Classic Audiobook Collection - The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery ~ Full Audiobook [romance]

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Chapter 1 If it had not rained on a certain May morning, Valancy Sterling's whole life would have been entirely different. She would have gone with the rest of her clan to Aunt Wellington's engagement picnic, and Dr. Trent would have gone to Montreal. But it did rain, and you shall hear what happened to her because of it. Valancy wakened early in the lifeless, hopeless,

Starting point is 00:00:30 hour just preceding dawn. She had not slept very well. One does not sleep well sometimes when one is 29 on the morrow, and unmarried, in a community and connection where the unmarried are simply those who have failed to get a man. Deerwood and the Sterlings had long since relegated Valancy to hopeless old maidenhood. But Valancy herself had never quite relinquished a certain pitiful, shamed little hope that romance would come her way yet. Never until this wet, horrible morning, when she waked to the fact that she was 29 and unsought by any man. I there laid the sting.

Starting point is 00:01:14 Valancy did not mind so much being an old maid. After all, she thought, being an old maid couldn't possibly be as dreadful as being married to an Uncle Wellington or an Uncle Benjamin, or even an Uncle Herbert. What hurt her was that she had never had a chance to be anything but an old maid. No man had ever desired her. The tears came into her eyes as she lay there alone in the faintly graying darkness. She dared not let herself cry as hard as she wanted to for two reasons.

Starting point is 00:01:49 She was afraid that crying might bring on another attack of that pain around her heart. She had had a spell of it after she had got it. into bed, rather worse than any she had had yet, and she was afraid her mother would notice her red eyes at breakfast and keep at her with minute, persistent mosquito-like questions regarding the cause thereof. Suppose, thought Valancy with a ghastly grin, I answered with the plain truth. I am crying because I cannot get married. How horrified mother would be, though she is ashamed every day of her life of her old-maid daughter. But of course appearances should be kept up. It is not Valancy could hear her mother's prim dictatorial voice asserting. It is not maidenly to

Starting point is 00:02:41 think about men. The thought of her mother's expression made Valancy laugh, for she had a sense of humor nobody in her clan suspected. For that matter, there were a good many things about Valancy that nobody suspected. But her laughter was very superficial, and presently she lay there a huddled, futile little figure, listening to the rain pouring down outside, and watching, with a sick distaste, the chill, merciless light creeping into her ugly, sordid room.

Starting point is 00:03:13 She knew the ugliness of that room by heart, knew it and hated it. The yellow-painted floor with one hideous hooked rug by the bed, with a grotesque, hooked dog on it, always grinning at her when she awoke. The faded dark red paper, the ceiling discolored by old leaks and crossed by cracks, the narrow pinched little washstand, the brown paper lambrequin with purple roses on it, the spotted old-looking glass with the crack across it, propped up on the inadequate dressing table. The jar of ancient po'-pery, made by her mother

Starting point is 00:03:52 in her mythical honeymoon. The shell-covered box with one burst corner, which cousin's stickles had made in her equally mythical girlhood. The beaded pincushion with half its bead fringe gone, the one stiff yellow chair, the faded old motto, gone but not forgotten, worked in colored yarns about great-grandmother Sterling's grim old face. The old photographs of ancient relatives long banished

Starting point is 00:04:22 from the rooms below. There were only two pictures that were not of relatives. One, an old chromo of a puppy sitting on a rainy doorstep. That picture always made Valancy unhappy. That forlorn little dog crouched on the doorstep in the driving rain. Why didn't someone open the door and let him in? The other picture was a faded passe-partouted engraving of Queen Louise coming down a stairway, which on Wellington had lavishly given her on her 10th birthday. For 19 years she had looked at it and hated it. Beautiful, smug, self-satisfied Queen Louise, but she never dared destroy it or remove it. Mother and cousin Stickles would have been aghast, or, as Valancy irreverently expressed it in her thoughts, would have had a fit. Every room in the house was ugly, of course, but downstairs,

Starting point is 00:05:21 appearances were kept up somewhat. There was no money for rooms nobody ever saw. Valancy sometimes felt that she could have done something for her room herself, even without money, if she were permitted. But her mother had negated every timid suggestion that Valancy did not persist. Valancy never persisted. She was afraid to. Her mother could not brook opposition. Mrs. Sterling would sulk for days if offended, with the of an insulted Duchess. The only thing Valancy liked about her room was that she could be alone there at night to cry if she wanted to. But after all, what did it matter if a room which you used for nothing except sleeping and dressing in were ugly? Valancy was never permitted to

Starting point is 00:06:10 stay alone in her room for any other purpose. People who wanted to be alone, so Mrs. Frederick Sterling and Cousin Stickles believed, could only want to be alone for some sinister purpose. purpose. But her room in the blue castle was everything a room should be. Valancy so cowed and subdued and overridden and snubbed in real life was want to let herself go rather splendidly in her daydreams. Nobody in the Sterling clan or its ramifications suspected this, least of all her mother and cousin's stickels. They never knew that Valancy had two homes. The ugly red brick box of a home, on Elm Street and the Blue Castle in Spain. Valancy had lived spiritually in the Blue Castle ever since she could remember.

Starting point is 00:07:01 She had been a very tiny child when she found herself possessed of it. Always when she shut her eyes, she could see it plainly, with its turrets and banners on the pine-clad mountain height, wrapped in its faint blue loveliness against the sunset skies of a fair and unknown land. Everything wonderful and beautiful was in that castle. Jewels that queens might have worn, robes of moonlight and fire, couches of roses and gold, long flights of shallow marble steps with great white urns, and with slender mist-clad maidens going up and down them. Courts marble pillared, where shimmering fountains fell and nightingale sang among the myrtles. Hulls of mirrors that reflected only handsome knights and lovely women, herself the loveliest of all, for whose glance men died. All that supported her through the boredom of her days was the hope of going on a dream spree at night. Most, if not all, of the sterlings would have died of horror if they had known half the things Valancy

Starting point is 00:08:11 did in her blue castle. For one thing, she had quite a few lovers in it. Oh, only one at a time. one who wooed her with all the romantic ardor of the age of chivalry, and won her after long devotion and many deeds of daring do, and was wedded to her with pomp and circumstance in the great Bannerhung Chapel of the Blue Castle. At twelve, this lover was a fair lad with golden curls and heavenly blue eyes. At fifteen, he was tall and dark and pale, but still necessarily handsome. At 25, he had a clean-cut jaw, slightly grim, and a face strong and rugged rather than handsome. Valancy never grew older than 25 in her blue castle, but recently, very recently, her hero had had reddish tawny hair, a twisted smile, and a mysterious past. I don't say Valancy deliberately murdered these lovers as she outgrew them. One simply faded away as another came.

Starting point is 00:09:17 Things are very convenient in this respect in blue castles. But on this morning of her day of fate, Valancy could not find the key of her blue castle. Reality pressed on her too hardly, barking at her heels like a maddening little dog. She was 29, lonely, undesired, ill-favored, the only homely girl in a handsome clan, with no past and no future. As far as she could look forward, it seemed certain to be just the same until she was nothing but a solitary little withered leaf clinging to a wintry bow. The moment when a woman realizes that she has nothing to live for, neither love, duty, purpose, nor hope, holds for her the bitterness of death. And I have to go on living because I can't stop. I may have to live 80 years, thought Valancy in a kind of panic.

Starting point is 00:10:13 We're all horribly long-lived. It sickens me to think of it. She was glad it was raining, or rather she was drearily satisfied that it was raining. There would be no picnic that day. This annual picnic, whereby Aunt and Uncle Wellington, one always thought of them in that succession, inevitably celebrated their engagement at a picnic 30 years before, had been of late years a veritable nightmare to Vlancy. By an impish coincidence, it was the same day as her birthday, and after she had passed 25, nobody let her forget it.

Starting point is 00:10:51 Which is she hated going to the picnic. It would never have occurred to her to rebel against it. There seemed to be nothing of the revolutionary in her nature, and she knew exactly what everyone would say to her at the picnic. Uncle Wellington, whom she disliked and despaired even though he had fulfilled the highest sterling aspiration, marrying money, would say to her in a pig's whisper, not thinking of getting married yet, my dear, and then often to the vellow of laughter, with which he invariably concluded his dull remarks. Aunt Wellington, of whom Valancy

Starting point is 00:11:28 stood in abject awe, would tell her about Olive's new chiffon dress, and Cecil's last devoted letter. Valancy would have to look as pleased and interested, as if the the dress and the letter had been hers, or else Aunt Wellington would be offended. And Falancy had long ago decided that she would rather offend God than Aunt Wellington, because God might forgive her, but Aunt Wellington never would. Aunt Alberta enormously fat, with an amiable habit of always referring to her husband as he, as if he were the only male creature in the world, who could never forget that she had been a great beauty in her youth, would condole with Valancy on her sallow skin.

Starting point is 00:12:15 Don't know why all the girls of today are so sunburned. When I was a girl, my skin was roses and cream. I was counted the prettiest girl in Canada, my dear. Perhaps Uncle Herbert wouldn't say anything, or perhaps he would remark jocularly, how fat you're getting, Doss? And then everybody would laugh over the excessively humorous idea of poor, scrawny little Doss getting fat.

Starting point is 00:12:42 Handsome, solemn Uncle James, whom Valancy disliked but respected because he was reputed to be very clever and was therefore the clan oracle, brains being none too plentiful in the Sterling connection, would probably remark with the owl-like sarcasm that had won him his reputation. I suppose you're busy with your hope chest these days.

Starting point is 00:13:05 And Uncle Benjamin would ask some of his abominable conundrums between wheezy chuckles and answer them himself. What is the difference between Doss and a mouse? The mouse wishes to harm the cheese and Doss wishes to charm the hees. Valancy had heard him ask that riddle 50 times and every time she wanted to throw something at him, but she never did. In the first place, the Sterling simply did not throw things. In the second place, Uncle Benjamin was.

Starting point is 00:13:37 a wealthy and childless old widower, and Valancy had been brought up in the fear and admonition of his money. If she offended him, he would cut her out of his will, supposing she were in it. Valancy did not want to be cut out of Uncle Benjamin's will. She had been poor all her life and knew the galling bitterness of it. So she endured his riddles and even smiled tortured little smiles over him. Aunt Isabel, downright indiscreeable, as an east wind, would criticize her in some way. Valancy could not predict just how, for Aunt Isabel never repeated a criticism. She found something new with which to jab you every time. Aunt Isabel prided herself on saying what she thought, but didn't like it so well when other people said what they thought to her.

Starting point is 00:14:30 Valancy never said what she thought. Cousin Georgiana, named after her great-great-grandmother, who had been named after George IV, would recount dolorously the names of all relatives and friends who had died since the last picnic and wonder which of us will be the first to go next. Oppressively competent Aunt Mildred would talk endlessly of her husband and her odious prodigies of babies to Valancy because Valancy would be the only one she could find to prep with her. For the same reason, Cousin Gladys, really first Cousin Gladys once removed, according to the strict way in which the Sterling's tabulated relationship, a tall, thin lady who admitted she had a sensitive disposition would describe minutely the tortures of her neuritis. An Olive, the wonder girl of the whole Sterling clan, who had everything Valancy had not. Beauty, popularity, love, would show off her beauty and presume on her popularity and flaunt her diamond insignia of love in Valancy's dazzled envious eyes.

Starting point is 00:15:41 There would be none of all this today. There would be no packing up of teaspoons. The packing up was always left for Valancy and cousin's stickles, and once six years ago, a silver teaspoon from Aunt Wellington's wedding set had been lost. Valancy never heard the last of that silver teaspoon. Its ghost appeared banquil-like in every subsequent family feats. Oh yes, Valancy knew exactly what the picnic would be like, and she blessed the rain that had saved her from it. There would be no picnic this year. If Aunt Wellington could not celebrate on the sacred day itself,

Starting point is 00:16:22 she would have no celebration at all. Thank whatever gods there were for that. Since there would be no picnic, Valancy made up her mind that, if the rain held up in the afternoon, she would go up to the library and get another of John Foster's books. Valancy was never allowed to read novels, but John Foster's books were not novels. They were nature books, so the librarian told Mrs. Frederick Sterling, all about the woods and birds and bugs and things like that, you know. So Valancy was allowed to read them under protest, for it was only too evident that she enjoyed them too much.

Starting point is 00:17:01 It was permissible, even laudable, to read to improve your mind and your religion, but a book that was enjoyable was dangerous. Valancy did not know whether her mind was being improved or not, but she felt vaguely that if she had come across John Foster's books years ago, life might have been a different thing for her. They seemed to her to yield glimpses of a world into which she might once have entered, though the door was forever barred to her now. It was only within the last year that John Foster's books had been in the Deerwood Library,

Starting point is 00:17:36 though the librarian told Valancy that he had been a well-known writer for several years. Where does he live? Lancy had asked. Nobody knows. From his books, he must be a Canadian, but no more information can be had. His publishers won't say a word. Quite likely, John Foster is a nom de plume. His books are so popular we can't keep it. them in at all, though I really can't see what people find in them to rave over.

Starting point is 00:18:06 I think they're wonderful, said Valancy timidly. Oh, well, Miss Clarkson smiled in a patronizing fashion that relegated Valancy's opinions to limbo. I can't say I care much for bugs myself, but certainly Foster seems to know all there is to know about them. Valancy didn't know whether she cared much for bugs either. It was not John Foster's uncanny knowledge of wild creatures and insect life that enthralled her. She could hardly say what it was. Some tantalizing lure of a mystery never revealed. Some hint of a great secret just a little further on.

Starting point is 00:18:45 Some faint, elusive echo of lovely forgotten things. John Foster's magic was indefinable. Yes, she would go get a new Foster book. It was a month since she had thistle harvest, so surely Mother could not object. Valancy had read it four times. She knew whole passages off by heart, and she almost thought she would go and see Dr. Trent about that queer pain around the heart. It had come rather often lately, and the palpitations were becoming annoying, not to speak of an occasional dizzy moment and a queer shortness of breath. But could she go to him without telling anyone?

Starting point is 00:19:28 It was a most daring thought. None of the Sterlings ever consulted a doctor without holding a family council and getting Uncle James's approval. Then they went to Dr. Ambrose Marsh of Port Lawrence, who had married second cousin Adelaide Sterling. But Valancy disliked Dr. Ambrose Marsh, and besides, she could not get to Port Lawrence 15 miles away without being taken there. She did not want anyone to know about her hurt. There would be such a fuss made, and every member of the family would come down and talk it over and advise her and caution her and warn her and tell her horrible tales of great aunts and cousins 40 times removed, who had been just like that and dropped dead without a moment's warning, my dear. Aunt Isabel would remember that she had always said

Starting point is 00:20:21 Doss looked like a girl who would have heart trouble, so pinched and peeked always. And Uncle Wellington would take it as a personal insult, when no Sterling ever had heart disease before. And Georgiana would forebode in perfectly audible asides that poor dear Doss isn't long for this world, I'm afraid. And cousin Gladys would say, Why, my heart has been like that for years, in a tone that implies no one ever. else had any business even to have a heart. An olive, Olive would merely look beautiful and superior and disgustingly healthy as if to say why all this fuss over a faded superfluity like Doss when you have me. Blancy felt that she couldn't tell anybody unless she had to. She felt quite sure there was nothing at all seriously wrong with her heart and no need of all the pother that would ensue if

Starting point is 00:21:21 mentioned it. She would just slip up quietly and see Dr. Trent that very day. As for his bill, she had $200 that her father had put in the bank for her the day she was born, but she would secretly take out enough to pay Dr. Trent. She was never allowed to use even the interest of this. Dr. Trent was a gruff, outspoken, absent-minded old fellow, but he was a recognized authority on heart disease, even if he were only a general practitioner in out-of-the-world Deerwood. Dr. Trent was over 70, and there had been rumors that he meant to retire soon. None of the Sterling clan had ever gone to him since he had told cousin Gladys 10 years before that her neuritis was all imaginary and that she enjoyed it.

Starting point is 00:22:12 You couldn't patronize a doctor who insulted your first cousin once removed like that, not to mention that he was a Presbyterian when all the Sterlings went to the Anglican Church. But Valancy, being the devil of disloyalty to Klan and the deep sea of fuss and clatter and advice, thought she would take a chance with the devil. End of Chapter 1. Chapter 2 of The Blue Castle. This is a Librevox recording. All Librevox recording are in the public domain.

Starting point is 00:22:50 For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. Read by Elizabetha Corti, The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery. When Cousin Stickels knocked at her door, Valancy knew it was Alpast 7 and she must get up. As long as she could remember, Cousin Stickel had knocked at her door at Alpast 7. cousin Cousin's sickles and Mrs. Frederick Sterling had been up since seven, but Valancy was allowed to lie a bed half an hour longer because of a family tradition that she was delicate. Valancy got up, though she hated getting up more this morning than ever she had before.

Starting point is 00:23:39 What was there to get up for? Another dreary day, like all the days that had preceded it, full of meaningless little tasks, joyless and unimportant that benefit nobody. But if she did not get up at once, she would not be ready for breakfast at 8 o'clock. Art and fast times for meals were the rule in Mrs. Sterling's household. Breakfast at 8. Dinner at 1.

Starting point is 00:24:09 Supper at 6. Ear in and ear out. No excuses for being late were ever tolerated. so up valance he got shivering the room was bitterly cold with the raw penetrating chill of a wet may morning the house would be cold all day it was one of mrs frederick's rules that no fires were necessary after the twenty-fourth of may meals were cooked on the little oil-stove in the back porch and though may may might be icy and october frost-bitten no fires were like until the 21st of October by the calendar. On the 21st of October, Mrs. Fredericks began cooking over the kitchen range and lighted a fire in the sitting-room stove in the evenings. It was whispered about in the connection that the lay Frederick Sterling had caught the cold with the resulted in his death during Balances' first year of life,

Starting point is 00:25:15 because Mrs. Frederick's would not have a fire on the 20th of October. She lighted it the next day, but that was a day too late for Frederick Sterling. Valancy took off and hung up in the closer a night dress of coarse and blitzed cotton, with high neck and long tight sleeves. She put on undergarments of a similar nature, a dress of brown gingham, thick black stockings, and rubber heel boots. Of late years, she had fallen into the habit of doing her hair, with the shade of the window by the looking glass pulled down.

Starting point is 00:25:54 The lines on her face did not show so plainly then. But this morning, she jerked the shade to the very top and looked at herself in the lepros mirror with a passionate determination to see herself as the world saw her. The result was rather dreadful. Even a beauty would have found that heart and softened side light trying. Valancy saw straight black hair, short, and thin, always lustless, despite the fact that she gave it one understroke of the brush,

Starting point is 00:26:26 neither more nor less, every night of her life, and faithfully rubbed Red Fern's hair bigger into the roots, more lustless than ever in its morning roughness, fine straight black brows, a nose she had always felt was too much small, even for a small, three-cornered white face. a small pale mouth that always fell open a trifle of a little pointed white teeth, a figure thin and flat breasted, rather

Starting point is 00:26:58 below the average eight. She had somehow escaped the family high cheekbones and her dark brown eyes, too softened shadowy to be black, at the slant that was almost oriental. Apart from her eyes, she was neither pretty nor hoggly.

Starting point is 00:27:16 Just insignificant look she concluded bitterly. I'll blame the lines around her eyes and mouth were in that merciless light, and never had her narrow white face look so narrow and so white. She did her hair in a pompadour. Pompadour's had long gone out of fashion, but they had been in when Valancy first put her hair up, and Aunt Wellington had decided that she must always wear her hair so.

Starting point is 00:27:45 It is the only way that becomes you. Your face is so small that you must have hide to it by a pompadour effect, said Aunt Wellington, who always anunciated commonplaces as if uttering profound and important truths. Valancy had hanker to do an air pillow on a forehead with puffs above the ears as Olive was wearing hers, but Aunt Wellington's dictum as such an effect on her that she would be. never dared to change the style of her dressing again. But then there were so many things Valancy never dared do. All her life she had been afraid of something, she thought bitterly, from the very dawn of her collection when she had been so horribly afraid of the big black bear

Starting point is 00:28:36 that lived, so Cousel told her, in the closet under the stairs. And I always will be, I know it, I can't help it. I don't know what it would be like not to be afraid of something. Afraid of her mother's sulky fits. Afraid of offending Uncle Benjamin. Afraid of becoming

Starting point is 00:28:58 a target for Aunt Wellington's contempt. Afraid of Aunt Isabel's biting comments. Afraid of Uncle James' disapproval. Afraid of offending the whole clan's opinions and prejudices. Afraid of not keeping

Starting point is 00:29:14 up appearances, afraid to say what she really thought of anything, afraid of poverty in her old age. Fear, fear, fear. She could never escape from it. It bound her and inimical her like a spider's web of steel. Only in her blue castle could she fight temporary release. And this morning, Valenci could not believe she had a blue castle. She would never be able to find it again. twenty-nine unmarried undesired what she had to do with the fairy-like shetland of blue castle she would cut such childish nonsense out of her life forever and faced reality unflinchingly

Starting point is 00:29:59 she turned from her unfriendly mirror and looked out the ugliness of the view always struck her like a blow the ragged fence that tumbled down old carriage shop in the next lot plastered with crude but violently colored advertisements, the grimy railway station beyond, with the awful derelicks that were always hanging around even at this early hour. In the poor in rain, everything looked worse than usual, especially the busily advertisement, keep that school girl complexion. Balancy had captured schoolgirl complexion. That was just the trouble.

Starting point is 00:30:39 There was not a gleam of beauty anywhere, exactly like my life, thought of. Valency drearily. A brief bitterness had passed. She accepted facts as resignedly as she had always accepted them. She was one of

Starting point is 00:30:57 the people whom life always passes by. There was no alter in that fact. In this mood, Valancy went down to breakfast. End of Chapter 2. Read by Elizabetha Corty. Chapter 3 of The Blue

Starting point is 00:31:22 Castle. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maude Montgomery. Chapter 3. Breakfast was always the same. Oatmeal porridge, which Valancy loathed, toast and tea, and one teaspoon full of marmalade. Mrs. Frederick thought two teaspoons extravagance. but that did not matter to Valancy, who hated Marmalade, too. The chilly, gloomy little room was chillier and gloomier than usual. The rain streamed down outside the window.

Starting point is 00:32:04 Departed Sterlings in atrocious guilt frames, wider than the pictures, glowered down from the walls. And yet, Cousin Stickles wished Valancy many happy returns of the day. Sit up straight, Doss, was all, her mother said. Valancy sat up straight. She talked to her mother and cousin Stickels of the things they always talked of. She never wondered what would happen if she tried to talk of something else.

Starting point is 00:32:32 She knew, therefore, she never did it. Mrs. Frederick was offended with providence for sending a rainy day when she wanted to go to a picnic, so she ate her breakfast in a sulky silence for which Valancy was rather grateful. But Christine Stickles whine. endlessly on, as usual, complaining about everything. The weather, the leak in the pantry,

Starting point is 00:32:58 the price of oatmeal and butter. Valancy felt at once she had buttered her toast too lavishly, the epidemic of mumps in Deerwood. Doss will be sure to catch them, she foreboded. Doss must not go where she is likely to catch mumps, said Mrs. Frederick shortly. Valancy had never had mumps or whooping cough. or chickenpox, or measles, or anything she should have had, nothing but horrible colds every winter. Doss's winter colds were a sort of tradition in the family. Nothing, it seemed, could prevent her from catching them.

Starting point is 00:33:36 Mrs. Frederick and cousin Stickles did their heroic best. One winter, they kept Valancy housed up from November to May in the warm sitting room. She was not allowed to go to church, and Valancy took course. cold after cold and ended up with bronchitis in June. None of my family were ever like that, said Mrs. Frederick, implying that it must be a sterling tendency. The sterlings seldom take cold, said Cousin Stickles resentfully. She had been a sterling.

Starting point is 00:34:10 I think, said Mrs. Frederick, that if a person makes up her mind not to have colds, she will not have colds. So that was the trouble. It was all Valancy's own fault. But on this particular morning, Valancy's unbearable grievance was that she was called Doss. She had endured it for 29 years, and all at once, she felt she could not endure it any longer. Her full name was Valancy Jane.

Starting point is 00:34:40 Valancy Jane was rather terrible, but she liked Valancy with its odd, Outland Tang. It was always a wonder to Valancy that, the Sterlings had allowed her to be so christened. She had been told that her maternal grandfather, old Amos Wandsberra, had chosen the name for her. Her father had tacked on the Jane by way of civilizing it, and the whole connection got out of the difficulty by nicknaming her, Dawes. She never got Valancy from anyone but outsiders. Mother, she said timidly, would you mind calling me Valancy after this? Dawes seemed, so, so, I don't like it. Mrs. Frederick looked at her daughter in astonishment.

Starting point is 00:35:28 She wore glasses with enormously strong lenses that gave her eyes a peculiarly disagreeable appearance. What's the matter with Dawes? It seems so childish, faltered Valancy. Oh, Mrs. Frederick had been a Wandsborough, and the Wandsborough smile was not an asset. I see. Well, it should, should suit you, then. You are childish enough in all conscience, my dear child. I am twenty-nine, said the dear child, desperately. I would proclaim it from the house-tops if I were you, dear, said Mrs. Frederick, 29. I had been married nine years when I was 29. I was married at 17, said cousin's stickles proudly. Valancy looked at them furtively, Mrs. Frederick, except for those terrible glasses, and the hooked nose that made her look more like a parrot than a parrot itself could look,

Starting point is 00:36:25 was not ill-looking. At 20, she might have been quite pretty, but Cousin's Stickles. And yet, Christine Stickles had once been desirable in some man's eyes. Valancy felt that Cousin Stickel, with her broad, flat, wrinkled face, a mole right on the end of her dumpy nose, bristling hairs on her chin, wrinkled yellow neck, pale, protruding eyes, and thin, puckered mouth, had yet this advantage over her, this right to look down on her, and even yet cousin Stickles was necessary to Mrs. Frederick. Balancy wondered pitifully what it would be like to be wanted by someone, needed by someone.

Starting point is 00:37:09 No one in the whole world needed her, or would miss anything from life if she dropped suddenly out of it. She was a disappointment to her mother. No one loved her. She had never so much as had a girlfriend. I haven't even a gift for friendship, she had once admitted to herself pitifully. Doss, you haven't eaten your crusts, said Mrs. Frederick rebukingly. It rained all the forenoon without cessation.

Starting point is 00:37:37 Valancy pieced a quilt. The lancy hated piecing quilts, and there was no need of it. The house was full of quilt. There were three big chests packed with quilts in the attic. Mrs. Frederick had begun storing away quilts when Valancy was 17, and she kept on storing them, though it did not seem likely that Valancy would ever need them. But Valancy must be at work, and fancy work materials were too expensive.

Starting point is 00:38:06 Idleness was a cardinal sin in the Sterling household. When Valancy had been a child, she had been made to write down every night in a small, hated black notebook all the minutes she had spent in idleness that day. On Sundays, her mother made her tot them up and prey over them. On this particular forenoon of this day of destiny, Valancy spent only ten minutes in idleness. At least Mrs. Frederick and cousin Stickles would have called it idleness. She went to her room to get a better thimble, and she opened thistle harvest guiltily at random. The woods are so human,

Starting point is 00:38:45 wrote John Foster, that to know them one must live with them. An occasional saunter through them, keeping to the well-trodden paths, will never admit us to their intimacy. If we wish to be friends, we must seek them out and win them by frequent, reverent visits at all hours,

Starting point is 00:39:04 by morning, by noon, and by night, and at all seasons, in spring, in summer, in autumn, in winter. Otherwise, we can never really know them, and any pretense we may make to the contrary will never impose on them. They have their own effective way of keeping aliens at a distance and shutting their hearts to mere casual sightseers.

Starting point is 00:39:29 It is of no use to seek the woods from any motive except sheer love of them. They will find us out at once and hide all their sweet, old-world secrets from us, But if they know we come to them because we love them, they will be very kind to us, and give us such treasures of beauty and delight as are not bought or sold in any marketplace. For the woods, when they give it all, give unstintingly, and hold nothing back from their true worshippers. We must go to them lovingly, humbly, patiently, watchfully, and we shall learn what poignant loveliness lurks in the wild places and

Starting point is 00:40:10 silent intervails, laying under starshine and sunset. What cadences of unearthly music are harped on aged pine boughs or crooned in copses of fur? What delicate savers exhale from mosses and ferns in sunny corners or on damp Brooklyn's? What dreams and myths and legends of an older time haunt them? Then the immortal heart of the woods will beat against ours and its subtle life will steal into our veins and make us its own forever, so that no matter where we go or how widely we wander, we shall be drawn back to the forest to find our most enduring kinship. Doss called her mother from the hall below,

Starting point is 00:40:57 What are you doing all by yourself in that room? Valancy dropped thistle harvest like a hot coal and fled downstairs to her patches, but she felt the strange exhilaration of spirit that always came momentarily to her when she dipped into one of John Foster's books. Valancy did not know much about woods, except the haunted groves of oak and pine around her blue castle, but she had always secretly hankered after them, and a foster book about woods was the next best thing to the woods themselves. At noon it stopped raining, but the sun did not come out until three. Then Valancy timidly said she thought she would go uptown.

Starting point is 00:41:44 What do you want to go uptown for? demanded her mother. I want to get a book from the library. You got a book from the library, only last week. No, it was four weeks. Four weeks? Nonsense. Really, it was, mother. You are mistaken. It cannot possibly have been more than two weeks. I dislike contradiction, and I do not see what you want to get a book for. Anyhow, you waste too much time reading. Of what value is my time? asked Valancy bitterly. Doss, do not speak in that tone to me. We need some tea, said cousin Stickles.

Starting point is 00:42:24 She might go and get that if she wants a walk, though this damp weather is bad for colds. They argued the matter for ten minutes longer, and finally Mrs. Frederick agreed, rather grudgingly that Valancy might go. End of Chapter 3. Chapter 4 of the Blue Castle. This is a Libravox recording.

Starting point is 00:42:52 All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. The Blue Castle by Luzimaud Montgomery, Chapter 4. Got your rubbers on? Called Cousin Stickel's as Valence. He left the house. Christine Stickles had never

Starting point is 00:43:10 once forgotten to ask that question when Valancy went out on a damp day. Yes. Have you got your flannel petticoat on? asked Mrs. Frederick. No. Doss, I really do not understand you. Do you want to catch your death of cold again? Her voice implied that Valency had died of a cold several times already. Go upstairs this minute and put it on. Mother, I don't need a flannel petticoat. My satin one is warm enough. Doss, remember you had bronchitis two years ago? Go and do as you are told. Valancy went, though nobody will ever know just how near she came to hurling the rubber plant into the street before she went. She hated that gray flannel petticoat more than any other garment she owned.

Starting point is 00:44:01 Olive never had to wear flannel petticoats. Olive wore ruffled silk and sheer lawn and filmy-laced plounces. But Olive's father had married money, and Olive never had bronchitis. So there you were. Are you sure you didn't leave the soap in the water? demanded Mrs. Frederick, but Valancy was gone. She turned at the corner and looked back down the ugly prim respectable street where she lived. The Sterling House was the ugliest on it, more like a red brick box than anything else,

Starting point is 00:44:36 too high for its breadth, and made still higher by a bulbous, glass cupola on top. About it was the desolate, barren piece of an old house whose life is lived. There was a pretty house with leaded casements and dubbed gables just around the corner. A new house. One of those houses you love the minute you see them. Clayton Markley had built it for his bride. He was to be married to Jenny Lloyd in June. The little house, it was said, was furnished from attic to cellar in complete readiness for its mistress. "'I don't envy Jenny the man,' thought Valency sincerely. Clayton Markley was not one of her many ideals.

Starting point is 00:45:18 But I do envy her the house. It's such a nice young house. Oh, if I could only have a house of my own, ever so poor, so tiny, but my own.' But then, she added bitterly, "'There is no use in yowling for the moon when you can't even get a tallow candle.' In Dreamland, nothing. Nothing would do, Valency, but a castle of pale sapphire. In real life, she would have been fully satisfied with the little house of her own. She envied Jenny Lloyd more fiercely than ever today. Jenny was not so much better looking than she was, and not so very much younger. Yet she was to

Starting point is 00:45:58 have this delightful house, and the nicest little Wedgwood teacups, Valancy had seen them, an open fireplace and monogrammed linen, hem-stitched tablecloths, and china closets. Why did everything come to some girls and nothing to others? It wasn't fair. Valency was once more seething with rebellion as she walked along a prim, doughty little figure in her shabby raincoat and three-year-old hat, splashed occasionally by the mud of a passing motor with its insulting shrieks. Motors were still rather a novelty in Deerwood, though they were common in Port Lawrence, and most of the summer residents up at Muscoa had them. In Deerwood, only some of the smart set had them, for even Deerwood was divided into sets.

Starting point is 00:46:47 There was the smart set, the intellectual set, the old family set, of which the Sterlings remembers, the common run, and a few pariahs. Not one of the Sterling clan had as yet condescended to a motor, though Olive was teasing her father to have one. Valency had never even been in a motor car. She did not hanker after this. In truth, she felt rather afraid of motor cars, especially at night. They seemed to be too much like purring beast that might turn and crush you, or make some terrible savage leap somewhere. On the steep mountain trails around her blue castle, only gaily caparison steeds might proudly pace. In real life, Valancy would have been quite contented to drive in a buggy behind a nice horse.

Starting point is 00:47:35 She got a buggy drive only when some uncle or cousin remembered to fling her a chance, like a bone to a dog. End of Chapter 4 Chapter 5 of the Blue Castle This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Chapter 5.

Starting point is 00:48:07 Of course she must buy the tea in Uncle Benjamin's grocery store. to buy it anywhere else was unthinkable. Yet Valency hated to go to Uncle Benjamin's store on her 29th birthday. There was no hope that he would not remember it. Why? demanded Uncle Benjamin leeringly as he tied up her tea. Our young ladies like bad grammarians. Valency, with Uncle Benjamin's will in the background of her mind, said meekly, I don't know. Why?

Starting point is 00:48:37 Because, chuckled Uncle Benjamin, they can't decline matrimony. The two clerks, Joe Hammond and Claude Bertram, chuckled also, and Valancy disliked them a little more than ever. On the first day, Claude Bertram had seen her in the store she had heard him whisper to Joe, Who is that? And Joe had said,

Starting point is 00:48:57 Valancy Sterling, one of the Deerwood old maids. Curable or incurable? Claude had asked with a snicker, evidently thinking the question very clever. Valency smarted anew with the sting of that old recollection. 29, Uncle Benjamin was saying, Dear me, Doss, you're dangerously near the second corner and not even thinking of getting married yet.

Starting point is 00:49:21 29, it seems impossible. Then Uncle Benjamin said an original thing. Uncle Benjamin said, How time does fly! I think it crawls, said Valency passionately. Passion was so alien to Uncle Benjamin's conception of Valencia. that he didn't know what to make of her. To cover his confusion, he asked another conundrum as he tied up her beans. Cousin Stickles had remembered at the last moment that they must have beans.

Starting point is 00:49:49 Beans were cheap and filling. What two ages are up to prove illusory? asked Uncle Benjamin and not waiting for Valency to give it up, he added, Mirage and marriage. M-I-R-A-G-E is pronounced Mirage, said Valéééé. Valency shortly, picking up her tea and her beans. For the moment, she did not care whether Uncle Benjamin cut her out of his will or not. She walked out of the store while Uncle Benjamin stared after her with his mouth open. Then he shook his head. Poor Doss is taking it hard, he said.

Starting point is 00:50:25 Valency was sorry by the time she reached the next crossing. Why had she lost her patience like that? Uncle Benjamin would be annoyed and would likely tell her mother that Doss had been impertinent to me, and her mother would lecture her for a week. I've held my tongue for 20 years, thought Valency. Why couldn't I have held it once more? Yes, it was just 20, Valency reflected, since she had first been twitted with her loverless condition. She remembered the bitter moment perfectly. She was just nine years old. She was standing alone on the school playground while the other little girls of her class were playing a game. in which you must be chosen by a boy as his partner before you could play.

Starting point is 00:51:12 Nobody had chosen Valency, little pale, black-haired Valency with her prim, long-sleeved apron and awed, slanted eyes. Oh, said a pretty little girl to her, I'm so sorry for you. You haven't caught a bow. Valency had said defiantly, as she continued to say for 20 years, I don't want a bow. But this afternoon, Valency once and for all stopped saying that.

Starting point is 00:51:40 I'm going to be honest with myself anyhow, she thought savagely. Uncle Benjamin's riddles hurt me because they are true. I do want to be married. I want a house of my own. I want a husband of my own. I want sweet little fat babies of my own. Valenci stopped suddenly aghast at her own recklessness. She felt sure that Reverend Dr. Stalling,

Starting point is 00:52:05 who passed her at this moment, read her thoughts and disapproved of them thoroughly. Valency was afraid of Dr. Stalling, had been afraid of him ever since the Sunday, 23 years before, when he had first come to St. Albans. Valency had been too late for Sunday school that day, and she had gone into the church timidly and sat in their pew. No one else was in the church. Nobody except the new rector, Dr. Stalling. Dr. Stalling stood up in front of the choir door, beckoned to her, and said sternly,

Starting point is 00:52:37 Little boy, come up here. Valency had stared around her. There was no little boy. There was no one in all the huge church but herself. This strange man with blue glasses couldn't mean her. She was not a boy. Little boy, repeated Dr. Stalling, more sternly still, shaking his forefinger fiercely at her. Come up here at once. Valancy arose as if hypnotized and walked up the aisle. She was too terrified to do anything else. What dreadful thing was going to happen to her? What had happened to her?

Starting point is 00:53:12 Had she actually turned into a boy? She came to a stop in front of Dr. Stalling. Dr. Stalling shook his forefinger such a long, knuckly forefinger, at her and said, Little boy, take off your hat. Valenci took off her hat. She had a scrawny little pigtail hanging down her back, but Dr. Stalling was short-sighted and did not perceive it. Little boy, go back to your seat and always take off your hat in church. Remember. Valency went back to her seat carrying her hat like an automaton.

Starting point is 00:53:47 Presently her mother came in. Doss, said Mrs. Sterling. What do you mean by taking off your hat? Put it on instantly. Valancy put it on instantly. She was called. Hold with fear lest Dr. Stalling should immediately summon her up front again. She would have to go, of course. It never occurred to her that one could disobey the rector, and the church was full of people now. Oh, what would she do if that horrible stabbing forefinger were shaken at her again before all those people? Valency sat through the whole service in an agony of dread and was sick for a week afterwards.

Starting point is 00:54:23 Nobody knew why. Mrs. Frederick again bemoaned herself of her delicate child. Dr. Stalling found out his mistake and laughed over it to Valency, who did not laugh? She never got over her dread of Dr. Stalling, and now to be caught by him on the street corner thinking such things. Valency got her John Foster book, Magic of Wings. His latest, all about birds, said Miss Clarkson. She had almost decided she would go home instead of going to see Dr. Trent. Her courage had failed her. She was afraid of offending Uncle James.

Starting point is 00:54:58 afraid of angering her mother, afraid of facing gruff, shaggy-browed old Dr. Trent, who would probably tell her, as he had told cousin Gladys, that her trouble was entirely imaginary and that she only had it because she liked to have it. No, she would not go. She would get a bottle of Red Fern's purple pills instead. Redfern's purple pills were their standard medicine of the Sterling clan. Had they not cured second cousin Geraldine when five doctors had given her up? Valancy always felt very skeptical concerning the virtues of the purple pills, but there might be something in them, and it was easier to take them than to face Dr. Trent alone.

Starting point is 00:55:40 She would glance over the magazines in the reading room a few minutes and then go home. Valency tried to read a story, but it made her furious. On every page was a picture of a heroine surrounded by adoring men, and he or she was Valency Sterling who could not get a solitary bow. Valency slammed the magazine shut. She opened magic of wings. Her eyes fell on the paragraph that changed her life. Fear is the original sin, wrote John Foster. Almost all the evil in the world has its origin in the fact that someone is afraid of something. It is a cold, slimy serpent coiling about you. It is horrible to live with fear, and it is of all things degrading. Valency shut. magic of wings and stood up.

Starting point is 00:56:30 She would go and see Dr. Trent. End of Chapter 5. Chapter 6 of the Blue Castle. This is a Librevox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. Read by Little Miss Clumsey. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Starting point is 00:57:01 Chapter 6 The ordeal was not so dreadful after all. Dr. Trent was as gruff and abrupt as usual, but he did not tell her her haremont was imaginary. After he had listened to her symptoms and asked a few questions and made a quick examination, he sat for a moment, looking at her quite intently. Valenci thought he looked as if he was sorry for her.

Starting point is 00:57:31 She caught her breath for a moment. Was the trouble serious? Oh, it couldn't be, surely. It really hadn't bothered her much, only lately it had got a little worse. Dr. Trent opened his mouth, but before he could speak, the telephone at his elbow rang sharply.

Starting point is 00:57:53 He picked up the receiver, Valancy, watching him, so his face changed suddenly as he listened. Lo, yes, yes, what? Yes, yes. A brief interval. My God. Dr. Trent dropped the receiver,

Starting point is 00:58:12 dashed out of the room and upstairs without even a glance at Valancy. She heard him rushing madly about overhead, barking out a few remarks to somebody, presumably his housekeeper. Then he came tearing downstairs with a club bag in his hand, snatched his hat and coat from the rack, jerked open the door, and rushed down the street in the direction of the station.

Starting point is 00:58:42 Valency sat alone in the little office, feeling more absolutely foolish than she had ever felt before in her life, foolish and humiliated. So this was all that had come of her heroic determination to live up to John Foster and cast fear aside. Not only was she a failure as a relative and non-existent as a sweetheart or friend, but she was not even of any importance as a patient. Dr. Trent had forgotten her very presence in his excitement over whatever message had come by the telephone. She had gained nothing by

Starting point is 00:59:24 ignoring Uncle James and flying in the face of family tradition. For a moment, she was afraid she was going to cry. It was all so ridiculous. Then she heard Dr. Trent's housekeeper coming down the stairs. Balancy rose and went to the office door. The doctor forgot all about me, she said with a twisted smile. Well, that's too bad, said Mrs. Patterson sympathetically. But it wasn't much wonder, poor man. That was a telegram they phoned over

Starting point is 01:00:02 from the port. His son has been terribly injured in an auto accident in Montreal. The doctor had just ten minutes to catch the train. I don't know what he'll do if anything happens to Ned. He's just bound up in the boy. You'll have to come again, Miss Sterling. I hope it's nothing serious. Oh, no, nothing serious, agreed Valency. She felt a little less humiliated. It was no wonder poor Dr. Trent had forgotten her at such a moment. Nevertheless, she felt very flat and discouraged as she went down the street. Valancy went home by the shortcut of Lovers Lane.

Starting point is 01:00:46 She did not often go through Lovers Lane, but it was getting near supper time, and it would never do to her. be late. Lovers Lane wound back of the village, under great helms and maples, and deserved its name. It was hard to go there at any time and not find some canoodling couple, or young girls in pairs, arms intertwined, earnlessly talking over the secrets. Valency didn't know which made her feel more self-conscious and uncomfortable. This evening she encountered both. She met Connie Hale and Kate Bailey in new pink-organdy dresses, with flowers stuck coquettishly in their glossy bare hair. Valency had never had a pink dress or worn flowers in her hair. Then she passed a young couple she didn't know, dandering along, oblivious to everything but themselves. The young man's arm was around the girl's waist quite shamelessly. Valenci had never walked with a man's harm about her.

Starting point is 01:01:56 She felt that she hoped to be shocked. They might leave that sort of thing for the screening twilight, at least, but she wasn't shocked. In another flash of desperate, stark honesty, she owned to herself that she was merely envious. When she passed them, she felt quite sure they were laughing at her, pitying her. There's that queer little old maid, Valencius' Sterling. They say she never had a bow in her whole life. Valency fairly ran to get out of Lovers Lane.

Starting point is 01:02:32 Never had she felt so utterly colorless and skinny and insignificant. Just where Lovers Lane debouched on the street, an old car was parked. Valency knew that car well, by sound at least, and everybody in Deerwood knew it. This was before the phrase, tin Lizzie had come into circulation, in dear wood at least. But if it had been known, this car was the tiniest of Lizzie's, though it was not a Ford, but an old grey sluessen. Nothing more battered and disreputable could be imagined. It was Barney Snez's car, and Barney himself was just scrambling up from under it, in overalls plastered with mud. valency gave him a swift furtive look as she hurried by this was only the second time she had ever seen the notorious barney's maze though she had heard enough about him in the five years that he had been living up back in mouscoka

Starting point is 01:03:40 the first time had been nearly a year ago on the moscow road he had been crowling out from under his car then too and he had given her a cheerful grin as she went by, a little whimsical green that gave him the look of an amused gnome. He didn't look bad. She didn't believe he was bad, in spite of the wild yorns that were always being told of him. Of course, he went tearing in that terrible old dray slosson through Deerwood at hours when all decent people were in bed, often with old roaring able, who made the knight Hydeus with owls, both of them dead drunk, my dear. And everyone knew that he was an escaped convict,

Starting point is 01:04:30 and a defaulting bank clerk, and a murderer in hiding, and an infidel, and an illegitimate son of old Roaring Abel gay, and the father of Roaring Abel's illegitimate grandchild, and a counterfeiter, and a forger, and a few other awful things. But still, Valency didn't believe he was bad. Nobody with a smile like that could be bad, no matter what he had done.

Starting point is 01:05:00 It was that night, the Prince of the Blue Castle changed from a being of grim Joe and hair with a dash of premature grey, to a rakish individual with overlong, tony hair dashed with red, dark brown eyes, and ears that stuck out just enough to give him an alert look, but not enough to be called flying jibs. But he still retained something a little grim above the joe.

Starting point is 01:05:29 Barney's Nace looked even more disreputable than usual just now. It was very evident that he hadn't shaved for days, and his hands and arms bare to the shoulders were black with grease. But he was whistling gleeful. to himself and he seemed so happy that valency envied him she envied him his light-heartedness and his irresponsibility and his mysterious little cabin up on an island in lake mistowice even his rackety old grace loosen neither he nor his scar had to be respectable and live up to traditions when he rattled past her a few minutes late bear-headed, leaning back in his lidsie at a rakish angle, his longish hair blowing in the wind, a villainous-looking old black pipe in his mouth, she envied him again.

Starting point is 01:06:31 Men had the best of it, no doubt about that. This outlaw was happy, whatever he was or wasn't. She, Valancy Sterling, respectable, well-behaved to the last degree, was unhappy and had always been unhappy, so there you were. Valency was just in time for supper. The sun had clouded over, and a dismal, drizzling rain was falling again. Cousin's tickles had the neurasia. Valancy had to do the family dining, and there was no time for magic of winds. Can't the darning wait till tomorrow?

Starting point is 01:07:14 She pleaded. Tomorrow will bring its own duties, said Mrs. Frederick inexorably. Valancy dawned all the evening and listened to Mrs. Frederick and cousin's tickles, talking the eternal, niggling gossip of the clan, as they knitted drearily at interminable black stockings. They discussed second-cousin-lein's approaching wedding in all its bearings. On the whole, they approved. Second cousin Lillian was doing well for herself. Though she hasn't hurried, said cousin Stichols,

Starting point is 01:07:55 she must be 25. There have not, fortunately, been many old maids in our connection, said Mrs. Frederick bitterly. Valancy flinched. She had run the darning needle into her finger. Third cousin Aaron Gray, had been scratched by a cat and had blood poisoning in his finger. Cats are most dangerous animals, said Mrs. Frederick.

Starting point is 01:08:24 I would never have a cat above the house. She glared significantly at Valancy through her terrible glasses. Once, five years ago, Valency had asked if she might have a cat. She had never referred to it since, but Mrs. Frederick still suspected her of her the unlawful desire in her heart of hearts. Once Valancy sneezed. Now, in the sterling code, it was a very bad form to sneeze in public.

Starting point is 01:08:58 You can always repress a sneeze by pressing your finger on your upper lip, said Mrs. Frederick rebukingly. Half past nine o'clock, and so, as Mr. Peppes would say, to bed. But first, cousin stickle's neuralgic back

Starting point is 01:09:16 must be rubbed with Redfern's liniment. Valency did that. Valency always had to do it. She hated the smell of Redfern's liniment. She hated the smug, beaming, portly, bewiskered, bespectacled picture of Dr. Redfern on the bottle. Her fingers smelled of the horrible stuff

Starting point is 01:09:42 after she got into bed, in spite of all the scrubbing she gave them. Valencia's day of destiny had come and gone. She ended it as she had begun it, in tears. End of Chapter 6. Chapter 7 of the Blue Castle. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain.

Starting point is 01:10:11 For more information or to volunteer, please visitlibrovox.org. Leo Perill The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Section 7 There was a rose bush on the little sterling lawn, growing beside the gate. It was called Das' rosebush. Cousin Georgiana had given it to Valency five years ago, and Valency had planted it joyfully. She loved roses.

Starting point is 01:10:39 But, of course, the rosebush never bloomed. That was her luck. Valenci did everything she could think of and took the advice of everybody in the clan, but still the rose bush would not bloom. It throve and grew luxuriantly, with great leafy branches untouched by rust or spider, but not even a bud had ever appeared on it. Valancy, looking at it two days after her birthday, was filled with a sudden overwhelming hatred for it. The thing wouldn't bloom? Very well then. She would cut it down. She marched to the tool room in the barn for her garden knife, and she went at the rose bush viciously. A few minutes later, horrified Mrs. Frederick came out to the veranda and

Starting point is 01:11:16 beheld her daughter slashing insanely among the rosebush boughs. Half of them were already strewn on the walk. The bush looked sadly dismantled. Doss, what on earth are you doing? Have you gone crazy? No, said Valenci. She meant to say defiantly, but habit was too strong for her. She said it deprecatingly. I... I just made up my mind to cut this bush down.

Starting point is 01:11:39 It is no good. It never blooms. Never will bloom. That is no reason for destroying it, said Mrs. Frederick sternly. It was a beautiful bush and quite ornamental. You've made a sorry-looking thing of it. Rose-tree should bloom, said Valency, a little obstinately. Don't argue with me, Doss. Clear up that mess and leave the bush alone. I don't know what Georgiana will say when she sees how you have hacked it to pieces.

Starting point is 01:12:05 Really, I'm surprised at you. And to do it without consulting me. The bush is mine, muttered Balenci. What's that? What did you say, Das? I only said the bush was mine, repeated Valency, humbly. Mrs. Frederick turned without a word and marched back into the house. The mischief was done now. Valency knew she had offended her mother deeply, and would not be

Starting point is 01:12:28 spoken to or noticed in any way for two or three days. Cousin's stickles would see to Valencia's bringing up, but Mrs. Frederick would preserve the stony silence of outraged majesty. Valency sighed and put away her garden knife, hanging it precisely on its precise nail in the tool shop. She cleared away the several branches and swept up the leaves. Her lips twitched as she looked at the straggling bush. It had an odd resemblance to its shaken, scrawny donor, little cousin Georgiana herself. I certainly have made an awful-looking thing of it, thought Valancy. But she did not feel repentant, only sorry she had offended her mother. Things would be so uncomfortable until she was forgiven. Mrs. Frederick was one of those women who can make their anger felt all over a house.

Starting point is 01:13:12 walls and doors are no protection from it you'd better go up town and get the mail said cousin stickles when valency went in i can't go i feel all sort of piki and piney this spring i want you to stop at the drugstore and get me a bottle of red ferns blood bidders there's nothing like red ferns bidders for building a body up cousin james says the purple pills are the best but i know better my poor dear husband took red ferns bidders right up to the day he died don't let them charge you more than ninety-sixthes since. I can get it for that at the port. And what have you been saying of your poor mother? Do you ever stop to think, Doss, that you can only have one mother? One is enough for me, thought Valenci, undutifully as she went up town. She got cousin Stickles' bottle of bidders, and then she went to the post office and asked for her mail at the general delivery. Her mother did not have a box. They got too little mail to bother with it. Valenci did not expect any mail except the Christian Times, which was the only paper they took. They hardly ever got any letters, but Valency rather liked to stand in the office and watch

Starting point is 01:14:18 Mr. Carew, the gray-bearded Santa Clausy old clerk handing out letters to the lucky people who did get them. He did it with such a detached, impersonal, jove-like air, as if it did not matter in the least to him what supernal joys or shattering horrors might be in those letters for the people to whom they were addressed. Letters had a fascination for Valenci, perhaps because she so seldom got any. In her blue castle, exciting epistles bound with silk and sealed with crimson were always being brought to her by pages in livery of gold and blue, but in real life, her only letters were occasional perfunctory notes from relatives or an advertising circular. Consequently, she was immensely surprised when Mr. Carew, looking even more jovian than usual,

Starting point is 01:15:00 poked a letter out to her. Yes, it was addressed to her plainly, in fierce black hand. Miss Valancy Sterling, Elm Street, Deerwood, and the postmark was Montreal. Balenci picked it up with a little quickening of her breath. Montreal! It must be from Dr. Trent. He had remembered her after all. Valency met Uncle Benjamin coming in as she was going out and was glad the letter was safely in her bag. What, said Uncle Benjamin, is the difference between a donkey and a postage stamp?

Starting point is 01:15:30 I don't know. What? answered Valency dutifully. One, you lick with a stick! and the other you stick with a lick. Ha ha! Uncle Benjamin passed in, tremendously pleased with himself. Cousin's stickels pounced on the times when Valancy got home, but it did not occur to her to ask if there were any letters. Mrs. Frederick would have asked it,

Starting point is 01:15:50 but Mrs. Frederick's lips at present were sealed. Valency was glad of this. If her mother had asked if there were any letters, Valency would have had to admit there was. Then she would have had to let her mother and cousin Stickels read the letter, and all would be discovered. Her heart acted strangely on the way upstairs, and she sat down by her window for a few minutes before opening her letter. She felt very guilty and deceitful.

Starting point is 01:16:13 She had never before kept a letter secret from her mother. Every letter she had ever written or received had been read by Mrs. Frederick. That had never mattered. Valancy had never had anything to hide. But this did matter. She could not have anyone see this letter. But her fingers trembled with a consciousness of wickedness and unfilial conduct as she opened it. trembled a little too, perhaps, with apprehension.

Starting point is 01:16:38 She felt quite sure there was nothing seriously wrong with her heart, but one never knew. Dr. Trent's letter was like himself, blunt, abrupt, concise, wasting no words. Dr. Trent never beat about the bush. Dear Miss Sterling, and then a page of black, positive writing, Valency seemed to read it at a glance. She dropped it on her lap, her faced ghost white. Dr. Trent told her that she had a very dangerous and fatal form of heart disease. Angina pectoris, evidently complicated with an aneurysm, whatever that was, and in the last stages.

Starting point is 01:17:11 He said, without mincing matters, that nothing could be done for her. If she took great care of herself, she might live a year, but she might also die at any moment. Dr. Trent never troubled himself about euphemisms. She must be careful to avoid all excitement and all severe muscular efforts. She must eat and drink moderately. She must never run. She must go upstairs and uphill with great care. Any sudden jolt or shock might be fatal.

Starting point is 01:17:36 She was to get the prescription he enclosed filled and carry it with her always, taking a dose whenever her attacks come on. And he was hers truly, H.B. Trent. Valancy sat for a long while by her window. Outside was a world drowned in the light of a spring afternoon, skies entrancingly blue, winds perfumed and free, lovely, soft blue hazes at the end of every street. Over at the railway station, a group of you,

Starting point is 01:18:03 young girls was waiting for a train. She heard their gay laughter as they chattered and joked. The train roared in and roared out again. But none of these things had any reality. Nothing had any reality except the fact she only had another year to live. When she was tired of sitting at the window, she went over and lay down on her bed, staring at the cracked discolored ceiling. The curious numbness that follows on a staggering blow possessed her. She did not feel anything except a boundless surprise and incredulity. behind which was the conviction that Dr. Trent knew his business, and that she, Valency Sterling, who had never lived, was about to die.

Starting point is 01:18:41 When the gong rang for supper, Valency got up and went downstairs mechanically from force of habit. She wondered that she had been let alone so long, but of course her mother would not pay any attention to her just now. Valency was thankful for this. She thought the quarrel over the rose bush had been really, as Mrs. Frederick herself might have said, providential. She cannot eat anything, but, both Mrs. Frederick and cousin's stickles thought this was because she was deservedly

Starting point is 01:19:06 unhappy over the mother's attitude, and her lack of appetite was not commented on. Valency forced herself to swallow a cup of tea and then sat and watched the others eat, with an odd feeling that years had passed since she had sat with them at the dinner table. She found herself smiling inwardly to think what a commotion she could make if she chose. Let her merely tell them what was in Dr. Trent's letter, and there would be as much fuss made as if Valency thought bitterly, they really cared too straws about her. Dr. Trent's housekeeper got word from him today, said Cousin's stickles, so suddenly that Valancy jumped guiltily. Was there anything in thought waves?

Starting point is 01:19:43 Mrs. Judd was talking to her uptown. They think his son will recover, but Dr. Trent wrote that if he did, he was going to take him abroad as soon as he was able to travel, and wouldn't be back here for a year at least. That will not matter much to us, said Mrs. Frederick majestically. He is not our doctor. I would not. Here, she looked, or see. seemed to look accusingly right through Valency, have him to doctor a sick cat. May I go upstairs and lie down? said Valency faintly. I have a headache. What has given you a headache? asked Cousin Stickles, since Mrs. Frederick would not. The question has to be asked. Valency cannot be allowed to have headaches without interference.

Starting point is 01:20:23 You ain't in the habit of having headaches. I hope you're not taking the mumps. Here, try a spoonful of vinegar. Piffle, said Valency rudely, getting up from the table. She did not care just then if she were rude. She had had to be so polite all her life. If it had been possible for cousin's stickles to turn pale, she would have. As it was not, she turned yellower. Are you sure you ain't feverish, Doss? You sound like it. You go and get right into bed, said cousin stickles, thoroughly alarmed, and I'll come up and rub your forehead and the back of your neck with red fern's liniment. Valency had reached the door, but she turned.

Starting point is 01:21:00 I won't be rubbed with red fern's liniment, she said. Cousin's stickles stared and gasped. What, what do you mean? I said I wouldn't be rubbed with red ferns liniment, repeated Valency. Horrid, sticky stuff. And it has the vilest smell of any liniment I ever saw. It's no good. I want to be left alone.

Starting point is 01:21:20 That's all. Valency went out, leaving cousin's stickles aghast. She's feverish. She must be feverish, ejaculated cousin stickles. Mrs. Frederick went on eating her supper. It did not matter whether Valency was or was not feverish. Valency had been guilty of impertinence to her. End of Chapter 7. Read by Leo Peril. Chapter 8 of the Blue Castle. This is a Librevox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librevox.org.

Starting point is 01:22:02 by Ash 707, The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery's. Chapter 8 Valency did not sleep that night. She lay awake all through the long, dark hours, thinking, thinking. She made a discovery that surprised her. She, who had been afraid of almost everything in life, was not afraid of death.

Starting point is 01:22:21 It did not seem in the least terrible to her, and she need not now be afraid of anything else. Why had she been afraid of things? Because of life. Afraid of Uncle Benjamin, because of the menace of poverty in old age. But now she would never be old, neglected, tolerated. Afraid of being an old maid all her life.

Starting point is 01:22:40 But now she would not be an old maid very long. Afraid of offending her mother and her clan because she had to live with and among them and couldn't live peaceably if she couldn't give in to them. But now she hadn't. Valency felt a curious freedom. But she was still horribly afraid of one thing. The fuss the whole jam free of them would make when she told them.

Starting point is 01:23:01 valency shuddered at the thought of it she couldn't endure it oh she knew so well how it would be first there would be indignation yes indignation on the part of uncle james because she had gone to a doctor any doctor without consulting him indignation on the part of her mother for being so sly and deceitful to your own mother dost indignation on the part of the whole clan because she had not gone to dr marsh then would come their solstitute she would be taken to dr marsh and when dr Marsh confirmed Dr. Trent's diagnosis she would be taken to specialists in Toronto and Montreal. Uncle Benjamin would fit the bill with the splendid gesture of munificence and thus assisting the widow and the orphan and talk forever after of the shocking fees. Specialists charged for looking wise and saying they couldn't do anything and when the specialist could do nothing for her, Uncle James would insist on her taking purple pills. I've known them to effect a cure when all the doctors had given up. and her mother would insist on red fern's blood bitters and cousin sickles would insist on rubbing her over the heart every night with red fern's liniment on the grounds that it might do good and couldn't do harm and everybody else would have some pet dope for her to take

Starting point is 01:24:14 dr stalling would come to her and say solemnly you are very ill are you prepared for what may be before you almost as if he were going to shake his forefinger at her the forefinger that had not grown any shorter or less obly with age, and she would be washed and checked like a baby and never led to anything or go anywhere alone. Perhaps she would not even be allowed to sleep alone lest she die in her sleep. Cousin Stickles or her mother would insist on sharing her room and bed. Yes, undoubtedly they would. It was this last thought that really decided Valancy. She could not put up with it and she wouldn't. As the clock in the hall below struck 12, Valency suddenly and definitely made up her mind that she would not tell anybody. She had always been told ever since she could remember that she must hide her feelings. It is not really like to have feelings. Cousin Stickles had once told her disapprovingly.

Starting point is 01:25:05 Well, she would hide them with a vengeance. But though she was not afraid of death, she was not indifferent to it. She found that she resented it. It was not fair that she would have to die when she had never lived. Rebellion flamed up in her soul as the dark hours passed by. Not because she had no future but because she had no past. I'm poor, I'm ugly, I'm a failure, and I'm near death, she thought. She could see her own obituary notice in the Deerwood Weekly Times, copied into the Port Lawrence Journal. A deep gloom was cast over Deerud, et cetera, et cetera, leaves a large circle of friends to mourn,

Starting point is 01:25:42 et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, lies, all lies, gloom for soot. Nobody would miss her. Her death would not matter a straw to anybody. Not even her mother loved her, her mother who had been so disappointed that she was not a boy, or at least a pretty girl. Valency reviewed her whole life between midnight and the early spring dawn. It was a very drab existence, but here and there an incident loomed out with a significance out of all proportion to its real importance. These incidents were all unpleasant in one way or another. Nothing really pleasant had ever happened to Valenci.

Starting point is 01:26:16 I've never had one holy happy hour in my life. Not one, she thought. I've just been a colorless non-entity. I remember reading somewhere once that there is an hour in which a woman might be happy all her life if she could but find it. I've never found my hour. Never, never, and I never will now. If I could only have had that hour, I'd be willing to die.

Starting point is 01:26:37 Those significant incidents kept bobbing up in her mind like unbidden ghosts without any sequence of time or place. For instance, that time when at 16 she had blew a tub full of clothes too deeply, and the time when, at eight, she had stolen some raspberry jam from Aunt Wellington's pantry. Valency never heard the last of those two misdemeanors. At almost every clan gathering, they were raked up against her as jokes. Uncle Benjamin hardly ever missed retelling the raspberry jam incident. He had been the one to catch her, her face all stained and streaked. I have really done so a few bad things that they have to keep harping on the old ones, thought Valancy. Why, I have

Starting point is 01:27:16 never even had a quarrel with anyone. I haven't an enemy. What a spineless thing I must be not to have even one enemy. There was that incident of the dust pile at school when she was seven. Valency always recalled it when Dr. Stalling referred to the text, to him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken even that which he hath. Other people might puzzle over that text, but it never puzzled Valancy. The whole relationship between herself and Olive, dating from the day of the dust pile, was a commentary on it.

Starting point is 01:27:50 She had been going to school a year, but Olive, who was a year younger, had just begun and had about her all the glamour of a new girl and an exceedingly pretty girl at that. It was at recess and all the girls, big and little, were out on the road in front of the school making dust piles.

Starting point is 01:28:06 The aim of each girl was to have the biggest pile. Valency was good at making dust piles. there was an art in it, and she had secret hopes of leading, but Olive, working off all by herself, was suddenly discovered to have a larger dust pile than anybody. Valency felt no jealousy. Her dust pile was quite big enough to please her. Then one of the older girls had an inspiration. Let's put all our dust on Olive's pile and make a tremendous one, she exclaimed. A frenzy seemed to seize the girls. They swooped down on the dust piles with pails and shovels, and in a few seconds, Olive's pile was a veritable pyramid.

Starting point is 01:28:41 In vain, Valency, with scrawny, outstretched little arms, tried to protect hers. She was ruthlessly, swept aside, her dustpile scooped up and poured on olives. Valency turned away resolutely and began building another dust pile. Again, a bigger girl pounced on it. Valency stood before it flushed indignant arms outspreaded. Don't take it, she pleaded. Please don't take it. But why?

Starting point is 01:29:03 demanded the older girl. Why won't you help to build olives bigger? I want my own little dust pile, said Valency piteously. Her plea went unheeded, while she argued with one girl another scraped up her dust pile. Valency turned away, her heart swelling, her eyes full of tears. "'Jalous, you're jealous,' said the girls mockingly. "'You were very selfish,' said her mother coldly, when Valancy told her about it at night. That was the first and last time Valency had ever taken any of her troubles to her mother.

Starting point is 01:29:35 Valency was neither jealous nor selfish. It was only that she wanted a dust pile of her own, Small or big mattered not. A team of horses came down the street. Olive's dust pile was scattered over the roadway. The bell rang. The girls trooped into school and had forgotten the whole affair before they reached their seats. Valenci never forgot it. To this day she resented it in her secret soul.

Starting point is 01:29:56 But was it not the Malik of her life? I've never been able to have my own dust pile, thought Valenci. The enormous red moon she had seen rising right at the end of the street one autumn evening of her sixth year. She had been sick and cold with the awful, uncanny horror of it, so near to her, so big, she had run in trembling to her mother and her mother had laughed at her. She had gone to bed and hidden her face under the clothes interior lest she might look at the window and see that horrible moon glaring in at her through it.

Starting point is 01:30:25 The boy who had tried to kiss her at a party when she was fifteen, she had not let him, she had evaded him and run. He was the only boy who had ever tried to kiss her. Now, fourteen years later, Valancy found herself wishing that she had. about him the time that she had been made to apologize to olive for something she hadn't done. Olive had said that Valancy had pushed her into the mud and spoiled her new shoes on purpose. Valency knew she hadn't. It had been an accident, and even that wasn't her fault, but nobody would believe her. She had to apologize and kiss Olive to make up. The injustice of it burned into

Starting point is 01:31:01 her soul tonight. That summer when Olive had the most beautiful hat, trimmed with creamy yellow net, and a wreath of red roses and little ribbon bows under the chin. Valency had wanted a hat like that more than she had ever wanted anything. She pleaded for one and had been laughed at. All summer she had to wear a horrid little brown sailor with elastic that cut behind her ears. None of the girls would go around with her because she was so shabby. Nobody but Olive. People had thought Olive was so sweet and unselfish.

Starting point is 01:31:29 I was an excellent foil for her, thought Valencia. Even then she knew that. Valencia had tried to win a prize for attendance and Sunday school once, but Olive won it. There were so many Sundays Valency had to stay home because she had colds. She had once tried to stay apiece in school one Friday afternoon and had broken down in it. Olive was a good reciter and never got stuck. The night she had spent in Port Lawrence with Aunt Isabel when she was ten.

Starting point is 01:31:54 Byron Sterling was there from Montreal, 12 years old, conceited, clever. At family prayers in the morning, Lyon had reached across and given Valenci's thin arms such a savage pinch that she screamed out with pain. After prayers were over, she was summoned to Aunt Isabel's bar of judgment. But when she said Viren had pinched her, Byron denied it,

Starting point is 01:32:15 he said she cried out because the kitten scratched her. He said she had put the kitten up on her chair and was playing with it when she should have been listening to Uncle David's prayer. He was believed. In the Sterling clan,

Starting point is 01:32:27 the boys were always believed before the girls. Valency was sent home in disgrace because of her exceedingly bad behavior during family prayers and she was not asked to Aunt Isabelle's again for many moons. The time cousin Betty Sterling was married, somehow Valancy got wind of the fact that Betty was going to ask her to be one of her bridesmaids. Valency was secretly uplifted. It would be a delightful thing to be a bridesmaid,

Starting point is 01:32:51 and of course she would have to have a new dress for it, a pretty new dress, a pink dress. Betty wanted her bridesmaids to dress in pink, but Betty had never asked her after all. Valencia couldn't guess why, but long after she, her secret tears of disappointment had been dried, Alive told her. Betty, after much consultation and reflection, had decided that Valency was too insignificant. She would spoil the effect. That was nine years ago, but tonight Valency caught her breath with the old pain and sting of it. That day in her 11th year, when her mother had badgered her into confessing something she had never done.

Starting point is 01:33:27 Valency had denied it for a long time, but eventually for peace's sake she had given in and pleaded guilty. Mrs. Frederick was always making people lie by pushing them into situations where they had to lie. Then her mother had made her kneel down on parlor floor between herself and cousin's dickles and say, Oh God, please forgive me for not speaking the truth. Balenci had said it, but as she rose from her knees, she muttered, but oh God, you know I did speak the truth. Balenci had not heard of Galileo, but her face was similar to his. She was punished just as severely as if she hadn't confessed and confessed. prayed. The winter she went to dancing school. Uncle James had decreed she should go and had paid for

Starting point is 01:34:09 her lessons. How she had looked forward to it and how she had hated it. She had never had a voluntary partner. The teacher always had to tell some boy to dance with her and generally he had been sulky about it, yet Valancy was a good dancer, as light on her feet as the sill down. Olive, who had never lacked eager partners was heavy. The fear of the button string when she was 10. All the girls in school had button strings. Olive had a very long one with the great many beautiful buttons. Valancy had won. Most of the buttons on it were very commonplace, but she had six beauties that had come off grandmother Sterling's wedding gown, sparkling buttons of golden glass much more beautiful than any Olive had. Their possession conferred a certain distinction on Valancy.

Starting point is 01:34:53 She knew every little girl in school envied her the exclusive possession of those beautiful buttons. When Olive saw them on the button string, she had looked at them narrowly but said nothing then. The next day, Aunt Wellington had come to Elm Street and told Mrs. Frederick that she thought Olive should have some of those buttons. Grandmother Sterling was just as much Wellington's mother as Frederick's. Mrs. Frederick had agreed amiably. She could not afford to fall out with Aunt Wellington. Moreover, the matter was of no importance, whatever.

Starting point is 01:35:26 Aunt Wellington carried off four of the buttons, generously leaving, too for Valancy. Balenci had torn these from her string and flung them on the floor. She had not yet learned that it was unladylike to have feelings and had been sent supperless to bed for the exhibition. The night of Margaret Lund's party, she had made such pathetic efforts to be pretty that night. Rob Walker was to be there and two nights before on the moonlit veranda of Uncle Herbert's cottage at Miss Taoist, Rob had really seemed attracted to her. At Margaret's party, Rob never even asked her to dance, did not notice her at all. She was a wildflower, as usual. That, of course, was years ago. People in Deerwood had long since forgiven up inviting Valency

Starting point is 01:36:12 to dances, but to Valency its humiliation and disappointment were of the other day. Her face burned in the darkness as she recalled herself, sitting there with her pitifully, crimped, thin hair, and the cheeks she had pinched for an hour before coming in an effort to make them read. All that came of it was a wild story that Valency Sterling was rouged at Margaret Blunt's party. In those days in Deerwood, that was enough to wreck your character forever. It did not wreck her at Valencies or even damage it. People knew she wouldn't be fast if she tried. They only laughed at her. I've had nothing but a second-hand existence, decided Valencia. All the great emotions of life have passed me by. I've never even had a grief. And have I really loved anybody? Do I really

Starting point is 01:36:57 love mother? No, I don't. That's the truth, whether it is disgraceful or not. I don't love her. I've never loved her. What's worse, I don't even like her. So I don't know anything about any kind of love. My life has been empty, empty. Nothing is worse than emptiness. Nothing. Balance ejaculated the last nothing allowed passionately. Then she moaned and stopped thinking about anything for a while. One of her attacks of pain had come on. When it was over, something had happened to Valancy. Perhaps the culmination of the process that had been going on in her mind ever since she had read Dr. Trent's letter. It was three o'clock in the morning, the wisest and most accursed hour of the clock, but sometimes it sets us free. I've been trying to please

Starting point is 01:37:43 other people all my life and failed, she said. After this I shall please myself. I shall never present anything again. I've breathed in an atmosphere of fibs and pretenses and evasions all my life. What a luxury it will be to tell the truth. I may not be able to do much that I want to do, but I won't do another thing that I don't want to do. Mother can pout for weeks. I shan't worry over it. Despair is a free man. Hope is a slave. Valancy got up and dressed with a deepening of that curious sense of freedom. When she had finished with her hair, she opened the window and hurled the jar of potpoury over into the next lot. It smashed gloriously against the schoolgirl complexion on the old carriage shop. I'm sick of fragrance of dead things, said Valenci.

Starting point is 01:38:28 End of chapter 8. Chapter 9 of the Blue Castle. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Read by Leo Peril. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maude Montgomery. Section 9. Uncle Herbert and Aunt Alberta's silver wedding was delicately referred to among the Sterlings during the following weeks as, The time we first noticed poor Valency was a little, you understand. Not for words would any of the Sterlings have said out and out at first that Valency had gone mildly insane, or even that her mind was slightly deranged.

Starting point is 01:39:17 Uncle Benjamin was considered to have gone entirely too far when he had ejaculated, She's dippy, I tell you, she's dippy, and was only excused because of the outrageousness of Valency's conduct at the aforesaid wedding dinner. But Mrs. Frederick and cousin Stickles had noticed a few things that made them uneasy before the dinner. It had begun with the rosebush, of course, and Valancy was never really quite right again. She did not seem to worry in the least

Starting point is 01:39:41 over the fact that her mother was not speaking to her. You would never suppose she noticed it at all. She had flatly refused to take either purple pills or red ferns bidders. She had announced coolly that she did not intend to answer to the name of Doss any longer. She had told Cousin Stickles that she wished she would give up wearing that brooch with Cousin Artemis' hair in it. She had moved her bed in her room to the opposite corner. She had read Magic of Wings Sunday afternoon.

Starting point is 01:40:08 When Cickels had rebuked her, Valency had said indifferently, Oh, I forgot it was Sunday, and had gone on reading it. Cousin Stickels had seen a terrible thing. She had caught Valancy sliding down the banister. Cousin Stickel did not tell Mrs. Frederick this. Poor Amelia was worried enough as it was. But it was Valenci's announcement on Saturday night that she was not going to go to the Anglican Church anymore that broke through Mrs. Frederick's stony silence. Not going to church anymore. Das, have you absolutely taken leave?

Starting point is 01:40:38 Oh, I'm going to church, said Valency airily. I'm going to the Presbyterian Church. But to the Anglican Church, I will not go. This was even worse. Mrs. Frederick had recourse to tears, having found outraged majesty had ceased to be effective. What have you got against the Anglican Church, she sobbed. nothing only just that you've always made me go there if you'd made me go to the presbyterian church i'd want to go to the anglican is that a nice thing to say to your mother oh how true it is that it is sharper than a serpent's tooth to have a thankless child is that a nice thing to say to your daughter said unrepent so valency's behavior at this silver wedding was not quite the surprise to mrs frederick and christine stickles that it was to the rest they were doubtful about the wisdom of taking her because of her concluded it would make talk if they didn't.

Starting point is 01:41:28 Perhaps she would behave herself, and so far no outsider suspected there was anything queer about her. By a special mercy of Providence that had poured Torrance Sunday morning, so Valenci had not carried out her hideous threat of going to the Presbyterian Church. Valency would not have cared in the least if they had left her at home. These family celebrations were all hopelessly dull, but the Sterlings always celebrated everything. It was a long-established custom.

Starting point is 01:41:53 Even Mrs. Frederick gave a dinner party on her wedding anniversary, and cousin's stickles had friends into supper on her birthday. Valancy hated these entertainments, because they had to pinch and save and contrive for weeks afterwards to pay for them. But she wanted to go to the silver wedding. It would hurt Uncle Herbert's feelings if she stayed away, and she rather liked Uncle Herbert. Besides, she wanted to look over all her relatives from her new angle. It would be an excellent place to make public her Declaration of Independence if occasion offered. "'Put on your brown silk dress,' said Mrs. Sterling. "'As if there were anything else to put on?'

Starting point is 01:42:29 Valency had only the one festive dress, that snuffy brown silk on Isabel had given her. On Isabel had decreed that Valency should never wear colors. They did not become her. When she was young, they allowed her to wear white, but that had been tacitly dropped for some years. Valency put on the brown silk. It had a high collar and long sleeves. She had never had a dress with low neck and elbow sleeves, although they had been worn, and Deerwood for over a year. But she did not do her hair pompadour. She nodded it on her neck and pulled it out over her ears. She thought it became her, only the little knot was so absurdly small. Mrs. Frederick resented the hair, but decided it was wisest to say nothing on the eve of the

Starting point is 01:43:09 party. It was so important that Valancy should be kept in good humor, if possible, until it was over. Mrs. Frederick did not reflect that this was the first time in her life that she'd thought it necessary to consider Valency's humors. But then Valency had never been queer before. On their way to Uncle Herbert's, Mrs. Frederick and Cousin's Stickles walking in front, Valency trotting meekly along behind, Roaring Able drove past them. Drunk as usual, but not in the roaring stage. Just drunk enough to be excessively polite. He raised his disreputable old tartan cap with the air of a monarch saluting his subjects and swept them a grand bow. Mrs. Frederick and Cousin's stickels dared not

Starting point is 01:43:49 not cut Roaring Abel altogether. He was the only person in Deerwood who could be got to do odd jobs of carpentering and repairing when they needed to be done, so it would not do to offend him. But they responded with only the stiffest, slightest of boughs. Roaring Abel must be kept in his place. Balancy, behind them, did a thing they were fortunately spared seeing. She smiled gaily and waved her hand to Roaring Abel. Why not?

Starting point is 01:44:14 She had always liked the old sinner. He was such a jolly, picturesque, unashamed reprobate, and stood out of against the drab respectability of Deerwood and its customs like a flame-red flag of revolt and protest. Only a few nights ago, Abel had gone through Deerwood in the wee smas, shouting oaths at the top of his stentorian voice, which could be heard for miles, and lashing his horse into a furious gallop as he tore along Prim proper Elm Street. Yelling and blaspheming like a fiend, shuddered cousin's stickles at the breakfast table. I cannot understand why the judgment of the Lord has not fallen upon that man long ere this, said Mrs.

Starting point is 01:44:49 Frederick petulantly, as if she thought Providence was very dilatory and ought to have a gentle reminder. He'll be picked up dead some morning. He'll fall under his horse's hooves and be trampled to death, said cousin Stickles, reassuringly. Valency had said nothing, of course, but she wondered to herself if Roaring Abel's periodic sprees were not as futile protest against the poverty and drudgery and monotony of his existence. She went on dream sprees in her blue castle. Roaring Abel, having no imagination, could not do that. His escapes from reality had to be concrete. So she waved at him today with a sudden fellow-feeling, and roaring able, not too drunk to be astonished, nearly fell off his seat in his amazement. By this time they had

Starting point is 01:45:30 reached Maple Avenue, and Uncle Herbert's house, a large, pretentious structure peppered with meaningless bay windows and excrescent porches, a house that always looked like a stupid, prosperous, self-satisfied man with warts on his face. A house like that, said Valency solemnly, is a blasphemy. Mrs. Frederick was shaken to her soul. What had Valency said? Was it profane, or only just queer? Mrs. Frederick took off her hat in Aunt Alberta's spare room with trembling hands. She made one more feeble attempt to avert disaster.

Starting point is 01:46:02 She held Valency back on the landing as cousin Stickles went downstairs. Won't you try to remember you're a lady, she pleaded. Oh, if there were only any hope of being able to forget it, said Valency, wearily. Mrs. Frederick felt that she had not deserved this from Providence. End of Chapter 9. Read by Leo Peril. Chapter 10 of the Blue Castle. This is a Librevox recording.

Starting point is 01:46:35 All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. Read by Little Miss Clumsey. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maudmore. Montgomery. Chapter 10. Bless this food to our use and consecrate our lives to thy service, said Uncle Herbert briskly. Aunt Wellington frowned. She always considered Herbert's grace is entirely too short and flippant. A grace, to be a grace in Aunt Wellington's eyes, had to be at least three minutes long and uttered in an unearned.

Starting point is 01:47:20 tone between a groan and a chant. As a protest, she kept her head bent a perceptible time after all the rest had been lifted. When she permitted herself to sit upright, she found Valency looking at her. Ever afterwards, Aunt Wellington averred that she had known from that moment that there was something wrong with Valency. In those queer, slanted eyes of hers, she should always have known she was not entirely right with eyes like that, there was an odd gleam of mockery and amusement, as if Valancy were laughing at her.

Starting point is 01:48:06 Such a thing was unthinkable, of course. Aunt Wellington at once ceased to think it. Valancy was enjoying herself. She had never enjoyed herself at a family reunion before. In social functions, as in childish games, she had only filled in. Her clan had always considered her very dull. She had no parlour tricks. And she had been in the habit of taking refuge from the Bordong family parties in her

Starting point is 01:48:40 blue castle, which resulted in an absent-mindedness that increased her reputation for dullness and vacuity. She has no social presence whatever, Aunt Wellington had decreed once and for all. Nobody dreamed that Valancy was dumped in their presence merely because she was afraid of them. Now she was no longer afraid of them. The shackles had been stricken off of her soul. She was quite prepared to talk if occasion offered. Meanwhile, she was giving herself such freedom of thought as she had never dared to take before. She let herself go with a wild inner exultation as Uncle Herbert carved the turkey. Uncle Herbert gave Valency a second look that day. Being a man, he didn't know what she had done to her hair, but he thought surprisingly that

Starting point is 01:49:43 Doss was not such a bad-looking girl after all, and he put an extra piece of white meat on her plate. What herb is most injurious to a young lady's beauty, propounded Uncle Benjamin, by way of starting conversation, loosening things up a bit, as he would have said. His duty it was to say what did not say it. Nobody else said it, so Uncle Benjamin, after an expectant pose, had to answer, Time! And felt that his riddle had fallen flat.

Starting point is 01:50:23 He looked resentfully at Valency, who had never failed him before. But Valency did not seem even to be aware of him. She was gazing around the table, examining relentlessly everyone in this depressing assembly of sensible people and watching their little squirms with a detached, amused smile. So, these were the people she had always held in reverence and fear. She seemed to see them with new eyes.

Starting point is 01:50:59 Big, capable, patronizing, voluble aunt Mildred, who thought herself the cleverer, woman in the clan, her husband a little lower than the angels, and her children wanders. Had not her son Howard been all through teasing at eleven months? And could she not tell you the best way to do everything, from cooking mushrooms to picking up a snake? What a bore she was! What ugly moles she had on her face! cousin Gladys, who was always praising her son who had died young and always fighting with her living one. She had neuritis, or what she called neuritis. It jumped about from one part of her body to another.

Starting point is 01:51:51 It was a convenient thing. If anybody wanted her to go somewhere she didn't want to go, she had neuritis in her legs. and always, if any mental effort was required, she could have neuritis in her head. You can't think with new rites in your head, my dear. What an old ambug you are, so valensely impiously. Aunt Isabelle. Valancy counted her chins. Aunt Isabel was the critic of the clan.

Starting point is 01:52:28 she had always gone about squashing people flat. More members of it than Valancy were afraid of her. She had, it was considered, a biting tongue. I wonder what would happen to your face if you ever smiled, speculated Valancy and blushingly. Second cousin Sarah Taylor, with her great, pale, expressionless eyes, who was noted for the variety,

Starting point is 01:52:59 of her pickle recipes and for nothing else. So afraid of saying something indiscreet that she never said anything worth listening to. So proper that she blushed when she saw the advertisement picture of a corset and had put a dress on a Venus de Milo statuette which made it look real tasty. Little cousin Georgiana,

Starting point is 01:53:25 not such a bad little soul, but dreary, very, always looking as if she had just been starched and ironed, always afraid to let herself go. The only thing she really enjoyed was a funeral. You knew where you were with a corpse. Nothing more could happen to it. But while there was life, there was fear. Uncle James.

Starting point is 01:53:56 handsome, black with a sarcastic trap-like mouth and iron-gray sideburns, whose favorite amusement was to write controversial letters to the Christian times, attacking modernism. Valancy always wondered if he looked as solemn when he was asleep as he did when awake. No wonder his wife had died young. Valency remembered her, a pretty, sensitive thing. Uncle James had denied her everything she wanted and showered on her everything she didn't want. He had killed her quite legally.

Starting point is 01:54:42 She had been smoothered and starved. Uncle Benjamin, wheezy, pussy-moused, with great pouches under his eyes that held nothing in reverence. Aunt Wellington, long, pallid face, thin, pale yellow hair, one of the fair sterlings, thin, stooping body, abominably hide forehead with such ugly wrinkles and eyes about as intelligent as a fishes, thought Valency, looks like a cartoon of himself. Aunt Wellington, name it Mary.

Starting point is 01:55:25 but called by her husband's name to distinguish her from great Aunt Mary, a massive, dignified, permanent lady, splendidly arranged iron-grey hair, rich, fashionable beaded dress, had her moulds removed by electrolysis, which Aunt Mildred thought was a wicked evasion of the purposes of God. Uncle Herbert, with his spiky grey, hair. Owned Alberta, who twisted her mouth so unpleasantly in talking, and had a great reputation

Starting point is 01:56:03 for unselfishness because she was always giving up a lot of things she didn't want. Valencia led them off easily in her judgment, because she liked them, even if they were, in Milton's expressive phrase, stupidly good. But she wondered, for what inscrutable reason, owned aught of Alberta had seen fit to tie a black velvet ribbon around each of her chubby arms above the elbow. Then she looked across the table at Olive. Olive, who had been held up to her, has a paragon of beauty, behavior, and success, as long as she could remember. Why can't you hold yourself like Olive, Doss?

Starting point is 01:56:52 why can't you stand correctly like olive, Doss? Why can't you speak prettily like olive, Doss? Why can't you make an effort, Doss? Valencia's elfin eyes lost their mocking glitter and became pensive and sorrowful. You could not ignore all this day in Olive. It was quite impossible to deny that she was beautiful and effective, and sometimes she was a little intelligent.

Starting point is 01:57:24 Her mouth might be a trifle heavy. She might show her fine white regular teeth rather too lavishly when she smiled. But when all was said and done, Olive justified Uncle Benjamin summing up a stunning girl. Yes, Valancy agreed in her heart. Olive was stunning.

Starting point is 01:57:48 Rich golden brown hair. elaborately dressed with a sparkling bonto holding its glossy puffs in place large brilliant blue eyes and thick silken lashes face of rose

Starting point is 01:58:04 and bare neck of snow rising above her gown great pearl bubbles in her ears the blue white diamond flame on her long smooth waxen finger with its rosy

Starting point is 01:58:20 pointed nail. Arms of marble, gleaming through green chiffon and shadow lace. Valancy felt suddenly thankful that her own scrawny arms were decently swast in brown silk.

Starting point is 01:58:36 Then she resumed her tabulation of Olive's charms. Tall, queenly, confident, everything that Valency was not. Dimples, too, in cheeks, And chin. A woman with dimples always gets her own way, thought Valency, in a recurring spasm of

Starting point is 01:58:58 bitterness, at the fate which had denied her even one dimple. Olive was only a year younger than Valency, though a stranger would have thought that there was at least ten years between them. But nobody ever dreaded old maidenhood for her. Olive had been surrounded by a crowd of eager bows since her early teens, just as her mirror was always surrounded by a fringe of cards, photographs, photographs, programs and invitations. At 18, when she had graduated from Havergall College, olive had been engaged to Will Desmond, lawyer in embryo. Will Desmond had died and Olive had mourned for him properly for two years. When she was 23, she had an hectic affair with Donald Jackson. But aunt and Uncle Wellington

Starting point is 01:59:54 disapproved of that, and in the end, Olive dutifully gave him up. Nobody in the Stirling clan, whatever outsiders might say, hinted that she did so because Donald himself was cooling off. However that might be, Olive's third venture met with everybody's approval. Cecil Price was clever and hence. and one of the Port Lawrence Prices. Olive had been engaged to him for three years.

Starting point is 02:00:28 He had just graduated in civil engineering, and they were to be married as soon as he landed a contract. Olive's hobbed chest was full to overflowing with exquisite things, and Olive had already confided to Valency what her wedding dress was to be. ivory silk draped with lace, white satin-court drain lined with pale green georgette, earloom veil of brussov's lace. Valenci knew also, though Olive had not told her, that the bridemaids were selected and that she was not among them. Valency had, after a fashion, always been Olive's confidant, perhaps because of her.

Starting point is 02:01:17 she was the only girl in the connection who could not bore Olive with written confidences. Olive always told Valancy all the details of her love affairs from the days when the little boys in school used to

Starting point is 02:01:33 persecute her with love letters. Valency could not comfort herself by thinking these affairs mythical. Olive really had them. Many men had gone mad over her besides the three fortunate ones.

Starting point is 02:01:52 I don't know what the poor idiots see in me that drive them to make such double idiots of themselves, Olive was wont to say. Valancy would have liked to say, I don't either. The truth and diplomacy both restrained her. She did know perfectly well. Olive Sterling was one of the girls about whom men do go mad, just as indubitably as she, Valency, was one of the girls at whom no man ever looked twice.

Starting point is 02:02:28 And yet, thought Valency, summing her up with a new and merciless conclusiveness. She's like a dueless morning. There's something lacking. End of Chapter 10. Chapter 11 of the Blue Castle. This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org.

Starting point is 02:03:03 Read by Rina A.Z. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maude Montgomery. Meanwhile, the dinner in its earlier stages was dragging its slow length along true to sterling form. The room was chilly, in spite of the calendar, and Aunt Alberta had the gas logs lighted. Everybody in the clan envied her those gas logs except Valency. Glorious open fires blazed in every room of her blue castle when autumnal nights were cool, but she would have frozen to death in it before she would have committed the sacrilege of a gas log. Uncle Herbert made his hearty perennial joke when he helped Aunt Wellington to the cold meat.

Starting point is 02:03:44 Mary, will you have a little lamb? Aunt Mildred told the same old story of once finding a lost ring in a turkey. crop. Uncle Benjamin told his favorite prosy tale of how he had once chased and punished a now-famous man for stealing apples. Second cousin Jane described all her sufferings with an ulcerating tooth. Aunt Wellington admired the pattern of Aunt Alberta's silver teaspoons and lamented the fact that one of her own had been lost. It spoiled the set. I could never get it matched. And it was my wedding present from dear old Aunt Matilda. Aunt Isabel thought the seasons were changing and couldn't imagine what had become of our good old-fashioned springs. Cousin Georgiana, as usual, discussed the last funeral and

Starting point is 02:04:34 wondered audibly, which of us will be the next to pass away? Cousin Georgiana could never say anything as blunt as die. Balenci thought she could tell her, but didn't. Cousin Gladys, likewise as usual, a grievance. Her visiting nephews had nipped all the buds off her houseplants and chivied her brood of fancy chickens, squeezed some of them actually to death, my dear. Boys will be boys, reminded Uncle Herbert tolerantly. But they needn't be ramping rampageous animals, retorted Cous Gladys, looking round the table for appreciation of her wit. Everybody smiled except Valency. Cousin Gladys remembered that. A few minutes later, when Ellen Hamilton was being discussed,

Starting point is 02:05:24 Cousin Gladys spoke of her as one of those shy, plain girls who can't get husbands, and glanced significantly at Balancy. Uncle James thought the conversation was sagging to a rather low plane of personal gossip. He tried to elevate it by starting an abstract discussion on the greatest happiness. Everybody was asked to state his or her idea of the greatest happiness. Aunt Mildred thought the greatest happiness for a woman was to be a loving and beloved wife and mother. Aunt Wellington thought it would be to travel in Europe. Olive thought it would be to be a great singer like Tetrazini.

Starting point is 02:06:04 Cousin Gladys remarked mournfully that her greatest happiness would be to be free, absolutely free from neuritis. Cousin Georgiana's greatest happiness would be to have her dear dead brother Richard back. Aunt Alberta remarked vaguely that the greatest happiness was to be found in the poetry of life and hastily gave some directions to her maid to prevent anyone asking her what she meant. Mrs. Frederick said the greatest happiness was to spend your life in loving service for others, and Cousin Stickles and Aunt Isabel agreed with her. Aunt Isabel, with a resentful air, as if she thought Mrs. Frederick had taken the wind out of her sails by saying it first.

Starting point is 02:06:46 We are all too prone, continued Mrs. Frederick, determined not to lose so good an opportunity, to live in selfishness, worldliness, and sin. The other women all felt rebuked for their low ideals, and Uncle James had a conviction that the conversation has been uplifted with a vengeance. The greatest happiness, said Valancy suddenly and distinctly, is to sneeze when you want to. Everybody stared. Nobody felt it safe to say anything.

Starting point is 02:07:20 Was Valancy trying to be funny? It was incredible. Mrs. Frederick, who had been breathing easier since the dinner had progressed so far without any outbreak on the part of Valency, began to tremble again, but she deemed it in the part of prudence to say nothing. Uncle Benjamin was not so prudent.

Starting point is 02:07:39 He rashly rushed in where Mrs. Frederick feared to tread. Doss, he chucked. What is the difference between a young girl and an old maid? One is happy and careless, and the other is happy and hairless, said Valancy. You have asked that riddle at least fifty times in my recollection, Uncle Ben. Why don't you hunt up some new riddles if riddle you must? It is such a fatal mistake to try to be funny if you don't succeed. Uncle Benjamin stared foolishly.

Starting point is 02:08:08 Never in his life had he, Benjamin Sterling, of Sterling and Frost, been spoken to so. and by Valancy of all people. He looked feebly around the table to see what the others thought of it. Everybody was looking rather blank. Poor Mrs. Frederick had shut her eyes, and her lips moved tremblingly as if she were praying. Perhaps she was. The situation was so unprecedented that nobody knew how to meet it.

Starting point is 02:08:34 Valency went on calmly eating her salad as if nothing out of the usual had occurred. Aunt Alberta, to save her dinner, plunged into an account of how a dog had been, bitten her recently. Uncle James, to back her up, asked where the dog had bitten her. Just a little below the Catholic Church, said Aunt Alberta. At that point, Valency laughed. Nobody else laughed. What was there to laugh at? Is that a vital part? asked Valency. What do you mean, said bewildered Aunt Alberta, and Mrs. Frederick was almost driven to believe that she had served God all her years for naught. Aunt Isabelle concluded that it was up to her to suppress

Starting point is 02:09:11 Valancy. Doss, you are horribly thin, she said. You are all corners. Do you ever try to fatten up a little? No, Valency was not asking quarter or giving it. But I can tell you where you'll find a beauty parlor in Port Lawrence, where they can reduce the number of your chins. Valenci! The protest was rung from Mrs. Frederick. She meant her tone to be stately and majestic as usual, but it sounded more like an imploring wine, and she did not say, Doss. She's feverish, said Cousin Stickles to Uncle Benjamin in an agonized whisper. We've thought she's seemed feverish for several days. She's gone Dippy, in my opinion, growled Uncle Benjamin.

Starting point is 02:09:53 If not, she ought to be spanked. Yes, spanked. You can't spank her, Cousin Stickels was much agitated. She's 29 years old. So there's that advantage, at least, in being 29, said Valenci, whose ears had caught this aside. Doss, said Uncle Benjamin. When I am dead, you may say what you please. As long as I'm alive, I demand to be treated with respect. Oh, but you know, we're all dead, said Valency, the whole Sterling clan. Some of us are buried,

Starting point is 02:10:24 and some aren't yet. That is the only difference. Doss, said Uncle Benjamin, thinking it might cow, Valency. Do you remember the time you stole the raspberry jam? Balencii flushed Scarlet, with suppressed laughter, not shame. She had been sure Uncle Benjamin would drag that jam in somehow. Of course I do, she said. It was good jam. I've always been sorry I hadn't time to eat more of it before you found me. Oh, look at Aunt Isabelle's profile on the wall.

Starting point is 02:10:54 Did you ever see anything so funny? Everybody looked, including Aunt Isabel herself, which, of course, destroyed it. But Uncle Herbert said kindly, I wouldn't eat any more if I were you, Doss. It isn't that I grudge it, but don't you think it would be better for yourself? Your, your stomach seems a little out of order. Don't worry about my stomach, old dear, said Valency. It is all right.

Starting point is 02:11:20 I am going to keep right on eating. It's so seldom I get the chance of a satisfying meal. It was the first time anyone had been called Old Deer in Deerwood. The Sterlings thought Valency had invented the phrase, and they were afraid of her from that moment. There was something so uncanny about such an expression, but in poor Mrs. Frederick's opinion, the reference to a satisfying meal was the worst thing Valency had said yet. Valency had always been a disappointment to her. Now she was a disgrace. She thought she would have to get up and go away from the table.

Starting point is 02:11:56 Yet she dared not leave Valency there. Aunt Alberta's maid came in to remove the salad plates and bring in the dessert. It was a welcome diversion. Everybody brightened up with a determination to ignore Valency and talk as if she was there. Uncle Wellington mentioned Barney Snaith. Eventually, somebody did mention Barney Snaith at every Sterling function, Valance he reflected. Whatever he was, he was an individual that could not be ignored. She resigned herself to listen. There was a subtle fascination in the subject for her, though she had not yet faced this fact. She could feel her pulses beating to her fingertips. Of course, they abused him. Nobody ever had a good word to say of Barney Snaith. All the old, wild

Starting point is 02:12:40 tales were canvassed. The defaulting cashier, counterfeiter, infidel murderer in hiding, legends were thrashed out. Uncle Wellington was very indignant that such a creature should be allowed to exist at all in the neighborhood of Deerwood. He didn't know what the police at Port Lawrence were thinking of. Everybody would be murdered in their bed some night. It was a shame that he could be allowed to be at large after all that he had done. What has he done? asked Valency suddenly. Uncle Wellington stared at her, forgetting that she was to be ignored. Done, done, he's done everything. What has he done? repeated Valency, inexorably.

Starting point is 02:13:19 What do you know he has done? You're always running him down. And what has ever been proved against him? I don't argue with women, said Uncle Wellington. And I don't need proof. When a man hides himself up there on an island in Muscoca, year in and year out, and nobody can find out where he came from,

Starting point is 02:13:38 or how he lives or what he does there, that's proof enough. Find a mystery, and you find a crime. The very idea of a man named Snaith, said second cousin Sarah. Why, the name itself is enough to condemn him. I wouldn't like to meet him in a dark lane, shivered cousin Georgiana. What do you suppose he would do to you? asked Valency. Murder me, said cousin Georgiana solemnly. Just for the fun of it, suggested Valency.

Starting point is 02:14:05 Exactly, said cousin Georgiana, unsuspiciously. When there is so much smoke, there must be some fire. I was afraid he was a criminal when he came here first. I felt he had something to hide. I am not often mistaken in my intuitions. Criminal, of course he's a criminal, said Uncle Wellington. Nobody doubts it, glaring at Valency. Why, they say he served a term in the penitentiary for embezzlement.

Starting point is 02:14:30 I don't doubt it. And they say he's in with that gang that are perpetrating all those bank robberies around the country. Who say? asked Valency. Uncle Wellington nodded his ugly forehead at her. What had gotten into this confounded girl anyway? He ignored the question. He has the identical look of a jailbird, snapped Uncle Benjamin. I noticed it the first time I saw him. A fellow by the hand of nature marked, quoted and sighed to do a deed of shame, declaimed Uncle James. He looked enormously pleased over the managing to work

Starting point is 02:15:03 that quotation in at last. He had been waiting all his life for the chance. One of his eyebrows is an arch, and the other is a triangle, said Valency. Is that why you think him so villainous? Uncle James lifted his eyebrows. Generally when Uncle James lifted his eyebrows, the world came to an end. This time, it continued to function. How do you know his eyebrows so well, Doss? asked Olive, a trifle maliciously. Such a remark would have covered Valency with confusion two weeks ago, and Olive knew it.

Starting point is 02:15:36 Yes, how? demanded Aunt Wellington. "'I've seen him twice, and I looked at him closely,' said Valency composedly. "'I thought his face the most interesting one I ever saw.' "'There is no doubt there is something fishy in the creature's past life,' said Olive, who began to think she was decidedly out of the conversation, which had centered so amazingly around Valency. But he can hardly be guilty of everything he's accused of, you know. Valency felt annoyed with Olive.

Starting point is 02:16:04 Why should she speak up in even this qualified defense of Barney's Snaith. What had she to do with him? For that matter, what had Valency? But Valency did not ask herself this question. They say he keeps dozens of cats in that hut up back on Mestawas, said second cousin Sarah Taylor, by way of appearing not entirely ignorant of him. Cats. It sounded quite alluring to Valency, in the plural. She pictured an island in Muscoca haunted by pussies. That alone shows there is something wrong with him, decreed Aunt Isabel. People who don't like cats, said Valency, attacking her dessert with a relish, always seemed to think that there is some peculiar virtue in not liking them. The man hasn't a friend except Roaring Abel, said Uncle Wellington.

Starting point is 02:16:55 And if Roaring Abel had kept away from him, as everybody else did, it would have been better for for some members of his family. Uncle Wellington's rather lame conclusion was due to a marital glance from Aunt Wellington, reminding him of what he had almost forgotten, that there were girls at the table. If you mean, said Valency passionately, that Barney Snaith is the father of Cecily Gay's child, he isn't. It's a wicked lie. In spite of her indignation, Valency was hugely amused at the expression of the faces around that festal table. She had not seen anything like it since the day, 17 years ago, when at Cousin Gladys's Thimble Party, they discovered that she had got something in her head at school. Lice in her head. Valency was done with

Starting point is 02:17:44 euphemisms. Poor Mrs. Frederick was almost in a state of collapse. She had believed, or pretended to believe, that Valency still supposed that children were found in parsley beds. Hush, hush, implored Cousin-Stickles. I don't mean to hush, said Valency perversely. I've hush-hushed all my life. I'll scream if I want to. Don't make me want to. And stop talking nonsense about Barney Snaith. Valency didn't exactly understand her own indignation. What did Barney Snath's imputed crimes and misdemeanors matter to her, and why, out of them all, did it seem most intolerable that he should have been poor, pitiful little Cecily Gay's false lover? Or it did seem intolerable to her. She did not mind when they called him a thief and a counterfeiter and jailbird.

Starting point is 02:18:34 but she could not endure to think that he had loved and ruined Cecily Gay. She recalled his face on the two occasions of their chance meetings, his twisted, enigmatic, engaging smile, his twinkle, his thin, sensitive, almost ascetic lips, his general air of Frank Daredevilty. A man with such a smile and lips might have murdered or stolen, but he could not have betrayed. She suddenly hated everyone who said it or believed it of him. him. When I was a young girl, I never thought or spoke about such matters, Doss, said Aunt Wellington, crushingly. But I'm not a young girl, retorted Valency, uncrushed. Aren't you always rubbing that into me?

Starting point is 02:19:20 And you are all evil-minded, senseless gossips. Can't you leave poor Sissy Gay alone? She's dying. Whatever she did, God, or the devil has punished her enough for it. You needn't take a hand, too. as for Barney Snaith, the only crime he has been guilty of is living to himself and minding his own business. He can, it seems, get along without you. Which is an unpardonable sin, of course, in your little snobocracy. Valency coined that, concluding word, suddenly, and felt that it was an inspiration. That was exactly what they were, and not one of them was fit to mend another. Valency, your poor father would turn over in his grave if he could hear you, said Mrs. Frederick. I dare say he would like that for a change, said Valency brazenly.

Starting point is 02:20:09 Doss, said Uncle James heavily. The Ten Commandments are fairly up to date still, especially the Fifth. Have you forgotten that? No, said Valency. But I thought you had, especially the ninth. Have you ever thought, Uncle James, how dull life would be without the Ten Commandments? It is only when things are forbidden that they become fascinating, but her excitement had been too much for her. She knew by certain unmistakable warnings that one of her attacks of pain was coming on. It must not find her there. She rose from her chair. I am going home now. I only came for the dinner. It was very good, Aunt Alberta, although your salad dressing is not salt enough and a dash of cayenne would improve it.

Starting point is 02:20:53 None of the flabbergasted silver wedding guests could think of anything to say until the lawn gate clanged behind Valancy in the dusk. Then, she's feverish. I've said it right along. She was feverish, moaned cousin Stickles. Uncle Benjamin punished his pudgy left hand fiercely with his pudgy right. She's Dippy. I tell you, she's gone, Dippy.

Starting point is 02:21:16 He snorted angrily. That's all there is about it. Clean, Dippy. Oh, Benjamin, said cousin Georgiana. soothingly. Don't condemn her too rashly. We must remember what dear old Shakespeare says, that charity thinketh no evil. Charity? Hoppycock, snorted Uncle Benjamin. I've never heard a young woman talk such stuff in my life as she just did, talking about things she ought to be ashamed to think of, much less mention, blaspheming, insulting us. What she wants is a generous dose of

Starting point is 02:21:49 Spankweed, and I'd like to be the one to administer it. Oh, ho, ho! Uncle Benjamin gulped down the half of a scalding cup of coffee. Do you suppose that the mumps could work on a person that way, wailed cousin Stickles? I opened an umbrella in the house yesterday, sniffed Cousin Georgiana. I knew it betokened some misfortune. Have you tried to find out if she has a temperature? asked Cousin Mildred. She wouldn't let Amelia put the thermometer under her tongue, whimpered Cousin Stickles.

Starting point is 02:22:18 Mrs. Frederick was openly in tears. All her defenses were down. I must tell you, she sobbed, that Valancy has been acting very strangely for over two weeks now. She hasn't been a bit like herself. Christine could tell you, I have hoped against hope that it was only one of her colds coming on, but it is, it must be something worse. This is bringing on my neuritis again, said Cousin Gladys, putting her hand to her head. Don't cry, Amelia, said Herbert kindly, pulling nervous. at his spiky gray hair. He hated family ruckians, very inconsiderate of Doss to start one at his silver wedding. Who could have supposed she had it in her? You'll have to take her to the doctor. This may be only a, uh, a brainstorm. There are such things as brainstorms nowadays, aren't there?

Starting point is 02:23:09 I, I suggested consulting a doctor to her yesterday, moaned Mrs. Frederick. And she said she wouldn't go to a doctor, wouldn't. Oh, surely, I have had trouble. trouble enough. And she won't take Redfern's bidders, said Cousin-Stycles, or anything, said Mrs. Frederick. And she's determined to go to the Presbyterian Church, said Cousin-Styl, repressing, however, to her credit, be it said, the story of the banister. That proves she's Dippy, growled Uncle Benjamin. I noticed something strange about her the minute she came in today. I noticed it before today. Uncle Benjamin was thinking of, M-I-R-A-Z-H.

Starting point is 02:23:51 Everything she said today showed an unbalanced mind. That question? Was it a vital part? Was there any sense at all in that remark? None whatever. There was never anything like that in the Stirlings. It must be from the Wandsboroughs. Poor Mrs. Frederick was too crushed to be indignant.

Starting point is 02:24:12 I never heard of anything like that in the Wandsparas, she sobbed. "'Your father was odd enough,' said Uncle Benjamin. "'Poor-pa was peculiar,' admitted Mrs. Frederick tearfully. "'But his mind was never affected.' "'He talked all his life exactly as Valency did today,' retorted Uncle Benjamin, "'and he believed he was his own great-great-grandfather born over again. "'I've heard him say it. "'Don't tell me that a man who believed a thing like that was ever in his right senses.

Starting point is 02:24:40 "'Come, come, Amelia, stop sniffling.' "'Of course, Doss has made a terrible exhibition of full. herself today. But she's not responsible. Old maids are apt to fly off at a tangent like that. If she had been married when she should have been, she wouldn't have got like this. Nobody wanted to marry her, said Mrs. Frederick, who felt that somehow Uncle Benjamin was blaming her. Well, fortunately, there's no outsider here, snapped Uncle Benjamin. We may keep it in the family yet. I'll take her over to see Dr. Marsh tomorrow. I know how to deal with pig-headed people. "'Won't that be best, James?'

Starting point is 02:25:16 "'We must have medical advice, certainly,' agreed Uncle James. "'Well, that's settled. "'In the meantime, Amelia, "'act as if nothing had happened, "'and keep an eye on her. "'Don't let her be alone. "'Above all, don't let her sleep alone.' "'Renewed whimpers from Mrs. Frederick.

Starting point is 02:25:34 "'I can't help it. "'Night before last I suggested "'she'd better have Christine sleep with her. "'She positively refused and locked her door. "'Oh, you don't. know how she's changed. She won't work. At least she won't sew. She does her usual housework, of course, but she wouldn't sweep the parlor yesterday morning, though we always sweep it on Thursdays. She said she'd wait until it was dirty. Would you rather sweep a dirty room than a

Starting point is 02:26:01 clean one? I asked her. She said, of course. I'd see something for my labor then. Think of it. Uncle Benjamin thought of it. The jar of Pot-Pourri, Cousin-Stickles pronounced it, as spelled, has disappeared from her room. I found the pieces in the next lot. She won't tell us what happened to it. I should never have dreamed of it, Doss, said Uncle Herbert. She has always seemed such a quiet, sensible girl, a bit backward, but sensible.

Starting point is 02:26:31 The only thing you can be sure of in this world is the multiplication table, said Uncle James, feeling cleverer than ever. Well, let's cheer up, suggested Uncle Benjamin. Why are chorus girls like fine stock raisers? Why? asked Cousin Stickles, since it had to be asked, and Valancy wasn't there to ask it. Like to exhibit calves, chuckled Uncle Benjamin. Cousin Stickles thought Uncle Benjamin a little indelicate, before Olive, too, but then he was a man.

Starting point is 02:27:01 Uncle Herbert was thinking that things were rather dull now that Doss had gone. End of Chapter 11. Chapter 12 of The Blue Castle This is a Librivox recording All Librivox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer Please visit Librivox.org Read by Little Miss Clumsey

Starting point is 02:27:27 The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery Chapter 12 Valancy hurried home Through the faint blue twilight Hurried too fast perhaps The attack she had when she thankfully reached the shelter of her own room was the worst yet. It was really very bad. She might die in one of those spells. It would be dreadful to die in such pain. Perhaps, perhaps this was death. Valency felt pitifully alone. When she could think at all,

Starting point is 02:28:05 she wondered what it would be like to have someone with her who could seem to be. sympathize, someone who really cared, just to hold her hand tight, if nothing else, someone just to say, yes, I know, it's dreadful, be brave, you'll soon be better. Not someone merely fussy and alarmed. Not her mother or cousin's tickles. Why did the thought of Barney's Ness came into her mind? Why did she suddenly feel, in the midst of this hideous, lonely, of pain, that he would be sympathetic, sorry for anyone that was suffering. Why did he seem to her

Starting point is 02:28:49 like an old, well-known friend? Was it because she had been defending him, standing up to her family for him? She was so bad at first that she could not even get herself a dose of Dr. Trent's prescription. But eventually, she managed it, and soon after, really, really, leave came. The pain left her, and she lay on her bed, spent, exhausted, in occult's perspiration. Oh, that had been horrible. She could not endure many more attacks like that. One didn't mind dying if death could be instant and painless, but to be hurt so in dying. Suddenly, she found herself laughing. That dinner had been fun. and it had all been so simple.

Starting point is 02:29:43 She had merely said the things she had always thought. Their faces! Uncle Benjamin! Poor flabbergasted Uncle Benjamin! Valancy failed quite sure he would make a new will that very night. Olive would get Valancy's share of his fat hoard. Olive had always got Valencia's share of everything. Remember the dust pile. To laugh at her clan, as she had always wanted to laugh, was all the satisfaction she could get out of life now.

Starting point is 02:30:20 But she thought it was rather pitiful that it should be so. Might she not pity herself a little when nobody else did? Valency got up and went to her window. The moist, beautiful wind blowing across groves of young leafed wild trees touched her face with the caress of a wise, tender old friend. The Lombardy's in Mrs. Treadgold's lawn, off to the left, Valancy could just see them between the stable and the old carriage shop, were in dark purple silhouette against a clear sky, and there was a milk-white, pulsating star just over one of them, like a living pearl on a silver-green

Starting point is 02:31:05 Lake. Far beyond the station were the shadowy purple-hooded woods around Lake Mistowice. A white, filmy mist hung over them, and just above it was a faint young crescent. Valency looked at it over a thin left shoulder. I wish, she said whimsically, that I may have one little dust pile before I die. End of Chapter 12 Chapter 13 of the Blue Castle This is a Librivox recording All Librivox recordings are in the public domain

Starting point is 02:31:51 For more information or to volunteer Please visit Librivox.org The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery Chapter 13 Uncle Benjamin found he had reckoned without his host When he promised so airily to take Valency to a doctor. Valency would not go. Valency laughed in his face. Why on earth should I go to Dr. Marsh? There's nothing the matter with my mind, though you all think I've suddenly gone crazy.

Starting point is 02:32:24 Well, I haven't. I've simply grown tired of living to please other people and have decided to please myself. It will give you something to talk about besides my stealing the raspberry jam. So that's that. "'Doss,' said Uncle Benjamin, solemnly and helplessly. "'You are not like yourself.' "'Who am I like, then?' asked Valancy. "'Uncle Benjamin was rather posed. "'Your grandfather Wonsborough,' he answered desperately.

Starting point is 02:32:57 "'Thanks, Valancy looked pleased. "'That's a real compliment. "'I remember Grandfather Wonsborough. "'He was one of the few human beings I have known almost the only one. Now, it is of no use to scold or entreat or command Uncle Benjamin, or exchange anguished glances with mother and cousin's dickles. I am not going to any doctor, and if you bring any doctor here, I won't see him. So what are you going to do about it? What indeed it was not seemly or even possible to hail Valency doctor wards by physical force,

Starting point is 02:33:35 and in no other way could it be done, seemingly. Her mother's tears and imploring entreaties availed not. Don't worry, mother, said Valency, lightly but quite respectfully. It isn't likely I'll do anything very terrible, but I mean to have a little fun. Fun! Mrs. Frederick uttered the word as if Valency had said she was going to have a little tuberculosis. Olive, sent by her mother to see if she had any influence over Valency, came away with flushed cheeks and angry eyes. She told her mother that nothing could be done with Valency. After she, Olive, had talked to her just like a sister, tenderly and wisely.

Starting point is 02:34:23 All Valency had said, narrowing her funny eyes to mere slips, was, I don't show my gums when I laugh. More as if she were talking to herself than to me. Indeed, Mother, all the time I was talking to her, she gave me the impression of not really listening. And that wasn't all. When I finally decided that what I was saying had no influence over her, I begged her, when Cecil came next week,

Starting point is 02:34:49 not to say anything queer before him, at least. Mother, what do you think she said? I'm sure I can't imagine, groaned Aunt Wellington, prepared for anything. She said, I'd rather like to show. shock, Cecil. His mouth is too red for a man's. Mother, I can never feel the same to Valency again. Her mind is affected, Olive, said Aunt Wellington solemnly. You must not hold her responsible for what she says. When Aunt Wellington told Mrs. Frederick what Valency had said to

Starting point is 02:35:23 Olive, Mrs. Frederick wanted Valency to apologize. You made me apologize to Olive 15 years ago for something I didn't do, said Valancy. That old apology will do for now. Another solemn family conclave was held. They were all there except Cousin Gladys, who had been suffering such tortures of neuritis in her head ever since poor Dos went queer that she couldn't undertake any responsibility. They decided, that is, they accepted a fact that was thrust in their faces, that the wisest thing was to leave Valency alone for a while, give her her head, as Uncle Benjamin expressed it, keep a careful eye on her, but let her pretty much alone. The term of watchful waiting had not been invented then, but that was practically the policy

Starting point is 02:36:19 Valency's distracted relatives decided to follow. We must be guided by developments, said Uncle Benjamin. It is solemnly easier to scramble eggs than unscramble them. Of course, if she becomes violent. Uncle James consulted Dr. Ambrose Marsh. Dr. Ambrose Marsh approved their decision. He pointed out to irate Uncle James, who would have liked to lock Valency up somewhere out of hand,

Starting point is 02:36:50 that Valency had not, as yet, really done or said anything that could be constructed as proof of lunacy. and without proof you cannot lock people up in this degenerate age. Nothing that Uncle James had reported seemed very alarming to Dr. Marsh, who put up his hand to conceal a smile several times. But then he himself was not a sterling, and he knew very little about the old Valancy. Uncle James stalked out and drove back to Deerwood,

Starting point is 02:37:23 thinking that Ambrose Marsh wasn't much of a doctor after all, and that Adelaide Sterling might have done better for herself. End of Chapter 13 Read by Anna Sophia Andersson, Grenesperg, January the 15th, 2002. Chapter 14 of the Blue Castle. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org.

Starting point is 02:38:02 Read by Rina A. Z. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Life cannot stop because tragedy enters it. Meals must be made ready, though a son dies, and porches must be repaired, even if your only daughter is going out of her mind. Mrs. Frederick, in her systematic way, had long ago appointed the second week in June for the repairing of the front porch, the roof of which was sagging dangerously. Roaring Abel had been engaged to do it many moons before, and Roaring Abel promptly appeared on the morning of the first day of the second week, and fell to work. Of course, he was drunk. Roaring Abel was never anything but drunk,

Starting point is 02:38:49 but he was only in the first stage, which made him talkative and genial. The odor of whiskey on his breath nearly drove Mrs. Frederick and Cousin' Stickel's wild at dinner. Even Valency, with all her emancipation, did not like it. But she liked Abel, and she liked his vivid, eloquent talk, and after she washed the dinner dishes, she went out and sat on the steps and talked to him. Mrs. Frederick and Cousin Stickles thought it a terrible proceeding, but what could they do? Valency only smiled mockingly at them when they called her in, and did not go. It was so easy to defy once you got started.

Starting point is 02:39:26 The first step was the only one that really counted. They were both afraid to say anything more to her, lest she might make a scene before Roaring Abel, who would spread it all over the country with his own characteristic comments and exaggerations. It was too cold a day, in spite of the June sunshine, for Mrs. Frederick to sit at the dining room window and listen to what was said. She had to shut the window, and Valency and Roaring Abel had their talk to themselves. But if Mrs. Frederick had known what the outcome of that talk was to be, she would have prevented it if the porch was never repaired. Valancy sat on the steps, defiant of the chill breeze of this cold June, which had made on Isabelle avert the seasons were changing. She did not care whether she caught a cold or not. It was delightful to sit there in that cold, beautiful, fragrant world and feel free.

Starting point is 02:40:20 She filled her lungs with a clean, lovely wind, and held out her arms to it and let it tear her hair to pieces while she listened to Roaring Abel, who told her his troubles between intervals of hammering gaily and time to his Scottish songs. Valency liked to hear him. Every stroke of his hammer fell true to the note. Old Abel Gay, in spite of his 70 years, was handsome still, in a stately, patriarchal manner. His tremendous beard, falling down over his blue flannel shirt, was still a flaming, untouched red, though his shock of hair was white as snow, and his eyes were a fiery, youthful blue. His enormous reddish-white eyebrows were more like mustaches than eyebrows. Perhaps this is why he always kept his upper lip scrupulously shaved.

Starting point is 02:41:12 His cheeks were red and his nose ought to have been, but wasn't. It was a fine, upstanding aquiline nose. such as the noblest Roman of them all might have rejoiced in. Abel was six feet two in his stockings, broad-shouldered, lean-hipped. In his youth he had been a famous lover, finding all women too charming to bind himself to one. His years had been a wild, colorful panorama of follies and adventures, gallantries, fortunes, and misfortunes.

Starting point is 02:41:43 He had been forty-five before he married, a pretty slip of a girl, whom his goings-on killed in his own. a few years. Abel was piously drunk at her funeral and insisted on repeating the 55th chapter of Isaiah. Abel knew most of the Bible, and all of the Psalms by heart, while the minister, whom he disliked, prayed or tried to pray. Thereafter, his house was run by an untidy old cousin who cooked his meals and kept things going after a fashion. In this unpromising environment, little Cecilia Gay had grown up. Valency had known Sissy Gay fairly well in the democracy of the public school, though Sissy had been three years younger than she. After they left school, their paths diverged,

Starting point is 02:42:27 and she had seen nothing of her. Old Abel was a Presbyterian. That is, he got a Presbyterian preacher to marry him, baptize his child, and bury his wife, and he knew more about Presbyterian theology than most ministers, which made him a terror to them in arguments. But Rory's A.B. Never went to church. Every Presbyterian minister who had been in Deerwood had tried his hand once at reforming Roaring Abel. But he had not been pestered of late. Reverend Mr. Bentley had been in Deerwood for eight years, but he had not sought out Roaring Abel since the first three months of his pastorate. He had called on Roaring Abel then, and found him in the theological state of drunkenness, which always followed the sentimental maudlin one, and preceded the roaring,

Starting point is 02:43:13 blasphemous one. The eloquently prayerful one, in which he realized himself temporarily and intensely as a sinner in the hands of an angry God, was the final one. Abel never went beyond it. He generally fell asleep on his knees and awakened sober, but he had never been dead drunk in his life. He told Mr. Bentley that he was a sound Presbyterian and sure of his election. He had no sins that he knew of, to repent of. Have you ever done anything in your life? life that you are sorry for, asked Mr. Bentley. Roaring Abel scratched his bushy white head and pretended to reflect. Well, yes, he said finally. There were some women I might have kissed and didn't. I've always been sorry for that. Mr. Bentley went out and went home. Abel had seen that Sissy was

Starting point is 02:44:05 properly baptized, jovially drunk at the same time himself. He made her go to church and Sunday school regularly. The church people took her up, and she was in turn a member of the mission band, the Girls Guild, and the young women's missionary society. She was a faithful, unobtrusive, sincere little worker. Everybody liked Sissy Gay, and was sorry for her. She was so modest and sensitive and pretty in that delicate, elusive fashion of beauty, which fades so quickly if life has not kept at it by love and tenderness. But then liking and pity did not prevent them from tearing her in pieces like hungry cats when the catastrophe came. Four years previously, Sissy Gay had gone up to a Muscoa Hotel as a summer waitress,

Starting point is 02:44:52 and when she had come back in the fall, she was a changed creature. She hid herself away and went nowhere. The reason soon leaked out and scandal raged. That winter Sissy's baby was born. Nobody ever knew who the father was. Cessaly kept her poor, pale lips tightly locked on her sorry secret. Nobody dared ask Roaring Abel any questions about it. Rumor and surmise laid the guilt at Barney Snaith's store because diligent inquiry among the other maids at the hotel revealed the fact that nobody there had ever seen Sissy Gay with a fellow. She had kept to herself, they said, rather resentfully. Too good for our dances, and now look.

Starting point is 02:45:36 The baby had lived for a year. After its death, Sissy faded away. Two years ago, Dr. Marsh had given her only six months to live. Her lungs were hopelessly diseased. But she was still alive. Nobody went to see her. Women would not go to Roring Abel's house. Mr. Bentley had gone once, when he knew Abel was away,

Starting point is 02:46:00 but the dreadful old creature who was scrubbing the kitchen floor told him Sissy wouldn't see anyone. The old cousin had died, and Roring Abel had, had two or three disreputable housekeepers, the only kind who could be prevailed on to go to a house where a girl was dying of consumption. But the last one had left, and roaring Abel, had now no one to wait on Sissy and do for him. This wasn't the burden of his plaint to Valency, and he condemned the hypocrites of Deerwood and it surrounded communities with some rich, meaty oaths that happened to reach Cousin Stickel's ears as she passed through the hall and nearly finished the poor lady. Was Valency listening to her?

Starting point is 02:46:38 to that? Valency hardly noticed the profanity. Her attention was focused on the horrible thought of poor, unhappy, disgraced little Sissy Gay, ill and helpless in that forlorn old house out on Mastawa's road, without a soul to help or comfort her. And this, in a nominally Christian community, in the year of Grace 19 and some odd. Do you mean to say that Sissy is all alone there now, with nobody to do anything for her? Nobody? Oh, she can move about a bit and get a bite and sup when she wants it, but she can't work. It's D-D-D-hard for a man to work hard all day and go home at night,

Starting point is 02:47:19 tired and hungry and cook his own meals. Sometimes I'm sorry I kicked old Rachel Edwards out. Able described Rachel, picturesquely. Her face looked as if it had wore out a hundred bodies, and she moped. Talk about temper. Temper's nothing to moping. She was too slow to catch worms and dirty

Starting point is 02:47:38 D-D-Dash-Dash-Dirty. I ain't unreasonable. I know a man has to eat his peck before he dies, but she went over the limit. Would you suppose I saw that lady do? She made some pumpkin jam, had it on the table in glass jars with the tops off. The dog got up on the table and stuck his paw into one of them.

Starting point is 02:47:58 What'd she do? She just took hold of the dog and wrung the syrup off his paw back into the jar. Then screw the top. on and set it in the pantry. I sets open the door and says to her, go. The dame went, and I fired the jars of punkin after her, two at a time. Thought I died laughing to see old Rachel run with them pumpkin jars raining after her. She stole everywhere I'm crazy, so nobody'll come for love or money. But Sissy must have someone to look after her, insisted Valenci, whose mind was centered on this

Starting point is 02:48:29 aspect of the case. She did not care whether Roaring Abel had anyone to cook for him or not, but her heart was rung for Cecilia Gay. Oh, she gets on. Barney Snaith always drops in when he's passing, and does anything she wants done. Brings her oranges and flowers and things. There's a Christian for you. Yet that sanctimonious sniveling parcel of St. Andrew's people wouldn't be seen on the same side of the road with him. Their dogs will go to heaven before they do. And their minister? Slick as if the cat had licked him. There are plenty of good people, both in St. Andrews and St. George's, who would be kind to Sissy, if you would behave yourself, said Valency severely. They're afraid to go near your place. Because I'm such a sad old dog, but I don't bite. Never bit anyone in my life.

Starting point is 02:49:21 A few loose words spilled around don't hurt anyone. And I'm not asking people to come. Don't want them poking and prying about. What I want is a housekeeper. If I shaved every Saturday and went to church, I'd get all the housekeepers I'd want. I'd be respectable then. But what's the use of going to church when it's all settled by predestination? Tell me that, miss. Is it? said Valancy. Yes. Can't get around it know-how.

Starting point is 02:49:49 Wish I could. I don't want either heaven or hell for steady. Wish a man could have a mixed and equal proportions. Isn't that the way it is in this world, said Valency thoughtfully? but rather as if her thought was concerned with something else than theology. No, no, boomed able, striking a tremendous blow on a stubborn nail. There's too much hell here, entirely too much hell. That's why I get drunk so often.

Starting point is 02:50:15 It sets you free for a little while, free from yourself. Yes, by God, free from predestination. Ever try it? No, I have another way of getting free, said Valency absently. But about Sissy now, she must. have someone to look after her. What are you harping on sis for? Seems to me you ain't bothered much about her up to now.

Starting point is 02:50:37 You never even come to see her, and she used to like you so well. I should have, said Valancy. But never mind. You couldn't understand. The point is, you must have a housekeeper. Where am I to get one? I can pay decent wages if I could get a decent woman.

Starting point is 02:50:55 Do you think I like old hags? Will I do? said Valency. End of Chapter 14. Chapter 15 of the Blue Castle. This is a Libervox recording. All Libervox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,

Starting point is 02:51:20 please visit Libravox.org. Read by Riley Ruiz. The Blue Castle by Lucy Mon Montgomery. Chapter 15. Let us be calm, said Uncle Benjamin. Let us be perfectly calm. Calm, Mrs. Frederick wrung her hands. How can I be calm? How could anybody be calm under such a disgrace as this?

Starting point is 02:51:42 Why in the world did you let her go? asked Uncle James. Let her? How could I stop her, James? It seems she packed the big valise and sent it away with Roaring Abel when he went home after supper, while Christine and I were out in the kitchen. Then Doss herself came down with her little satchel, dressed in her green serge suit. I felt a terrible premonition. I can't tell you how it was, but I seemed to know that Doss was going to do something dreadful. It's a pity you couldn't have had your premonition a little sooner, said Uncle Benjamin dryly. I said, Doss, where are you going? And she said, I am going to look for my blue castle.

Starting point is 02:52:19 Wouldn't you think that would convince Marsh that her mind is affected? Interjected Uncle James. And I said, Valancy, what do you mean? And she said, I am going to keep house for Roaring Abel and Nurse Sissy. He will pay me $30 a month. I wonder I didn't drop dead on the spot. you shouldn't have let her go you shouldn't have let her out of the house said uncle james you should have locked the door anything she was between me and the front door and you can't realize how determined she was she was like a rock that's the strangest thing of all about her she used to be so good and obedient and now she's neither to hold nor bind but i said everything i could think of to bring her to her senses i asked her if she had no regard for her reputation i said to her solemnly dos when a woman's reputation is once smirched. Nothing can ever make it spotless again. Your character will be gone forever if you go to Roaring Ables to wait on a bad girl like cis gay. And she said, I don't believe Sissy was a bad girl, but I don't care if she was. Those were her very

Starting point is 02:53:19 words. I don't care if she was. She has lost all sense of decency, exploded, Uncle Benjamin. Sissy Gay is dying, she said, and it's a shame and disgrace that she is dying in a Christian community with no one to do anything for her. Whatever she's been or done, she's a human being. Well, you know, when it comes to that, I suppose she is, said Uncle James, with the air of one making a splendid concession. I asked Doss if she had no regard for appearances. She said, I've been keeping up appearances all my life.

Starting point is 02:53:51 Now I'm going in for realities. Appearances can go hang. Go hang! An outrageous thing, said Uncle Benjamin violently, an outrageous thing. Which relieved his feelings, but didn't help anyone else. Mrs. Frederick wept. Cousin Stickles took up the refrain between her moans of despair. I told her, we both told her, that Roaring Abel had certainly killed his wife in one of his drunken rages and would kill her.

Starting point is 02:54:16 She laughed and said, I'm not afraid of Roaring Abel. He won't kill me, and he's too old for me to be afraid of his gallantries. What did she mean? What are gallantries? Mrs. Frederick saw that she must stop crying if she wanted to regain control of the conversation. I said to her, Valancy, if you have no regard for your own reputation and you have a your family's standing, have you none for my feelings? She said none. Just like that, none. Insane people never do have any regard for other people's feelings, said Uncle Benjamin. That's one of the symptoms. I broke out into tears then, and she said, come now, mother, be a good sport. I'm going to do

Starting point is 02:54:54 an act of Christian charity, and as for the damages it will do to my reputation, why, you know I haven't any matrimonial chances anyhow. So what does it matter? And with that, she turned and went out. The last words I said to her, said Cousin Stickles, pathetically were, Who will rub my back at nights now? And she said, she said, but no, I cannot repeat it. Nonsense, said Uncle Benjamin, out with it. This is no time to be squeamish. She said, Cousin Stickles's voice was little more than a whisper. She said, oh, darn, to think I should have lived to hear my daughter's swearing, sobbed Mrs. Frederick. It was only imitation swearing.

Starting point is 02:55:35 faltered cousin-stickles, desirous of smoothing things over now that the worst was out, but she had never told about the banister. It will be only a step from that to real swearing, said Uncle James sternly. The worst of this! Mrs. Frederick hunted for a dry spot on her handkerchief. Is that everyone will know now that she is deranged. We can't keep it a secret any longer. Oh, I cannot bear it. You should have been as stricter when she was young, said Uncle Benjamin. I don't see how I could have been, said Mrs. Frederick. truthfully enough. The worst feature of the case is that Snaith's scoundrel is always hanging around

Starting point is 02:56:11 Roaring Abel, said Uncle James. I shall be thankful if nothing worse comes of this mad freak than a few weeks at Roaring Ables. Sissy Gay can't live much longer. And she didn't even take her flannel petticoat. Lamented Cousin' Tickles. I'll see Ambrose Marsh again about this, said Uncle Benjamin, meaning Valancy, not the flannel petticoat. I'll see lawyer Ferguson, said Uncle James. Meanwhile, added Uncle Benjamin, let us be calm. End of Chapter 15. Chapter 16 of the Blue Castle. This is a Librevox recording.

Starting point is 02:56:50 All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more informational to volunteer, please visit Librevox.org, read by Little Miss Clumsey. The Blue Castle by Lucy Mode Montgomery. Chapter 16 Valency had walked out to roaring Abel's house on the Mysterious Road under a sky of purple and amber, with a queer exhilaration and expectancy in her heart. Back there, behind her, her mother and cousin's tickles were crying, over themselves, not over her.

Starting point is 02:57:29 But here the wind was in her face, soft, dew-wet, cool, blowing along the ground. grassy roads. Oh, she loved the wind. The robins were whistling sleepily in the furs along the way, and the moist hair was fragrant with the tang of balsam. Big cars went purring past in the violet dusk, the stream of summer tourists to Muscoca had already begun, but Valenci did not envy any of their occupants. Muscoca cottages might be charming, but beyond, in the sunset skies, among the spires of the firs, her blue castle towered. She brushed the old years and habits and inhibitions away from her like dead leaves. She would not be littered with them. Roaring Abel's rambling, tumbled-down old house was situated about three miles from the village, on the very edge of up-back,

Starting point is 02:58:35 as the sparsely settled hilly-wooded country around Bistois was called vernacularly. It did not, it must be confessed, look much like a blue castle. It had once been a snug place enough in the days when Abel Gay had been young and prosperous, and the punning arched sign over the gate, a gay carpenter had been fine and freshly painted. Now it was a faded, dreary old place, with a leprous-pressed roof and shutters hanging askew. Abel never seemed to do any carpenter jobs about his own house.

Starting point is 02:59:18 It had a listless hair, as if tired of life. There was a dwindling grove, of ragged, crone-like old spruces behind it. The garden, which Sissy used to keep neat and pretty, had run wild. On two sides of the house were fields full of nothing but malins. Behind the house was a long stretch of useless barrens, full of scrub pines and spruces,

Starting point is 02:59:47 with here and there a blossoming bit of wild cherry, running back to a belt of timber on the shore, shores of Lake Mistowice, two miles away. A rough, rocky, boulder-strewn lane ran through it to the woods, a lane white with pestiferous, beautiful dazes. Roaring Abel met Valency at the door. So, you've come, he said incredulously. I never supposed that Ruck of Sterlings would let you.

Starting point is 03:00:19 Valenci showed all her pointed teeth in a grin. They couldn't stop me. I didn't think you'd so much spunk, said Roaring Abel admiringly. And look at the nice ankles of her, he had it as he stepped aside to let her in. If Cousin Stickels had heard this, she would have been certain that Valancy's doom, earthly and unearthly, was sealed. But Abel's superannuated gallantry did not worry Valency. Besides, this was the first compliment she had ever received in her life, and she found herself liking it.

Starting point is 03:00:59 She sometimes suspected she had nice ankles, but nobody had ever mentioned it before. In the Stirling clan, ankles were among the unmentionedables. Roaring Abel took her into the kitchen, where Cissy Gay was lying on the sofa, breathing quickly with little scarlet spots on a hollow wallow. cheeks. Valency had not seen Cecilia Gay for years. Then she had been such a pretty creature, a slight blossom-like girl with soft golden hair, clear-cut, almost waxen features, and large, beautiful blue eyes. She was shocked at the change in her. Could this be sweet Sissy, this pitiful little thing that looked like a tired broken flower? She had wept all the beauty out of her eyes.

Starting point is 03:01:53 They looked too big, enormous, in her wasted face. The last time Valency had seen Cecilia gay, those faded, piteous eyes had been limpid, shadowy blue pools aglow with mirth.

Starting point is 03:02:09 The contrast was so terrible that Valancy's own eyes filled with tears. She knelt down by Sissy and put her arms about her. Sissy did. I've come to look after you. I'll stay with you till as long as you want me.

Starting point is 03:02:29 Oh, Cece put her thin arms about Valency's neck. Oh, will you? It's been so lonely. I can wait on myself, but it's been so lonely. It would be just like heaven to have someone here like you. You are always so sweet to me long ago. valency held cissy close she was suddenly happy here was someone who needed her someone she could help she was no longer a superfluity old things had passed away everything had become new most things are predestinated but some are just darn sheer luck said roaring abel complacently smoking his pipe in the corner

Starting point is 03:03:21 End of chapter 16. Chapter 17 of the Blue Castle. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maude Montgomery, Chapter 17. When Valancy had lived for a week at Roaring Ables, she felt as if years had separated her from her old life

Starting point is 03:03:53 and all the people she had known in it. They were beginning to seem remote, dreamlike, far away, and as the days went on, they seemed more so, until they ceased to matter altogether. She was happy. Nobody ever bothered her with conundrums or insisted on giving her purple pills. Nobody called her Doss or worried her about catching cold.

Starting point is 03:04:18 There were no quilts to piece, no abominable rubber plant to water, no ice-cold maternal tantrums to endure. She could be alone whenever she liked, go to bed when she liked, sneeze when she liked. In the long, wondrous northern twilights, when Sissy was asleep and roaring Abel went away, she could sit for hours on the shaky back veranda steps, looking out over the barons to the hills beyond, covered with their fine purple bloom, listening to the friendly, wind, singing wild, sweet melodies in the little spruces and drinking in the aroma of the sun's grasses, until darkness flowed over the landscape like a cool, welcome wave. Sometimes of an afternoon,

Starting point is 03:05:06 when Sissy was strong enough, the two girls went into the barons and looked at the woodflowers. But they did not pick any. Valancy had read to Sissy the gospel thereof according to John Foster. It is a pity to gather woodflowers. They lose half their witchery away from the green and the flicker. The way to enjoy woodflowers is to track them down to their remote haunts, gloat over them, and then leave them with backward glances, taking with us only the beguiling memory of their grace and fragrance. Lancy was in the midst of realities after a lifetime of unrealities,

Starting point is 03:05:46 and busy, very busy. the house had to be cleaned. Not for nothing had Valancy been brought up in the sterling habit of neatness and cleanliness. If she found satisfaction in cleaning dirty rooms, she got her fill of it here. Roaring Abel thought she was foolish to bother doing so much more than she was asked to do, but he did not interfere with her. He was very well satisfied with his bargain. Valancy was a good cook. Abel said she got a flavor into things. He was a lot of The only fault he found with her was that she did not sing at her work. Folks should always sing at their work, he insisted. Sounds cheerful like. Not always, retorted Valancy. Fancy a butcher singing at his work, or an undertaker. Abel burst into his great broad laugh. There's no getting the better of you. You've got an answer every time. I should think the Sterlings would be glad to get rid of you.

Starting point is 03:06:48 They don't like being sassed back. During the day, Abel was generally away from home. If not working, then shooting or fishing with Barney Snaith. He generally came home at nights, always very late and often very drunk. The first night, they heard him come howling into the yard. Sissy had told Valancy not to be afraid. Father never does anything.

Starting point is 03:07:14 He just makes noise. Valancy, lying on the sofa in Sissy's room, where she had elected to sleep, lest Sissy should need attention in the night. Sissy would never have called her, was not at all afraid, and said so. By the time Abel had got his horses put away, the roaring stage had passed, and he was in his room at the end of the hall, crying and praying. Valancy could still hear his dismal moans when she went calmly to sleep. For the most part, Abel was a good-natured creature, but occasionally he had a temper. Once Valancy asked him coolly, what is the use of getting in a rage? It's such a damned relief, said Abel.

Starting point is 03:07:59 They both burst out laughing together. You're such a great little sport, said Abel admiringly. Don't mind my bad French. I don't mean a thing by it. Just have it. Say, I like a one. woman that ain't afraid to speak to me. Sis there was always too meek.

Starting point is 03:08:19 Too meek. That's why she got a drift. I like you. All the same, said Valancy determinedly. There's no use in sending things to hell, as you're always doing. And I'm not going to have you tracking mud all over a floor I've just scrubbed. You must use the scraper whether you can sign it to perdition or not. Sissy loved the cleanness and neatness.

Starting point is 03:08:47 She had kept it so, too, until her strength failed. She was very pitifully happy because she had Valancy with her. It had been so terrible, long, lonely days and nights with no companionship save those dreadful old women who came to work. Sissy had hated and feared them. She clung to Valancy like a child. There was no doubt that Sissy was dying, yet at no time did she seem alarmingly ill.

Starting point is 03:09:16 She did not even cough a great deal. Most days she was able to get up and dress, sometimes even to work about in the garden or the barons for an hour or two. For a few weeks after Valancy's coming, she seemed so much better that Valancy began to hope she might get well. But Sissy shook her head. No, I can't get well.

Starting point is 03:09:38 My lungs are almost gone, and I don't want. to. I'm so tired, Valancy. Only dying can rest me. But it's lovely to have you here. You'll never know how much it means to me. But Valancy, you work too hard. You don't need to. Father only wants his meals cooked. I don't think you are strong yourself. You turn pale sometimes. And those drops you take, are you well, dear? I'm all right, said Valancy lightly. She would not have Sissy worried, and I'm not working hard. I'm glad to have some work to do, something that really wants to be done.

Starting point is 03:10:20 Then, Sissy slipped her hand wistfully into Valancie's. Don't let's talk any more about my being sick. Let's just forget it. Let's pretend I'm a little girl again, and you have come here to play with me. I used to wish that long ago, wish that you would come. I knew you couldn't, of course. But how I did wish it. You always seemed so different from the other girls, so kind and sweet,

Starting point is 03:10:50 and as if you had something in yourself nobody knew about. Some dear pretty secret. Had you, Valancy? I had my blue castle, said Valancy, laughing a little. She was pleased that Sissy. had thought of her like this. She had never suspected that anybody liked or admired or wondered about her. She told Sissy all about her blue castle. She had never told anyone about it before. Everyone has a blue castle, I think, said Sissy softly. Only everyone had a different name for it.

Starting point is 03:11:27 I had mine once. She put her two thin hands over her face. She did not tell Valancy then, who had destroyed her Blue Castle. But Balancy knew that whoever it was, it was not Barney Snaith. End of Chapter 17, read by Christine Rocker, February 20th, 2022, Westford, Massachusetts. Chapter 18 of the Blue Castle. This is a Librevox recording. All LeveryVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librebox.org.

Starting point is 03:12:08 The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Chapter 18 Valency was acquainted with Barney by now, well acquainted, it seemed, though she had spoken to him only a few times, but then she had also felt just as well acquainted with him the first time they had met. She had been in the garden at twilight, hunting for a few stalks of white narcissus for Sissy's room. When she heard the terrible old Grace Lawson coming down through the woods from Miss Tawas, one could hear it miles away. Valency did not look up as a junior, thumping over the rocks in the crazy lane. She had never looked up, though Barney had gone racketing past every evening since she had been at Roaring Ables. This time he did not racket past. The old Grey Slosson stopped with even more terrible noises than it made going.

Starting point is 03:12:59 Valency was conscious that Barney had sprung from it and was leaning over the ramshackle gate. She suddenly straightened up and looked into his face. Their eyes met. Valency was suddenly conscious of the delicious weakness, was one of our heart attacks coming on, but this was a new symptom. His eyes, which she had always sought brown, now seen, clothes were deep violet, translucent, and intense. Neither of his eyebrows looked like the other. He was thin, too thin. She wish she could feed him up a bit. She wished she could sue the buttons on his coat and make him cut his hair and shave every day. There was something in his face. One hardly knew what it was.

Starting point is 03:13:40 Taranness, sadness, disillusionment. He had dimples in his thin cheeks when he smiled. All these thoughts flashed to Valency's mind in one moment while his eyes looked into hers. Good evening, Mrs. Sterling. Nothing could be more commonplace and conventional. Any one might have said it, but Barney Snith had a way of saying, things that gave them poignancy. When he said good evening, you felt that it was a good evening, and that it was partially his doing that it was. Also, you felt that some of the credit was yours.

Starting point is 03:14:12 Valancy felt all this vaguely, but she couldn't imagine why she was trembling from head to foot. It must be your heart, if only he didn't notice. I'm going over to the port, Barney was saying, can I acquire merit by getting or doing anything there for you, or Sissy? Will you get some salt caught fish for us, said Valancy. It was the only thing she could. think of. Roying Abel had expressed a desire that day for dinner of boiled salt caught fish. When her nights came running to the Blue Castle, Valency had sent them on many a quest, but she never asked any of them to get her salt caught fish. Certainly, you're sure there's nothing else. Lots of room in Lady Jane Grain Slosson, and she always gets back sometime, does Lady Jane.

Starting point is 03:14:54 I don't think there's any more, said Valency. She knew he would bring oranges for Sissy, anyhow. He always did. Barney did not turn away at once. He was silent for a little. Then he slowly and whimsically, Miss Sterling, you're a brick, you're a whole card load of bricks, to come here and look for Sissy under the circumstances. There's nothing so bricky about that, said Valency. I'd nothing else to do, and I like it here. I don't feel as though I've done anything specially meritoris. Mr. Gay is paying me fair wages. I've never earned any money before, and I like it. It seems so easy to talk to Barney Snith some way.

Starting point is 03:15:32 This terrible Barney-Snyth of the lurid tales of mysterious paths, as easy and natural as if talking to herself. All the money in the world couldn't buy what you're doing for Sissy Gay, said Barney. It's splendid and fine of you, and if there's anything I can help you in any way, you only have to let me know. If Roying Abel ever tries to know you, he doesn't. He's lovely to me. I like Rohing-Able, said Balenci, frankly.

Starting point is 03:15:56 So do I, but there's one stage of a little. his drunkness. Perhaps you haven't encountered it yet when he sings rebald songs. Oh yes. He came home last night like that. Sissy and I just went to our room and showed ourselves in where we couldn't hear him. He apologized this morning. I'm not afraid of any rowing able stages. Well, I'm sure he'll be decent to you apart from his inebreded yows, said Barney. And I've told him he's got to stop damning things when you're around. Why? asked Valency slyly with one of her odd slanting glasses. And a sudden flake of pink on each cheek,

Starting point is 03:16:31 born of the thought that Barney Snight had actually done so much for her. I've often feel like damning things myself. For a moment, Barney stared. Was this elfin girl the old little maidish creature who had stood there two minutes ago? Surely there was a magic and delvery going on the shabby, weedy old garden. Then he laughed. It will be a relief to have someone to do it for you then,

Starting point is 03:16:55 so you don't want anything but salt codfish? Not tonight, but I dare say I'll have some errands for you very often when you come to Port Lawrence. I can't trust Mr. Gay to remember to bring all the things I want. Barney had gone away then, in his garden, Lady Jane, and Valency stood in the garden for a long time. Since then, he had called several times walking down through the barons, whistling. How that whistle of his echoed through the spruces on those June twilights. Valenci called herself listening for it every evening. rebuked herself, then let herself go. Why shouldn't she listen for it? He always brought Sissy fruit and flowers. Once he brought Valencia box of candy, the first box of candy she had ever been given. It seems scrylige to eat it. She found herself thinking of him in season and out of season. She wanted to know if he ever thought about her when she wasn't before his eyes, and if so, what? She wanted to see the mysterious house of his back on Miss Tawas Island. Sissy had never seen it. Sissy, though she talked freely of Barney and had known him for five years, really knew little more of him than Valency herself.

Starting point is 03:18:02 But he isn't bad, says Sissy. Never, nobody need ever tell me he is. He can't have done a thing he's to be ashamed of. Then why does he live as he does, asked Valency to hear somebody defend him? I don't know. He's a mystery. And of course there's something behind it, but I know it isn't a disgrace. Barney Snice simply couldn't do anything disgraceful, Valency.

Starting point is 03:18:23 Valency was not so sure. Barney must have done something. Sometime. He was a man of education and intelligence. She soon discovered that, and is listening to his conversation in wrangles with Rohing Abel, who was surprisingly well-read and could discuss any subject under the sun when somber. Such a man wouldn't bury himself for five years in Muskoca,

Starting point is 03:18:43 and look like a tramp if there were not too good or too bad a reason for it. But it didn't matter. All that mattered was that she was sure now that she had never been Sissy Gates' lover. There was nothing like that between them, though he's very fond of Sissy and she of him, as anyone could see, but it was the fondness that didn't worry Valancy. You don't know what Barney has been to me these past two years, Sissy had said simply. Everything would have been unbearable without him. Sissy gave us the sweetest girl I've ever knew, and if there's a man somewhere, I'd like to shoot if I could find him.

Starting point is 03:19:14 Barney had said savagely. Barney was an interesting talker, with a knack of telling great deal about his adventures, and nothing at all about himself. There was one gloriously rainy day when Barney and Abel swamped yarns all afternoon while Valency mended the tablecloths and listened. Barney told weird tales of his adventures with shacks on trains while hoboing it across the continent. Valency thought she out to think his stealing rights quite dreadful, but didn't. The story of his working his way to England on a cattle ship sounded more legitimate, and his yarns of Yukon throttled her, especially the one of the night where he was lost on the divide between the gold run and Zulfur Valley. He had spent two years out there.

Starting point is 03:19:57 Where in all this was there room for the penituary and the other things? If he were telling the truth, but Valencia already knew he was. Found no gold, he said. Came away poor than I went, but such a place to live, though silences at the back of the north one got me, I've never belonged to myself since. Yet he was not a great talker. He told a great deal in full. few well-chosen words, how well-chosen Valancy did not realize, and he had a knack of saying

Starting point is 03:20:24 things without opening his mouth at all. I like a man whose eyes say more than his lips, thought Valancy. But then she liked everything about him, his tawny hair, his whimsical smiles, the little glints of fun in his eyes, his loyal affection for the unspeakable Lady Jane, his habit of sitting with his hands in his pockets, his chin sunk on his breast, looking up from his misnatted eyebrows. She liked his nice voice, which sounded as if it might become kerosing or wooing with very little provocation. She was at times almost afraid to let herself think these thoughts. They were so vivid that she felt as if others must know what she was thinking. I've been watching a woodpecker all day, he said one evening on a shaky old back veranda.

Starting point is 03:21:09 His account of the woodpecker's doing was satisfying. He had some gay or cunning little anecdote of the woodfolk to tell them. And sometimes he and Rohing April smoked fiercely the whole evening and never said a word, while Sissy lay in the hammock swam between them and the Miranda posts and Valacy sat idly on the steps.

Starting point is 03:21:29 Her hands clasped over her knees, and wondered dreamily if she really were Valency Sterling, and if it were only three weeks since she had left an ugly old house in Elm Street. The barons lay before her in a white moon splendor, where dozens of voles

Starting point is 03:21:45 little rabbits frisked. Barney, when he liked, could sit down at the edge of the barons and lure those rabbits right to him by some mysterious sorcery possessed. Valency had once seen a squirrel leap from scrub pine to his shoulder and sit there chattering to him. It reminded her of John Foster. It was one of those delights of Valency's new life that she could read John Foster's book as often and as long as she wanted to. She read them all to Sissy, who loved them. She tried to also read them to Abel and Barney, who did not love them. Abel was bored, and Barney politely refused to listen at all. Piffle, said Barney.

Starting point is 03:22:21 End of Chapter 18. Chapter 19 of the Blue Castle. This is Libri Box recording. All LeveryVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Leverybox.org. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Chapter 19. Of course the Sterlings had not left the poor maniac alone all this time or

Starting point is 03:22:50 refrained from heroic efforts to rescue her perishing soul and reputation. Uncle James's lawyer had helped him as little as his doctor, came one day, and finding Valancy alone in the kitchen, as he supposed, gave her a terrible talking to, told her she was breaking her mother's heart and disgracing her family. But why, said Valancy, not ceasing to score her porridge pod decently? I'm doing honest work for honest pay. What is there in it that is disgraceful? Don't quibble Valanci, said, Uncle James solemnly, This is no fit place for you to be, and you know it. Why, I'm told that your jailbird snaith is hanging around here every evening.

Starting point is 03:23:30 Not every evening, said Valanzi reflectively. No, not quite every evening. It's unsufferable, said Uncle James violently. Valancy, you must come home. We won't judge you harshly. I assure you we won't. We will overlook all this. Thank you, Valancie said.

Starting point is 03:23:47 Have you no sense of shame, demanded. did Uncle James? Oh, yes, but the things I am ashamed are not the things you are ashamed of. Valancy proceeded to rinse her dishcloths meticulously. Still, Uncle James was patient. He gripped the sides of his chair and ground his teeth. We know your mind isn't just right. We'll make allowances, but you must come home. You shall not stay here with that drunken, blasphemous old scoundrel. Were you by chance referring to me, Mr. Sterling? Demander Rowing Abel, suddenly appearing in the doorway of the veranda where he had been smoking a peaceful pipe and listening to old Jim Sterling's charlotte with huge enjoyment. His red beard fairly bristled with indignation and his huge eyebrows

Starting point is 03:24:31 quivered, but Cowher was not among James Sterling's shortcomings. I was, and furthermore, I want to tell you that you have acted an iniquitous part in luring this weak and unfortunate girl away from our home and friends. I will have you punished yet for it. James Sterling's got no further Roaring Abel crossed the kitchen out of bound, caught him by the collar and his trousers, and hurled him through the doorway and over the garden paling, with as little apparent effort as he might have employed him whisking away a troublesome kitchen out of the way. The next time you come back here, he bellowed. I'll throw you through the window, and all the better, if the window is shut,

Starting point is 03:25:09 coming here, thinking yourself got to put the world's to rights. Valancy candidly and unashamedly owned to herself that she had seen, seem a few more satisfying sights than Uncle James's coatties flying out of the asparagus bed. She had once been afraid of this man's judgment. Now, she saw clearly he was nothing but a rather stupid little village to him God. Rohing Abel turned with his great broad laugh. He'll think of that for years when he wakes up in the night. The Almighty made a mistake in making so many sterlings, but since they are made, we've got to reckon with them.

Starting point is 03:25:44 Too many to kill out. But if they come here bothering you, I'll shoe him off before a cat, could lick its ear. The next time they sent Dr. Stalling, surely Roaring Abel will not throw him into this barricous bed. Dr. Stalling was not so sure of this and had no great liking for the task. He did not believe Valancy Sterling was out of her mind. She had always been queer. She was only just a little queer than usual. Dr. Stalling has his own reasons for disliking, Rohing Abel. When Dr. Stalling had first come to Deerwood, he had a liking for long hikes around Miss Wattis and Muscoa. On one of those occasions he had got lost, and after much wandering, had fallen into roaring Abel with his gun over his shoulder.

Starting point is 03:26:26 Dr. Stalling had contrived to ask his question about the most idiotic manner possible. He said, Can you tell me where I'm going? How the devil should I know where you're going, Gosling retorted Abel contemptuously. Dr. Stalling was so enraged that he could not speak for a moment or two, and in that moment Abel had disappeared in the woods. Dr. Stalling had eventually found his way home, but he had never hankered to encounter Abel Gay again. Nevertheless, he now came to do his duty. Lonzi greeted him with a sinking heart. She had to own herself that she was terribly afraid of Dr. Stalling still.

Starting point is 03:27:03 She had a miserable conviction that if he shook his long, bony finger at her and told her to go home, she dared not disobey. Mr. Gay, said Dr. Stalling politely and condescendly, may I see Miss Sterling alone for a few minutes. Roying Abel was a little drunk, just drunk enough to be excessively polite and very cunning. He had been on the point of going away when Dr. Stalling arrived, but now he sat in the corner of the parlor and folded his arms. No, no, Mr. he said solemnly. That wouldn't do, wouldn't do at all. I've got the reputation of my household to keep up. I've got to shop around this long lady.

Starting point is 03:27:38 Can't have any sparking going on here behind my back. Outraged Dr. Stalling looked so terrible that Vlancy wondered how Abel could indifal and endure this aspect. But Abel was not worried at all. Thay know nothing about it anyway, yes, genially. About what? Sparking, said Abel Cooley. Poor Dr. Stalling, who had never been married because he believed in a celibate clergy, would not notice his ribald remark. He turned his back on Abel and addressed himself to Valenci. Miss Sterling, I am here in response to your mother's wishes. She begged me to come. I am charged with some messages from her.

Starting point is 03:28:17 Will you, he will act his finger? Will you hear him? Yes, said Valancy faintly, eyeing the forefinger. It had been a hypnotic effect on her. This first is this. If you will leave this, this house interjected, Rohing Abel,

Starting point is 03:28:33 H-O-U-S-E. Trouled with impediment your speech, ain't you, Mr. This place, and return to your home, Mr. James Starling will himself pay a good nurse to come, here and wait on Miss Gay. Back of her tear, Valancy smiled in secret. Uncle James must indeed regard the matter as desperate when he would loosen his purse-strings like that. At any rate,

Starting point is 03:28:57 her clans no longer despised her or ignored her. She had become important to them. That's my business, Mr. said Mr. Abel. Miss Sterling can go if she pleases or stay if she pleases. I made a fair bargain with her. She's free to conclude it when she likes. She gives me my meals, said stick to my ribs, she don't forget to put salt in the porch, she never slams doors, and when she has nothing to say, she don't talk. That's uncanny, and a woman, you know, mister,

Starting point is 03:29:25 I'm satisfied. If she isn't, she's free to go. But no woman comes in here in James Sterling's pay. If anyone does, Abel's voice was uncannily bland and polite. I'll splatter the road with her brains. Tell him that a gaze compliments.

Starting point is 03:29:41 Dr. Stalling, a nurse is not what Sissy needs, said Valancy earnestly. She isn't so ill as that yet. What she wants is companionship, somebody she knows and likes just to live with her. You can understand that, I'm sure. I understand that your motive is quite commendable. Dr. Stalling felt that he was broad-minded indeed, especially as his secret soul, he did not believe Valonzi's motive was commendable. He had the least idea what she was up to, but he was sure her motive was not commendable. when he cannot understand a thing he straightway condemned it, simplicity itself.

Starting point is 03:30:19 But your first duty is to your mother. She needs you. She implores you to come home. She will forgive everything if you only come home. That's a pretty little thought. Marked Abel meditatively as he ground some tobacco up in his hand. Dr. Starling in Noratam. She entreats, but I, Miss Sterling.

Starting point is 03:30:40 Dr. Stalling remembered that he was an ambassador of Genova. I command, as your pastor and spiritual guide, I command you to come home with me this very day. Get your hat and coat and come now. Dr. Staling shook his finger at Valanxi. Before that pitiless finger, she drooped and wilted visibly. She's giving in, thought Rowing Abel. She will go with him, beats all the power these preachers. Fellows have overwomen.

Starting point is 03:31:03 Valenci was on the point of obeying, Dr. Stalling. She must go home with him and give up. She would last back to Doss Sterling again, and for her few. Remaining days or weeks be the callate, futile creature that she had always been. It was her fate typified with the relentless, uplifted forefinger. She could no longer escape from it than roaring able from his predestination. She eyed it as fascinated bird-eyes the snake. Another moment.

Starting point is 03:31:32 Fear is the original sentence. Suddenly said a small voice back, back of Valenci's consciousness. Almost all the evil in the world has its origin. in the fact that someone is afraid of something. Vlancy stood up. She was still in the clutches of fear, but her soul was her own again. She would not be false to that inner voice. Dr. Stalling, she said, slowly,

Starting point is 03:31:55 I do not at present owe any duty to my mother. She's quite well. She has all the assistance and companionship she requires. She does not need me at all. I am needed here. I'm going to stay here. There's spunk for you, said Rohingy, admiringly. Dr. Stalling dropped his forefinger. One could have not

Starting point is 03:32:16 keep on shaking a finger forever. Miss Sterling, is there nothing that can influence you? Do you remember your childhood days? Perfectly, and I hate them. Do you realize what people will say, what they are saying? I can imagine it, said Valenci, with a shrug of her shoulders. She was suddenly free of fear again. I haven't listened to the gossip of Deerwood Tea Parties and suing circles 20 years for nothing. But Dr. Stalling, it doesn't matter in the least to me what they say, not in the least. Dr. Staling went away, a girl who cared nothing for public opinion, over whom sacred family ties had no restraining influence, who hated her childhood memories.

Starting point is 03:32:57 Then Cousin Georgiana came. On her own initiative for nobody would have thought it would be worthwhile to center, she found Valencia alone, weeding the little vegetable garden she had planted, and made all the pled tedious pleas she could think of. Valancy heard her patiently. Cousin Georgiana was in such a bad soul after all. Then she said, and now that you have got all that out of your system, cousin Georgiana, can you tell me how to make cream codfish so that it will not be as thick as porridge and as salt as the dead sea? We'll just have to wait, said Uncle Benjamin. After all, Sissy Gate can't live long. Dr. Marsh tells me she may drop off any day. Mrs. Frederick weeped.

Starting point is 03:33:38 it would really have been so much easier to bear if falonzi had died she could have warned mourning then end of chapter nineteen chapter twenty of the blue castle this is a librivox recording all limbervox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox dot org the blue castle by lucy maud montgomery when abel gave paid valency her first month's wages which she did promptly in bills reeking with the odor of tobacco and whisky valency went into deerwood and spent every cent of it she got a pretty green crepe dress with a girdle of crimson beads at a bargain sale a pair of silk stockings to match and a little crinkled green hat with a crimson rose in it she even bought a foolish little berevened and belaced nightgown She passed the house on Elm Street twice. Valency never even thought about it as home, but saw no one. No doubt her mother was sitting in the room this lovely June evening, playing solitaire and cheating. Valency knew that Mrs. Frederick always cheated.

Starting point is 03:35:00 She never lost a game. Most of the people Valency met looked at her seriously and passed her with a cool nod. Nobody stopped to speak to her. Valancy put on her green dress when she got home. Then she took it off again. She felt so miserably undressed in its low neck and short sleeves, and that low crimson girdle around the hips seemed positively indecent. She hung it up in the closet, feeling flatly that she had wasted her money.

Starting point is 03:35:31 She would never have the courage to wear that dress. John Foster's arraignment of fear had no power to stiffen her against this. in this one thing habit and custom were still all-powerful yet she sighed as she went down to meet barney snaith in her old snuff-brown silk that green thing had been very becoming she had seen so much in her one ashamed glance above it her eyes had looked like odd brown jewels and the girdle had given her flat figure an entirely different appearance she wished she could have left it on but there were some things john foster did not know every sunday evening valency went to the little free methodist church in a valley on the edge of up back a spireless little gray building among the pines with a few sunken graves and mossy gravestones in the small paling encircled grass-grown square beside it she liked the minister who preached there he was so simple and sincere an old man who lived in port lawrence and came out by the lake in a little disappearing propeller boat to give free service to the people of the small stony farms back of the hills who would otherwise never have heard any gospel message she liked the simple service and the fervent singing she liked to sit by the open window and look out into the pine woods the congregation was always small

Starting point is 03:37:04 the free methodists were few in number poor and generally illiterate but valency loved those sunday evenings for the first time in her life she liked going to church the bruma reached deerwood that she had turned free methodist and sent mrs frederick to bed for a day but valency had not turned anything she went to the church because she liked it and because in some inexplicable way it did her good Old Mr. Towers believed exactly what he preached, and somehow it made a tremendous difference. Oddly enough, Roaring Abel disapproved of her going to the Hill Church, as strongly as Mrs. Frederick herself could have done. He had, no use for free Methodists. He was a Presbyterian, but Valancy went in spite of him. We'll hear something worse than that about her soon, Uncle Benjamin predicted gloomily. They did. valency could not quite explain even to herself just why she wanted to go to that party it was a dance up back at chidley corners and dances at chidley corners were not as a rule the sort of assemblies where well brought up young ladies were found

Starting point is 03:38:23 valency knew it was coming off for roaring abel had been engaged as one of the fiddlers but the idea of going had never occurred to her until roaring abel himself broached in its supper you come with me to the dance he ordered it'll do you good put some color in your face you look piquin you want something to liven you up valency found herself suddenly wanting to go she knew nothing at all of what dance that chidly corners were apt to be like her idea of dances had been fashioned on the correct affairs that went by that name in deerwood and port lawrence of course she knew the corners dances wouldn't be just like them much more informal of course but so much the more interesting why shouldn't she go sissy was in a week of apparent health and improvement she wouldn't mind staying alone in the least she entreated valency to go if she wanted to and Valancy did want to go. She went to her room to dress. A rage against a snuff-brown silk seized her. Were that to a party?

Starting point is 03:39:33 Never. She pulled a green crape from its hanger and put it on feverishly. It was nonsense to feel so, so... naked, just because her neck and arms were bare. That was just her old maitishness. She would not be ridden by it.

Starting point is 03:39:51 On went the dress. the slippers. It was the first time she had worn a pretty dress since the orchondies of her early teens, and they had never made her look like this. If only she had a necklace or something, she wouldn't feel so bare then. She ran down to the garden.

Starting point is 03:40:10 There were clover's there, great crimson things growing in the long grass. Valancy gathered handfuls of them and strung them on a cord. Fastened above her neck. They gave her the comfortable, sensation of a collar and were oddly becoming. Another circlet of them went round her hair,

Starting point is 03:40:29 dressed in the low pups that became her. Excitement brought those faint pink stains to her face. She flung on her coat and pulled the little twisty hat over her hair. You look so nice and different, dear, said Sissy, like a green moon bean with a gleam of red in it if there could be such a thing. Valancy stooped to kiss her. I don't feel right about leaving you alone, Sissy.

Starting point is 03:40:59 Oh, I'll be all right. I feel better tonight than I have for a long while. I've been feeling badly to see you sticking here so closely on my account. I hope you have a nice time. I never was at a party at the corners, but I used to go sometimes, long ago, to dance is up back. We always had good times. and you needn't be afraid of father being drunk to-night he never drinks when he engages to play for a party but there may be liquor what will you do if it gets rough nobody would molest me

Starting point is 03:41:34 not seriously i suppose father would see to that but it might be noisy and-and unpleasant i won't mind i'm only going as a looker on i don't expect to dance I just want to see what a party up back is like. I've never seen anything except Deckerous Deerwood. Sissy smiled rather dubiously. She knew much better than Valency what a party. Up back might be like if there should be liquor. But again, there mightn't be. I hope you'll enjoy it, she repeated.

Starting point is 03:42:13 Valency enjoyed the drive there. They went early, for it was twelve miles to Chidley Corners. and they had to go in abel's old ragged top buggy the road was rough and rocky like most moscow roads but full of the austere charm of northern woods it wound through beautiful purring pines that were ranks of enchantment in the june sunset and over the curious jade-green rivers of moscowcah fringed by aspens that were always quivering with some supernal joy roaring able was excellent company too he knew all the stories and legends of the wild beautiful up-back and he told them to valency as they drove along valency had several fits of inward laughter over what uncle benjamin and at wellington at all would feel and think and say if they saw her driving with roaring and Abel in that terrible buggy to dance at Chidley Corners. At first the dance was quiet enough, and Valency was amused and entertained. She even danced twice herself with a couple of nice up-back boys, who danced beautifully

Starting point is 03:43:23 and told her she did too. Another compliment came her way, not a very subtle one, perhaps, but Valency had had too few compliments in her life to be over-nice on that point. she overheard two of the up-back young men talking about her in the dark lean-to behind her know who that girl in green is nope guess she's from out front the port maybe got a stylish look to her no beaut but cute-looking i'll say jever see such eyes the big room was decorated with pine and fur bows and lighted by chinese lanterns the floor was waxed and frowned and floor was waxed and Roaring Abel's fiddle, purring under a skilled touch, work magic. The upback girls were pretty and prettily dressed. Valancy thought it the nicest party she had ever attended. By 11 o'clock she had changed her mind. A new crowd had arrived. A crowd unmistakably drunk. Whiskey began to

Starting point is 03:44:27 circulate freely. Very soon, almost all the men were partly drunk. Those in the porch and outside around the door, began howling, come all yees, and continued to howl them. The room grew noisy and reeking. Quarrels started up here and there. Bad language and obscene songs were heard. The girls, swung rudely in the dances, became disheveled in tawdry. Valency, alone in her corner, was feeling disgusted and repentant. Why had she ever come to such a place? Freedom and independence were all very well. but one should not be a little fool she might have known what it would be like she might have taken warning from cissy's guarded sentences her head was aching she was sick of the whole thing but what could she do she must stay to the end Abel could not leave till then, and that would probably not be until three or four in the morning.

Starting point is 03:45:27 The new influx of boys had left the girls far in the minority, and partners were scarce. Valency was pestered with invitations to dance. She refused them all shortly, and some of her refusals were not well taken. There were muttered oaths and sullen looks. Across the room, she saw a group of the strangers talking together, and glanced. dancing meaningly at her. What were they plotting? It was at this moment that she saw Barney snake looking in over the heads of the crowds at the doorway. Valency had two distinct convictions. One was that she was quite safe now. The other was that this was why she had wanted to come to the dance. It had been such an absurd hope that she had not recognized it before,

Starting point is 03:46:16 but now she knew that she had come because of the possibility that Barney might be. be there, too. She thought that perhaps she ought to be ashamed for this, but she wasn't. After her feelings of relief, her next feeling was one of annoyance with Barney for coming there unshaved. Surely he might have enough self-respect to groom himself up decently when he went to a party. There he was, bareheaded, bristly-chinned, and his old trousers and his blue homespun shirt, not even a coat. Valency could have shaken him in her anger. No wonder people believed everything bad of him. But she was not afraid any longer. One of the whispering group left his comrades and came across the room to her through the whirling couples that now filled it uncomfortably. He was a tall, broad-shouldered fellow,

Starting point is 03:47:09 not ill-dressed or ill-looking, but unmistakably half-drunk. He asked Valency to dance. valency declined civilly his face turned livid he threw his arm about her and pulled her to him his hot whisky breath burned her face we won't have fine lady airs here my girl if you ain't too good to come here you ain't too good to dance with us me and my pals had been watching you you've got to give a siege a turn and a kiss to boot valency tried desperately and vainly to free herself she was being dragged out into the maze of shouting, stamping, yelling dancers. The next moment the men held her, when staggering across the room from a neatly planted blow on the jaw, knocking down whirling couples as he went. Valency felt her arm grasped. "'This way, quick,' said Barney Snave. He swam her out through the open window behind him, vaulted lightly over the sill, and caught her hand. "'Quick, we must run for it.

Starting point is 03:48:16 They'll be after us. Valency ran as she had never run before, clinging tight to Barney's hand, wondering why she did not drop dead in such a mad scamper. Suppose she did. What a scandal it would make for her poor people. For the first time, Valency felt a little sorry for them. Also, she felt glad that she had escaped from that horrible row. Also, glad that she was holding tight to Barney's hand.

Starting point is 03:48:46 Her feelings were badly mixed, and she had never had so many in such a brief time in her life. They finally reached a quiet corner in the pine woods. The pursuit had taken a different direction, and the whoops and yells behind them were growing faint. Balenci, out of breath, with a crazily beating heart, collapsed on the trunk of a fallen pine. Thanks, she gasped. What a goosey were to come to such a place, said Barney. I didn't know it would be like this, protested Valancy. You should have known. Chidley Corners.

Starting point is 03:49:29 It was just a name to me. Valency knew Barley could not realize how ignorant she was of the regions up back. She had lived in Deerwood all her life, and of course he supposed she knew. He didn't know how she had been born. brought up. There was no use trying to explain. When I drifted in at Ables this evening, and Sissy told me you'd come here, I was amazed, and downright scared. Sissy told me she was worried about you, but hadn't liked to say anything to dissuade you for fear you'd think she was thinking selfishly about herself. So I came on up here instead of going to Deerwood.

Starting point is 03:50:11 Balenci felt a sudden delightful glow irradiating soul and body under the dark pines. so he had actually come to look after her as soon as they stopped hunting for us we'll sneak around to the moscow road i left lady jane down there i'll take you home i suppose you've had enough of your party quite said valence uniquely the first half of the way home neither of them said anything it would not have been much use lady jane made so much noise they could not have heard each other anyway valence did not feel conversationally inclined she was ashamed of the whole affair ashamed of her folly and going ashamed for being found at such a place by barney snaith by barney snaith reputed jail-breaker infidel forger and defaulter valency's lips twitched in the darkness as she thought of it but she was ashamed and yet she was enjoying herself was full of a strange exultation but she was but she was ashamed and yet she was enjoying herself was full of a strange exultation but jumping over that rough road beside Barney Snape. The big trees shot by them. The tall mullins stood up along the road in stiff,

Starting point is 03:51:25 orderly ranks like companies of soldiers. The thistles looked like drunken fairies or tipsy elves as their car lights passed over them. This was the first time she had ever been in a car. After all, she liked it. She was not in the least afraid, with Barney at the wheel. Her spirits grows rapidly

Starting point is 03:51:46 as they tore along. She ceased to feel ashamed. She ceased to feel anything, except that she was part of a comet, rushing gloriously through the night of space. All at once, just where the pine woods frayed out to the scrub barons, Lady Jane became quiet, too quiet. Lady Jane slowed down quietly and stopped. Barney uttered in aghast exclamation. Got out? Investigated. came apologetically back. I'm a dottering idiot. Out of gas. I knew I was short when I left home,

Starting point is 03:52:25 but I meant to fill up in Deerwood. Then I forgot all about it in my hurry to get to the corners. What can we do? asked Valency, coolly. I don't know. There's no gas nearer than Deerwood, nine miles away, and I don't dare leave you here alone.

Starting point is 03:52:43 There are always tramps on this road. and some of those crazy fools back at the corners may come straggling along presently. There were boys there, from the port. As far as I can see, the best thing to do is for us just to sit patiently here until some car comes along and lends us enough gas to get to roaring ables with. Well, what's the matter with that? said Valency. We may have to sit here all night, said Barney. I don't mind, said Valancy.

Starting point is 03:53:18 Barney gave a short laugh. If you don't, I needn't. I haven't any reputation to lose. Nor I, said Valency, comfortably. End of Chapter 20, read by Nancy Cochran Gergen, Gilbert, Arizona, November 20, 2002. Chapter 21 of the Blue Castle. This is a Libre Vox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain.

Starting point is 03:53:52 For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. Read by Doc D.L. Martin, the Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Chapter 21. We'll just sit here, said Barney, and if we think of anything worthwhile saying, we'll say it. Otherwise, not. Don't imagine you're bound to talk to me. John Foster says, quoted Valancy, If you can sit in silence with a person for half an hour and yet be entirely comfortable, you and that person can be friends. If you cannot, friends you'll never be, and you need not wasting time in trying.

Starting point is 03:54:35 Evidently, John Foster says a sensible thing once in a while, conceded Barney. They sat in silence for a long while. Little rabbits hopped across the road. Once or twice an hour left out delightfully. The road beyond them was fringed with the woven shadow lace of trees. Away off to the southwest, the sky was full of silvery little cirrus clouds above the spot where Barney's island must be. Valancy was perfectly happy. Some things dawn on you slowly.

Starting point is 03:55:11 Some things come by lightning flashes. Valancy had had a lightning flash. She knew quite well now that she loved Barney. Yesterday, she had been all her own. Now she was this man's, yet he had done nothing, said nothing. He had not even looked at her as a woman, but that didn't matter,

Starting point is 03:55:33 nor did it matter what he was or what he had done. She loved him without any reservations. Everything in her went out wholly to him. She had no wish to stifle or disdive. own her love. She seemed to be his so absolutely that thought apart from him, thought in which he did not predominate was an impossibility. She had realized, quite simply and fully, that she loved him. In the moment when he was leaning on the car door explaining that Lady Jane had no guess, she had looked deep into his eyes in the moonlight and had known, in just that infinitesimal

Starting point is 03:56:16 space of time, everything was changed. Old things passed away and all things became new. She was no longer unimportant little old maid Valencia Sterling. She was a woman full of love and therefore rich and significant justified to herself. Life was no longer empty and futile and death could cheat her of nothing. Love had cast out her last fear. Love put a searing, torturing, intolerably sweet thing it was, this possession of body, soul, and mind, with something at its core as fine and remote and purely spiritual as the tiny blue spark in the heart of the unbreakable diamond. No dream had ever been like this. She was no longer solitary. She was one of a vast sisterhood, all the women who had ever loved in the world.

Starting point is 03:57:14 Barney need never know it, though she would not in the least have minded his knowing, but she knew it, and it made a tremendous difference to her, just to love. She did not ask to be loved. It was rapture enough just to sit there beside him in silence, alone in the summer night in the white splendor of moonshine, with the wind blowing down on them out of the pine woods. She had always envied the wind, so free, blowing where it listed, through the hills, over the lakes. What a tang, what a zip it had, what a magic of adventure. Valency felt as if she had exchanged her shop-worn soul for a fresh one. Fire knew from the workshop of the gods. As far back as she could look, life had been dull, colorless, savourless. Now she had come to a little patch of violets, purple, and fragrant, hers for the plucking. No matter who or what had been in Barney's past,

Starting point is 03:58:21 no matter who or what might be in his future, no one else could ever have this perfect hour. She surrendered herself utterly to the charm of the moment. Ever dream of ballooning? said Barney suddenly. No, said Valenci. I do, often, dream of sailing through the clouds. seeing the glories of sunset, spending hours in the midst of a terrific storm with lightning playing above and below you, skimming above a silver cloud floor under a full moon. Wonderful. It does sound so, said Valenci. I've stayed on earth in my dreams. She told him about her

Starting point is 03:59:06 Blue Castle. It was so easy to tell Barney things. One felt he understood everything, even the things. she didn't tell him. And then she told him a little of her existence before she came to roaring abel's. She wanted him to see why she had gone to the dance up back. You see, I've never had any real life, she said. I've just breathed. Every door has always been shut to me. But you're still young, said Barney. Oh, I know. Yes, I'm still young, but that's so different from young. said Valancy bitterly. For a moment she was tempted to tell Barney why her years had nothing to do with her future, but she did not. She was not going to think of death tonight. Though I never was really young, she went on until tonight, she added in her heart. I never had a life like other girls. You couldn't understand. Why? She had a desperate desire that Barney should know the worst about her. I didn't. I didn't. even love my mother. Isn't it awful that I don't love my mother? Rather awful for her,

Starting point is 04:00:21 said Barney dryly. Oh, she didn't know it. She took my love for granted, and I wasn't any use or comfort to her or anybody. I was just a vegetable, and I got tired of it. That's why I came to keep house for Mr. Gay and look after Sissy, and I suppose your people thought you gone mad. They did, and do, literally, said Valenci. But it's a comfort to them. They'd rather believe me mad than bad. There's no other alternative. But I've been living since I came to Mr. Gays. It's been a delightful experience. I suppose I'll pay for it when I have to go back, but I'll have had it. That's true, said Barney. If you buy your experience, it's your own. So, it's no matter how much you pay for it. Somebody else's experience can never be yours. Well, it's a funny old

Starting point is 04:01:22 world. Do you think it really is old? asked Valancy, dreamily. I never believe that in June. It seems so young tonight somehow. In that quivering moonlight, like a young white girl waiting. Moonlight here on the verge of up-back is different from moonlight anywhere else, agreed Barney. It always makes me feel so clean somehow, body and soul. And, of course, the age of gold always comes back in spring. It was ten o'clock now. A dragon of black cloud ate up the moon. The spring air grew chill, Valenci shivered.

Starting point is 04:02:03 Barney reached back into the innards of Lady Jane and clawed up an old tobacco-scented overcoat. Put that on, he ordered. Don't you want it yourself? protested Valancy. No, I'm not going to have you catching cold on my hands. Oh, I won't catch cold. I haven't had a cold since I came to Mr. Gaze,

Starting point is 04:02:25 though I've done the foolishest things. It's funny, too. I used to have them all the time. I feel so selfish taking your coat. You've sneezed three times. No use winding up your experience up back with grip or pneumonia. He pulled it up. tight about her throat and buttoned it on her. Valancy submitted with secret delight.

Starting point is 04:02:49 How nice it was to have someone look after you so. She snuggled down into the tobaccoy foals and wished the night could last forever. Ten minutes later, a car swooped down on them from Upback. Barney sprang from Lady Jane and waved his hand. The car came to a stop beside them. Valenci saw Uncle Wellington and Olive gazing at her in horror from it. So Uncle Wellington had got a car, and he must have been spending the evening up at Mistawas with Cousin Herbert. Valenci almost laughed aloud at the expression on his face as he recognized her, the pompous, bewhiskered, old humbug. Can you let me have enough gas to take me to Deerwood?

Starting point is 04:03:38 Barney was asking politely, but Uncle Wellington was not attending to him. Valancy, how came you here? he said sternly. By chance, our God's grace, said Valencia. With this jailbird, at ten o'clock at night, said Uncle Wellington. Valancy turned to Barney. The moon had escaped from its dragon and in its light her eyes were full of devilry. Are you a jailbird? does it matter said varney gleams of fun in his eyes not to me i only asked out of curiosity continued valancy then i won't tell you i never satisfy curiosity he turned to uncle wellington and his voice changed subtly

Starting point is 04:04:27 mr sterling i asked you if you could let me have some gas if you can well and good if not we are only delaying you unnecessarily Uncle Wellington was in a horrible dilemma to give gas to this shameless pair but not to give it to them to go away and leave them there in the mischievous woods until daylight likely it was better to give it to them and let them get out of sight

Starting point is 04:04:57 before anyone else saw them got anything to get gas in he grunted surla Lee Barney produced a two-gallon measure from Lady Jane The two men went to the rear of the sterling car and began manipulating the tap. Valancy stole sly glances at Olive over the collar of Barney's coat. Olive was sitting grimly, staring straight ahead with an outraged expression. She did not mean to take any notice of Valancy.

Starting point is 04:05:27 Olive had her own secret reasons for feeling outraged. Cecil had been in Deerwood lately and, of course, had heard all about Valancie. He agreed that her mind was changed and was exceedingly anxious to find out whence the derangement had been inherited. It was a serious thing to have in the family, a very serious thing. One had to think of one's descendants. She got it from the one sparrus, said Olive positively. There's nothing like that in the Sterlings. Nothing.

Starting point is 04:06:02 I hope not. I certainly hope not. Cecil had responded. dubiously, but then to go out as a servant, for that is what it practically amounts to, your cousin. Poor Olive felt the implication. The Port Lawrence Prices were not accustomed to ally themselves with families whose members worked out. Valencia could not resist temptation. She leaned forward. Olive, does it hurt? Olive bit. Stiffly. Does what hurt?

Starting point is 04:06:38 Looking like that. For a moment, Olive resolved, she would take no further notice of Valencia. Then duty came uppermost. She must not miss the opportunity. Doss, she implored, leaning forward also.

Starting point is 04:06:56 Won't you come home? Come home tonight. Valencia yawned. You sound like a revival meeting, she said. You really do. If you come back, all will be forgiven yes said olive eagerly wouldn't it be splendid if she could induce the prodigal daughter to return we'll never cast it up to you das there are nights when i cannot sleep for thinking of you

Starting point is 04:07:23 and me having the time of my life said valenci laughing das i can't believe you're bad i've always said you couldn't be bad i don't believe i can be said valencii I'm afraid I'm hopelessly proper. I've been sitting here for three hours with Barney's Nate, and he hasn't even tried to kiss me. I wouldn't have minded if he had, Olive. Valencia was still leaning forward. Her little hat with its crimson rose was tilted down over one eye. Valency's smile.

Starting point is 04:07:56 What had happened to Valencia? She looked. Not pretty. Das couldn't be pretty, but provocative, fascinating. yes, abominably so. Olive drew back. It was beneath her dignity to say more. After all, Valencia must be both mad and bad.

Starting point is 04:08:17 Thanks, that's enough, said Barney behind the car. Much obliged, Mr. Sterling. Two gallons, 70 cents. Thank you. Uncle Wellington climbed foolishly and feebly into his car. He wanted to give Snaith a piece of his mind, but dared not. Who knew what the creature might do if provoked? No doubt, he carried firearms.

Starting point is 04:08:41 Uncle Wellington looked indecisively at Valencia, but Valencia had turned her back on him and was watching Barney pour the gas into Lady Jane's ma. Drive on, said Olive decisively. There's no use in waiting here. Let me tell you what she said to me. The little hussy, the shameless little hussy, said Uncle Wellington. End of chapter 21.

Starting point is 04:09:14 Chapter 22 of the Blue Castle. This is a Librevox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more informational to volunteer, please visit Librevox.org, read by Little Miss Clemsy. The Blue Castle by Lucimoe Montgomery. Chapter 22. The next thing the Sterlings heard, was that Valency had been seen with Barney Snaith in a movie theatre in Port Lawrence and after it at supper in a Chinese restaurant there.

Starting point is 04:09:52 This was quite true, and no one was more surprised at it than Valency herself. Barney had come along in Lady Jane One Dim Twilight and told Valency and ceremoniously if she wanted a drive to hop in. I'm going to the port. Will you go there with me? His eyes were teasing, and there was a bit of defiance in his voice. Valancy, who did not conceal from herself

Starting point is 04:10:22 that she would have gone anywhere with him to any place, hopped in without more ado. They tore into and threw dear wood, Mrs. Frederick and cousin's tickles, taking a little air on the veranda, saw them whirl by in a cloud of touch, dust and sought comfort in each other's eyes. Valancy, who in some dim pre-existence had been afraid of a car, was hatless and her hair was blowing wildly

Starting point is 04:10:54 round her face. She would certainly come down with bronchitis and die at roaring ables. She wore a low-neck dress and her arms were bare. That snares was in his shirt, leaves, smoking a pipe. They were going at the rate of 40 miles an hour, 60, cousin-stickles averred. Lady Jane could hit the pike when she wanted to. Valancy waved her hand gaily to her relatives. As for Mrs. Frederick, she was wishing she knew how to go into hysterics. Was it for this, she demanded in hollow tones, that I suffered the pangs of the pangs of the pangs of motherhood. I will not believe, said Cousin tickle solemnly, that our prayers will not yet be answered.

Starting point is 04:11:51 Who, who will protect that unfortunate girl when I am gone? moaned Mrs. Frederick. As for Valency, she was wondering if it could really be only a few weeks since she had sat there with them on that veranda. hating the rubber plant pestered with teasing questions like black flies always thinking of appearances cowed because of old Wellington's teaspoons and Uncle Benjamin's money

Starting point is 04:12:24 poverty-stricken afraid of everybody envying olive a slave to moth-eaten traditions nothing to hope for or expect and now every day was a gay adventure. Lady Jane flew over the 15 miles between Deerwood and the port through the port. The way Barney went past traffic policeman was not holly.

Starting point is 04:12:55 The lights were beginning to twinkle out like stars in the clear, lemon-hued twilight hair. This was the only time Valancy ever really liked the town, and she was crazy with the delight of speeding. Was it possible she had ever been afraid of a car? She was perfectly happy, riding beside Barney. Not that she deluded herself into thinking he'd had any significance. She knew quite well that Barney had asked her to go on the impulse of the moment, an impulse born of a feeling of pity for her and her starved little dreams.

Starting point is 04:13:36 She was looking tired after a wakeful night with a heart attack, followed by a busy day. She had so little fun. He'd given her an outing for once. Besides, Able was in the kitchen, at the point of drunkenness where he was declaring he did not believe in God and beginning to sing Reboldt songs. It was just as well she should be out of the way for a while.

Starting point is 04:14:04 Barney knew roaring Able's repel. They went to the movie, Valancy had never been to a movie, and then, finding a nice hunger upon them, they went and had fried chicken, unbelievably delicious, in the Chinese restaurant, after which they rattled home again, leaving a devastating trail of scandal behind them. Mrs. Frederick gave up going to church altogether. She could not endure her friends pitying glances and questions, but cousin's tickles went every Sunday. She said they had been given a cross to bear. End of chapter 23. Chapter 23 of the Blue Castle. This is the Libervox recording. All Libervox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. The Blue Castle

Starting point is 04:15:08 by Lucy Maud Montgomery. On one of Sissy's waitful nights, she told Valancy her poor little story. They were sitting by the open window. Sissy could not get her breath lying down that night. An inglorious gibbous moon was hanging over the wooded hills, and, in its spectral light, Sissy looked frail and lovely and incredibly young.

Starting point is 04:15:35 A child. It did not seem possible that she was, she could have lived through all the passion and pain and shame of her story. He was stopping at the hotel across the lake. He used to come over in his canoe at night. We met in the pines down the shore. He was a young college student. His father was a rich man in Toronto. Oh, Valenci, I didn't mean to be bad. I didn't, indeed. But I loved him so. I love him yet. I'll always love him, and I didn't know some things. I didn't understand. Then his father came and took him away, and, after a little, I found out. Oh, Valancy, I was so frightened. I didn't know what to do.

Starting point is 04:16:24 I wrote him, and he came. He said he would marry me, Valency. And why? And why? Oh, Valancy, he didn't love me anymore. I saw that at a glance. He... He was just offering to marry me because he thought he ought to, because he was sorry for me. He wasn't bad, but he was so young, and what was I that he should keep on loving me? Never mind making excuses for him, said Valencia a bit shortly. So you wouldn't marry him? I couldn't. Not when you. he didn't love me anymore. Somehow, I can't explain. It seemed a worse thing to do than the other.

Starting point is 04:17:09 He... He argued a little, but he went away. Do you think I did right, Valancy? Yes, I do. You did right, but he... Don't blame him, dear. Please don't. Let's not talk about him at all. There's no need. I wanted to tell you how it was. I didn't want you to think me bad. I never did think so. Yes, I felt that, whenever you came. Oh, Valancy, what you've been to me. I can never tell you, but God will bless you for it. I know he will.

Starting point is 04:17:47 With what measure you need. Sissy sobbed for a few minutes in Valency's arms. Then she wiped her eyes. Well, that's almost all. I came home. I wasn't really so very unhappy. i suppose i should have been but i wasn't father was at heart on me and my baby was so sweet valensie with such lovely blue eyes and little rings of pale gold hair like silk floss and tiny dimpled hands i used to bite his satin smooth little face all over softly so it's not to hurt him you know i know said valency wincing i know a woman always knows and dreams

Starting point is 04:18:31 and he was all mine nobody else had any claim on him when he died oh valency i thought i must die too i didn't see how anybody could endure such anguish and live to see his dear little eyes and know he would never open them again to miss his warm little body nestled against mine at night and think of him sleeping alone and cold his wee face under the hard frozen earth it was so awful for the first year. After that, it was a little easier. One didn't keep thinking, this day last year, but I was so glad when I found out I was dying. Who could endure life if it were not for the hope of death? murmured Valancy softly. It was, of course, a quotation from some book of John Foster's. I'm glad I told you all about it, sighed Sissy. I wanted you to know. Sissy died a few nights after that. Roaring Abel was away. When Valency saw the change that had come over Sissy's face,

Starting point is 04:19:38 she wanted to telephone for the doctor, but Sissy wouldn't let her. Valancy, why should you? He can do nothing for me. I've known for several days that this was near. Let me die in peace, dear, just holding your hand. Oh, I'm so glad you're here. Tell Father goodbye for me. He's always been as good to me as he knew how. and Barney. Somehow I think that Barney... But a spasm of coughing interrupted and exhausted her. She fell asleep when it was over, still holding to Valency's hand.

Starting point is 04:20:16 Valency sat there in the silence. She was not frightened or even sorry. At sunrise, Sissy died. She opened her eyes and looked past Valency at something, something that made her smile suddenly and happily. and smiling, she died. Valency crossed Sissy's hands on her breast and went to the open window.

Starting point is 04:20:40 In the eastern sky, amid the fires of sunrise, an old moon was hanging, as slender and lovely as a new moon. Balancy had never seen an old, old moon before. She watched it pale and fade until it paled and faded out of sight in the living rows of day. A little pool in the barrens shown in the sunrise,

Starting point is 04:21:01 like a great golden lily. But the world suddenly seemed a colder place to Valency. Again, nobody needed her. She was not in the least sorry Cecilia was dead. She was only sorry for all her suffering in life, but nobody could ever hurt her again. Valency had always thought death dreadful, but Sissy had died so quietly, so pleasantly.

Starting point is 04:21:28 And at the very last, something had made up to her for every day. thing. She was lying there now, in her white sleep, looking like a child. Beautiful. All the lines of shame and pain gone. Roaring Abel drove in, justifying his name. Valency went down and told him. The shock sobered him at once. He slumped down on the seat of his buggy, his great head hanging. Sissy dead! Sissy dead, he said vacantly. I didn't think. I didn't think. it would come so soon. Dead. She used to run down the lane to meet me with the little white rose stuck in her hair. Sissy used to be a pretty little girl, and a good little girl.

Starting point is 04:22:14 She has always been a good little girl, said Valency. End of Chapter 23, recording by Nancy Cochran Gergen, Gilbert, Arizona, January 14, 2022. Chapter 24 of the Blue Castle. This is the Libervox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Valancy herself made Sissy ready for burial. No hands but hers should touch that pitiful, wasted little body.

Starting point is 04:23:02 The old house was spotless on the day of burial. Barney Snaith was not there. He had done all he could to help Valencibe before it. He had shrouded the pale Cecilia in white roses from the garden, and then had gone back to his island. But everybody else was there. All deerwood and a bat came. They forgave Sissy splendidly at last. Mr. Bradley gave a very beautiful funeral address. Valenci had wanted her old free Methodist man, but roaring able was obdurate. He was a Presbyterian, and no one but a Presbyterian minister should bury his daughter. Mr. Bradley was very tactful. He avoided all dubious points, and it was plain to be seen, he hoped for the best. Six reputable citizens of Deerwood bore Cecilia

Starting point is 04:23:54 Gay to her grave in Deckerous Deerwood Cemetery. Among them was Uncle Wellington. The Sterlings all came to the funeral, men and women. They had had a family conclave over it. Surely now that Sissy Gay was dead, Valency would come home. She simply could not stay there with Roaring Abel. That being the case, the wisest course, decreed Uncle James, was to attend the funeral, legitimized the whole thing, so to speak, showed Deerwood that Valency had really done the most creditable deed in going to nurse poor Cecilia Gay, and that her family backed her up in it. Death, the miracle worker, suddenly made the thing quite respectable. If Valency would return to home and decency, while public opinion was under its influence,

Starting point is 04:24:50 all might yet be well. Society was suddenly forgetting all Cecilia's wicked doings, and remembering what a pretty, modest little thing she had been. And motherless, you know, motherless. It was a psychological moment, said Uncle James. So the Sterlings went to the funeral. Even Cousin Gladys's neuritis allowed her to come. Cousin Stickles was there, her bonnet dripping all over her face, crying as woefully as if Cissy had been her nearest and dearest.

Starting point is 04:25:24 Funerals always brought Cousin Stickel's own sad bereavement back. And Uncle Wellington was applauded. ball-bear. Valancy, pale, subdued-looking, her chelanted eyes smudged with purple, in her snuff-brown dress, moving quietly about, finding seeds for people, consulting in undertones with minister and undertaker, marshalling the mourners into the parlour, was so decorous and proper, and sterlingish, that her family took heart of grace. This was not, could not be. The girl who had sat all night in the woods with Barney Snaith, who had gone tearing bareheaded through Deerwood and Port Lawrence. This was the valency they knew, really surprisingly capable and efficient.

Starting point is 04:26:14 Perhaps she had always been kept down a bit too much. A media really was rather strict, hadn't had a chance to show what was in her. So thought the Sirlings, and Edward Beck, from the Port Road, a widower with a large family who was beginning to take notice, took notice of valency and thought she might make a mighty fine second wife no beauty but a fifty-year-old widower mr beck told himself very reasonably couldn't expect everything altogether it seemed that valency's matrimonial chances were never so bright as they were as cecilia gays funeral what the sterlings and edward beck would have thought had they known the back of valency's mind must be left to the imagination valency was hating the funeral hating the people who came to stare with curiosity as cecilia's marble-white face hating the smugness hating the dragging melancholy singing hating mr bradley's cautious platitudes if she could have had her absurd way there would have been no funeral at all she would have covered cissy over with flowers shut her away from prying eyes and buried her beside her nameless little baby in the grassy barring ground under the pines of the upback church with a bit of kindly prayer from the old free Methodist minister.

Starting point is 04:27:41 She remembered Sissy saying once, I wish I could be buried deep in the heart of the woods, where nobody would ever come to say, Sissy Gay is buried here, and tell over my miserable story. But this, however, it would soon be over. Valency knew, if the Sterlings and Edward Beck didn't, exactly what she intended to do then.

Starting point is 04:28:04 She had lain awake all the preceding night, thinking about it, and finally deciding on it. When the funeral procession had left the house, Mrs. Frederick sought out Valency in the kitchen. My child, she said tremulously, you'll come home now? Home, said Valency absently. She was getting on an apron and calculating how much tea she must put to steep for supper. There would be several guests from, up back, distant relatives of the gaze, who had not remembered them for years, and she was so tired she wished she could borrow a pair of legs from the cat.

Starting point is 04:28:45 Yes, home, said Mrs. Frederick, with a touch of asperity. I suppose you won't dream of staying here now, alone with roaring Abel. Oh, no, I'm not going to stay here, said Valenci. Of course, I'll have to stay for a dare to, to put the house in order generally. but that will be all excuse me mother won't you i've a frightful lot to do all those up-back people will be here to supper mrs frederick retreated in considerable relief and the stirlings went home with lighter hearts we will just treat her as if nothing had happened when she comes back decreed uncle benjamin that will be the best plan just as if nothing had happened End of Chapter 24, read by Nancy Cochran Gergen, Gilbert, Arizona, January 16, 2022. Chapter 25 of The Blue Castle.

Starting point is 04:29:52 This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maude Montgomery, Chapter 25. On the evening of the day after the funeral, Roaring Abel went off for a spree. He had been sober for four whole days and could endure it no longer. Before he went, the Lancy told him she would be going away the next day. Roaring Abel was sorry and said so. A distant cousin from a back was coming to keep house for him,

Starting point is 04:30:33 quite willing to do so now since there was no sick girl. to wait on, but Aval was not under any delusions concerning her. She won't be like you, my girl. Well, I'm obliged to you. You helped me out of a bad hole, and I won't forget it. And I won't forget what you did for Sissy. I'm your friend, and if you ever want any of the sterlings spanked and sought in a corner, send for me. I'm going to wet my whistle, Lord, but I'm going to wet my whistle, Lord, but I'm.

Starting point is 04:31:07 I'm dry. Don't reckon I'll be back a four tomorrow night, so if you're going home tomorrow, goodbye now. I may go home tomorrow, said Valancy, but I'm not going to Deerwood. Not going. You'll find the key on the woodshed nail, interrupted Valancy politely and unmistakably. The dog will be in the barn and the cat in the cellar. Don't forget to feed her till your cousin comes. The pantry is full, and I made some bread and pies today. Goodbye, Mr. Gay. You have been very kind to me, and I appreciate it. We've had a damned, decent time of it together, and that's a fact, said Roaring Abel. You're the best small sport in the world, and your little finger is worth the whole Sterling clan tied together.

Starting point is 04:32:01 Goodbye and good luck. Lancy went out to the garden. Her legs trembled a little, but otherwise she felt and looked composed. She held something tightly in her hand. The garden was lying in the magic of the warm, odorous July twilight. A few stars were out, and the robins were calling through the velvety silences of the barons. Valancy stood by the gate expectantly. Would he come? If he did not, he was coming. Vlancy heard Lady Jane grave far back in the woods. Her breath came a little more quickly. Nearer and nearer she could see Lady Jane now, bumping down the lane.

Starting point is 04:32:45 Nearer, nearer, he was there. He had sprung from the car and was leaning over the gate, looking at her. Going home, Miss Sterling? I don't know yet, said Vlancy slowly. Her mind was made up with no shadow of turning, but the moment was very tremendous. I thought I'd run down and ask if there was anything I could do for you, said Barney. Lancy took it with a canter.

Starting point is 04:33:13 Yes, there is something you can do for me, she said evenly and distinctly. Will you marry me? For a moment Barney was silent. There was no particular expression on his face. Then he gave an odd laugh. Come now, I knew luck was just waiting around them. corner for me. All the signs have been pointing that way today. Wait, Valancy lifted her hand. I'm in earnest. But I want to get my breath after that question. Of course, with my bringing up,

Starting point is 04:33:45 I realized perfectly well that this is one of the things a lady should not do. But why? Why? For two reasons. Valancy was still a little breathless, but she looked Barney straight in the eyes, while all the dead sterlings revolved rapidly in their graves, and the living ones did nothing because they did not know that Valancy was at that moment proposing lawful marriage to the notorious Barney Snaith. The first reason is, I, I... The Lancy tried to say, I love you, but could not. She had to take refuge in a pretended flippancy.

Starting point is 04:34:25 I'm crazy about you. The second is this. She handed him Dr. Trent's letter. Bernie opened it with the air of a man thankful to find some safe, sane thing to do. As he read it, his face changed. He understood more perhaps than Valancy wanted him to. Are you sure nothing can be done for you? Valancy did not misunderstand the question. Yes. You know Dr. Trent's reputation in regard to heart disease. I haven't long to live, perhaps only a few months. a few weeks. I want to live them. I can't go back to Deerwood. You know what my life was like there,

Starting point is 04:35:09 and she managed it this time. I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. That's all. Barney folded his arms on the gate and looked gravely enough at a white, saucy star that was winking at him just over roaring Abel's kitchen chimney. You don't know anything about it. You don't know anything about it. me. I may be a murderer. No, I don't. You may be something dreadful. Everything they say of you may be true, but it doesn't matter to me. You care that much for me, Valencia, said Barney incredulously, looking away from the star and into her eyes, her strange, mysterious eyes. I care that much, said Valancy in a low voice. She was trembling. He had called her by her name for the first time. It was sweeter than another man's caress could have been just to hear him say her name like

Starting point is 04:36:07 that. If we are going to get married, said Barney speaking suddenly in a casual matter-of-fact voice, some things must be understood. Everything must be understood, said Valancy. I have things I want to hide, said Barney coolly. You are not to ask me about them. I won't, said Flancy. You must never ask to see my mail. Never. And we are never to pretend anything to each other. We won't, said Valancy. You won't even have to pretend you like me. If you marry me, I know you're only doing it out of pity.

Starting point is 04:36:48 And we'll never tell a lie to each other about anything, a big lie or a petty lie. Especially a petty lie, agreed Valancy. And you'll have to live on my island. I won't live anywhere else. That's partly why I want to marry you, said Lancy. Barney peered at her. I believe you mean it. Well, let's get married then.

Starting point is 04:37:14 Thank you, said Lancy with a sudden return of primness. She would have been much less embarrassed if he had refused her. I suppose I haven't any right to make conditions, but I'm going to make one. You are never to refer to my heart or my liability. to sudden death. You are never to urge me to be careful. You are to forget, absolutely forget, that I am not perfectly healthy. I have written a letter to my mother. Here it is. You are to keep it. I have explained everything in it. If I drop dead suddenly, as I likely will do, it will exonerate me in the eyes of your kindred from suspicions of having poisoned you, said Barney with a grant.

Starting point is 04:38:00 Exactly, Valancy laughed gaily. Dear me, I'm glad this is over. It has been a bit of an ordeal. You see, I'm not in the habit of going about asking men to marry me. It is so nice of you not to refuse me or offer to be a brother. I'll go to the port tomorrow and get a license. We can be married tomorrow evening. Dr. Stalling, I suppose.

Starting point is 04:38:27 Heavens, no, Valancy shuddered. Besides, he wouldn't do it. He'd shake his forefinger at me, and I'd jilt you at the altar. No, I want my old Mr. Towers to marry me. Will you marry me as I stand? demanded Barney. A passing car full of tourists hauntledly. It seemed derisively. Valancy looked at him. Blue homespun shirt, nondescript hat, muddy overalls unshaved. Yes, she said. Barney put his hands over the gate and took her little cold ones gently in his.

Starting point is 04:39:04 "'O lancy,' he said, trying to speak lightly, "'of course I am not in love with you. Never thought of such a thing as being in love. But do you know, I've always thought you were a bit of a dear.' End of Chapter 25. Read by Christine Rutger, February 20, 2022, Westford, Massachusetts. Chapter 26 of the Blue Castle This is a Libravox recording

Starting point is 04:39:36 All Libravox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer Please visit Libravox.org The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery Chapter 26 The next day passed for Valancy like a dream She could not make herself Or anything she did seem real

Starting point is 04:39:57 She saw nothing of Barney though she expected he must go rattling past on his way to the port for a license. Perhaps he had changed his mind. But at dusk the lights of Lady Jane suddenly swooped over the crest of the wooded hill beyond the lane. Well, Nancy was waiting at the gate for her bridegroom. She wore her green dress and her green hat because she had nothing else to wear. She did not look or feel at all bridelike. She really looked like a wild elf strayed out of the greenwood.

Starting point is 04:40:33 But that did not matter. Nothing at all mattered except Barney was coming for her. Ready? Said Barney stopping Lady Jane with some new horrible noises. Yes, Valancy stepped in and sat down. Barney was in his blue shirt and overalls, but they were clean overalls. He was smoking a villainous-looking pipe, and he was bareheaded, but he had He had a pair of oddly smart boots on under his shabby overalls, and he was shaved.

Starting point is 04:41:04 They clattered into Deerwood and through Deerwood and hit the long, wooded road to the port. Haven't you changed your mind? said Barney. No, have you? No. That was their whole conversation on the 15 miles. Everything was more dreamlike than ever. Lancey didn't know whether she felt happy or terrified or just plain fool. Then the lights of Port Lawrence were about them.

Starting point is 04:41:31 Valancy felt as if she were surrounded by the gleaming, hungry eyes of hundreds of great, stealthy panthers. Barney briefly asked where Mr. Towers lived, and Valancy as briefly told him, they stopped before the shabby little house in an unfashionable street. They went into the small, shabby parlor. Barney produced his license, so he had got it, also a ring. This ring was real. She, Valancy Sterling, was actually on the point of being married. They were standing up together before Mr. Towers.

Starting point is 04:42:08 Valancy heard Mr. Towers and Barney saying things. She heard some other person saying things. She herself was thinking of the way she had once planned to be married. Away back in her early teens when such a thing had not seemed impossible. White silk and tool veil and aroused. and orange blossoms, no bridesmaid, but one flower girl in a frock of cream-shadow lace over pale pink with a wreath of flowers in her hair, carrying a basket of roses and lilies of the valley, and the groom, a noble-looking character, irreproachably clad in whatever the fashion of the day decreed.

Starting point is 04:42:49 Valancy lifted her eyes and saw herself and Barney in the little slanting distorted mirror over the mantelpiece. She, in her odd unbridled green hat and dress, Barney in shirt and overalls. But it was Barney. That was all that mattered. No veil, no flowers, no guests, no presents, no wedding cake. But just Barney. For all the rest of her life there would be Barney. Mrs. Snaith, I hope you will be very happy, Mr. Towers was saying. He had not seemed surprised at their appearance, not even at Barney. Barney's overalls. He had seen plenty of queer weddings up back. He did not know Valancy was one of the Deerwood Sterlings. He did not even know there were Deerwood Sterlings. He did not know Barney Snaith

Starting point is 04:43:41 was a fugitive from justice. Really, he was an incredibly ignorant old man. Therefore, he married them and gave them his blessing very gently and solemnly and prayed for them that night after they had gone away. His conscience did not trouble him at all. What a nice way to get married, Barney was saying as he put Lady Jane in gear. No fuss and flub-dub. I never supposed it was half so easy. For heaven's sake, said Valancy suddenly, let's forget we are married and talk as if we weren't. I can't stand another drive like the one we had coming in. Barney howled and threw Lady Jane into high with an infernal, And I thought I was making it easy for you, he said. You didn't seem to want to talk.

Starting point is 04:44:32 I didn't, but I wanted you to talk. I don't want you to make love to me, but I want you to act like an ordinary human being. Tell me about this island of yours. What sort of place is it? The jolliest place in the world, you're going to love it. The first time I saw it, I loved it. Old Tom McMurray owned it then. He built the little shack on it, lived there in winter, and rented it to Toronto people in summer.

Starting point is 04:45:01 I bought it from him, became by that one simple transaction a landed proprietor, owning a house and an island. There's something so satisfying in owning a whole island. And isn't an uninhabited island a charming idea? I'd wanted to own one ever since I'd read Robinson Caruso. It seemed too good to be true. And beauty. Most of the scenery belongs to the government, but they don't tax you for looking at it. And the moon belongs to everybody. You won't find my shack very tidy. I suppose you'll want to make it tidy. Yes, said Valancy honestly. I have to be tidy.

Starting point is 04:45:46 I don't really want to be, but untidiness hurts me. Yes, I'll have to tidy up your shack. I was prepared for that, said Barney with a hollow groan. But, continued Valancy relentingly, I won't insist on your wiping your feet when you come in. No, you'll only sweep up after me with an air of a martyr, said Barney. Well, anyway, you can't tidy up the lean-to. You can't even enter it. The door will be locked, and I shall keep the key.

Starting point is 04:46:19 Ploughbeard's chamber, said Valancy. I shan't even think of it. I don't care how many wives you have hanging up in it, so long as they're really dead. Dead as doornails, you can do as you like in the rest of the house. There's not much of it. Just one big living room and one small bedroom. Well built, though.

Starting point is 04:46:42 Old Tom loved his job. The beams of our house are cedar and the rafters fur. Our living room windows face west and east. It's wonderful to have a room where you can see both sunrise and sunset. I have two cats there, banjo and good luck, adorable animals. Banjo is a big enchanting gray devil cat, striped, of course. I don't care a hang for any cat that hasn't stripes. I never knew a cat who could swear as genteelly and effectively as banjo.

Starting point is 04:47:18 His only fault is that he snores horribly when he is a slurps. sleep. Luck is a dainty little cat, always looking wistfully at you as if he wanted to tell you something. Maybe he will pull it off sometime. Once in a thousand years, you know, one cat is allowed to speak. My cats are philosophers. Neither of them ever cries over spilt milk. Two old crows live in a pine tree on the point and are reasonably neighborly, call them nip and talk. And I have a demure little tame owl, name Leander. I brought him up from a baby, and he lives over on the mainland, and chuckles to himself for nights. And bats? It's a great place for bats at night. Scared of bats? No, I like them. So do I. Nice, queer, uncanny, mysterious creatures. Coming from nowhere, going nowhere,

Starting point is 04:48:16 swoop. Banjo likes them too. Eat them. I have a canoe. and a disappearing propeller boat, went to the port in it today to get my license. Quieter than Lady Jane. I thought you hadn't gone at all, that you had changed your mind, admitted Valancy. Barney laughed. The laugh Valancy did not like, the little bitter, cynical laugh. I never changed my mind, he said shortly. They went back through Deerwood, up the Muskaka Road, past Roaring Ables,

Starting point is 04:48:51 over the rocky-dazied lane. The dark pine woods swallowed them up. Through the pine woods where the air was sweet with the incense of the unseen fragile bells of the Linnaeas that carpeted the banks of the trail. Out to the shore of Miss Towers, Lady Jane must be left here. They got out.

Starting point is 04:49:12 Barney led the way down a little path to the edge of the lake. There's our island, he said gloatingly. Lancy looked and looked and looked again. There was a diaphanous lilac mist on the lake, shrouding the island. Through it the two enormous pine trees that clasped hands over Barney's shack loomed out like dark turrets. Behind them was a sky still rose-hued in the afterlight and a pale young moon. Lancey shivered like a tree the wind stirs suddenly.

Starting point is 04:49:47 Something seemed to sweep over her soul. My blue castle, she said, oh, my blue castle. They got into the canoe and paddled out to it. They left behind the realm of every day and things known and landed on a realm of mystery and enchantment, where anything might happen. Anything might be true. Barney lifted Valancy out of the canoe

Starting point is 04:50:12 and swung her to a lichen-covered rock under a young pine tree. His arms were about her and suddenly, his lips were on hers. Valancy found herself shivering with the rapture of her first kiss. Welcome home, dear, Barney was saying. End of Chapter 26. Read by Christine Rocker,

Starting point is 04:50:34 February 20, 2022, Westford, Massachusetts. Chapter 27 of the Blue Castle. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit LibriVox.orgs. Read by Amina

Starting point is 04:50:56 The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery Chapter 27 Cousin Georgiana came down the lane leading up to her little house. She lived half a mile out of Deerwood and she wanted to go into Amelia's and find out if Doss had come home yet. Cousin Georgiana was anxious to see Doss. She had something very important to tell her, something she was sure Doss would be delighted to hear.

Starting point is 04:51:21 Poor Doss. She had had rather a dull life of it. Cousin Georgiana owned to herself that she would not like to live under Amelia's thumb. But that would all be changed now. Cousin Georgiana felt tremendously important. For the time being, she quite forgot to wonder which of them would go next. And here was Doss herself, coming along the road from Roaring Abel's in such a queer green dress and hat. Talk about luck. Cousin Georgiana would have a chance to impart her wonderful secret right away, with nobody else about to interrupt.

Starting point is 04:51:53 It was, you might say, Providence. Valancy, who had been living for four days on her enchanted island, had decided that she might as well go into Deerwood and tell her relatives that she was married. Otherwise, finding that she had disappeared from Roaring Abels, they might get out a search warrant for her. Barney had offered to drive her in, but she had preferred to go alone. She smiled very radiantly at Cousin Georgiana, who she remembered as of someone known long time ago,

Starting point is 04:52:21 had really not been a bad little creature. Valancy was so happy that she could have smiled at anybody, even Uncle James. She was not ours to Cousin Georgiana's company. Already, since the houses along the road were becoming numerous, she was conscious that curious eyes were looking at her from every window. I suppose you're going home, dear Doss, said Cousin Georgiana, as she shook hands furtively eyeing Valancy's dress

Starting point is 04:52:48 and wondering if she had any petticoat on at all. Sooner or later, said Valency cryptically. Then I'll go along with you. I've been wanting to see you very especially, dostier. I have something quite wonderful to tell you. Yes, said Valency absently. What on earth was cousin Georgiana looking so mysterious and important about? But did it matter?

Starting point is 04:53:13 No. Nothing mattered, but Barney and the blue castle up back in Mistavis. "'Who do you suppose called to see me the other day?' asked Cousin Georgiana archly. Valancy couldn't guess. "'Edward Beck,' Cousin Georgia Anna low her voice, almost to a whisper. "'Edward Beck!' "'Why the italics?' "'And was Cousin George Anna blushing?'

Starting point is 04:53:36 "'Who on earth is Edward Beck?' asked Valency indifferently. "'Cousin George Anna stared. "'Surely you remember Edward Beck,' she said reproachfully. "'He lives in that lovely house.' on the Port Lawrence Road, and he comes to our church regularly. You must remember him. Oh, I think I do now, said Valency with an effort of memory. He is that old man with a wen on his forehead and dozens of children,

Starting point is 04:54:02 who always sits in the pew by the door, isn't he? Not dozens of children, dear. Oh, no, not dozens. Not even one dozen. Only nine, at least only nine that count. The rest are dead. He isn't old. He is only about 48, the prime of life.

Starting point is 04:54:18 And what does it matter about a win? Nothing, of course, agreed Valency quite sincerely. It certainly did not matter to her whether Edward Beck had a win or a dozen wins or no win at all. But Valency was getting vaguely suspicious. There was certainly an air of suppressed triumph about Cousin Jorgiana. Could it be possible that Cousin Jorgiana was thinking of marrying again? Marrying Edward Beck? Absurd.

Starting point is 04:54:43 Cousin Jorgiana was 65. If she were a day and her little anxious face was as closely covered with fine wrinkles as if she had been a hundred. But still, my dear, said Cousin Jojana. Edward Beck wants to marry you. Valancy stared at Cousin Jojana for a moment. Then, she wanted to go into appeal of laughter. But she only said,

Starting point is 04:55:06 Me? Yes, you. He fell in love with you at the funeral, and he came to consult me about it. I was such a friend of his first wife, you know. He is very much in earnest dossie. and it's a wonderful chance for you. He's very well off, and you know, you...

Starting point is 04:55:22 I'm not so young as I once was, agreed Valency. To her that had shall be given. Do you really think I would make a good step-mother-cous, Georgiana? I'm sure you would. You were always so fond of children. But nine is such a family to start with, objected Valency gravely. The two oldest are grown-up, and the third almost, that leaves only six that really count,

Starting point is 04:55:47 and most of them are boys. So much easier to bring up than girls. There's an excellent book, Health Care of the Growing Child. Gladys has a copy, I think. It would be such a help to you. And there are books about morals. You'd manage nicely. Of course, I told Mr. Beck that I thought you would...

Starting point is 04:56:05 Jump at him? Supplied Valancy. Oh no, no, dear. I wouldn't use such an indelicate expression. I told him, I thought you would consider his proposal favourably. Then you will, won't you, Dury? There's only one obstacle, said Valency dreamily. You see, I'm married already. Married?

Starting point is 04:56:27 Cousin Georgiana stopped stock still and stared at Valancy. Married? Yes. I was married to Barney Smith last Tuesday evening at Port Lawrence. There was a convenient gate post hard by. Cousin Georgiana took firm hold of it. Doss, dear, I'm an old woman. Are you trying to make fun of me?

Starting point is 04:56:47 Not at all. I'm only telling you the truth, for heaven's sake. Cousin George Anna? Valency was alarmed by certain symptoms. Don't go crying here on the public road. Cousin George Anna choked back the tears and gave a mourn of despair instead. Oh, Doss, what have you done? What have you done?

Starting point is 04:57:09 I've just been telling you I've got married, said Valency calmly and patiently. To that, that, that, or that, that, banish, nait. Why, they say he's had a dozen wives already. I'm the only one-round at present, said Valency. What will your poor mother say? moaned Cousin Jojana. Come along with me and hear if you want to know, said Valency. Cousin Georgiana let go the gatepost cautiously and found that she could stand alone. She meekly trotted on beside Valency, who suddenly seemed quite a different person in her eyes.

Starting point is 04:57:43 Cousin Georgiana had a tremendous respect for a married woman, but it was terrible to think of what the poor girl had done. So rash, so reckless. Of course, Valency must be stark mad. But she seemed so happy in her madness that cousin Georgiana had a momentary conviction that it would be a pity if the clan tried to scold her back to sanity. She had never seen that look in Valency's eyes before. But what would Amelia say? And Ben? To marry a man you know nothing about, thought Cousin George Anna aloud. I know more about him than I know of Edward Beck. said Valency. Edward Pick goes to church, said Cousin John Jana.

Starting point is 04:58:23 Does Barr, does your husband? He has promised that he will go with me on fine Sundays, said Valency. When they turned in at the Stirling Gate, Valency gave an exclamation of surprise. Look at my rose bush. Why, it's blooming! It was covered with blossoms, great, crimson, velvety blossoms, fragrant, glowing, wonderful. My cutting it down to pieces must have.

Starting point is 04:58:47 have done it good, said Valancy, laughing. She gathered a handful of the blossoms. They would look well on the supper table of the veranda at Miss Tavis, and went still laughing up the walk, conscious that Olive was standing on the steps. Olive, goddess-like in loveliness, looking down with a slight frown on her forehead. Olive, beautiful, insolent. Her full form were lupuous in its swathings of rose, silk, and lace. Her golden-brown hair curling richly under her big, white-filled hat. Her colour, ripe and melting. Beautiful, thought Valency coolly. But, as if she suddenly saw her cousin through new eyes, without the slightest touch of distinction. So Valency had come home. Thank goodness, thought Olive. But Valency was not looking like a repentant

Starting point is 04:59:37 returned prodigal. This was the cause of Olive's frown. She was looking triumphant, graceless. The outlandish dress, that queer hat, those hands full of. of blood-red roses? Yet, there was something about both dress and hat, as Olive instantly felt that was entirely lacking in her own attire. This deepened the frown. She put out a condescending hand. So your back, Doss? Very warm day, isn't it? Did you walk in? Yes, coming in? Oh no, I've just been in. I've come often to comfort poor, auntie. She's been so lonesome. I'm going to Mrs. Bartlett's tea. I have to help poor. She's giving it for her cousin from Toronto.

Starting point is 05:00:20 Such a charming girl. You'd have loved meeting her, Doss. I think Mrs. Bartlett did send you a cart. Perhaps you'll drop in later on. No, I don't think so, said Valency indifferently. I'll have to be home to get Barney's supper. We're going for a moonlit kennel ride around Miss Tawa tonight. Barney?

Starting point is 05:00:39 Supper? Gasped Olive. What do you mean, Valency Sterling? Valency's Nate, by the grace of God. Valency flaunted her wedding ring in Olive's stricken face. Then she nimbly stepped past her and into the house. Cousin Chorjana followed. She would not miss the moment of the great scene,

Starting point is 05:00:59 even though Olive did look as if she were going to faint. Olive did not faint. She went stupidly down the street to Mrs. Badlitz. What did those mean? She couldn't have that ring. Oh, what fresh scandal was that wretched girl bringing on her defenceless family now? She should have been shut up long ago. Valancy opened the sitting-room door and stepped unexpectedly right into a grim assemblage of Sterlings.

Starting point is 05:01:25 They had not come together of malice-propence. Aunt Wellington and Cousin Gladys and Aunt Mildred and cousin Sarah had just called in on their way home from a meeting of the missionary society. Uncle James had dropped in to give Amelia some information regarding a doubtful investment. Uncle Benjamin had called, apparently, to tell them it was a hot day and asked them, what was the difference between a bee and a donkey. Cousin's tickles had been tactless enough to know the answer. One gets all the honey, the other gets all the wax. And Uncle Benjamin was in a bad humour.

Starting point is 05:01:58 In all of their minds, unexpressed was the idea of finding out if Valancy had yet come home, and if not, what steps must be taken in that matter. Well, here was Valency at last. A poised, confident thing, not humble and deprecating as she should have been, and so oddly improperly young-looking. She stood in the doorway and looked at them. Cousin Georgiana, timorous, expectant, behind her. Balancy was so happy.

Starting point is 05:02:26 She didn't hate her people anymore. She could even see a number of good qualities in them that she had never seen before, and she was sorry for them. Her pity made her quite gentle. Well, mother, she said pleasantly. So, you've come home at last, said Mrs. Frederick, getting out a handkerchief. She dared not be outraged, but she did not mean to be cheated of her tears.

Starting point is 05:02:50 Well, not exactly, said Valenzie. She threw her bomb. I thought, I ought to drop in and tell you I was married. Last Tuesday night, to Barney Snaith. Uncle Benjamin bounced up and sat down again. God bless my soul, he said Dully. The rest seemed turned to stone, except cousin Gladys, who turned faint. Aunt Millred and Uncle Wellington had to help her out to the kitchen.

Starting point is 05:03:15 She would have to keep up the Victorian traditions, said Valency with a grin. She sat down uninvited on a chair. Cousin's Tickles had begun to sob. Is there one day in your life that you haven't cried? asked Valency curiously. Valancy, said Uncle James, being the first to recover the power of utterance. Did you mean what you said just now? I did. Do you mean to say that you have actually gone and married, married that notorious Barney Snaith,

Starting point is 05:03:43 that, that criminal that I have. Then, said Uncle James violently, you are a shameless creature, lost to all sense of propriety and virtue, and I wash my hands entirely of you. I do not want ever to see your face again. What have you left to say when I commit murder? asked Valency.

Starting point is 05:04:05 Uncle Benjamin again appealed to God to bless his soul. That drunken outlaw? That? A dangerous spark appeared in Valenci's eyes. They might say what they liked, too, and of her, but they should not abuse Barney. Say damn, and you'll feel better, she suggested. I can express my feelings without blasphemy, and I tell you, you have covered yourself with eternal disgrace and infamy by marrying that drunkard.

Starting point is 05:04:30 You would be more endurable if you got drunk occasionally. Barney is not a drunker. He was seen drunk in Port Lawrence, pickle to the gills, said Uncle Benjamin. If that is true, and I don't believe it, he had to be. had a good reason for it. Now, I suggest that you all stop looking tragic and accept the situation. I'm married. You can't undo that, and I'm perfectly happy. I suppose we ought to be thankful he has really married her, said cousin Sarah, by way of trying to look on the bright side. If he really has, said Uncle James, who had just washed his hands of Valency.

Starting point is 05:05:06 Who married you? Mr. Towers of Port Lawrence. By a free methodist? Grown Mrs. Frederick. as if to have been married by an imprisoned methodist would have been a shade less disgraceful it was the first thing she had said mrs frederick didn't know what to say the whole thing was too horrible too horrible too night-madish she was sure she must wake up soon after all their bright hopes at the funeral it makes me think of those what do you call em said uncle benjamin helplessly those yarns you know of fairies taking babies out of their cradles valency could hardly be a changelinger twenty-nine, said Aunt Wellington satirically. She was the oddest-looking baby I ever saw anyway, award Uncle Benjamin. I said so at the time, you remember, Amelia? I said I have never seen such eyes in a human head. I'm glad I never had any children, said Cousin Sarah. If they don't break your heart in one way, they do it in another. Isn't it better to have your heart broken than to have it wither-up? queried Valency.

Starting point is 05:06:13 poor it could be broken. It must have felt something splendid. That would be worth the pain. Dippy. Clean Dippy. Muttered Uncle Benjamin, with a vague, unsatisfactory feeling that somebody had said something like that before. Valency, said Mrs. Frederick solemnly, do you ever pray to be forgiven for disobeying your mother? I should pray to be forgiven for obeying you so long, said Valency stubbornly. But I don't pray about that at all. I just thank God every day. day for my happiness. I would rather, said Mrs. Frederick, beginning to cry rather belatedly. See you dead before me than listen to what you have told me today.

Starting point is 05:06:54 Valency looked at her mother and aunts and wondered if they could ever have known anything of the real meaning of love. She felt sorrier for them than ever. They were so very pitiable and they never suspected it. Barney's nath is a scoundrel to have deluded you into marrying him, said Uncle James violently. Oh, I did the deluding. I asked him to marry me, said Valancy with a wicked smile. Have you no pride? demanded Aunt Wellington. Lots of it. I am proud that I have achieved a husband by my own unaided efforts. Cousin Georgiana here wanted to help me to Edward Beck.

Starting point is 05:07:32 Edward Beck is worth $20,000 and has the finest house between here and Port Lawrence, said Uncle Benjamin. That sounds very fine, said Valency's confully. But it isn't worth that, she snapped her fingers, compared to feeling Barney's arms around me and his cheek against mine. Oh, Daws, said Cousin's tickles. Cousin Sarah said, oh, Doss. Aunt Wellington said, Valancy, you may not be indecent. Why? It surely isn't indecent to like to have your husband put his arm around you. I should think it would be indecent if you didn't. "'Why expect decency from her?' inquired Uncle James sarcastically. "'She has cut herself off from decency forevermore.

Starting point is 05:08:17 "'She has made her bed. Let her lie on it.' "'Thanks,' said Valency very gratefully. "'How you would have enjoyed being, Torquemada? "'Now, I must really be getting back. "'Mother, may I have those three woolen cushions I worked last winter?' "'Take them. Take everything,' said Mrs. Frederick. "'Oh, I don't want everything or much.' I don't want my blue castle cluttered, just the cushions.

Starting point is 05:08:43 I'll call for them someday when we motor in. Valancy rose and went to the door. There, she turned. She was sorrier than ever for them all. They had no blue castle in the purple solitudes of Miss Towers. The trouble with you people is that you don't laugh enough, she said. Dostia, said cousin Georgiana mournfully. Someday you will discover that blood is thicker than water.

Starting point is 05:09:08 Of course it is. but who wants water to be thick, parried Valency. We want water to be thin, sparkling, crystal clear. Cousin's tickles groaned. Valency would not ask any of them to come and see her. She was afraid they would come out of curiosity. But she said, Do you mind if I drop in and see you once in a while, mother?

Starting point is 05:09:29 My house will always be open to you, said Mrs. Frederick with a mournful dignity. You should never recognize her again, said Uncle James sternly, as the door closed behind Valency. I cannot quite forget that I am a mother, said Mrs. Frederick, my poor, unfortunate girl. I dare say the marriage isn't legal, said Uncle James comfortingly. He has probably been married half a dozen times before, but I am through with her.

Starting point is 05:09:56 I have done all I could, Amelia. I think you will admit that. Henceforth, Uncle James was terribly solemn about it. Valency is to me as one dead. Mrs. Barney Snaith. said Cousin Georgiana, as if trying it out to see how it would sound. He has a score of Alias's no doubt, said Uncle Benjamin. For my part, I believe the man is half Indian.

Starting point is 05:10:19 I haven't a doubt they are living in a wigwam. If he has married her under the name of Snaith, and it isn't his real name, wouldn't that make the marriage null and wife? Asked Cousin's tickles hopefully. Uncle James shook his head. No, it is the man who marries, not the name. You know, said Cousin Gladys. who had recovered undertoned but was still shaky.

Starting point is 05:10:41 I had a distinct premonition of this at Herbert's silver dinner. I remarked it at the time, when she was defending Snaith. You remember, of course, it came over me like a revelation. I spoke to David when I went home about it. What? What demanded Aunt Wellington of the universe? Has come over Valancy. Valancy!

Starting point is 05:11:02 The universe did not answer, but Uncle James did. Isn't there something coming up of late about? secondary personalities cropping out? I don't hold with many of those newfangled notions, but there may be something in this one. It would account for her incomprehensible conduct. Valancy is so fond of mushrooms, sighed cousin Georgiana. I'm afraid she'll get poisoned eating toadstools by mistake living up back in the woods. There are worse things than death, said Uncle James, believing that it was the first time in the world that such statement had been made. Nothing can ever be the same again, sobbed cousin's tickles.

Starting point is 05:11:41 Balenci, hurrying along the dusty road back to Cool Miss Tavis and her purple island, had forgotten all about them, just as she had forgotten that she might drop dead at any moment if she hurried. End of Chapter 27. Chapter 28 of the Blue Castle This is a Libri-Warks recording. All Libri-Warks recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit you.

Starting point is 05:12:11 Libriworks.org. Read by Amina The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Section 28 Summer passed by. The Stirling clan with the insignificant exception of cousin Georgiana had tacitly agreed to follow

Starting point is 05:12:27 Uncle James' example and look upon Valency as one dead. To be sure, Valency had an unquiet, ghostly habit of recurring resurrections when she and Barney clattered through Deerwood and out to the port in that unspeakable car.

Starting point is 05:12:43 Valency bareheaded with stars in her eyes. Barney bareheaded smoking his pipe. But shaved. Always shaved now, if any of them had noticed it. They even had the audacity to go into Uncle Benjamin's store to buy groceries. Twice Uncle Benjamin ignored them. Was not Valency one of the dead? Whilst Nate had never existed?

Starting point is 05:13:08 But the third time he told Barney he was a scoundrel, who should be her? hung for luring an unfortunate, weak-minded girl away from her home and friends. Barney's one straight eyebrow went up. I have made her happy, he said coolly. And she was miserable with her friends. So that's that. Uncle Benjamin stared.

Starting point is 05:13:30 It had never occurred to him that women had to be or ought to be made happy. You, you pup, he said. Why be so unoriginal? queried Barney amiably. Anybody could be a pup. Why not think of something worthy of the sterlings? Besides, I'm not a pup. I'm really quite a middle-aged dog.

Starting point is 05:13:50 35 if you're interested in knowing. Uncle Benjamin remembered just in time that Balancy was dead. He turned his back on Barney. Valancy was happy, gloriously and entirely so. She seemed to be living in a wonderful house of life, and every day opened a new mysterious room. It was in a world which had nothing in common with the one she had left behind. A world where time was not, which was young with immortal youth,

Starting point is 05:14:19 where there was neither past nor future, but only the present. She surrendered herself utterly to the charm of it. The absolute freedom of it all was unbelievable. They could do exactly as they liked. No Mrs. Grundy, no traditions, no relatives or in-laws. Peace. perfect peace with loved ones far away, as Barney coated shamelessly. Valency had gone home once and got her cushions,

Starting point is 05:14:47 and cousin Georgiana had given her one of her famous Candlewick spreads of most elaborate design. For your spare room, bet dear, she said. But I haven't got any spare room, said Valency. Cousin Georgiana looked horrified. A house without a spare room was monstrous to her. But it's a lovely spread. said Valency with a kiss, and I'm so glad to have it.

Starting point is 05:15:12 I'll put it on my own bed. Barney's old patchwork quilt is getting ragged. I don't see how you can be contended to live up back, sighed Cousin Georgiana. It's so out of the world. Contended? Valancy laughed. What was the use of trying to explain to Cousin' Georgiana?

Starting point is 05:15:30 It is, she agreed, most gloriously and entirely out of the world. And you're really happy, dear? asked Cousin George Anna whisperly. I really am, said Valency gravely, her eyes dancing. Marriage is such a serious thing, sighed Cousin Georgiana. When it's going to last long, agreed Valency. Cousin Georgiana did not understand this at all, but it worried her,

Starting point is 05:15:57 and she lay awake at nights wondering what Valency meant by it. Valency loved her blue castle and was completely satisfied with it. The big living room had three weeks. windows, all commanding exquisite view of exquisite misdavis. The one in the end of the room was an oriel window, which Tom McMurray, Barney explained, had got out of some little old, up-back church that had been sold. It faced the west, and when the sunsets flooded it, Valenci's whole being knelt in prayer, as if in some great cathedral. The new moons always looked down through it. The lower pine bows swayed about the top of it, and all through the

Starting point is 05:16:38 the soft, dim silver of the lake dreamed through it. There was a stone fireplace on the other side. No desecrating gas imitation, but a real fireplace, where you could burn real logs. With a big, grizzly bearskin on the floor before it, and beside it a hideous red plush sofa of Tom McMurray's regime. But its ugliness was hidden by silver-ray timber-wolf skins, and Valancy's cushions made it gay and comfortable.

Starting point is 05:17:07 In a corner a nice, tall, lazy old clock ticked. The right kind of a clock, one that did not hurry the hours away, but ticked them off deliberately. It was the jolliest-looking old clock, a fat, copulent clock, with a great round man's face painted on it, the hands stretching out of its nose and the hours encircling it like a hallow. There was a big glass case of stuffed owls and several deer heads, likewise of Tom McMurray's vintage.

Starting point is 05:17:38 Some comfortable old chairs that asked to be sat upon. A squared little chair with a cushion was prospectively Banjos. If anybody else dared sit on it, Banjo glared him out of it with his topas-hued black-ringed eyes. Banjo had an adorable habit of hanging over the back of it, trying to catch his own tail. Losing his temper because he couldn't catch it, giving it a fierce bite for spite when he did catch it.

Starting point is 05:18:05 yowling malignantly with pain. Barney and Valency laughed at him until they ate. But it was good luck they loved. They were both agreed that good luck was so lovable that he practically amounted to an obsession. One side of the wall was lined with rough, homemade bookshelves, filled with books, and between the two side windows hung an old mirror in a faded gilt frame, with fat cupid scambling in the panel over the glass.

Starting point is 05:18:33 A mirror, Valency thought, that must be like the fabled mirror into which Venus had once looked, and which thereafter reflected as beautiful every woman who looked into it. Valency thought she was almost pretty in that mirror. But that may be because she had shingled her hair. This was before the day of Bob's and was regarded as a wild, unheard of proceedings, unless you had typhoid. When Mrs. Frederick heard of it, she almost decided to erase Valenci's sense. name from the family Bible. Bani cut the hair square off at the back of Valency's neck, bringing it down into a short black fringe over her forehead. It gave a meaning and a purpose to her little

Starting point is 05:19:16 three-cornered face that it never had possessed before. Even her nose ceased to irritate her. Her eyes were bright and her sallow skin had cleared to the hue of creamy ivory. The old family joke had come true. She was really fat at last. Anyway, no one. longer skinny. Valency might never be beautiful, but she was of the type that looks its best in the woods, elfin, mokin, alluring. Her heart bothered her very little. When an attack threatened, she was generally able to head it off with Dr. Trent's prescription. The only bad one she had was one night when she was temporarily out of medicine, and it was a bad one. For the time being, Valency realized keenly that death was actually waiting to pounce on her any moment.

Starting point is 05:20:07 But the rest of the time, she would not. Did not let herself remember it at all. End of Chapter 28. Chapter 29 of the Blue Castle. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maude Montgomery.

Starting point is 05:20:36 Chapter 29 Well, Lancy toiled not, neither did she spin. There was really very little work to do. She cooked their meals on a coal-oil stove, performing all her little domestic rites carefully and exultingly, and they ate out on the veranda that almost overhung the lake. Before them lay Mistowas, like a scene out of some fairy tale of old time, and Barney smiling his twisted, agnigmatic,

Starting point is 05:21:06 smile at her across the table. What of you old Tom picked out when he built this shack, Barney would say exultantly. Supper was the meal Valancy liked best. The faint laughter of winds was always about them, and the colors of the Mestawas, imperial and spiritual under the changing clouds, were something that cannot be expressed in mere words. Shadows, too, clustering in the pines until a wind shook them out and pursued them over the Mstawas. They lay all day along the shores, threaded by ferns and wild blossoms. They stole around the headlands in the glow of the sunset, until twilight wove them all into one great web of dusk. The cats with their wise, innocent little faces would sit on the veranda railing and eat the tidbits Barney flung at them, and how good everything tasted. The lancy amid all the

Starting point is 05:22:05 romance of the Mestawas never forgot that men had stomachs. Barney paid her no end of compliments on her cooking. After all, he admitted, there's something to be said for square meals. I've mostly got along by boiling two or three dozen eggs hard at once and eating a few when I got hungry with a slice of bacon once in a while and a jorum of tea. Lancy poured tea out of Barney's little battered old pewter teapot of incredible age. She had not even a set of dishes, only Barney's mismatched chip bits, and a dear big, poppy old jug of Robin's egg blue. After the meal was over, they would sit there and talk for hours, or sit and say nothing,

Starting point is 05:22:51 in the languages of the world. Barney pulling away at his pipe, the lancie dreaming idly and deliciously, gazing at the far-off hills beyond Mistowis, where the spires of firs came out against the sunset. The moonlight would begin to silver the Mastawas. Bats would begin to swoop darkly against the pale western gold. A little waterfall that came down on the high bank, not far away, would, by some whim of the wildwood gods, begin to look like a wonderful white woman beckoning through the spicy, fragrant evergreens. And Leander would begin to chuckle diabolically on the mainland shore. How sweet it was to sit there, and do nothing in the beautiful silence, with Barney at the other side of the table smoking.

Starting point is 05:23:41 There were plenty of other islands in sight, though none of them were near enough to be troublesome as neighbors. There was one little group of Islets far off to the west, which they called the fortunate aisles. At sunrise they looked like a cluster of emeralds, at sunset like a cluster of amethysts. They were too small for houses, but the lights on the larger island. islands would bloom out all over the lake, and bonfires would be lighted on their shores, streaming up into the wood shadows, and throwing great blood-red ribbons over the waters. Music would drift to them alluringly from boats here and there, or from the veranda of the big house of the millionaire on the biggest island. Would you like a house like that, moonlight?

Starting point is 05:24:30 asked Barney once, waving his hand at it. He had taken to calling her moonlight, and Valancy loved it. No, said Valancy, who had once dreamed of a mountain castle ten times the size of the rich man's cottage, and now pitied the poor inhabitants of palaces. No, it's too elegant. I would have to carry it with me everywhere I went, on my back like a snail. It would own me, possess me, body and soul. I like a house I can love and cuddle and boss, just like ours here. I don't envy Hamilton in Gauzzard, the finest summer residence in Canada. It is magnificent, but it isn't my blue castle. A way down at the far end of the lake, they got every night a glimpse of a big continental

Starting point is 05:25:18 train rushing through the clearing. Valancy liked to watch its lighted windows flash by and wonder who was on it and what hopes and fears it carried. She also amused herself by picturing Barney and herself going to the dances and dinners in the houses on the islands, but she did not want to go in reality. Once they did go to a masquerade dance in the pavilion at one of the hotels up the lake and had a glorious evening, but slipped away in their canoe before unmasking time back to the Blue Castle. It was lovely, but I don't want to go back again, said Valancy. So many hours a day Barney shut himself in the Bluebeard's chamber.

Starting point is 05:26:00 The lancie never saw the inside of it. From the smells that filtered through at times, she concluded he must be conducting chemical experiments or counterfeiting money. Valancy supposed there must be smelly processes in making counterfeit money, but she did not trouble herself about it. She had no desire to peer into the locked chambers of Barney's house of life. His past and his future concerned her not, only this rapturous present. Nothing else mattered.

Starting point is 05:26:33 Once he went away and stayed away two days and nights. He had asked Valancy if she would be afraid to stay alone, and she had said she would not. He never told her where he had been. She was not afraid to be alone, but she was horribly lonely. The sweetest sound she had ever heard was Lady Jane's clatter through the woods when Barney returned, and then his signal whistle from the shore.

Starting point is 05:26:58 She ran down to the landing rock to greet him, to nestle herself into his eager arms. They did seem eager. Have you missed me, Moonlight? Barney was whispering. It seems a hundred years since you went away, said Valancy. I won't leave you again. You must, protested Valancy, if you want to.

Starting point is 05:27:19 I'd be miserable if I thought you wanted to go and didn't because of me. I want you to feel perfectly free. Barney laughed a little cynically. There's no such thing as, freedom on earth, he said, only different kinds of bondages and comparative bondages. You think you are free now because you've escaped from a purely unbearable kind of bondage. But are you? You love me. That's a bondage. Who said or wrote that the prison unto which we doom ourselves no prison is? asked the lancy dreamily, clinging to his arm as they climbed up the rock steps.

Starting point is 05:28:01 Ah, now you have it, said Barney. That's all the freedom we can hope for, the freedom to choose our prison. But Moonlight, he stopped at the door of the Blue Castle and looked about him, at the glorious lake, the great shadowy woods, the bonfires, the twinkling lights. Moonlight, I'm glad to be home again. When I came down through the woods and saw my home lights, mine, gleaming out under the old pines, something I'd never seen before. Oh, girl, I was glad, glad. But in spite of Barney's doctrine of bondage,

Starting point is 05:28:38 Lancy thought they were splendidly free. It was amazing to be able to sit up half the night and look at the moon if you wanted to, to be late for meals if you wanted to. She, who had always been rebuked so sharply by her mother and so reproachfully by cousin's if she were one minute late. Doddle over meals as long as you wanted to. Leave your crusts if you wanted to. Not come home at all for meals if you wanted to. Sit on a sun-warm rock and paddle your bare feet in the hot sand if you wanted to.

Starting point is 05:29:13 Just sit and do nothing in the beautiful silence if you wanted to. In short, do any full thing you wanted to whenever the notion took you. If that wasn't freedom, what was? End of Chapter 29. Read by Christine Rocker, February 20, 2022, Westford, Massachusetts. Chapter 30 of the Blue Castle. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain.

Starting point is 05:29:50 For more information or to volunteer, please visitlibrovox.org. Read by Emberlin. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maude Montgomery. section thirty they didn't spend all their days on the island they spent more than half of them wandering at will through the enchanted muscoca country barney knew the woods as a book and he taught their lore and craft to valency he could always find trail and haunt of the shy wood people valency learned the different fairy likenesses of the mosses the charm and exquisiteness of woodland blossoms she learned to know every bird at sight and mimic its call though never so perfectly as barney She made friends with every kind of tree. She learned to paddle a canoe as well as Barney himself. She liked to be out in the rain, and she never caught cold.

Starting point is 05:30:42 Sometimes they took a lunch with them and went burying, strawberries and blueberries. How pretty blueberries were. The dainty green of the unripe berries, the glossy pinks and scarlets of the half-ripes, the misty blue of the fully matured. And Valancy learned the real flavor of the strawberry in its highest perfection.

Starting point is 05:31:04 There was a certain sunlit dell on the banks of Mistoise, along which white birches grew on one side, and on the other still, changeless ranks of young spruces. There were long grasses at the roots of the birches, combed down by the winds and wet with morning dew late into the afternoon. Here they found berries that might have graced the banquets of Lusselis, great ambrosial sweetnesses hanging like rubies to long rosy stalks. They lifted them by the stock and ate them from it, uncrushed and virgin,

Starting point is 05:31:35 tasting each berry by itself with all its wild fragrance and suffered therein. When Valency carried any of these berries home, that elusive essence escaped, and they became nothing more than the common berries of the marketplace. Very kitchenly good indeed, but not as they would have been, eaten in their birch dell until her fingers were stained as pink as Aurora's eyelids. Or they went after water lilies. Barney knew where to find them, in the creeks and bays of Mistowice. Then the Blue Castle was glorious with them.

Starting point is 05:32:07 Every receptacle that Valency could contrive, filled with the exquisite things. If not water lilies, then cardinal flowers, fresh and vivid from the swamps of Mistowus, where they burned like ribbons of flame. Sometimes they went trouting on little nameless rivers or hidden brooks on whose banks Nyitz might have sunned their white, wet limbs. Then all they took with them were some robinson. potatoes and salt. They roasted the potatoes over a fire, and Barney showed Valency how to cook the trout by wrapping them in leaves, coating them with mud and baking them in a bed of hot coals.

Starting point is 05:32:40 Never were such delicious meals. Valency had such an appetite. It was no wonder she put flesh on her bones. Or they just prowled and explored through the woods that always seemed to be expecting something wonderful to happen. At least, that was the way Valency felt about them. Down the next hollow, over the next hill, you would find it. We don't know where we're going, but isn't it fun to go? Barney used to say. Once or twice night overtook them, too far from their blue castle to get back, but Barney made a fragrant bed of bracken and fur bows, and they slept on it dreamlessly, under a ceiling of old spruces with moss hanging from them, while beyond them moonlight and the murmur of pines blended together, so that one could hardly tell which was light and which was sound.

Starting point is 05:33:27 There were rainy days, of course, when Muscoa was a wet green land. Days when showers drifted across misdouists like pale ghosts of rain, and they never thought of staying in because of it. Days when it rained and right good earnest and they had to stay in. Then Barney shut himself in Bluebeard's chamber and Valency Red, or dreamed on the wolfskins with good luck purring beside her and Banja watching them suspiciously from his own peculiar chair. On Sunday evenings they paddled across to a point of land and walked from there through the woods to the little free Methodist church. One felt really too happy for Sunday. Valency had never really liked Sundays before. And always, Sundays and weekdays, she was with Barney. Nothing else really mattered.

Starting point is 05:34:13 And what a companion he was. How understanding, how jolly, how, how Barney-like, that summed it all up. Valancy had taken some of her $200 out of the bank and spent it on pretty clothes. She had a little smoke-blue chiffon, which she always put on when they spent the evenings at home, smoke-blue with touches of silver about it. It was after she began wearing it that Barney began calling her moonlight. Moonlight and blue twilight, that is what you look like in that dress. I like it. It belongs to you. You aren't exactly pretty.

Starting point is 05:34:51 but you have some adorable beauty spots. Your eyes and that little kissable dent just between your collarbones, you have the wrist and ankle of an aristocrat. That little head of yours is beautifully shaped. And when you look backward over your shoulder, you're maddening, especially in twilight or moonlight, an elf maiden, a wood sprite. You belong to the woods.

Starting point is 05:35:16 Moonlight, you should never be out of them. In spite of your ancestry, is something wild and remote and untamed about you. And you have such a nice, sweet, throaty, summery voice. Such a nice voice for lovemaking. Sure, and you've kissed the Bilarney Stone, Scott Valancy. But she tasted these compliments for weeks. She got a pale green bathing suit, too,

Starting point is 05:35:43 a garment which would have given her clan their deaths if they had ever seen her in it. Barney taught her how to swim. Sometimes she put her bathing dress on when she got up and didn't take it off until she went to bed, running down to the water for a plunge whenever she felt like it, and sprawling on the sun-warm rocks to dry. She had forgotten all the old humiliating things that used to come up against her in the night, the injustices and the disappointments. It was as if they had all happened to some other person, not to her, Valency Snaith, who had always been happy. I understand now what it means to be born again, she told Barney.

Starting point is 05:36:22 Holmes speaks of grief staining backward through the pages of life, but Valency found her happiness had stained backward likewise and flooded with rose-color her whole previous drab existence. She found it hard to believe that she had ever been lonely and unhappy and afraid. When death comes, I shall have lived, thought Valencia. I shall have had my hour, and her dust pile. One day Valency had heaped up the sand in the little island cove in a tremendous cone and stuck a gay little union jack on top of it. What are you celebrating, Barney wanted to know.

Starting point is 05:37:01 I'm just exercising an old demon, Valency told him. End of Chapter 31 of the Blue Castle. This is a Libravox recording. recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Chapter 31. Autumn came. Late September with cool nights. They had to forsake the veranda, but they kindled a fire in the big fireplace and sat before it with jest and laughter. They left the doors open, and Banjo and good luck, came and went at pleasure. Sometimes they sat gravely on the bare-skin rug between Barney and Valency.

Starting point is 05:37:58 Sometimes they slunk off into the mystery of the chill night outside. The stars smoldered in the horizon mists through the old Oriol. The haunting, persistent croon of the pine trees filled the air. The little waves began to make soft, sobbing splashes on the rocks below them in the rising winds. They needed no light but the firelight that sometimes leaped. up and revealed them, sometimes shrouded them in shadow. When the night wind rose higher, Barney would shut the door and light a lamp and read to her, poetry and essays and gorgeous dim chronicles of ancient wars. Barney never would read novels. He vowed they bored him, but sometimes, she read them herself,

Starting point is 05:38:43 curled up on the wolf's skins, laughing aloud in peace. For Barney was not one of those aggravating people who could never hear you smiling audibly over something you've read without inquiring placidly. What's the joke? October. With a gorgeous pageant of color around Bastawis into which Valency plunged her soul. Never had she imagined anything so splendid, a great, tinted piece. Blue wind-windowed skies, sunlight, sleeping in the glades of that fairyland. long, dreamy purple days, padding idly in their canoe along shores and up the rivers of crimson and gold, a sleepy, red hunter's moon. Enchanted tempest that stripped the leaves from the trees and heaped them along the shores, flying shadows of clouds. What had all the smug, opulent lands out front to compare with

Starting point is 05:39:44 this? November. With uncanny witchery and its changed trees, with murky red sunsets flaming and smoky crimson behind the westering hills. With dear days, when the austere woods were beautiful and gracious in a dignified serenity of folded hands and closed eyes, days full of a fine, pale sunshine that sifted through the late leafless gold of the juniper trees and glimmered among the gray beaches, lighting up evergreen banks of moss and washing the colonnades of the pines. Days with a high-sprung sky of flawless turquoise. Days when an exquisite melancholy seemed to hang over the landscape and dream about the lake. But days too of the wild blackness of great autumn storms, followed by dank, wet, streaming nights when there was witch-lifter in the pines and fitful moans among mainland trees. What cared they? Old Tom had built his roof well, and his chimney drew. Warm fire, books, comfort, safety from storm, our cats on the rug.

Starting point is 05:40:55 Moonlight, said Barney, would you be any happier now if you had a million dollars? No, nor half so happy. I'd be bored by conventions and obligations then. December. Early snows and Orion. The pale fires of the Milky Way. It was really winter now. Wonderful, cold, starry winter. How Valency had always hated winter, dull, brief, uneventful days, long, cold, companionless nights. Cousin's sticcles with her back that had to be rubbed continually. Cousin's stickels making weird noises, gargling her throat in the mornings. Cousin stickels whining over the price of coal.

Starting point is 05:41:40 Her mother, probing, questioning, ignoring, endless colds and bronchitis or the dread of it, Redford's liniment and purple pills. But now, she loved winter. Winter was beautiful up back, almost intolerably beautiful, days of clear brilliance, evenings, evenings that were like cups of glamour, the purest vintage of winter's wine, nights with their fire of stars, cold, exquisite winter sunrises, lovely ferns of ice all over the windows of the blue castle. Moonlight on birches in a silver thaw, ragged shadows on windy evenings, torn, twisted fantastic shadows, great silences, austere, and searching, jeweled barbaric hills,

Starting point is 05:42:33 the sun suddenly breaking through grey clouds over long white mistowice, icy grey twilights, broken by snow squalls, when their cozy living room, with its goblins of firelight and inscrutable count, seemed cozier than ever. Every hour brought a new revelation in wonder. Barney ran Lady Jane into Roaring Abel's barn and taught Valency how to snowshoe. Valency, who ought to be laid up with bronchitis, but Valency had not even a cold. Later on in the winter, Barney had a terrible one, and Valency nursed him through it with a dread of pneumonia in her heart. But Valency's colds seemed to have gone where old moons go, which was luck, for she hadn't even Redfern's liniment. She had thoughtfully bought a bottle

Starting point is 05:43:19 at the port, and Barney had hurled it into the frozen Mestawas with a scowl. Bring no more of that devilish stuff here, he'd ordered briefly. It was the first, and last time he'd spoken harshly to her. They went for long tramps through the exquisite reticence of winter woods and the silver jungle of frosted trees and found loveliness everywhere. At times they seemed to be walking through a spellbound world of crystal and pearl. So white and radiant were clearings and lakes and sky. The air was so crisp and clear that it was half intoxicating. Once they stood in a hesitation of ecstasy at the entrance of a narrow path between ranks of

Starting point is 05:44:02 birches, every twig and spray was outlined in snow. The undergrowth along its sides was a little fairy forest cut out of marble. The shadows cast by the pale sunshine were fine and spiritual. Come away, said Barney, turning. We must not commit the desecration of tramping through there. One evening they came upon a snowdrift, far back in an old clearing, which was in the exact likeness of a beautiful woman's profile. Seen too close by, the resemblance was lost,

Starting point is 05:44:33 as in the fairy tale of the castle of St. John. Seen from behind, it was a shapeless oddity. But at just the right distance and angle, the outline was so perfect that when they came suddenly upon it, gleaming out against the dark background of spruce in the glow of winter sunset, they both exclaimed in amazement. There was a low, noble brow, a straight classic nose, lips and chin, and cheek curve

Starting point is 05:45:01 modeled as if some goddess of old time had sat to the sculptor and abreast of such cold swelling purity as the very spirit of the winter woods might display. All the beauty that old Greece and Rome sung, painted tonight, quoted Barney, and to think, no human eyes save ours have seen or will see it, breathed Valency, who felt at times as if she were living in a book by John Foster. As she looked around her, she brought her. recalled some passages she'd marked in the new foster book Barney had brought her from the port, with an adjuration not to expect him to read or listen to it.

Starting point is 05:45:40 All the timings of winter woods are extremely delicate and elusive, recalled Valency. When the brief afternoon wanes and the sun just touches the tops of the hills, there seems to be all over the woods in abundance, not of color, but of the spirit of color. There is really nothing but pure white. after all, but one has the impression of fairy-like blendings of rose and violet, opal and heliotrope on the slopes, in the dingles and along the curves of the forest land. You feel sure the tint is there, but when you look at it directly, it's gone. From the corner of your eye, you're aware that it is lurking over yonder, in a spot where there was nothing but pale purity a moment ago.

Starting point is 05:46:26 Only just when the sun is setting, is there a fleeting moment of real, color. Then the redness streams out over the snow and incarnadines the hills and rivers and smites the crest of the pines with flame. Just a few minutes of transfiguration and revelation, and it's gone. I wonder if John Foster ever spent a winter in Mistowis, said Valency. Not likely, scoffed Barney. People who write Tosh like that generally write it in a warm house on some smug city street. You are too hard on John Foster, said Valency, severely.

Starting point is 05:47:04 No one could have written that little paragraph I read you last night without having seen it first. You know he couldn't. I didn't listen to it, said Barney, morosely. You know, I told you I wouldn't. And you've got to listen to it now, persisted Valency. She made him stand still on his snow shoes

Starting point is 05:47:22 while she repeated it. She is a rare artist, this old mother nature, who works for the joy of working, and not in any spirit of veins show. Today the fir woods are a symphony of greens and grays, so subtle that you cannot tell where one shade begins to be the other. Grey trunk, green bow, gray-green moss above the white, gray-shadowed floor, yet the old gypsy doesn't like unrelieved monotones. She must have a dash of color.

Starting point is 05:47:52 See it, a broken-dead fur bow of a beautiful red-brown swinging among the beards of moss. Good Lord, do you learn all that fellow's books by heart? Was Barney's disgusted reaction as he strode off. John Foster's books were all that saved my soul alive the past five years, averred valency. Oh, Barney, look at that exquisite filigree of snow in the furrows of that old elm tree trunk.

Starting point is 05:48:22 When they came out to the lake, they changed from snow shoes to skates and skated home. For a wonder, Valency had learned when she was a little school girl to skate on the pond behind the Deerwood School. She never had any skates of her own, but some of the other girls had lent her theirs, and she seemed to have a natural knack of it. Uncle Benjamin had once promised her a pair of skates for Christmas, but when Christmas came, he'd given her rubbers instead. She'd never skated since she grew up, but the old trick came back quickly, and glorious were the hours she and Barney's spent skimming over the white lake, and past the dark islands, where the summer cottages were closed and silent.

Starting point is 05:49:02 Tonight they flew down Mistawas before the wind in an exhilaration that crimsoned Valency's cheeks under her white tarn, and at the end was her dear little house on the island of pines, with a coating of snow on its roof, sparkling in the moonlight. Its windows glinted impishly at her in the stray gleams. Looks exactly like a picture book, doesn't it? said by. Barney. They had a lovely Christmas. No rush, no scramble, no niggling attempts to make ends meet. No wild effort to remember whether she hadn't given the same kind of present to the same person two Christmases before. No mob of last-minute shoppers. No dreary family reunions, where she sat mute and unimportant. No attacks of nerves. They decorated the Blue Castle with pine boughs, and Valency made

Starting point is 05:49:55 delightful little tinsel stars and hung them up amid the greenery. She cooked a dinner to which Barney did full justice while Goodluck and Banjo picked the bones. A land that can produce a goose like that is an admirable land, vowed Barney, Canada forever. And they drank to the Union Jack a bottle of dandelion wine that Cousin Georgiana had given valency, along with the bedspread. One never knows, "'Cousin Georgiana had said solemnly, "'when one may need a little stimulant. "'Barnie had asked Valency what she wanted for a Christmas present. "'Something frivolous and unnecessary,' said Valency,

Starting point is 05:50:35 "'who had got a pair of Galash's last Christmas "'and two long-sleeved woolen undervests the year before. "'And so on back. "'To her delight, Barney gave her a necklace of pearl beads. "'Valency had wanted a string of milky pearl beads like congealed moonshine. All her life, and these were so pretty. All that worried her was that they were really too good.

Starting point is 05:50:58 They must have cost a great deal. $15 at least. Could Barney afford that? She didn't know a thing about his finances. She'd refused to let him buy any of her clothes. She had enough for that, she told him as long as she would need clothes. In a round black jar in the chimney piece, Barney put money for their household expenses.

Starting point is 05:51:18 Always enough. The jar was never empty. though Valency never caught him replenishing it. He couldn't have much, of course, and that necklace, but Valency tossed Kara aside. She would wear it and enjoy it. It was the first pretty thing she had ever had. End of Chapter 31.

Starting point is 05:51:46 Chapter 32 of the Blue Castle. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, here, please visit Librevox.org. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Chapter 32. New Year, the old, shabby, inglorious, outlived calendar came down. The new one went up.

Starting point is 05:52:16 January was a month of storms. It snowed for three weeks on end. The thermometer went miles below zero and stayed there. But as Barney and Valency pointed out to each other, there were no mosquitoes, and the roar and crackle of their big fire drowned the howls of the north wind. Good luck and banjo waxed fat and developed resplendent coats of thick, silky fur. Nip and tuck had gone. But they'll come back in spring, promised Barney. There was no monotony. Sometimes they had dramatic little private spats that never even thought

Starting point is 05:52:52 of becoming quarrels. Sometimes roaring able dropped in. For an evening, or a whole day. With his old tartan cap and his long red beard coated with snow, he generally brought his fiddle and played for them to the delight of all except Banjo, who would go temporarily insane and retreat under Valency's bed. Sometimes, Abel and Barney talked while Valency made candy for them. Sometimes they sat and smoked in silence, Salatinison and Carlisle, until the Blue Castle reeked and Valency fled to the open. Sometimes they played checkers fiercely and silently the whole night through. Sometimes they all ate the russet apples Abel had brought, while the jolly old clock ticked the delightful minutes away. A plate of apples,

Starting point is 05:53:38 an open fire, and a jolly good book are a fair substitute for heaven, vowed Barney. Anyone can have the streets of gold. Let's have another whack at Carmen. It was easier now for the sterlings to believe valency of the dead, not even dim rumors of her having been over at the port. came to trouble them, though she and Barney used to skate there occasionally to see a movie and eat hot dog shamelessly at the corner stand afterwards. Presumably, none of the sterlings ever thought about her, except cousin Georgiana, who used to lie awake worrying about poor Dawes. Did she have enough to eat? Was that dreadful creature good to her? Was she warm enough at nights? Valency was quite warm at nights. She used to wake up and revel silently in the coziness of those winter nights

Starting point is 05:54:28 on that little island in the frozen lake. The nights of other winters had been so cold and long. Phelency hated to wake up in them and think about the bleakness and emptiness of the day that had passed, and the bleakness and emptiness of the day that would come. Now she almost counted that night lost in which she didn't wake up and lie awake for half an hour just being happy while Barney's regular breathing went on beside her and through the open door the smoldering brands in the fireplace winked at her in the gloom it was very nice to feel a little lucky cat jump up on your bed in the darkness and snuggle down at your feet purring but Banjo would be sitting dowerly by himself out in front of the fire like a brooding demon. At such moments, Banjo's

Starting point is 05:55:16 was anything but canny, but Valency loved his uncanniness. The side of the bed had to be right against the window. There was no other place for it in the tiny room. Valency, lying there, could look out of the window through the big pine boughs that actually touched it, away, up Mistawis, white and lustrous as a pavement of pearl, or dark and terrible in the storm. Sometimes the pine boughs tapped against the panes with friendly signals. Sometimes she heard the little hissing whisper of snow against them right at her side.

Starting point is 05:55:50 Some nights the whole outer world seemed given over to the empery of silence. Then came nights when there would be a majestic sweep of wind in the pines. Knights of dear starlight would it whistled freakishly and joyously around the blue castle. Brooding nights before storm, when it crept along the floor of the lake with a low wailing cry of brooding and mystery. Valency wasted many perfectly good sleeping hours in these delightful communings, but she could sleep as long in the morning as she wanted to. Nobody cared. Barney cooked his own breakfast of bacon and eggs and then shut himself up in Bluebird's chamber until supper time. Then they had an evening of reading and talk. They talked about everything in this world and a good many things in other worlds. They laughed over their own jokes until the Blue Castle re-echoed. You do laugh beautifully, Barney told her once. It makes me want to laugh just to hear you laugh. There's a trick about your laugh, as if there were so much more fun back of it that you wouldn't let out. Did you laugh like that before you came as Dawes, Moonlight? I never laughed at all, really.

Starting point is 05:57:04 I used to giggle foolishly when I felt I was expected to, but now the laugh just comes. It struck Valency more than once that Barney himself laughed a great deal of oftener than he used to, and that his laugh had changed. It had become wholesome. She rarely heard the little cynical note in it now. Could a man laugh like that, who had crimes on his conscience? It Barney must have done something. Valency had indifferently made up her mind as to what he had done.

Starting point is 05:57:35 She concluded that he was a defaulting bank cashier. She'd found in one of Barney's books, an old clipping come from a Montreal paper, in which a vanished defaulting cashier was described. The description applied to Barney, as well as to a half-dozen other men Valency knew. And from some casual remarks he dropped from time to time, she concluded that he knew Montreal rather well. Valency had it all figured out in the back of her mind.

Starting point is 05:58:02 Barney had been in a bank. He was tempted to take some money to speculate, meaning, of course, to put it back. He had got in deeper and deeper, until he found there was nothing for it but flight. It had happened so to scores of men. He had, Valency was absolutely certain, never meant to do wrong. Of course, the name of the man in the clipping was Bernard Craig,

Starting point is 05:58:25 but Balancy had always thought that Snaith was an alias, not that it mattered. Valency had only one unhappy night that winter. It came in late March when most of the snow had gone and nip and tuck had returned. Barney had gone off in the afternoon for a long woodland tramp, saying he'd be back by dark, if all went well. Soon after he had gone, it had begun to snow. The wind rose, and presently Mestawas was in the grip of one of the worst storms of the winter. It tore up the lake and struck at the little house. The dark, angry woods on the mainland scowled at valency, menace in the toss of their bows, threats in their windy gloom. Terror. in the roar of their hearts. The trees on the island crouched in fear.

Starting point is 05:59:16 Valency spent the night huddled on the rug before the fire, her face buried in her hands, when she was not vainly peering from the oriole, in a futile effort to see through the furious smoke of wind and snow that had once been blue-dimpled Mistowis. Where was Barney? Lost on the merciless lakes, sinking exhausted in the drifts of the pathless woods. Valency died a hundred deaths that night and paid in full for all the happiness of her blue castle. When morning came, the storm broke and cleared. The sun shone gloriously over Mistawis, and at noon, Barney came home.

Starting point is 05:59:57 Valency saw him from the orio as he came around a wooded point, slender and black against the glistening white world. She did not run to meet him. Something happened to her knees, and she dropped down on Banjo's chair. Luckily, Banjo got out from under in time, his whiskers bristling with indignation. Barney found her there, her head buried in her hands. Barney, I thought you were dead, she whispered. Barney hooded.

Starting point is 06:00:29 After two years of the Klondike, did you think a baby storm like this could get me? I spent the night in that old lumber shanty over by Muskoca. A bit cold, but snug enough. Little goose. Your eyes looked like burnt holes in a blanket. Did you sit up here all night, wearing over an old woodsman like me? Yes, said Valency.

Starting point is 06:00:51 I couldn't help it. The storm seems so wild. Anybody might have been lost in it. When I saw you come round the point, something happened to me. I don't know what. It was if I had died and come back. to life. I can't describe it any other way. End of Chapter 32.

Starting point is 06:01:19 Chapter 33 of the Blue Castle. This is the Libervox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. The Blue Council by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Spring Mastawis, Black and Sullen, for a week or two. then flaming in sapphire and turquoise, lilac and rose again, laughing through the oriole, caressing its amethyst islands, rippling under winds, soft as silk. Frogs, little green wizards of swamp and pool, singing everywhere in the long twilights and long into the nights. Islands fairy-like in a green haze, the evanescent beauty of wild young trees in early leaf.

Starting point is 06:02:12 frost-like leveliness of the new foliage of juniper trees. The woods putting on a fashion of spring flowers, dainty, spiritual things akin to the soul of the wilderness. Red mist on the maples. Willows decked out with glossy silver pussies. All the forgotten violets of Mistawas blooming again. Lur of April moons. Think how many thousands of springs have been here on Mistawis.

Starting point is 06:02:42 and all of them beautiful said valency oh barney look at that wild plum i will i must quote from john foster there's a passage in one of his books i've re-read it a hundred times he must have written it before a tree just like that behold the young wild plum-tree which has adorned herself after immemorial fashion in a wedding veil of fine lace the fingers of wood pixies must have woven it for nothing like it ever came from an earthly loom i vow the tree is conscious of its loveliness it is bridling before our very eyes as if its beauty were not the most ephemeral thing in the woods as it is the rarest and most exceeding for to-day it is and to-morrow it is not every south wind purring through the boughs will winnow away in a shower of slender petals but what matter to-day it is queen of the wild places and it is always to-day in the woods i'm sure you feel much better since you've got that out of your system said barney heartlessly here's a patch of dandelions said valency unsubdued dandelions shouldn't grow in the woods though they haven't any sense of the fitness of things at all they are too cheerful and self-satisfied they haven't any of the mystery and reserve of the real wood-flowers in short they've no secrets said barney but wait a bit the woods will have their own way even with those obvious dandelions in a little while all that obtrusive yellowness and complacency will be gone and we'll find here misty phantom-like globes hovering over those long grasses in full harmony with the traditions of the forest that sounds john fosterish teased valency

Starting point is 06:04:44 what have i done that deserved a slam like that complained barney one of the earliest signs of spring was the renaissance of lady jane barney put her on roads that no other car would look at and they went through deerwood and mud to the axles they passed several sterlings who groaned and reflected that now spring was come and they would encounter that shameless pair everywhere valency prowling about deerwood shops met on Uncle Benjamin on the street, but he did not realize until he had gone two blocks further on that the girl in the scarlet-collared blanket coat, with cheeks reddened in the sharp April air, and the fringe of black hair over laughing slanted eyes, was Valancy. When he did realize it, Uncle Benjamin was indignant. What business had Valency to look like? Like, like a young girl? The way of the transgressor was hard. had to be scriptural and proper yet valency's path couldn't be hard she wouldn't look like that if it were there was something wrong it was almost enough to make a man turn modernist

Starting point is 06:05:58 barney and valency clanged on to the port so that it was dark when they went through deerwood again at her old home valency seized with a sudden impulse got out opened the little gate and tiptoed around to the sitting-room window. There sat her mother and cousin Stickles, drearily, grimly knitting, baffling and inhuman as ever. If they had looked the least bit lonesome, Valency would have gone in. But they did not. Valency would not disturb them for worlds. End of Chapter 33, read by Nancy Cochran Gargan, Gilbert, Arizona, January 16, 2022. Chapter 34 of the Blue Castle This is a Libravox recording All Libravox recordings are in the public domain.

Starting point is 06:06:57 For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Valency had two wonderful moments that spring. One day, coming home through the woods, with their arms full of trailing Arbutus and creeping spruce, she met a man who she knew must be Alan Tierney. Alan Tierney, the celebrated painter of beautiful women. He lived in New York in winter,

Starting point is 06:07:29 but he owned an island cottage at the northern end of Mistowice, to which he always came the men at the ice was out of the lake. He was reputed to be a lonely, eccentric man. He never flattered his sitters. There was no need to, for he would not paint anyone who required flattery. To be painted by Ellen Tierney was all the cachet of beauty a woman could desire. Valency had heard so much about him that she couldn't help turning her head back over her shoulder for another shy, curious look at him. A shaft of pale spring sunlight fell through a great pine of wart her bare black head and her slanted eyes. She wore a pale green sweater and had bound a fillet of Lena vine about her hair. The feathery fountain of trailing spruce overflowed her

Starting point is 06:08:22 and fell around her. Alan Tierney's eyes lighted up. I've had a collar, said Barney the next afternoon, when Valency had returned from another flower quest. Who? Valency was surprised but indifferent. She began filling a basket with Arbutus. Alan Tierney, he wants to paint you, Moonlight. me valency dropped her basket and her arbutus you're laughing at me barney i'm not that's what tyranny came for to ask my permission to paint my wife as the spirit of miss coca or something like that But, but, stammered Valency. Alan Tierney never paints any but, any but. Beautiful women, finished Barney. Conceded.

Starting point is 06:09:17 QED, Mistress Barney Snaith is a beautiful woman. Nonsense, said Valency, stooping to retrieve her abutus. You know that's nonsense, Barney. I know I'm a heap better looking than I was a year ago, but I'm not beautiful. allan tyranny never makes a mistake said barney you forget moonlight that there are different kinds of beauty your imagination is obsessed by the very obvious type of your cousin Oh, I've seen her. She's a stunner. But you never catch Alan Tierney wanting to paint her. In the horrible but expressive slang phrase, she keeps all her goods in the shot window. But, in your subconscious mind, you have a conviction that nobody can be beautiful, who doesn't look like allot.

Starting point is 06:10:08 Also, you remember your face as it was in the days when your soul was not allowed to shine through it. Tierney said something about the curve of your cheek as you look back over your shoulder. You know, I've often told you it was distracting, and he's quite baddy about your eyes. If I wasn't absolutely sure it was solely professional, he's really a crapped old bachelor, you know, I'd be jealous. Well, I don't want to be painted, said Valenci. I hope you told him that. I couldn't tell him that.

Starting point is 06:10:42 I didn't know what she wanted, but I told him I didn't want my wife painted, hung up in a salon for a mob to stare at, belonging to another man. For, of course, I couldn't buy the picture. So even if you had wanted to be painted, moonlight, your tyrantus husband would not have permitted it. Tierney was a bit squiffy. He isn't used to being turned down like that. His requests are almost like royalties. But we are outlaws, laughed Valency. We bow to no decrees. We acknowledge no sovereignty. In her heart, she thought, unashamedly. I wish Olive could know that Alan Tierney wanted to paint me. Me! Little old maid Valency Sterling, that was. Her second wonder moment came one evening in May. She realized that Barney actually liked her. She had always hoped he did, but sometimes she had little, disagreeable, haunting dread that he was just kind, and nice and chummy out of pity,

Starting point is 06:11:49 knowing that she hadn't long to live, and determined she should have a good time as long as she did live, but a way back in his mind rather looking forward to freedom again, with no intrusive woman creature in his island fastness, and no chattering thing beside him in his woodland prowls. She knew he could never love her. She did not even want him to. If he loved her, he would be unhappy when she died. Valancy never flinched from the plain word. No passing away for her, and she did not want him to be the least unhappy.

Starting point is 06:12:24 But neither did she want him to be glad or relieved. She wanted him to like her and miss her as a good chum, but she had never been sure until this night that he did. They had walked over the hills in the sunset. They had the delight of discovering a Virgin Spring, in a ferny hollow and had drunk together from it out of a birch-bark cup. They had come to an old tumble-down rail fence and sat on it for a long time. They didn't talk much, but Valancy had a curious sense of oneness.

Starting point is 06:12:58 She knew that she couldn't have felt that if he hadn't liked her. You nice little thing, said Barney suddenly. Oh, you nice little thing! Sometimes I feel you're too nice to be real, that I'm just dreaming you. Why can't I die now, this very minute, when I am so happy, thought Valency. Well, it couldn't be so very long now. Somehow, Valency had always felt she would live out the year Dr. Trent had allotted.

Starting point is 06:13:30 She had not been careful. She had never tried to be, but somehow she had always counted on living out her year. She had not let herself think about it at all. But now, sitting here beside Barney, with her hand and his, a sudden realization came to her. She had not had a heart attack for a long while, two months at least. The last one she had had was two or three nights before. Barney was out in the storm. Since then, she had not remembered she had a heart.

Starting point is 06:14:04 Well, no doubt, it betoken the nearness of the end. Nature had given up the struggle. There would be no more pain. I'm afraid heaven will be very dull after this past year, thought Balenci. But perhaps one will not remember. Would that be nice? No, no, I don't want to forget, Barney. I'd rather be miserable in heaven remembering him than happy forgetting him.

Starting point is 06:14:34 And I'll always remember, through all eternity, that he really, really liked me. End of Chapter 34, recorded by Nancy Cochran Gergen, Gilbert, Arizona, January 17, 2022. Chapter 35 of the Blue Castle This is the Lipervox recording. All Lipervox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libervox.org. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Thirty seconds can be very long sometimes, long enough to work a miracle or a revolution.

Starting point is 06:15:20 In 30 seconds, life changed wholly for Barney and Valency's snaith. They had gone around the lake one June evening in their disappearing propeller, fished for an hour in a little creek, left their boat there, and walked up through the woods to Port Lawrence two miles away. Valency prowled a bit in the shops and got herself a new pair of sensible shoes. her old pair had suddenly and completely given out and this evening she had been compelled to put on the little fancy pair of patent leather with rather high slender heels which she had bought in a fit of folly one day in the winter because of their beauty and because she wanted to make one foolish extravagant purchase in her life she sometimes put them on of an evening in the blue castle but this was the first time she had worn them outside She had not found it any too easy, walking up through the woods in them, and Barney guide her

Starting point is 06:16:19 unmercifully about them. But in spite of the inconvenience, Valenci's secretly rather liked the look of her trim ankles, and height in step above those pretty foolish shoes, and did not change them in the shop as she might have done. The sun was hanging low above the pines when they left Port Lawrence. To the north of it, the woods closed around the town quite sudden. suddenly. Valencia always had a sense of stepping from one world to another, from reality to fairyland when she went out of Port Lawrence, and in a twinkling found it shut off behind her by the armies of the pines. A mile and a half from Port Lawrence, there was a small railroad station with a little station house, which, at this hour of the day, was deserted, since no local

Starting point is 06:17:09 train was due. Not a soul was in sight when Barney and Valency emerged from the woods. Off to the left, a sudden curve in the track hit it from view, but over the treetops beyond, the long plume of smoke betokened the approach of a through-train. The rails were vibrating to its thunder as Barney stepped across the switch. Valency was a few steps behind him, loitering to gather June bells along the little, winding path. But there was plenty of time to get across before the train came. She stepped unconcernedly over the first rail. She could never tell how it happened.

Starting point is 06:17:50 The ensuing 30 seconds always seen, in her recollection, like a chaotic nightmare in which she endured the agony of a thousand lifetimes. The heel of her pretty, foolish shoe caught in a crevice of the switch. She could not pull it loose. Barney! Barney! she called an alarm. Barney turned, saw her predicament, saw her ashen face, dashed back. He tried to pull her clear. He tried to wrench her foot from the prisoning hold. In vain. In a moment the train would sweep around the curve, would be on them. Go, go, quick, you'll be killed, Barney, shrieked Valency, trying to push him away. Barney dropped on his knees, Ghost White, frantically tearing in her shoelace. The knot defied his trembling fingers. He snatched a knife from his pocket and slashed at it. Valency still strove blindly to push him away. Her mind was full of the

Starting point is 06:18:55 hideous thought that Barney was going to be killed. She had not thought of her own danger. Barney, go, go, for God's sake, go! Never, muttered Barney between his set teeth. He gave one mad branch at lace. As the train thundered around the curve, he sprang up and caught Valency, dragging her clear, leaving her shoe behind her. The wind from the train, as it swept by, turned to icy cold the streaming perspiration on his face. Thank God he breathed. For a moment they stood stupidly staring at each other, two white, shaken, wild-eyed creatures. Then they stumbled over to the little seed at the end of the station house had dropped on it. Barney buried his face in his hands and said not a word. Valency sat, staring straight ahead of her with unseeing eyes at the great pine woods,

Starting point is 06:19:55 the stumps of the clearing, the long gleaming rails. There was only one thought in her dazed mind, a thought that seemed to burn it, as a shaving of fire might burn her body. Dr. Trent had told her over a year ago that she had a serious form of heart disease, that any excitement might be fatal. If that were so, why was she not dead now? This very minute, she had just experienced as much and as terrible excitement, as most people experience in a lifetime, crowded into that endless 30 seconds. Yet she had not died of it. She was not an iota the worse for it, a little wobbly at the knees as anyone would have been a quicker heartbeat as anyone would have nothing more why was it possible dr trent had made a mistake

Starting point is 06:20:52 valency shivered as if a cold wind had suddenly chilled her to the soul she looked at barney hunched up beside her his silence was very eloquent had the same thought occurred to him did he suddenly find himself confronted by the appalling suspicion that he was married not for a few months or a year but for good and all to a woman he did not love and who had foisted herself upon him by some trick or lie valency turned sick before the horror of it it could not be it would be too cruel too devilish dr trent couldn't have made a mistake impossible He was one of the best heart specialists in Ontario. She was foolish, unnerved by the recent horror. She remembered some of the hideous basms of pain she had had. There must be something serious the matter with her heart to account for them. But she had not had any for nearly three months.

Starting point is 06:21:57 Why? Presently Barney bestirred himself. He stood up, without looking at Valency, and said casually, i suppose we'd better be hiking back sun's getting low are you good for the rest of the road i think so said valensie miserably barney went across the clearing and picked up the parcel he had dropped the parcel containing her new shoes he brought it to her and let her take out the shoes and put them on without any assistance while he stood with his back to her and looked out over the pines They walk in silence down the shadowy trail to the lake. In silence, Barney steered his boat into the sunset miracle that was Bastawis. In silence, they went around feathery headlands and across coral bays,

Starting point is 06:22:48 and silver rivers where canoes were slipping up and down in the afterglow. In silence, they went past cottages, echoing with music and laughter. In silence, drew up at the landing place below the blue castle. Valancy went up the rock steps and into the house. She dropped miserably on the first chair she came to and sat there staring through the orio, oblivious of good luck's frantic purrs of joy and banjo's savage glares of protest at her occupancy of his chair.

Starting point is 06:23:21 Barney came in a few minutes later. He did not come near her, but he stood behind her and asked gently if she felt any of the worse for her experience. Valency would have given her. her year of happiness to have been able honestly to answer, Yes. No, she said flatly. Barney went into Bluebeard's chamber and shut the door.

Starting point is 06:23:43 She heard him pacing up and down, up and down. He had never paced like that before. And an hour ago, only an hour ago, she had been so happy. End of Chapter 35, recording by Nancy Cochran Gergen, Gilbert, Arizona. January 18, 2022. Chapter 36 of the Blue Castle This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain.

Starting point is 06:24:20 For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Finally, Valency went to bed. Before she went, she reread Dr. Trent's letter. It comforted her a little. So positive, so assured. The writing so black and steady.

Starting point is 06:24:45 Not the writing of a man who didn't know what he was writing about. But she could not sleep. She pretended to be asleep when Barney came in. Barney pretended to go to sleep. But Valency knew perfectly well he wasn't sleeping any more than she was. She knew he was lying there, staring through the darkness. Thinking of what? trying to face what valency who had spent so many happy waitful hours of night lying by that window now paid the price of them all in this one night of misery a horrible portentous fact was slowly looming out before her from the nebula of surmise and fear she could not shut her eyes to it pushed away ignore it

Starting point is 06:25:32 there could be nothing seriously wrong with her heart no matter what dr trent had said if there had been those thirty seconds would have killed her it was no use to recall dr trent's letter and reputation the greatest specialist made mistakes sometimes dr trent had made one towards morning valency fell into a fitful doze with ridiculous dreams one of them was of barney taunting her with having tricked him In her dream, she lost her temper and struck him violently on the head with a rolling pin. He proved to be made of glass and shivered into splinters all over the floor. She woke with a cry of horror, a gasp of relief, a short laugh over the absurdity of her dream, a miserable, sickening recollection of what had happened. Barney was gone. Valency knew, as people sometimes knew things, inescapably, without being told, that he was not in the house or in Bluebeard's chamber either.

Starting point is 06:26:37 There was a curious silence in the living room. A silence was something uncanny about it. The old clock had stopped. Barney must have forgotten to wind it up, something he had never done before. The room without it was dead, though the sunshine streamed in through the orio and dimples of light from the dancing waves beyond quivered over the walls. the canoe was gone but lady jane was under the mainland trees so barney had been taken himself to the wilds he would not return till night perhaps not even then he must be angry with her that furious silence of his must mean anger cold deep justifiable resentment well valency knew what she must do first she was not suffering very keenly now yet the curious numbness that pervaded her being was in a way worse than pain it was as if something in her had died she forced herself to cook and eat a little breakfast mechanically she put the blue castle in perfect order then she put on her hat and coat locked the door and hid the key in the hollow of the old pine and crossed to the mainland in the motor boat she was going into deerwood to see dr trent she must know. End of Chapter 36, recording by Nancy Cochran-Gergan, Gilbert, Arizona, January 18, 2022.

Starting point is 06:28:16 Chapter 37 of the Blue Castle. This is the Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery. dr trent looked at her blankly and fumbled among his recollections er miss miss mrs snake said valency quietly i was miss valency sterling when i came to you last may over a year ago i wanted to consult you about my heart dr trent's face cleared oh of course i remember now i'm really not to blame for not knowing you you've changed splendidly and married well well it has agreed with you you don't look much like an invalid now eh i remember that day i was badly upset hearing about poor ned bode me over but ned's as good as new and you too evidently i told you so i told you so you know, told you there was nothing to worry over. Valency looked at him.

Starting point is 06:29:31 You told me in your letter, she said slowly, with a curious feeling that someone else was talking through her lips, that I have angina pectoris in the last stages, complicated with an aneurysm, that I might die any minute, that I couldn't live longer than a year. Dr. Trent stared at her. "'Impossible,' he said blankly.

Starting point is 06:29:56 "'I couldn't have told you that.' Valancy took his letter from her bag and handed it to him. "'Miss Valency Sterling,' he read. "'Yes, yes. "'Of course I wrote you, on the train, that night. "'But I told you there was nothing serious.' "'Read your letter,' insisted Valency. "'Dr. Trent took it out, unfolded it, glanced over it.

Starting point is 06:30:23 A dismayed look came into his face. He jumped to his feet and strode agitatedly about the room. Good heavens! This is the letter I meant for old Miss Jane Sterling. From poor Lawrence. She was here that day, too. I sent you the wrong letter. What unpardonable carelessness!

Starting point is 06:30:45 But I was beside myself that night. My God, and you believe that? You believed? But you didn't. You went to another doctor. Valancy stood up, turned round, looked foolishly about her, and sat down again. I believed it, she said faintly. I didn't go to any other doctor.

Starting point is 06:31:08 I. I. It would take too long to explain, but I believed I was going to die soon. Dr. Trent halted before. I can never forgive myself. What a year you must have had! but you don't look. I can't understand.

Starting point is 06:31:28 Never mind, said Valency Dully, and so there's nothing to matter with my heart? Well, nothing serious. You had what is called a pseudo-angina. It's never fatal, passes away completely with proper treatment, or sometimes with a shock of joy. Have you been troubled much with it?

Starting point is 06:31:50 Not at all since March, answered Valenci. she remembered the marvellous feeling of recreation she had had when she saw barney coming home safe after the storm had that shock of joy cured her then likely you're all right i told you what to do in the letter you should have got and of course i supposed you'd go to another doctor child why didn't you i didn't want anybody to know idiot said dr trump bluntly i can't understand such folly and poor old miss sterling she must have got your letter telling her there was nothing serious the matter well well it couldn't have made any difference her case was hopeless nothing that she could have done or left undone could have made any difference i was surprised she lived as long as she did two months she was here that day not long before you-you but-you and she was surprised she lived as long as she did two months she was here that day not long before you I hated to tell her the truth. You think I'm a blunt old curmudgeon, and my letters are blunt enough.

Starting point is 06:32:56 I can't soften things, but I'm a snibbling coward when it comes to telling a woman, face to face, that she's got to die soon. I told her I'd look up some features of the case I wasn't quite sure of, and let her know the next day. But you got her letter? Look here. dear miss s t-e-e-r-l-I-N-G yes i noticed that but i thought it a mistake i didn't know there were any sterlings in poor lawrence she was the only one a lonely old soul lived by herself with only a little home girl she died two months after she was here died in her sleep my mistake couldn't have made any difference to her but you

Starting point is 06:33:44 I can't forgive myself for inflicting a year's misery on you. It's time I retired, all right, when I do things like that, even if my son was supposed to be faintly injured. Can you ever forgive me? A year of misery? Valancy smiled a tortured smile, as she thought of all the happiness Dr. Trent's mistake had bought her. But she was paying for it now.

Starting point is 06:34:09 Oh, she was paid. If Defeel was to live, she was living with a very, vengeance. She let Dr. Trent examine her and answered all his questions. When he told her she was fit as a fiddle, and would probably live to be a hundred, she got up and went away silently. She knew that there were a great many horrible things outside waiting to be thought over. Dr. Trent thought she was odd. Anybody would have thought, from her hopeless eyes and will-be-gone face, that he had given her a sentence of death instead of life. "'Snath? Snaith? Who the devil had she married?'

Starting point is 06:34:48 He had never heard of Snais in Deerwood. And she had been such a sorrow, faded little old maid. God, but marriage had made a difference in her, anyhow, whoever Snaith was. "'Snaith?' Dr. Trent remembered. "'That Ravisgallion upback. Had Valenci's Sterling married him?

Starting point is 06:35:10 And her clan had led her?' "'Well, probably that's. solved the mystery. She had married in haste and repented at leisure, and that was why she wasn't overjoyed at learning she was a good insurance prospect, after all. Married? To God knew whom? Or what? Jailbird? Defaulter? Pugitive from justice? It must be pretty bad if she had looked to death as a release, poor girl. But why were women such fools? Dr. Trent dismissed Valency from his mind. though to the day of his death he was ashamed of putting those letters into the wrong envelopes. End of Chapter 37, Recording by Nancy Cochran Gergen, Gilbert, Arizona, January 22, 2022.

Starting point is 06:36:07 Chapter 38 of the Blue Castle. This is a Librevox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit Librevox. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Valancy walked quickly through the back streets and through Lubbers Lane. She did not want to meet anyone she knew. She didn't want to meet even people she didn't know.

Starting point is 06:36:36 She hated to be seen. Her mind was so confused, so torn, so messy. She felt that her appearance must be the same. She drew a sobbing breath of relief as she left the village behind, and found herself on the up-back road. There was little fear of meeting anyone she knew here. The chorus that fled by her with raucous shrieks were filled with strangers. One of them was packed with young people,

Starting point is 06:37:03 who whirled past her singing uproariously. My wife has the fever, oh then, my wife has the fever, oh then. My wife has the fever, oh, I hope it won't leave her, for I want to be single again. Valancy flinched as if one of them had leaned from the car and cut her across the face with a whip. She had made a covenant with death, and death had cheated her. Now life stood mocking her. She had trapped Barney, trapped him into marrying her, and divorce was so hard to get in Ontario, so expensive, and Barney was poor. With life, fear had come back into her heart.

Starting point is 06:37:45 Sickening fear. Fear of what Barney was. would think, would say, fear of the future that must be lived without him, fear of her insulted, repudiated clan. She had had one draft from a divine cup, and now it was dashed from her lips, with no kind, friendly death to rescue her. She must go on living and longing for it. Everything was spoiled, smirched, defaced, even that year in the blue castle, even her unashamed love for Barney, it had been beautiful because death waited. Now it was only sorted because death was gone. How could anyone bear an unbearable thing? She must go back and tell him, make him believe she had not meant to trick him. She must make him believe that. She must say goodbye to her blue castle

Starting point is 06:38:38 and return to the brick house on Elm Street, back to everything she had thought left behind forever. The old bondage, the old fears, but that did not matter. All that mattered now was that Barney must somehow be made to believe she had not consciously tricked him. When Valency reached the pines by the lake, she was brought out of her days of pain by a startling sight. There, parked by the side of the old battered ragged Lady Jane, was another car. A wonderful car. A purple car. Not a dark royal purple, but a blatant, screaming purple. It shone like a mirror, and its interior plainly indicated the car cast of Verde Verre. In the driver's seat sat a haughty chauffeur in livery, and in the tonneau sat a man who opened the door

Starting point is 06:39:32 and bounced out nimbly as Valenci came down the path to the landing-place. He stood under the pines waiting for her, and Valency took in every detail of him. A stout, short, pudgy man, with a odd rubicund good-humoured face, a clean-shaven face, though an unparalyzed little imp at the back of Valency's paralyzed mind, suggested the thought, such a face should have a fringe of white whisker around it. Old-fashioned, still rims spectacles on prominent blue eyes, a Percy mouth, a little round Nami nose. Where, where, where, her, grow Valency, had she seen that face before, it seemed as familiar to her as her own. The stranger wore a green hat and a light fond overcoat over a suit of a loud check pattern.

Starting point is 06:40:29 His tie was a brigh and green of lighter shade. On the plump hand he outstretched Intercept Valancy, an enormous diamond winked in her. But he had a pleasant fatherly smile, and in his hearty, unmodulated voice, was a ring of something that attracted her. Can you tell me, miss, if that house yonder belongs to Mr. Redfern? And if so, how can I get to it? Redfern, a vision of bottles seemed to dance before Valenci's eyes. Long bottles of bitters, round bottles of hair tonic,

Starting point is 06:41:05 square bottles of liniment, short, corpulent little bottles of purple pills, and all of them bearing that very prosperous, beaming moonface and steel-room spectacles on the label. Dr. Redfern. No, said Valency faintly. No, that house belongs to Mr. Snaith. Dr. Redfern nodded. Yes, I understand Bernie's been calling himself Snaith. Well, it's his middle name.

Starting point is 06:41:36 Was his poor mother's. Bernard, Snaith, Redfern. That's him. him. And now, Miss, can you tell me how to get over to that island? Nobody seems to be home there. I've done some waving and yelling. Henry there wouldn't yell. He's a one-job man. But old Doc Redfern can yell with the best of them yet, and ain't above doing it. Raise nothing but a couple of crows. Guess Bernie's out for the day. He was away when I left this morning, said Valency. I suppose he hasn't come home yet.

Starting point is 06:42:10 she spoke flatly and tonelessly this last shock had temporarily bereft her of whatever old power of reasoning had been left her by dr trance revelation in the back of her mind the aforesaid little imp was jeeringly repeating a silly old proverb it never rains but it pours but she was not trying to think what was the use Dr. Redfern was gazing at her in perplexity. When you live this morning? Do you live over there? He waved his diamond at the Blue Castle. Of course, said Valency stupidly. I'm his wife.

Starting point is 06:42:54 Dr. Redfern took out a yellow cell cankerchief, removed his hat, and mopped his brow. He was very bald, and Valenci's imp whispered, why be ball why lose your manly beauty try redfern's hair vigor it keeps you young excuse me said dr redfern this is a bit of a shock shocks seemed to be in the air this morning the imp said this out loud before valency could prevent it i didn't know burney was married i didn't think he would have got married without telling his old dad were dr redfern's eyes misty amid her own dull ache of misery and fear and dread valency felt a pang of pity for him don't blame him she said hurriedly it-it wasn't his fault it was all my doing you didn't ask him to marry you i suppose twinkled dr redfern he might have let me know i'd have got acquainted with my daughter-in-law before this if he had but i'm glad to meet you now my dear very glad you look like a sensible young woman i used to sort of fear barney pick out some pretty bit of fluff just because she was good-looking they were all after him of course wanted his money eh didn't like the pills and the bidders and the bidders

Starting point is 06:44:21 but like the dollars. A. Wanted to dip their pretty little fingers in old Doc's millions. A? Millions, said Valency faintly. She wished she could sit down somewhere. She wished she could have a chance to think. She wished she and the Blue Castle could sink to the bottom of Mistowus and vanish from human sight forevermore.

Starting point is 06:44:46 Millions, said Dr. Redfern complacently, and Bernie chucks them for, that. Again, he shook the diamond contemptuously at the Blue Castle. Wouldn't you think he'd have more sense? And all unaccount of a white bit of a girl. He must have got over that feeling, anyhow, since he's married. You must persuade him to come back to civilization. All nonsense wasting his life like this. Ain't you going to take me over to your house, my dear? I suppose you've some way of getting there. Of course, said Vassonson. She led the way down to the little cove, where the disappearing propeller boat was snuggled.

Starting point is 06:45:29 Does your... Your man want to come, too? Who? Henry? Not he. Look at him sitting there disapproving. Disapproves of the whole expedition. The trail up from the road nearly gave him a conition. Well, it was the devilish road to put a car on. Whose whole bus is that up there? barney's good lord does barney redfern write in a thing like that it looks like the great-great-grandmother of all the fords it isn't a ford it's a gray slossin said valency spiritedly for some occult reason dr redfern's good-humoured ridicule of dear old lady jane stung her to life a life that was all pain but still life better than the horrible half dead and half-dead and half-dead aliveness of the past few minutes, or years. She waved Dr. Redford currently into the boat and took him over to the blue castle. The king was still on the old pine. The house still silent and deserted.

Starting point is 06:46:37 Valancy took the doctor through the living room to the western veranda. She must at least be out where there was air. It was still sunny, but in the southwest a great thunder cloud, with white crests and gorges of purple shadow, was slowly rising over Mistawas. The doctor dropped with a gasp on a rustic chair and mobbed his brow again. "'Worm, eh? Lord, what of you?

Starting point is 06:47:05 Wonder if it would soften Henry if he could see it. Have you had dinner?' asked Valency. "'Yes, my dear. Had it before we left Port Lawrence, didn't know what sort of wild hermets hollow we were coming to, you see. Hadn't any idea I was going to find a nice little daughter-in-law here, already to toss me up a meal. Cats, a, puss-puss! See that? Cats love me. Bernie was always fond of cats. It's about the only thing he took from me. He's his poor mother's boy. Valenci had been thinking idly

Starting point is 06:47:43 that Bernie must resemble his mother. She had remained standing by the steps, but Dr. Redfring waved her to the swing seat. Sit down, dear. Never stand when you can sit. I want to get a good look at Barney's wife. Well, well, I like your face. No beauty.

Starting point is 06:48:03 You don't mind my saying that. You've sense enough to know it, I reckon. Sit down. Valency sat down. To be obliged to sit. when mental agony urges us to stride up and down is the refinement of torture. Every nerve in her being was crying out to be alone, to be hidden, but she had to sit and listen to Dr. Redfern, who didn't mind talking at all. When do you think Bernie will be back?

Starting point is 06:48:32 I don't know, not before night, probably. Where did he go? I don't know that either, likely to the woods, up back. so he doesn't tell you his coming and goings either burney was always a secretive young devil never understood him just like his poor mother but i thought a lot of him it hurt me when he disappeared as he did eleven years ago i haven't seen my boy for eleven years eleven years valency was surprised it's only six since he came here oh he was in the klondock before that and all over the world He used to drop me a line now and then, never give any clue to where he was, but just a line to say he was all right. I suppose he told you all about it. No. I know nothing of his past life, said Valency, with sudden eagerness.

Starting point is 06:49:29 She wanted to know. She must know now. It hadn't mattered before. Now she must know all. And she could never hear it from Barney. She might never even see him again. If she did, it would not be to talk. of his past. What happened? Why did he leave his home? Tell me. Tell me. Well, it ain't much of a story.

Starting point is 06:49:53 Just a young fool gone mad because of a quarrel with his girl. Only Bernie was a stubborn fool. Always stubborn. You never could make that boy do anything he didn't want to do. From the day he was born. Yet he was always a quiet, gentle little chap, too. Good as gold. His poor mother died when he was only two years old. I'd just begun to make money with my hair vigor. I had dreamed the formula for it, you see. Some dreamed that. The cash rolled in, Bernie had everything he wanted.

Starting point is 06:50:27 I sent him to the best schools, private schools. I meant to make a gentleman of him. Never had any chance myself. Meant he should have every chance. He went through McGill, got honors and all that. I wanted him to go in for law. He hankered after journalism and stuff like that, wanted me to buy a paper for him or back him in publishing what he called a real, worthwhile, honest-to-goodness Canadian magazine. I suppose I'd have done it. I always did what he wanted me to do. Wasn't he all I had to live for? I wanted him to be happy, and he never was happy. Can you believe it?

Starting point is 06:51:09 Not that he said so, but I'd always a feeling that he wasn't happy. everything he wanted, all the money he could spend, his own bank account, travel, seeing the world, but he wasn't happy, not till he fell in love with Ethel Traverse. Then he was happy for a little while. The cloud had reached the sun and a great chill, purple shadow came swiftly over Mistowis. It touched the blue castle, rolled over it. Valenci shivered. Yes, she said with painful eagerness, though every word was cutting her to the heart. What was she like? Prettiest girl in Montreal, said Dr. Redfern.

Starting point is 06:51:51 Oh, she was a looker, all right. A. Gold hair, shiny as silk. Great, big, soft black eyes. Skin like milk and roses. Don't wonder, Bernie fell for her. And brains as well. She wasn't a bit of fluff.

Starting point is 06:52:08 B.A. from McGill. A thoroughbred, too. one of the best families, but a bit lean in the purse, eh? Bernie was mad about her, happiest young fool you ever saw. Then, the bust-up. What happened? Valencia had taken off her hat, and was absently thrusting a pin in and out of it. Good luck was purring beside her.

Starting point is 06:52:34 Banjo was regarding Dr. Renfern with suspicion. Nip and tuck were lazily cawing in the finds. moustawas was beckoning everything was the same nothing was the same it was a hundred years since yesterday yesterday at this time she and barney had been eating a belated dinner here with laughter laughter valency felt that she had done with laughter forever and with tears for that matter she had no further use for either of them blast if i know my dear some full quarrel, I suppose. Bernie just lit out, disappeared. He wrote me from the Yukon, said his engagement was broken and he wasn't coming back, and not to try to hunt him up because he was never coming back. I didn't. What was the use? I knew Bernie. I went on piling up money because there wasn't anything else to do, but I was mighty lonely. All I left for was in little notes now and then from Bernie.

Starting point is 06:53:38 Klandike, England, South Africa, China, everywhere. I thought maybe he'd come back someday to his lonesome old dad. Then six years ago, even the letters stopped. I didn't hear word of or from him till last Christmas. Did he write? No, but he drew a check for $15,000 on his bank account. The bank manager is a friend of mine, one of my biggest shareholders. He'd always promised me he'd let me know if Bernie drew any checks.

Starting point is 06:54:11 Bernie had 50,000 there, and he'd never touched a sin of it till last Christmas. The check was made out to Ainsley's, Toronto. Ainsleys? Valancy heard herself saying, Ainsleys? She had a box on her dressing table with the Ainsley trademark. Yes, the big jewelry house there. After I thought it over a while, I got brisk. I wanted to locate Bernie, had a special reason for it.

Starting point is 06:54:41 It was time he gave up his full hoboing and come to his senses. During that fifteen told me there was something in the wind. The manager communicated with the Ainsleys. His wife was an Ainsley, and found out that Bernard Redfern had bought a pearl necklace there. His address was given as Box 444, Port Lawrence, Muscoca, Ontario. First I thought I'd write. Then I thought I'd wait till the open season for cars and come down myself.

Starting point is 06:55:13 Ain't no hand at writing. I've motored from Montreal. Got to Port Lawrence yesterday. Inquired at the post office. Told me they knew nothing of any Bernard Snaith Redford, but there was a Barney Snaith, had a peopox there. Lived on an island out here, they said. So here I am.

Starting point is 06:55:33 And where's Barney? Valency was fingering her necklace. She was wearing $15,000 around her neck, and she had worried that Barney had paid $15 for it and couldn't afford it. Suddenly she laughed in Dr. Redfern's face. Excuse me, it's so... Amusing, said poor Valency.

Starting point is 06:55:57 Isn't it? said Dr. Redfern, seeing a joke, but not exactly hers. Now, you seem like a sensible young woman, and I dare say you've lots of influence over Bernie. Can't you get him to come back to civilization and live like other people? I have a house up there. Big as a castle. Furnished like a palace. I want company in it.

Starting point is 06:56:21 Bernie's wife. Bernie's children. Did Ethel Traverse ever marry? Queryed Valency irrelevantly. Bless you, yes. Two years after Bernie Levanted. But she is a widow now, pretty as ever. To be frank, that was my special reason for wanting to find Bernie.

Starting point is 06:56:41 I thought they'd make it up, maybe. But of course, that's all off now. Doesn't matter. Bernie's choice of a wife is good enough for me. It's my boy I want. Think he'll soon be back? I don't know, but I don't think he'll come before night. Quite late, perhaps.

Starting point is 06:57:01 And perhaps not till tomorrow. But I can put you up comfortably. he'll certainly be back tomorrow. Dr. Redfern shook his head. Too damp, I'll take no chances with rheumatism. Why suffer that ceaseless anguish? Why not try Redfern's liniment? Quoted the aunt in the back of Valancy's mind.

Starting point is 06:57:24 I must get back to Port Lawrence before rain starts. Henry goes quite mad when he gets mud on the car. But I'll come back tomorrow. Meanwhile, you talk Bernie into reason. He shook her hand and patted her kindly on the shoulder. He looked as if he would have kissed her, with a little encouragement, but Valency did not give it. Not that she would have minded. He was rather dreadful, and loud and dreadful, but there was something about him she liked.

Starting point is 06:57:56 She thought dully that she might have liked being his daughter-in-law if he had not been a millionaire, air. A score of times over, and Barney was his son, and air. She took him over in the motorboat, and watched the lordly purple car roll away through the woods, with Henry at the wheel, looking things not lawful to be uttered. Then she went back to the blue castle. What she had to do must be done quickly. Barney might return at any moment, and it was certainly going to rain. She was thankful she no longer felt very bad. when you are bludgeoned on the head repeatedly you naturally and mercifully become more or less insensible and stupid she stood briefly like a faded flower bitten by frost by the hearth looking down on the white ashes of the last fire that had blazed in the blue castle at any rate she thought wearily barney isn't poor he will be able to afford a divorce quite nicely

Starting point is 06:58:59 End of Chapter 38, read by Nancy Cochran Gergen, Gilbert, Arizona, January 27, 2022. Chapter 39 of The Blue Castle. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Section 39. She must write a note.

Starting point is 06:59:37 The imp in the back of her mind laughed. In every story she had ever read, when a runaway life decamped from home she left a note, generally on the pincushion. It was not a very original idea, but one had to leave something intelligible. What was there to do, but write a note? She looked vaguely about her for something to write with.

Starting point is 07:00:03 ink? There was none. Valancy had never written anything since she had come to the Blue Castle, save memoranda of household necessaries for Barney. A pencil sufficed for them, but now the pencil was not to be found. Valancy absently crossed to the door of Bluebeard's chamber and tried it. She vaguely expected to find it locked, but it opened unresistingly. She had never tried it before and did not know whether Barney habitually kept it locked or not. If he did, he must have been badly upset to leave it unlocked.

Starting point is 07:00:44 She did not realize that she was doing something he had told her not to do. She was only looking for something to write with. All her faculties were concentrated on deciding just what she would say and how she would say it. There was not the slightest curiosity in her as she went into the lean-to. There were no beautiful woman hanging by their hair on the walls. It seemed a very harmless apartment, with a commonplace little sheet-iron stove in the middle of it, its pipe sticking out through the roof. At one end was a table or counter crowded with odd-looking utensils,

Starting point is 07:01:25 used no doubt by Barney in his smelly operations. Chemical experiments, probably, she reflected Dolly. At the other end was a big writing desk and swivel chair. The side walls were lined with books. Valenci went blindly to the desk. There she stood motionless for a few minutes, looking down at something that lay on it, a bundle of galley proofs.

Starting point is 07:01:54 The page on top bowled. the title, Wild Honey, and under the title were words by John Foster. The opening sentence, Pines are the trees of myth and legend. They strike their roots deep into the traditions of an older world, but wind and star love their lofty tops. What music when old aeolus draws his bow across the branches of the pines? She had heard Barney say that one day when they walked under them.

Starting point is 07:02:28 So Barney was John Foster. Valency was not excited. She had absorbed all the shocks and sensations that she could compass for one day. This affected her neither one way nor the other. She only thought, So this explains it. It was a small matter that had somehow stuck in, stuck in her mind more persistently than its importance seemed to justify.

Starting point is 07:02:58 Soon after Barney had brought her John Foster's latest book, she had been in a Port Lawrence bookshop and heard a customer ask the proprietor for John Foster's new book. The proprietor said, said, currently, Not out yet, won't be out till next week. Valenci had opened her lips to say, Oh, yes, it is out. but closed them again.

Starting point is 07:03:23 After all, it was none of her business. She supposed the proprietor wanted to cover up his negligence and not getting the book in promptly. Now she knew. The book Barney had given her had been one of the author's complimentary copies, sent in advance. Well, Valenci pushed the proofs indifferently aside

Starting point is 07:03:44 and sat down in the swivel chair. She took up Barney's pen, and a vile one at once. was, pulled up a sheet of paper to her, and began to write. She could not think of anything to say except bald facts. Dear Barney, I went to Dr. Trent this morning, and found out he had sent me the wrong letter by mistake. There never was anything serious the matter with my heart, and I am quite well now. I did not mean to trick you. Please believe that. I could not bear it if you did not believe that.

Starting point is 07:04:21 I'm very sorry for the mistake. But surely you can get a divorce if I leave you. Is desertion a ground for divorce in Canada? Of course, if there is anything I can do to help or hasten it, I will do it gladly. If your lawyer will let me know. I thank you for all your kindness to me. I shall never forget it. Think as kindly of me as you can,

Starting point is 07:04:46 because I did not mean to trap you. Goodbye. yours gratefully valenci it was very cold and stiff she knew but to try to say anything else would be dangerous like tearing away a dam she didn't know what torrent of wild incoherences and passionate anguish might pour out in a postscript she added your father was here to-day he is coming back to-morrow he told me everything i think you should go back to-morrow i think you should go back to-morrow he told me everything i think you should go back to to him. He is very lonely for you. She put the letter in an envelope, wrote Barney across it, and left it on the desk. On it, she laid the string of pearls. If they had been the beads, she believed them, she would have kept them in memory of that wonderful year. But she could not keep the $15,000 gift of a man whom had married her out of pity, and whom she was now leaving.

Starting point is 07:05:47 and hurt her to give up her pretty bobble. That was an odd thing, she reflected. The fact that she was leaving Barney did not hurt her, yet. It lay at her heart like a cold, insensible thing. If it came to life, Valencia shuddered and went out. She put on her hat and mechanically fed good luck in banjo. She locked the door and carefully hid the key in the old pine. Then she crossed to the mainland in a disappearing propeller.

Starting point is 07:06:23 She stood for a moment on the bank, looking at her blue castle. The rain had not yet come, but the sky was dark, and misted was grey and sullen. The little house under the pines looked very pathetic. A casket rifled of its jewels, a lamp with its flame blown out. I shall never again hear the wind crying over mistowice at night, thought Valancy. This hurt her, too. She could have laughed to think that such a trifle could hurt her at such a time. End of Chapter 39.

Starting point is 07:07:09 Chapter 40 of The Blue Castle. This is a Libervox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Section 40 Valencia paused a moment on the porch of the brick house in Elm Street. She felt that she ought to knock like a stranger.

Starting point is 07:07:39 Her rose bush, she idly noticed, was loaded with buds. The rubber plant stood beside the prim door. A momentary horror overcame her. A horror of the existence to which. she was returning. Then she opened the door and walked in. I wonder if the prodigal's son ever felt really at home again, she thought. Mrs. Frederick and cousin Stickels were in the sitting room. Uncle Benjamin was there too. They looked blankly at Valenci, realizing at once that something was wrong. This was not the saucy, impudent thing who had laughed at them in this very room last summer?

Starting point is 07:08:23 This was a gray-faced woman with the eyes of a creature who had been stricken by a mortal blow. Valenci looked indifferently around the room. She had changed so much, and it had changed so little. The same pictures hung on the walls. The little orphan who knelt at her never-finished prayer by the bed, whereon reposed the black kitten that never grew up into a cat. The gray steel engraving of Quatchibras, where the British regiment forever stood at bay. The crown enlargement of the boyish father she had never known.

Starting point is 07:09:04 There, they all hung in the same places. The green cascade of Wandering Jew still tumbled out of the old granite saucepan on the window stand. The same elaborate, never-used pitcher, stood at the same anguish. on the sideboard shelf. The blue and gilt faces that had been among her mother's wedding presents still primly adorned the mantelpiece, flanking the china clock of berose and besprayed where that never went, the chairs in exactly the same places, her mother and cousin stickles, likewise unchanged, regarding her with stony unwelcome. Valencia had to speak first.

Starting point is 07:09:52 I've come home, mother, she said tiredly. So I see, Mrs. Frederick voice was very icy. She had resigned herself to Valencia's desertion. She had almost succeeded in forgetting there was a Valencia. She had rearranged and organized her systematic life without any reference to an ungrateful, rebellious child. She had taken her place again in a society which ignored the fact that she had ever had a daughter and pitied her, if it pitied her at all, only in discreet whispers and asides.

Starting point is 07:10:31 The plain truth was that, by this point, Mrs. Frederick did not want Valenci to come back, did not want ever to see or hear of her again. And now, of course, Valencia was here, with tragedy and disgrace, and scandal trailing after her visibly. So I see, said Mrs. Frederick. May I ask why? Because I'm not going to die, said Valenci, huskily. God bless my soul, said Uncle Benjamin.

Starting point is 07:11:10 Who said you were going to die? I suppose, said Cousin Stickles shrewishly. cousin Stigles did not want Valenci back either. I suppose you've found out he has another wife, as we've been sure all along. No, I only wish he had, said Balenci. She was not suffering particularly, but she was very tired. If only the explanations were all over,

Starting point is 07:11:38 and she were upstairs in her old, ugly room, alone. Just alone. The rattle of the beads on her mother. mother's sleeves, as they swung on the arms of the re-chair, almost drove her crazy. Nothing else was worrying her, but all at once it seemed that she simply could not endure that thin, insistent rattle. My home, as I told you, is always open to you, said Mrs. Frederick, stonily. But I can never forgive you. Valencia gave a mirthless laugh.

Starting point is 07:12:16 I care very little for that if I could only forgive myself, she said. Come, come, said Uncle Benjamin testily, but rather enjoying himself. He felt he had Valenci under his thumb again. We've had enough of mystery. What has happened? Why have you left that fellow? No doubt there's reason enough, but what particular reason is it? Valenci began to speak mechanically.

Starting point is 07:12:45 She told her tale bluntly and barely. A year ago, Dr. Trent told me I had angina pectoris and could not live long. I wanted to have some life before I died. That's why I went away. Why married Barney. And now I found it is all a mistake. There is nothing wrong with my heart. I've got to live.

Starting point is 07:13:13 and Barney only married me out of pity, so I have to leave him free. God bless me, said Uncle Benjamin. Cousin's tickles began to cry. Valenci, if only you had the confidence in your own mother, yes, yes, I know, said Valencia impatiently. What's the use of going into that now? I can't undo this year. God knows I wish I could.

Starting point is 07:13:41 I've tricked Barney into Mary, me, and he's really Bernard Redfern, Dr. Redfern's son of Montreal, and his father wants him to go back to him. Uncle Benjamin made a queer sound. Cousin Stigles took her black-border handkerchief away from her eyes and stared at Valencia. A queer gleam suddenly shot into Mr. Frederick's stone-gray orbs. To Dr. Redfern, not the purple pill man, she said. Valenci nodded. He's John Foster, too, the writer of those nature books.

Starting point is 07:14:20 But, but... Mrs. Frederick was visibly agitated, though not over the thought that she was the mother-in-law of John Foster. Dr. Redfern is a million there! Uncle Benjamin shut his mouth with a snap. Ten times over, he said. Valenci nodded. Yes, Barney left home years ago, because... of some trouble, some disappointment.

Starting point is 07:14:48 Now he will likely go back. So you see, I had to come home. He doesn't love me. I can't hold him to a bond he was tricked into. Uncle Benjamin looked incredibly sly. Did he say so? Does he want to get rid of you? No.

Starting point is 07:15:08 I haven't seen him since I found out. But I tell you, he only married me out of pity, because I asked him too, because he thought it would only be for a little while. Mrs. Frederick and Cousin Stickels both tried to speak, but Uncle Benjamin waved a hand at them and frowned portentously. Let me handle this, wave and wave and frown seemed to say. To Valencia. Well, well, dear, we'll talk it over later. You see, we don't quite understand and everything yet. As Cousin Stiggle says, you should have confided in us before. Later on, I dare say we can find a way out of this.

Starting point is 07:15:51 You think Barney can easily get a divorce, don't you? said Valencia eagerly. Uncle Benjamin silenced with another wave the exclamation of horror he knew was trembling on Mrs. Frederick's lips. Trust to me, Valencia. Everything will arrange itself. Tell me this, Dassey. Have you been happy up back? Was Mr. Redfern good to you? I have been very happy and Barney was very good to me, said Valenci, as if reciting a lesson. She remembered when she studied grammar at school she had disliked the past and perfect tenses. They had always seemed so pathetic.

Starting point is 07:16:34 I have been, and was all over and done with. Then don't worry, little girl. how amazingly paternal Uncle Benjamin was. Your family will stand behind you. We'll see what can be done. Thank you, said Valencia, dolly. Really, it was quite decent of Uncle Benjamin. Can I go and lie down a little while?

Starting point is 07:16:58 I'm tired. Of course you're tired. Uncle Benjamin patted her hand gently. Very gently. All worn out. and nervous, go and lie down, by all means. You'll see things in quite a different life after you've had a good sleep. He held the door open. As she went through, he whispered, What is the best way to keep a man's love? Valenci smiled wanly, but she had come back to the old

Starting point is 07:17:30 life, the old shackles. What? She asked as meekly as of your. Not to return it. said Uncle Benjamin with a chuckle. He shut the door and rubbed his hands, nodded and smiled mysteriously around the room. Poor little Doss, he said pathetically. Do you really suppose that Snaith can actually be Dr. Redfern's son? Gasked Mrs. Frederick. I see no reason for doubting it.

Starting point is 07:18:05 She says Dr. Redfern has been there. Why, the man is richest wedding case. Amelia, I've always believed there was more endoss than most people thought. You kept her down too much, repressed her. She never had a chance to show what was in her. And now she's landed a millionaire for a husband. But, hesitated Mrs. Frederick. He, he, they told terrible tales about him.

Starting point is 07:18:32 Oh gossip and invention, oh gossip and invention! It's always been a mystery to me and why people should be so well. ready to invent and circulate slanders about other people they know absolutely nothing about. I can't understand why you paid so much attention to gossip and surmice. Just because he didn't choose to mix up with everybody, people resented it. I was surprised to find what a decent fellow he seemed to be at that time. He came into the store with Valenci. I discounted all the yarns then and there.

Starting point is 07:19:06 But he was seen dead drunk in Port Lawrence once. said cousin Stickles. Doubtfully, yet as one very willing to be convinced to the contrary. Who saw him? demanded Uncle Benjamin, trunkedly. Who saw him? Old Jimmy Strang said he saw him. I wouldn't take old Jimmy Strang's word on oath.

Starting point is 07:19:30 He's too drunk himself half the time to see straight. He said he saw him lying drunk on a bench in the park. Shah! Redfern's been asleep there. Don't worry over that. But his clothes and that awful old car, said Mrs. Frederick uncertainly. Ecentricities of genius, declared Uncle Benjamin. You heard Doss say he was John Foster? I'm not up in literature myself, but I heard a lecturer from Toronto say that John Foster's books

Starting point is 07:20:04 had put Canada on the literary map of the world. I suppose we must forgive her, yielded Mrs. Frederick. Forgive her? Uncle Benjamin snorted. Really, Amelia was an incredibly stupid woman. No wonder poor Dawes had gone sick and tired of living with her. Well, yes, I think you better forgive her. The question is, will Snaith forgive us? What if she persists in leaving him?

Starting point is 07:20:36 You've no idea how stubborn she can be, said Mrs. Frederick. Leave it all to me, Amelia. Leave it all to me. You woman have muddled it enough. This whole affair has been bungled from start to finish. If you had put yourself to a little trouble years ago, Amelia, she would not have bolted over the traces as she did. Just let her alone.

Starting point is 07:20:59 Don't worry her with advice or questions till she's ready to talk. She's evidently run away in a panic because she's afraid he'd be angry with her for fooling him. Most extraordinary thing of Trent to tell her such a yarn. That's what comes of going to strange doctors.

Starting point is 07:21:20 Well, well, we mustn't blame her too harshly poor child. Redfern will come after her. If he doesn't, I'll hunt him up and talk to him as. man to man. He may be a millionaire, but Valenci is a sterling. He can't repudate her just because she was mistaken about her heart disease. Not likely he'll want to. Doss is a little over strong. Bless me, I must get in the habit of calling her Valenci. She isn't a baby any longer. Now, remember, Amelia, be very kind and sympathetic. It was something of a large order to expect

Starting point is 07:22:00 Mrs. Frederick to be kind and sympathetic. But she did her best. When supper was ready, she went up and asked Valenci if she would like a cup of tea. Valenci, lying on her bed, declined. She just wanted to be left alone for a while. Mrs. Frederick left her alone. She did not even remind Valencia that her plight was the outcome of her own lack of daughterly respect and obedience. One could not... Exactly. say things like that to the daughter-in-law of a millionaire. End of Chapter 40. Chapter 41 of the Blue Castle.

Starting point is 07:22:46 This is a Librevox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librevox.org. Read by Little Miss Climsy. The Blue Castle by Lucy Mode Montgomery. Chapter 41. Balancy looked dully about her old room. It, too, was so exactly the same that it seemed almost impossible to believe in the changes that had come to her since she had last slept in it.

Starting point is 07:23:21 It seemed somehow indecent that it should be so much the same. There was Queen Louise, everlastingly coming down the stairway, and nobody had let the forlorn puppy in out of the rain. Here was the purple paper blind and the greenish mirror. Outside, the old carriage shop with its blatant advertisements. Beyond it, the station with the same derelicts and flotation flappers. Here, the old life waited for her, like some grim ogre that bided his time and licked his chops. A monstrous horror of it suddenly possessed her. when night fell and she had undressed and got into bed the merciful numbness passed away and she lay in anguish and thought of her island under the stars

Starting point is 07:24:18 the camp-fires all their little household jokes and phrases and catch words their furry beautiful cats the lights agleam on the fairy islands canoes skimming over mistowice in the magic of morning white birches shining among the dark spruces like beautiful women's bodies winter snows and rose-red sunset fires lakes drunken with moonshine all the delights of her lost paradise she would not let herself think of barney only of these lesser things she could not endure to think of barney then she thought of him inescapably She ached for him. She wanted his arms around her, his face against hers, his whispers in her here. She recalled all his friendly looks and quips and jests, his little compliments, his caresses. She counted them all over as a woman might count her jewels. Not one did she miss from the first day they had met.

Starting point is 07:25:33 These memories were all she could have not. now. She shut her eyes and prayed. Let me remember everyone, God. Let me never forget one of them. Yet, it would be better to forget. This agony of longing and loneliness would not be so terrible if one could forget. An ethel traverse, that shimmering witch woman with her white skin and black eyes and shining hair. The woman Barney had loved. The woman whom he still loved, hadn't he told her he never changed his mind?

Starting point is 07:26:14 Who was waiting for him in Montreal? Who was the right wife for a rich and famous man? Barney would marry her, of course, when he got his divorce. How Valancy hated her and envied her. Barney had said, I love you to her. Valancy had wondered what tone Barney would say I love you in, how his dark blue eyes would look when he said it. Ethel Traverse knew.

Starting point is 07:26:44 Valency hated her for the knowledge, hated and envied her. She can never have those hours in the blue castle. They are mine, thought Valencia savagely. Heather would never make strawberry jam, or dance to old Abel's fiddle, or fry bacon for Barney over a campfire. She would never come to the little Miss Toys shack at all.

Starting point is 07:27:10 What was Barney doing, thinking, feeling now? Had he come home and found her letter? Was he still angry with her? Or a little pitiful? Was he lying on their bed, looking out on stormy Mistowis and listening to the rain streaming down on the roof? Or was he still wondering,

Starting point is 07:27:32 in the wilderness, raging at the predicament in which he found himself. Hating her? Pain took her and wrung her like some great pitiless giant. She got up and walked to the floor. Would morning never come to end this idious night? And yet, what could morning bring her? The old life without the old stagnation that was at least bearable. The old life with the new memories, the new longings, the new anguish. Oh, why can't I die? Moened Valency. End of Chapter 41.

Starting point is 07:28:18 Chapter 42 of The Blue Castle. This is a Librivox recording. All Librevox recordings are in the public domain. For more informational to volunteer, please visit Librevox.org. Read by Little Miss Clumsey. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery Chapter 42

Starting point is 07:28:40 It was not until early afternoon the next day that a dreadful old car clanked up Elm Street and stopped in front of the brick house. A hatless man sprang from it and rushed up the steps. The bell was rung as it had never been rung before,

Starting point is 07:29:01 vehemently, intensely. The ringer was demanding on not asking it. Uncle Benjamin chuckled as he hurried to the door. Uncle Benjamin had just dropped in to inquire how dear Doss Valancy was. Dear Doss Valancy, he had been informed, was the same. She had come down for breakfast, which she didn't eat, gone back to her room, come down for dinner, which she didn't eat, gone back to her room.

Starting point is 07:29:36 That was all. She had not talked, and she had been let kindly, considerably, alone. Very good. Redfern will be here today, said Uncle Benjamin. And now Uncle Benjamin's reputation as a prophet was made. Redfern was here, unmistakably so. Is my wife here? He demanded of Uncle Benjamin without preface. Uncle Benjamin smiled expressively. Mr. Redfern, I believe. Very glad to meet you, sir. Yes, that naughty little girl of yours is here. We have been... I must see her. Barney cut Uncle Benjamin ruthlessly short. Certainly, Mr. Redfern, just step in here. Valency will be down in a minute. He ushered Barney into the parlour and betook him.

Starting point is 07:30:34 to the sitting-room and Mrs. Frederick. Go up and tell Valency to come down. Her husband is here. But so dubious was Uncle Benjamin as to whether Valency could really come down in a minute or at all that he followed Mrs. Frederick on tiptoe up the stairs and listened in the hall.

Starting point is 07:30:57 Valancy, dear, said Mrs. Frederick tenderly. Your husband is in the parlour asking for you. "'Oh, Mother!' Valancy got up from the window and wrung her hands. "'I cannot see him. I cannot. "'Tell him to go away. Ask him to go away. I can't see him.' "'Tell her,' is Uncle Benjamin through the keyhole, "'that Redfern says he won't go away until he has seen her.' "'Ret Fern had not said anything of the kind,

Starting point is 07:31:29 "'but Uncle Benjamin thought he was that sort of a fellow. Valancy knew he was. She understood that she might as well go down first as last. She did not even look at Uncle Benjamin as she passed him on the landing. Uncle Benjamin did not mind, rubbing his hands and chuckling, he retreated to the kitchen, where he genially demanded of Cousinstickels. Why are good husbands like bread? Cozenstickels asked why, because women need them. Beam ancled Benjamin. Valency was looking anything but beautiful when she entered the parlour.

Starting point is 07:32:12 Her white knight had played fearful havoc with her face. She wore an ugly old brown and blue gingham, having left all her pretty dresses in the blue castle. But Barney dashed across the room and caught her in his arms. Valency, darling, darling, little idiot, whatever possessed you to you to. run away like that. When I came home last night and find your letter, I went quite mad. It was twelve o'clock. I knew it was too late to come here then. I walked the floor all night.

Starting point is 07:32:47 Then this morning that came. I couldn't get away till now. Valenci, whatever got into you. Divorce, Forthus, don't you know? I know you only married me out of pity, said Valenci, brushing him away feebly. I know you don't love me. I know. You've been lying awake at three o'clock too long, said Barney, shaking her. That's all that's the matter with you. Love you?

Starting point is 07:33:15 Oh, don't I love you? My girl, when I saw that train coming down on you, I knew whether I loved you or not. Oh, I was afraid you would try to make me think you cared, cried Valency passionately. Don't, don't. I know all about Ethel Traverse. Your father told me everything.

Starting point is 07:33:37 Oh, Barney, don't torture me. I can never go back to you. Barney released her and looked at her for a moment. Something in her pallid, resolute face spoke more convincingly than words of her determination. Valenci, he said quietly. Father couldn't have told you everything because he didn't know it.

Starting point is 07:34:02 Will you let me tell you everything? Yes, said Valancy warily. Oh, how dear he was, how she longed to throw herself into his arms. As he put her gently down in a chair, she could have kissed the slender, brown hands that touched her arms. She could not look up as he stood before her.

Starting point is 07:34:26 She dared not meet his eyes. For his sake, she must be brave. She knew him, kind, and selfish. Of course he would pretend he did not want his freedom. She might have known he would pretend that, once the first shock of realization was over. He was so sorry for her. He understood her terrible position. When had he ever failed to understand? But she would never accept his sacrifice, never. You've seen Dad, and you know I'm Bernard Redfern, and I suppose you've guessed that I'm John Foster

Starting point is 07:35:05 since you went into Bluebeard's chamber. Yes, but I didn't go in out of curiosity. I forgot you had told me not to go in. I forgot. Never mind. I'm not going to kill you and hang you up on the wall, so there's no need to call for Sister Anne. I'm only going to tell you my story from the beginning.

Starting point is 07:35:28 i came back last night intending to do it yes i'm old doc redven's son of purple pills and bitter's fame oh don't i know it wasn't it rubbed into me for years barney laughed bitterly and strode up and down the room a few times uncun benjamin tiptoeing through the hall heard the laugh and frowned surely doss wasn't going to be a stubborn little fool. Barney threw himself into a chair before Valancy. Yes, as long as I can remember, I've been a millionaire's son. But when I was born, Dad wasn't a millionaire. He wasn't even a doctor. Isn't yet. He was a veterinary and a failure at it. He and mother lived in a little village up in Quebec and were abominably poor. I don't remember mother. Haven't even a picture of her.

Starting point is 07:36:30 She died when I was two years old. She was 15 years younger than father, a little school teacher. When she died, Dad moved into Montreal and formed a company to sell his hair tonic. It dreamed the prescription one night, it seems. Well, it caught on. Money began to flow in. Dad invented or dreamed the other things too,

Starting point is 07:36:58 pills, bitters, liniment and so on. He was a millionaire by the time I was ten, with a house so big, a small chap like myself always felt lost in it. I had every toy a boy could wish for, and I was the loneliest little devil in the world. I remember only one happy day in my childhood valency, only one. Even you were better off than that. Dad had gone out to see an old friend in the country

Starting point is 07:37:30 and took me along. I was turned loose in the barnyard and I spent the whole day hammering nails in a block of wood. I had a glorious day. When I had to go back to my room full of playthings in the big house in Montreal, I cried, but I didn't tell Dad why. I never told him anything. It's always been a hard thing for me to tell things, Valancy, anything that went deep. And most things went deep with me. I was a sensitive child, and I was even more sensitive as a boy. No one ever knew what I suffered. Dad never dreamed of it. When he sent me to a private school, I was only eleven. The boys ducked me in the swimming tank until I stood on a table and read aloud all the advertisements of father's patent abominations. I did it then. Barney clenched his feasts.

Starting point is 07:38:31 I was frightened and half drowned and all my world was against me. But when I went to college and the softs tried the same stunt, I didn't do it. Barney smiled grimly. They couldn't make me do it, but they could, and did, make my life miserable. I never heard the last of the pills and the bitters and the hair tonic. After using was my nickname. You see, I'd always such a thick thatch. My four college years were a nightmare. You know, or you don't know what merciless beasts boys can be when they get a victim like me. I had few friends. There was always some barrier between me and the kind of people I cared for, and the other kind, who would have been very willing to be intimate with which old Doc Redfer's son I didn't care for. But I had one friend,

Starting point is 07:39:30 or thought I had, a clever, bookish chap, a bit of a writer. That was a bond between us. I had some secret aspirations along that line. He was older than I was. I looked up to him and worshipped him. For a year, I was happier than I'd ever been. Then, a burlesque sketch came out in the college magazine, a mordant thing, ridiculing Dad's remedies. The names were changed, of course, but everybody knew what and who was meant. Oh, it was clever, damnably so, and witty. McGill rocked with laughter over it. I found that he had to be. He had a little bit of the had written it oh were you sure Valancy's dull eyes flamed with indignation yes he admitted it when I asked him said a good idea was worth more to him than a friend any time and he

Starting point is 07:40:31 added a gratuitous thrust you know Redfern there are some things money won't buy for instance it won't buy you a grandfather well it was a nasty slam I was young enough to feel cut up, and it destroyed a lot of my ideals and illusions, which was the worst thing about it. I was a young misanthropy after that, didn't want to be friends with anyone. And then, the year after I left college, I met Ethel Traverse. Valancy shivered. Barney, his hands stuck in his pockets, was regarding the floor moodily and didn't notice it. Dad, too, told you about her, I suppose. She was very beautiful, and I loved her. Oh, yes, I loved her. I won't deny it or belittle it now. It was a lonely, romantic boy's first passionate love, and it was very real. And I thought she loved me. I was full enough to think that. I was widely happy when she promised to marry me for a few months. Then I found out she didn't. I was an involuntary eavesdropper on certain occasion for a moment.

Starting point is 07:41:50 That moment was enough. The proverbial fate of the eavesdropper overtook me. A girlfriend of hers was asking her how she could stomach Dr. Redfern's son and the patent medicine background. His money will gild the pills and sweeten the bitters, said Heather with a laugh. Mother told me to catch him if I could. We're on the rocks, but, pah, I smell turpentine whenever he comes near me. Oh, Barney, cried Valancy, run with pity for him. She had forgotten all about herself and was filled with compassion for Barney and rage against Ethel Traverse.

Starting point is 07:42:33 How dared she? Well, Barney got up and began pacing round the room. That finished me, completely. I left civilization and those accursed dopes behind me and went to the Yukon. For five years, I knocked about the world in all sorts of outlandish places. I earned enough to live on. I wouldn't touch a cent of that's money. Then, one day, I woke up to the fact that I no longer cared a hang about Ethel,

Starting point is 07:43:07 one way or another. She was somebody I'd known in another world, that was all. But I had no anchoring to go back to the old life. None of that for me. I was free and I meant to keep so. I came to Miss Toys, so Tom McMurray's Island. My first book had been published the year before and made a hit. I had a bit of money from my royalties. I bought my island. But I kept away from people. I had no faith in anybody. I didn't believe there was such a thing as real friendship or true love in the world, not for me anyhow, the son of purple pills. I used to revel in all the wild yarns they told me. In fact, I'm afraid I suggested a few of them myself,

Starting point is 07:44:00 by mysterious remarks which people interpreted in the light of their own prepossessions. Then you came. I had to believe you loved me. really loved me, not my father's millions. There was no other reason where you should want to marry a penniless devil with my supposed record. And I was sorry for you.

Starting point is 07:44:24 Oh, yes, I don't deny I married you because I was sorry for you. And then, I found you the best and jolliest and dearest little pal and chum a fellow ever had. Witty, loyal, sweet. You made me believe again, in the reality of friendship and love.

Starting point is 07:44:45 The world seemed good again, just because you were in it, honey. I'd have been willing to go on forever just as we were. I knew that the night I came home and saw my home light shining out from the island for the first time, and knew you were there waiting for me. After being homeless all my life, it was beautiful to have a home, to come home hungry at night and know there was a good supper, and a cheery fire and you. But I didn't realize what you actually meant to me

Starting point is 07:45:18 till that moment at the switch. Then it came like a lightning flash. I knew I couldn't live without you that if I couldn't pull you lose in time, I'd have to die with you. I admit it bowed me over, knocked me silly. I couldn't get my bearings for a while.

Starting point is 07:45:39 That's why I acted like a mule. but the thoughts that drove me to the tall timber was the awful one that you were going to die. I'd always hated the thought of it, but I suppose there wasn't any change for you, so I put it out of my mind. Now, I had to face it, you were under sentence of death, and I couldn't live without you. When I came home last night, I had made up my mind that I'd take you to all the specialist in the world, that something surely could be done for you. I felt sure you couldn't be as bad as Dr. Trent's thought, when those moments on the track hadn't even hurt you. And I found your

Starting point is 07:46:24 note and went mad with happiness and a little terror for fear you didn't care much for me after all and had gone away to get rid of me. But now it's all right, isn't it, darling? Was she, Valency, being called darling. I can't believe you care for me, she said helplessly. I know you can't. What's the use, Barney? Of course you're sorry for me. Of course you want to do the best you can to straighten out the mess.

Starting point is 07:46:57 But it can't be straightened out that way. You couldn't love me, me. She stood up and pointed tragically to the mirror over the mantle. Certainly, not even Alan Tierney could have seen beauty in this woofoo, haggard little face reflected there. Barney didn't look at the mirror. He looked at Valancy as if he would like to snatch her or beat her. Love you? Girl, you're in the very core of my heart.

Starting point is 07:47:30 I hold you there like a jewel. Didn't I promise you I'd never tell you a lie? Love you! I love you with all there is of me to love. Heart, sore, brain, every fibre of my body and spirit, thrilling to the sweetness of you. There's nobody in the world for me but you, Valency. You're a good actor, Barney, said Valency, with a one little smile. Barney looked at her.

Starting point is 07:48:00 So you don't believe me yet? I can't. Oh, damn, said Barney. violently. Valency looked up, startled. She had never seen this, Barney, scowling, eyes black with anger, sneering lips, dead white face. You don't want to believe it, said Barney in the silk-smooth voice of ultimate rage. You're tired of me. You want to get out of it, free from me. You're ashamed of the pills and a liniment just as she was. Your sterling pride can't stomach them. It was all right as long as you thought you hadn't long to live. A good lark you could put

Starting point is 07:48:45 up with me. But a lifetime with old Doc Redford's son is a different thing. Oh, I understand perfectly. I've been very dense, but I understand at last. Valenci stood up. She stared into his furious face. Then she suddenly laughed. You darling, she said. You do mean it. You do really love me. You wouldn't be so enraged if you didn't. Bonnie stared at her for a moment. Then he caught her in his arms with the little low laugh of the triumphant lover. Uncle Benjamin, who had been frozen with horror at the keyhole, suddenly thawed out and tiptoed back to Mrs. Frederick and

Starting point is 07:49:35 cousin's tickles. Everything is all right, he announced jubilantly. Dear little Doss, he would send for his lawyer right away and alter his will again. Doss should be his soul, Harris. To her that had,

Starting point is 07:49:52 should certainly be given. Mrs. Frederick, returning to her comfortable belief in an overruling providence, got out the family Bible and made an entry under marriages. End of Chapter 42 Chapter 43 of the Blue Castle. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librevox.org. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Starting point is 07:50:31 Chapter 43 But Barney protested Valancy after a few minutes. Your father somehow gave me to understand that you still loved her. He would. Dad holds the championship for making blunders.

Starting point is 07:50:47 There's a thing that's better left unsaid. You can trust him to say it. But he isn't a bad old soul, Valancy. You like him. I do now. And his money isn't tainted money. He made it honestly. his medicines are quite harmless. Even his purple pills do people hold heaps of good when they believe in them.

Starting point is 07:51:08 But I'm not fit for your life, sighed Valancy. I'm not clever or well-educated, or... My life is in Mistawas and all the wild places of the world. I'm not going to ask you to live the life of a society woman. Of course, we must be a bit of the time with Dad. He's lonely and old, But not in this big house of his, pleaded Valancy. I can't live in a palace. Can't come down to that after your blue castle, Grin Barney. Don't worry, sweet. I couldn't live in that house myself. It has a white marble stairway with gilt banisters and looks like a furniture shop with the labels off. Likewise, it's the pride of Dad's heart. We'll get a little house somewhere outside of Montreal, in the real country, near enough to see Dad often. I think we'll build one

Starting point is 07:51:58 for ourselves. A house you build for yourself is so much nicer than a handmade down, but we'll spend our summers in Mistawas and our autumns traveling. I want you to see the Alambra. It's the nearest thing to the blue castle of your dreams I can think of, and there's an old world garden in Italy, where I want to show you the moon rising over Rome through the dark cypress trees. Will that be any lovelier than the moon rising over Mistawas? Not lovelier, but a different kind of loveliness. There are so many kinds of loveliness. Valancy, before this year you've spent all your life in ugliness. You know nothing of the beauty of the world. We'll climb mountains, hunt for treasures in the bazaars of Samarkand.

Starting point is 07:52:45 Search out the magic of east and west, run hand in hand to the rim of the world. I want to show you at all. See it again through your eyes. Girl, there are a million things I want to show you. Do with you. Say to you. We'll take a lifetime, and we must see about that picture by Tierney, after all. Will you promise me one thing? asked Valancy solemnly. Anything, said Barney recklessly. Only one thing. You are never, under any circumstances or under any provocation, to cast it up to me that I asked you to marry me.

Starting point is 07:53:22 End of Chapter 44 of the Blue Castle. This is a Librevox-Rquick. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maude Montgomery. Chapter 44 Extract from letter written by Miss Olive Sterling to Mr. Cecil Bruce. It's really disgusting that Doss's crazy adventures should have turned out like this, makes one feel that there is no use of behaving properly. sure her mind was unbalanced when she left home. What she said about a dust pile showed that.

Starting point is 07:54:11 Of course, I don't think there was ever a thing to matter with her heart. Or perhaps Snaith or Redfern or whatever his name really is fed purple pills to her back in that misduous hut and cured her. It would make quite a testimonial for the family ads, wouldn't it? He's such an insignificant-looking creature. I mentioned this to Doss, but all she said was, I don't like Colorado men. Well, he's certainly no Colorado man. Though I must say there is something rather distinguished about him, now that he has cut his hair and put on decent clothes. I really think, Cecil, you should exercise more. It doesn't do to get too fleshy. He also claims, I believe, to be John Foster. We can believe that or not, as we like, I suppose. Old Doc Redfern has given

Starting point is 07:55:01 them two millions for a wedding present. Evidently the purple pills bring in the bacon. They're going to spend the fall in Italy and the winter in Egypt and motor through Normandy in Apple Blossom time. Not in that dreadful Lizzie, though. Redfern has got a wonderful new car. Well, I think I'll run away too and disgrace myself. It seems to pay. Uncle Ben is a scream. Likewise, Uncle James. The fuss they all makeover Doss now is absolutely sickening to hear Aunt Amelia talking of my son-in-law, Bernard Redford, and my daughter, Mrs. Bernard Redford. Mother and father are as bad as the rest, and they can't see that Valancy is just laughing at them all in her sleeve.

Starting point is 07:55:45 End of Chapter 44. Chapter 45 of the Blue Castle. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit librivox.org The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Chapter 45

Starting point is 07:56:10 Valancy and Barney turned under the mainland pines in the cool dusk of the September night for a farewell look at the blue castle. Mistawas was drowned in sunset lilac light, incredibly delicate and elusive. Nip and Tuck were cawing lazily in the old pines. Good luck and banjo were mewed and mewing in separate baskets, in Barney's new, dark green car, on route to Cousin Georgiana's.

Starting point is 07:56:38 Cousin Georgiana was going to take care of them until Barney and Valancy came back. Aunt Wellington and Cousin Sarah and Aunt Amelia had also entreated the privilege of looking after them, but to cousin Georgiana was it given. Valancy was in tears. Don't cry, Moonlight. We'll be back next summer, and now we're off for a real honeymoon. Valancy smiled through her tears. She was so happy that her happiness terrified her, but despite the delights before her, the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome, lure of the ageless Nile,

Starting point is 07:57:14 glamour of the Riviera, Mosque and Palace and Minaret, she knew perfectly well that no spot or palace or home in the world could ever possess the sorcery of her blue castle. The end. End of Chapter 45 End of the Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery

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