine pins, which you have constructed for your own amusement. I can't imagine any living creature, who would bowl over quite so easily. He would have resented this had she not been a woman.

Starting point is 05:37:34 But women may say anything, it was one of his holiest beliefs, and he only retorted with a gay smile. I don't care. You've made two damaging admissions, and I am heartily with you in both. in time they finished lunch and margaret who had excused herself from the hippodrome took her leave evie had scarcely addressed her and she suspected that the entertainment had been planned by the father he and she were advancing out of their respective families towards a more intimate acquaintance it had begun long ago She had been his wife's friend, and as such she had given her that silver vinaigret as a memento. It was pretty of him to have given that vinaigret, and he had always preferred her to Helen, unlike most men. But the advance had been astonishing lately. They had done more in a week than in two years, and were really beginning to know each other. She did not forget his promise to sample Eustace Miles, and asked him as soon as she could secure Tibby as his chaperone.

Starting point is 05:38:33 He came and partook of bodybuilding dishes with humility. Next morning the Schlagels left for Swanage. They had not succeeded in finding a new home. End of Chapter 17. Chapter 18 of Howard's End. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visitlibrovox.org.

Starting point is 05:39:14 Recording by Elizabeth Clem. Howard's End by E. M. Forster. Chapter 18 As they were seated at Aunt Julie's breakfast table at the bays, parrying her excessive hospitality and enjoying the view of the bay, a letter came from Margaret and threw her into perturbation. It was from Mr. Wilcox. It announced an important change in his plans. Owing to E.B.'s marriage, he had decided to give up his house in Ducey Street and was willing to let it on a yearly tenancy. It was a business-like letter, and stated frankly what he would do for them and what he would not do. Also, the rent. If they approved, Margaret was to come up

Starting point is 05:39:56 at once. The words were underlined, as is necessary when dealing with women, and to go over the house with him. If they disapproved, a wire would oblige, as he should put it into the hands of an agent. The letter perturbed because she was not sure what it meant. If he liked her, if he had maneuvered to get her to Simpsons, might this be a maneuver to get her to London, and result in an offer of marriage? She put it to herself as indelicately as possible, in the hope that her brain would cry, Rubbish, you're a self-conscious fool. But her brain only tingled a little, and was silent, and for a time she sat gazing at the mincing waves, and wondering whether the news would seem strange to the others. As soon as she began speaking, the sound of her own voice reassured her.

Starting point is 05:40:44 There could be nothing in it. The replies also were typical, and in the buff of conversation her fears vanished. "'You needn't go, though,' began her hostess. "'I needn't, but hadn't I bet her? It's really getting rather serious. We let chance after chance slip, and the end of it is that we shall be bundled out bag and baggage into the street. We don't know what we want. That's the mischief with us.' "'No, we have no real ties,' said Helen, helping herself to her own. to toast.

Starting point is 05:41:15 Can't I go up to town today? Take the house if it's the least possible, and then come down by the afternoon train tomorrow and start enjoying myself. I shall be no fun to myself or others until this business is off my mind. But he won't do anything rash, Margaret. There's nothing rash to do. Who are the Wilcoxes? said Tibby, a question that sounds silly, but was really extremely subtle, as his aunt

Starting point is 05:41:42 found to her cast when she tried to answer it. I don't manage the Wilcoxes. I don't see where they come in. No more do I, agreed Helen. It's funny that we just don't lose sight of them. Out of all our hotel acquaintances, Mr. Wilcox is the only one who are stuck. It is now over three years, and we have drifted away from far more interesting people in that time. Interesting people don't get one houses. "'Meg, if you start in your honest English vein, I shall throw the treacle at you.' "'It's a better vein than the cosmopolitan,' said Margaret, getting up.

Starting point is 05:42:20 "'Now, children, which is it to be? You know the Ducey Street-house. Shall I say yes, or shall I say no?' "'Tibby, love, which? I'm specially anxious to pin you down.' "'It all depends on what meaning you attach to the word possible—' "'It depends on nothing of the sort. Say yes.' "'Say no.' Then Margaret spoke rather seriously. "'I think,' she said, "'that our race is degenerating.

Starting point is 05:42:50 "'We cannot settle even this little thing. "'What will it be like when we have to settle a big one?' "'It will be as easy as eating,' returned Helen. "'I was thinking of father. "'How could he settle to leave Germany as he did "'when he had fought for it as a young man "'and all his feelings and friends were Prussian?' How could he break loose with patriotism and begin aiming at something else?

Starting point is 05:43:15 It would have killed me. When he was nearly forty he could change countries and ideals, and we, at our age, can't change houses. It's humiliating. Your father may have been able to change countries, said Mrs. Munt, with Asperdy, and that may or may not be a good thing. But he could change houses no better than you can, in fact much worse. Never shall I forget what poor Emily suffered in the move from Manchester.

Starting point is 05:43:43 I knew it, cried Helen. I told you so. It is the little things one bungles at. The big, real ones are nothing when they come. Bungle, my dear, you are too little to recollect. In fact, you weren't there. But the furniture was actually in the vans and on the move before the lease for Wickham Place was signed, and Emily took train with Baby, who was Margaret then, and the smaller luggage for London without so much as knowing where her new home would be.

Starting point is 05:44:14 Getting away from that house may be hard, but it is nothing to the misery that we all went through getting you into it.' Helen, with her mouth full, cried, "'And that's the man who beat the Austrians and the Danes and the French, and who beat the Germans that were inside himself, and we're like him.' "'Speak for yourself.' said Tibby, remember that I am cosmopolitan, please. Helen may be right. Of course she's right, said Helen.

Starting point is 05:44:46 Helen might be right, but she did not go up to London. Margaret did that. An interrupted holiday is the worst of the minor worries, and one may be pardoned for feeling morbid when a business letter snatches went away from the sea and friends. She could not believe that her father had ever felt the same. Her eyes had been troubling her lately, so that she could not read in the train, and it bored her to look at the landscape which she had seen but yesterday. At Southampton she waved to Frida.

Starting point is 05:45:15 Frida was on her way down to join them at Swanage, and Mrs. Munt had calculated that their trains would cross. But Frida was looking the other way, and Margaret travelled on to town feeling solitary and old maidish. How like an old maid to fancy that Mr. Wilcox was courting her! She had once visited a spinster, poor, silly, and unattractive, whose mania it was that every man who approached her fell in love. How Margaret's heart had bled for the deluded thing. How she had lectured, reasoned, and in despair acquiesced. I may have been deceived by the curate, my dear, but the young fellow who brings the midday post really is fond of me, and has, as a matter of fact. It had always seemed to her the most hideous corner of old age.

Starting point is 05:46:01 yet she might be driven into it herself by the mere pressure of virginity. Mr. Wilcox met her at Waterloo himself. She felt certain that he was not the same as usual. For one thing he took offence at everything she said. "'This is awfully kind of you,' she began. "'But I'm afraid it's not going to do. The house has not been built that suits the Schlagel family.' "'What? Have you come up determined not to deal?'

Starting point is 05:46:27 "'Not exactly.' "'Not exactly.' "'In that case, let's be starting.' She lingered to admire the motor, which was new and a fairer creature than the vermilion giant that had borne Aunt Julie to her doom three years before. "'Presumably it's very beautiful,' she said. "'How do you like it, Crane?' "'Come, let's be starting,' repeated her host.

Starting point is 05:46:51 "'How on earth did you know that my chauffeur was called Crane?' "'Why, I know Crane. I've been for a drive with Evie once.' "'I know that. that you've got a parlour-maid called Milton? I know all sorts of things." "'Evey,' he echoed and injured tones, "'you won't see her. She's gone out with Cahill. "'It's no fun I can tell you, being left so much alone. I've got my work all day, indeed a great deal too much of it, but when I come home in the evening I tell you I can't stand the house.'

Starting point is 05:47:22 "'In my absurd way I'm lonely, too,' Margaret replied. "'It's heartbreaking to leave one's old home. I scarcely remember anything before Wiccan Place, and Helen and Tibby were born there. Helen says, You too feel lonely. Horribly. Hello, Parliament's back. Mr. Wilcox glanced at Parliament contemptuously. The more important ropes of life lay elsewhere.

Starting point is 05:47:49 Yes, they are talking again, said he. But you were going to say— Only some rubbish about furniture. Helen says it alone endures while men and houses perish, and that in the end the world would be a desert of chairs and sofas. Just imagine it, rolling through infinity with no one to sit upon them. Your sister always likes a little joke. She says yes, my brother says no, to Ducey Street. It's no fun helping us, Mr. Wilcox, I assure you. You are not as unpractical as you pretend. I shall never believe it.

Starting point is 05:48:26 Margaret laughed, but she was quite as unpractical. She could not concentrate on details. Parliament, the Thames, the irresponsive chauffeur, would flash into the field of house-hunting, and all demand some comment or response. It is impossible to see modern life steadily and see it whole, and she had chosen to see it whole. Mr. Wilcox saw steadily.

Starting point is 05:48:52 He never bothered over the mysterious or the private. The Thames might run in-life, land from the sea, the chauffeur might conceal all passion and philosophy beneath his unhealthy skin. They knew their own business, and he knew his. Yet she liked being with him. He was not a rebuke, but a stimulus, and banished morbidity. Some twenty years her senior, he preserved a gift that she supposed herself to have already lost, not youth's creative power, but its self-confidence and optimism. He was so sure that it was a very pleasant world. His complexion was robust. His hair had receded but not thinned. The thick moustache and the eyes that Helen had compared to brandy-balls had an agreeable menace in them, whether they were turned towards the slums or towards the stars. Some day, in the millennium, there may be no need for his type. At present, homage is due to it from those who think themselves superior and who possibly are.

Starting point is 05:49:51 "'At all events you responded to my telegram promptly,' he remarked. "'Oh, even I know a good thing when I see it. I'm glad you don't despise the goods of this world.' "'Heavens, no! Only idiots and prigs do that.' "'I am glad.' "'Very glad,' he repeated, suddenly softening and turning to her, as if the remark had pleased him. There is so much cant talked in would-be intellectual circles, I am glad you don't share it.

Starting point is 05:50:24 Self-denial is all very well as a means of strengthening the character, but I can't stand those people who run down comforts. They usually have some axe to grind. Can you? Comforts are of two kinds, said Margaret, who was keeping herself in hand. Those we can share with others, like fire, weather or music, and those we can't. Food, for instance.

Starting point is 05:50:50 It depends. i mean reasonable comforts of course i shouldn't like to think that you he bent nearer the sentence died unfinished margaret's head turned very stupid and the inside of it seemed to revolve like the beacon in a lighthouse he did not kiss her for the hour was half-past twelve and the car was passing by the stables of buckingham palace but the atmosphere was so charged with emotion that people only seemed to exist on her account and she was surprised that crane did not realize that and turn round. Idiot, though she might be, surely Mr. Wilcox was more—how should one put it—more psychological than usual. Always a good judge of character for business purposes. He seemed this afternoon to enlarge his field, and to note qualities outside neatness, obedience, and decision. "'I want to go over the whole house,' she announced when they arrived. "'As soon as I get back to Swanage, which will be tomorrow afternoon, I'll talk it over once more

Starting point is 05:51:51 with Helen and Tibby, and why are you yes or no? Right, the dining-room. And they began their survey. The dining-room was big, but over-furnished. Chelsea would have moaned aloud. Mr. Wilcox had eschewed those decorative schemes that wince and relent and refrain, and achieve beauty by sacrificing comfort and pluck. After so much self-color and self-denial,

Starting point is 05:52:15 Margaret viewed with relief the sumptuous dado, the frieze, the gilded wallpaper amid whose... foliage parrots sang. It would never do with her own furniture, but those heavy chairs, that immense sideboard, loaded with presentation plate, stood up against its pressure like men. The room suggested men, and Margaret, keen to derive the modern capitalist from the warriors and hunters of the past, saw it as an ancient guest-hall where the Lord sat at meat among his thanes. Even the Bible, the Dutch Bible that Charles had brought back from the Boer War, fell into position. Such a room admitted lute.

Starting point is 05:52:55 Now the entrance hall. The entrance hall was paved. Here we fellows smoke. We fellows smoked in chairs of maroon leather. It was as if a motor-car had spawned. Oh, jolly, said Margaret, sinking into one of them. You do like it, he said, fixing his eyes on her upturned face, and surely betraying an almost intimate note.

Starting point is 05:53:19 It's all rubbish not making one of the same. self-comfortable, isn't it?" "'Yes. semi-rubbish.' "'Are those crooks? "'Shall we go on upstairs?' "'Does all this furniture come from Howard's End?' "'The Howard's End furniture has all gone to Onerton.'

Starting point is 05:53:38 "'Does—however I'm concerned with the house, not the furniture. How big is this smoking-room?' "'Thirty by fifteen.' "'No, wait a minute. Fifteen and a half.' ah well mr wilcox aren't you ever amused at the solemnity with which we middle classes approach the subject of houses they proceeded to the drawing-room Chelsea managed better here. It was sallow and ineffective. One could visualize the ladies withdrawing to it, while their lords discussed life's realities below to the accompaniment of cigars. Had Mrs. Wilcox's drawing-room looked thus at Howard's end? Just as this thought entered Margaret's brain, Mr. Wilcox did ask her to be his wife, and the knowledge that she had been right so overcame her that she nearly fainted. But the proposal was not to rank among the world's great love scenes.

Starting point is 05:54:33 Miss Schlegel, his voice was firm. I have had you up on false pretenses. I want to speak about a much more serious matter than a house. Margaret almost answered, I know. Could you be induced to share my— Is it probable? Oh, Mr. Wilcox, she interrupted, holding the piano and averting her eyes.

Starting point is 05:54:56 I see, I see, I will write to you afterwards if I may. He began to stammer, Mischlegel, Margaret, you don't understand. Oh, yes, indeed, yes, said Margaret. I am asking you to be my wife. So deep already was her sympathy that when he said, I am asking you to be my wife,

Starting point is 05:55:21 she made herself give a little start. She must show surprise if he expected it. An immense joy came over her. It was indescribable. It had nothing to do with humanity, and most resembled the all-pervading happiness of fine weather. Fine weather is due to the sun, but Margaret could think of no central radiance here. She stood in his drawing-room happy, and longing to give happiness. On leaving him, she realized that the central radiance had been love. You aren't offended, Miss Schlegel. How could I be offended?

Starting point is 05:55:58 There was a moment's pause. He was anxious to get rid of her, and she knew it. She had too much intuition to look at him as he struggled for possessions that money cannot buy. He desired comradeship and affection, but he feared them. And she, who had taught herself only to desire, and could have clothed the struggle with beauty, held back, and hesitated with him. "'Good-bye,' she continued. "'You will have a letter from me. I am going back to Swanage tomorrow.

Starting point is 05:56:28 Thank you. Goodbye, and it's you, I thank. I may order the mortar round, may, ain't I? That would be most kind. I wish I had written instead. Ought I to have written? Not at all. There's just one question.

Starting point is 05:56:47 She shook her head. He looked a little bewildered, and they parted. They parted without shaking hands. She had kept the interview, for his sake, in tints of the quietest grey, yet she thrilled with happiness ere she reached her own house. Others had loved her in the past, if one may apply to their brief desire so grave a word, but those others had been ninnies, young men who had nothing better to do, old men who could find nobody better. And she had often loved, too, but only so far as the facts of sex demanded, mere yearnings for the masculine, to be determined to be

Starting point is 05:57:24 dismissed for what they were worth with a smile. Never before had her personality been touched. She was not young or very rich, and it amazed her that a man of any standing should take her seriously. As she sat trying to do accounts in her empty house, amidst beautiful pictures and noble books, waves of emotion broke as if a tide of passion was flowing through the night air. She shook her head, tried to concentrate her attention, and failed. In vain did she repeat, "'But I've been through this sort of thing before.' She had never been through it.

Starting point is 05:58:02 The big machinery, as opposed to the little, have been set in motion, and the idea that Mr. Wilcox loved, obsessed her before she came to love him in return. She would come to no decision yet. "'Oh, sir, this is so sudden!' "'That prudish phrase exactly expressed her when her time came. Premonitions are not preparation.

Starting point is 05:58:22 She must examine more closely her own nature and his. She must talk it over judicially with Helen. It had been a strange love scene, the central radiance unacknowledged from first to last. She, in his place, would have said, Ich libe di! But perhaps it was not his habit to open the heart. He might have done it if she had pressed him.

Starting point is 05:58:46 As a matter of duty, perhaps. England expects every man to open his heart once, but the effort would have jarred him, and never if she could avoid it, should he lose those defences that he had chosen to raise against the world. He must never be bothered with emotional talk, or with a display of sympathy. He was an elderly man now, and it would be futile and impudent to correct him. Mrs. Wilcox strayed in and out, ever a welcome ghost. Surveying the scene, thought Margaret, without one hint of bitterness. End of Chapter 18

Starting point is 05:59:24 Chapter 19 of Howard's End This is a Libravox recording All Libravox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer Please visit Libravox.org Recording by Elizabeth Clet Howard's End By E. M. Forster

Starting point is 05:59:54 Chapter 19 If one wanted to show a foreign or England Perhaps the wisest course would be to take him to the final section of the Perbeck Hills, and stand him on their summit, a few miles to the east of Corf. Then system after system of our island would roll together under his feet. Beneath him is the valley of the Frome, and all the wild lands that come tossing down from Dorchester, black and gold, to mirror their gorse in the expanses of pool. The valley of the store is beyond, unaccountable stream.

Starting point is 06:00:30 dirty at Blanford, pure at Wimborn, the store sliding out of fat fields to marry the Avon beneath the Tower of Christchurch. The valley of the Avon, invisible, but far to the north, the trained eye may see Clearbury Ring that guards it, and the imagination may leap beyond that onto Salisbury Plain itself, and beyond the plain to all the glorious downs of Central England. Nor is suburbia absent. Bournemouth's ignoble coast coweres to the right, heralding the pine trees that mean for all their beauty, red houses, and the stock exchange, and extend to the gates of London itself. So tremendous is the city's trail. But the cliffs of freshwater it shall never touch, and the island will guard the island's purity till the end of time. Seen from the west, the white is beautiful beyond all laws of beauty. It is as if a fragment of England floated forward to greet the foreigner, Chalk of our chalk, turf of our turf, epitome of what will follow.

Starting point is 06:01:38 And behind the fragment lies Southampton, hostess to the nations, and Portsmouth, a latent fire, and all around it with double and treble collision of tides, swirls the sea. How many villages appear in this view? How many castles? How many churches vanished or triumphant? How many ships, railways, and roads? What incredible variety of men working beneath that lucent sky to what final end?

Starting point is 06:02:08 The reason fails, like a wave on the Swanage Beach. The imagination swells, spreads, and deepens, until it becomes geographic and encircles England. So Frida Mosbeach, now Frau Architect Lysic, and mother, to her husband's baby, was brought up to these heights to be impressed, and after a prolonged gaze, she said that the hills were more swelling here than in Promerania, which was true, but did not seem to Mrs. Munt apposite. Pool Harbor was dry, which led her to praise the absence of muddy foreshore at the Friedrich Wilhelm's fad, Rougan, where beech trees hang over the tideless Baltic, and cows may contemplate the brine. Rather unhealthy, Mrs. Munt thought,

Starting point is 06:02:56 this would be, water being safer when it moved about. And your English lakes? Vindemia, grass mea, are zeisen unhealthy? No, Frau Lysic, but that is because they are fresh water and different. Salt water ought to have tides, and go up and down a great deal, or else it smells. Look, for instance, at an aquarium. An aquarium? Oh, Mises months!

Starting point is 06:03:26 You mean to tell me that fresh aquariums stink less than salt? Why, when Victor, my brother-in-law, collected many tadpoles? You are not to say stink, interrupted Helen. At least you may say it, but you must pretend you are being funny while you say it. Then smell. And the mud of your pool down there, does it not smell, or may I say stink, ha-ha? There always has been mud in pool harbour, said Mrs. Munt with a slight frown. The rivers bring it down, and a most valuable oyster fishery depends upon it.

Starting point is 06:04:05 Yes, that is so, conceded Frida, and another international incident was closed. Bournemouth is, resumed their hostess, quoting a local rhyme to which she was much attached. "'Bornmouth is, pool was, and Swanage is to be the most important town of all and biggest of the three. "'Now, Frau Lisek, I have shown you Bournemouth, and I have shown you pool, "'so let us walk backward a little and look down again at Swanage.' "'A Aunt Julie! Wouldn't that be Meg's train?' "'A tiny puff of smoke had been circling the harbour, and now was bearing southwards towards them over the black and the gold. oh dearest margaret i do hope she won't be overtired oh i do wonder i do wonder whether she's taken the house i hope she hasn't been hasty so do i oh so do i

Starting point is 06:05:06 "'Will it be as beautiful as we can place?' Frieda asked. "'I should think it would. Trust Mr. Wilcox for doing himself proud. All those Deucy Street houses are beautiful in their modern way, and I can't think why he doesn't keep on with it. But it's really for Evie that he went there, and now that Evie's going to be married.' "'Ah!' "'You've never seen, Miss Wilcox, Frida, how absurdly matrimonial you are.' "'But sister to that Paul?' "'Yes.'

Starting point is 06:05:41 "'And to that Charles,' said Mrs. Munt with feeling. "'Oh, Helen! Helen, what a time that was!' Helen laughed. Meg and I haven't got such tender hearts. If there's a chance of a cheap house, we go for it. Now look, Frau Lysic, at my niece's train. You see, it is coming towards us, coming, coming, and when it gets to Corfe, it will actually go through the downs on which we are standing, so that,

Starting point is 06:06:11 if we walk over, as I suggested, and look down on Swanage, we shall see it coming on the other side. Shall we?' Frida assented, and in a few minutes they had crossed the ridge and exchanged the greater view for the lesser. Rather a dull valley lay below, backed by the slope of the coastward Downs. They were looking across the Isle of Purbeck and on to Swanage, soon to be the most important town of all, and the ugliest of the three. Margaret's train reappeared as promised, and was greeted with approval by her aunt. It came to a standstill in the middle distance, and there it had been planned that Tibby should meet her, and drive her and a tea-basket up to join them.

Starting point is 06:06:54 "'You see,' continued Helen to her cousin, "'the Wilcoxes collect houses as your Victor collects tadpoles. They have one, Deucy Street, two, Howard's End, where my great Rumpus was, three, a country seat in Shropshire, four, Charles has a house in Hilton, and five, another near Epsom, and six, Evie will have a house when she marries, and probably a Pied Artaire in the country, which makes seven. Oh yes, and Paul a hut in Africa makes eight. I wish we could get Howard's End. That was something like a dear little house. Didn't you think so? So, Aunt Julie. I had too much to do, dear, to look at it, said Mrs. Munt, with a gracious dignity.

Starting point is 06:07:38 I had everything to settle and explain, and Charles Wilcox to keep in his place besides. It isn't likely I should remember much. I just remember having lunch in your bedroom. Yes, so do I. But, oh dear, dear, how dead it all seems! And in the autumn there began this anti-Pauleen movement, you and— and Frida and Meg and Mrs. Wilcox, all obsessed with the idea that I might yet marry Paul. "'You yet may,' said Frida despondedly.

Starting point is 06:08:12 Helen shook her head. The great Wilcox peril will never return. If I'm certain of anything, it's of that. One is certain of nothing, but the truce of one's own emotions.' The remark fell damply on the conversation. But Helen slipped her arm round. her cousin, somehow liking her the better for making it. It was not an original remark. Nor had Frida appropriated it passionately, for she had a patriotic rather than a philosophic mind.

Starting point is 06:08:44 Yet it betrayed that interest in the universal which the average Teuton possesses, and the average Englishman does not. It was, however, illogically, the good, the beautiful, the true, as opposed to the respectable, the pretty, the adequate. It was a little. It was a little, landscape of Boklands, beside a landscape of ladders, strident and ill-considered, but quivering into supernatural life. It sharpened idealism, stirred the soul. It may have been a bad preparation for what followed. "'Look!' cried Aunt Julie, hurrying away from generalities over the narrow summit of the down. "'Stand where I stand, and you will see the pony-cart coming. I see the pony cart coming. They stood and saw the pony cart coming. Margaret and Tibby were presently

Starting point is 06:09:34 seen coming in it. Leaving the outskirts of Swanage, it drove for a little through the budding lanes, and then began the ascent. "'Have you got the house?' they shouted, long before she could possibly hear. Helen ran down to meet her. The high road passed over a saddle, and a track went thence at right angles along the ridge of the down. "'Have you got the house?' Margaret shook her head. "'Oh, what a nuisance. So we're as we were?' "'Not exactly.' She got out, looking tired.

Starting point is 06:10:08 "'Some mystery,' said Tibby. "'We ought to be enlightened presently.' Margaret came close up to her and whispered that she had had a proposal of marriage from Mr. Wilcox. Helen was amused. She opened the gate on to the down so that her brother might lead the pony through. It's just like a widower, she remarked. They've cheek enough for anything, and invariably select one of their first wife's friends.

Starting point is 06:10:36 Margaret's face flashed despair. That type, she broke off with a cry. Meg, not anything wrong with you. Wait one minute, said Margaret, whispering always. But you've never conceivably—you've never—' She pulled herself together. tibby hurry up through i can't hold this gate indefinitely aunt julie i say aunt julie make the tea will you and frieda we've got to talk houses and i'll come on afterwards and then turning her face to her sisters she burst into tears margaret was stupefied she heard herself saying oh really she felt herself touched with a hand that trembled

Starting point is 06:11:23 "'Don't!' sobbed Helen. "'Don't! Don't! Meg! Don't!' she seemed incapable of saying any other word. Margaret, trembling herself, led her forward up the road, till they strayed through another gate on to the down. "'Don't! Don't do such a thing! I tell you not to! Don't! I know! Don't!' "'What do you know?' "'Panick and emptiness,' sobbed Helen. "'Don't!'

Starting point is 06:11:53 Then Margaret thought, "'Helen is a little selfish. I have never behaved like this when there has seemed a chance of her marrying.' She said, "'But we would still see each other very often, and—' "'It's not a thing like that!' sobbed Helen.

Starting point is 06:12:10 And she broke right away and wandered distractedly upwards, stretching her hands towards the view and crying. "'What's happened to you?' called Margaret, following through the wind that gathers its unmanned, down on the northern slopes of hills. But it's stupid! And suddenly stupidity seized her, and the immense landscape was blurred. But Helen turned back.

Starting point is 06:12:35 Meg! I don't know what's happened to either of us, said Margaret, wiping her eyes. We must both have gone mad. Then Helen wiped hers, and they even laughed a little. Look here, sit down. All right, I'll sit down if you'll sit down. down. There. One kiss. Now whatever, whatever is the matter. I do mean what I said. Don't. It wouldn't do. Oh, Helen, stop saying don't. It's ignorant. It's as if your head wasn't out of the

Starting point is 06:13:10 slime. Don't is probably what Mrs. Bass says all the day to Mr. Bass. Helen was silent. Well, tell me about it first. And meanwhile. perhaps I'll have got my head out of the slime. That's better. Well, where shall I begin? When I arrived at Waterloo— No, I'll go back before that, because I'm anxious you should know everything from the first. The first was about ten days ago.

Starting point is 06:13:40 It was the day Mr. Bast came to tea and lost his temper. I was defending him, and Mr. Wilcox became jealous about me, however slightly. I thought it was the involuntary thing, which men can't help any more than we can. You know, at least I know in my own case, when a man has said to me, So-and-so's a pretty girl, I am seized with a momentary sourness against so-and-so, and long to tweak her ear. It's a tiresome feeling, but not an important one, and one easily manages it. But it wasn't only this in Mr. Wilcox's case, I gather now, then you love him. Margaret considered.

Starting point is 06:14:21 It is wonderful knowing that a real man cares for you, she said. The mere fact of that grows more tremendous. Remember, I've known and liked him steadily for nearly three years. But loved him? Margaret peered into her past. It is pleasant to analyse feelings, while they are still only feelings, and unembodied in the social fabric. With her arm round Helen and her eyes shifting over the view,

Starting point is 06:14:49 as if this county or that could reveal the secret of her own heart, she meditated honestly and said, No. But you will. Yes, said Margaret, of that I'm pretty sure. Indeed, I began the moment he spoke to me. And have settled to marry him.

Starting point is 06:15:10 I had, but am wanting a long talk about it now. What is it against him, Helen? You must try and say. Helen, in her turn, looked outwards. "'It is ever since Paul,' she said finally. "'But what has Mr. Wilcox to do with Paul?' "'But he was there. They were all there that morning when I came down to breakfast

Starting point is 06:15:34 and saw that Paul was frightened, the man who loved me frightened, and all his paraphernalia fallen, so that I knew it was impossible, because personal relations are the most important thing for ever and ever, and not this outer life of telegrams and anger. She poured the sentence forth in one breath, but her sister understood it, because it touched on thoughts that were familiar between them.

Starting point is 06:15:58 That's foolish. In the first place, I disagree about the outer life. Well, we've often argued that. The real point is that there is the widest gulf between my love-making and yours. Yours was romance. Mine will be pros. I'm not running it down, a very good kind of prose, but well-considered, well-thought-out. For instance, I know all Mr. Wilcox's faults. He's afraid of emotion. He cares too much about success,

Starting point is 06:16:29 too little about the past. His sympathy lacks poetry, and so isn't sympathy, really. I'd even say, she looked at the shining lagoons, that spiritually he's not as honest as I am. "'Doesn't that satisfy you?' "'No, it doesn't,' said Helen. "'It makes me feel worse and worse. You must be mad!' Margaret made a movement of irritation. "'I don't intend him, or any man, or any woman, to be all my life. Good heavens, no. There are heaps of things in me that he doesn't and shall never understand.'

Starting point is 06:17:07 Thus she spoke before the wedding ceremony and the physical union, before the astonishing glass shade had fallen that interposes between married couples in the world. She was to keep her independence more than do most women as yet. Marriage was to alter her fortunes rather than her character, and she was not far wrong in boasting that she understood her future husband. Yet he did alter her character, a little. There was an unforeseen surprise, a cessation of the winds and odors of life, a social pressure that would have her think conjugally. So with his heart a him," she continued. There are heaps of things in him, more especially things that he does, that will always be

Starting point is 06:17:49 hidden from me. He has all those public qualities which you so despise and enable all this. She waved her hand at the landscape, which confirmed anything. If Wilcoxes hadn't worked and died in England for thousands of years, you and I couldn't sit here without having our throats cut. There would be no trains, no ships to carry us literary people about. him, no fields even, just savagery. No, perhaps not even that.

Starting point is 06:18:19 Without their spirit, life might never have moved out of protoplasm. More and more do I refuse to draw my income and sneer at those who guarantee it. There are times when it seems to me—and to me and to all women. So one kissed Paul. That's brutal, said Margaret. Mine is an absolutely different case. I've thought things out. It makes no difference thinking things out.

Starting point is 06:18:47 They come to the same. Rubbish! There was a long silence, during which the tide returned into pool harbor. One would lose something, murmured Helen, apparently to herself. The water crept over the mudflats towards the gorse and the blackened heather. Branksy Island lost its immense foreshores, and became a somber episode of trees. Frome was forced inward towards Dorchester, store against Wimborn, Avon toward Salisbury, and over the immense displacement the sun presided, leading it to triumph ere he sank to rest.

Starting point is 06:19:27 England was alive, throbbing through all her estuaries, crying for joy through the mouths of all her gulls, and the north wind, with contrary motion, blew stronger against her rising seas. What did it mean? For what end are her fair complexities, Her changes of soil, her sinuous coast? Does she belong to those who have molded her And made her feared by other lands, Or to those who have added nothing to her power,

Starting point is 06:19:56 But have somehow seen her, Seen the whole island at once, Lying as a jewel in a silver sea, Sailing as a ship of souls, With all the brave world's fleet accompanying her towards eternity. End of Chapter 19. Chapter 20 of Howard's End. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clette.

Starting point is 06:20:42 Howard's End by E. M. Forster. Chapter 20 Margaret had often wondered at the disturbance that takes place in the world's waters. when love, who seems so tiny a pebble, flips in. Whom does love concern beyond the beloved and the lover? Yet his impact deluges a hundred shores. No doubt the disturbance is really the spirit of the generations, welcoming the new generation, and chafing against the ultimate fate,

Starting point is 06:21:12 who holds all the seas in the palm of her hand. But love cannot understand this. He cannot comprehend another's infinity. He is conscious only of his own, flying sunbeam, falling rose, pebble that asks for one quiet plunge below the fretting interplay of space and time. He knows that he will survive at the end of things, and be gathered by fate as a jewel from the slime, and be handed with admiration round the assembly of the gods. Men did produce this, they will say, and saying they will give men immortality.

Starting point is 06:21:48 But meanwhile, what agitation? meanwhile. The foundations of property and propriety are laid bare, twin rocks. Family pride flounders to the surface, puffing and blowing, and refusing to be comforted. Theology, vaguely ascetic, gets up a nasty groundswell. Then the lawyers are aroused, cold-brewed, and creep out of their holes. They do what they can. They tidy up property and propriety, reassure theology and family pride. Half-ginnies are poured on the troubled waters, the lawyers creep back, and if all has gone well, love joins one man and woman together in matrimony. Margaret had expected the disturbance, and was not irritated by it. For a sensitive woman she had steady nerves, and can bear with the incongruous and the grotesque,

Starting point is 06:22:39 and besides there was nothing excessive about her love affair. Good humor was the dominant note of her relations with Mr. Wilcox, or, as I must now call him, Henry. Henry. Henry. Henry, Henry did not encourage romance, and she was no girl to fidget for it. An acquaintance had become a lover, might become a husband, but would retain all that she had noted in the acquaintance, and love must confirm an old relation rather than reveal a new one. In this spirit she promised to marry him. He was in swanage on the morrow, bearing the engagement ring. They greeted one another with a hearty cordiality that impressed Aunt Julie. Henry dined at the bays, but he had engaged a bedroom in the principal hotel.

Starting point is 06:23:24 He was one of those men who knew the principal hotel by instinct. After dinner he asked Margaret if she wouldn't care for a turn on the parade. She accepted, and could not repress a little tremor, it would be her first real love scene. But as she put on her hat, she burst out laughing. Love was so unlike the article served up in books. The joy, though genuine, was different. The mystery, an unexpected mystery. For one thing, Mr. Wilcox, still seemed a stranger.

Starting point is 06:23:55 For a time they talked about the ring. Then she said, "'Do you remember the embankment at Chelsea? It can't be ten days ago.' "'Yes,' he said, laughing. "'And you and your sister were head and ears deep in some quixotic scheme. Ah, well.' "'I little thought then, certainly.

Starting point is 06:24:15 Did you?' "'I don't know. about that, I shouldn't like to say." "'Why, was it earlier?' she cried. "'Did you think of me this way earlier? How extraordinarily interesting, Henry, tell me!' But Henry had no intention of telling. Perhaps he could not have told, for his mental states became obscure as soon as he had

Starting point is 06:24:37 passed through them. He misliked the very word, interesting, connoting it with wasted energy and even with morbidity. Hard facts were enough for him. didn't think of it, she pursued. No, when you spoke to me in the drawing-room, that was practically the first. It was all so different from what it's supposed to be. On the stage, or in books, a proposal is—how shall I put it? A full-blown affair, a kind of bouquet. It loses its literal meaning. But in life a proposal really is a proposal. By the way, a suggestion, a seed, she concluded, and the third

Starting point is 06:25:17 That flew away into darkness. I was thinking, if you didn't mind, that we ought to spend this evening in a business talk. There will be so much to settle. I think so, too. Tell me in the first place. How did you get on with Tibby? With your brother? Yes, during cigarettes.

Starting point is 06:25:38 Oh, very well. I am so glad, she answered a little surprised. What did you talk about? "'Me, presumably. "'About Greece, too.' "'Greece was a very good card, Henry. "'Tibby's only a boy still, "'and one has to pick and choose subjects a little.

Starting point is 06:25:58 "'Well done.' "'I was telling him I have shares in a current farm near Calamata. "'What a delightful thing to have shares in! "'Can't we go there for our honeymoon?' "'What to do?' "'To eat the currents. "'And isn't there marvellous scenery?' moderately but it's not the kind of place one could possibly go to with a lady why not no hotels some ladies do without hotels are you aware that helen and i have walked alone over the apennines with our luggage on our backs

Starting point is 06:26:33 i wasn't aware and if i can manage it you will never do such a thing again she said more gravely you haven't found time for a talk with helen yet i suppose no "'Do before you go. I am so anxious you two should be friends.' "'Your sister and I have always hit it off,' he said negligently. "'But we're drifting away from our business. Let me begin at the beginning. You know that Evie is going to marry Percy Carhill.' "'Dolly's uncle.' "'Exactly. The girl's madly in love with him. A very good sort of fellow. But he demands, and rightly, a suitable provision with her. And in the second place you will naturally understand

Starting point is 06:27:15 there was Charles. Before leaving town, I wrote Charles a very careful letter. You see, he has an increasing family and increasing expenses, and the I and W.A. is nothing particular just now, though capable of development. "'Poor fellow,' murmured Margaret, looking out to see, and not understanding. Charles being the elder son, someday Charles will have Howard's end, but I am anxious in my own happiness not to be unjust to others.' "'Of course not,' she began, and then gave a little cry. "'You mean money? How stupid I am! Of course not!' "'Aardly enough he winced a little at the word.

Starting point is 06:27:58 "'Yes, money, since you put it so frankly. I am determined to be just to all. Just to you, just to them. I am determined that my children shall have no case against me.' "'Be generous to them,' she said sharply. bother justice. I am determined, and have already written to Charles to that effect. But how much have you got? What? How much have you got a year?

Starting point is 06:28:25 I have six hundred. My income? Yes. We must begin with how much you have before we can settle on how much you can give Charles. Justice and even generosity depend on that. I must say you're a downright young woman, he observed, patting her arm, and laughing a little. What a question does bring on a fellow.

Starting point is 06:28:46 Don't you know your income? Oh, don't you want to tell it, me? I— That's all right, now she patted him. Don't tell me. I don't want to know. I can do the sum just as well by proportion. Divide your income into ten parts.

Starting point is 06:29:03 How many parts would you give to Evie? How many to Charles? How many to Paul? The fact is, my dear, I hadn't any intention of bothering you with details. I only wanted to let you know that—well, that something must be done for the others, and you've understood me perfectly. So let's pass on to the next point. "'Yes, we've settled that,' said Margaret, undisturbed by his strategic blunderings. "'Go ahead. Give away all you can, bearing in mind I've a clear six hundred.'

Starting point is 06:29:33 "'What a mercy it is to have all this money about one.' "'We've none too much, I assure you. You're marrying a poor man.' "'Helen wouldn't agree with me here,' she continued. "'Hallon daren't slang the rich, being rich herself, but she would like to. There's an odd notion that I haven't yet got a hold of, running about at the back of her brain, that poverty is somehow real. She dislikes all organisation, and probably confuses wealth with the technique of wealth. Sovereigns in a stocking wouldn't bother her. Checks do.'

Starting point is 06:30:05 Helen is too relentless. One can't deal in her high-handed manner with the world. there's this other point and then i must go back to my hotel and write some letters what's to be done now about the house and docy street keep it on at least it depends when do you want to marry me she raised her voice as too often and some youths who were also taking the evening air overheard her getting a bit hot eh said one mr wilcox turned on them and said sharply i say there was silence "'Take care I don't report you to the police!' They moved away quietly enough, but were only biding their time, and the rest of the conversation was punctuated by peals of ungovernable laughter. Lowering his voice and infusing a hint of reproof into it, he said,

Starting point is 06:30:58 "'Evy will probably be married in September. We could scarcely think of anything before then.' "'The earlier the nicer, Henry.' "'Females are not supposed to say such things, but the earlier the nicer.' "'How about September for us, too?' he asked rather dryly. "'Right. Shall we go into Ducey Street ourselves in September? "'Or shall we try to bounce Helen and Tiby into it? "'That's rather an idea.

Starting point is 06:31:24 "'They are so unbusiness-like. "'We could make them do anything by judicious management. "'Look here, yes, we'll do that. "'And we ourselves could live at Howard's End or Shropshire.' "'He blew out his cheeks. "'Heavens how you women do fly round. "'My heads in a whirl. point by point margaret howards ends impossible i let it to hammer bryce on a three years agreement last march don't you remember onerton well that is much much too far away to rely on entirely you will be able to be down there entertaining a certain amount but we must have a house with an easy reach of town

Starting point is 06:32:00 Only Ducey Street has huge strollbacks. There's a muse behind. Margaret could not help laughing. It was the first she had heard of the muse behind Ducy Street. When she was a possible tenant it had suppressed itself, not consciously, but automatically, the breezy Wilcox manner, though genuine, lacked the clearness of vision that is imperative for truth.

Starting point is 06:32:22 When Henry lived in Ducy Street, he remembered the muse. When he tried to let, he forgot it, And if anyone had remarked that the muse must be either there or not, he would have felt annoyed, and afterwards have found some opportunity of stigmatizing the speaker as academic. So does my grocer stigmatize me when I complain of the quality of his sultanas, and he answers in one breath that they are the best sultanas, and how can I expect the best sultanas at that price? It is a flaw inherent in the business mind, and Margaret may do well to be tender to it, considering all the business mind has done for England.

Starting point is 06:32:58 yes in summer especially the muse is a serious nuisance the smoking-room too is an abominable little den the house opposite has been taken by operatic people do you see streets going down it's my private opinion How sad. It's only a few years since they built those pretty houses. So's things are moving. Good for trade. I hate this continual flux of London. It is an epitome of us at our worst. Eternal formlessness. All the qualities good, bad, and indifferent, streaming away, streaming, forever. That's why I dread it so. I mistrust rivers even in scenery. Now the sea! "'High tide, yes.

Starting point is 06:33:44 "'Hoy toied, from the promenading youths.' "'And these are the men to whom we give the vote,' observed Mr. Wilcox, "'omitting to add that they were also the men to whom he gave work as clerks, "'work that scarcely encouraged them to grow into other men. "'However, they have their own lives and interests. Let's get on.' "'He turned as he spoke and prepared to see her back to the bays. "'The business was over. His hotel was in the opposite direction, and if he accompanied her, his letters would be late for the post.

Starting point is 06:34:17 She implored him not to come, but he was obdurate. A nice beginning if your aunt saw you slip in alone. But I always do go about alone. Considering I've walked over the apennines, it's common sense. He will make me so angry. I don't the least take it as a compliment. He laughed and lit a cigar. It isn't meant as a compliment, my dear.

Starting point is 06:34:39 I just won't have you going about in the dark. Such people about two. It's dangerous. Can't I look after myself? I do wish. Come along, Margaret, no wheedling. A younger woman might have resented his masterly ways, but Margaret had too firm a grip of life to make a fuss. She was in her own way, as masterly. If he was a fortress, she was a mountain peak, whom all might tread but whom the snows made nightly virginal. Disdaining the heroic outfit, excitable in her methods, garrulous, episodical, shrill, she misled her lover much as she had misled her aunt. He mistook her fertility for weakness. He supposed her, as clever as they make them, but no more, not realizing that she was penetrating to the depths of his soul and approving of what she found there. And if insight were sufficient, if the inner life were the whole of life, their happiness has been assured. They walked ahead briskly. The parade and the road after it, were well lighted, but it was darker in Aunt Julie's garden. As they were going up by the side

Starting point is 06:35:46 paths, through some rhododendrons, Mr. Wilcox, who was in front, said, Margaret, rather huskily, turned, dropped his cigar, and took her in his arms. She was startled and nearly screamed, but recovered herself at once, and kissed with genuine love the lips that were pressed against her own. It was their first kiss, and when it was over he saw her safely to the door and rang the bell for her, but disappeared into the night before the maid answered it. On looking back the incident displeased her. It was so isolated.

Starting point is 06:36:22 Nothing in their previous conversation had heralded it. And worse still, no tenderness had ensued. If a man cannot lead up to passion, he can, at all events, lead down from it, and she had hoped, after her complacence, for some interchange of gentle words. but he had hurried away as if ashamed, and for an instant she was reminded of Helen and Paul. End of Chapter 20 Chapter 21 of Howard's End This is a Librevox recording.

Starting point is 06:37:04 All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clet Howard's End by E. M. Forster chapter twenty one charles had just been scolding his dolly she deserved the scolding and had bent before it but her head though bloody was unsubdued and her chirruppings began to mingle with his retreating thunder you've woken the baby i knew you would rumpty fool rackety-tacety-tokin'tomkin i'm not responsible for what uncle percy does nor for anybody else or anything so there who asked him while i was away who asked my sister down to meet him who sent them out on the motor day after day charles that reminds me of some poem does it indeed we shall all be dancing to a very different music presently miss schnagle has fairly got us on toast i could simply scratch that woman's eyes out and to say it's my fault is most unfair it's your fault and five months ago you admitted it

Starting point is 06:38:20 "'I didn't. You did.' "'Toodle! Toodle! Playing on the poodle!' exclaimed Daly, suddenly devoting herself to the child. "'It's all very well to turn the conversation, but father would never have dreamt of marrying as long as Evie was there to make him comfortable. But you must need start matchmaking. Besides, Kyle's too old.' "'Of course, if you're going to be rude to Uncle Percy!' Miss Schlegel always meant to get hold of Howard's end, and thanks to you, you she's got it i call the way you twist things round and make them hang together most unfair you couldn't have been nastier if you'd caught me flirting could he didoms we're in a bad hole and must make the best of it

Starting point is 06:39:07 i shall answer the pater's letter civilly he's evidently anxious to do the decent thing but i do not intend to forget these schlegel's in a hurry as long as they're on their best behaviour dolly are you listening will behave too. But if I find them giving themselves airs or monopolising my father, or at all ill-treating him, or worrying him with their artistic beastliness, I intend to put my foot down, yes, firmly, taking my mother's place. Heaven knows what poor old Paul will say when the news reaches him. The interlude closes.

Starting point is 06:39:45 It has taken place in Charles's garden at Hilton. He and Dolly are sitting. in deck chairs, and their motor is regarding them placidly from its garage across the lawn. A short-frocked edition of Charles also regards them placidly. A perambulator edition is squeaking. A third edition is expected shortly. Nature is turning out Wilcoxes in this peaceful abode, so that they may inherit the earth. End of Chapter 21. Chapter 22 of Howard's End. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit librovocs.org.

Starting point is 06:40:40 Recording by Elizabeth Clett Howard's End by E. M. Forster Chapter 22 Margaret greeted her lord with peculiar tenderness on the morrow. M. Sure as he was, she might yet be able to help him to the building of the rainbow bridge that should connect the prose in us with the passion. Without it we are meaningless fragments, half monks, half beasts, unconnected arches that have never joined into a man. With it love is born, and alights on the highest curve, glowing against the grey, sober against the fire.

Starting point is 06:41:20 Happy the man who sees from either aspect the glory of these outspread wings, the roads of his soul lie clear, and he and his friends shall find easygoing. It was hard going in the roads of Mr. Wilcox's soul. From boyhood he had neglected them. I am not a fellow who bothers about my own inside. Outwardly he was cheerful, reliable, and brave, but within all had reverted to chaos, ruled so far as it was ruled at all, by an incomplete asceticism. Whether as boy, husband, or widower, he had always the sneaking belief that bodily passion is bad, a belief that is desirable only when held passionately.

Starting point is 06:42:05 Religion had confirmed him. The words that were read aloud on Sunday to him and to other respectable men were the words that had once kindled the souls of St. Catherine and St. Francis into a white-hot hatred of the carnal. He could not be as the saints, and love the infinite with a seraphic ardor, but he could be a little ashamed of loving a wife.

Starting point is 06:42:28 Amabat, Amare Timabat. and it was here that margaret hoped to help him it did not seem so difficult she need trouble him with no gift of her own she would only point out the salvation that was latent in his own soul and in the soul of every man only connect that was the whole of her sermon only connect the prose and the passion and both will be exalted and human love will be seen at its height live in fragments no longer longer, only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die. Nor was the message difficult to give. It need not take the form of a good talking. By quiet indications the bridge would be built and span their lives with beauty.

Starting point is 06:43:22 But she failed. For there was one quality in Henry for which she was never prepared, however much she reminded herself of it. it, his obtuseness. He simply did not notice things, and there was no more to be said. He never noticed that Helen and Frida were hostile, or that Tibby was not interested in current plantations. He never noticed the lights and shades that exist in the grayest conversation, the finger-posts, the milestones, the collisions, the illimitable views. Once, on another occasion, she scolded him about it. He was puzzled, but replied with a laugh, My motto is concentrate. I have no intention of frittering away my strength on that sort of thing.

Starting point is 06:44:09 It isn't frittering away the strength, she protested. It's enlarging the space in which you may be strong. He answered, You're a clever little woman, but my motto's concentrate. And this morning he concentrated with a vengeance. They met in the rhododendrons of yesterday. They met in the rhododendrons of yesterday. In the daylight the bushes were inconsiderable, and the path was bright in the morning sun. She was with Helen, who had been ominously quiet since the affair was settled. "'Here we all are,' she cried, and took him by one hand, retaining her sisters in the other. "'Here we are. Good morning, Helen.' Helen replied.

Starting point is 06:44:52 "'Good morning, Mr. Wilcox.' "'Henry, she has had such a nice letter from the queer cross. boy. Do you remember him? He had a sad moustache, but the back of his head was young. I have had a letter, too. Not a nice one. I want to talk it over with you. For a Leonard Bast was nothing to him now that she had given him her word. The triangle of sex was broken forever. Thanks to your hint he's clearing out of the Porfirian. Not a bad business, that Porfirian, he said absently, as he took his own letter out of his pocket. "'Not a bad,' she exclaimed, dropping his hand.

Starting point is 06:45:32 "'Surely on Chelsea amankment?' "'Here's our hostess. Good morning, Mrs. Munt. Fine rhododendrons. Good morning, Frau Lysic. We managed to grow flowers in England, don't we?' "'Not a bad business.' "'No. My letter's about Howard's End. Bryce has been ordered abroad and wants to sublet it. I am far from sure that I shall give him permission. There is no clause in the agreement. In my opinion, subletting is a mistake.

Starting point is 06:46:02 If he can find me another tenant whom I consider suitable, I may cancel the agreement. Morning, Schlegel. Don't you think that's better than subletting? Helen had dropped her hand now, and he had steered her past the whole party to the seaward side of the house. Beneath them was the bourgeois little bay,

Starting point is 06:46:21 which must have yearned all through the centuries for just such a watering place as swanage to be built on its margin. The waves were colourless, and the Bournemouth steamer gave a further touch of insipidity, drawn up against the pier and hooting wildly for excursionists. When there is a sublet I find that damage— Do excuse me but about the Porfarian! I don't feel easy. Might I just bother you, Henry? Her manner was so serious that he stopped,

Starting point is 06:46:51 and asked her a little sharply what she wanted. you said on chelsea embankment surely that it was a bad concern so we advised this clerk to clear out he writes this morning that he's taken our advice and now you say it's not a bad concern a clerk who clears out of any concern good or bad without securing a berth somewhere else first is a fool and i've no pity for him he has not done that he's going into a bank in camden town he says the salary is much lower but he hopes to manage a branch of Dempster's bank. Is that all right? Dempster? My goodness me, yes. More right than the Porphyrian? Yes, yes, yes, safe as houses. Saper. Very many thanks.

Starting point is 06:47:40 I'm sorry. If you sublet. If he subletts, I shan't have the same control. In theory there should be no more damage done at Howd's end. In practice there will be. Things may be done for which no. money can compensate. For instance, I shouldn't want that fine witch elms spoilt. It hangs—M Margaret, we must go and see the old place some time. It's pretty in its way. We'll motor down and have lunch with Charles. I should enjoy that, said Margaret bravely. What about next Wednesday?

Starting point is 06:48:14 Wednesday? No, I couldn't well do that. Aunt Julie expects us to stop here another week at least. But you can give that up now. "'U—' "'No,' said Margaret, after a moment's thought. "'Oh, that'll be all right. I'll speak to her. "'This visit is a high solemnity. "'My aunt counts on it year after year. "'She turns the house upside down for us. "'She invites our special friends.

Starting point is 06:48:41 "'She scarcely knows Frida, and we can't leave her on her hands. "'I missed one day, and she would be so hurt if I didn't stay the full ten.' "'But I'll say a word to her, don't you bother. Henry, I won't go. Don't bully me. You want to see the house, though? Very much. I've heard so much about it one way or the other. Aren't there pig's teeth in the witch elm? Peaks teeth?

Starting point is 06:49:08 And you chew the bark for toothache? What a rum notion! Of course not. Perhaps I have it confused with some other tree. There are still a great number of sacred trees in England, it seems. But he left her to intercept Mrs. Munt, whose voice could be heard in the distance, to be intercepted himself by Helen. "'Oh, Mr. Wilcox, about the Porphyrian!' she began, and went Scarlet all over her face. "'It's all right,' called Margaret, catching them up. "'Dempster's Banks better.'

Starting point is 06:49:43 "'But I think you told us that the Porpharian was bad, and would smash before Christmas.' "'Did I?' "'It was still outside the—' the tariff-ring and had to take rotten policies. Lately it came in. Safe as houses now. In other words, Mr. Bast need never have left it. No, the fellow needn't, and needn't have started life elsewhere to greatly reduced salary. He only says reduced, corrected Margaret, seeing trouble ahead. With a man so poor, every reduction must be great. I consider it a deplorable misfortune. Mr. Wilcox's intent on his business.

Starting point is 06:50:22 business with Mrs. Munt was going steadily on, but the last remark made him say, "'What? What's that? Do you mean that I'm responsible?' "'You're ridiculous, Helen.' "'You seem to think,' he looked at his watch. "'Let me explain the point to you. It is like this. You seem to assume when a business concern is conducting a delicate negotiation. It ought to keep the public informed stage by stage. The Porfirian, according to you, was bound to say, I am trying all I can to get into the tariff ring. I am not sure that I shall succeed, but it is the only thing that will save me

Starting point is 06:51:01 from insolvency, and I am trying. My dear Helen. Is that your point? A man who had little money has less. That's mine. I am grieved for your clerk. But it is all in the day's work. It's part of the battle of life. A man who had little money, she repeated, has less owing to us. Under these circumstances I do not consider the Battle of Life a happy expression. Oh, come, come, he protested pleasantly. You're not to blame. No one's to blame. Is no one to blame for anything?

Starting point is 06:51:40 I wouldn't say that, but you're taking it far too seriously. Who is this fellow? We have told you about the fellow twice. already, said Helen. You have even met the fellow. He is very poor, and his wife is an extravagant imbecile. He is capable of better things. We—we, the upper classes, thought we would help him from the height of our superior knowledge, and here's the result. He raised his finger. Now a word of advice. I require no more advice. A word of advice. Don't take up that sentimental attitude over the poor. See that she doesn't, Margaret. The poor are poor, and one's sorry for them,

Starting point is 06:52:23 but there it is. As civilisation moves forward, the shoe is bound to pinch in places, and it's absurd to pretend that anyone is responsible personally. Neither you, nor I, nor my informant, nor the man who informed him, nor the directors of the Porphyrian utter blame for this clerk's loss of salary. It's just the shoe pinching. No one can help it, and it might easily have a man. been worse. Helen quivered with indignation. By all means, subscribe to charities. Subscribe to them largely, but don't get carried away by absurd schemes of social reform. I see a good deal behind the scenes, and you can take it from me that there is no social question, except for a few journalists who tried to get a living out of the

Starting point is 06:53:08 phrase. There are just rich and poor, as there always have been and always will be. Point me out a time when men have been equal. I didn't say, point me out a time when desire for equality has made them happier. No. No, you can't. There have always been rich and poor. I'm no fatalist. Heaven forbid. But our civilization is molded by great impersonal forces. His voice grew complacent. It always did when he eliminated the personal. And there will always be rich and poor. You will always be rich and poor. You can't deny it, and now it was a respectful voice. And you can't deny that, in spite of all, the tendency of civilization, has on the whole been upward.

Starting point is 06:53:58 Owing to God, I suppose, flashed Helen. He stared at her. You grab the dollars. God does the rest. It was no good instructing the girl if she was going to talk about God in that neurotic modern way. Fraternal to the last. he left her for the quieter company of Mrs. Munt. He thought,

Starting point is 06:54:20 She rather reminds me of Dolly. Helen looked out at the sea. Don't even discuss political economy with Henry, advised her sister. It'll only end in a cry. But he must be one of those men who have reconciled science with religion, said Helen slowly. I don't like those men. They are scientific themselves, and talk of the survival of the fittings. and cut down the salaries of their clerks, and stunt the independence of all who may menace their comfort,

Starting point is 06:54:53 but yet they believe that somehow good, and it is always that sloppy somehow, will be the outcome, and that in some mystical way the Mr. Basts of the future will benefit because the Mr. Basts of today are in pain. He is such a man in theory, but, oh, Helen, in theory! But, oh, Meg, what a theory! Why should you put things so bitterly, dearie? Because I'm an old maid, said Helen, biting her lip. I can't think why I go on like this myself. She shook off her sister's hand and went into the house.

Starting point is 06:55:34 Margaret, distressed at the day's beginning, followed the Bournemouth steamer with her eyes. She saw that Helen's nerves were exasperated by the unlucky bast business beyond the bounds of politeness. There might at any minute be a real explosion, which even Henry would notice. Henry must be removed. Margaret, her aunt called. Magsy! It isn't true, surely what Mr. Wilcox says, that you want to go away early next week. Not want, was Margaret's prompt reply.

Starting point is 06:56:09 But there is so much to be settled, and I do want to see the time. Charles's. But going away without taking the Weymouth trip, or even the Lulworth, said Mrs. Munt, coming nearer, without going once more up nine barrows down. I'm afraid so. Mr. Wilcox rejoined her with, Good, I do the breaking of the ice. A wave of tenderness came over her.

Starting point is 06:56:36 She put a hand on either shoulder, and looked deeply into the black, bright eyes. What was behind their competent stare? She knew, but was not disquieted. End of Chapter 22. Chapter 23 of Howard's End. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org.

Starting point is 06:57:15 Recording by Elizabeth Clet. Howard's End by E. M. Forster. Chapter 23 Margaret had no intention of letting things slide, and the evening before she left swanage she gave her sister a thorough scolding. She censured her, not for disapproving of the engagement, but for throwing over her disapproval a veil of mystery. Helen was equally frank. Yes, she said, with the air of one looking inwards, there is a mystery. I can't help it.

Starting point is 06:57:50 It's not my fault. It's the way life has been made. Helen in those days was over-interested in the subconscious self. She exaggerated the punch and judy aspect of life, and spoke of mankind as puppets, whom an invisible showman twitches into love and war. Margaret pointed out that if she dwelt on this, she too would eliminate the personal. Helen was silent for a minute, and then burst into a queer speech which cleared the air. Go on and marry him.

Starting point is 06:58:21 I think you're splendid. and if anyone can pull it off you will. Margaret denied that there was anything to pull off, but she continued, Yes, there is, and I wasn't up to it with Paul. I can only do what's easy. I can only entice and be enticed. I can't and won't attempt difficult relations. If I marry, it will either be a man who's strong enough to boss me,

Starting point is 06:58:46 whom I'm strong enough to boss. So I shan't ever marry, for there aren't such men. And heaven help anyone whom I do marry, for I shall certainly run away from him before you can say Jack Robinson. There, because I'm uneducated. But you, you're different. You're a heroine. Oh, Helen, am I? Will it be as dreadful for poor Henry as all that? You mean to keep proportion, and that's heroic. It's Greek, and I don't see why it shouldn't succeed with you. Go on and fight with him and help him.

Starting point is 06:59:23 Don't ask me for help, or even for sympathy. Henceforward, I'm going my own way. I mean to be thorough, because thoroughness is easy. I mean to dislike your husband, and to tell him so. I mean to make no concessions to Tibby. If Tibby wants to live with me, he must lump me. I mean to love you more than ever. Yes, I do.

Starting point is 06:59:46 You and I have built up something real, because it is purely spiritual. There's no veil of mystery over us. Unreality and mystery begin as soon as one touches the body. The popular view is, as usual, exactly the wrong one. Our bothers are over tangible things, money, husbands, house-hunting, but heaven will work of itself. Margaret was grateful for this expression of affection, and answered,

Starting point is 07:00:14 Perhaps. All vistas close in the unseen. No one doubts it, but Helen closed them rather too quickly for her taste. At every turn of speech one was confronted with reality and the absolute. Perhaps Margaret grew too old for metaphysics. Perhaps Henry was weaning her from them, but she felt that there was something a little unbalanced in the mind that so readily shreds the visible. The businessman who assumes that this life is everything,

Starting point is 07:00:42 and the mystic who asserts that it is nothing, fail, on this side and on that, to hit the truth. Yes, I see, dear. It's about halfway between. Aunt Julie had hazarded in earlier years. No, truth, being alive, was not halfway between anything. It was only to be found by continuous excursions into either realm, and though proportion is the final secret,

Starting point is 07:01:10 to espouse it at the outset is to ensure sterility. Helen, agreeing here, disagreeing there, would have talked till midnight, but Margaret, with her packing to do, focused the conversation on Henry. She might abuse Henry behind his back, but please would she always be civil to him in company? I definitely dislike him, but I'll do what I can, promised Helen. Do what you can with my friends in return. This conversation made Margaret easier. Their inner life was so safe that they could bargain over externals in a way that would have been incredible to Aunt Julie, and impossible for Tibby or Charles.

Starting point is 07:01:49 There are moments when the inner life actually pays, when years of self-scrutiny, conducted for no ulterior motive, are suddenly of practical use. Such moments are still rare in the West, that they come at all promises a fairer future. Margaret, though unable to understand her sister, was assured against estrangement,

Starting point is 07:02:10 and returned to London with a more peaceful mind. The following morning at 11 o'clock she presented herself at the offices of the Imperial and West African Rubber Company. She was glad to go there, for Henry had implied his business rather than described it, and the formlessness and vagueness that one associates with Africa had hitherto brooded over the main sources of his wealth. Not that a visit to the office cleared things up. There was just the ordinary surface scum of ledgers and polished counters, and brass bars that began and stopped. for no possible reason, of electric light globes blossoming in triplets, of little rabbit hutches

Starting point is 07:02:49 faced with glass or wire, of little rabbits. And even when she penetrated to the inner depths, she found only the ordinary table and turkey carpet, and though the map over the fireplace did depict a helping of West Africa, it was a very ordinary map. Another map hung opposite, on which the whole continent appeared, looking like a whale marked out for blubber, and by its side was the door, shut, but Henry's voice came through it dictating a strong letter. She might have been at the Porphyrian, or Dempster's bank, or her own wine merchants. Everything seems just alike in these days. But perhaps she was seeing the imperial side of the company, rather than its West African,

Starting point is 07:03:33 and imperialism always had been one of her difficulties. "'One minute,' called Mr. Wilcox on receiving her name. He touched a bell, the effect of the effect of the way. of which was to produce Charles. Charles had written his father an adequate letter, more adequate than Evie's, through which a girlish indignation throbbed, and he greeted his future stepmother with propriety. "'I hope that my wife, how do you do? We'll give you a decent lunch,' was his opening. I left instructions, but we live in a rough and ready way. She expects you back to tea, too, after you have had a look at Howd's end. I wonder what you'll think of the place. I wouldn't touch it

Starting point is 07:04:13 with tongs myself. Do sit down. It's a measly little place. I shall enjoy seeing it, said Margaret, feeling for the first time shy. You'll see it at its worst, for Bryce to camp abroad last Monday, without even arranging for a charwoman to clear up after him. I never saw such a disgraceful mess. It's unbelievable he wasn't in the house a month. I've more than a little bone to pick with Bryce, called Henry from the inner chamber. Why did he go so suddenly? Invalid type, couldn't sleep. Poor fellow.

Starting point is 07:04:48 Poor fiddlesticks, said Mr. Wilcox, joining them. He had the impudence to put up notice boards without as much as saying, with your leave or by your leave. Charles flung them down. Yes, I flung them down, said Charles modestly. I've sent a telegram after him, and a pretty sharp one, too. He, and he in person, is responsible for the upkeep of that house for the next house. three years. The keys are at the farm. We wouldn't have the keys.

Starting point is 07:05:16 Quite right. Dolly would have taken them, but I was in, fortunately. What's Mr. Bryce like? asked Margaret. But nobody cared. Mr. Bryce was the tenant, who had no right to sublet. To have defined him further was a waste of time. On his misdeeds they discanted profusely, until the girl who had been typing the strong letter came out with it. Mr. Wilcox added his signature. "'Now will be off,' said he. A motor drive, a form of felicity detested by Margaret,

Starting point is 07:05:49 awaited her. Charles saw them in, civil to the last, and in a moment the offices of the Imperial and West African rubber company faded away. But it was not an impressive drive. Perhaps the weather was to blame, being grey and banked high with weary clouds, perhaps Hartfordshire is scarcely intended for motorists. did not a gentleman once motor so quickly through westmoreland that he missed it and if westmerland can be missed it will fare ill with a county whose delicate structure particularly needs the attentive eye

Starting point is 07:06:21 hartfordshire is england at its quietest with little emphasis of river and hill it is england meditative if drayton were here with us again to write a new edition of his incomparable poem he would sing the nymphs of hartfordshire as indeterminate of feature with hair obfuscated by the london smoke their eyes would be sad and averted from their fate towards the northern flats their leader not isis or sabrina but the slowly flowing lee no glory of raiment would be theirs no urgency of dance but they would be real nymphs the chauffeur could not travel as quickly as he had hoped for the great north road was full of easter traffic but he went quite quick enough for margaret a poor spirited creature who had chickens and children on the brain "'They're all right,' said Mr. Wilcox. "'They'll learn, like the swallows and the telegraph wires.' "'Yes, but while they're learning.' "'The boat has come to stay,' he answered. "'One must get about.

Starting point is 07:07:25 There's a pretty church. Though you aren't sharp enough. Well, look out if the road worries you. Right outward at the scenery.' She looked at the scenery. It heaved and merged like porridge. Presently it congealed. They had arrived.

Starting point is 07:07:40 charles's house on the left on the right the swelling forms of the six hills their appearance in such a neighborhood surprised her they interrupted the stream of residences that was thickening up towards hilton beyond them she saw meadows and a wood and beneath them she settled that soldiers of the best kind lay buried she hated war and liked soldiers it was one of her amiable inconsistencies but here was dolly dressed up to the nines standing at the door to greet them and here was dolly dressed up to the nines standing at the door to greet them and here was dolly and he was dolly dressed up to greet them and he was, here were the first drops of the rain. They ran in gaily, and after a long wait in the drawing-room sat down to the rough and ready lunch, every dish in which concealed or exuded cream. Mr. Bryce was the chief topic of conversation. Dolly described his visit with the key, while her father-in-law gave satisfaction by chaffing her and contradicting all she said. It was evidently the custom to laugh at Dolly. He chaffed Margaret, too, and Margaret, roused from a grave meditation, was pleased and chaffed him back. Dolly seemed surprised, and eyed her curiously. After lunch the two

Starting point is 07:08:47 children came down. Margaret disliked babies, but hid it off better with the two-year-old, and sent Daly into fits of laughter by talking scents to him. "'Kiss them now and come away,' said Mr. Wilcox. She came, but refused to kiss them. It was such hard luck on the little thing, she said, and though Dolly proffered Chorley-Worley and Porgly Woggles in turn, she was obdurate. By this time it was raining steadily. The car came round with the hood up, and again she lost all sense of space. In a few minutes they stopped, and Crane opened the door of the car. What's happened? asked Margaret.

Starting point is 07:09:27 What do you suppose? said Henry. A little porch was close up against her face. Are we there already? We are. well i never and years ago it seemed so far away smiling but somehow disillusioned she jumped out and her impetus carried her to the front door she was about to open it when henry said that's no good it's locked who's got the key as he had himself forgotten to call for the key at the farm no one replied he also wanted to know who had left the front gate open since a cow had strayed in from the road and was spoiling the croquet lawn then he said rather Crossley. Margaret, you wait in the dry. I'll go down for the key. It isn't a hundred yards.

Starting point is 07:10:12 Mayn't I come, too? No, I shall be back before I'm gone. Then the car turned away, and it was as if a curtain had risen. For the second time that day she saw the appearance of the earth. There were the green-gauge trees that Helen had once described. There, the tennis lawn. There the hedge that would be glorious with dog roses in June. But the vision now was of black and palest green. Down by the dellhole more vivid colors were awakening, and lent lily stood sentinel on its margin, or advanced in battalions over the grass. Tulips were a tray of jewels. She could not see the witch-elm tree, but a branch of the celebrated vine studded with velvet

Starting point is 07:10:54 knobs had covered the porch. She was struck by the fertility of the soil. She had seldom been in a garden where the flowers looked so well, and even the weed she was idly plucking out of the porch were intensely green. Why had poor Mr. Bryce fled from all this beauty? For she had already decided that the place was beautiful. Nauty cow! Go away! cried Margaret to the cow, but without indignation. Carter came the rain pouring out of a windless sky, and spattering up from the notice boards of the house agents, which lay in a row on the lawn where Charles had hurled them. She must have interviewed Charles in another world, where one did have interviews. How Helen would revel in such a notion? Charles dead. All people dead. Nothing alive but houses and gardens. The obvious dead,

Starting point is 07:11:46 the intangible alive, and no connection at all between them. Margaret smiled. Would that her own fancies were as clear-cut. Would that she could deal as high-handedly with the world? Smiling and sighing, she laid her hand upon the door. It opened. The house was not locked up at all. She hesitated. Ought she to wait for Henry. He felt strongly about property, and might prefer to show her over himself. On the other hand, he had told her to keep in the dry, and the porch was beginning to drip. So she went in, and the draft from inside slammed the door behind. Desolation greeted her. Dirty fingerprints were on the hall windows, flew and rubbish on its unwashed boards. The civilization of luggage had been here for a month,

Starting point is 07:12:36 and then to camped. Dining room and drawing-room, right and left, were guest only by their wallpapers. They were just rooms where one could shelter from the rain. Across the ceiling of each ran a great beam. The dining-room and hall revealed theirs openly, but the drawing-rooms was match-boarded, because the facts of life must be concealed from ladies. Drawing-room, dining-room, and Hall. How petty the names sounded. Here were simply three rooms where children could play, and friends shelter from the rain. Yes, and they were beautiful. Then she opened one of the doors opposite, there were two, and exchanged wallpapers for whitewash. It was the servants' part, though she scarcely realized that, just rooms again where friends might shelter. The garden at the

Starting point is 07:13:25 back was full of flowering cherries and plums. Farther on were hints of the medicine, and and a black cliff of pines. Yes, the meadow was beautiful. Pended in by the desolate weather, she recaptured the sense of space which the motor had tried to rob from her. She remembered again that ten square miles are not ten times as wonderful as one square mile, that a thousand square miles are not practically the same as heaven. The phantom of bigness, which London encourages, was laid forever when she paced from the hall at Howard's end to its kitchen, and heard the reins run this way and that where the watershed of the roof divided them. Now Helen came to her mind, scrutinizing half Wessex from the ridge of the Purbeck Downs and saying,

Starting point is 07:14:10 You will have to lose something. She was not so sure. For instance, she would double her kingdom by opening the door that concealed the stairs. Now she thought of the map of Africa, of empires, of her father, of the two supreme nations, streams of whose lives, and Wormed her blood, but mingling had cooled her brain. She paced back into the hall, and as she did so, the house reverberated. "'Is that you, Henry?' she called. There was no answer, but the house reverberated again. "'Henry, have you got in?' But it was the heart of the house beating, faintly at first, then loudly, marshaly, It dominated the rain.

Starting point is 07:14:57 It is the starved imagination, not the well-nourished, that is afraid. Margaret flung open the door to the stairs. A noise as of drums seemed to deafen her. A woman, an old woman, was descending, with figure erect, with face impassive, with lips that parted and said dryly, Oh, well, I took you for Ruth Wilcox. Margaret stammered. Aye. Mrs. Wilcox? I.

Starting point is 07:15:29 Infancy, of course. In fancy. You had her way of walking. Good day. And the old woman passed out into the rain. End of Chapter 23. Chapter 24 of Howard's End. This is a Libervox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain.

Starting point is 07:16:00 For more information or devourable, volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clett. Howard's End by E. M. Forster. Chapter 24. It gave her quite a turn, said Mr. Wilcox, when retelling the incident to Dolly at tea time. None of you girls have any nerves, really. Of course, a word from me put it all right, but silly old Miss Avery.

Starting point is 07:16:29 She frightened you, didn't she, Margaret? There you stood clutching a bunch of weeds. She might have said something, instead of coming down the stairs with that alarming bonnet on. I passed her as I came in, enough to make the car shy. I believe Miss Avery goes in for being a character. Some old maids do. He led a cigarette. It is their last resource.

Starting point is 07:16:52 Heaven knows what she was doing in the place. But that's Bryce's business, not mine. I wasn't as foolish as you suggest, said Margaret. She only startled me, for the house had been silent so long. Did you take her for a spook? asked Dolly, for whom spooks and going to church summarised the unseen. Not exactly. She really did frighten you, said Henry, who was far from discouraging timidity in females. Poor Margaret, and very naturally, uneducated classes are so stupid.

Starting point is 07:17:28 Is Miss Avery uneducated classes? Margaret asked, and found herself looking at the decoration scheme of Dali's drawing-room. She's just one of the crew at the farm. People like that always assume things. She assumed you'd know who she was. She left all the hounds-end keys in the front lobby, and assumed that you'd see them as you came in, and that you'd lock up the house when you'd done, and would bring them on down to her. And there was her niece hunting for them down at the farm. lack of education makes people very casual. Hilton was full of women like Miss Avery once. I shouldn't have disliked it, perhaps.

Starting point is 07:18:07 Or Miss Avery giving me a wedding present, said Daly. Which was illogical, but interesting. Through Daly, Margaret was destined to learn a great deal. But Charles said I must try not to mind, because she had known his grandmother. As usual, you've got the story wrong, my good Dorothea. I mean great-grandmother, the one who left Mrs. Wilcox's the house. Weren't both of them and Miss Avery friends when Howard's end too was a farm? Her father-in-law blew out a shaft of smoke. His attitude to his dead wife was curious.

Starting point is 07:18:42 He would allude to her and hear her discussed, but never mentioned her by name. Nor was he interested in the dim, bucolic past. Dolly was, for the following reason. Then hadn't Mrs. Wilcox a brother? or was it an uncle? Anyhow, he popped the question, and Miss Avery, she said no. Just imagine if she'd said yes, she would have been Charles's aunt. Oh, I say, that's rather good. Charlie's aunt, I must chaff him about that this evening. And the man went out and was killed. Yes, I'm certain I've got it right now. Tom Howard, he was the last of them.

Starting point is 07:19:23 I believe so, said Mr. Wilcox. negligently. "'I say, Howard's end, Howard's ended!' cried Dolly. "'I'm rather on the spot this evening, eh?' "'I wish you'd ask where the cranes ended. "'Oh, Mr. Wilcox, how can you?' "'Because if he has had enough tea, we ought to go.' "'Dolly's a good little woman,' he continued.

Starting point is 07:19:49 "'But a little of her goes a long way. "'I couldn't live near her if you paid me.' Margaret smiled. Though presenting a firm front to outsiders, no Wilcox could live near, or near the possessions of any other Wilcox. They had the colonial spirit and were always making for some spot

Starting point is 07:20:08 where the white man might carry his burden unobserved. Of course, Howard's End was impossible, so long as the younger couple were established in Hilton. His objections to the house were plain as daylight now. Crane had had enough tea, and was sent to the garage, where their car had been trickling muddy water over Charles's. The downpour had surely penetrated the six hills by now, bringing news of our restless civilization.

Starting point is 07:20:33 Curious mounds, said Henry, but in with you now, another time. He had to be up in London by seven, if possible, by six-thirty. Once more she lost the sense of space. Once more, trees, houses, people, animals, hills, merged and heaved into one dirtiness, and she was at Wickham Place. Her evening was pleasant. The sense of flux which had haunted her all the year disappeared for a time. She forgot the luggage and the motor-cars, and the hurrying men who know so much and connect so little. She recaptured the sense of space, which is the basis of all-earthly beauty, and starting from

Starting point is 07:21:12 Howard's end, she attempted to realize England. She failed. Visions do not come when we try, though they may come through trying. But an unexpected love of the eye. island awoke in her, connecting on this side with the joys of the flesh, on that with the inconceivable. Helen and her father had known this love. Poor Leonard Bast was groping after it, but it had been hidden from Margaret till this afternoon. It had certainly come through the house, and old Miss Avery. Through them, the notion of through persisted. Her mind trembled toward a conclusion which only the unwise have put into words. Then veering back into warmth, It dwelt on ruddy bricks, flowering plum-trees, and all the tangible joys of spring.

Starting point is 07:21:59 Henry, after allaying her agitation, had taken her over his property, and had explained to her the use and dimensions of the various rooms. He had sketched the history of the little estate. It is so unlucky, ran the monologue, that money wasn't put into it about fifty years ago. Then it had four, five times the land, thirty acres at least. One could have made something out of it then, a small park, or at all events, shrubberies, and rebuilt the house farther away from the road. What's the good of taking it in hand now? Nothing but the meadow left, and even that was heavily mortgage when I first had to do with things. Yes, and the house, too. Oh, it was no joke. She saw two women as he spoke, one old, the other young, watching their inheritance melt

Starting point is 07:22:46 away. She saw them greet him as a deliverer. Miss management did it. Besides, the days for small farms are It doesn't pay, except with intense cultivation. Small holdings back to the land. Phanthropic bunkum. Take it as a rule that nothing pays on a small scale. Most of the land you see, they were standing at an upper window, the only one which faced west. Belongs to the people at the park. They made their pile over copper. Good chaps. Avery's farm, sishes, what they call the common, where you see that ruined oak, one after the other fell in, and so did this, as near as is no matter. But Henry had saved it, without fine feelings or deep insight,

Starting point is 07:23:33 but he had saved it, and she loved him for the deed. When I had more control, I did what I could, sold off the two and a half animals, and the mangy pony, and the superannuated tools, pulled down the outhouses, drained, thinned out I don't know how many golderoses and elder trees, and inside the house I turned the old kitchen into a hall, and made a kitchen behind where the dairy was. A garage and so on came later. But one could still tell it's been an old farm. And yet it isn't the place that would fetch one of your artistic crew. No, it wasn't. And if he did not quite understand it, the artistic crew would still less. It was English, and the witch-alm that she saw from the window was an English tree.

Starting point is 07:24:18 No report had prepared her for its peculiar glory. It was neither warrior nor lover nor God, in none of these roles to the English excel. It was a comrade, bending over the house, strength and adventure in its roots, but in its utmost fingers tenderness, and the girth that a dozen men could not have spanned, became in the end evanescent, till pale bud clusters seemed to float in the air. It was a comrade. house and tree transcended any similes of sex. Margaret thought of them now, and was to think of them through many a windy night and London day, but to compare either to man to woman, always dwarfed the vision.

Starting point is 07:25:03 Yet they kept within limits of the human. Their message was not of eternity, but of hope on this side of the grave. As she stood in the one, gazing at the other, truer relationship had gleamed. Another touch and the account of her days finished. They entered the garden for a minute, and to Mr. Wilcox's surprise she was right. Teeth! Pig's teeth could be seen in the bark of the witch-elm tree, just the white tips of them showing. Extraordinary! he cried. Who told you?

Starting point is 07:25:37 I heard of it one winter in London, was her answer, for she too avoided mentioning Mrs. Wilcox by name. End of Chapter 24. Chapter 25 of Howard's End This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clett Howard's End by E.M. Forster

Starting point is 07:26:19 Chapter 25 Evey heard of her father's engagement when she was in for a tennis tournament and her play went simply to pot. she should marry and leave him had seemed natural enough, that he, left alone, should do the same, was deceitful, and now Charles and Dolly said it was all her fault. But I never dreamt of such a thing, she grumbled. Dad took me to call now and then, and made me ask her to Simpsons. Well, I'm altogether off, Dad.

Starting point is 07:26:49 It was also an insult to their mother's memory. There they were agreed, and Evie had the idea of returning Mrs. Wilcox's lace and jewelry as a protest. Against what it would protest she was not clear, but being only 18, the idea of renunciation appealed to her, the more as she did not care for jewelry or lace. Dolly then suggested that she and Uncle Percy should pretend to break off their engagement, and then perhaps Mr. Wilcox would quarrel with Miss Schlegel and break off his, or Paul might be cabled for. But at this point, Charles told them not to talk nonsense. So Evey settled to marry as soon as possible. It was no good hanging about with these Schlegel's eyeing her.

Starting point is 07:27:31 The date of her wedding was consequently put forward from September to August, and in the intoxication of presents she recovered much of her good humor. Margaret found that she was expected to figure at this function, and to figure largely. It would be such an opportunity, said Henry, for her to get to know his set. Sir James Bitter would be there, and all the Cahills and the Fussels, and his sister-in-law, Mrs. Warrington Wilcox, had fortunately got back from her tour around the world. Henry, she loved, but his set promised to be another matter. He had not the knack of surrounding himself with nice people. Indeed, for a man of ability and virtue, his choice

Starting point is 07:28:10 had been singularly unfortunate. He had no guiding principle beyond a certain preference for mediocrity. He was content to settle one of the greatest things in life haphazard, and so, while his investments went right, his friends generally went wrong. She would be told, "'Oh, so-and-so's a good sort, a thundering good sort,' and find on meeting him that he was a brute or a boar. If Henry had shown real affection, she would have understood, for affection explains everything. But he seemed without sentiment. The thundering good sort might at any moment become, "'a fellow for whom I never did have much use and have less now, and be shaken off cheerily into oblivion.'

Starting point is 07:28:54 margaret had done the same as a school-girl now she never forgot any one for whom she had once cared she connected though the connection might be bitter and she hoped that some day henry would do the same evie was not to be married from deucy street she had a fancy for something rural and besides no one would be in london then so she left her boxes for a few weeks at onneton grange and her bands were duly published in the parish church and for a couple of days the little town dreaming between the ruddy hills was roused by the clang of our civilization and drew up by the roadside to let the motors pass onaton had been a discovery of mr wilcoxes a discovery of which he was not altogether It was up towards the Welsh border, and so difficult of access that he had concluded it must be something special. A ruined castle stood in the grounds. But having got there, what was one to do? The shooting was bad, the fishing indifferent, and women-folk reported the scenery as nothing much. The place turned out to be in the wrong part of Shropshire, damn it, and though he never damned his own property allowed, he was only waiting to get it off

Starting point is 07:30:03 his hands and then to let fly. Evie's marriage was its last appearance in public. As soon as a tenant was found, it became a house for which he never had had much use, and had less now, and, like Howard's End, faded into limbo. But on Margaret, Oniton, was destined to make a lasting impression. She regarded it as her future home, and was anxious to start straight with the clergy, etc., and, if possible, to see something of the local life. It was a market town, as tiny a one as England possesses, and had for ages served that lonely valley, and guarded our marches against the Celt. In spite of the occasion, in spite of the numbing hilarity that greeted her as soon as she got into the reserved saloon at Paddington, her senses

Starting point is 07:30:49 were awake and watching, and though Oniton was to prove one of her innumerable false starts, she never forgot it, nor the things that happened there. The London Party only numbered. The London Party only number eight the fussels father and son two anglo-indian ladies named mrs plinlimmon and lady edser mrs warrington wilcox and her daughter and lastly the little girl very smart and quiet who figures at so many weddings and who kept a watchful eye on margaret the bride-elect dolly was absent a domestic event detained her at hilton paul had cabled a humorous message charles was to meet them with a trio of motors at shrewsbury helen had refused her invitation tibby had never answered his the management was excellent as was to be expected with anything that henry undertook one was conscious of his sensible and generous brain in the background they were his guests as soon as they reached the train a special label for their luggage a courier a special lunch they had only to look pleasant and where possible pretty margaret thought with dismay of her own nuptials presumably under the management of tibby mr tibald schlegel and miss helen schlegel request the pleasure of mrs plinlimin's company on the occasion of the marriage of their sister margaret the formula was incredible but it must soon be printed and sent and though wickham place need not compete with oniton it must feed its guests properly and provide them with sufficient chairs her wedding would either be ramshackly or bourgeois she hoped the latter

Starting point is 07:32:27 such an affair as the present staged with the deftness that was almost beautiful lay beyond her powers and those of her friends the low rich purr of a great western express is not the worst background for conversation and the journey passed pleasantly enough nothing could have exceeded the kindness of the two men they raised windows for some ladies and lowered them for others they rang the bell for the servant they identified the colleges as the train slipped past oxford they caught books or bag purses in the act of tumbling to the floor yet there was nothing finicky about their politeness it had the public school touch and though sedulous was virile more battles than waterloo have been won on our playing fields and margaret bowed to a charm of which she did not wholly approve and said nothing when the oxford college was veryllors had been won on our playing fields and margaret bowed to a charm of which she did not wholly approve and said nothing when the oxford college were identified wrongly. Male and female created he them. The journey to Shrewsbury confirmed this questionable statement, and the long-glass saloon that moved so easily and felt so comfortable, became a forcing-house for the idea of sex.

Starting point is 07:33:32 At Shrewsbury came fresh air. Margaret was all for sight-seeing, and while the others were finishing their tea at the raven, she annexed a motor and hurried over the astonishing city. Her chauffeur was not the faithful crane, but an Italian, who dearly loved making her late. Charles, watch in hand, though with a level brow, was standing in front of the hotel when they returned. It was perfectly all right, he told her. She was by no means the last. And then he dived into the coffee-room, and she heard him say,

Starting point is 07:34:03 For God's sake, hurry the women up, we shall never be off. And Albert Fussell reply, Not I, I've done my share. and Colonel Fussell opine that the ladies were getting themselves up to kill. Presently Myra, Mrs. Warrington's daughter, appeared, and as she was his cousin, Charles blew her up a little, she had been changing her smart travelling hat for a smart motor hat. Then Mrs. Warrington herself, leading the quiet child, the two Anglo-Indian ladies were always last. Maids, courier, heavy luggage, had already gone on by a branch line to a station nearer Oniton,

Starting point is 07:34:38 but there were five hat-boxes and four dressing-bags to be packed, and five dust-cloaks to be put on, and to be put off at the last moment, because Charles declared them not necessary. The men presided over everything with unfailing good-humour. By half-past five the party was ready, and went out of Shrewsbury by the Welsh Bridge. Shropshire had not the reticence of Hartfordshire. Though robbed of half its magic by swift movement, it still conveyed the sense of hills. nearing the buttresses that force the Severn Eastern and make it an English stream, and the sun, sinking over the sentinels of Wales, was straight in their eyes. Having picked up another guest,

Starting point is 07:35:20 they turned southward, avoiding the greater mountains, but conscious of an occasional summit, rounded and mild, whose coloring differed in quality from that of the lower earth, and whose contours altered more slowly. Quiet mysteries were in progress behind those tossing horizons. The west, as ever, was retreating with some secret which may not be worth the discovery but which no practical man will ever discover they spoke of tariff reform mrs warrington was just back from the colonies like many other critics of empire her mouth had been stopped with food and she could only exclaim at the hospitality with which she had been received and warn the mother country against trifling with young titans they threatened to cut the painter she cried and where shall we be then miss schlegel you'll undertake to keep henry's sound about tariff reform it is our last hope margaret playfully confessed herself on the other side and they began to quote from their respective hand-books while the motor carried them deep into the hills curious these were rather than impressive for their outlines lacked beauty and the pink fields on their summit suggested the handkerchiefs of a giant spread out to dry an occasional outcrop of rock an occasional wood an occasional forest, treeless and brown, all hinted at wildness to follow, but the main color was an agricultural

Starting point is 07:36:45 green. The air grew cooler. They had surmounted the last gradient, and Aniton lay below them with its church, its radiating houses, its castle, its river Gert Peninsula. Close to the castle was a gray mansion, unintellectual but kindly, stretching with its grounds across the peninsula's neck, the sort of mansion that was built all over England in the beginning of the last century, while architecture was still an expression of the national character. That was the Grange, remarked Albert, over his shoulder, and then he jammed the brake on, and the motor slowed down and stopped. I'm sorry, he said, turning around.

Starting point is 07:37:24 Do you mind getting out, by the door on the right? Study on? What's happened? asked Mrs. Warrington. Then the car behind them drew up, and the voice of Charles was heard. saying, get out the women at once. There was a concourse of males, and Margaret and her companions were hustled out and received into the second car. What had happened? As it started off again, the door of a cottage opened, and a girl screamed wildly at them. What is it? the ladies cried. Charles drove them a hundred yards without speaking.

Starting point is 07:37:57 Then he said, It's all right. Your car just touched a dog. But stop! cried Margaret, horrified. It didn't hurt him. Didn't really hurt him? asked Myra. No. Do please stop, said Margaret, leaning forward. She was standing up in the car, the other occupants holding her knees to steady her. I want to go back, please.

Starting point is 07:38:22 Charles took no notice. We've left Mr. Fussell behind, said another, and Angelo and Crane. Yes, but no woman. I expect a little of—' Mrs. Warrington's scratch. her palm, will be more to the point than one of us." "'The insurance company sees to that,' remarked Charles. "'And Albert will do the talking.' "'I want to go back, though, I say,' repeated Margaret, getting angry.

Starting point is 07:38:50 Charles took no notice. The motor, loaded with refugees, continued to travel very slowly down the hill. "'The men are there,' chorused the others. "'Men will see to it.' "'The men can't see to it.' "'Oh, this is ridiculous. Charles, I ask you to stop.' "'Stopping's no good,' drawled Charles. "'Isn't it?' said Margaret, and jumped straight out of the car.

Starting point is 07:39:15 She fell on her knees, cut her gloves, shook her hat over her ear. Cries of alarm followed her. "'You've hurt yourself,' exclaimed Charles, jumping after her. "'Of course I've hurt myself,' she retorted. "'May I ask what?' "'There's nothing to ask,' said Margaret. "'Your hands bleeding.' "'I know.'

Starting point is 07:39:36 "'I'm in for a frightful row from the pater.' "'You should have thought of that sooner, Charles.' Charles had never been in such a position before. It was a woman in revolt who was hobbling away from him, and the sight was too strange to leave any room for anger. He recovered himself when the others caught them up, their sort he understood. He commanded them to go back.

Starting point is 07:39:59 Albert Fussell was seen walking towards them. "'It's all right!' he called. "'It wasn't a dog. It was a cat.' "'There!' exclaimed Charles triumphantly. "'It's only a rotten cat. "'Got room in your car for a littelan?' "'I caught as soon as I saw it wasn't a dog.

Starting point is 07:40:16 "'The chauffeers are tackling the girl.' But Margaret walked forward steadily. "'Why should the chauffeurs tackle the girl? "'Ladies sheltering behind men. "'Men sheltering behind servants. "'The whole system's wrong, and she must challenge it. "'Miss Schlegel, poor my wife. I would. You've hurt your hand."

Starting point is 07:40:35 "'I'm just going to see,' said Margaret. "'Don't you wait, Mr. Fussell.' The second motor came round the corner. "'It is all right, madam,' said Crane in his turn. He had taken to calling her, Madam. "'What's all right? The cat?' "'Yes, madam. The girl will receive compensation for it.' "'She was a very rude girl,' said Angelo,

Starting point is 07:40:58 said Angelo, from the third motor thoughtfully. "'Wouldn't you have been rude?' The Italians spread out his hands, implying that he had not thought of rudeness, but would produce it if it pleased her. The situation became absurd. The gentlemen were again buzzing round Mishlegel with offers of assistance, and Lady Edser began to bind up her hand. She yielded, apologizing slightly, and was led back to the car, and soon the landscape resumed its motion, the lonely cottage disappeared. The castle swelled on its cushion of turf, and they had arrived. No doubt she had disgraced herself.

Starting point is 07:41:32 But she felt their whole journey from London had been unreal. They had no part with the earth and its emotions. They were dust and stink, and cosmopolitan chatter, and a girl whose cat had been killed had lived more deeply than they. "'Oh, Henry!' she exclaimed. "'I have been so naughty,' for she had decided to take up this line. "'We ran over a cat. Charles told me not to jump out, but I would,

Starting point is 07:41:59 And look, she held out her bandaged hand. Your poor Meg went such a flop. Mr. Wilcox looked bewildered. In evening dress he was standing to welcome his guests in the hall. Thinking it was a dog, added Mrs. Warrington. Ah, dog's a companion, said Colonel Fussell. A dog will remember you. Have you hurt yourself, Margaret?

Starting point is 07:42:22 Not to speak about, and it's my left hand. Well, hurry up and change. She obeyed, as did the others. Mr. Wilcox then turned to his son. Now, Charles, what's happened? Charles was absolutely honest. He described what he believed to have happened. Albert had flattened out a cat, and Miss Schlegel had lost her nerve as any woman might.

Starting point is 07:42:45 She had been got safely into the other car, but when it was in motion had leapt out, again in spite of all that they could say. After walking a little on the road, she had calmed down, and had said that she was sorry. His father accepted this explanation, and neither knew that Margaret had artfully prepared the way for it. It fitted in too well with their view of feminine nature. In the smoking-room, after dinner, the Colonel put forward the view that Miss Schlegel had jumped it out of devilry. Well he remembered as a younger man in the harbor of Gibraltar once, how a girl, a handsome girl, too, had jumped overboard for a bet. He could see her now, and all the lads overboard after her.

Starting point is 07:43:23 But Charles and Mr. Wilcox agreed it was much more probably nerves in Mishlegel's case. Charles was depressed. That woman had a tongue. She would bring worse disgrace on his father before she had done with them. He strolled out to the castle mound to think the matter over. The evening was exquisite. On three sides of him a little river whispered, full of messages from the west. Above his head the ruins made patterns against the sky. He carefully reviewed their dealings with this family, until he fitted Helen and Margaret and Aunt Julie into an orderly conspiracy. Paternity had made him suspicious.

Starting point is 07:44:00 He had two children to look after, and more coming, and day by day they seemed less likely to grow up rich men. It is all very well, he reflected, the pater saying that he will be just to all, but one can't be just indefinitely. Money isn't elastic. What's to happen if Evie has a family? And come to that. So may the pater.

Starting point is 07:44:22 They'll not be enough to go round, for there's none coming in, either through Dolly or Percy. It's damnable. He looked enviously at the Grange, whose windows poured light and laughter. First and last this wedding would cost a pretty penny. Two ladies were strolling up and down the garden terrace, and as the syllables' imperialism were wafted to his ears, he guessed that one of them was his aunt. She might have helped him if she, too, had not had a family to provide for. Everyone for himself, he repeated, a maxim which had cheered him in the past, but which rang grimly enough among the ruins of Oniton.

Starting point is 07:45:01 He lacked his father's ability in business, and so had an ever higher regard for money. Unless he could inherit plenty, he feared to leave his children poor. As he sat thinking, one of the ladies left the terrace and walked into the meadow, he recognized her as much as much as much as much, Margaret by the white bandage that gleamed on her arm, and put out his cigar lest the gleam should betray him. She climbed up the mound in zigzags, and at times stooped down as if she was stroking the turf. It sounds absolutely incredible, but for a moment Charles thought that she was in love with him, and had come out to tempt him. Charles believed in temptresses, who are indeed the strong man's necessary compliment, and having no sense of humor he could not

Starting point is 07:45:44 purge himself of the thought by a smile. Margaret, who was engaged to his father and his sister's wedding guest, kept on her way without noticing him, and he admitted that he had wronged her on this point. But what was she doing? Why was she stumbling about amongst the rubble and catching her dress in brambles and burrs? As she edged round the keep, she must have got to leeward and smelt his cigar-smoke, for as she exclaimed, "'Hello?

Starting point is 07:46:08 Who's that?' Charles made no answer. "'Saxon or Celt! she continued, laughing in the darkness. But it doesn't matter. Whichever you are, you will have to listen to me. I love this place. I love Shropshire.

Starting point is 07:46:24 I hate London. I am glad that this will be my home. Ah, dear, she was now moving back towards the house. What a comfort to have arrived. That woman means mischief, thought Charles, and compressed his lips. In a few minutes he followed her indoors as the ground was getting damp. Mists were rising from the river, and presently it became invisible, though it whispered more loudly. There had been a heavy downpour in the Welsh hills.

Starting point is 07:46:55 End of Chapter 26 of Howard's End. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visitlibrovox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clet. Howard's End by E. M. Forster Chapter 26 Next morning a fine mist covered the peninsula.

Starting point is 07:47:31 The weather promised well, and the outline of the castle mound grew clear each moment that Margaret watched it. Presently she saw the keep, and the sun painted the rubble gold and charged the white sky with blue. The shadow of the house gathered itself together and fell over the garden. A cat looked up at her window and mewed. Lastly, the river appeared, still holding the mists between its banks and its overhanging alders, and only visible as far as a hill, which cut off its upper reaches. Margaret was fascinated by Oniton. She had said that she loved it, but it was rather its romantic tension that held her,

Starting point is 07:48:06 the rounded druids of whom she had caught glimpses in her drive, the rivers hurrying down from them to England, the carelessly modelled masses of the lowered hills, thrilled her with poetry. The house was insignificant, but the prospect from it would be an eternal joy, and she thought of all the friends she would have to stop in it, and of the conversion of Henry himself to a rural life. Society, too, promised favorably. The rector of the parish had dined with them last night, and she found that he was a friend of her father's, and so knew what defined in her. She liked him. He would introduce her to the town.

Starting point is 07:48:42 While on her other side, Sir James Bitter sat, repeating that she had only to give the word, and he would whip up the county families for twenty miles round whether sir james who was garden seeds had promised what he could perform she doubted but so long as henry mistook them for the county families when they did call she was content charles and albert fussel now crossed the lawn they were going for a morning dip and a servant followed them with their bathing dresses she had meant to take a stroll herself before breakfast but saw that the day was still sacred to men and amused herself by watching their contretel In the first place the key of the bathing shed could not be found. Charles stood by the riverside with folded hands, tragical, while the servant shouted, and was misunderstood by another servant in the garden. Then came a difficulty about a springboard, and soon three people were running backwards and forwards over the meadow, with orders and counter-orders and recriminations and apologies. If Margaret wanted to jump from a motor-car, she jumped. If Tibby thought paddling would

Starting point is 07:49:44 benefit his ankles, he paddled. If a clerk desired adventure, he took a walk in the dark. But these athletes seemed paralyzed. They could not bathe without their appliances, though the morning sun was calling and the last mists were rising from the dimpling stream. Had they found the life of the body, after all? Could not the men whom they despised as milk-sops beat them, even on their own ground? She thought of the bathing arrangements as they should be in her day, no worrying of servants, no appliances, beyond good sense. Her reflections were disturbed by the quiet child, who had come out to speak to the cat, but was now watching her watch the men. She called,

Starting point is 07:50:25 Good morning, dear, a little sharply. Her voice spread consternation. Charles looked round, and, though completely attired in indigo blue, vanished into the shed and was seen no more. Miss Wilcox is up, the child whispered, and then became unintelligible. What's that? It sounded like, Cut yoke, sack back. I can't hear. On the bed, tissue paper.

Starting point is 07:50:54 Gathering that the wedding dress was on view and that a visit would be seemly, she went to Evie's room. All was hilarity here. Evie, in a petticoat was dancing with one of the Anglo-Indian ladies, while the other was adoring yards of white satin. They screamed, they laughed, they sang,

Starting point is 07:51:10 and the dog barked. margaret screamed a little too but without conviction she could not feel that a wedding was so funny perhaps something was missing in her equipment evie gasped dolly is a rotter not to be here oh we would rag just then then margaret went down to breakfast henry was already installed he ate slowly and spoke little and was in margaret's eyes the only member of their party who dodged a motion successfully she could not suppose him indifferent either to the loss of his daughter or to the presence of his future wife yet he dwelt intact only issuing orders occasionally orders that promoted the comfort of his guests he inquired after her hand he set her to pour out the coffee and mrs warrington to pour out the tea When Evie came down there was a moment's awkwardness, and both ladies rose to vacate their places. Burton, called Henry, served tea and coffee from the sideboard. It wasn't genuine tact, but it was tact of a sort, the sort that is as useful as the genuine, and saves even more situations at board meetings.

Starting point is 07:52:17 Henry treated a marriage like a funeral, item by item, never raising his eyes to the whole, and, Death, where is thy sting, love where is thy victory, one would exclaim at the close. After breakfast she claimed a few words with him. It was always best to approach him formally. She asked for the interview because he was going on to shoot grouse tomorrow, and she was returning to Helen in town. Certainly, dear, said he, of course I have the time. What do you want? Nothing. I was afraid something had gone wrong. No, I have a very.

Starting point is 07:52:53 nothing to say, but you may talk." Glancing at his watch he talked of the nasty curb at the litch-gate. She heard him with interest. Her surface could always respond to his without contempt, though all her deeper being might be yearning to help him. She had abandoned any plan of action. Love is the best, and the more she let herself love him, the more chance was there that he would set his soul in order.

Starting point is 07:53:17 Such a moment as this, when they sat under fair weather by the walks of their future home, was was so sweet to her that its sweetness would surely pierce to him. Each lift of his eyes, each parting of the thatched lip from the clean-shaven, must prelude the tenderness that kills the monk and the beast at a single blow. Disappointed a hundred times, she still hoped. She loved him with too clear a vision to fear his cloudiness. Whether he droned trivialities, as today, or sprang kisses on her in the twilight, she could pardon him, she could respond. if there is this nasty curve she suggested couldn't we walk to the church not of course you and evie but the rest of us might very well go on first and that would mean fewer carriages one can't have ladies walking through the market square the fussels wouldn't like it they were awfully particular at charles's wedding my she one of our party was anxious to walk and certainly the church was just round the corner and i shouldn't have minded but the colonel made a great point of it

Starting point is 07:54:21 "'You men shouldn't be so chivalrous,' said Margaret thoughtfully. "'Why not?' She knew why not, but said that she did not know. He then announced that unless she had anything special to say, he must visit the wine-cellar, and they went off together in search of Burton. Though clumsy and a little inconvenient, Oniton was a genuine country house. They clattered down-flagged passages, looked into room after room, and scaring unknown maids from the performance of obscure duties.

Starting point is 07:54:49 The wedding breakfast must be in readiness when they came back from church, and tea would be served in the garden. The sight of so many agitated and serious people made Margaret smile, but she reflected that they were paid to be serious and enjoyed being agitated. Here were the lower wheels of the machine that was tossing Evie up into nuptial glory. A little boy blocked their way with pigtails. His mind could not grasp their greatness, and he said, "'Boy, O' leave, let me pause, please.' Henry asked him where Burton was. But the servants were so new that they did not know one another's names.

Starting point is 07:55:23 In the still room sat the band, who had stipulated for champagne as part of their fee, and who were already drinking beer. Sents of Araby came from the kitchen, mingled with cries. Margaret knew what had happened there, for it happened at Wickham Place. One of the wedding dishes had boiled over, and the cook was throwing cedar shavings to hide the smell. At last they came upon the butler. Henry gave him the keys, and handed Margaret down the cellar stairs.

Starting point is 07:55:48 Two doors were unlocked. She, who kept all her wine at the bottom of the linen cupboard, was astonished at the sight. "'We shall never get through it,' she cried, and the two men were suddenly drawn into brotherhood and exchanged smiles. She felt as if she had again jumped out of the car while it was moving. Certainly Oniton would take some digesting. It would be no small business to remain herself, and yet to assimilate such an establishment. She must remain herself, for his sake, as well as her own,

Starting point is 07:56:18 since a shadowy wife degrades the husband whom she accompanies and she must assimilate for reasons of common honesty since she had no right to marry a man and make him uncomfortable her only ally was the power of home the loss of wickham place had taught her more than its possession howard's end had repeated the lesson she was determined to create new sanctities among these hills after visiting the wine-cellar she dressed and then came the wedding which seemed a small affair when compared with the preparations for it. Everything went like one o'clock. Mr. Cahill materialized out of space and was waiting for his bride at the church door. No one dropped the ring or mispronounced the responses, or trod on Evie's train, or cried. In a few minutes, the clergyman performed their duty, the register was signed and they were back in their carriages, negotiating the dangerous curve by the litch gate. Margaret was convinced that they had not been married at all, and that the Norman Church had been intent all the time on other business. There were more documents to sign at the

Starting point is 07:57:20 house, and the breakfast to eat, and then a few more people dropped in for the garden party. There had been a great many refusals, and after all it was not a very big affair, not as big as Margaret's would be. She noted the dishes in the strips of red carpet that outwardly she might give Henry what was proper. But inwardly she hoped for something better than this blend of Sunday church and fox-hunting. if only someone had been upset. But this wedding had gone off so particularly well. Quite like a derbaugh, in the opinion of Lady Edser, and she thoroughly agreed with her.

Starting point is 07:57:53 So the wasted day lumbered forward, the bride and bridegroom drove off, yelling with laughter, and for the second time the sun retreated towards the hills of Wales. Henry, who was more tired than he owned, came up to her in the castle meadow, and in tones of unusual softness, said that he was pleased.

Starting point is 07:58:11 everything had gone off so well she felt that he was praising her too and blushed certainly she had done all she could with his intractable friends and had made a special point of kowtowing to the men they were breaking camp this evening only the warringtons and quiet child would stay the night and the others were already moving towards the house to finish their packing i think it did go off well she agreed since i had to jump out of the motor i'm thankful i lighted on my left hand i am so very glad about it Henry, dear. I only hope that the guests at ours may be half as comfortable. You must all remember that we have no practical person among us, except my aunt, and she is not used to entertainments on a large scale. I know, he said gravely. Under the circumstances, it would be better to put everything into the hands of Harrods, or Whitelies, or even go to some hotel. You desire a hotel? Yes, because, well, I mustn't interfere with you. No doubt do you want to be married from your

Starting point is 07:59:11 old home. My old homes falling into pieces, Henry. I only want my new. Isn't it a perfect evening? The Alexandrina isn't bad. The Alexandrina, she echoed, more occupied with the threads of smoke that were issuing from their chimneys, and ruling the sunlit slopes with parallels of grey. It's off Curzon Street.

Starting point is 07:59:35 Is it? Let's be married from off Curzon Street. Then she turned westward to gaze at. at the swirling gold. Just where the river rounded the hill, the sun caught it. Fairyland must lie above the bend, and its precious liquid was pouring towards them past Charles's bathing-shed. She gazed so long that her eyes were dazzled, and when they moved back to the house, she could not recognize the faces of people who were coming out of it. A parlor maid was preceding them. "'Who are those people?' she asked.

Starting point is 08:00:05 "'They're coolers,' exclaimed Henry. "'It's too late for coolers.' perhaps they're town people who won't see the wedding presents i'm not at home yet to townies well hide among the ruins and if i can stop them i will he thanked her margaret went forward smiling socially she supposed that these were un punctual guests who would have to be content with vicarious civility since evie and charles were gone henry tired and the others in their rooms she assumed the airs of a hostess not for long for one of the group was helen Helen in her oldest clothes, and dominated by that tense, wounding excitement that had made her a terror in their nursery days. "'What is it?' she called. "'Oh, what's wrong? "'It's Tibby ill!' Helen spoke to her two companions who fell back.

Starting point is 08:00:55 Then she bore forward furiously. "'They're starving!' she shouted. "'I found them starving!' "'Who? Why have you come?' "'The basts.' "'Oh, Helen!' moaned Margaret. "'Whatever have you done now?'

Starting point is 08:01:11 "'He has lost his place. "'He has been turned out of his bank. "'Yes, he's done for. "'We upper classes have ruined him, "'and I suppose you'll tell me it's the battle of life. "'Starving! His wife is ill. "'Starving! She fainted in the train!' "'Helen, are you mad?'

Starting point is 08:01:28 "'Perhaps?' "'Yes, if you like, I'm mad. "'But I've brought them. "'I'll stand in justice no longer. "'I'll show up the wretchedness "'that lies under this luxury, "'this talk of importance. personal forces, this cant about God doing what were too slack to do ourselves.

Starting point is 08:01:44 Have you actually brought two starving people from London to Shropshire, Helen? Helen was checked. She had not thought of this, and her hysteria abated. There was a restaurant car on the train, she said. Don't be absurd. They aren't starving, and you know it. Now begin from the beginning, I won't have such theatrical nonsense. How dare you? Yes, how dare you? She repeated as anger filled her, bursting into Evie's wedding in this heartless way. My goodness, but you've a perverted notion of philanthropy.

Starting point is 08:02:18 Look, she indicated the house. Servants, people out of the windows, they think it's some vulgar scandal, and I must explain, Oh, no, it's only my sister screaming, and only two hangers-on of ours, whom she has brought here for no conceivable reason. Kindly take back that word hangers-on, said Helen, ominously calm. "'Very well,' conceded Margaret, who for all her wrath was determined to avoid a real quarrel. "'I, too, am sorry about them, but it beats me why you've brought them here, or why you're here yourself. It's our last chance of seeing Mr. Wilcox.'

Starting point is 08:02:54 Margaret moved towards the house at this. She was determined not to worry Henry. "'He's going to Scotland. I know he is. I insist on seeing him.' "'Yes, to-morrow.' "'I knew it was our last chance.' how do you do mr bast said margaret trying to control her voice this is an old business what view do you take of it there is mrs baste too prompted helen jacky also shook hands she like her husband was shy and furthermore ill and furthermore so beastily stupid that she could not grasp what was happening she only knew that the lady had swept down like a whirlwind last night had paid the rent redeemed the furniture provided them with a dinner and breakfast and ordered them to meet her at paddington next morning leonard had feebly protested and when the morning came had suggested that they shouldn't go but she half mesmerized had obeyed the lady had told them to and they must and their bed-sitting-room had accordingly changed into paddington and paddington into a railway carriage that shook and grew hot and grew cold and vanished entirely and reappeared amid torrents of expensive scent you have fainted said the lady in an awestruck voice

Starting point is 08:04:07 perhaps the air would do you good and perhaps it had for here she was feeling rather better among a lot of flowers i am sure i don't want to intrude began lannard in answer to margaret's question but you have been so kind to me in the past in warning me about the porphyrian that i wondered why i wondered whether whether we could get him back into the porphyrion again supplied helen meg this has been a cheerful business a bright evening's work that was on chelsea the embankment. Margaret shook her head and returned to Mr. Bairst. "'I don't understand. You left the Porphyrian because we suggested it was a bad concern, didn't you?' "'That's right.' "'And went into a bank instead.'

Starting point is 08:04:51 "'I told you all that,' said Helen. "'And they reduced their staff after he had been in a month, and now he's penniless, and I consider that we and our informant are directly to blame.' "'I hate all this,' Leonard muttered. "'I hope you do, Mr. Bust.' But it's no good mincing matters. You have done yourself no good by coming here. If you intend to confront Mr. Wilcox, and to call him to account for a chance remark, you will make a very great mistake.

Starting point is 08:05:19 I brought them. I did it all, cried Helen. I can only advise you to go at once. My sister has put you in a false position. And it is kindest to tell you so. It's too late to get to town, but you'll find a comfortable hotel in Oniton, where Mrs. Bast can rest, and I hope you'll be much. my guests there." "'That isn't what I want, Miss Schlegel,' said Leonard. "'You're very kind, and no doubt it's a false position. But you make me miserable.

Starting point is 08:05:46 I seem no good at all.' "'It's work he wants,' interpreted Helen. "'Can't you see?' Then he said. "'Jackie, let's go. We're more bother than we're worth. We're costing these ladies pounds and pounds all ready to get work for us, and they never will. There's nothing we're good enough to do.'

Starting point is 08:06:04 "'We would like to find you work,' said Marry. Margaret rather conventionally. We want to. I, like my sister, you're only down in your luck. Go to the hotel, have a good night's rest, and someday you shall pay me back the bill if you prefer it.

Starting point is 08:06:21 But Leonard was near the abyss, and at such moments men see clearly. You don't know what you're talking about, he said. I shall never get work now. If rich people fail at one profession, they can try another. Not I.

Starting point is 08:06:35 I had my groove, and I've got out of it. I could do one particular branch of insurance and one particular office well enough to command a salary, but that's all. Poetry's nothing, Miss Schlegel. Once thoughts about this and that are nothing. Your money, too, is nothing, if you'll understand me. I mean, if a man over twenty once loses his own particular job, it's all over with him. I have seen it happen to others. The friends gave them money for a little, but in the end they fall over the edge.

Starting point is 08:07:03 It's no good. It's a whole world pulling. There will always be rich and rich. Paul. He ceased. "'Won't you have something to eat?' said Margaret. "'I don't know what to do. It isn't my house, and though Mr. Wilcox would have been glad to see you at any other time. As I say, I don't know what to do, but I undertake to do what I can for you.' Helen, offer them something. Do try a sandwich, Mrs. Bast. They moved to a long

Starting point is 08:07:32 table behind which a servant was still standing. Iceed cakes, sandwiches, innumerable, Coffee, claret cup, champagne remained almost intact. Their overfed guests could do no more. Leonard refused. Jackie thought she could manage a little. Margaret left them whispering together and had a few more words with Helen. She said, Helen, I like Mr. Bast, I agree that he's worth helping.

Starting point is 08:07:56 I agree that we are directly responsible. No, indirectly, via Mr. Wilcox. Let me tell you once for all that if you take up that attitude, I'll do nothing. "'No doubt you're right, logically, and are entitled to say a great many scathing things about Henry, only I won't have it, so choose.' Helen looked at the sunset. "'If you promise to take them quietly to the George, I will speak to Henry about them, in my own way, mind, there is to be none of this absurd screaming about justice.

Starting point is 08:08:26 I have no use for justice. If it was only a question of money we could do it ourselves, but he wants work and that we can't give him. But possibly Henry can. "'It's his duty to,' grumbled Helen. "'Nor am I concerned with duty. "'I'm concerned with the characters of various people whom we know, "'and how, things being as they are, things may be made a little better. "'Mr. Wilcox hates being asked favours.

Starting point is 08:08:50 "'All businessmen do. "'But I am going to ask him, at the risk of a rebuff, "'because I want to make things a little better.' "'Very well, I promise. "'You take it very calmly.' "'Take them off to you. the George then, and I'll try. Poor creatures, but they look tired.

Starting point is 08:09:11 As they parted, she added, I haven't nearly done with you, though, Helen. You have been most self-indulgent. I can't get over it. You have less restraint rather than more as you grow older. Think it over and alter yourself, or we shan't have happy lives. She rejoined Henry. Fortunately he had been sitting down.

Starting point is 08:09:31 These physical matters were important. Was it townese? he asked, greeting her with a pleasant smile. "'You'll never believe me,' said Margaret, sitting down beside him. "'It's all right now, but it was my sister.' "'Helen here?' he cried, preparing to rise. "'But she refused the invitation. I thought she despised weddings.' "'Don't get up. She has not come to the wedding. I've bundled her off to the George.'

Starting point is 08:09:58 Inherently hospitable, he protested. "'No, she has two of her protege with her, and must keep with them.' "'Let him all come.' "'My dear Henry, did you see them?' "'I did catch sight of a brown bunch of a woman, certainly.' "'The brown bunch was Helen. "'But did you catch sight of a sea-green and salmon bunch?' "'What, are they out bean-feasting?'

Starting point is 08:10:22 "'No business. "'They wanted to see me, and later on I want to talk to you about them.' "'She was ashamed of her own diplomacy, "'in dealing with the Wilcox how tempting it was to lapse from comrades, and to give him the kind of woman that he desired. Henry took the hint at once and said, Why later on? Tell me now. No time like the present. Shall I? If it isn't a long story. Oh, not five minutes, but there's a sting at the end of it, for I want you to find the man some work in your office. What are his qualifications? I don't know. He's a clerk. How old? Twenty-five, perhaps.

Starting point is 08:11:03 "'What's his name?' "'Bast,' said Margaret, and was about to remind him that they had met at Wickham Place, but stopped herself. It had not been a successful meeting. "'Where was he before?' "'Dempster's bank. "'Why did he leave?' he asked, still remembering nothing. "'They reduced their staff. "'All right, I'll see him.'

Starting point is 08:11:25 It was the reward of her tact and devotion through the day. Now she understood why some women prefer influence to rights. Mrs. Plinlemon, when condemning suffragettes, had said, "'The woman who can't influence her husband to vote the way she wants ought to be shamed of herself.' Margaret had winced, but she was influencing Henry now, and though pleased at her little victory, she knew that she had won it by the methods of the harem. "'I should be glad if you took him,' she said, "'but I don't know whether he's qualified.

Starting point is 08:11:57 "'I'll do what I can. But Margaret, this mustn't be taken as a precedent.' "'No, of course. Of course. I can't fit in your protégé every day. Business would suffer. I can promise you he's the last. He—he's rather a special case. Proteges always are. She let it stand at that. He rose with a little extra touch of complacency and held out his hand to help her up. How wide the gulf between Henry as he was and Henry as Helen thought he ought to be! And she herself, hovering as usual between the two, now accepting men as they are, now yearning with her sister for truth. Love and truth.

Starting point is 08:12:37 Their warfare seems eternal. Perhaps the whole visible world rests on it, and if they were one, life itself, like the spirits when Prospero was reconciled to his brother, might vanish into air, into thin air. Your protégé has made us late, said he. The fuzzles will just be starting. On the whole, she sided with men as they are.

Starting point is 08:12:59 Henry would save the basts as he had saved Howard's end, while Helen and her friends were discussing the ethics of salvation. His was a slap-dash method, but the world has been built slap-dash, and the beauty of mountain and river and sunset may be but the varnish with which the unskilled artificer hides his joins. Oniton, like herself, was imperfect. Its apple trees were stunted, its castle ruinous. It, too, had suffered in the border warfare between the Anglo-Saxon and the Celt,

Starting point is 08:13:29 between things as they are and as they ought to be. Once more the West was retreating. Once again the orderly stars were dotting the eastern sky. There is certainly no rest for us on the earth. But there is happiness, and as Margaret ascended the mound on her lover's arm, she felt that she was having her share. To her annoyance Mrs. Bast was still in the garden. The husband and Helen had left her there to finish her meal while they went to engage rooms.

Starting point is 08:13:54 Margaret found this woman repellent. She had felt when shaking her hand an overpowering shame. She remembered the motive of her call at Wickham Place, and smelt again odours from the abyss, odours the more disturbing because they were involuntary, for there was no malice in Jackie. There she sat a piece of cake in one hand, an empty champagne-glass in the other, doing no harm to anybody. She's overtired, Margaret whispered. She's something else, said Henry. This won't do. I can't have her in my garden in the state.

Starting point is 08:14:28 Is she? Margaret hesitated to add, drunk. Now that she was going to marry him, he had grown particular. He discounted in stricay conversations now. Henry went up to the woman. She raised her face, which gleamed in the twilight like a puffball. Madam, you will be more comfortable in the hotel, he said sharply. Jackie replied,

Starting point is 08:14:50 If it isn't Hen! No, quah not that the marie he ressemble, apologised Margaret. He is all different. "'Enry!' she repeated, quite distinctly. Mr. Wilcox was much annoyed. "'I can't congratulate you on your protegees,' he remarked. "'Ean, don't go. You do love me, dear, don't you?'

Starting point is 08:15:14 "'Bless us, what a person,' sighed Margaret, gathering up her skirts. Jackie pointed with her cake. "'You're a nice boy, you are,' she yawned. "'There now, I love you.' Henry, I am awfully sorry.' "'And pray why?' he asked, and looked at her so sternly that she feared he was ill. He seemed more scandalised than the facts demanded. "'To have brought this down on you?'

Starting point is 08:15:39 "'Pray don't apologise.' The voice continued. "'Why does she call you hen?' said Margaret, innocently. "'Has she ever seen you before?' "'Seen an before,' said Jackie. "'Who hasn't seen in? "'E serving you like me, my dear, these boys, You wait. Still we love them.

Starting point is 08:16:01 Are you now satisfied? Henry asked. Margaret began to grow frightened. I don't know what it is all about, she said. Let's come in. But he thought she was acting. He thought he was trapped. He saw his whole life crumbling. Don't you indeed? he said bidingly.

Starting point is 08:16:19 I do. Allow me to congratulate you on the success of your plan. This is Helen's plan, not mine. I now understand your interest in the the basts. Very well thought out. I am amused at your caution, Margaret. You are quite right, it was necessary. I am a man and have lived a man's past. I have the honour to release you from your engagement. Still she could not understand. She knew of life's seamy side as a theory. She could not grasp it as a fact. More words from Jackie were necessary. Words unequivocal, undenied.

Starting point is 08:16:54 So that! burst from her, and she went indoors. She stopped herself. from saying more. So, Walt, asked Colonel Fessel, who was getting ready to start in the hall. We were saying, Henry and I were just having the fairestous argument. My point being, seizing his fur coat from a footman, she offered to help him on. He protested, and there was a playful little scene. No, let me do that, said Henry, following. Thanks so much.

Starting point is 08:17:21 You see, he has forgiven me. The colonel said gallantly, I don't expect there's much to forgive. He got into the car. The ladies followed him after an interval. Maid's courier and heavier luggage had been sent on earlier by the branch line. Still chattering, still thanking their host and patronizing their future hostess. The guests were home away. Then Margaret continued. So that woman has been your mistress? You put it with your usual delicacy, he replied. When, please? Why? When, please.

Starting point is 08:17:55 Ten years ago. She left him without a word, for it was not her tragedy. It was Mrs. Wilcoxes. End of Chapter 26. Chapter 27 of Howard's End. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clet. Howard's End by E. M. Forster.

Starting point is 08:18:37 27. Helen began to wonder why she had spent a matter of eight pounds in making some people ill and others angry. Now that the wave of excitement was ebbing, and had left her, Mr. Bast and Mrs. Bast stranded for the night in a Shropshire hotel, she asked herself what forces had made the wave flow. At all events no harm was done. Margaret would play the game properly now, and though Helen disapproved of her sister's methods, she knew that the Basts would benefit by them in the long run. Mr. Wilcox is so illogical, she explained to Leonard, who had put his wife to bed, and was sitting with her in the empty coffee-room.

Starting point is 08:19:19 If we told him it was his duty to take you on, he might refuse to do it. The fact is he isn't properly educated. I don't want to set you against him, but you'll find him a trial. I can never thank you sufficiently, Miss Schlegel, was all that Leonard felt equal to. I believe in personal responsibility, don't you? And in personal everything. I hate—I suppose I oughtn't to say that. But the Wilcoxes are on the wrong tack, surely. Or perhaps it isn't their fault. Perhaps the little thing that says I is missing out for the middle of their heads, and then it's a waste of time to blame them. There's a nightmare

Starting point is 08:20:02 of a theory that says a special race is being born, which will rule the rest of us on, in the future, just because it lacks the little thing that says I. Had you heard that? I get no time for reading. Had you thought it, then? That there are two kinds of people—our kind, who live straight from the middle of their heads, and the other kind who can't, because the heads have no middle. They can't say I.

Starting point is 08:20:30 They aren't, in fact, and so they're supermen. Pierpont Morgan has never said I in his life. life." Leonard roused himself. If his benefactress wanted intellectual conversation, she must have it. She was more important than his ruined past. "'I never got on to Nietzsche,' he said. But I always understood that those supermen were rather what you may call egoists.'

Starting point is 08:20:57 "'Oh no, that's wrong,' replied Helen. No Superman ever said, I want, because I want must lead to the question, who am I? And so to pity and to justice. He only says want. Want Europe, if he's Napoleon. Want wives, if he's Bluebeard. Want Botticelli if he's Pierpont Morgan. Never the eye. And if you could pierce through him, you'd find panic and emptiness in the middle. Leonard was silent for a moment. Then he said, May I take it, Mischlegel, that you and I are both the sort that say I? "'Of course.' "'And your sister, too?'

Starting point is 08:21:41 "'Of course,' repeated Helen a little sharply. "'She was annoyed with Margaret, but did not want her disgust. "'All presentable people say I. "'But Mr. Wilcox, he is not, perhaps. "'I don't know that it's any good discussing Mr. Wilcox either.' "'Quite so, quite so,' he agreed. Helen asked herself why she had snubbed him. Once or twice during the day she had encouraged him to criticize,

Starting point is 08:22:12 and then had pulled him up short. Was she afraid of him presuming? If so, it was disgusting of her. But he was thinking the snub quite natural. Everything she did was natural and incapable of causing offence. While the Mishlegals were together he had felt them scarcely human, a sort of admonitory whirligig. But a Mishlegel alone was different. She was in Helen's case unmarried, and Margaret's about to be married, in neither case an echo of her sister. A light had fallen at last into this rich upper world, and he saw that it was full of men and women, some of whom were more friendly to him than others. Helen had become his, Mishelagel, who scolded him and corresponded with him, and had swept down yesterday with grateful vehemence.

Starting point is 08:23:00 Margaret, though not unkind, was severe and remote. He would not presume to help her, for instance. He had never liked her, and began to think that his original impression was true, and that her sister did not like her either. Helen was certainly lonely. She, who gave away so much, was receiving too little. Leonard was pleased to think that he could spare her vexation by holding his tongue, and concealing what he knew about Mr. Wilcox.

Starting point is 08:23:28 Jackie had announced her discovery when he fetched her from the lawn. After the first shock, he did not mind for himself. By now he had no illusions about his wife, and this was only one new stain on the face of a love that had never been pure. To keep perfection perfect, that should be his ideal, if the future gave him time to have ideals. Helen, and Margaret for Helen's sake, must not know. Helen disconcerted him by turning the conversation to him.

Starting point is 08:23:58 his wife. Mrs. Bast, does she ever say I? She asked, half-mistievously, and then, Is she very tired? It's better she stops in her room, said Leonard. Shall I sit up with her? No, thank you. She does not need company.

Starting point is 08:24:19 Mr. Bast, what kind of woman is your wife? Leonard blushed up to his eyes. You ought to know my ways by now. Does that question offend you? No. Oh, no, Mishlegel, no. Because I love honesty. Don't pretend your marriage has been a happy one. You and she can have nothing in common.

Starting point is 08:24:44 He did not deny it, but said shyly, I suppose that's pretty obvious, but Jackie never meant to do anybody any harm. When things went wrong, or I heard things, I used to think it was her fault, but, looking back, it's more mine. I needn't have, but as I have, I must stick to her and keep her. How long have you been married?

Starting point is 08:25:08 Nearly three years. What did your people say? They will not have anything to do with us. They had us all to family council when they heard I was married, and cut us off altogether. Helen began to pace up and down the room. My good boy, what a mess! She said gently.

Starting point is 08:25:29 Who are your people? He could answer this. His parents, who were dead, had been in trade. His sisters had married commercial travellers. His brother was a lay-reader. And your grandparents? Leonard told her a secret that he had held shameful up to now. They were just nothing at all, he said.

Starting point is 08:25:50 Agricultural labourers in that sort. So? From which part? Lincolnshire mostly, but my mother's father, he, oddly enough, came from these parts round here. From this very Shropshire? Yes, that is odd. My mother's people were Lancashire. But why do your brother and your sisters object to Mrs. Bast? Oh, I don't know. Excuse me, you do know. I am not a baby. I can bear anything you tell me, and the more you tell the more I shall be able to help.

Starting point is 08:26:25 Have they heard anything against her?' He was silent. "'I think I have guessed now,' said Helen very gravely. "'I don't think so, Mishlegel. I hope not.' "'We must be honest, even over these things. I have guessed. I am frightfully, dreadfully sorry, but it does not make the least difference to me. I shall feel just the same to both of you. I blame not your wife for these things, but men. Leonard left it at that, so long as she did not guess the man. She stood at the window and slowly pulled up the blinds. The hotel looked over a dark square. The mists had begun. When she turned back to him her eyes were shining.

Starting point is 08:27:13 Don't you worry, he pleaded. I can't bear that. We shall be all right if I get work. If I could only get work, something regular to do. Then it wouldn't be so bad again. I don't trouble after books as I used. I can imagine that with regular work we should settle down again. It stops one thinking. Settle down to what? Oh, just settle down. And that's to be life, said Helen, with a catch in her throat.

Starting point is 08:27:43 How can you, with all the beautiful things to see and do, with music, with walking at night? "'Walking is well enough on a man's in work,' he answered. "'Oh, I did talk a lot of nonsense once, "'but there's nothing like a bailiff in the house to drive it out of you. "'When I saw him fingering my Ruskins and Stevenson's, "'I seem to see life straight real, and it isn't a pretty sight. "'My books are back again, thanks to you, "'but they'll never be the same to me again,

Starting point is 08:28:14 "'and I shan't ever again think night in the woods is wonderful.' "'Why not?' asked. Tellan, throwing up the window. Because I see one must have money. Well, you're wrong. I wish I was wrong. But— The clergyman.

Starting point is 08:28:32 He has money of his own, or else he's paid. The poet or the musician does the same. The tramp, he's no different. The tramp goes to the workhouse in the end, and is paid for with other people's money. Mischlegel, the real thing's money and all the rest is a dream. You're still wrong. You've forgotten death.

Starting point is 08:28:52 Leonard could not understand. If we lived forever, what you say would be true. But we have to die. We have to leave life presently. Injustice and greed would be the real thing if we lived forever. As it is, we must hold to other things, because death is coming. I love death, not morbidly, but because he explains. He shows me the emptiness of money.

Starting point is 08:29:19 death and money are the eternal foes not death and life never mind what lies behind death mr bast but be sure that the poet and the musician and the tramp will be happier in it than the man who has never learnt to say i am i i wonder we are all in a mist i know but i can help you this far men like the wilcoxes are deeper in the mist than any sane sound englishman building up empires, levelling all the world into what they call common sense. But mention death to them, and they're offended, because death's really imperial, and he cries out against them forever. I am as afraid of death as anyone. But not of the idea of death. But what is the difference? Infinite difference, said Helen, more gravely than before. Leonard looked at her wondering, and had the sense of great things sweeping out of the shrouded night. But he could not receive them, because his heart was still full of little things.

Starting point is 08:30:26 As the lost umbrella had spoilt the concert at Queen's Hall, so the lost situation was obscuring the diviner harmonies now. Death, life, and materialism were fine words, but would Mr. Wilcox take him on as a clerk? Talk as one would. Mr. Wilcox was king of this world, the Superman, with his own morality, whose head remained in the clouds. I must be stupid, he said apologetically.

Starting point is 08:30:55 While to Helen the paradox became clearer and clearer. Death destroys a man. The idea of death saves him. Behind the coffins and the skeletons that stay the vulgar mind lies something so immense that all that is great in us responds to it. Men of the world may recoil from the charnel-house that they will one day. enter, but love knows better. Death is his foe, but his peer, and in their age-long struggle the fuse of love have been strengthened, and his vision cleared, until there is no one

Starting point is 08:31:29 who can stand against him. "'So never give in,' continued the girl, and restated again and again the vague yet convincing plea, that the invisible lodges against the visible. Her excitement grew as she tried to cut the rope that fastened Leonard to the earth, woven. Woven of bitter experience, it resisted her. Presently the waitress entered and gave her a letter from Margaret. Another note addressed to Leonard was inside. They read them, listening to the murmurings of the river.

Starting point is 08:32:02 End of Chapter 27. Chapter 28 of Howard's End. This is a Libervox recording. All Libervox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit Librevox.org. by Elizabeth Clett Howard's End by E. M. For many hours Margaret did nothing. Then she controlled herself and wrote some letters. She was too bruised to speak to Henry. She could pity him, and even

Starting point is 08:32:42 determined to marry him, but as yet all lay too deep in her heart for speech. On the surface the sense of his degradation was too strong. She could not command voice or look, and the gentle words that she forced out through her pen seemed to proceed from some other person. "'My dearest boy,' she began, "'this is not to part us. It is everything or nothing, and I mean it to be nothing. It happened long before we ever met, and even if it had happened since, I should be writing the same, I hope. I do understand.' But she crossed out, I do understand, it struck a false note.

Starting point is 08:33:22 Henry could not bear to be understood. She also crossed out, It is everything or nothing. Henry would resent so strong a grasp of the situation. She must not comment. Comment is unfeminine. I think that'll about do, she thought. Then the sense of his degradation choked her.

Starting point is 08:33:44 Was he worth all this bother? To have yielded to a woman of that sort was everything. Yes, it was, and she could not be his wife. she tried to translate his temptation into her own language and her brain reeled men must be different even to want to yield to such a temptation her belief in comradeship was stifled and she saw life as from that glass saloon on the great western which sheltered male and female alike from the fresh air are the sexes really races each with its own code of morality and their mutual love a mere device of nature to keep things going strip human intercourse or of the proprieties, and is it reduced to this? Her judgment told her no. She knew that out of nature's device we have built a magic that will win us immortality. Far more mysterious than the call of sex to sex is the tenderness that we throw into that call. Far wider is the gulf between

Starting point is 08:34:40 us and the farmyard than between the farmyard and the garbage that nourishes it. We are evolving, in ways that science cannot measure, to ends that theology dares not contemplate. Men did produce one jewel, the gods will say, and saying will give us immortality. Margaret knew all this, but for the moment she could not feel it, and transformed the marriage of Evie and Mr. Cahill into a carnival of fools, and her own marriage, too miserable to think of that, she tore up the letter, and then wrote another. Dear Mr. Bast, I have spoken to Mr. Wilcox about you as I promised, and I am sorry to say

Starting point is 08:35:21 that he has no vacancy for you. Yours truly, M. J. Schlegel. She enclosed this in a note to Helen, over which she took less trouble than she might have done, but her head was aching, and she could not stop to pick her words. Dear Helen, give him this. The basts are no good. Henry found the woman drunk on the lawn. I am having a room got ready for you here, and will you please come round at once on getting this? The basts are not at all the type we should trouble about. I may go round to them myself in the morning, and do anything that is fair." In writing this Margaret felt that she was being practical. Something might be arranged for the Basts later on, but they must be silenced for the moment.

Starting point is 08:36:07 She hoped to avoid a conversation between the woman and Helen. She rang the bell for a servant, but no one answered it. Mr. Wilcox and the Warrington's were gone to bed, and the kitchen was abandoned to Saturnalia. Consequently, she went over to the George herself. She did not enter the hotel, for discussion would have been perilous, and saying that the letter was important, she gave it to the waitress. As she recrossed the square she saw Helen and Mr. Bath looking out of the window of the coffee-room, and feared she was already too late. Her task was not yet over. She ought to tell Henry what she had done. This came easily, for she saw him in the hall. The night wind had been rattling the pictures

Starting point is 08:36:48 against the wall, and the noise had disturbed him. "'Who's there?' he called, quite the householder. Margaret walked in and passed him. "'I have asked Helen to sleep,' she said. "'She is best here, so don't lock the front door.' "'I thought someone had got in,' said Henry. "'At the same time I told the man that we could do nothing for him. I don't know about later, but now the basts must clearly go.'

Starting point is 08:37:16 "'Did you say that your child's? sister is sleeping here after all?" Probably. Is she to be shown up to your room? I have naturally nothing to say to her. I am going to bed. Will you tell the servants about Helen? Could someone go to carry her bag?

Starting point is 08:37:35 He tapped a little gong which had been bought to summon the servants. You must make more noise than that if you want them to hear. Henry opened a door and down the corridor came shouts of laughter. "'Far too much screaming there,' he said, and strode towards it. Margaret went upstairs, uncertain whether to be glad that they had met or sorry. They had behaved as if nothing had happened, and her deepest instinct told her that this was wrong. For his own sake, some explanation was due. And yet what could an explanation tell her? A date, a place, a few details, which she could

Starting point is 08:38:12 imagine all too clearly. Now that the first shock was over, she was over, she was the first shock. saw that there was every reason to premise of Mrs. Bast. Henry's inner life had long laid open to her, his intellectual confusion, his obtuseness to personal influence, his strong but furtive passions. Should she refuse him because his outer life corresponded? Perhaps. Perhaps if the dishonor had been done to her, but it was done long before her day. She struggled against the feeling. She told herself that Mrs. Wilcox's wrong was her own. But she was not a bargain theorist. As she undressed her anger, her regard for the dead, her desire for a scene, all grew weak. Henry must have it as he liked, for she loved him, and some day she

Starting point is 08:38:58 would use her love to make him a better man. Pity was at the bottom of her actions all through this crisis. Pity, if one may generalize, is at the bottom of woman. When men like us, it is for our better qualities, and however tender their liking, we dare not. be unworthy of it, or they will quietly let us go. But unworthiness stimulates woman. It brings out her deeper nature, for good or for evil. Here was the core of the question. Henry must be forgiven, and made better by love. Nothing else mattered. Mrs. Wilcox, that unquiet yet kindly ghost, must be left to her own wrong. To her everything was in proportion now, and she too would pity the man who was blundering up and down their lives.

Starting point is 08:39:48 Had Mrs. Wilcox known of his trespass? An interesting question. But Margaret fell asleep, tethered by affection, and lulled by the murmurs of the river that descended all the night from Wales. She felt herself at one with her future home, colouring it and coloured by it, and awoke to sea, for the second time, Oniton Castle conquering the morning mists. End of Chapter 28 Chapter 29 of Howard's End This is a Libravox recording All Libravox recordings are in the public domain

Starting point is 08:40:30 For more information or to volunteer Please visit Libravox.org Recording by Elizabeth Clet Howard's End by E. M. Forster Chapter 29 Henry dear was her greeting He had finished his breakfast

Starting point is 08:40:49 and was beginning the times. His sister-in-law was packing. She knelt by him and took the paper from him, feeling that it was unusually heavy and thick. Then, putting her face where it had been, she looked up in his eyes. Henry, dear, look at me. No, I won't have you shirking.

Starting point is 08:41:09 Look at me. There. That's all. You're referring to last evening, he said huskily. I have released you from your engagement. I could find excuses, but I won't. No, I won't. A thousand times no. I'm a bad lot, and must be left at that." Expelled from his old fortress, Mr. Wilcox was building a new one. He could no longer appear respectable to her, so he defended himself instead in a lurid past. It was not true

Starting point is 08:41:42 repentance. "'Leave it where you will, boy. It's not going to trouble us. I know what I'm talking about, and it will make no difference. No difference, he inquired. No difference when you find that I am not the fellow you thought. He was annoyed with Miss Schlegel here. He would have preferred her to be prostrated by the blow, or even to rage. Against the tide of his sin flowed the feeling that she was not altogether womanly.

Starting point is 08:42:12 Her eyes gazed too straight. They had read books that are suitable for men only. and though he had dreaded a scene, and though she had determined against one, there was a scene all the same. It was somehow imperative. "'I am unworthy of you,' he began. "'Had I been worthy, I should not have released you from your engagement. I know what I am talking about. I can't bear to talk of such things.

Starting point is 08:42:38 We had better leave it.' She kissed his hand. He jerked it from her, and, rising to his feet, went on. "'You, with your sheltered life and refined pursuits and friends and books, you and your sister and women like you, I say, how can you guess the temptations that lie round a man?' "'It is difficult for us,' said Margaret. "'But if we are worth marrying, we do guess.' "'Cut off from decent society and family ties. What do you suppose happens to thousands of young fellows overseas? Isolated, no one near.

Starting point is 08:43:13 I know by bitter experience, and yet you say it makes no difference. Not to me. He laughed bitterly. Margaret went to the sideboard and helped herself to one of the breakfast dishes. Being the last down, she turned out the spirit-lamp that kept them warm. She was tender, but grave. She knew that Henry was not so much confessing his soul as pointing out the gulf between the male soul and the female, and she did not desire to hear her.

Starting point is 08:43:43 him on this point. Did Helen come? she asked. He shook his head. But that won't do at all, at all. We don't want her gossiping with Mrs. Bast. Good God, no, he exclaimed, suddenly natural. Then he caught himself up. Let them gossip. My game's up, though I thank you for your unselfishness. Little as my thanks are worth. Didn't she send me a message or anything? I heard of none. Would you ring the bell, please?

Starting point is 08:44:17 What to do? Why to inquire? He swaggered up to it, tragically, and sounded appeal. Margaret poured herself out some coffee. The butler came and said that Miss Schlegel had slept at the George so far as he had heard. Should he go round to the George? I'll go, thank you, said Margaret, and dismissed him. It is no good, said Henry.

Starting point is 08:44:41 Those things leak out. You cannot stop a story once it has started. I have known cases of other men. I despised them once. I thought that I am different. I shall never be tempted. Oh, Margaret! He came and sat down near her, improvising emotion.

Starting point is 08:44:58 She could not bear to listen to him. We fellows all come to grief once in our time. Will you believe that? There are moments when the strongest man— Let him who standeth take heed lest he fall. "'That's true, isn't it? If you knew all you would excuse me. I was far from good influences, far even from England. I was very, very lonely and longed for a woman's voice. That's enough. I have told you too much already for you to forgive me now.'

Starting point is 08:45:32 "'Yes, that's enough, dear.' "'I have,' he lowered his voice. "'I have been through hell.' gravely she considered this claim had he had he suffered tortures of remorse or had it been there that's over now for respectable life again the latter if she read him rightly a man who has been through hell does not boast of his virility he is humble and hides it if indeed it still exists only in legend does the sinner come forth penitent but terrible to conquer pure world woman by his resistless power. Henry was anxious to be terrible, but had not got it in him. He was a good average Englishman who had slipped. The really culpable point, his faithlessness to Mrs. Wilcox, never seemed to strike him.

Starting point is 08:46:26 She longed to mention Mrs. Wilcox. And bit by bit the story was told her. It was a very simple story. Ten years ago was the time, a garrison town in Cyprus the place. Now and then he asked her whether she could put possibly forgive him, and she answered, I have already forgiven you, Henry. She chose her words carefully, and so

Starting point is 08:46:48 saved him from panic. She plagued the girl until he could rebuild his fortress and hide his soul from the world. When the butler came to clear away, Henry was in a very different mood, asked the fellow what he was in such a hurry for, complained of the noise last night in the servants' hall. Margaret looked intently at the butler. He, as a handsome young man, was faintly attractive to her as a woman, an attraction so faint as scarcely to be perceptible,

Starting point is 08:47:16 yet the skies would have fallen if she had mentioned it to Henry. On her return from the George the building operations were complete, and the old Henry fronted her, competent, cynical, and kind. He had made a clean breast, had been forgiven, and the great thing now was to forget his failure, and to send it the way of other unsuccessful investments. Jackie rejoined Howard's End and Deucy Street, and the Vermilion motor-car, and the Argentine hard dollars, and all the things and people

Starting point is 08:47:46 for whom he had never had much use, and had less now. Their memory hampered him. He could scarcely attend to Margaret, who brought back disquieting news from the George. Helen and her clients had gone. "'Well, let them go. The man and his wife, I mean, for the more we see of your sister, the better.' "'But they have gone separately. Helen, very early, the bastes, just before I arrived. They have left no message. They have answered neither of my notes. I don't like to think what it all means. What did you say in the notes? I told you last night. Oh, uh, yes. Dear, would you like one turn in the garden? Margaret took his arm. The beautiful weather soothed her, but the wheels of Evie's wedding were still at work, tossing the guests outwards as deftly as they

Starting point is 08:48:36 had drawn them in, and she could not be with him long. it had been arranged that they should motor to shrewsbury whence he would go north and she back to london with the warringtons for a fraction of time she was happy then her brain recommenced i am afraid there has been gossiping of some kind at the george helen would not have left unless she had heard something i mismanaged that it is wretched i ought to have parted her from that woman at once "'Margaret!' he exclaimed, loosing her arm impressively. "'Yes, yes, Henry.' "'I am far from a saint, in fact, the reverse. "'But you have taken me for better or worse. "'Bygones must be bygones.

Starting point is 08:49:24 "'You have promised to forgive me. "'Margaret, a promise is a promise. "'Never mention that woman again.' "'Except for some practical reason. "'Never.' "'Practical! "'You practical.' "'Practical?'

Starting point is 08:49:38 "'Yes, I'm practical,' she murmured, stooping over the mowing machine and playing with the grass which trickled through her fingers like sand. He had silenced her, but her fears made him uneasy. Not for the first time he was threatened with blackmail. He was rich and supposed to be moral. The Basts knew that he was not, and might find it profitable to hint as much. "'At all events you mustn't worry,' he said. "'This is a man's business,' he thought intently. "'On no account mention it to anybody.' Margaret flushed at advice so elementary, but he was really paving the way for a lie. If necessary he would deny that he had ever known Mrs. Bast and prosecute her for libel.

Starting point is 08:50:25 Perhaps he never had known her. Here was Margaret who behaved as if he had not. There the house. Round them were half a dozen gardeners, clearing up after his daughter's wedding. All was so solid and spruce that the past flew up out of sight like a spring blind, leaving only the last five minutes unrolled. Glancing at these, he saw that the car would be round during the next five, and plunged into action. Gongs were tapped, orders issued, Margaret was sent to dress,

Starting point is 08:50:55 and the housemaid to sweep up the long trickle of grass that she had left across the hall. As is man to the universe, so was the mind of Mr. Wilcox to the minds of some men, a concentrated light upon a tiny spot, a little ten minutes moving self-contained through its appointed years. No pagan he, who lives for the now, and may be wiser than all philosophers. He lived for the five minutes that have passed, and the five to come. He had the business mind. How did he stand now as his motor slipped out of Oniton and breasted the great round hills? Margaret had heard a certain rumor, but was all right. She had forgiven. She had forgiven. She had Given him, God bless her, and he felt the manlier for it.

Starting point is 08:51:39 Charles and Evie had not heard it, and never must hear. No more must Paul. Over his children he felt great tenderness, which he did not try to track to a cause. Mrs. Wilcox was too far back in his life. He did not connect her with the sudden aching love that he felt for Evie. Poor little Evie! He trusted that Cahill would make her a decent husband. And Margaret?

Starting point is 08:52:03 How did she stand? She had several minor worries. Clearly her sister had heard something. She dreaded meeting her in town, and she was anxious about Leonard, for whom they certainly were responsible. Nor ought Mrs. Bass to starve. But the main situation had not altered. She still loved Henry. His actions, not his disposition, had disappointed her, and she could bear that, and she loved her future home. standing up in the car, just where she had leapt from it two days before, she gazed back with deep emotion upon Oniton. Besides the Grange and the Castle Keep, she could now pick out the church and the black and white gables of the George. There was the bridge, and the river nibbling its

Starting point is 08:52:49 Green Peninsula. She could even see the bathing shed, but while she was looking for Charles's new springboard, the forehead of the hill rose up and hid the whole scene. She never did saw it again. Day and night the river flows down into England. Day after day the sun retreats into the Welsh mountains, and the tower chimes see the conquering hero. But the Wilcoxes have no part in the place, nor in any place. It is not their names that recur in the parish register. It is not their ghosts that sigh among the alders at evening. They have swept into the valley and swept out of it, leaving a little dust and a little money. behind. End of Chapter 29. Chapter 30 of Howard's End. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox

Starting point is 08:53:50 recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clet. Howard's End by E. M. Forster. Chapter 30. Tiby was now approaching his last year at Oxford. He had moved out of college and was contemplating the universe, or such portions of it as concerned him from his comfortable lodgings in Long Wall. He was not concerned with much. When a young man is untroubled by passions and sincerely indifferent to public opinion, his outlook is necessarily limited. Tibby neither wished to strengthen the position of the rich, nor to improve that of the poor, and so was well content to watch the elms nodding behind the mildly embattled parapet

Starting point is 08:54:41 of maudlin. There are worse lives. Though selfish, he was never cruel, though affected in manner, he never posed. Like Margaret, he disdained the heroic equipment, and it was only after many visits that men discovered Schlegel to possess a character and a brain. He had done well in mods, much to the surprise of those who attended lectures and took proper exercise, and was now glancing disdainfully at Chinese, in case he should someday consent to qualify to as a student interpreter. To him thus employed, Helen entered. A telegram had preceded her.

Starting point is 08:55:18 He noticed, in a distant way, that his sister had altered. As a rule he found her too pronounced, and had never come across this look of appeal, pathetic yet dignified, the look of a sailor who has lost everything at sea. "'I have come from Ornotton,' she began. There has been a great deal of trouble there. "'Who's for lunch?'

Starting point is 08:55:41 said Tibby, picking up the claret which was warming in the hearth. Helen sat down submissively at the table. "'Why such an early start?' he asked. "'S sunrise or something when I could get away.' "'So I surmise. Why?' "'I don't know what's to be done, Tibby. I am very much upset at a piece of news that concerns Meg, and do not want to face her, and I am not going back to Wickham Place.

Starting point is 08:56:09 I stopped here to tell you this. The landlady came in with the cutlets. Tibby put a marker in the leaves of his Chinese grammar and helped them. Oxford, the Oxford of the vacation, dreamed and rustled outside, and indoors the little fire was coated with grey where the sunshine touched it. Helen continued her odd story. Give Meg my love, and say that I want to be alone. I mean to go to Munich, or else Bonn.

Starting point is 08:56:38 Such a message is easily given, said. said her brother. As regards were complais, and my share of the furniture, you and she are to do exactly as you like. My own feeling is that everything may just as well be sold. What has one want with dusty economic books which have made the world know better, or with mother's hideous chivalier's? I have also another commission for you.

Starting point is 08:57:02 I want you to deliver a letter." She got up. I haven't written it yet. Why shouldn't I post it, though? She sat down again. My head is rather wretched. I hope that none of your friends are likely to come in. Tibby locked the door.

Starting point is 08:57:20 His friends often found it in this condition. Then he asked whether anything had gone wrong at Evie's wedding. Not there, said Helen, and burst into tears. He had known her hysterical. It was one of her aspects with which he had no concern. And yet these tears touched him as something unusual. they were nearer the things that did concern him such as music he laid down his knife and looked at her curiously then as she continued to sob he went on with his lunch the time came for the second course and she was still crying apple charlotte was to follow which spoils by waiting do you mind mrs martlett coming in he asked or shall i take it from her at the door could i bathe my eyes tippy he took her to his bedroom and introduced the poor

Starting point is 08:58:10 putting in her absence. Having helped himself, he put it down to warm in the hearth. His hand stretched towards the grammar, and soon he was turning over the pages, raising his eyebrows scornfully, perhaps at human nature, perhaps at Chinese. To him thus employed Helen returned. She had pulled herself together, but the grave appeal had not vanished from her eyes. "'Now for the explanation,' she said. "'Why didn't I begin with it?' I have found out something about Mr. Wilcox. He has behaved very wrongly indeed, and ruined two people's lives. It all came on me very suddenly last night. I am very much upset, and I do not know what to do. Mrs. Bast! Oh, those people! Helen seemed silenced. Shall I lock the door again? No, thanks, to bekins. You're being very good to me. I want to tell you the story.

Starting point is 08:59:10 before I go abroad. You must do exactly what you like. Treat it as part of the furniture. Meg cannot have heard it yet, I think. But I cannot face her and tell her that the man she is going to marry has misconducted himself. I don't even know whether she ought to be told. Knowing as she does that I dislike him, she will suspect me, and think that I want to ruin her match.

Starting point is 08:59:35 I simply don't know what to make of such a thing. I trust your judgment. What would you do?' "'I gather he has had a mistress,' said Tibby. Helen flushed with shame and anger, and ruined two people's lives, and goes about saying that personal actions count for nothing, and there will always be rich and poor.

Starting point is 08:59:58 He met her when he was trying to get rich out in Cyprus. I don't wish to make him worse than he is, and no doubt she was ready enough to meet him. But there it is. They met. He goes his way and she goes hers. What do you suppose is the end of such women? He conceded that it was a bad business.

Starting point is 09:00:18 They end in two ways. Either they sink till the lunatic asylums and the workhouse are full of them, and cause Mr. Wilcox to write letters to the papers complaining of our national degeneracy, or else they entrap a boy into marriage before it is too late. She—I can't blame her. But this isn't all. She continued after a long pause, during which the landlady served them with coffee. "'I come now to the business that took us to Onerton. We went all three.

Starting point is 09:00:50 Acting on Mr. Wilcox's advice, the man throws up a secure situation and takes an insecure one from which he is dismissed. There are certain excuses, but in the main Mr. Wilcox is to blame, as Meg herself admitted. It is only common justice that he should employ the man himself, But he meets the woman, and like the cur that he is he refuses and tries to get rid of them, he makes Meg right. Two notes came from her late that evening, one for me, one for Leonard, dismissing him with barely a reason. I couldn't understand. Then it comes out that Mrs. Bass had spoken to Mr. Wilcox on the lawn while we left her to get rooms, and was still speaking about him when Leonard came back to her. This Leonard knew all along. He thought it natural,

Starting point is 09:01:36 he should be ruined twice. Natural! Could you have contained yourself? It is certainly a very bad business, said Tibby. His reply seemed to calm, his sister. I was afraid that I saw it out of proportion. But you are right outside it, and you must know. In a day or two, or perhaps a week,

Starting point is 09:01:59 take whatever steps you think fit. I leave it in your hands. She concluded her charge. The facts as they touched Meg are all before you, she added, and Tibby sighed and felt it rather hard that, because of his open mind, he should be impaneled to serve as a juror. He had never been interested in human beings, for which one must blame him, but he had rather too much of them at Wickham Place. Just as some people ceased to attend when books are mentioned, so Tibby's attention

Starting point is 09:02:30 wandered when personal relations came under discussion. ought Margaret to know what Helen knew the best to know. Similar questions had vexed him from infancy, and at Oxford he had learned to say that the importance of human beings has been vastly overrated by specialists. The epigram, with its faint whiff of the 80s, meant nothing. But he might have let it off now if his sister had not been ceaselessly beautiful. "'You see, Helen—' Have a cigarette. I don't see what I'm to do.'

Starting point is 09:03:00 Then there's nothing to be done. I dare say you are right. Let them marry. There remains the question of compensation. Do you want me to adjudicate that, too? Had you not better consult an expert? This part is in confidence, said Helen. It has nothing to do with Meg, and do not mention it to her.

Starting point is 09:03:25 The compensation. I do not see who is to pay it if I don't, and I have already decided on the minimum sum. As soon as possible I am placing it to your account, and when I am in Germany you will pay it over for me. I shall never forget your kindness to bekins if you do this. What is the sum? Five thousand. Good God alive! said Tibby, and went Comson. Now what is the good of dribblets? To go through life having done one thing,

Starting point is 09:03:55 to have raised one person from the abyss, not these puny, gifts of shillings in blankets, making the grey more grey. No doubt people will think me extraordinary. I don't care a damn what people think, cried he, heeded to unusual manliness of diction. But it's half what you have. Not nearly half. She spread out her hands over her soiled skirt.

Starting point is 09:04:19 I have far too much, and we settled at Chelsea last spring that three hundred a year is necessary to set a man on his feet. What I give will bring in a hundred and fifty between two, it isn't enough. He could not recover. He was not angry or even shocked, and he saw that Hallen would still have plenty to live on. But it amazed him to think what haycock's people can make of their lives. His delicate intonations would not work, and he could only blurt out that five thousand pounds would mean a great deal of bother for him personally. I didn't expect you to understand me. I? I understand nobody.

Starting point is 09:04:57 But he'll do it. Apparently. I leave you two commissions, then. The first concerns Mr. Wilcox, and you are to use your discretion. The second concerns the money, and is to be mentioned to no one, and carried out literally. You will send a hundred pounds on account to-morrow. He walked with her to the station, passing through those streets whose serried beauty never bewildered him and never fatigued.

Starting point is 09:05:25 The lovely creature raised dome. and spires into the cloudless blue, and only the ganglion of vulgarity round Carfax, showed how evanescent was the phantom, how faint its claim to represent England. Helen, rehearsing her commission, noticed nothing. The basts were in her brain, and she retold the crisis in a meditative way, which might have made other men curious. She was seeing whether it would hold. He asked her once why she had taken the bastes right into the heart of Evie's wedding. She stopped like a frightened animal and said, "'Does that seem to you so odd?'

Starting point is 09:06:01 Her eyes, the hand laid on the mouth, quite haunted him, until they were absorbed into the figure of St. Mary the Virgin, before whom he paused for a moment on the walk home. It is convenient to follow him in the discharge of his duties. Margaret summoned him the next day. She was terrified at Helen's flight, and he had to say that she had called in at Oxford. Then she said, did she seem worried at any rumour about Henry? He answered, yes.

Starting point is 09:06:31 I knew it was that, she exclaimed. I'll write to her. Tibby was relieved. He then sent the check to the address that Helen gave him, and stated that later on he was instructed to forward five thousand pounds. An answer came back, very civil and quiet in tone, such an answer as Tibby himself would have given. The check was returned, the legacy refused,

Starting point is 09:06:54 the writer being in no need of money. Tibby forwarded this to Helen, adding in the fullness of his heart that Leonard Basts seemed somewhat a monumental person after all. Helen's reply was frantic. He was to take no notice. He was to go down at once and say that she commanded acceptance. He went. A scurf of books and china ornaments awaited them.

Starting point is 09:07:16 The Basques had just been evicted for not paying their rent, and had wandered no one knew with her. Helen had begun bungling with her money. by this time, had it even sold out her shares in the Nottingham and Darby Railway, for some weeks she did nothing. Then she reinvested, and, owing to the good advice of her stockbrokers, became rather richer than she had been before. End of Chapter 30. Chapter 31 of Howard's End. This is a Librevox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit

Starting point is 09:08:02 Libravox.org Recording by Elizabeth Clet Howard's End by E. M. Forster Chapter 31 Houses have their own ways of dying, falling as variously as the generations

Starting point is 09:08:20 of men, some with the tragic roar, some quietly, but to an afterlife in the city of ghosts, while from others, and thus was the death of Wickham Place, the spirit slips before the body perishes. It had decayed in the spring, disintegrating the girls more than they knew,

Starting point is 09:08:38 and causing either to accost unfamiliar regions. By September it was a corpse, void of emotion, and scarcely hallowed by the memories of thirty years of happiness. Through its round-topped doorway past furniture and pictures and books, until the last room was gutted and the last van had rumbled away. It stood for a week or two longer, open-eyed, as if astonished at its own emptiness, then it fell navvies came and spilt it back into the gray with their muscles and their beery good temper they were not the worst of undertakers for a house which had always been human and had not mistaken culture for an end

Starting point is 09:09:19 the furniture with a few exceptions went down into hartfordshire mr wilcox having most kindly offered howard's end as a warehouse mr bryce had died abroad an unsatisfactory affair and as there seemed little guarantee that the rent would be paid regularly he cancelled the agreement and resumed possession himself until he relet the house the schlegels were welcome to stack their furniture in the garage and lower rooms margaret demurred but tibby accepted the office gladly. It saved him from coming to any decision about the future. The plate and the more valuable pictures found a safer home in London, but the bulk of the things went countryways, and were entrusted to the guardianship of Miss Avery. Shortly before the move, our hero and heroin were married. They have weathered the storm, and may reasonably expect peace. To have no illusions, and yet to love. What stronger surety can a woman find? She had seen her husband's past as well as his heart. She knew her own heart with a thoroughness that commonplace people believe

Starting point is 09:10:24 impossible. The heart of Mrs. Wilcox was alone hidden, and perhaps it is superstitious to speculate on the feelings of the dead. They were married quietly, really quietly, for as the day approached she refused to go through another Oniton. Her brother gave her away, her aunt, who was out of health, presided over a few colourless refreshments. The Wilcoxes were represented by Charles, who witnessed the marriage settlement, and by Mr. Cahill. Paul did send a cablegram. In a few minutes, and without the aid of music, the clergyman made the man and wife, and soon the glass shade had fallen that cuts off married couples from the world.

Starting point is 09:11:04 She, a monogamist, regretted the cessation of some of life's innocent odors. He, whose instincts were polygamous, felt morally braced by the change, and less liable to the temptations that had assailed him in the past. They spent their honeymoon near Innsbruck. Henry knew of a reliable hotel there, and Margaret hoped for a meeting with her sister. In this she was disappointed. As they came south, Helen retreated over the Brenner, and wrote an unsatisfactory postcard from the shores of the Lake of Garda, saying that her plans were uncertain and had better be ignored. Evidently she disliked meeting Henry. Two months are surely enough to accustom an outsider to a situation which a wife has accepted in two days, and Margaret had again to regret her sister's lack of self-control. In a long letter she pointed out the need of charity in sexual matters, so little is known about them. It is hard enough for those who are personally touched to judge, then how futile must be the verdict of society. I don't say there is no standard, for that or destroy morality,

Starting point is 09:12:12 only that there can be no standard until our impulses are classified and better understood. She would. Helen thanked her for her kind letter, rather a curious reply. She moved south again, and spoke of wintering in Naples. Mr. Wilcox was not sorry that the meeting failed. Helen left him time to grow skin over his wound. There were still moments when it pained him. Had he only known that Margaret was awaiting him, Margaret, so lively and intelligent, and yet so submissive, he would have kept himself worthier of her. Incapable of grouping the past, he confused the episode of Jackie with another episode that had taken place in the days of his bachelorhood. The tomb made one crop of wild oats, for which he was heartily sorry, and he could not see that those oats are of a darker stock which are rooted in another's dishonor. Unchastity and infidelity were as confused to him as to the Middle Ages, his only moral teacher. Ruth, poor old Ruth, did not enter into his calculations at all, for poor old Ruth had never found him out. His affection for his present wife grew steadily. Her cleverness gave him no trouble,

Starting point is 09:13:25 and indeed he liked to see her reading poetry or something about social questions. It distinguished her from the wives of other men. He had only to call, and she clapped the book up and was ready to do what he wished. Then they would argue so jollily. And once or twice she had him in quite a tight corner, but as soon as he grew really serious, she gave in. Man is for war, woman for the recreation of the warrior, but he does not dislike it if she makes a show of fight. She cannot win in a real battle, having no muscles, only nerves. Nerves make her jump out of a moving motor-car, or refuse to be married fashionably. The warrior may well allow her to triumph on such occasions. They move not to the imperishable plinth

Starting point is 09:14:10 of things that touch his peace. Margaret had a bad attack of these nerves during the honeymoon. He told her, casually, as was his habit, that Aniton Grange was let. She showed her annoyance, and asked rather crossly why she had not been consulted. I didn't want to bother you, he replied. Besides, I have only heard for certain this morning. Where are we to live? said Margaret, trying to laugh. I loved the place extraordinarily.

Starting point is 09:14:39 "'Don't you believe in having a permanent home, Henry?' He assured her that she misunderstood him. It is home life that distinguishes us from the foreigner, but he did not believe in a damp home. "'This is news. I never heard till this minute that Oniton was damp.' "'My dear girl!' he flung out his hand. "'Have you eyes? Have you a skin? How could it be anything but damp in such a situation?

Starting point is 09:15:06 In the first place the Grange is on clay, and built where the castle moat must have been. Then there's that detestable little river, steaming all night like a kettle. Feel the cell of walls. Look up under the eaves. Ask Sir James or anyone. Those Shropshire valleys are notorious. The only possible place for a house in Shropshire is on a hill. But for my part I think the country is too far from London, and the scenery nothing special. Margaret could not resist saying, "'Why did you go there, then?' "'I—because—'

Starting point is 09:15:43 He drew his head back and grew rather angry. "'Why have we come to the Tyrol if it comes to that? One might go on asking such questions indefinitely.' One might, but he was only gaining time for a plausible answer. Out it came, and he believed it as soon as it was spoken. The truth is, I took Oniton on account of Evie. don't let this go any further certainly not i shouldn't like her to know that she nearly let me in for a very bad bargain no sooner did i sign the agreement than she got engaged poor little girl she was so keen on it all and wouldn't even wait to make proper inquiries about the shooting afraid it would get snapped up just like all of your sex well no harm's done she has had her country wedding and i've got rid of my house to some fellows who are starting a preparatory school

Starting point is 09:16:35 "'Where shall we live, then, Henry? I should enjoy living somewhere.' "'I have not yet decided. What about Norfolk?' Margaret was silent. Marriage had not saved her from the sense of flux. London was but a foretaste of this nomadic civilization which is altering human nature so profoundly, and throws upon personal relations a stress greater than they have ever borne before. Under cosmopolitanism, if it comes, we shall receive no help from the earth. Trees and meadows and mountains will only be a spectacle, and the binding force that they once exercised on character must be entrusted to love alone. May love be equal to the task. It is now what? continued Henry. Nearly October! Let us camp for the winter at Deucy Street, and look out for something in the spring. If possible, something perhaps. If possible, something

Starting point is 09:17:30 permanent. I can't be as young as I was, for these alterations don't suit me. But, my dear, which would you rather have? Alterations or rheumatism? I see your point, said Margaret, getting up. If Oniton is really damp, it is impossible, and must be inhabited by little boys. Only in the spring, let us look before we leap. I will take warning by Evie, and not hurry you. Remember that you have a free hand this time. These endless moves must be bad for the furniture, and are certainly expensive. What a practical little woman it is? What's it been reading?

Starting point is 09:18:09 Theo—theo—theo—how much? Theosophy. So Ducy Street was her first fate—a pleasant enough fate. The house, being only a little larger than Wickham Place, trained her for the immense establishment that was promised in the spring. They were frequently away, but at home life ran fairly regularly. In the morning Henry went to the business, and his sandwich, a relic this of some prehistoric craving, was always cut by her own hand. He did not rely upon the sandwich for lunch, but liked

Starting point is 09:18:41 to have it by him in case he grew hungry at eleven. When he had gone, there was the house to look after, and the servants to humanize, and several kettles of Helens to keep on the boil. Her conscience pricked her a little about the basts. She was not sorry to have lost sight of them. No doubt Leonard was worth helping, but being Henry's wife, she preferred to help someone else. As for theatres and discussion societies, they attracted her less and less. She began to miss new movements, and to spend her spare time rereading or thinking, rather to the concern of her Chelsea friends. They attributed the change to her marriage, and perhaps some deep instinct did warn her not to travel further from her husband than was inevitable. Yet the

Starting point is 09:19:24 The main cause lay deeper still. She had outgrown stimulants, and was passing from words to things. It was doubtless a pity not to keep up with Vedicind or John, but some closing of the gates is inevitable after thirty, if the mind itself is to become a creative power. End of Chapter 31. Chapter 32 of Howard's End. This is a Libervox recording. All Libervox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clett Howard's End by E. M. Forster

Starting point is 09:20:12 Chapter 32 She was looking at plans one day in the following spring. They had finally decided to go down into Sussex and build, when Mrs. Charles Wilcox was announced. Have you heard the news? Dolly cried as soon as she entered the room. Charles is so ang! I mean he is sure you know about it, or rather that you don't know.

Starting point is 09:20:35 why dolly said margaret placidly kissing her here's a surprise how are the boys and the baby boys and the baby were well and in describing a great row that there had been at hilton tennis club dolly forgot her news the wrong people had tried to get in the rector as representing the older inhabitants had said charles had said the tax collector had said charles had regretted not saying and she closed the description with but lucky you with four courts of your own at midhurst it will be very jolly replied margaret are those the plans does it matter be seeing them of course not charles has never seen the plans they have only just arrived here is the ground floor no that's rather difficult try the elevation we are to have a good many gables and a picturesque sky-line what makes it smell so funny said daly after a moment's inspection she was incapable of understanding plans or maps i suppose the paper and which way up is it just the ordinary way up that's the sky-line and the part that smells strongest is the sky well ask me another margaret oh what was i going to say how's helen quite well is she never coming back to england every one thinks it's awfully odd she doesn't so it is said margaret trying to conceal her vexation she was getting rather sore on this point helen is odd awfully she has now been away eight months but hasn't she any address A post-restant somewhere in Bavaria is her address.

Starting point is 09:22:23 Do write her a line. I will look it up for you. No, don't bother. That's eight months she's been away, surely. Exactly. She left just after Evie's wedding. It would be eight months. Just when baby was born then?

Starting point is 09:22:39 Just so. Dally sighed and stared enviously round the drawing-room. She was beginning to lose her brightness and good looks. The Charleses were not well off, for Mr. Wilcox, having brought up his children with expensive tastes, believed in letting them shift for themselves. After all, he had not treated them generously. Yet another baby was expected, she told Margaret, and they would have to give up the motor. Margaret sympathized, but in a formal fashion, and Dolly little imagined that the stepmother was urging Mr. Wilcox to make them a more

Starting point is 09:23:12 liberal allowance. She sighed again, and at last the particular grievance was remembered. "'Oh, yes,' she cried. "'That is it. Miss Avery has been unpacking your packing cases.' "'Why has she done that? How unnecessary.' "'Ask another. I suppose you ordered her to.' I gave no such orders. Perhaps she was airing the things. She did undertake to light and occasional fire. "'It was far more than an air,' said Daly solemnly. "'The floor's sounds covered with books.

Starting point is 09:23:47 "'Charles sent me to know what is to be done, "'for he feels certain you don't know.' "'Books,' cried Margaret, moved by the holy word. "'Dolly, are you serious? Has she been touching our books?' "'Hasn't she, though? What used to be the halls full of them?' Charles thought for certain you knew of it. "'I am very much obliged to you, Dolly. "'What can have come over, Miss Avery?

Starting point is 09:24:12 "'I must go down about it at once. Some of the books are my brothers and quite valuable. She had no right to open any of the cases. I say she's Dottie. She was the one that never got married, you know. Oh, I say, perhaps she thinks your books are wedding presents to herself. Old maids are taken that way sometimes. Miss Avery hates us all like poison ever since her frightful dust-up with Evie.

Starting point is 09:24:37 I hadn't heard of that, said Margaret. A visit from Daly had its compensations. Didn't you know she gave her? Evey a present last August, and Evie returned it, and then—oh, goloshes! You never read such a letter as Miss Avery wrote. But it was wrong of Evie to return it. It wasn't like her to do such a heartless thing. But the present was so expensive! Why does that make any difference, Dolly? Still, when it costs over five pounds—I didn't see it, but it was a lovely enamel pendant from a Bond Street shop. You can't very well accept that kind of thing.

Starting point is 09:25:14 from a farmwoman. Now can you?' You accepted a present from Miss Avery when you were married. Oh, mine was old earthen-were stuff, not worth a half-penny. Evie's was quite different. You'd have to ask anyone to the wedding and gave you a pendant like that. Uncle Percy and Albert and father and Charles all said it was quite impossible, and when four men agree, what does a girl to do? Evie didn't want to upset the old thing, so thought a sort of joking that are best, and returned to the pendant straight to the shop to save Miss Avery trouble."

Starting point is 09:25:47 But Miss Avery said, Daly's eyes grew round. It was a perfectly awful letter. Charles said it was the letter of a madman. In the end she had the pendant back again from the shop, and threw it into the duck pond. Did she give any reasons? We think she meant to be invited to Onerton, and so climb into society. She's rather old for that, said Margaret pensively.

Starting point is 09:26:13 May she not have given the present to Evie in remembrance of her mother?' "'That's a notion. Give everyone there due, eh?' "'Well, I suppose I ought to be toddling.' "'Come along, Mr. Muff! You want a new coat, but I don't know he'll give it to you, I'm sure.' And addressing her apparel with mournful humour, Dolly moved from the room. Margaret followed her to ask whether Henry knew about Miss Avery's rudeness. "'Oh, yes!' "'I wonder, then, why he let me ask.

Starting point is 09:26:43 to look off to the house." "'But she's only a farm-woman,' said Dolly, and her explanation proved correct. Henry only censured the lower classes when it suited him. He bore with Miss Avery, as with Crane, because he could get good value out of them. "'I have patience with a man who knows his job,' he would say, really having patience with the job and not the man. Paradoxical as it may sound, he had something of the artist about him. He would pass over an insult to his daughter, sooner than lose a good charwoman for his wife. Margaret judged it better to settle the little trouble herself. Parties were evidently ruffled.

Starting point is 09:27:22 With Henry's permission, she wrote a pleasant note to Miss Avery, asking her to leave the cases untouched. Then, at the first convenient opportunity, she went down herself, intending to repack her belongings and store them properly in the local warehouse. The plan had been amateurish, and a failure. Tibby promised to accompany her, but at the last moment begged to be excused. So, for the second time in her life, she entered the house alone. End of Chapter 32. Chapter 33 of Howard's End. This is a Libervox recording.

Starting point is 09:28:04 All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit Librevox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clet. Howard's End. by e m forster chapter thirty three the day of her visit was exquisite and the last of unclouded happiness that she was to have for many months her anxiety about helen's extraordinary absence was still dormant and as for a possible brush with miss avery that only gave zest to the expedition she had also eluded dolly's invitation to luncheon walking straight up from the station she crossed the village green and entered the long chestnut avenue that connects it with the church The church itself stood in the village once, but it there attracted so many worshippers that the devil, in a pet, snatched it from its foundations, and poised it on an inconvenient knoll three-quarters of a mile away. If this story is true, the Chestnut Avenue must have been planted by the angels. No more tempting approach could be imagined for the lukewarm Christian, and if he still finds the walk too long, the devil is defeated all the same, science having built holy Trinity, a chapel of ease, near the world.

Starting point is 09:29:19 the Charles's, and roofed it with tin. Up the avenue Margaret strolled slowly, stopping to watch the sky that gleamed through the upper branches of the chestnuts, or to finger the little horseshoes on the lower branches. Why has not England a great mythology? Our folklore has never advanced beyond daintiness, and the greater melodies about our countryside have all issued through the pipes of Greece. Deep and true as the native imagination can be, it seems to have failed here. It has stopped with the witches and the fairies. It cannot vivify one fraction of a summer field, or give names to half a dozen stars. England still waits for the supreme moment of her literature, for the great poet who shall voice her, or better still, for the thousand little poets whose

Starting point is 09:30:05 voices shall pass into our common talk. At the church the scenery changed. The Chestnut Avenue opened into a road, smooth but narrow, which led into the untouched country. She followed it for over a mile. Its little hesitations pleased her. Having no urgent destiny, it strolled downhill or up as it wished, taking no trouble about the gradients, or about the view, which nevertheless expanded. The great estates that throttle the south of Hertfordshire were less obtrusive here, and the appearance of the land was neither aristocratic nor suburban. To define it was difficult. But Margaret knew what it was not, It was not snobbish. Though its contours were slight, there was a touch of freedom in their sweep to which

Starting point is 09:30:50 Surrey will never attain, and the distant brow of the Chilterns towered like a mountain. Left to itself, was Margaret's opinion, this county would vote liberal. The comradeship, not passionate, that is our highest gift as a nation, was promised by it, as by the low brick farm where she called for the key. But the inside of the farm was disappointed. a most finished young person received her yes mrs wilcox no mrs wilcox oh yes mrs wilcox auntie received your letter quite duly auntie has gone up to your little place at the present moment shall i send the servant to direct you followed by of course auntie does not generally look after your place she only does it to oblige her neighbour as something exceptional it gives her something to do she spends quite a lot of her time there. My husband says to me sometimes,

Starting point is 09:31:46 Where's auntie? I say, need you ask, she's at Howard's End. Yes, Mrs. Wilcox. Mrs. Wilcox, could I prevail upon you to accept a piece of cake? Not if I cut it for you. Margaret refused the cake, but unfortunately this acquired her gentility in the eyes of Miss Avery's niece. I cannot let you go on alone. Now don't, you really mustn't. I will direct to myself if it comes to that. I must get my hat. Now, roguishly, Mrs. Wilcox, don't you move while I'm gone?' stunned Margaret did not move from the best parlour, over which the touch of Art Nouveau had fallen, but the other rooms looked in keeping, though they conveyed the peculiar sadness of a rural interior. Here had lived an elder race,

Starting point is 09:32:35 to which we look back with disquietude. The country which we visited at weekends was really a home to it, and the graver sides of life, the deaths, the partings, the yearnings for love, have the deepest expression in the heart of the fields. All was not sadness. The sun was shining without. The thrush sang his two syllables on the budding gulder rose. Some children were playing uproariously in heaps of golden straw. It was the presence of sadness at all that surprised Margaret, and ended by giving her a feeling of completeness. In these English farms, if anywhere, one might see life steadily and see it whole group in one vision its transitoryness and its eternal youth connect connect without bitterness until all men are brothers but her thoughts were interrupted by the return of miss averie's niece and were so tranquilizing that she suffered the interruption gladly it was quicker to go out by the back door and after due explanations they went out by it the niece was now mortified by unnumerable chickens who rushed up to her

Starting point is 09:33:40 to her feet for food, and by a shameless and maternal sow. She did not know what animals were coming to. But her gentility withered at the touch of the sweet air. The wind was rising, scattering the straw and ruffling the tails of the ducks as they floated in families over Evie's pendant. One of those delicious gales of spring, in which leaves stiffened buds seemed to rustle, swept over the land, and then fell silent. georgia sang the thrush kuku came furtively from the cliff of pine-trees georgia pretty georgia and the other birds joined in with nonsense the hedge was a half-painted picture which would be finished in a few days selandines grew on its banks lords and ladies and primroses in the defended hollows the wild rose-bushes still bearing their withered hips showed also the promise of blossom spring had come clad in no classical garb yet fairer than all springs fairer even than she who walks through the myrtles of tuscany with the graces before her and the zephyr behind

Starting point is 09:34:46 The two women walked up the lane full of outward civility. But Margaret was thinking how difficult it was to be earnest about furniture on such a day, and the niece was thinking about hats. Thus engaged, they reached Howard's end. Petulant cries of, Auntie! Severed the air. There was no reply, and the front door was locked.

Starting point is 09:35:08 Are you sure that Miss Avery is up here? asked Margaret. Oh, yes, Mrs. Wilcox, quite sure. She is here daily. margaret tried to look in through the dining-room window but the curtain inside was drawn tightly so with the drawing-room and the hall the appearance of these curtains was familiar yet she did not remember them being there on her other visit her impression was that mr bryce had taken everything away they tried the back here again they received no answer and could see nothing the kitchen window was fitted with the blind while the pantry and scullery had pieces of wood propped up against them which looked ominously like the lids of packing-cases Margaret thought of her books, and she lifted up her voice also. At the first cry she succeeded. "'Well, well,' replied someone inside the house.

Starting point is 09:35:56 "'If it isn't Mrs. Wilcox, come at last.' "'Have you got the key, auntie?' "'Madge, go away,' said Miss Avery, still invisible. "'Auntie, it's Mrs. Wilcox!' Margaret supported her. "'Your niece and I have come together.' "'Madge, go away. This is no moment of your hat.' The poor woman went red.

Starting point is 09:36:18 "'Auntie gets more eccentric lately,' she said nervously. "'Miss Avery!' called Margaret. "'I have come about the furniture. Could you kindly let me in?' "'Yes, Mrs. Wilcox,' said the voice. "'Of course.' But after that came silence. They called again without response. They walked round the house disconsolately.

Starting point is 09:36:40 "'I hope Miss Avery is not ill,' hazarded Margaret. "'Well, if you'll excuse me, said Madge. Perhaps I ought to be leaving you now. The servants need seeing to at the farm. Auntie is so odd at times. Gathering up her elegancies, she retired defeated, and, as if her departure had loosed a spring,

Starting point is 09:37:01 the front door opened at once. Miss Avery said, Well, come right in, Mrs. Wilcox, quite pleasantly and calmly. Thank you so much, began Margaret, but broke off at the sight of an umbrella stand. It was her own. "'Come right into the hole first,' said Miss Avery.

Starting point is 09:37:19 She drew the curtain, and Margaret uttered a cry of despair, for an appalling thing had happened. The hall was fitted up with the contents of the library from Wickham Place. The carpet had been laid, the big work-table drawn up near the window, the book-cases filled the wall opposite the fireplace, and her father's sword—this is what bewildered her particularly, had been drawn from its scabbard and hung naked amongst the sober volumes. Miss Avery must have worked for days. "'I'm afraid this isn't what we meant,' she began. Mr. Wilcox and I never intended the cases to be touched.

Starting point is 09:37:54 For instance, these books are my brothers. We are storing them for him and for my sister, who was abroad. When you kindly undertook to look after things, we never expected you to do so much.' "'The house has been empty long enough,' said the old woman. Margaret refused to argue. "'I dare say we didn't explain,' she said. said civilly. It has been a mistake, and very likely our mistake. Mrs. Wilcox, it has been mistake upon mistake for fifty years. The house is Mrs. Wilcox is, and she would not desire

Starting point is 09:38:25 it to stand empty any longer. To help the poor decaying brain, Margaret said, yes, Mrs. Wilcox's house, the mother of Mr. Charles. Mistake upon mistake, said Miss Avery, mistake upon mistake. Well, I don't know, said Margaret, sitting down in one of her own chairs. I really don't know what's to be done. She could not help laughing. The other said, Yes, it should be a merry house enough. I don't know.

Starting point is 09:38:55 I dare say. Well, thank you very much, Miss Avery. Yes, that's all right. Delightful. There is still the parlour. She went through the door opposite and drew a curtain. Light flooded the drawing-room under the drawing-room furniture. from Wickham Place.

Starting point is 09:39:11 And the dining-room. More curtains were drawn. More windows were flung open to the spring. Then through here! Miss Avery continued passing and repassing through the hall. Her voice was lost, but Margaret heard her pulling up the kitchen blind. I've not finished here yet, she announced, returning. There's still a deal to do.

Starting point is 09:39:30 The farm lads will carry your great wardrobes upstairs, for there is no need to go into expense at Hilton. It is all a mistake, repeated Margaret. feeling that she must put her foot down. A misunderstanding. Mr. Wilcox and I are not going to live at Howard's end. Oh, indeed. On account of his hay fever?

Starting point is 09:39:51 We have settled to build a new home for ourselves in Sussex, and part of this furniture, my part, will go down there presently. She looked at Miss Avery intently, trying to understand the kink in her brain. Here was no wandering old woman. Her wrinkles were shrewd and humorous. She looked capable of scathing wit, and also of high but unastentatious nobility. You think that you won't come back to live here, Mrs. Wilcox, but you will.

Starting point is 09:40:19 That remains to be seen, said Margaret, smiling. We have no intention of doing so for the present. We happen to need a much larger house. Circumstances oblige us to give big parties. Of course, some day. One never knows, does one? Miss Avery retorted, "'Someday!' "'Don't talk about some. Someday. You are living here now. Am I? You are living here, and have been for the last ten minutes, if you ask me.

Starting point is 09:40:47 It was a senseless remark, but with a queer feeling of disloyalty Margaret rose from her chair, she felt that Henry had been obscurely censured. They went into the dining-room, where the sunlight poured in upon her mother's chiffonier, and upstairs where many an old guard peeped from a new niche. The furniture fitted extraordinarily well. In the central room over the hall, the room that Helen had slept in four years ago, Miss Avery had placed at Tibby's old bassinet. The nursery, she said. Margaret turned away without speaking. At last everything was seen. The kitchen and lobby were still stacked with furniture and straw,

Starting point is 09:41:26 but as far as she could make out, nothing had been broken or scratched. A pathetic display of ingenuity. Then they took a friendly stroll in the garden. It had gone wild since her last visit. The gravel sweep was weedy, and grass had sprung up at the very jaws of the garage, and Evie's rockery was only bumps. Perhaps Evie was responsible for Miss Avery's oddness, but Margaret suspected that the cause lay deeper, and that the girl's silly letter had but loosed the irritation of years. "'It's a beautiful meadow,' she remarked. It was one of those open-air drawing-rooms that had been formed hundreds of years ago, out of the smaller fields, so the boundary-head zigzagged down the hill at right angles, and at the bottom there was a little green annex,

Starting point is 09:42:11 a sort of powder closet for the cows. "'Yes, the maidies well enough,' said Miss Avery, "'for those that is, who don't suffer from sneezing.' And she cackled maliciously. "'I've seen Charlie Wilcox go out to my lads in haytime. Oh, they ought to do this. They mustn't do that. He'd learn them to be lads.'

Starting point is 09:42:30 And just then the tickling took him—he has it from his father, with other things. There's not one Wilcox that can stand up against a field in June. I laughed fit to burst while he was courting Ruth. "'My brother gets hay-fever, too,' said Margaret. "'This house lies too much on the land for them. Naturally they were glad enough to slip in at first. But Wilcoxes are better than nothing, as I see you found.' Margaret laughed.

Starting point is 09:42:56 "'They keep a place going, don't they? Yes, it is just that.' "'They keep England going, it is my opinion.' But Miss Avery upset her by replying. "'Aye, they breed like rabbits. Well, well, it's a funny world.' "'But he who made it knows what he wants in it, I suppose. If Mrs. Charlie is expecting her fourth it isn't for us to repine.'

Starting point is 09:43:17 "'They breed, and they also work,' said Margaret, conscious of some invitation to disloyalty, which was echoed by the very breeze and by the songs of the birds. It certainly is a funny world, but so long as men like my husband and his sons govern it, I think it'll never be a bad one. Never really bad.' "'No, better than nothing,' said Miss Avery, and turned to the witchelm. On their way back to the farm she spoke of her old friend much more clearly than before. In the house Margaret had wondered whether she quite distinguished the first wife from the second. Now she said, I never saw much of Ruth after her grandmother died, but we stayed civil.

Starting point is 09:43:57 It was a very civil family. Old Mrs. Howard never spoke against anybody. nor let anyone be turned away without food. Then it was never, trespass as will be prosecuted, in their land, but would people please not come in? Mrs. Howard was never created to run a farm. Had they no men to help them, Margaret asked. Miss Avery replied, things went on until there were no men. Until Mr. Wilcox came along, corrected Margaret, anxious that her husband should receive his dues. I suppose so. But Ruth should have married her.

Starting point is 09:44:31 "'No disrespect to you to say this, for I take it you were intended to get Wilcox anyway, whether she got him first or no.' "'Whom should she have married?' "'A soldier,' exclaimed the old woman. "'Some real soldier.' Margaret was silent. It was a criticism of Henry's character far more trenchant than any of her own. She felt dissatisfied. "'But that's all over,' she went on.

Starting point is 09:44:56 "'A better time is coming now, though you've kept me long enough waiting. In a couple of weeks I'll see your light shining through the hedge of an evening. Have you ordered in coals?' "'We are not coming,' said Margaret firmly. She respected Miss Avery too much to humour her. No, not coming, never coming. It has all been a mistake. The furniture must be repacked at once, and I am very sorry, but I am making other arrangements,

Starting point is 09:45:22 and must ask you to give me the keys.' "'Certainly, Mrs. Wilcox,' said Miss Avery, and resigned her duties with a smile. Relieved at this conclusion, and having sent her compliments to Madge, Margaret walked back to the station. She had intended to go to the furniture warehouse and give directions for removal, but the muddle had turned out more extensive than she expected, so she decided to consult Henry. It was as well that she did this. He was strongly against employing the local man whom he had previously recommended,

Starting point is 09:45:53 and advised her to store in London after all. but before this could be done an unexpected trouble fell upon her. End of Chapter 33 Chapter 34 of Howard's End This is a Libervox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org.

Starting point is 09:46:25 Recording by Elizabeth Clet Howard's End by E.M. Forster Chapter 34 It was not unexamexam. expected entirely. Aunt Julie's health had been bad all the winter. She had had a long series of colds and coughs, and had been too busy to get rid of them. She had scarcely promised her niece, to really take my tie some chest in hand, when she caught a chill and developed acute pneumonia. Margaret and Tibby went down to Swanage. Helen was telegraphed for, and that spring party that

Starting point is 09:47:02 after all gathered in that hospitable house had all the pathos of fair memories. On a perfect day, when the sky seemed blue porcelain, and the waves of the discreet little bay beat gentlest of tattoos upon the sand, Margaret hurried up through the rhododendrons, confronted again by the senselessness of death. One death may explain itself, but it throws no light upon another. The groping inquiry must begin anew. Preachers or scientists may generalize, but we know that no generality is possible about those whom we love. Not one heaven awaits them, not even one oblivion. Aunt Julie, incapable of tragedy, slipped out of life with odd little laughs and apologies for having stopped in it so long. She was very weak. She could not

Starting point is 09:47:51 rise to the occasion, or realize the great mystery which all agree must await her. It only seemed to her that she was quite done up. More done up. than ever before, that she saw and heard and felt less every moment, and that, unless something changed, she would soon feel nothing. Her spare strength, she devoted to plans, could not Margaret take some steamer expeditions, were mackerel cooked as Tibby liked them? She worried herself about Helen's absence, and also that she could be the cause of Helen's return. The nurses seemed to think such interests quite natural, and perhaps hers was an average approach to the great gate.

Starting point is 09:48:34 But Margaret saw death stripped of any false romance. Whatever the idea of death may contain, the process can be trivial and hideous. Important, Margaret, dear, take the lullworth when Helen comes. Helen won't be able to stop, Aunt Julie. She has telegraphed that she can only get away just to see you. She must go back to Germany as soon as you are well. How very old of Helen! Mr. Wilcox!

Starting point is 09:49:05 Yes, dear. Can he spare you? Henry wished her to come, and had been very kind. Yet again Margaret said so. Mrs. Munt did not die. Quite outside her will, a more dignified power took hold of her, and checked her on the downward slope. She returned, without emotion, as fidgety as ever.

Starting point is 09:49:27 On the fourth day she was out of danger. Margaret, important, it went on. I should like you to have some companion to take walks with. Do try, Miss Condor. I have been a little walk with Miss Condor. But she is not really interesting. If only you had Helen. I have Tibby, Aunt Julie.

Starting point is 09:49:51 No, but he has to do his Chinese. Some real companion is what you need. Really, hell. Helen is odd." "'Helen is odd, very,' agreed Margaret. "'Not content with going abroad. Why does she want to go back there at once?' No doubt she will change her mind when she sees us. She has not the least balance. That was the stark criticism about Helen, but Margaret's voice trembled as she made it.

Starting point is 09:50:21 By now she was deeply pained at her sister's behaviour. It may be unbalanced to fly out of England, but to stop away eight months argues that the heart is awry as well as the head. A sick-bed could recall Helen, but she was deaf to more human calls. After a glimpse at her aunt, she would retire into her nebulous life behind some post-restraunt. She scarcely existed. Her letters had become dull and infrequent. She had no wants and no curiosity. And it was all put down to poor Henry's account. Henry, long pardoned by his wife, was still too infamous to be greeted by his sister-in-law. It was morbid. And, to her alarm, Margaret fancied that she could trace the growth of morbidity back in Helen's life for nearly four years. The flight from Oniton, the unbalanced patronage of the

Starting point is 09:51:16 basts, the explosion of grief up on the downs, all connected with Paul, an insignificant boy, whose lips had kissed hers for a fraction of time. Margaret and Mrs. Wilcox had feared that they might kiss again. Foolishly. The real danger was reaction. Reaction against the Wilcoxes had eaten into her life until she was scarcely sane. At twenty-five she had an E-day fix. What hope was there for her as an old woman? The more Margaret thought about it, the more alarmed she became. For many months she had put the subject away, but it was too much. big to be slighted now. There was almost a taint of madness. Were all Helen's actions to be governed by a tiny mishap, such as may happen to any young man or woman? Can human nature be constructed

Starting point is 09:52:07 on lines so insignificant? The blundering little encounter at Howard's end was vital. It propagated itself where graver intercourse lay barren. It was stronger than sisterly intimacy, stronger than reason or books. In one of her moods Helen had confessed. that she still enjoyed it in a certain sense. Paul had faded, but the magic of his caress endured. And where there is enjoyment of the past, there may also be reaction, propagation at both ends. Well, it is odd and sad that our minds should be such seed-beds, and we without power to choose the seed. But man is an odd, sad creature as yet, intent on pilfering the earth, and heedless of the growths within himself. He cannot be bored about psychology. He leaves it to the specialist,

Starting point is 09:52:59 which is as if he should leave his dinner to be eaten by a steam engine. He cannot be bothered to digest his own soul. Margaret and Helen have been more patient, and it is suggested that Margaret has succeeded, so far as success as yet possible. She does understand herself. She has some rudimentary control over her own growth. Whether Helen has succeeded, one cannot say. The day that Mrs. Munt rallied, Helen's letter arrived. She had posted it at Munich, and would be in London herself on the morrow. It was a disquieting letter, though the opening was affectionate and sane. Dearst Meg, give Helen's love to Aunt Julie. Tell her that I love and have loved ever since I can remember. I shall be in London Thursday.

Starting point is 09:53:50 My address will be care of the bankers. I have not yet settled on a hotel, so write or wire to me there, and give me detailed news. If Aunt Julie is much better, or if, for a terrible reason, it would be no good my coming down to Swanage. You must not think it odd if I do not come. I have all sorts of plans in my head. I am living abroad at present, and wanted to get back as quickly as possible. Will you please tell me where our furniture is? I should like to take out one or two books.

Starting point is 09:54:21 The rest are for you. Forgive me, dearest Meg. This must read like rather a tiresome letter, but all letters are from your loving, Helen. It was a tiresome letter, for it tempted Margaret to tell a lie. If she wrote that Aunt Julie was still in danger, her sister would come.

Starting point is 09:54:41 Unhealthiness is contagious. We cannot be in charge. contact with those who are in a morbid state without ourselves deteriorating. To act for the best might do Helen good, but would do herself harm. And, at the risk of disaster, she kept her colours flying a little longer. She replied that their aunt was much better, and awaited developments. Tibby approved of her reply. Mellowing rapidly, he was a pleasanter companion than before. Oxford had done much for him. He had lost his peevishness. and could hide his indifference to people and his interest in food.

Starting point is 09:55:19 But he had not grown more human. The years between 18 and 22, so magical for most, were leading him gently from boyhood to middle age. He had never known young manliness, that quality which warms the heart till death, and gives Mr. Wilcox an imperishable charm. He was frigid, through no fault of his own, and without cruelty. He thought Helen wrong and Margaret Wright, but the family trouble was for him what a scene

Starting point is 09:55:49 behind footlights is for most people. He had only one suggestion to make, and that was characteristic. Why don't you tell Mr. Wilcox? About Helen? Perhaps he has come across that sort of thing. He would do all he could, but— Oh, you know best. But he is practical.

Starting point is 09:56:10 It was the student's belief in experts. Margaret demurred for one or two reasons. Presently Helen's answer came. She sent a telegram requesting the address of the furniture, as she would now return at once. Margaret replied, "'Certainly not. Meet me at the bankers at full.' She and Tibby went up to London. Helen was not at the bankers, and they were refused her address. Helen had passed into chaos. Margaret put her arm round her brother. He was all that she had left. and never had he seemed more unsubstantial. Tibby, love, what next?

Starting point is 09:56:50 He replied, It is extraordinary. Dear, your judgments often clearer than mine. Have you any notion what's at the back? None. Unless it's something mental. Oh, that, said Margaret, quite impossible.

Starting point is 09:57:08 But the suggestion had been uttered, and in a few minutes she took it up herself, Nothing else explained, and London agreed with Tibby. The mask fell off the city, and she saw it for what it really is, a caricature of infinity. The familiar barriers, the streets along which she moved, the houses between which she had made her little journeys for so many years, became negligible suddenly. Helen seemed one with grimy trees, and the traffic, and the slowly flowing slabs of mud. She had accomplished a hideous act of renunciation and returned to the one. Margaret's own faith held firm.

Starting point is 09:57:49 She knew the human soul will be merged, if it be merged at all, with the stars and the sea. Yet she felt that her sister had been going amiss for many years. It was symbolic the catastrophe should come now, on a London afternoon, while rain fell slowly. Henry was the only hope. Henry was definite. He might know of some paths in the chaos that were hidden from them, and she determined to take Tibby's advice and lay the whole matter in his hands. They must call at his office. He could not well make it worse. She went for a few moments into St. Paul's, whose dome stands out of the

Starting point is 09:58:26 welter so bravely, as if preaching the gospel of form. But within, St. Paul's is as its surroundings, echoes and whispers, inaudible songs, invisible mosaics, wet footmarks crossing and recrossing the floor. See Monumentum Requiris, circumspeche. It points us back to London. There was no hope of Helen here. Henry was unsatisfactory at first. That she had expected. He was overjoyed to see her back from Swanage, and slow to admit the growth of a new trouble. When they told him of their search, he only chaffed Tibby and the Schlegel's generally, and declared that it was just like Helen to lead her relatives a dance. "'That is what we all say,' replied Margaret.

Starting point is 09:59:14 "'But why should it be just like Helen? Why should she be allowed to be so queer, and to grow queerer?' "'Don't ask me. I'm a plain man of business. I live and let live. My advice to you both is, don't worry. "'Margaret, you've got black marks again under your eyes. You know that's strictly forbidden. "'First your aunt, then your sister. No, we aren't going to have it. Are we, Tibbled?'

Starting point is 09:59:41 He rang the bell. "'I'll give you some tea, and then you go straight to Ducy Street. I can't have my girl looking as old as her husband.' "'All the same, you have not quite seen our point,' said Tibby. Mr. Wilcox, who was in good spirits, retorted, "'I don't suppose I have a shell.' He leant back, laughing at the gifted but ridiculous family, while the fire flickered over the map of Africa. Margaret motioned to her brother to go on. Rather diffident, he obeyed her. Margaret's point is this, he said. All sister may be mad. Charles, who was working in the inner room, looked round.

Starting point is 10:00:22 Come in, Charles, said Margaret kindly. Could you help us at all? We are again in trouble. I'm afraid I cannot. What are the facts? We are all mad, more or less, you know, in these days. The facts are as follows, replied Tibby, who had at times a pedantic lucidity. The facts are that she has been in England for three days, and will not see us. She has forbidden the bankers to give us her address.

Starting point is 10:00:50 She refuses to answer questions. Margaret finds her letters colourless. There are other facts, but these are the most striking. She has never behaved like this before, then," asked Henry. "'Of course not,' said his wife with a frown. "'Well, my dear, how am I to know?' A senseless spasm of annoyance came over her. "'You know quite well that Helen never sins against affection,' she said.

Starting point is 10:01:17 "'You must have noticed that much in her, surely.' "'Oh, yes, she and I have always hit it off together.' "'No, Henry. Can't you see—' I don't mean that. She recovered herself, but not before Charles had observed her. Stupid and attentive, he was watching the scene. I was meaning that when she was eccentric in the past,

Starting point is 10:01:41 one could trace it back to the heart in the long run. She behaved oddly because she cared for someone, or wanted to help them. There's no possible excuse for her now. She is grieving us deeply, and that is why I am sure that she is not well. Mad is too terrible a word, but she is not well. I shall never believe it. I shouldn't discuss my sister with you if I thought she was well. Trouble you about her, I mean.

Starting point is 10:02:10 Henry began to grow serious. Ill health was to him something perfectly definite. Generally well himself, he could not realize that we sink to it by slow gradations. The sick had no rights. They were outside the pale. One could lie to them remorselessly. When his first wife was seized, he had promised to take her down to Hartfordshire, but meanwhile arranged with a nursing home instead. Helen, too, was ill. And the plan that he sketched

Starting point is 10:02:40 out for her capture, clever and well-meaning as it was, drew its ethics from the wolf-pack. "'You want to get hold of her?' he said. "'That's the problem, isn't it? She has got to see a doctor.' "'For all I know, she has seen one already.' "'Yes, yes, don't interrupt. He rose to his feet and thought intently. The genial, tentative host, disappeared, and they saw instead the man who had carved money out of Greece and Africa, and bought forests from the natives for a few bottles of gin. "'I've got it,' he said at last.

Starting point is 10:03:13 "'It's perfectly easy. Leave it to me. We'll send her down to Howard's End.' "'How will you do that?' "'After her books. Tell her that she must unpack them herself. Then you can meet her there.' But Henry, that's just what she won't let me do. It's part of her. Whatever it is, never to see me.

Starting point is 10:03:35 Of course you won't tell her you're going. When she is there, looking at the cases, you'll just stroll in. If nothing is wrong with her, so much the better. But there'll be the moat around the corner, and we can run her up to a specialist in no time. Margaret shook her head. It's quite impossible. Why? "'It doesn't seem impossible to me,' said Tibby. "'It is surely a very tippy plan.'

Starting point is 10:04:01 "'It is impossible because,' she looked at her husband sadly. "'It's not the particular language that Helen and I talk if you see my meaning. It would do splendidly for other people, whom I don't blame.' "'But Helen doesn't talk,' said Tibby. "'That's our whole difficulty. She won't talk your particular language, and on that account you think she's ill.' "'No, Henry. It's sweet of you, but I couldn't.' "'I see,' he said, "'you have scruples.'

Starting point is 10:04:32 "'I suppose so.' "'And sooner than go against them you would have your sister suffer. "'You could have got her down to swanage by a word, but you had scruples. "'And scruples are all very well. "'I am as scrupulous as any man alive, I hope. "'But when it is a case like this, when there is a question of madness, "'I deny its madness.' You said just now.

Starting point is 10:04:56 It's madness when I say it, but not when you say it. Henry shrugged his shoulders. Margaret, Margaret, he groaned. No education can teach a woman logic. Now, my dear, my time is valuable. Do you want me to help you or not? Not in that way. Answer my question.

Starting point is 10:05:15 Plain question, plain answer. Do— Chorrell surprised them by interrupting. Peter, we may as well keep how its end out of it. he said. Why, Charles? Charles could give no reason, but Margaret felt as if, over a tremendous distance, a salutation had passed between them.

Starting point is 10:05:36 The whole house is at sixes and sevens, he said crossly. We don't want any more mess. Who's we? asked his father. My boy, pray, who's we? I am sure I beg your pardon, said Charles. I appear always to be intruding. By now Margaret wished she had never mentioned her trouble to her husband.

Starting point is 10:06:01 Retreat was impossible. He was determined to push the matter to a satisfactory conclusion, and Helen faded as he talked. Her fair flying hair and eager eyes counted for nothing, for she was ill, without rights, and any of her friends might hunt her. Sick at heart, Margaret joined in the chase. She wrote her sister a lying letter,

Starting point is 10:06:23 her husband's dictation. She said the furniture was all at Howard's end, but could be seen on Monday next at 3 p.m. when a charwoman would be in attendance. It was a cold letter, and the more plausible for that. Helen would think she was offended. And on Monday next she and Henry went to lunch with Dolly, and then ambush themselves in the garden. After they had gone, Mr. Wilcox said to his son, "'I can't have the sort of behavior, my boy. Margaret's two-sue sweet nature to mind, but I mind for her." Charles made no answer. Is anything wrong with you, Charles, this afternoon?

Starting point is 10:07:02 No, Peter. But he may be taking on a bigger business than you reckon. How? Don't ask me. End of Chapter 34. Chapter 35 of Howard's End. This is a Librevox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain.

Starting point is 10:07:29 For more information, or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clett Howard's End by E. M. Forster Chapter 35 One speaks of the moods of spring, but the days that are her true children have only one mood. They are all full of the rising and dropping of winds

Starting point is 10:07:55 and the whistling of birds. New flowers may come out, the green embroidery of the hedges increase, but the same heaven broods overhead. soft, thick, and blue. The same figures, seen and unseen, are wandering by coppice and meadow. The morning that Margaret had spent with Miss Avery, and the afternoon she set out to entrap Helen, were the scales of a single balance. Time might never have moved, rain never have fallen, and man alone with his schemes and ailments was troubling nature until he saw her through a veil of tears.

Starting point is 10:08:29 She protested no more. Whether Henry was right or wrong, he was most kind, and she knew of no other standard by which to judge him. She must trust him absolutely. As soon as he had taken up a business, his obtuseness vanished. He profited by the slightest indications, and the capture of Helen promised to be staged as deftly as the marriage of Evie. They went down in the morning as arranged,

Starting point is 10:08:56 and he discovered that their victim was actually in Hilton. On his arrival he called at all the livery stables in the village, and had a few minutes serious conversation with the proprietors. What he said, Margaret did not know, perhaps not the truth, but news arrived after lunch that a lady had come by the London train, and had taken a fly to Howard's End. She was bound to drive, said Henry. There will be her books. I cannot make it out, said Margaret for the hundredth time.

Starting point is 10:09:25 Finish your coffee, dear. You must be off. yes margaret you know you must take plenty said dolly margaret tried but suddenly lifted her hand to her eyes dolly stole glances at her father-in-law which he did not answer in the silence the motor came round to the door "'You're not fit for it,' he said anxiously. "'Let me go alone. I know exactly what to do.' "'Oh, yes, I am fit,' said Margaret, uncovering her face. "'Only most frightfully worried. "'I cannot feel that Helen is really alive. "'Her letters and telegrams seem to have come from someone else.

Starting point is 10:10:04 "'Her voice isn't in them.' "'I don't believe your driver really saw her at the station. "'I wish I'd never mentioned it. "'I know that Charles has vexed. "'Yes, he is. She seized Dolly's hand and kissed it. There. Dolly will forgive me.

Starting point is 10:10:20 There. Now will be off. Henry had been looking at her closely. He did not like this breakdown. Don't you want to tie to yourself? He asked. Have I time? Yes, plenty.

Starting point is 10:10:35 She went to the lavatory by the front door, and as soon as the bolt slipped, Mr. Wilcox said quietly, Dolly, I'm going without her. Dolly's eyes lit up with vulgar excitement. She followed him on tiptoe out to the car. Tell her I thought it best. Yes, Mr. Wilcox, I see. Say anything you like.

Starting point is 10:10:57 All right. The car started well, and with ordinary luck would have got away. But Porgly Woggles, who was playing in the garden, chose this moment to sit down in the middle of the path. Crane, in trying to pass him, ran one wheel over a bed of wall-fell. flowers. Dolly screamed. Margaret, hearing the noise, rushed out hatless, and was in time to jump on the footboard. She said not a single word. He was only treating her as she had treated Helen, and her rage at his dishonesty only helped to indicate what Helen would feel against them. She thought, I deserve it. I am punished for lowering my colours. And she accepted his apologies

Starting point is 10:11:37 with a calmness that astonished him. I still consider you are not fit for it, he kept saying. perhaps i was not at lunch but the whole thing is spread clearly before me now i was meaning to act for the best just lend me your scarf will you this wind takes one's hair so certainly dear girl are you all right now look my hands have stopped trembling and have quite forgiven me then listen her cab should already have arrived at howard's end we're a little late but no matter our first move will be to send it down to wait at the farm as if possible one doesn't want a scene before servants a certain gentleman he pointed at crane's back won't drive in but will wait a little short of the front gate behind the laurels have you still the keys of the house yes well they aren't wanted do you remember how the house stands yes if we don't find you're in the porch we can stroll round into the garden our obfirm Here they stopped to pick up the doctor. I was just saying to my wife, Mansbridge, that our main object is not to frighten Mishlegel.

Starting point is 10:12:52 The house, as you know, is my property, so it should seem quite natural for us to be there. The trouble is evidently nervous. Wouldn't you say so, Margaret?" The doctor, a very young man, began to ask questions about Helen. Was she normal? Was there anything congenital or hereditary? had anything occurred that was likely to alienate her from her family. Nothing, answered Margaret, wondering what would have happened if she had added,

Starting point is 10:13:20 though she did resent my husband's immorality. She always was highly strong, pursued Henry, leaning back in the car as it shot past the church. A tendency to spiritualism and those things, though nothing serious. Musical, literary, artistic, but I should say normal, a very charming girl. Margaret's anger and terror increased every moment. How dare these men label her sister? What horrors lay ahead? What impertinences that shelter under the name of science!

Starting point is 10:13:53 The pack was turning on Helen, to deny her human rights, and it seemed to Margaret that all Schlagels were threatened with her. Were they normal? What a question to ask! And it is always those who know nothing about human nature, who are bored by psychology and shocked by physiology. who ask it. However piteous her sister's state, she knew that she must be on her side. They would be mad together if the world chose to consider them so. It was now five minutes past three. The car

Starting point is 10:14:24 slowed down by the farm, in the yard of which Miss Avery was standing. Henry asked her whether a cab had gone past. She nodded, and the next moment they caught sight of it at the end of the lane. The car ran silently like a beast of prey. So unsuspicious was Helen that she was sitting on the porch with her back to the road. She had come. Only her head and shoulders were visible. She sat framed in the vine, and one of her hands played with the buds. The wind ruffled her hair, the sun glorified it.

Starting point is 10:14:57 She was as she had always been. Margaret was seated next to the door. Before her husband could prevent her, she slipped out. She ran to the garden gate, which was shut, passed through it, and deliberately pushed it in his face. The noise alarmed Helen. Margaret saw her rise with an unfamiliar movement, and, rushing into the porch, learnt the simple explanation of all their fears. Her sister was with child. "'Is the truant all right?' called Henry. She had time to whisper, "'Oh, my darling!' The keys of the house were in her hand. She unlocked Howard's end,

Starting point is 10:15:35 and thrust Helen into it. "'Yes, all right!' she said. said, and stood with her back to the door. End of Chapter 35. Chapter 36 of Howard's End. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clet.

Starting point is 10:16:11 Howard's End by E. M. Forster. Chapter 36. Margaret, you look at you look at it. upset, said Henry. Mansbridge had followed. Crane was at the gate, and the flyman had stood up on the box. Margaret shook her head at them. She could not speak anymore. She remained clutching the keys, as if all their future depended on them. Henry was asking more questions. She shook her head again. His words had no sense. She heard him wonder why she had let Helen in. You might have given me a knock with the gate, was another of his remarks.

Starting point is 10:16:48 Presently she heard herself speaking. She, or someone for her, said, Go away. Henry came nearer. He repeated, Margaret, you look upset again. My dear, give me the keys. What are you doing with Helen? Oh, dearest, do go away, and I will manage at all.

Starting point is 10:17:08 Manage what? He stretched out his hand for the keys. She might have obeyed, if it had not been for the doctor. Stop that, at least. she said piteously. The doctor had turned back and was questioning the driver of Helen's cab. A new feeling came over her. She was fighting for women against men. She did not care about rights, but if men came into Howard's end, it should be over her body. Come, this is an old beginning, said her husband. The doctor came forward now, and whispered two

Starting point is 10:17:40 words to Mr. Wilcox. The scandal was out. Sincerely horrified, Henry stood gazing at the earth. I cannot help it," said Margaret. Do wait. It's not my fault. Please all four of you to go away now." Now the flyman was whispering to Crane. We are relying on you to help us, Mrs. Wilcox," said the young doctor. Could you go in and persuade your sister to come out?

Starting point is 10:18:07 "'On what grounds?' said Margaret, suddenly looking him straight in the eyes. Thinking it professional to prevaricate, he murmured something about a nervous breakdown. I beg your pardon, but it is nothing of the sort. You are not qualified to attend my sister, Mr. Mansbridge. If we require your services, we will let you know.' "'I can diagnose the case more bluntly, if you wish,' he retorted. "'You could, but you have not. You are therefore not qualified to attend my sister.'

Starting point is 10:18:39 "'Come, come, Margaret,' said Henry, never raising his eyes. "'This is a terrible business, an appalling business. It's doctor's orders. Open the door. Forgive me, but I will not. I don't agree. Margaret was silent. This business is as broad as it is long,

Starting point is 10:19:01 contributed the doctor. We had better all work together. You need us, Mrs. Wilcox, and we need you. Quite so, said Henry. I do not need you in the least, said Margaret. The two men looked at each other anxiously. no more does my sister who is still many weeks from her confinement margaret margaret well henry send your doctor away what possible use is he now mr wilcox ran his eye over the house he had a vague feeling that he must stand firm and support the doctor he himself might need support for there was trouble ahead it all turns on affection now said margaret affection don't you see

Starting point is 10:19:45 Resuming her usual methods, she wrote the word on the house with her finger. "'Surely, you see. I like Helen very much. You, not so much. Mr. Mansbridge doesn't know her. That's all. And affection, when reciprocated, gives rights. Put that down in your notebook, Mr. Mansbridge. It's a useful formula.' Henry told her to be calm. "'You don't know what you want yourselves,' said Margaret, folding her arms. For one sensible remark I will let you in, but you cannot make it. You would trouble my sister for no reason. I will not permit it.

Starting point is 10:20:23 I'll stand here all the day sooner. Mansbridge, said Henry in a low voice. Perhaps not now. The pack was breaking up. At a sign from his master, Crane also went back into the car. Now, Henry, you, she said gently. None of her bitterness had been directed at him. Go away now, dear.

Starting point is 10:20:46 I shall want your advice later, no doubt. Forgive me if I've been cross. But seriously, you must go. He was too stupid to leave her. Now it was Mr. Mansbridge who called in a low voice to him. I shall soon find you down at Dolly's, she called, as the gate at last clanged between them. The fly moved out of the way, the motor backed, turned a little,

Starting point is 10:21:10 backed again, and turned in the narrow road, A string of farm carts came up in the middle, but she waited through all, for there was no hurry. When all was over and the car had started, she opened the door. Oh, my darling, she said. My darling, forgive me. Helen was standing in the hall. End of Chapter 36. Chapter 37 of Howard's End.

Starting point is 10:21:46 This is a Librevox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer. here, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clet Howard's End by E. M. Forster Chapter 37 Margaret bolted the door on the inside.

Starting point is 10:22:08 Then she would have kissed her sister, but Helen, in a dignified voice that came strangely from her, said, "'Convenient. You did not tell me that the books were unpacked. I have found nearly everything that I want.' I told you nothing that was true. It has been a great surprise, certainly. Has Aunt Julie been ill? Helen! You wouldn't think I'd invent that!

Starting point is 10:22:34 I suppose not, said Helen, turning away and crying a very little. But one loses faith in everything after this. We thought it was illness, but even then. I haven't behaved worthily. Helen selected another book. I ought not to have consulted any one. what would our father have thought of me she did not think of questioning her sister nor of rebuking her both might be necessary in the future but she had first to purge a greater crime than any that helen could have committed that want of confidence that is the work of the devil yes i am annoyed replied helen my wishes should have been respected i would have gone through this meeting if it was necessary but after aunt julie recovered it was not necessary

Starting point is 10:23:24 Planning my life as I now have to do. Come away from those books, called Margaret. Helen, do talk to me. I was just saying that I have stopped living haphazard. One can't go through a great deal of, she missed out the noun, without planning one's actions in advance. I am going to have a child in June, and in the first place conversations, discussions, excitement,

Starting point is 10:23:49 are not good for me. I will go through them if necessary, but only then. in the second place i have no right to trouble people i cannot fit in with england as i know it i have done something that the english never pardon it would not be right for them to pardon it so i must live where i am not known but why didn't you tell me dearest yes replied helen judicially i might have but decided to wait i believe you would never have told me Oh, yes, I should. We have taken a flat in Munich. Margaret glanced out of window. By we, I mean myself and Monica. But for her I am, and have been, and always wish to be, alone.

Starting point is 10:24:39 I have not heard Monica. You wouldn't have. She's an Italian, by birth at least. She makes her living by journalism. I met her originally on Garda. Monica is much the best person to see me through. You are very fond of her, then. She has been extraordinarily sensible with me.

Starting point is 10:25:01 Margaret guessed at Monica's type. Italiano inglesiato, they had named it, the crude feminist of the South, whom one respects but avoids, and Helen had turned to it in her need. "'You must not think that we shall never meet,' said Helen, with a measured kindness. I shall always have a room for you when you can be spared, and the longer that you can be with me the better. But you haven't understood yet, Meg, and of course it is very difficult for you. This is a shock to you. It isn't to me, who have been thinking over our futures for many months, and they won't be changed by a slight contratomps such as this.

Starting point is 10:25:40 I cannot live in England. Helen, you've not forgiven me for my treachery. You couldn't talk like this to me if you had. "'Oh, Meg, dear, why do we talk at all?' She dropped a book and sighed wearily. Then recovering herself, she said, "'Tell me, how is it that all the books are down here?' "'Series of mistakes.'

Starting point is 10:26:03 "'And a great deal of the furniture has been unpacked.' "'Oh.' "'Who lives here, then?' "'No one.' "'I suppose you are letting it, though.' "'The house is dead,' said Margaret with a frown. Why worry on about it?' "'But I'm interested. You talk as if I had lost all my interest in life. I am still

Starting point is 10:26:28 Helen, I hope.' Now this hasn't the feel of a dead house. The hall seems more alive even than in the old days, when it held the Wilcox's own things. "'Interested are you?' "'Very well, I must tell you, I suppose. My husband lent it, on condition we—' But by a mistake all our things were unpacked. And Miss Avery instead of—' She stopped. "'Look here, I can't go on like this. I warn you, I won't. Helen, why should you be so miserably unkind to me, simply because you hate Henry?' "'I don't hate him now,' said Helen.

Starting point is 10:27:07 "'I have stopped being a schoolgirl. And Meg, once again, I'm not being unkind. But as for fitting in with your English life—' No. Put it out of your head at once. Imagine a visit from me at Deucy Street. It's unthinkable. Margaret could not contradict her. It was appalling to see her quietly moving forward with her plans, not bitter or excitable, neither asserting innocence nor confessing guilt, merely desiring freedom, and the company of those who would not blame her. She had been through—how much? Margaret did not know. but it was enough to part her from old habits as well as old friends.

Starting point is 10:27:48 Tell me about yourself, said Helen, who had chosen her books and was lingering over the furniture. There's nothing to tell. But your marriage has been happy, Meg. Yes, but I don't feel inclined to talk. You feel as I do. Not that, but I can't. No more can I. It is a nuisance.

Starting point is 10:28:13 but no good trying. Something had come between them. Perhaps it was society, which hence forward would exclude Helen. Perhaps it was a third life, already potent as a spirit. They could find no meeting place. Both suffered acutely, and were not comforted by the knowledge that affection survived. Look here, Meg, is the coast clear? You mean that you want to go away from me?

Starting point is 10:28:40 I suppose so. "'Dear old lady, it isn't any use. I knew we should have nothing to say. Give my love to Aunt Julie and Tibby, and take more yourself than I can say. Promise to come and see me in Munich later.' "'Certainly, dearest.' "'For that is all we can do.' It seemed so. Most ghastly of all was Helen's common sense. Monica had been extraordinarily good for her.

Starting point is 10:29:08 I am glad to have seen you and the things. She looked at the bookcase lovingly, as if she was saying farewell to the past. Margaret unbolted the door. She remarked, The car has gone, and here's your cab. She led the way to it, glancing at the leaves in the sky. The spring had never seemed more beautiful. The driver who was leaning on the gate called out,

Starting point is 10:29:34 "'Please, lady, a message!' And handed her Henry's visiting. card through the bars. How did this come? she asked. Crane had returned with it almost at once. She read the card with annoyance. It was covered with instructions in domestic French. When she and her sister had talked, she was to come back for the night to dollies.

Starting point is 10:29:56 Il foe d'Ormere on this suge. While Helen was to be found, Uncomfortable chambre at the hotel. The final sentence displeased her greatly, until she remembered that the Charles's had only one spare room, and so could not invite a third guest. Henry would have done what he could, she interpreted. Helen had not followed her into the garden.

Starting point is 10:30:20 The door once open, she lost her inclination to fly. She remained in the hall, going from bookcase to table. She grew more like the old Helen, irresponsible and charming. This is Mr. Wilcox's house, she inquired. "'Surely you remember Howard's end? "'Remember? I who remember everything. "'But it looks to be ours now.' "'Miss Avery was extraordinary,' said Margaret,

Starting point is 10:30:49 "'her own spirits lightning a little. "'Again she was invaded by a slight feeling of disloyalty. "'But it brought her relief, and she yielded to it. "'She loved Mrs. Wilcox, "'and would rather furnish her house with our things "'than think of it empty. "'In consequence, here are all the last. Library books. Not all the books. She hasn't unpacked the art books, in which she may show

Starting point is 10:31:12 her sense. And we never used to have the sword here. The sword looks well, though. Magnificent. Yes, doesn't it? Where's the piano, Meg? I warehoused that in London. Why? Nothing. Curious, too, that the carpet fits. The carpet's a mistake, announced Helm. Helen. I know that we had it in London, but this floor ought to be bare. It is far too beautiful. You still have a mania for under furnishing. Would you care to come into the dining-room before you start? There's no carpet there. They went in, and each minute their talk became more natural. Oh, what a place for Mother chiffonier! cried Helen.

Starting point is 10:32:00 Look at the chairs, though. Oh, look at them. Wekin place faced north, didn't it? North-west. Anyhow, it is thirty years since any of those chairs have felt the sun. Feel. Their little backs are quite warm. But why has Miss Avery made them set to partners?

Starting point is 10:32:20 I shall just—over here, Meg, put it so that anyone's sitting will see the lawn. Margaret moved a chair. Helen sat down in it. Yes. The window's too high. Try a drawing-room chair. No, I don't like the drawing-room so much. The beam has been match-boarded.

Starting point is 10:32:40 It would have been so beautiful otherwise. Helen, what a memory you have for some things. You're perfectly right. It's a room that men have spoilt through trying to make it nice for women. Men don't know what we want. And never will. I don't agree. In two thousand years, they'll know.

Starting point is 10:33:01 But the chairs show up wonderfully. Look where Tibby spilt the soup. Coffee. It was coffee, surely. Helen shook her head. Impossible. Tibby was far too young to be given coffee at that time. Was father alive?

Starting point is 10:33:20 Yes. Then you're right, and it must have been soup. I was thinking of much later, that unsuccessful visit of Aunt Julie's, when she didn't realise that Tibby had grown up. It was coffee then. for he threw it down on purpose. There was some rhyme, tea, coffee, coffee, tea, that she said to him every morning at breakfast, wait a minute, how did it go? I know. No, I don't. What a detestable boy, to be was! But the rhyme was simply awful,

Starting point is 10:33:52 no decent person could have put up with it. Ah, that green-gauge tree! cried Helen, as if the garden was also part of their childhood. Why do I connect it with dumbbells? And there come the chickens. The grass wants cutting. I love yellow hammers. Margarine interrupted her. I have got it, she announced.

Starting point is 10:34:16 Tea, tea, coffee, tea, or chocolarity. That every morning for three weeks. No wonder Tibby was wild. Tibby is moderately a dear now, said Helen. There, I knew you'd say that in the air. and, of course he's a dear. A bell rang. Listen, what's that?

Starting point is 10:34:38 Helen said. Perhaps the Wilcoxes are beginning the siege. What nonsense! Listen! And the triviality faded from their faces, though it left something behind. The knowledge that they could never be parted because their love was rooted in common things.

Starting point is 10:34:57 Explanations and appeals had failed. They had tried for a common meeting-ground, and had only made each other unhappy, and all the time their salvation was lying round them, the past sanctifying the present, the present with wild heartthrob, declaring that there would after all be a future, with laughter and the voices of children. Helen, still smiling, came up to her sister. She said, It is always Meg. They looked into each other's eyes.

Starting point is 10:35:27 The inner life had paid. solemnly the clapper told. No one was in the front. Margaret went to the kitchen and struggled between packing cases to the window. Their visitor was only a little boy with a tin can, and triviality returned. Little boy, what do you want? Please, I am the milk. Did Miss Avery send you? said Margaret, rather sharply. Yes, please. Then take it back and say we require no milk. while she called to Helen. "'No, it's not the siege, but possibly in attempt to provision us against one.'

Starting point is 10:36:06 "'But I like milk,' cried Helen. "'Why send it away?' "'Do you?' "'Oh, very well. "'But we've nothing to put it in, and he wants the can.' "'Please, I'm to call in a morning for the can,' said the boy. "'The house will be locked up, then.' "'In the morning would I bring eggs too?'

Starting point is 10:36:28 are you the boy whom i saw playing in the stacks last week the child hung his head well run away and do it again nice little boy whispered helen i say what's your name mine's helen tom that was helen all over the wilcoxes too would ask a child its name but they never told their names in return tom this one here is margaret and at home we've another called Tibby." "'Moyna Lopi,' replied Tom, supposing Tibby to be a rabbit. "'You are a very good and rather clever little boy. Mind you come again.' "'Isn't he charming?' "'Undoubtedly,' said Margaret, "'he is probably the son of Madge, and Madge is dreadful. But this place has wonderful powers.'

Starting point is 10:37:24 "'What do you mean?' "'I don't know.' because I probably agree with you. It kills what is dreadful, and makes what is beautiful live. I do agree, said Helen, as she sipped the milk. But you said that the house was dead not half an hour ago? Meaning that I was dead. I felt it. Yes, the house has a sure a life than we, even if it was empty.

Starting point is 10:37:53 And as it is, I can't get over that for thirty years the sun has never shone full in our furniture. After all, Wickeham Place was a grave. Meg, I've a startling idea. What is it? Drink some milk to study you. Margaret obeyed. No, I won't tell you yet, said Helen, because you may laugh or be angry. Let's go upstairs first and give the rooms an airing. They opened window after window, till the inside too was rustling to the spring.

Starting point is 10:38:25 "'Curtains blue, picture-frames tapped cheerfully. Helen uttered cries of excitement as she found this bed obviously in its right place, that in its wrong one. She was angry with Miss Avery for not having moved the wardrobes up. "'Then one would see, really,' she admired the view. She was the Helen who had written the memorable letters four years ago. As they lent out looking westward, she said, "'About my idea, couldn't you and I camp out in this house for the night?'

Starting point is 10:38:55 "'I don't think we could well do that,' said Margaret. "'Here are beds, tables, towels.' "'I know, but the house isn't supposed to be slept in, and Henry's suggestion was—' "'I require no suggestions. I shall not alter anything in my plans. But it would give me so much pleasure to have one night here with you. It will be something to look back on.' "'Oh, Meg, lovey, do let's!' "'But Helen, my pet,' said Margaret,

Starting point is 10:39:25 We can't without getting Henry's leave. Of course he would give it, but you said yourself that you couldn't visit at Deucy Street now, and this is equally intimate. Ducy Street is his house. This is ours. Our furniture, our sort of people coming to the door. Do let us camp out, just one night, and Tom shall feed us on eggs and milk. Why not?

Starting point is 10:39:51 It's a moon. Margaret hesitated. I feel Charles wouldn't like it, she said at last. Even our furniture annoyed him, and I was going to clear it out, when Aunt Julie's illness prevented me. I sympathise with Charles. He feels it's his mother's house. He loves it in rather an untaking way. Henry I could answer for, not Charles.

Starting point is 10:40:16 I know he won't like it, said Helen. But I am going to pass out of their lives. What difference will it make in the long? run if they say, and she even spent the night at Howard's End. How do you know you'll pass out of their lives? We have thought that twice before. Because my plans, which you change in a moment. Then because my life is great and theirs are little, said Helen, taking fire, I know of things

Starting point is 10:40:46 they can't know of, and so do you. We know that there's poetry. We know that there's death. They can only take them on hearsay. We know that this is our house, because it feels ours. Oh, they may take the title-deeds and the door-keys, but for this one night we are at home." "'It would be lovely to have you once more alone,' said Margaret. It may be a chance in a thousand.'

Starting point is 10:41:12 "'Yes, and we could talk.' She dropped her voice. It won't be a very glorious story. But under that witch-helm—' Honestly, I see little happiness ahead. Cannot I have this one night with you?" I needn't say how much it would mean to me. Then let us! It is no good, hesitating.

Starting point is 10:41:35 Shall I drive down to Hilton now and get leave? Oh, we don't want leave! But Margaret was a loyal wife. In spite of imagination and poetry—perhaps on account of them, she could sympathise with the technical attitude that Henry was. would adopt. If possible, she would be technical, too. A night's lodging, and they demanded no more, need not involve the discussion of general principles. Charles may say no, grumbled Helen. We shan't to consult him.

Starting point is 10:42:06 Go, if you like. I should have stopped without leave. It was the touch of selfishness, which was not enough to mar Helen's character, and even added to its beauty. She would have stopped without leave, and escaped to Germany the next morning. Margaret kissed her. Expect me back before dark. I am looking forward to it so much. It is like you to have thought of such a beautiful thing. Not a thing, only an ending, said Helen rather sadly, and the sense of tragedy closed in on Margaret again as soon as she left the house. She was afraid of Miss savory. It is disquieting to fulfill a prophecy, however superficially. She was glad to see no watching figure as she drove past the farm, but only Little Tom, turning somersaults in the straw.

Starting point is 10:42:59 End of Chapter 37. Chapter 38 of Howard's End. This is a Librevox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visitlibrovox.org. by Elizabeth Clett Howard's End by E. M. Forster Chapter 38 The tragedy began quietly enough, and like many another talk, by the man's deft assertion of his superiority. Henry heard her arguing with the driver, stepped out and settled the fellow, who was inclined to be rude, and then led the way to some chairs on the lawn.

Starting point is 10:43:49 Dolly, who had not been told, ran out with offers of tea. He refused them, and ordered her to wheel Baby's perambulator away, as they desired to be alone. "'But the Didoms can't listen. He isn't nine months old,' she pleaded. "'That's not what I was saying,' retorted her father-in-law. Baby was wheeled out of earshot, and did not hear about the crisis till later years. It was now the turn of Margaret. "'Is it what we feared?' he asked. "'It is.'

Starting point is 10:44:23 "'Dago,' he began. There is a troublesome business ahead of us, and nothing but the most absolute honesty and plain speech will see us through." Margaret bent her head. "'I am obliged to question you, on subject, we both prefer to leave untouched. As you know, I am not one of your Bernard Shaw's who consider nothing sacred. To speak as I must will pain me. But there are occasions. We are husband and wife, not children.

Starting point is 10:44:51 I am a man of the world, and you are a most exceptional woman. All Margaret's senses forsook her. She blushed and looked past him at the six hills, covered with spring herbage. Noting her colour, he grew still more kind. I see that you feel as I felt when— My poor little wife. Oh, be brave. Just one or two questions, and I have done with you.

Starting point is 10:45:17 Was your sister wearing a wedding ring? Margaret stammered, a—no. There was an appalling silence. Henry, I really came to ask a favour about Howard's End. One point at a time. I am now obliged to ask for the name of her seducer. She rose to her feet and held the chair between them. Her colour had ebbed, and she was grey.

Starting point is 10:45:44 It did not displease him that she should receive his question thus. Take your time, he counselled her. Remember that this is far worse for me, than for you. She swayed. He feared she was going to faint. Then speech came, and she said slowly, "'Seducer.' "'No, I do not know her seducer's name.' "'Would she not tell you?' I never even asked her who seduced her,' said Margaret, dwelling on the hateful word thoughtfully. "'That is singular.'

Starting point is 10:46:18 Then he changed his mind. "'Natural, perhaps, dear girl, that she shouldn't have. ask, but until his name is known, nothing can be done. Sit down. How terrible it is to see you so upset. I knew you weren't fit for it. I wish I hadn't taken you. Margaret answered,

Starting point is 10:46:38 I like to stand, if you don't mind, for it gives me a pleasant view of the six hills. As you like. Have you anything else to ask me, Henry? Next, you must tell me whether you have gathered anything. I have often noticed your insight, dear. I only wish my own was as good. You may have guessed something, even though your sister said nothing. The slightest hint would help us. Who is we? I thought it best to ring up Charles.

Starting point is 10:47:11 That was unnecessary, said Margaret, growing warmer. This news will give Charles disproportionate pain. He has at once gone to call on your brother. That, too, was unnecessary. Let me explain, dear, how the matter stands. You don't think that I and my son are other than gentlemen. It is in Helen's interests that we are acting. It is still not too late to save her name.

Starting point is 10:47:39 Then Margaret hid out for the first time. Are we to make a seducer marry her? She asked. If possible, yes. But Henry, suppose he turned out to be married already. One has heard of such cases. In that case he must pay heavily for his misconduct, and be thrashed within an inch of his life. So her first blow missed.

Starting point is 10:48:03 She was thankful of it. What had tempted her to imperil both of their lives? Henry's obtuseness had saved her as well as himself. Exhausted with anger she sat down again, blinking at him as he told her as much as he thought fit. At last she said, May I ask you my question now? Certainly, my dear. Tomorrow Helen goes to Munich.

Starting point is 10:48:29 Well, possibly she is right. Henry, let a lady finish. Tomorrow she goes. Tonight, with your permission, she would like to sleep at Howard's end. It was the crisis of his life. Again she would have recalled the words as soon as they were uttered. She had not led up to them with sufficient care.

Starting point is 10:48:50 She longed to warn him that they were far more important than he supposed. She saw him weighing them, as if they were a business proposition. Why Howard's end, he said at last, would she not be more comfortable as I suggested at the hotel? Margaret hastened to give him reasons. It is an odd request, but you know what Helen is and what women in her state are? He frowned and moved irritably. She has the idea that one night, in your house would give her pleasure and do her good. I think she's right. Being one of those

Starting point is 10:49:26 imaginative girls, the presence of all our books and furniture soothes her. This is a fact. It is the end of her girlhood. Her last words to me were, a beautiful ending. She values the old furniture for sentimental reasons, in fact. Exactly. You have quite understood. It is her last hope of being with it?' "'I don't agree there, my dear. Helen will have her share of the goods wherever she goes, possibly more than her share, for you are so fond of her that you'd give her anything of yours that she fancies, wouldn't you? And I'd raise no objection. I could understand it, if it was her old home, because a home or a house,' he changed the word designedly, he had thought of a telling point. Because a house in which one has lived becomes in a sort of

Starting point is 10:50:16 way sacred. I don't know why. Associations and so on. Now Helen has no associations with Howard's end, though I and Charles and Evie have. I do not see why she wants to stay the night there. She will only catch cold. "'Leave it that you don't see,' cried Margaret. Call it fancy. But realize that fancy is a scientific fact. Helen is fanciful and wants to.' Then he surprised her, a rare occurrence. He shot an unexpected bolt. If she wants to sleep one night, she may want to sleep too. We shall never get her out of the house, perhaps.

Starting point is 10:50:57 Well, said Margaret, with the precipice in sight, and suppose we don't get her out of the house. Would it matter? She would do no one any harm. Again the irritated gesture. No, Henry, she panted, receding. I didn't mean that. We will only trouble Howard's End for this one night.

Starting point is 10:51:16 I take her to London to-morrow. Do you intend to sleep in a damp house, too? She cannot be left alone. That's quite impossible. Madness. You must be here to meet Charles. I have already told you that your message to Charles was unnecessary, and I have no desire to meet him.

Starting point is 10:51:35 Margaret. My Margaret! What has this business to do with Charles? If it concerns me little, it concerns you less, and Charles not at all. As the future owner of Howard's End, said Mr. Wilcox, arching his fingers, I should say that it did concern Charles. In what way?

Starting point is 10:51:55 Will Helen's condition depreciate the property? My dear, you are forgetting yourself. I think you yourself recommended plain speaking. They looked at each other in amazement. The precipice was at their feet now. Helen commands my sympathy, said. said Henry. "'As your husband, I shall do all for her that I can, and I have no doubt that she will prove more sinned against than sinning. But I cannot treat her as if nothing has happened. I should

Starting point is 10:52:25 be false to my position in society if I did.' She controlled herself for the last time. "'No, let us go back to Helen's request,' she said. "'It is unreasonable, but the request of an unhappy girl. To-morrow she will go to Germany and trouble society no longer. "'Tonight she asks to sleep in your empty house, "'a house which you do not care about, "'and which you have not occupied for over a year. "'May she, will you give my sister leave? "'Will you forgive her, as you hope to be forgiven,

Starting point is 10:53:00 "'and as you have actually been forgiven? "'Forgive her for one night only. "'That will be enough.' "'As I have actually been forgiven, "'never mind for the moment what I mean by that, that," said Margaret. Answer my question. Perhaps some hint of her meaning did dawn on him.

Starting point is 10:53:21 If so, he blotted it out. Straight from his fortress, he answered, I seem rather unaccommodating, but I have some experience of life, and know how one thing leads to another. I am afraid that your sister had better sleep at the hotel. I have my children and the memory of my dear wife to consider. I am sorry, but see that she leaves my house at once. once. You mentioned Mrs. Wilcox. I beg your pardon. A rare occurrence. In reply, may I mention

Starting point is 10:53:53 Mrs. Bast? You have not been yourself all day, said Henry, and rose from his seat with face unmoved. Margaret rushed at him and seized both his hands. She was transfigured. Not any more of this, she cried. You shall see the connection if it kills you, Henry. You have a mistress, I forgave you. My sister has a lover. You drive her from the house. Do you see the connection? Stupid, hypocritical, cruel, oh contemptible, a man who insults his wife when she's alive and cants with her memory when she's dead. A man who ruins a woman for his pleasure, and casts her off to ruin other men, and gives bad financial advice, and then says he is not responsible. These, man, are you. You can't recognise them.

Starting point is 10:54:43 "'because you cannot connect. "'I've had enough of your unweeded kindness. "'I've spoilt you long enough. "'All your life you have been spoiled. "'Mrs. Wilcox spoiled you. "'No one has ever told you what you are. "'Muddled, criminally muddled. "'Men like you use repentance as a blind,

Starting point is 10:55:03 "'so don't repent. "'Only say to yourself what Helen has done, I've done.' "'The two cases are different,' Henry stammered. His real retort was not quite ready. His brain was still in a whirl, and he wanted a little longer. "'In what why different? You have betrayed Mrs. Wilcox. Helen only herself.

Starting point is 10:55:26 You remain in society. Helen can't. You have had only pleasure. She may die. You have the insolence to talk to me of differences, Henry.' Oh, the uselessness of it. Henry's retort came. I perceive you are a tempting blackmail. It is scarcely a pretty weapon for a wife to use against

Starting point is 10:55:48 her husband. My rule through life has been never to pay the least attention to threats, and I can only repeat what I said before. I do not give you and your sister leave to sleep at Howard's end. Margaret loosed his hands. He went into the house, wiping first one and then the other on his handkerchief. For a little she stood looking at the six hills, tombs of warriors, breasts of the spring. Then she passed out into what was now the evening. End of chapter 38. Chapter 39 of Howard's End. This is a Libervox recording. All Libervox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librevox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clet

Starting point is 10:56:45 Howard Zend By E. M. Forster Chapter 39 Charles and Tibby met at Deucy Street, where the latter was staying. Their interview was short and absurd. They had nothing in common but the English language, and tried by its help to express what neither of them understood. Charles saw in Helen the family foe.

Starting point is 10:57:08 He had singled her out as the most dangerous of the Schlegelz, and angry as he was, looked forward to telling his wife how right he had been. his mind was made up at once the girl must be got out of the way before she disgraced them farther if occasion offered she might be married to a villain or possibly to a fool but this was a concession to morality it formed no part of his main scheme honest and hearty was charles's dislike and the past spread itself out very clearly before him hatred is a skilful compositor as if they were heads in a note-book he ran through all the incidents of the schlegel's campaign the attempt to compromise his brother his mother's legacy his father's marriage the introduction of the furniture the unpacking of the same he had not yet heard of the request to sleep at howard's end that was to be their master stroke and the opportunity for his but he already felt that howards end was the objective and though he disliked the house was determined to defend it tibby on the other hand had no opinions he stood above the conventions his sister had a right to do what she thought right it is not difficult to stand above the conventions when we leave no hostages among them men can always be more unconventional than women and a bachelor of independent means need encounter no difficulties at all unlike charles tibby had money enough his ancestors had earned it for him and if he shocked the people in one set of lodgings he had only to move into another his was the leisure without sympathy an attitude as fatal as the strenuous a little cold culture may be raised on it but no art

Starting point is 10:58:51 his sisters had seen the family danger and had never forgotten to discount the gold islets that raised them from the sea Tibby gave all the praise to himself, and so despised the struggling and the submerged. Hence the absurdity of the interview. The gulf between them was economic as well as spiritual. But several facts passed. Charles pressed for them with an impertinence that the undergraduate could not withstand. On what date had Helen gone abroad? To whom? Charles was anxious to fasten the scandal on Germany. Then, changing his tactics, he said roughly, I suppose you realize that you are your sister's protector. In what sense?

Starting point is 10:59:33 If a man played about with my sister, I'd send a bullet through him. But perhaps you don't mind. I mind very much, protested Tibby. Who do you suspect, then? Speak out, man. One always suspects someone. No one. I don't think so.

Starting point is 10:59:53 Involuntarily, he blushed. He had remembered the scene in his Oxford rooms. You are hiding something, said Charles. As interviews go, he got the best of this one. When you saw her last, did she mention anyone's name? Yes or no, he thundered, so that Tibby started. In my room she mentioned some friends called the Basts. Who are the Basts?

Starting point is 11:00:18 People, friends of hers, at Evie's wedding. I don't remember. But by Great Scott, I do. My aunt told me about some tag-rag. Was she full of them when you saw her? Is there a man? Did she speak of the man? Or, look here, have you had any dealings with him?

Starting point is 11:00:40 Tibby was silent. Without intending it he had betrayed his sister's confidence. He was not enough interested in human life to see where things will lead to. He had a strong regard for honesty, and his word, once given, had always been kept up to now. He was deeply vexed. not only for the harm he had done Helen, but for the flaw he had discovered in his own equipment. "'I see. You are in his confidence. They met at your rooms. Oh, what a family! What a family!

Starting point is 11:01:11 God help the poor Peter!' And Tibby found himself alone. End of Chapter 39. Chapter 40 of Howard Zend. This is a Librevox recording. All Libervox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clet. Howard's End by E. M. Forster Chapter 40 Leonard, he would figure at length in a newspaper report, but that evening he did not count for much. The foot of the tree was in shadow, since the moon was still hidden behind the house.

Starting point is 11:02:03 but above to right to left down the long meadow the moonlight was streaming. Leonard seemed not a man but a cause. Perhaps it was Helen's way of falling in love, a curious way to Margaret, whose agony and whose contempt of Henry were yet imprinted with his image. Helen forgot people. They were husks that had enclosed her emotion. She could pity, or sacrifice herself, or have instincts, But had she ever loved in the noblest way, where man and woman, having lost themselves in sex, desire to lose sex itself in comradeship? Margaret wondered, but said no word of blame.

Starting point is 11:02:46 This was Helen's evening. Troubles enough lay ahead of her. The loss of friends and of social advantages. The agony, the supreme agony of motherhood, which is even yet not a matter of common knowledge. For the present let the moon shine brightly, and the breezes of the spring blow gently, dying away from the gale of the day, and let the earth who brings increase bring peace.

Starting point is 11:03:11 Not even to herself, dare she blame Helen. She could not assess her trespass by any moral code. It was everything or nothing. Morality can tell us that murder is worse than stealing, and group most sins in an order all must approve, but it cannot group Helen. The surer its pronouncements on this point, the surer may we be that morality is not speaking. Christ was evasive when they questioned him.

Starting point is 11:03:39 It is those that cannot connect, who hasten to cast the first stone. This was Helen's evening, one at what cost and not to be marred by the sorrows of others. Of her own tragedy, Margaret never uttered a word. One isolates, said Helen slowly. i isolated mr wilcox from the other forces that were pulling lenient down hill consequently i was full of pity and almost of revenge for weeks i had blamed mr wilcox only and so when your letters came i need never have written them sighed margaret they never shielded henry how hopeless it is to tidy away the past even for others i did not know that it was your own idea to dismiss the bursts looking back that was wrong of me looking back darling i know that it was right it is right to save the man whom one loves i am less enthusiastic about justice now But we both thought you wrote at his dictation.

Starting point is 11:04:50 It seemed the last touch of his callousness. Being very much wrought up by this time, and Mrs. Bast was upstairs. I had not seen her, and had talked for a long time to Leonard. I had snubbed him for no reason, and that should have warned me I was in danger. So when the notes came, I wanted us to go to you for an explanation. He said that he guessed the explanation. He knew of it, and you knew. mustn't know. I pressed him to tell me. He said, no one must know, it was something to do with

Starting point is 11:05:22 his wife. Right up to the end we were Mr. Bast and Miss Schlegel. I was going to tell him that he must be frank with me when I saw his eyes, and guessed that Mr. Wilcox had ruined him in two ways, not one. I drew him to me. I made him tell me. I felt very lonely myself. He is not to blame. He would have gone on worshipping me. I want never to see him again, though it sounds appalling. I wanted to give him money and feel finished. Oh, Meg, the little that is known about these things!

Starting point is 11:06:02 She laid her face against the tree. The little, too, that is known about growth. Both times it was loneliness, and the night, and panic afterwards. did leonard grow out of paul margaret did not speak for a moment so tired was she that her attention had actually wandered to the teeth the teeth that had been thrust into the tree's bark to medicate it from where she sat she could see them gleam she had been trying to count them "'Lennard is a better growth than madness,' she said. "'I was afraid that you would react against Paul "'until you went over the verge.' "'I did react until I found poor Leonard.

Starting point is 11:06:46 "'I am steady now. "'I shan't ever like your Henry, dearest Meg, "'or even speak kindly about him. "'But all that blinding hate is over. "'I shall never rave against Wilcoxes any more. "'I understand how you married him. and you will now be very happy." Margaret did not reply.

Starting point is 11:07:08 "'Yes,' repeated Helen, her voice growing more tender. "'I do at last understand.' "'Except Mrs. Wilcox, dearest, no one understands our little movements. "'Because in death,' I agree. "'Not quite. "'I feel that you and I and Henry

Starting point is 11:07:28 "'are only fragments of that woman's mind. "'She knows, everything. She is everything. She is the house, and the tree that leans over it. People have their own deaths as well as their own lives, and even if there is nothing beyond death, we shall differ in our nothingness. I cannot believe that knowledge such as hers will perish with knowledge such as mine. She knew about realities. She knew when people were in love, though she was not in the room. I don't doubt that she knew when Henry deceived her. "'Good-night, Mrs. Wilcox,' called a voice.

Starting point is 11:08:08 "'Oh, good-night, Miss Avery!' "'Why should Miss Avery work for us?' Helen murmured. "'Why, indeed!' Miss Avery crossed the lawn and merged into the hedge that divided it from the farm. An old gap, which Mr. Wilcox had filled up, had reappeared, and her track through the dew followed the path that he had turfed over, when he improved the garden and made it possible for games. "'This is not quite our house yet,' said Helen. "'When Miss Avery called, I felt we are only a couple of tourists.

Starting point is 11:08:45 "'We shall be that everywhere, and forever.' "'But affectionate tourists. "'But tourists who pretend each hotel is their home.' "'I can't pretend very long,' said Helen. Sitting under this tree one forgets, but I know that tomorrow I shall see the moon rise out of Germany. Not all your goodness can alter the facts of the case. Unless you will come with me. Margaret thought for a moment.

Starting point is 11:09:16 In the past year she had grown so fond of England that to leave it was a real grief. Yet what detained her? No doubt Henry would pardon her outburst, and go on blustering and muddling into a ripe old age. But what was the good? She had just as soon vanish from his mind. Are you serious in asking me, Helen? Should I get on with your moniker? You would not, but I am serious in asking you. Still no more plans now, and no more reminiscences. They were silent for a little. It was Helen's evening. The present flowed by them like a stream. The tree rose.

Starting point is 11:09:59 rustled. It had made music before they were born, and would continue after their deaths. But its song was of the moment. The moment had passed. The tree rustled again. Their senses were sharpened, and they seemed to apprehend life. Life passed. The tree nestled again. Sleep now, said Margaret. The piece of the country was entering into her. It has no commerce with memory, and little with hope. Least of all is it concerned with the hopes of the next five minutes. It is the peace of the present, which passes understanding. Its murmur came, Now, and now, once more as they trod the gravel, and now as the moonlight fell upon their father's sword. They passed upstairs, kissed, and amidst the endless iterations fell asleep. The house had

Starting point is 11:10:55 ensadowed the tree at first, but as the moon rose higher the two disentangled, and were clear for a few moments at midnight. Margaret awoke and looked into the garden. How incomprehensible that Leonard Bast should have won her this night of peace! Was he also part of Mrs. Wilcox's mind? End of Chapter 40. Chapter 41 of Howard's End. This is a Libervox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit Libravocs.org Recording by Elizabeth

Starting point is 11:11:41 Klett Howard's End by E. M. Forster Chapter 41 Far different was Leonard's development. The months after Onaton, whatever minor troubles they might bring him, were all overshadowed by

Starting point is 11:11:59 remorse. When Helen looked back she could philosophize, or she could look into the future and plan for her child. But the father saw nothing beyond his own sin. Weeks afterwards, in the midst of other occupations, he would suddenly cry out, "'Brewt! You brute! I couldn't have!' And be rent into two people who held dialogues. Or brown rain would descend, blotting out faces in the sky. Even Jackie noticed the change in him.

Starting point is 11:12:31 Most terrible were his sufferings when he awoke from sleep. Sometimes he was happy at first, but grew conscious of a burden hanging to him and weighing down his thoughts when they would move, or little iron scorched his body, or a sword stabbed him. He would sit at the edge of his bed, holding his heart and moaning, oh, what shall I do? Whatever shall I do? Nothing brought ease. He could put distance between him and the trespass, but it grew in his soul. Remorse is not among the eternal verities. The Greeks were right to dethrone her. Her action is too capricious, as though the erronees selected for punishment only certain men and certain sins. And of all means to regeneration, remorse is surely the most wasteful. It cuts away healthy tissues

Starting point is 11:13:24 with the poisoned. It is a knife that probes far deeper than the evil. Leonard was driven straight through its torments, and emerged pure but enfeebled, a better man who would never lose control of himself again, but also a smaller, who had less to control. Nor did purity mean peace. The use of the knife can become a habit as hard to shake off his passion itself, and Leonard continued to start with a cry out of dreams. He built up a situation that was far enough from the truth. It never occurred to him that Helen was to blame. He forgot, the intensity of their talk, the charm that had been lent him by sincerity, the magic of Oniton under darkness and of the whispering river. Helen loved the absolute. Leonard had been ruined

Starting point is 11:14:13 absolutely, and had appeared to her as a man apart, isolated from the world. A real man who cared for adventure and beauty, who desired to live decently and pay his way, who could have traveled more gloriously through life than the juggernaut car that was crushing him. Memories of Evie's wedding had warped her, the starched servants, the yards of uneaten food, the rustle of overdressed women, motor cars oozing grease on the gravel, rubbish on a pretentious band. She had tasted the lees of this on her arrival. In the darkness, after failure, they intoxicated her. She and the victim seemed alone in a world of unreality, and she loved him absolutely, perhaps for half an hour. In the morning she was gone. The note that she left,

Starting point is 11:15:04 tender and hysterical in tone, and intended to be most kind, hurt her lover terribly. It was as if some work of art had been broken by him, some picture in the National Gallery slashed out of its frame. When he recalled her talent since her social position, he felt that the first passer-by had a right to shoot him down. He was afraid of the waitress and the poor, quarters at the railway station. He was afraid at first of his wife, though later he was to regard her with a strange new tenderness and to think, there is nothing to choose between us, after all. The expedition to Shropshire crippled the Basts permanently. Helen, in her flight, forgot to settle the hotel bill, and took their return tickets away with her. They had to pawn Jackie's

Starting point is 11:15:51 bangles to get home, and the smash came a few days afterwards. It is true that Helen's and offered him five thousand pounds, but such a sum meant nothing to him. He could not see that the girl was desperately writing herself and trying to save something out of the disaster if it was only five thousand pounds. But he had to live somehow. He turned to his family and degraded himself to a professional beggar. There was nothing else for him to do. A letter from Leonard, thought Blanche, his sister, and after all this time, she hid it. so that her husband should not see, and when he had gone to his work read it with some emotion, and sent the prodigal a little money out of her dress allowance.

Starting point is 11:16:35 "'A letter from Leonard,' said the other sister, Laura, a few days later. She showed it to her husband. He wrote a cruel, insolent reply, but sent more money than Blanche, so Leonard soon wrote to him again. And during the winter the system was developed. Leonard realized that they need never starve, because it would be too painful for his relatives. Society is based on the family, and the clever wastrel can exploit this indefinitely. Without a generous thought on either side, pounds and pounds passed. The donors disliked Leonard, and he grew to hate them intensely. When Laura censured his immoral marriage, he thought bitterly.

Starting point is 11:17:16 She minds that. What would she say if she knew the truth? When Blanche's husband offered him work, he found some pretext for avoiding it. He had wanted work keenly at Oniton, but too much anxiety had shattered him. He was joining the unemployable. When his brother, the lay-reader, did not reply to a letter, he wrote again, saying that he and Jackie would come down to his village on foot. He did not intend this as blackmail. Still, the brother sent a postal order, and it became part of the system.

Starting point is 11:17:48 And so passed his winter and his spring. In the horror there are two bright spots. he never confused the past he remained alive and blessed are those who live if it is only to a sense of sinfulness the anodyne of muddledom by which most men blur and blend their mistakes never passed leonard's lips and if i drink oblivion of a day so shorten i the stature of my soul it is a hard saying and a hard man wrote it but it lies at the foot of all character And the other bright spot was his tenderness for Jackie. He pitied her with nobility now, not the contemptuous pity of a man who sticks to a woman through thick and thin. He tried to be less irritable. He wondered what her hungry eyes desired, nothing that she could express, or that he or any man could give her. Would she ever receive the justice that is mercy,

Starting point is 11:18:48 the justice for by-products that the world is too busy to bestow? She was fond of flowers, generous with money, and not revengeful. If she had borne him a child, he might have cared for her. Unmarried, Leonard would never have begged. He would have flickered out and died. But the whole of life is mixed. He had to provide for Jackie, and went down dirty paths that she might have a few feathers

Starting point is 11:19:14 and dishes of food that suited her. One day he caught sight of Margaret and her brother. He was in St. Paul's. He had entered the cathedral partly to avoid the rain, and partly to see a picture that had educated him in former years. But the light was bad, the picture ill-placed, and time and judgment were inside him now. Death alone still charmed him, with her lap of poppies on which all men shall sleep. He took one glance, and turned aimlessly away towards a chair. Then down the nave he saw Miss Schlegel and her brother. They stood in the

Starting point is 11:19:48 fairway of passengers, and their faces were extremely grave. He was perfectly safe. He was perfectly certain that they were in trouble about their sister. Once outside, and he fled immediately, he wished that he had spoken to them. What was his life? What were a few angry words, or even imprisonment? He had done wrong. That was the true terror. Whatever they might know, he would tell them everything he knew. He re-entered St. Paul's, but they had moved in his absence, and had gone to lay their difficulties before Mr. Wilcox and Charles. The same thing was. The sight of Margaret turned remorse into new channels. He desired to confess, and though the desire is proof of a weakened nature, which is about to lose the essence of human intercourse,

Starting point is 11:20:34 it did not take an ignoble form. He did not suppose that confession would bring him happiness. It was rather that he yearned to get clear of the tangle. So does the suicide yearn. The impulses are akin, and the crime of suicide lies rather in its disregard for the feelings of those whom we leave behind. Confirm. Fesion need harm no one. It can satisfy that test. And though it was un-English, and ignored by our Anglican Cathedral, Leonard had a right to decide upon it. Moreover, he trusted Margaret. He wanted her hardness now. That cold, intellectual nature of hers would be just, if unkind. He would do whatever she told him, even if he had to see Helen. That was the supreme punishment she would

Starting point is 11:21:19 exact. And perhaps she would tell him how Helen was. That, was the supreme reward. He knew nothing about Margaret, not even whether she was married to Mr. Wilcox, and tracking her out took several days. That evening he toiled through the wet to Wickham Place, where the new flats were now appearing. Was he also the cause of their move? Were they expelled from society on his account? Thence to a public library, but could find no satisfactory Schlegel in the directory. On the morrow he searched again. He hung about outside Mr. Wilcox, his office at lunchtime, and as the clerks came out said, "'Excuse me, sir, but is your boss married?'

Starting point is 11:22:00 Most of them stared. Some said, "'What's that to you?' But one, who had not yet acquired reticence, told him what he wished. Leonard could not learn the private address. That necessitated more trouble with directories and tubes. Doocy Street was not discovered till the Monday, the day that Margaret and her husband went down on their hunting expedition to Howard's end. He called at about four o'clock.

Starting point is 11:22:26 The weather had changed, and the sun shone gaily on the ornamental steps, black and white marble in triangles. Leonard lowered his eyes to them after ringing the bell. He felt in curious health. Doors seemed to be opening and shutting inside his body, and he had been obliged to sleep sitting up in bed, with his back propped against the wall. When the parlour maid came he could not see her face. The brown rain had descended suddenly. Does Mrs. Wilcox live here? He asked.

Starting point is 11:22:55 "'She's out,' was the answer. "'When will she be back?' "'I'll ask,' said the parlour-maid. Margaret had given instructions that no one who mentioned her name should ever be rebuffed. Putting the door on the chain, for Leonard's appearance demanded this, she went through to the smoking-room which was occupied by Tibby. Tibby was asleep. He had had a good lunch.

Starting point is 11:23:17 Charles Wilcox had not yet rung him up for the distracting interview. He said drowsily, I don't know. Hilton. Howard's End. Who is it? I'll ask, sir. No, don't bother. They have taken the car to Howard's End, said the parlour-maid to Leonard. He thanked her and asked whereabouts that place was. You appear to want to know a good deal, she remarked. But Margaret had forbidden her to be mysterious. She told him against her better judgment that Howard Zend was in Hartfordshire. Is it a village, please? Village! It's Mr. Wilcox's private house. At least it's one of them. Mrs. Wilcox keeps a furniture there. Hilton is the village. Yes, and when will they be back?

Starting point is 11:24:06 Mr. Schlegel doesn't know. We can't know everything, can we? She shut him out, and went to attend to the telephone, which was ringing furiously. He loitered away another night of agony. Confession grew more difficult. As soon as possible he went to bed. He watched a patch of moonlight cross the floor of their lodging, and, as sometimes happens when the mind is overtaxed, he fell asleep for the rest of the room, but kept awake for the patch of moonlight. Horrible. Then began one of those disintegrating dialogues. Part of him said, Why horrible? It's ordinary light from the room. But it moves. So does the moon. But it is a clenched. fist. Why not? But it is going to touch me. Let it. And seeming to gather motion the patch

Starting point is 11:24:58 ran up his blanket. Presently a blue snake appeared, then another parallel to it. Is there life in the moon? Of course. But I thought it was uninhabited. Not by time, death, judgment, and the smaller snakes. Smaller snakes, said Leonard indignantly and aloud. What a notion. By a rending of the will he woke the rest of the room up. Jackie, the bed, their food, their clothes on the chair, gradually entered his consciousness, and the horror vanished outwards, like a ring that is spreading through water. I say, Jackie, I'm going out for a bit. She was breathing regularly. The patch of light fell clear of the striped blanket and began to cover the shawl that lay over her feet. Why had he been afraid? He went to the window.

Starting point is 11:25:49 and saw that the moon was descending through a clear sky. He saw her volcanoes, and the bright expanses that a gracious air has named seas. They paled, for the sun, who had lit them up, was coming to light the earth. Sea of serenity, sea of tranquility, ocean of the lunar storms, merged into one lucent drop, itself to slip into the sepaternal dawn. And he had been afraid of the moon. He dressed among the contending lights and went through his money. It was running low again, but enough for a return ticket to Hilton.

Starting point is 11:26:26 As it clinked, Jackie opened her eyes. Hello, Len. What ho, Len? What ho, Jackie? See you again later. She turned over and slept. The house was unlocked, their landlord being a salesman at Covent Garden. Leonard passed out and made his way down to the station.

Starting point is 11:26:46 The train, though it was a man. it did not start for an hour, was already drawn up at the end of the platform, and he lay down in it and slept. With the first jolt he was in daylight. They had left the gateways of King's Cross and were under blue sky. Tunnels followed, and after each the sky grew bluer, and from the embankment at Finsbury Park he had his first sight of the sun. It rolled along behind the eastern smokes, a wheel whose fellow was the descending moon, and as yet it seemed the servant of the blue sky, not its lord. He dozed again.

Starting point is 11:27:20 Over two in water it was day. To the left fell the shadow of the embankment and its arches. To the right Leonard saw up into the two in woods and towards the church, with its wild legend of immortality. Six forest trees, that is a fact, grow out of one of the graves in two in churchyard. The graves occupant, that is the legend, is an atheist, who declared that if God existed,

Starting point is 11:27:45 six forest trees would go out of her grave. These things in Hartfordshire, and farther afield, lay the house of a hermit, Mrs. Wilcox had known him, who barred himself up and wrote prophecies, and gave all he had to the poor. Wall powdered in between were the villas of businessmen, who saw life more steadily, though with the steadiness of the half-closed eye. Over all the sun was streaming, to all the birds were singing, to all the primroses were yellow and the Speedwell blue, and the country, however they interpreted her, was uttering her cry of, now. She did not free Leonard yet, and the knife plunged deeper into his heart

Starting point is 11:28:27 as the train drew up at Hilton, but remorse had become beautiful. Hilton was asleep, or at the earliest, breakfasting. Leonard noticed the contrast when he stepped out of it into the country. Here men had been up since dawn. Their hours were ruled, not by a London office, but by the movements of the crops and the sun, that they were men of the finest type only the sentimentalist can declare. But they kept to the life of daylight. They are England's hope. Clumsily they carry forward the torch of the sun, until such time as the nation sees fit

Starting point is 11:29:02 to take it up. Half Coddhopper, half school-board prig, they can still throw back to a nobler stock, and breed yeoman. At the chalk-pit a motor passed him. it was another type whom nature favors, the imperial. Healthy, ever in motion, it hopes to inherit the earth. It breeds as quickly as the yeoman, and as soundly. Strong is the temptation to acclaim it as a super-yoman, who carries his country's virtue

Starting point is 11:29:31 overseas. But the imperialist is not what he thinks or seems. He is a destroyer. He prepares the way for cosmopolitanism, and though his ambitions may be fulfilled, the earth that he inherits will be gray. To Leonard, intent on his private sin, there came the conviction of innate goodness elsewhere. It was not the optimism which he had been taught at school.

Starting point is 11:29:56 Again and again must the drums tap, and the goblins stalk over the universe, before joy can be purged of the superficial. It was rather paradoxical, and arose from his sorrow. Death destroys a man, but the idea of death saves him. that is the best account of it that has yet been given squalor and tragedy can beckon to all that is great in us and strengthen the wings of love they can beckon it is not certain that they will for they are not love's servants but they can beckon and the knowledge of this incredible truth comforted him as he approached the house all thought stopped contradictory notions stood side by side in his mind he was terrified but happy ashamed ashamed

Starting point is 11:30:42 but had done no sin. He knew the confession. Mrs. Wilcox, I have done wrong. But Sunrise had robbed its meaning, and he felt rather on a supreme adventure. He entered a garden, steadied himself against a motor-car that he found in it, found a door open and entered a house. Yes, it would be very easy. From a room to the left he heard voices, Margaret's amongst them. His own name was called aloud, and a man whom he had never seen said, Oh, is he there? I am not surprised. I now thrash him within an inch of his life. Mrs. Wilcox, said Leonard, I have done wrong. The man took him by the collar and cried, Bring me a stick! Women were screaming. A stick, very bright, descended. It hurt him,

Starting point is 11:31:36 not where it descended, but in the heart. Books fell over him. Books fell over him in a shower. Nothing had sense. "'Get some water,' commanded Charles. "'Who had all through kept very calm. "'He's shamming. Of course I only use the blade. Here, carry him out into the air.' Thinking that he understood these things, Margaret obeyed him. They laid Leonard, who was dead, on the gravel.

Starting point is 11:32:03 Helen poured water over him. "'That's enough,' said Charles. "'Yes. "'Murders enough,' said Miss Avery, "'coming out of the house with the sword. "'End of Chapter 42 of Howard's End. "'This is a Libervox recording. "'All Librevox recordings are in the public domain.

Starting point is 11:32:32 "'For more information or to volunteer, "'please visit Libravox.org. "'Recording by Elizabeth Clet. "'Howard's End by E. M. Forster. "'Chapter 42. when charles left ducy street he had caught the first train home but had no inkling of the newest development until late at night then his father who had dined alone sent for him and in very grave tones inquired for margaret i don't know where she is pater said charles dolly kept back dinner nearly an hour for her tell me when she comes in another hour passed the servants went to bed and charles visited his father again to receive her further instructions. Mrs. Wilcox had still not returned.

Starting point is 11:33:22 "'I'll sit up for her as late as you like, but she can hardly be coming. Isn't she stopping with her sister at the hotel?' "'Perhaps,' said Mr. Wilcox thoughtfully. "'Perhaps.' "'Can I do anything for you, sir?' "'Not to-night, my boy.' Mr. Wilcox liked being called sir. He raised his eyes and gave his son more open a look of tenderness than he usually ventured. He saw Charles as little boy and strong man in one. Though his wife had proved unstable, his children were left to him. After midnight he tapped on Charles's door.

Starting point is 11:34:00 I can't sleep, he said. I had better have a talk with you and get it over. He complained of the heat. Charles took him out into the garden, and they paced up and down in their dressing-gowns. Charles became very quiet as the story unrolled. He had known all along that Mark was as bad as her sister. She will feel differently in the morning, said Mr. Wilcox, who had, of course, said nothing about Mrs. Bast. But I cannot let this kind of thing continue without comment. I am morally certain that she is with her sister at Howard's End.

Starting point is 11:34:33 The house is mine. And, Charles, it will be yours. And when I say that no one is to live there, I mean that no one is to live there. I won't have it. He looked angrily at the moon. To my mind, this question is concerned. connected with something far greater, the rights of property itself." "'Undoubtedly,' said Charles.

Starting point is 11:34:54 Mr. Wilcox linked his arm in his sons, but somehow liked him less as he told him more. "'I don't want you to conclude that my wife and I had anything of the nature of a quarrel. She was only overwrought, as who would not be. I shall do all that I can for Helen. But on the understanding that they clear out of the house at once—do you see—that is a sine qua non. then at eight to-morrow i may go up in the car eight or earlier say that you are acting as my representative and of course use no violence charles on the morrow as charles returned leaving leonard dead upon the gravel it did not seem to him that he had used violence death was due to heart disease his stepmother herself had said so and even miss avery had acknowledged that he had only used the flat of the sword on his way through the village he had used the foot he had used the flat of the sword on his way through the village he had used the informed the police, who thanked him, and said there must be an inquest. He found his father in the

Starting point is 11:35:52 garden, shading his eyes from the sun. "'It has been pretty horrible,' said Charles gravely. "'They were there, and they had the man up there with them, too.' "'What? What man?' "'I told you last night. His name was Bast.' "'My God, is it possible?' said Mr. Wilcox. "'In your mother's house?' "'Charles. In your mother's house.' house. I know, Peter. That was what I felt. As a matter of fact, there is no need to trouble

Starting point is 11:36:23 about the man. He was in the last stages of heart disease, and just before I could show him what I thought of him, he went off. The police are seeing about it at this moment. Mr. Wilcox listened attentively. I got up there—oh, it couldn't have been more than half-past seven. The Avery woman is lighting a fire for them. They were still upstairs. I waited in the drawing-room. We were all moderately civil and collected, though I had my suspicions. I gave them your message, and Mrs. Wilcox said, Oh, yes, I see, yes, in that way of hers. Nothing else. I promised to tell you, with her love, that she was going to Germany with her sister this evening. That was all we had time for. Mr. Wilcox seemed relieved. Because by then I suppose the man got tired of hiding, for suddenly Mrs. Wilcox

Starting point is 11:37:14 screamed out his name. I recognised it, and I went for him in the hall. Was I right, Peter? I thought things were going a little too far. Right, my dear boy. I don't know. But he would have been no son of mine if you hadn't. Then he did just—just crumple up, as you said.

Starting point is 11:37:36 He shrunk from the simple word. He caught hold of the bookcase, which came down over him. So I merely put the sword down and carried him into the garden. We all thought he was shanked. "'However, he's dead right enough. Awful business.' "'Sword!' cried his father, with anxiety in his voice. "'What sword? Whose sword?' "'A sword of theirs.'

Starting point is 11:38:00 "'What were you doing with it?' "'Well, didn't you see, Peter, I had to snatch up the first thing handy. I hadn't a riding whip or stick. I caught him once or twice over the shoulders with the flat of their old German sword.' "'Then what?' he pulled over the bookcase as i said and fell said charles with a sigh it was no fun doing errands for his father who was never quite satisfied but the real cause was heart disease of that you're sure that were fit however we shall hear more than enough at the inquest on such unsavory topics they went into breakfast charles had a racking headache consequent on motoring before food he was also anxious about the few future, reflecting that the police must detain Helen and Margaret for the inquest and ferret the whole

Starting point is 11:38:49 thing out. He saw himself obliged to leave Hilton. One could not afford to live near the scene of a scandal. It was not fair on one's wife. His comfort was that the pater's eyes were opened at last. There would be a horrible smash-up, and probably a separation from Margaret. Then they would all start again, more as they had been in his mother's time. "'I think I'll go round to the police station,' said his father when breakfast was over. "'What for?' cried Dolly, who had still not been told. "'Very well, sir. Which car will you have?' "'I think I'll walk.'

Starting point is 11:39:26 "'It's a good half-mile,' said Charles, stepping into the garden. "'The sun's very hot for April. "'Shan't I take you up, and then perhaps a little spin round by Tewan?' "'You go on as if I didn't know my own mind.' said Mr. Wilcox fretfully. Charles hardened his mouth. You young fellows want ideas to get into a motor. I tell you I want to walk.

Starting point is 11:39:50 I'm very fond of walking. Oh, all right. I'm about the house if you want me for anything. I thought of not going up to the office today, if that is your wish. It is indeed, my boy, said Mr. Wilcox, and laid a hand on his sleeve. Charles did not like it. He was uneasy about his father, who did not seem himself this morning. There was a petulant touch about him, more like a woman. Could it be that

Starting point is 11:40:16 he was growing old? The Wilcoxes were not lacking in affection. They had it royally, but they did not know how to use it. It was the talent in the napkin, and for a warm-hearted man, Charles had conveyed very little joy. As he watched his father shuffling up the road, he had a vague regret, a wish that something had been different somewhere. A wish, the he did not express it thus, that he had been taught to say I in his youth. He meant to make up for Margaret's defection, but knew that his father had been very happy with her until yesterday. How had she done it? By some dishonest trick, no doubt, but how? Mr. Wilcox reappeared at eleven looking very tired. There was to be an inquest on Leonard's body tomorrow, and the police

Starting point is 11:41:06 required his son to attend. I expected that, said Charles. I shall naturally be the most important witness there. End of Chapter 42. Chapter 43 of Howard's End. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clet.

Starting point is 11:41:42 Howard's End by E. M. Forster. Chapter 43. Out of the turmoil and horror that had been begun with Aunt Julie's illness, and was not even to end with Leonard's death. It seemed impossible to Margaret that healthy life should re-emerge. Events succeeded in a logical, yet senseless train. People lost their humanity, and took values as arbitrary as those in a pack of playing cards. It was natural that Henry should do this, and cause Helen to do that, and then think her wrong for doing it. Natural that she herself should think him wrong. Natural that Leonard should want

Starting point is 11:42:18 to know how Helen was, and come, and Charles be angry with him for coming. Natural, but unreal. In this jangle of causes and effects, what had become of their true selves? Here Leonard lay dead in the garden from natural causes. Yet life was a deep, deep river, death a blue sky. Life was a house, death a wisp of hay, a flower, a tower. Life and death were anything and ever. And ever, except this ordered insanity, where the king takes the queen, and the ace the king. Ah, no. There was beauty and adventure behind, such as the man at her feet had yearned for. There was hope this side of the grave. There were truer relationships beyond the limits that fetter us now. As a prisoner looks up and sees stars beckoning, so she, from the turmoil and horror

Starting point is 11:43:14 of those days, caught glimpses of the diviner wheels. And Helen, dumb with fright, but trying to keep calm for the child's sake, and Miss Avery, calm, but murmuring tenderly. No one ever told the lad to have a child. They also reminded her that horror is not the end. To what ultimate harmony we tend she did not know, but there seemed great chance that a child would be born into the world, to take the great chances of beauty and adventure that the world offers. She moved through the sunlit garden, gathering Narcissi, crimson-eyed and white. There was nothing else to be done. The time for telegrams and anger was over, and it seemed wisest that the hands of Leonard should be folded on his breast and be filled with flowers. Here was the father. Leave it at that.

Starting point is 11:44:07 Let squalor be turned into tragedy, whose eyes are the stars, and whose hands hold the sunset and the dawn. And even the influx of officials, even the return of the doctor, vulgar and acute, could not shake her belief in the eternity of beauty. Science explained people, but could not understand them. After long centuries among the bones and muscles, it might be advancing to knowledge of the nerves, but this would never give understanding. One could open the heart to Mr. Mansbridge and his sort without discovering its secrets to them, for they wanted everything down in black and white, and black and white was

Starting point is 11:44:45 exactly what they were left with. They questioned her closely about Charles. She never suspected why. Death had come, and the doctor agreed that it was due to heart disease. They asked to see her father's sword. She explained that Charles's anger was natural, but mistaken. Miserable questions about Leonard followed, all of which she answered unfalteringly. Then back to Charles again.

Starting point is 11:45:12 No doubt Mr. Wilcox may have induced death, she said. said. But if it wasn't one thing, it would have been another, as you yourselves know. At last they thanked her, and took the sword and the body down to Hilton. She began to pick up the books from the floor. Helen had gone to the farm. It was the best place for her, since she had to wait for the inquest. Though, as if things were not hard enough, Madge and her husband had raised trouble. They did not see why they should receive the off-scowings of Howard's end. and of course they were right. The whole world was going to be right, and simply avenge any brave talk against the conventions.

Starting point is 11:45:52 Nothing matters, the Schlegelz had said in the past, except one's self-respect and that of one's friends. When the time came, other things mattered terribly. However, Madge had yielded, and Helen was assured of peace for one day and night, and to-morrow she would return to Germany. As for herself, she determined to go to. No message came from Henry. Perhaps he expected her to apologize.

Starting point is 11:46:20 Now that she had time to think over her own tragedy, she was unrepentant. She neither forgave him for his behavior nor wished to forgive him. Her speech to him seemed perfect. She would not have altered a word. It had to be uttered once in a life to adjust the lopsidedness of the world. It was spoken not only to her husband, but to thousands of men like him, a protest against the inner darkness in high places that comes with a commercial age. Though he would build up his life without hers, she could not apologize. He had refused to connect on the clearest issue that can be laid before a man, and their love must take the consequences. No, there was nothing more to be done. They had tried not to go over the precipice, but perhaps the fall was inevitable. And it comforted her

Starting point is 11:47:08 to think that the future was certainly inevitable. Cause and effect would go jangling forward to some goal doubtless, but to none that she could imagine. At such moments the soul retires within, to float upon the bosom of a deeper stream, and has communion with the dead, and sees the world's glory not diminished, but different and kind to what she has supposed. She alters her focus until trivial things are blurred. Margaret had been tending this way all the winter. Leonard's death brought her to the goal. Alas, that Henry should fade away as reality emerged. and only her love for him should remain clear, stamped with his image like the cameos we rescue out of dreams. With unfaltering eyes she traced his future.

Starting point is 11:47:53 He would soon present a healthy mind to the world again, and what did he or the world care if he was rotten at the core? He would grow into a rich, jolly old man, at times a little sentimental about women, but emptying his glass with anyone. Tenacious of power, he would keep Charles and the rest dependent, and retire from business reluctantly and at an advanced age. He would settle down, though she could not realize this. In her eyes Henry was always moving,

Starting point is 11:48:21 and causing others to move, until the ends of the earth met. But in time he must get too tired to move and settle down. What next? The inevitable word. The release of the soul to its appropriate heaven. Would they meet in it? Margaret believed in immortality for herself. an eternal future had always seemed natural to her,

Starting point is 11:48:45 and Henry believed in it for himself. Yet would they meet again? Are there not rather endless levels beyond the grave as the theory that he had censured teaches? And his level, whether higher or lower, could it possibly be the same as hers? Thus gravely meditating, she was summoned by him. He sent up crane in the motor.

Starting point is 11:49:08 Other servants passed like water, but the chauffeur remained, though impertinent and disloyal. Margaret disliked Crane, and he knew it. Is it the keys that Mr. Wilcox wants? she asked. He didn't say, madam. You haven't any note for me. He didn't say, madam. After a moment's thought she locked up Howard's end.

Starting point is 11:49:33 It was pitiable to see in it the stirrings of warmth that would be quenched forever. She raked out the fire that was blazing in the kitchen. and spread the coals in the graveled yard. She closed the windows and drew the curtains. Henry would probably sell the place now. She was determined not to spare him, for nothing new had happened as far as they were concerned. Her mood might never have altered from yesterday evening.

Starting point is 11:49:57 He was standing a little outside Charles's gate and to motion the car to stop. When his wife got out, he said hoarsely, I prefer to discuss things with you outside. It will be more appropriate, in the road, I am afraid, said Margaret. Did you get my message? What about?

Starting point is 11:50:17 I am going to Germany with my sister. I must tell you now that I shall make it my permanent home. Our talk last night was more important than you have realised. I am unable to forgive you, and am leaving you. I am extremely tired, said Henry, in injured tones. I have been walking about all the morning, and wish to sit down. certainly if you will consent to sit on the grass the great north road should have been bordered all its length with glebe henry's kind had filched most of it she moved to the scrap opposite wherein were the six hills they sat down on the farther side so that they could not be seen by charles or dolly "'Here your keys,' said Margaret.

Starting point is 11:51:03 She tossed them towards him. They fell on the sunlit slope of grass, and he did not pick them up. "'I have something to tell you,' he said gently. She knew this superficial gentleness, this confession of hastiness, that was only intended to enhance her admiration of the male. "'I don't want to hear it,' she replied. "'My sister is going to be ill. My life is going to be with her now.

Starting point is 11:51:28 We must manage to build up something, she and I and her child. Where are you going? Munich. We start after the inquest if she is not too ill. After the inquest? Yes. Have you realised what the verdict at the inquest will be? Yes.

Starting point is 11:51:49 Heart disease. No, my dear. Manslaughter. Margaret drove her fingers through the grass. The hill beneath her moved as if it was alive. Manslaughter, repeated Mr. Wilcox. Charles may go to prison. I dare not tell him.

Starting point is 11:52:09 I don't know what to do. What to do. I'm broken. I'm ended. No sudden warmth arose in her. She did not see that to break him was her only hope. She did not enfold the sufferer in her arms. But all through that day and the next,

Starting point is 11:52:28 a new life began to move. The verdict was brought in. Charles was committed for trial. It was against all reason that he should be punished, but the law, being made in his image, sentenced him to three years' imprisonment. Then Henry's fortress gave way. He could bear no one but his wife. He shambled up to Margaret afterwards, and asked her to do what she could with him. She did what seemed easiest. She took him down to recruit at Howard's End. End of Chapter 43 Chapter 44 of Howard's End This is a Libravox recording.

Starting point is 11:53:15 All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Clet. Howard's End by E. M. Forster. Chapter 44 Tom's father was cutting the business. big meadow. He passed again and again amid whirring blades and sweet odors of grass, encompassing with narrowing circles the sacred center of the field. Tom was negotiating with Helen.

Starting point is 11:53:48 I haven't any idea, she replied. Do you suppose baby may, Meg? Margaret put down her work and regarded them absently. What was that? she asked. Tom wants to know where the baby is old enough to play with hay. I haven't the least known. answered Margaret and took up her work again now Tom baby is not to stand he is not to lie on his face he is not to lie so that his head wags he is not to be teased or tickled and he is not to be cut into two or more pieces by the cutter will you be as careful as all that Tom held out his arms that child is a wonderful nursemaid remarked Margaret he is fond of baby that's why he does it was helen's answer they're going to be lifelong friends starting at the ages of six and one of course it will be a great thing for tom it may be a greater thing for baby fourteen months had passed but margaret still stopped at howard's end no better plan had occurred to her the meadow was being recut the great red poppies were reopening in the garden July would follow with the little red poppies among the wheat, August with the cutting of the wheat. These little events would become part of her, year after year.

Starting point is 11:55:16 Every summer she would fear lest the well should give out. Every winter lest the pipes should freeze. Every westerly gale might blow the witch-elm down and bring the end of all things, and so she could not read or talk during a westerly gale. The air was tranquil now. She and her sister were sitting on the remains of Evie's rock, where the lawn merged into the field. "'What a time they all are,' said Helen.

Starting point is 11:55:42 "'What can they be doing inside?' Margaret, who was growing less talkative, made no answer. The noise of the cutter came intermittently, like the breaking of waves. Close by them a man was preparing to scythe out one of the dell-holes. "'I wish Henry was out to enjoy this,' said Helen. "'This lovely weather, and to be shut up in the house. it's very hard. It has to be, said Margaret.

Starting point is 11:56:10 The hay fever is his chief objection against living here, but he thinks it worthwhile. Meg, is or isn't he ill? I can't make out. Not ill. Eternally tired. He has worked very hard all his life and noticed nothing. Those are the people who collapse when they do notice a thing.

Starting point is 11:56:32 I suppose he worries dreadfully about his part of the tangle. Dreadfully, that is why I wish Dolly had not come to today. Still, he wanted them all to come. It has to be. Why does he want them? Margaret did not answer. Meg, may I tell you something? I like Henry. You'd be odd if you didn't, said Margaret.

Starting point is 11:57:00 I uscent to. Usent? She lowered her eyes a moment To the black abyss of the past They had crossed it Always accepting Leonard and Charles They were building up a new life obscure yet gilded with tranquility

Starting point is 11:57:15 Leonard was dead Charles had two more years in prison One us and always to see clearly before that time It was different now I like Henry Because he does worry And he likes you because you don't Helen sighed. She seemed humiliated and buried her face in her hands. After a time she said,

Starting point is 11:57:42 Above love, a transition less abrupt than it appeared. Margaret never stopped working. I mean a woman's love for a man. I supposed I should hang my life onto that once, and was driven up and down and about as if something was worrying through me. But everything is peaceful now. I seem cured. that herr forstmeister whom frieda keeps writing about must be a noble character but he doesn't see that i shall never marry him or any one it isn't shame or mistrust of myself i simply couldn't i'm ended i used to be so dreamy about a man's love as a girl and think that for good or evil love must be the great thing but it hasn't been it has been itself a dream "'Do you agree?' "'I do not agree. I do not.' "'I ought to remember Leonard as my lover,' said Helen, stepping down into the field.

Starting point is 11:58:44 "'I tempted him, and killed him, and it is surely the least I can do. "'I would like to throw out all my heart to Leonard on such an afternoon as this. "'But I cannot. It is no good pretending. "'I am forgetting him.' Her eyes filled with tears. How nothing seems to match. How, my darling, my precious, she broke off. Tommy!

Starting point is 11:59:13 Yes, please. Babies not to try and stand. There's something wanting in me. I see you loving Henry and understanding him better daily, and I know that death wouldn't part you in the least. But I— Is it some awful, appalling criminal defect.

Starting point is 11:59:34 Margaret silenced her. She said, It is only that people are far more different than is pretended. All over the world, men and women are worrying because they cannot develop as they are supposed to develop. Here and there they have the matter out, and it comforts them. Don't fret yourself, Helen. Develop what you have.

Starting point is 11:59:56 Love your child. I do not love children. I am thankful to have none. I can play with their beauty and charm, but that is all. Nothing real, not one scrap of what there ought to be. And others. Others go farther still, and move outside humanity altogether. A place, as well as a person, may catch the glow. Don't you see that all this leads to comfort in the end? It is part of the battle against sameness. Differences. Eternal, difference. differences, planted by God in a single family, so that there may always be colour. Sorrow, perhaps, but colour in the daily grey. Then I can't have you worrying about Leonard. Don't drag in the personal when it will not come.

Starting point is 12:00:49 Forget him, yes. Yes, but what has Leonard got out of life? Perhaps an adventure. Is that enough? Not for us, but for him. Helen took up a bunch of grass. She looked at the sorrel and the red and white and yellow clover, and the quaker grass, and the daisies, and the bents that composed it.

Starting point is 12:01:17 She raised it to her face. Is it sweetening yet? asked Margaret. No, only with it. It will sweeten tomorrow. Helen smiled. "'Oh, Meg, you are a person,' she said. "'Think of the racket and torture this time last year. "'But now I couldn't stop unhappy if I tried.

Starting point is 12:01:40 "'What a change! "'And all through you!' "'Oh, we merely settled down. "'You and Henry learnt to understand one another and to forgive, "'all through the autumn and the winter.' "'Yes, but who settled us down?' "'Margaret did not reply. "'The sithing had begun.

Starting point is 12:01:59 and she took off her panse-nay to watch it. "'You!' cried Helen. "'You did it all, sweetest, though you're too stupid to see. Living here was your plan. I wanted you, he wanted you, and everyone said it was impossible, but you knew. Just think of our lives without you, Meg. I and baby with Monica, revolting by theory, he handed about from Dolly to Evie. But you picked up the pieces, and made us a home.

Starting point is 12:02:29 Can't it strike you even for a moment that your life has been heroic? Can't you remember the two months after Charles's arrest, when you began to act, and did all? You were both ill at the time, said Margaret. I did the obvious things. I had two invalids to nurse. Here was a house, ready, furnished, and empty. It was obvious. I didn't know myself it would turn into a permanent home.

Starting point is 12:02:57 No doubt I have done a little towards straightening. the tangle, but things that I can't phrase have helped me. I hope it will be permanent, said Helen, drifting away to other thoughts. I think so. There are moments when I feel Howard's end peculiarly our own. All the same, London's creeping. She pointed over the meadow, over eight or nine meadows, but at the end of them was a red rust. You see that in Surrey, and even Hampshire now, she continued. I can see it from the Purbeck Downs. And London is only part of something else, I'm afraid.

Starting point is 12:03:36 Life's going to be melted down all over the world. Margaret knew that her sister spoke truly. Howard's End, Arnaton, the Purbeck Downs, the Oderberg, were all survivals, and the melting pot was being prepared for them. Logically they had no right to be alive. One's hope was in the weakness of logic. were they possibly the earth-beating time. Because the thing is going strong now, it need not go strong forever, she said.

Starting point is 12:04:07 This craze for motion is only set in during the last hundred years. It may be followed by a civilization that won't be a movement, because it will rest on the earth. All the signs are against it now, but I can't help hoping. And very early in the morning in the garden, I feel that our house is the future, as well as the past. They turned and looked at it. Their own memories coloured it now, for Helen's child had been born

Starting point is 12:04:34 in the central room of the nine. Then Margaret said, Oh, take care! For something moved behind the window of the hall, and the door opened. The conclave's breaking at last. I'll go. It was Paul.

Starting point is 12:04:51 Helen retreated with the children far into the field. Friendly voices greeted her. Margaret rose to encounter a man with a heavy black moustache. "'My father is asked for you,' he said with hostility. She took her work and followed him. "'We have been talking business,' he continued. "'But I dare say you knew all about it beforehand.'

Starting point is 12:05:13 "'Yes, I did.' "'Clumsy of movement, for he had spent all his life in the saddle. Paul drove his foot against the paint of the front door. Mrs. Wilcox gave a little cry. of annoyance. She did not like anything scratched. She stopped in the hall to take Dolly's boa and gloves out of a vase. Her husband was lying in a great leather armchair in the dining room, and by his side, holding his hand rather ostentatiously, was Evie. Dolly, dressed in purple, sat near the window. The room was a little dark and airless. They were obliged to keep it like this until the

Starting point is 12:05:50 carting of the hay. Margaret joined the family without speaking. The five of them had the met already at tea, and she knew quite well what was going to be said. Averse to wasting her time, she went on sewing. The clerk struck six. "'Is this going to suit everyone?' said Henry, in a weary voice. He used the old phrases, but their effect was unexpected and shadowy. "'Because I don't want you all coming here later on and complaining that I have been unfair.' "'It's apparently got to suit us,' said Paul. I beg your pardon, my boy. You have only to speak, and I will leave the house to you instead. Paul frowned ill-temperedly, and began scratching at his arm.

Starting point is 12:06:35 As I have given up the outdoor life that suited me, and I have come home to look after the business, it's no good my settling down here, he said at last. It's not really the country, and it's not the town. Very well. Does my arrangement suit you, Evie? Of course, father. "'And you, Dolly.' "'Dolly raised her faded little face, "'which sorrow could wither but not steady. "'Perfectly splendidly,' she said.

Starting point is 12:07:04 "'I thought Charles wanted it for the boys. "'But last time I saw him he said no, "'because we cannot possibly live in this part of England again. "'Charles says we ought to change our name, "'but I cannot think what too. "'For Wilcox just suits Charles and me, "'and I can't think of any other name.' There is a general silence.

Starting point is 12:07:25 Dolly looked nervously round, fearing that she had been inappropriate. Paul continued to scratch his arm. Then I leave Howard's end to my wife, absolutely, said Henry, and let everyone understand that. And after I am dead, let there be no jealousy and no surprise. Margaret did not answer. There was something uncanny in her triumph. She, who had never expected to conquer anyone,

Starting point is 12:07:51 had charged straight through these Wilcoxes and broken up their lives. In consequence, I leave my wife no money, said Henry. That is her own wish. All that she would have had will be divided among you. I am also giving you a great deal in my lifetime, so that you may be independent of me. That is her wish, too. She also is giving away a great deal of money.

Starting point is 12:08:16 She intends to diminish her income by half during the next ten years. She intends when she dies to leave the house to her—to her nephew, down in the field. Is that all clear? Does everyone understand? Paul rose to his feet. He was accustomed to natives, and very little shook him out of the Englishman. Feeling manly and cynical, he said, Down in the field!

Starting point is 12:08:42 Oh, come! I think we might have had the whole establishment Pickeninies included. Mrs. Cahill whispered. Don't, Paul. You promised you'd take care. Feeling a woman of the world, she rose and prepared to take her leave. Her father kissed her. Good-bye, old girl, he said. Don't you worry about me?

Starting point is 12:09:03 Goodbye, Dad. Then it was Dolly's turn. Anxious to contribute, she laughed nervously and said, Goodbye, Mr. Wilcox. It does seem curious that Mrs. Wilcox should have left Margaret Howard's end, and yet she gets it after all. from evie came a sharply drawn breath good-bye she said to margaret and kissed her and again and again fell the word like the ebb of a dying sea good-bye good-bye dolly so long father good-bye my boy always take care of yourself good-bye mrs wilcox good-bye

Starting point is 12:09:44 margaret saw their visitors to the gate then she returned to her husband and laid her head in his hands he was pitiably tired but dolly's remark had interested her at last she said could you tell me henry what was that about mrs wilcox having left me howard's end tranquilly he replied yes she did but that is a very old story when she was ill and you were so kind to her she wanted to make you some return and not being herself at the time scribbled howards end on a piece of paper i went into it thoroughly and as it was clearly fanciful i set it aside little knowing what my margaret would be to me in the future margaret was silent something shook her life in its inmost recesses, and she shivered. "'I didn't do wrong, did I?' he asked, bending down. "'You didn't, darling. Nothing has been done wrong.' "'From the garden came laughter. "'Here they are at last,' exclaimed Henry, disengaging himself with a smile.

Starting point is 12:10:56 "'Helen rushed into the gloom, holding Tom by one hand and carrying her baby on the other. There were shouts of infectious joy. the fields cut helen cried excitedly the big meadow we've seen to the very end and it'll be such a crop of hay as never waybridge nineteen o eight to nineteen ten end of howard's end by e m forster

Classic Audiobook Collection - Howards End by E. M. Forster ~ Full Audiobook [drama]

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.