Classic Audiobook Collection - The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton ~ Full Audiobook [drama]

Starting point is 00:00:00 the glimpses of the moon by edith wharton part one chapter one it rose for them their honeymoon over the waters of a lake so famed as the scene of romantic raptures that they were rather proud of not having been afraid to choose it as the setting of their own it required a total lack of humor or as great a gift for it as ours to risk the experiment susie lansing opined as they hung over the inevitable marble balustrade and watched their tutelary orb roll its magic carpet across the waters to their feet yes or the loan of streford's villa her husband amended glancing upwards through the branches at a long low patch of paleness to which the moonlight was beginning to give the form of a white house front oh come when we'd five to choose from at least if you count the chicago flat so we had you wonder he laid his hand on hers and his touch renewed the sense of marvelling exultation which the deliberation which the deliberate survey of their adventure always roused in her. It was characteristic that she merely added, in her steady, laughing tone. Or, not counting the flat, for I hate to brag, just consider the others—violet Melrose's place at Versailles, your aunt's villa at Monte Carlo, and Amour. She was conscious of throwing in the moor tentatively, and yet with a somewhat

Starting point is 00:01:32 exaggerated emphasis, as if to make sure that he shouldn't accuse her of slurring it. over, but he seemed to have no desire to do so. Poor old Fred, he merely remarked, and she breathed out carelessly, Oh, well! His hands still lay on hers, and for a long interval, while they stood silent in the enveloping loveliness of the night, she was aware only of the warm current running from palm to palm, as the moonlight below them drew its line of magic from shore to shore. Nick Lansing spoke at last.

Starting point is 00:02:07 Versailles and May would have been impossible. All our Paris crowd would have run us down within 24 hours. And Monte Carlo is ruled out because it's exactly the kind of place everybody expected us to go. So, with all respect to you, it wasn't much of a mental strain to decide on Como. His wife instantly challenged this belittling of her capacity. It took a good deal of argument to convince you that we could. could face the ridicule of Como. Well, I should have preferred something in a lower key.

Starting point is 00:02:39 At least I thought I should, till we got here. Now I see that this place is idiotic unless one is perfectly happy, and that then it's as good as any other." She sighed out a blissful assent. And I must say that Streffy has done things to a turn. Even the cigars! Who do you suppose gave him those cigars? She added thoughtfully,

Starting point is 00:03:00 You'll miss them when we have to go. Oh, I say, don't let's talk tonight about going. Aren't we outside of time and space? Smell that guinea-bottle stuff over there. What is it? Stephanotus. Yes, I suppose so. Or gardenias? Oh, the fire flies. Look, there, against that splash of moonlight on the water. Apples of silver and a network of gold. They leaned together, one flesh from shoulder to fingertips, their eyes held by the snared glitter of the ripples. I could bear, Lansing remarked, even a nightingale at this moment. A faint gurgle shook the Magnolius behind them,

Starting point is 00:03:45 and a long liquid whisper answered it from the thicket of laurel above their heads. It's a little late in the year for them, their ending just as we begin. Susie laughed. I hope when our turn comes we shall say good-bye to each other as sweetly. It was in her husband's mind to answer. They're not saying goodbye, but only settling down to family cares. But as this did not happen to be in his plan, or in Susie's, he merely echoed her laugh, and pressed her closer.

Starting point is 00:04:15 The spring night drew them into its deepening embrace. The ripples of the lake had gradually widened and faded into a silken smoothness, and high above the mountains the moon was turning from gold to white, in a sky powdered with vanishing stars. Across the lake the lights of a little town went out, one after another, and the distant shore became a floating blackness. A breeze that rose and sank brushed their faces with the sense of the garden. Once it blew out over the water a great white moth, like a drifting magnolia petal. The nightingales had paused, and the trickle of the fountain behind the house grew suddenly insistent. When Susie spoke, it was in a voice languid with visions.

Starting point is 00:04:59 I've been thinking, she said, that we ought to be able to make it last at least a year longer." Her husband received the remark without any sign of surprise or disapprobation. His answer showed that he not only understood her, but had been inwardly following the same train of thought. "'You mean?' he inquired after a pause, without counting your grandmother's pearls. Yes, without the pearls. He pondered a while, and then received. joined in a tender whisper, "'Tell me again just how.'

Starting point is 00:05:33 "'Let's sit down, then. No, I like the cushions best.' He stretched himself in a long willow chair, and she curled up on a heap of boat cushions, and leaned her head against his knee. Just above her, when she lifted her lids, she saw bits of moon-flooded sky encrusted like silver in a sharp black patterning of plain boughs. All about them breathed of peace and beauty and stability, and her happiness was so acute that it was almost a relief to remember the stormy background of bills and borrowing against which its frail structure had been reared people with a balance can't be as happy as all this susy mused letting the moonlight filter through her lazy lashes

Starting point is 00:06:17 people with a balance had always been susy branches bugbear they were still and more dangerously to be susy lancings she detested them detested them doubly, as the natural enemies of mankind, and as the people one always had to put oneself out for. The greater part of her life, having been passed among them, she knew nearly all that there was to know about them, and judged them with the contemptuous lucidity of nearly twenty years of dependence. But at the present moment her animosity was diminished, not only by the softening effect of love, but by the fact that she had got out of those very people more, yes, ever so

Starting point is 00:06:58 much more, than she and Nick, in their hours of most reckless planning, had ever dared to hope for. After all, we owe them this, she mused. Her husband, lost in the drowsy beatitude of the hour, had not repeated his question, but she was still on the trail of the thought that he had started. A year. Yes. She was sure now that with a little management they could have a whole year of it.

Starting point is 00:07:24 It was their marriage, their being together, and a way—and a way—and a way—and a from boars and bothers, in a comradeship of which both of them had long ago guessed the immediate pleasure, but she at least had never imagined the deeper harmony. It was at one of their earliest meetings, at one of the heterogeneous dinners that the Fred Gillows tried to think literary, that the young man who chanced to sit next to her, and of whom it was vaguely rumoured that he had written, had presented himself to her imagination as the sort of luxury, to which Susie Branch, Eress, might conceivably have treated her own herself as a crowning folly. Susie Branch, Popper, was fond of picturing how this fancy double

Starting point is 00:08:04 would employ her millions. It was one of her chief grievances against her rich friends that they disposed of theirs so unimaginatively. I'd rather have a husband like that than a steam-yacht, she had thought at the end of her talk with the young man who had written, and as to whom it had at once been clear to her that nothing his pen had produced or might hereafter set down, would put him in a position to offer his wife anything more costly than a rowboat. His wife, as if he could ever have one, for he's not the kind to marry for a yacht either. In spite of her past, Susie had preserved enough inner independence to detect the latent signs of it in others, and also to ascribe it impulsively to those of the opposite sex who happened to interest

Starting point is 00:08:48 her. She had a natural contempt for people who gloried in what they need only have endured. She herself meant eventually to marry, because one. couldn't forever hang on to rich people, but she was going to wait till she found someone, who combined the maximum of wealth, with at least a minimum of companionableness. She had at once perceived young Lansing's case to be exactly the opposite. He was as poor as could be, and as companionable as it was possible to imagine. She therefore decided to see as much of him as her hurried and entangled life permitted. And this, thanks to a series of adroit adjustments, turned out to be a good deal. They met frequently all the rest of that

Starting point is 00:09:27 that winter, so frequently that Mrs. Fred Gillow one day abruptly and sharply gave Susie to understand that she was making herself ridiculous. "'Ah,' said Susie, with a long breath, looking her friend and patroness straight in the painted eyes. "'Yes,' cried Ursula Gillow in a sob, "'before you interfered, Nick liked me awfully. And of course I don't want to reproach you, but when I think—' Susie made no answer. How could she when she thought? The dress she had on been given her by Ursula. Ursula's motor had carried her to the feast from which they were both returning.

Starting point is 00:10:04 She counted on spending the following August with the gillows at Newport, and the only alternative was to go to California with the Bachimers, whom she had hitherto refused even to dine with. Of course, what you fancy is perfect nonsense, Ursula, and as to my interfering, Susie hesitated, and then murmured. But if it will make you an happier I'll arrange to see him less often?' She sounded the lowest depths of subservience in returning Ursula's tearful kiss. Susie Branch had a masculine respect for her word, and the next day she put on her most becoming hat and sought out young Mr. Lansing in his lodgings. She was determined to keep her promise to Ursula, but she meant to look her best when she did it.

Starting point is 00:10:48 She knew at what time the young man was likely to be found, for he was doing a dreary job on a popular encyclopedia. V to X, and had told her what hours were dedicated to the hateful task. Oh, if only it were a novel, she thought, as she mounted his dingy stairs, but immediately reflected that, if it were the kind that she could bear to read, it probably wouldn't bring him in much more than his encyclopedia. Miss Branch had her standards in literature. The apartment to which Mr. Lansing admitted her was a good deal cleaner, but hardly less dingy than his staircase. Susie, knowing him to be addicted to oriental archaeology, had pictured him in a bare room adorned by a single Chinese bronze of flawless shape,

Starting point is 00:11:30 or by some precious fragment of Asiatic pottery. But such redeeming features were conspicuously absent, and no attempt had been made to disguise the decent indigence of the bed-sitting-room. Lansing welcomed his visitor with every sign of pleasure, and with apparent indifference as to what she thought of his furniture. He seemed to be conscious only of his luck in seeing her on a day when they had not expected to meet. This made Susie all the sorrier to execute her promise, and the gladder that she'd put on her prettiest hat, and for a moment or two she looked at him in silence from under its conniving brim. Warm as their mutual liking was, Lansing had never said a word of love to her, but this was no deterrent to his visitor, whose habit it was to speak her meaning clearly when there were no reasons, worldly or pecuniary, for its concealment.

Starting point is 00:12:18 After a moment, therefore, she told him why she had come. It was a nuisance, of course, but he would understand. Ursula Gillow was jealous, and they would have to give up seeing each other. The young man's burst of laughter was music to her, for after all she'd been rather afraid that being devoted to Ursula might be as much in his day's work as doing the encyclopedia. But I give you my word, it's a raving mad mistake, and I don't believe she ever meant me to begin with, he protested.

Starting point is 00:12:46 But Susie, her common sense, returning with her reassurance, promptly cut short his denial. You can trust Ursula to make herself clear on such occasions, and it doesn't make any difference what you think. All that matters is what she believes. Oh, come, I've got a word to say about that, too, haven't I? Susie looked slowly and consideringly about the room. There was nothing in it, absolutely nothing, to show that he'd ever possessed a spare dollar, or accepted a present. Not as far as I'm concerned, she finally pronounced. How do you mean? If I'm as free as air." "'I'm not,' he grew thoughtful.

Starting point is 00:13:26 "'Oh, then, of course. It only seems a little odd,' he added dryly, "'that in that case the protest should have come from Mrs. Gillow.' "'Instead of coming from my millionaire bridegroom? Oh, I haven't any. In that respect, I'm as free as you.' "'Well, then? Haven't we only got to stay free?' Susie drew her brows together anxiously. It was going to be rather more difficult than she had supposed. I said I was as free in that respect. I'm not going to marry, and I don't suppose you are. God, no, he ejaculated fervently.

Starting point is 00:14:03 But that doesn't always imply complete freedom. He stood just above her, leaning his elbow against the hideous black marble arch that framed his fireless grate. As she glanced up she saw his face harden, and the colour flew to hers. Was that what you came to tell me? he asked. Oh, you don't understand, and I don't see why you don't, since we've knocked about so long among exactly the same kind of people. She stood up impulsively and laid her hand on his arm. I do wish you'd help me. He remained motionless, letting the hand lie untouched.

Starting point is 00:14:38 Help you to tell me that poor Ursula was a pretext, but that there is someone who, for one reason or another, really has a right to object to your seeing me too often. "'Susie laughed impatiently. "'You talk like the hero of a novel, the kind my governess used to read. "'In the first place I should never recognize that kind of write, as you call it. "'Never.' "'Then what kind do you?' he asked, with a clearing brow. "'Why, the kind I suppose you recognize on the part of your publisher.'

Starting point is 00:15:09 This evoked a hollow laugh from him. "'A business claim, call it,' she pursued. "'Eursula does a lot for me. I live on her for half the year. This dress I've got on now is one she gave me. Her motor is going to take me to a dinner to-night. I'm going to spend next summer with her at Newport. If I don't, I've got to go to California with the Bachimers. So good-bye. Suddenly in tears she was out of the door and down his steep three flights before he could stop her, though in thinking it over she didn't even remember if he had tried to. She only recalled having stood a long time on the

Starting point is 00:15:43 corner of Fifth Avenue, in the harsh winter radiance, waiting to till the break in the torrent of motors laden with fashionable women should let her cross, and saying to herself, after all, I might have promised Ursula, and kept on seeing him. Instead of which, when Lansing wrote the next day in treating a word with her, she had sent back a friendly but firm refusal, and had managed soon afterward to get taken to Canada for a fortnight skiing, and then to Florida for six weeks in a houseboat. As she reached this point in her retrospect, the remembrance of Florida called up a vision of moonlit waters, magnolia fragrance and balmy airs. Merging with the circumambient sweetness,

Starting point is 00:16:23 it laid a drowsy spell upon her lids. Yes, there had been a bad moment, but it was over, and she was here, safe and blissful, and with Nick. And this was his knee her head rested on, and they had a year ahead of them, a whole year. Not counting the pearls, she murmured, shutting her eyes. End of Chapter 1 Part 1, Chapter 2 Of The Glimpses of the Moon This Libervox recording is in the public domain

Starting point is 00:17:04 Recording by Elizabeth Clette The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton Part 1, Chapter 2 Lansing through the end of Strefford's expensive cigar into the lake and bent over his wife Poor child. She had fallen asleep. He leaned back and stared up again at the silver-flooded sky. How queer! How inexpressibly queer! It was to think that that light was shed by his honeymoon. A year ago, if anyone had predicted his risking such an adventure, he would have replied by asking to be locked up at the first symptoms.

Starting point is 00:17:44 There was still no doubt in his mind that the adventure was a mad one. It was all very well for Susie to remind him, twenty times a day that they had pulled it off, and so why should he worry? Even in the light of her far-seeing cleverness, and of his own present bliss, he knew the future would not bear the examination of sober thought, and as he sat there in the summer moonlight, with her head on his knee, he tried to recapitulate the successive steps that had landed them on Streffey's lake-front. On Lansing's side, no doubt, it dated back to his leaving Harvard, with the large resolve not to miss anything. There stood the evergreen tree of life, the four rivers flowing from its foot, and on every one of the four currents he meant to launch his little skiff. On two of them

Starting point is 00:18:31 he had not gone very far. On the third he had nearly stuck in the mud, but the fourth had carried him to the very heart of wonder. It was the stream of his lively imagination, of his inexhaustible interest in every form of beauty and strangeness and folly. On this stream, sitting in the stout little craft of his poverty, his insignificance and his independence, he had made some notable voyages. And so, when Susie Branch, whom he had sought out through New York's season as the prettiest and most amusing girl in sight, had surprised him with the contradictory revelation of her modern sense of expediency, and her old-fashioned standard of good faith, he had felt an irresistible desire to put off on one more cruise into the unknown. It was of the

Starting point is 00:19:19 essence of the adventure, that after her one brief visit to his lodgings, he should have kept his promise, and not tried to see her again. Even if her straightforwardness had not roused his emulation, his understanding of her difficulties would have moved his pity. He knew on how frail a thread the popularity of the penniless hangs, and how miserably a girl like Susie was the sport of other people's moods and whims. It was a part of his difficulty, and of hers, that to get what they liked they had so often had to do, what they disliked. But the keeping of his promise was a greater bore than he had expected. Susie Branch had become a delightful habit, in a life where most of the fixed things were

Starting point is 00:19:59 dull, and her disappearance had made it suddenly clear to him, that his resources were going more and more limited. Much that had once amused him hugely, now amused him less, or not at all. A good part of his world of wonder had shrunk to a village peep-show. And the things which had kept their stimulating power, distant journeys, the enjoyment of art, the contact with new scenes and strange societies, were becoming less and less attainable. Lansing had never had more than a pittance. He had spent rather too much of it in his first plunge into life, and the best he could look forward to was a middle-age of poorly paid hackwork, mitigated by brief and frugal holidays. He knew that he was more intelligent than the average,

Starting point is 00:20:42 but he had long since concluded that his talents were not marketable. Of the thin volume of sonnets which a friendly publisher had launched for him, just seventy copies had been sold. And though his essay on Chinese influences in Greek art had created a passing stir, it had resulted in controversial correspondence and dinner invitations rather than in more substantial benefits. There seemed, in short, no prospect of his ever earning money, and his restricted future made him attach an increasing value to the kind of friendship that Susie Branch had given him. Apart from the pleasure of looking at her and listening to her, of enjoying in her what others less discriminatingly but as liberally appreciated, he had the sense, between himself and her, of a kind of freemasonry of precocious tolerance and irony. They had both, in early youth, taken the measure of the world they happened to live in. They knew just what it was worth to them, and for what reasons, and the community of these reasons lent to their intimacy its last exquisite touch. And now, because of some jealous whim of

Starting point is 00:21:48 a dissatisfied fool of a woman, as to whom he felt himself no more to blame than any young man who was paid for good dinners by good manners, he was to be deprived of the one complete companionship he had ever known. His thoughts travelled on. He recalled the long, dull spring in New York after his break with Susie, the weary grind on his last articles, his listless speculations as to the cheapest and least boring way of disposing of the summer, and then, the amazing luck of going, reluctantly and at the last minute, to spend a Sunday with the poor Nat Fulmers in the wilds of New Hampshire, and of finding Susie there. Susie, whom he had never even suspected of knowing anybody in the Fulmer's set.

Starting point is 00:22:30 She had behaved perfectly, and so had he, but they were obviously much too glad to see each other, and then it was unsettling to be with her in such a house as the Fulmers, away from the large setting of luxury they were both used to. In the cramped cottage where their host had his studio in the veranda, their hostess practised her violin in the dining-room, and five ubiquitous children sprawled and shouted, and blew trumpets, and put tadpoles in the water-jugs, and the midday dinner was two hours late—and proportionately bad, because the Italian cook was posing for Fulmer. Lansing's first thought had been that meeting Susie in such circumstances would be the quickest way to cure them both of their regrets. The case of the Fulmers was an awful

Starting point is 00:23:12 object lesson in what happened to young people who lost their heads. Poor Nat, whose pictures nobody bought, had gone to seed so terribly, and Grace, at twenty-nine, would never again be anything but the woman of whom people say, I can remember her when she was lovely. But the devil of it was that Nat had never been such good company, or Grace so free from care and so full of music, and that, in spite of their disorder and dishevelment, and the bad food and general crazy discomfort, there was more amusement to be got out of their society, than out of the most opulently staged house-party, through which Susie in Lansing had ever yawned their way.

Starting point is 00:23:52 It was almost a relief to the young man, when, on the second afternoon, Miss Branch drew him into the narrow hall to say, I really can't stand the combination of Grace's violin and little Nat's motor-horn any longer. Do let us slip out till the duet is over.' "'How do they stand it, I wonder?' he basely echoed, as he followed her up the wooded path behind the house. "'It might be worth finding out,' she rejoined with a musing smile. But he remained resolutely skeptical.

Starting point is 00:24:22 "'Oh, give them a year or two more, and they'll collapse. His pictures will never sell, you know. He'll never even get them into a show.' "'I suppose not, and she'll never have time to do anything worthwhile with her music.' They had reached a piney knoll high above the ledge on which the house was perched, all about them stretched an empty landscape of endless featureless wooded hills. "'Think of sticking here all the year round,' Lansing groaned. "'I know.

Starting point is 00:24:49 But then think of wandering over the world with some people. Oh, Lord, yes. For instance, my trip to India with the Mortimer Hickses, but it was my only chance, and what the deuce is one to do. I wish I knew, she sighed, thinking of the Bokheimers, and he turned and looked at her. Knew what? The answer to your question. What is one to do, when one sees both sides of the problem?

Starting point is 00:25:16 Or every possible side of it, indeed? They had seated themselves on a commanding rock under the pines, but Lansing could not see the view at their feet, for the stir of the brown lashes on her cheek. You mean, Nat and Grace may, after all, be having the best of it." "'How can I say, when I've told you I see all the sides? Of course,' Susie added hastily. I couldn't live as they do for a week, but it's wonderful how little it's dimmed them."

Starting point is 00:25:45 Certainly Nat was never more coruscating, and she keeps it up even better," he reflected. We do them good, I dare say. "'Yes. Or they us? I wonder which.' After that he seemed to remember that they sat a long time silent. and that his next utterance was a boyish outburst against the tyranny of the existing order of things, abruptly followed by the passionate query why, since he and she couldn't alter it,

Starting point is 00:26:13 and since they both had the habit of looking at facts as they were, they wouldn't be utter fools not to take their chance of being happy in the only way that was open to them. To this challenge he did not recall Susie's making any definite answer, but after another interval, in which all the world seemed framed in a sudden kiss, he heard her murmur to herself in a brooding tone. I don't suppose it's ever been tried before, but we might." And then and there she had laid before him the very experiment they had since hazarded. She would have none of surreptitious bliss, she began by declaring, and she set forth her reasons

Starting point is 00:26:47 with her usual lucid impartiality. In the first place, she should have to marry some day, and when she made the bargain she meant it to be an honest one. And secondly, in the matter of love, she would never give herself to any one she did not really care for. And if such happiness ever came to her, she did not want it shorn of half its brightness, by the need of fibbing and plotting and dodging. I've seen too much of that kind of thing. Half the women I know who have had lovers have had them for the fun of sneaking and lying about it. But the other half have been

Starting point is 00:27:18 miserable, and I should be miserable. It was at this point that she unfolded her plan. Why shouldn't they marry, belong to each other openly and honorably, if forever so short a time, and with the definite understanding that whenever either of them got the chance to do better, he or she should be immediately released. The law of their country facilitated such exchanges, and society was beginning to view them as indulgently as the law. As Susie talked, she warmed to her theme, and began to develop its endless possibilities. We should really, in a way, help more than we should hamper each other," she ardently explained.

Starting point is 00:27:54 We both know the ropes so well. What one of us didn't see the other might—in the way of opportunities, I mean. And then we should be in novelty as married people. We're both rather unusually popular—why not to be frank—and it's such a blessing for dinner-givers to be able to count on a couple of whom neither one is a blank. Yes, I really believe we should be more than twice the success we are now. At least," she added with a smile, if there is that amount of room for improvement—I don't know how you feel. A man's popularity is so much less precarious than a girl's—but I

Starting point is 00:28:27 know it would furbish me up tremendously to reappear as a man's. married woman. She glanced away from him down the long valley at their feet, and added in a lower tone, and I should like, just for a little while, to feel I had something in life of my very own—something that nobody had lent me, like a fancy dress, or a motor, or an opera-cloak. The suggestion at first had seemed to Lansing as mad as it was enchanting. It had thoroughly frightened him. But Susie's arguments were irrefutable, her ingenuities inexhaustible.

Starting point is 00:28:59 Had he ever thought it all out?" she asked. No. Well, she had. And would he kindly not interrupt? In the first place there would be all the wedding presents—jules, and a motor, and a silver dinner-service did she mean? Not a bit of it. She could see he'd never really given the question proper thought.

Starting point is 00:29:17 "'Chicks, my dear, nothing but checks! She undertook to manage that on her side. She really thought she could count on about fifty, and she supposed he could rake up a few more. Well, all that would simply represent to pocket-money, for they would have plenty of houses to live in—he'd see—people were always glad to lend their house to a newly-married couple. It was such fun to pop down and see them. It made one feel romantic and jolly. All they need do was to accept the houses in turn—go on honeymooning for a year. What was he afraid of? Didn't he think they'd be happy enough to want to keep it up? And why not at least

Starting point is 00:29:53 try, get engaged, and then see what would happen? Even if she was all wrong in her her plan failed, wouldn't it have been rather nice, just for a month or two, to fancy that they were going to be happy?" "'I've often fancied it all by myself,' she concluded. But fancying it with you would somehow be so awfully different." That was how it began. And this lakeside dream was what it had led up to. Fantastically improbable as they had seemed, all her provisions had come true.

Starting point is 00:30:22 If there were certain links in the chain that Lansing had never been able to put his hand on— certain arrangements and contrivances that still needed further elucidation, why he was lazily resolved to clear them up with her some day, and meanwhile it was worth all the past might have cost, and every penalty the future might exact of him, just to be sitting here in the silence and sweetness, her sleeping head on his knee, clasped in his joy as the hushed world was clasped in moonlight. He stooped down and kissed her. Wake up, he whispered. It's bedtime.

Starting point is 00:30:54 End of Chapter 2 Part 1, Chapter 3 Of The Glimpses of the Moon This Librevox recording is in the public domain Recording by Elizabeth Clette The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton Part 1, Chapter 3 Their month of Como was within a few hours of ending,

Starting point is 00:31:27 till the last moment they had hoped for a reprieve, but the accommodating struffy had been unable to put the villa at their disposal for a longer time, since he had had the luck to let it for a thumping price to some beastly bouncers, who insisted on taking possession at the date agreed on. Lansing, leaving Susie's side at dawn, had gone down to the lake for a last plunge, and swimming homeward through the crystal light, he looked up at the garden brimming with flowers, the long, low house with the cypress wood above it, and the window behind which his wife still slept. The month had been exquisite, and their happiness as rare, as fantastically complete as the scene before him.

Starting point is 00:32:09 He sank his chin into the sunlit ripples, and sighed for sheer content. It was a bore to be leaving the scene of such complete well-being, but the next stage in their progress promised to be hardly less delightful. Susie was a magician. Everything she predicted came true. Houses were being showered on them. On all sides he seemed to see beneficent spirits winging toward them, laden with everything from a piano nobile in venice to a camp in the adirondacks for the present they had decided on the former other considerations apart they dared not risk the expense of a journey across the atlantic

Starting point is 00:32:48 so they were heading instead for the nelson van der linders palace on the judeca they were agreed that for reasons of expediency it might be wise to return to new york for the coming winter it would keep them in view and probably lead to fresh opportunities Indeed, Susie already had in mind the convenient flat that she was sure a migratory cousin, if tactfully handled, and assured that they would not overwork her cook, could certainly be induced to lend them. Meanwhile, the need of making plans was still remote, and if there was one art in which young Lansing's twenty-eight years of existence had perfected him, it was that of living completely and unconcernedly in the present. If of late he had tried to look into the future more insistently than was his habit,

Starting point is 00:33:33 it was only because of Susie. He had meant, when they married, to be as philosophic for her as for himself, and he knew she would have resented above everything his regarding their partnership as a reason for anxious thought. But since they had been together she had given him glimpses of her past, that made him angrily long to shelter and defend her future. It was intolerable that a spirit as fine as hers should be ever so little dulled or diminished by the kind of compromises out of which their wretched lives were made. For himself he didn't care a hang. He had composed, for his own guidance, a rough and ready code, a short set of maize and mustn'ts, which immensely simplified his course. There were things a fellow put up with for the sake of

Starting point is 00:34:16 certain definite and otherwise unattainable advantages. There were other things he wouldn't traffic with at any price. But for a woman, he began to see, it might be different. The temptations might be greater, the cost considerably higher, the dividing line between the maze and mussels, more fluctuating, and less sharply drawn. Susie, thrown on the world at seventeen, with only a weak wasteal of a father to define that treacherous line for her, and with every circumstance soliciting her to overstep it, seemed to have been preserved chiefly by an innate scorn of most of the objects of human folly. Such trash as he went to pieces for, was her curt comment on her parents' premature demise, as though she accepted in advance the necessity of ruining

Starting point is 00:35:03 oneself for something, but was resolved to discriminate firmly between what was worth it, and what wasn't. This philosophy had at first enchanted, Lansing, but now it began to rouse vague fears. The fine armour of her fastidiousness had preserved her from the kind of risks she had hitherto been exposed to. But what if others, more subtle, found a joint in it? there, among her delicate discriminations, any equivalent to his own rules. Might not her taste for the best, and rarest be the very instrument of her undoing, and if something that wasn't

Starting point is 00:35:37 trash came her way, would she hesitate a second to go to pieces for it? He was determined to stick to the compact that they should do nothing to interfere with what each referred to as the others' chance. But what if, when hers came, he couldn't agree with her in recognizing it? He wanted for her, oh, so— passionately the best. But his conception of that best had so insensibly, so subtly been transformed in the light of their first month together. His lazy strokes were carrying him slowly shoreward, but the hour was so exquisite that a few yards from the landing he laid hold of the mooring-rope of Stuffy's boat, and floated there, following his dream.

Starting point is 00:36:18 It was a bore to be leaving. No doubt that was what made him turn things inside out so uselessly. Venice would be delicious, of course, but nothing would ever again be as sweet as this. And then they had only a year of security before them, and of that year a month was gone. Reluctantly he swam ashore, walked up to the house, and pushed open a window of the cool, painted drawing-room. Signs of departure were already visible. There were trunks in the hall, tennis rackets on the stairs. On the landing the cook Julieta had both arms around a slippery hold-all, that refused to let itself be trapped. It all gave him a chill sense of unreality, as if the past month had been an act on the stage, and its setting were being folded away and

Starting point is 00:37:04 rolled into the wings to make room for another play, in which he and Susie had no part. By the time he came down again, dressed and hungry, to the terrace where coffee awaited him, he had recovered his usual pleasant sense of security. Susie was there, fresh and gay, arose in her breast and the sun in her hair. Her head was, bowed over Bradshaw, but she waved a fond hand across the breakfast things, and presently looked up to say, "'Yes, I believe we can just manage it.' "'Manage what?' "'To catch the train at Milan, if we start in the motor at Ten Sharp.'

Starting point is 00:37:38 He stared. "'The motor? What motor?' "'Why, the new people's, Streffey's tenants. He's never told me their name, and the chauffeur says he can't pronounce it. The chauffeur's is Ottaviano, anyhow. I've been making friends with him. He arrived last night, and he says they're not to do at Como till this evening. He simply jumped at the idea of running us over to Milan."

Starting point is 00:38:01 "'Good Lord,' said Lansing, when she stopped. She sprang up from the table with a laugh. "'It will be a scramble, but I'll manage it if you'll go up at once and pitch the last things into your trunk.' "'Yes, but look here. Have you any idea what it's going to cost?' She raised her eyebrows gaily. Why, a good deal less than our railway tickets? Ataviano's got a sweetheart in Milan, and hasn't seen her for six months. When I found that out, I knew he'd be going there anyhow.

Starting point is 00:38:30 It was clever of her, and he laughed. But why was it that he had grown to shrink from even such harmless evidence of her always knowing how to manage? Oh, well, he said to himself, she's right, the fellow would be sure to be going to Milan. Upstairs, on his way to his dressing-room, he found, her in a cloud of finery which her skillful hands were forcibly compressing into a last portmanteau. He had never seen any one pack as cleverly as Susie. The way she coaxed reluctant things into a trunk was a symbol of the way she fitted discordant facts into her life.

Starting point is 00:39:04 When I'm rich, she often said, the thing I shall hate most will be to see an idiot made at my trunks. As he passed, she glanced over her shoulder, her face pink with the struggle, and drew a cigar-box from the depths. dearest, do put a couple of cigars into your pocket as a tip for Ottaviano." Lansing stared. "'Why, what on earth are you doing with Struffy's cigars?' "'Packing them, of course. You don't suppose he meant them for those other people?'

Starting point is 00:39:32 She gave him a look of honest wonder. "'I don't know whom he meant them for, but they're not ours.' She continued to look at him wonderingly. "'I don't see what there is to be solemn about. The cigars are not Streffes, either. You may be sure he got them out of some bounder, and there's nothing he'd hate more than to have them passed on to another. Nonsense.

Starting point is 00:39:54 If they're not streffies, they're much less mine. Hand them over, please, dear." Just as you like, but it does seem a waste, and, of course, the other people will never have one of them. The gardener and Julieta's lover will see to that. Lansing looked away from her at the waves of lace and muslin, from which she emerged like a rosy near it. How many boxes of them are left?"

Starting point is 00:40:18 Only four? Unpack them, please." Before she moved there was a pause so full of challenge, that Lansing had time for an exasperated sense of the disproportion between his anger and its cause, and this made him still angrier. She held out a box. The others are in your suitcase downstairs. It's locked and strapped. Give me the key, then.

Starting point is 00:40:41 We might send them back from Venice, mightn't we? That lock is so nasty. will take you half an hour." Give me the key, please," she gave it." He went downstairs, and battled with the lock, for the allotted half-hour, under the puzzled eyes of Julieta and the sardonic grin of the chauffeur, who now and then, from the threshold, politely reminded him how long it would take to get to Milan. Finally the key turned, and Lansing, broken, nailed, and perspiring, extracted the

Starting point is 00:41:09 cigars and stalked with them into the deserted drawing-room. The great bunches of golden roses that he and Susie had gathered the day before were dropping their petals on the marble embroidery of the floor. Pale camellias floated in the alabaster tazas between the windows. Haunting scents of the garden blew in on him with the breeze from the lake. Never had Streffy's little house seemed so like a nest of pleasures. Lansing laid the cigar-boxes on a console, and ran upstairs to collect his last possessions. When he came down again—his wife, Her eyes, brilliant with achievement, was seated in their borrowed chariot, the luggage cleverly stowed away, and Julieta and the gardener kissing her hand and weeping out inconsolable farewells. I wonder what she's given them, he thought, as he jumped in beside her, and the motor whirled them through the nightingale thickets to the gate.

Starting point is 00:42:02 End of Chapter 3. Part 1. Chapter 4 of The Glimpses of the Moon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. by Elizabeth Clette. The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton, Part 1, Chapter 4. Charlie Strefford's villa was like a nest in a rosebush. The Nelson Vanderlin's palace called for loftier analogies. Its vastness and splendor seemed, in comparison, oppressive to Susie.

Starting point is 00:42:45 Their landing, after dark, at the foot of the great shadowy staircase, their dinner at a dimly-lit table under a ceiling wade down with Olympians, their chilly evening in a corner of a drawing-room, where minuets should have been danced before thrown, contrasted with the happy intimacies of Como, as their sudden sense of discord contrasted with the mutual confidence of the day before. The journey had been particularly jolly. Both Susie and Lansing had had too long a discipline in the art of smoothing things over, not to make a special effort to hide from each other the ravages of their first disagreement. But, deep down and invisible, the disagreement remained,

Starting point is 00:43:28 and compunction for having been its cause, gnawed at Susie's bosom as she sat in her tabby street and vaulted bedroom, brushing her hair before a tarnished mirror. "'I thought I liked, grandeur, but this place is really out of scale,' she mused, watching the reflection of a pale hand move back and forward in the dim recesses of the mirror. And yet, she continued, Ellie Vanderlin's hardly half an inch taller than I am, and she certainly isn't a bit more dignified. I wonder if it's because I feel so horribly small to-night that the place seems so horribly big. She loved luxury. Splendid things always made her feel handsome and high ceilings arrogant. She did not remember having ever before been oppressed by the evidences of wealth. She laid down the brush and leaned her chin on her clasped hands. She did not remember having ever before been oppressed by the evidence of wealth. She laid down the brush and leaned her chin on her clasped hands. Even now she could not understand what had made her take the cigars. She had always been alive to the value of her inherited scruples. Her reasoned opinions were unusually free,

Starting point is 00:44:29 but with regard to the things one couldn't reason about, she was oddly tenacious. And yet she had taken Streffy cigars. She had taken them! Yes, that was the point. She had taken them for Nick, because the desire to please him, to make the smallest details of his life easy and agreeable

Starting point is 00:44:48 and luxurious, had become her absorbing preoccupation. She had committed, for him, precisely the kind of little baseness she would have most scorn to commit for herself, and since he hadn't instantly felt the difference, she would never be able to explain it to him. She stood up with a sigh, shook out her lucent hair, and glanced around the great frescoed room. The maidservant had said something about the signora's having left a letter for her, and there it lay on the writing-table, with her mail and nil. a thick envelope addressed in Ellie's childish scrawl, with a glaring, private, dashed across the corner.

Starting point is 00:45:26 "'What on earth can she have to say when she hates writing so?' Susie mused. She broke open the envelope, and four or five stamped and sealed letters fell from it. All were addressed in Ellie's hand to Nelson van der Leyen, Esquire, and in the corner of each was faintly penciled a number and a date. one, two, three, four, with a week's interval between the dates. Goodness! gasped Susie, understanding. She had dropped into an armchair near the table, and for a long time she sat staring at the numbered letters.

Starting point is 00:46:03 A sheet of paper covered with Ellie's writing had fluttered out among them, but she let it lie. She knew so well what it would say. She knew all about her friend, of course, except poor old Nelson. Who didn't? But she had never imagined that Ellie would dare to use her in this way. It was unbelievable. She had never pictured anything so vile. The blood rushed to her face, and she sprang up angrily, half-minded to tear the letters and bits, and throw them all into the fire. She heard her husband's knock on the door between their rooms, and swept the dangerous packet under the blotting-book. "'Oh, go away, please, there's a dear,' she called out.

Starting point is 00:46:45 I haven't finished unpacking, and everything's in such a mess.' Gathering up Nick's papers and letters, she ran across the room and thrust them through the door. "'Here's something to keep you quiet,' she laughed, shining in on him an instant from the threshold. She turned back, feeling weak with shame. Ellie's letter lay on the floor. Reluctantly she stooped to pick it up, and one by one the expected phrases sprang out at her. One good turn deserves another. Of course you and Nick are welcome to stay all summer.

Starting point is 00:47:16 There won't be a particle of expense for you. The servants have orders. If you'll just be an angel and post these letters yourself, it's been my only chance for such an age. When we meet I'll explain everything. And in a month at latest I'll be back to fetch Clarissa. Susie lifted the letter to the lamp to be sure she had read right. To fetch Clarissa.

Starting point is 00:47:36 Then Ellie's child was here. Here, under the roof with them, left to their care. She read on, raging. She's so delighted, poor darling, to know your coming. I've had to sack her beastly governess for impertinence, and if it weren't for you she'd be all alone with a lot of servants I don't much trust. So for pity's sake, be good to my child, and forgive me for leaving her. She thinks I've gone to take a cure, and she knows she's not to tell her daddy that I'm away, because it would only worry him if he thought I was ill.

Starting point is 00:48:05 She's perfectly to be trusted. You'll see what a clever angel she is. And then, at the bottom of her time. of the page, in a last slanting post-script. "'Susie, darling, if you've ever owed me anything in the way of kindness, you won't, on your sacred honour, say a word of this to anyone, even to Nick, and I know I can count on you to rub out the numbers.' Susie sprang up and tossed Mrs. Vanderland's letter into the fire.

Starting point is 00:48:32 Then she came slowly back to the chair. There at her elbow lay the four fatal envelopes, and her next affair was to make up her mind what to do with them. To destroy them on the spot had seemed at first thought inevitable. It might be saving Ellie as well as herself. But such a step seemed to Susie to involve departure on the morrow, and in this turn involved notifying Ellie, whose letter she had vainly scanned for an address.

Starting point is 00:49:00 Well, perhaps Clarissa's nurse would know where one could write to her mother. It was unlikely that even Ellie would go off without assuring some means of communication, with her child. At any rate, there was nothing to be done that night, nothing but to work out the details of their flight on the morrow, and rack her brains to find a substitute for the hospitality they were rejecting. Susie did not disguise from herself how much she had counted on the Vandrelin apartment for the summer. To be able to do so had singularly simplified the future. She knew Ellie's largeness of hand, and had been sure in advance that as long as they were her guests, their only expense would be an occasional present to the servants.

Starting point is 00:49:38 and what would the alternative be she and lansing in their endless talks had so lived themselves into the vision of indolent summer days on the lagoon of flaming hours on the beach of the lido and evenings of music and dreams on their broad balcony above the gedeka that the idea of having to renounce these joys and deprive her nick of them filled susy with a wrath intensified by his having confided in her that when they were quietly settled in venice he meant to write already nascent in her breast was the fierce resolve of the author's wife to defend her husband's privacy and facilitate his encounters with the muse it was abominable simply abominable that ellie van derland should have drawn her into such a trap well there was nothing for it but to make a clean breast of the whole thing to nick the trivial incident of the cigars how trivial it now seemed showed her the kind of stand he would take and communicated to her something of his own uncompromising energy she would tell him the whole story in the morning and try to find a way out with him susy's faith in her power of finding a way out was inexhaustible but suddenly she remembered the adjuration at the end of mrs van der lind's letter if you ever owed me anything in the way of kindness you won't on your sacred honor say a word to nick it was of course exactly what no one had the right to ask of her if indeed the word right could be used in any conceivable relation to this coil of wrongs but the fact remained that in the way of kindness she did owe much to ellie and that this was the first payment her friend had ever exacted she found herself in fact in exactly the same position as when ursula gillow using the same argument had appealed to her to give up nick lansing yes susy reflected but then nelson Nelson Vandrelin had been kind to her, too, and the money Ellie had been so kind with was

Starting point is 00:51:32 Nelson's. The queer edifice of Susie's standards tottered on its base. She honestly didn't know where fairness lay, as between so much that was foul. The very depth of her perplexity puzzled her. She had been in tight places before, had indeed been in so few that were not, in one way or another, constricting. As she looked back on her past it lay before her as a very network of perpetual concessions and contrivings. But never before had she had such a sense of being tripped up, gagged, and pinioned. The little misery of the cigar still galled her, and now this big humiliation superposed itself on the raw wound. Decidedly the second month of their honeymoon was beginning cloudily. She glanced at the enamel-led traveling-clock

Starting point is 00:52:19 on her dressing-table, one of the few wedding-presents she had consented to accept in kind, and was startled at the lateness of the hour. In a moment Nick would be coming, and an uncomfortable sensation in her throat warned her that, through sheer nervousness and exasperation, she might blurt out something ill-advised. The old habit of always being on her guard made her turn once more to the looking-glass. Her face was pale and haggard, and having, by a swift and skillful application of cosmetics, increased its appearance of fatigue, she crossed the room and softly opened her husband's door. He, too, sat by a lamp, reading a letter which he put aside as she entered. His face was grave, and she said to herself that he was certainly still thinking about the

Starting point is 00:53:03 cigars. I'm very tired, dearest, and my headache so horribly that I've come to bid you good night. Bending over the back of his chair, she laid her arms on his shoulders. He lifted his hands to clasp hers, but as he threw his head back to smile up at her, she noticed that his look was still serious, almost remote. It was as if, for the first time, a faint veil hung between his eyes and hers. "'I'm so sorry. It's been a long day for you,' he said absently, pressing his lips to her hands. She felt the dreaded twitch in her throat. "'Nick,' she burst out, tightening her embrace, "'before I go, you've got to swear to me on your honour that you know I should never have

Starting point is 00:53:47 taken those cigars for myself.' moment he stared at her, and she stared back at him with equal gravity, then the same irresistible mirth welled up in broth, and Susie's compunctions were swept away on a gale of laughter. When she woke the next morning the sun was pouring in between her curtains of old brocade, and its refraction from the ripples of the canal was drawing a network of golden scales across the vaulted ceiling. The maid had just placed a tray on a slim, marketry table near the bed, and over the edge of the tray Susie discovered the small, serious face of Clarissa Vanderlin. At the sight of the little girl all her dormant qualms awoke.

Starting point is 00:54:25 Clarissa was just eight, and small for her age. Her little round chin was barely on a level with the tea service, and her clear brown eyes gazed at Susie between the ribs of the toast-rack, and the single tea-rose in an old Marano glass. Susie had not seen her for two years, and she seemed, in the interval, to have passed from a thoughtful infancy to a complete ripeness of feminine experience. She was looking with approval at her mother's guest. "'I'm so glad you've come,' she said in a small, sweet voice. "'I like you so very much. I know I'm not to be often with you, but at least you'll have an eye on me, won't you?' "'An eye on you. I shall never want to have it off you if you say

Starting point is 00:55:08 such nice things to me,' Susie laughed, leaning from her pillows to draw the little girl up to her side. Clarissa smiled and settled herself down comfortably on the silken bedspread. "'Oh, I know I'm not to be always about, because you're just married. But could you see to it that I have my meals regularly?' "'Why, you poor darling! Don't you always?' "'Not when mother's away on these cures. Their servants don't always obey me. You see, I'm so little for my age. In a few years, of course, they'll have to, even if I don't grow much,' she added judiciously. She put out her her hand and touched the string of pearls about Susie's throat. "'They're small, but they're very good. I suppose you don't take the others when you travel.'

Starting point is 00:55:52 "'The others? Bless you, I haven't any others, and never shall have, probably.' "'No other pearls?' "'No other jewels at all.' Clarissa stared. "'Is that really true?' she asked, as if in the presence of the unprecedented. "'Awfully true,' Susie confessed. but I think I can make the servants obey me all the same.

Starting point is 00:56:15 This point seemed to have lost its interest for Clarissa, who was still gravely scrutinizing her companion. After a while she brought forth another question. Did you have to give up all your jewels when you were divorced? Dvorced! Susie threw her head back against the pillows and laughed. What are you thinking of? Don't you remember that I wasn't even married the last time you saw me?

Starting point is 00:56:39 Yes, I do. But that was two years ago." The little girl wound her arms about Susie's neck, and leaned against her caressingly. "'Are you going to be soon, then? I'll promise not to tell if you don't want me to.' "'Going to be divorced? Of course not. What in the world makes you think so?' "'Because you look so awfully happy,' said Clarissa Vanderlin simply. End of Chapter 4. Part 1, Chapter 5 of the glimpses of the moon.

Starting point is 00:57:16 This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clet The Glimpses of the Moon By Edith Wharton Part 1, Chapter 5 It was a trifling enough sign, but it had remained in Susie's mind. The first morning in Venice, Nick had gone out without first coming in to see her. She had stayed in bed late, chatting with Clarissa,

Starting point is 00:57:41 and expecting to see the door open and her husband appear, And when the child left, and she had jumped up and looked into Nick's room, she found it empty, and a line on his dressing-table informed her that he had gone out to send a telegram. It was lover-like, and even boyish of him, to think it necessary to explain his absence. But why had he not simply come in and told her? She instinctively connected the little fact with the shade of preoccupation she had noticed on his face the night before, when she had gone to his room and found him absorbed in letter. And while she'd dressed, she'd continued to wonder what was in the letter, and whether

Starting point is 00:58:16 the telegram he had hurried out to send was an answer to it. She had never found out. When he reappeared, handsome and happy as the morning, he proffered no explanation, and it was part of her lifelong policy not to put on called for questions. It was not only that her jealous regard for her own freedom was matched by an equal respect for that of others, she had steered too long among the social reefs and shoals, not to know how narrow is the passage that leads to peace of mind, and she was determined to keep her little craft in mid-channel. But the incident had lodged itself in her memory, acquiring a sort of

Starting point is 00:58:51 symbolic significance, as of a turning-point in her relations with her husband. Not that these were less happy, but that she now beheld them, as she had always formerly beheld such joys, as an unstable islet in a sea of storms. Her present bliss was as complete as ever, but it was ringed by the perpetual menace of all she knew she was hiding from Nick, and of all she suspected him of hiding from her. She was thinking of these things one afternoon about three weeks after their arrival in Venice. It was near sunset, and she sat alone on the balcony, watching the cross-lights on the water weave their pattern above the flushed reflection of old palace basements. She was almost always alone at that hour. Nick had taken to writing in the afternoons.

Starting point is 00:59:36 He had been as good as his word, and so apparently had the muse. and it was his habit to join his wife only at sunset for a late row on the lagoon. She had taken Clarissa, as usual, to the Jardino Publico, where that obliging child had politely but indifferently played. Clarissa joined in the diversions of her age as of conforming to an obsolete tradition, and had brought her back for a music lesson, echoes of which now drifted down from a distant window. Susie had come to be extremely thankful for Clarissa. But for the little girl, her pride in her husband's industry might have been tinged with a faint sense of being at times left out and forgotten. And as Nick's industry was the completest justification for their

Starting point is 01:00:17 being where they were, and for her having done what she had, she was grateful to Clarissa for helping her to feel less alone. Clarissa, indeed, represented the other half of her justification. It was as much on the child's account as on Nick's that Susie had held her tongue, remained in Venice, and slipped out once a week to post one of Ellie's numbered letters. A day's experience of the Palazzo Vanderlin had convinced Susie of the impossibility of deserting Clarissa. Long experience had shown her that the most crowded households often contained the loneliest nurseries, and that the rich child is exposed to evils unknown to less pampered

Starting point is 01:00:52 infancy. But hitherto such things had merely been to her one of the uglier bits in the big muddled pattern of life. Now she found herself feeling, where before, she had only judged. Her precarious bliss came to her charged with a new weight. of pity. She was thinking of these things, and of the approaching date of Ellie Vanderlin's return, and of the searching truth she was storing up for that lady's private ear, when she noticed a gondola turning its prow toward the steps below the balcony. She leaned over, and a tall

Starting point is 01:01:23 gentleman in shabby clothes, glancing up at her as he jumped out, waved a mouldy Panama in joyful greeting. "'Streffy!' she exclaimed as joyfully, and she was halfway down the stairs when he ran up them, followed by his luggage-laden boatman. "'It's all right, I suppose. Ellie said I might come,' he explained in a shrill, cheerful voice. "'And I'm to have my same green room with the parrot panels, because its furniture is already so frightfully stained with my hair-wash.' Susie was beaming on him with the deep sense of satisfaction, which his presence always

Starting point is 01:01:58 produced in his friends. There was no one in the world, they all agreed, half as ugly and untidy and delightful as Streffy. No one who combined such outspoken selfishness with such imperturbable good humor. No one who knew so well how to make you believe he was being charming to you when it was you who were being charming to him. In addition to these seductions, of which none estimated the value more accurately than their possessor, Streford had for Susie another attraction, of which he was probably unconscious. It was that of being the one rooted and stable being among the fluid and shifting figures that composed her world.

Starting point is 01:02:35 Susie had always lived among people so denationalized that those one took for Russians generally turned out to be American, and those one was inclined to ascribe to New York proved to have originated in Rome or Bucharest. These cosmopolitan people, who, in countries not their own, lived in houses as big as hotels, or in hotels where the guests were as international as the waiters, had intermarried, inter-loved, and inter-divorced each other over the whole face of Europe. and according to every code that attempts to regulate human ties. Strefford, too, had his home in this world, but only one of his homes.

Starting point is 01:03:11 The other, the one he spoke of, and probably thought of, least often, was a great, dull English country house in a northern county, where a life as monotonous and self-contained as his own was checkered and dispersed, had gone on for generation after generation, and it was the sense of that house, and of all it typified, even to his vagrancy and irreverence, which, coming out now and then in his talk, or in his attitude toward something or somebody, gave him a firmer outline and a steadier footing than the other marionettes in the dance.

Starting point is 01:03:40 Superficially so like them all, and so eager to outdo them in detachment and adaptability, ridiculing the prejudices he had shaken off and the people to whom he belonged, he still kept, under his easy pliancy, the skeletons of old faiths and old fashions. He talks every language as well as the rest of us, Susie had once said of him, but at least he talks one language better than the others. And Strefford, told of the remark, had laughed, called her an idiot, and been pleased. As he shambled up the stairs with her, arm in arm, she was thinking of this quality with a new appreciation of its value. Even she and Lansing, in spite of their unmixed Americanism, their substantial background of old-fashioned cousinships in New York and Philadelphia,

Starting point is 01:04:26 were as mentally detached, as universally at home, as touts at an international. national exhibition. If they were usually recognized as Americans, it was only because they spoke French so well, and because Nick was too fair to be foreign, and too sharp-featured to be English. But Charlie Strefford was English, with all the strength of an inveterate habit, and something in Susie was slowly waking to a sense of the beauty of habit. Lounging on the balcony, whither he had followed her without pausing to remove the stains of travel, Streford showed himself immensely interested in the last chapter of her history, greatly pleased at its having been enacted under his roof, and hugely and flippantly amused at the firmness

Starting point is 01:05:07 with which he refused to let him see Nick till the latter's daily task was over. Writing? Rot! What's he writing? He's breaking you in, my dear. That's what he's doing. Establishing an alibi. What'll you bet he's just sitting there smoking and reading L'Rere?

Starting point is 01:05:26 Let's go and see." But Susie was firm. He's read me his first chapter. It's wonderful. It's a philosophic romance. Rather like Marius, you know." "'Oh, yes. I do,' said Strefford, with a laugh that she thought idiotic.

Starting point is 01:05:43 She flushed up like a child. You're stupid, Streffy. You forget that Nick and I don't need alibis. We've got rid of all that hypocrisy by agreeing that each will give the other a hand up when either of us wants a change. We've not married to spy and lie and nag each other. We've formed a partnership for our mutual advantage." I see.

Starting point is 01:06:04 That's capital. But how can you be sure that when Nick wants a change you'll consider it for his advantage to have one? It was the point that it always secretly tormented Susie. She often wondered if it equally tormented Nick. I hope I shall have enough common sense, she began. Oh, of course. Common sense is what you're both bound to base your argument on whichever way

Starting point is 01:06:26 you argue." This flash of insight disconcerted her, and she said, a little irritably, "'What should you do, then, if you married?' "'Hush, Streffy, I forbid you to shout like that. All the gondolas are stopping to look. How can I help it?' He rocked backward and forward in his chair. "'If you marry,' she says, "'Streffy, what have you decided to do if you suddenly

Starting point is 01:06:49 become a raving maniac?' I said no such thing. If your uncle and your cousin died, you'd marry tomorrow. You know you would. Oh, now you're talking business." He folded his long arms and leaned over the balcony, looking down at the dusky ripples streaked with fire. In that case, I should say, Susan, my dear—

Starting point is 01:07:11 Susan, now that by the merciful invention of Providence you have become Countess of Alteringham in the peerage of Great Britain, and Baroness Dunsterville and D'Ane in the peerages of Ireland and Scotland—I'll thank you. to remember that you are a member of one of the most ancient houses in the United Kingdom, and not to get found out." Susie laughed. We know what those warnings mean. I pity my namesake.

Starting point is 01:07:36 He swung about and gave her a quick look out of his small, ugly, twinkling eyes. Is there any other woman in the world, name, Susan? I hope so, if the name's an essential. Even if Nick chucks me don't count on me to carry out that program, I've seen it in practice too often. Oh, well. As far as I know, everybody's in perfect health at Alteringham. He fumbled in his pocket and drew out a fountain-pen, a handkerchief over which it had leaked, and a packet of dishevelled cigarettes. Lighting one and restoring the other objects to his pocket,

Starting point is 01:08:09 he continued calmly. Tell me, how did you manage to smooth things over with the gillows? Ursula was running amuck when I was in Newport last summer. It was just when people were beginning to say that you were going to marry Nick. I was afraid she'd put a spoke in your wheel. And I heard she put a big check in your hand instead." Susie was silent. From the first moment of Strefford's appearance, she had known that in the course of time he would put that question. He was as inquisitive as a monkey, and when he had made up his mind to find out anything, it was useless to try to divert his attention.

Starting point is 01:08:44 After a moment's hesitation, she said, I flirted with Fred. It was a bore, but he was very decent. He would be. Poor Fred. And you got Ursula thoroughly frightened." Well, enough. And then, luckily, that young Naroni Altanere turned up from Rome, he went over to New York to look for a job as an engineer, and Ursula made Fred put him in their ironworks. She paused again, and then added abruptly, "'Streffy, if you knew how I hate that kind of thing.

Starting point is 01:09:15 I'd rather have Nick come in now and tell me frankly, as I know he would, that he's going off with—' "'With Coral Hicks,' Strefford suggested. She laughed. "'Poor Coral Hicks! What on earth made you think of the Hicks's?' "'Because I caught a glimpse of them the other day at Capri. They're cruising about, they said they were coming in here.'

Starting point is 01:09:35 "'What a nuisance! I do hope they won't find us out. They were awfully kind to Nick when he went to India with them, and they're so simple-minded that they would expect him to be glad to see them.' Strefford aimed his cigarette end at a tourist on a puggery, who was gazing up from his guide-book at the palace. "'Ah,' he murmured with satisfaction, seeing the shot to take effect. Then he added,

Starting point is 01:09:58 "'Coral Hicks is growing up rather pretty.' "'Oh, Streff, you're dreaming! That lump of a girl with spectacles and thick ankles! Poor Mrs. Hicks used to say to Nick, "'When Mr. Hicks and I had Coral educated, we presumed culture was in greater demand in Europe than it appeared to be. "'Well, you'll see. "'That girl's education won't interfere with her once she started.

Starting point is 01:10:20 So, then, if Nick came in and told you he was going off, I should be so thankful if it was with a fright like Coral. But you know, she added with a smile, we've agreed that it's not to happen for a year. End of Chapter 5. Part 1, Chapter 6 of The Glimpses of the Moon. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clette. The Glimpses of the Moon. Lideth Wharton. Part 1. Chapter 6.

Starting point is 01:11:00 Susie found Streford, after his first burst of nonsense, unusually kind and responsive. The interest he showed in her future and Nix seemed to proceed not so much from his habitual spirit of scientific curiosity as from simple friendliness. He was privileged to see Nick's first chapter, of which he formed so favorable an impression, that he spoke sternly to Susie on the importance of respecting her husband's working hours, and he even carried his general benevolence to the length of showing a fatherly interest in Clarissa Vanderlin. He was always charming to children, but fitfully and warily, with an eye on his independence, and on the possibility of being suddenly bored by them.

Starting point is 01:11:39 Susie had never seen him abandon these precautions so completely as he did with Clarissa. Poor little devil! Who looks after her when you and Nick are off together? Do you mean to tell me Ellie sacked the governess and went away without having anyone to take her place? "'I think she expected me to do it,' said Susie, with a touch of asperity. There were moments when her duty to Clarissa weighed on her somewhat heavily. Whenever she went off alone with Nick, she was pursued by the vision of a little figure waving wistful farewells from the balcony. Ah, that's like, Ellie.

Starting point is 01:12:12 You might have known she'd get an equivalent when she lent you all this. But I don't believe she thought she'd be so conscientious about it.' Susie considered. "'I don't suppose she did. And perhaps I shouldn't have been a year ago.' But you see, she hesitated. Nick's so awfully good. It's made me look at a lot of things differently.

Starting point is 01:12:33 Oh, hang, Nick's goodness. It's happiness that's done it, my dear. You're just one of the people with whom it happens to agree. Susie, leaning back, scrutinized between her lashes, his crooked, ironic face. What is it that's agreeing with you, Streffy? I've never seen you so human. You must be getting an outrageous price for the villa. Strefford laughed and clapped his hand on his breast pocket.

Starting point is 01:12:57 I should be an ass not to. I've got a wire here saying they must have it for another month at any price. What luck! I'm so glad. Who are they, by the way? He drew himself up out of the long chair in which he was disjointedly lounging, and looked down at her with a smile. Another couple of lovesick idiots like you and Nick.

Starting point is 01:13:18 I say, before I spend it all, let's go out and buy something ripping for Clarissa. The days passed so quickly and radiantly that, but for her concern for Clarissa, Susie would hardly have been conscious of her hostess's protracted absence. Mrs. Vanderlain had said, "'Four weeks at the latest!' and the four weeks were over, and she had neither arrived nor written to explain her non-appearance. She had, in fact, given no sign of life since her departure, save in the shape of a postcard which had reached Clarissa the day after the Lansing's arrival, and in which Mrs. Vanderlin instructed her child to be awfully good, and not to forget to feed the mongoose. Susie noticed that this missive had been posted in Milan.

Starting point is 01:14:02 She communicated her apprehensions to Streford. I don't trust that green-eyed nurse. She's forever with the younger gondolier, and Clarissa's so awfully sharp. I don't see why Ellie hasn't come. She was due last Monday. Her companion laughed, and something in the sound of his laugh suggested that he probably knew as much of Ellie's movements as she. did, if not more. The sense of disgust which the subject always roused in her made her look away quickly from his tolerant smile. She would have given the world at that moment to have

Starting point is 01:14:31 been free to tell Nick which she had learned on the night of their arrival, and then to have gone away with him no matter where. But there was Clarissa. To fortify herself against the temptation she resolutely fixed her thoughts on her husband. Of Nick's beatitude there could be no doubt. He adored her. He reveled in Venice. He rejoiced in his work, And concerning the quality of that work, her judgment was as confident as her heart. She still doubted if he would ever earn a living by what he wrote, but she no longer doubted that he would write something remarkable. The mere fact that he was engaged on a philosophic romance, and not a mere novel, seemed the

Starting point is 01:15:07 proof of an intrinsic superiority. And if she had mistrusted her impartiality, Strefford's approval would have reassured her. Among their friends, Streford passed as an authority on such matters. In summing him up, his eulogist always added, And you know he writes. As a matter of fact, the paying public had remained cold to his few published pages, but he lived among the kind of people who confused taste with talent,

Starting point is 01:15:31 and are impressed by the most artless attempts at literary expression. And though he affected to disdain their judgment and his own efforts, Susie knew he was not sorry to have it said of him, Oh, if only Streffey had chosen. Streford's approval of the philosophic romance convinced her that had been worthwhile staying in Venice for Nick's sake, and if only Ellie would come back, and carry off Clarissa to San Maritz or Doville, the disagreeable episode on which their happiness was based would vanish like a cloud, and leave them to complete enjoyment.

Starting point is 01:16:04 Ellie did not come. But the Mortimer Hickses did, and Nick Lansing was assailed by the scruples his wife had foreseen. Streford, coming back one evening from the Lido, reported having recognized the huge outline of the ibis among the pleasure-craft of the outer harbor, and the very next evening, as the guests of Palazzo Vanderlin were sipping their ices at Florians, the Hickses loomed up across the piazza. Susie pleaded in vain with her husband in defence of his privacy, "'Remember, you're here to write, dearest.

Starting point is 01:16:35 It's your duty not to let anyone interfere with that. Why shouldn't we tell them we're just leaving?' "'Because it's no use. We're sure to be always meeting them. And besides, I'll be hanged if I'm going to shirk the Hicks's. I spent five whole months on the ibis, and if they bored me occasionally, India didn't. "'We'll make them take us to Aquilea, anyhow,' said Strefford philosophically, and the next moment the Hickses were bearing down on the defenseless trio.

Starting point is 01:17:00 They presented a formidable front, not only because of their mere physical bulk, Mr. and Mrs. Hicks were equally and majestically three-dimensional, but because they never moved abroad without the escort of two private secretaries, one for the foreign languages, Mr. Hicks's doctor, a maiden lady known as El Dorado Tucker, who was Mrs. Hicks's cousin and stenographer, and finally their daughter, Coral Hicks. Coral Hicks, when Susie had last encountered the party, had been a fat, spectacled schoolgirl, always lagging behind her parents, with a reluctant poodle in her wake. Now the poodle had gone, and his mistress led the procession.

Starting point is 01:17:39 The fat schoolgirl had changed into a young lady of compact, if not graceful outline. A long-handled eyeglass had replaced the spectacles, and through it, instead of a sullen glare, Miss Coral Hicks projected on the world a glance at once confident and critical. She looked so strong and so assured that Susie, taking her measure in a flash, saw that her position at the head of the procession was not fortuitous, and murmured inwardly, "'Think goodness she's not pretty, too.' If she was not pretty, she was well-dressed, and if she was over-educated, she seemed capable, as Streford had suggested, of carrying off even this crowning disadvantage. At any rate, she was above

Starting point is 01:18:19 disguising it, and before the whole party had been seated five minutes in front of a fresh supply of ices, with El Dorada and the secretaries at a table slightly in the background, she had taken up with Nick the question of exploration in Mesopotamia. "'Queer child, Coral,' he said to Susie that night as they smoked a last cigarette on their balcony. She told me this afternoon that she'd remembered lots of things she heard me say in India. I thought at the time that she cared only for caramels and picture puzzles, but it seemed she was listening to everything, and reading all the books she could lay her hands on, and she got so bitten with oriental archaeology that she took a course last year at Brynmar. She means

Starting point is 01:18:56 to go to Baghdad next spring, and back by the Persian plateau in Turkestan. Susie laughed luxuriously. She was sitting with her hand in Nix, while the late moon, theirs again, rounded its orange-colored glory above the belfry of San Giorgio. Poor Coral! How dreary! Susie murmured. Derey? Why? A trip like that is about as well worth doing as anything I know. Oh, I meant dreary to do it without you or me, she laughed, getting up lazily to go indoors. A broad band of moonlight, dividing her room onto two shadowy halves, lay on the painted Venetian bed with its folded-back sheet, its old damask coverlet and lace-edged pillows.

Starting point is 01:19:37 She felt the warmth of Nix's enfolding arm. and lifted her face to his. The Hickses retained the most tender memory of Nick's sojourn on the ibis, and Susie, moved by their artless pleasure in meeting him again, was glad he had not followed her advice and tried to elude them. She had always admired Strefford's ruthless talent for using and discarding the human material in his path, but now she began to hope that Nick would not remember her suggestion that he should meet out that measure to the Hicks, even if it had been less pleasant to

Starting point is 01:20:07 have a big yacht at their door during the long golden days and nights of silver fire, the Hicks' admiration for Nick would have made Susie suffer them gladly. She even began to be aware of a growing liking for them, a liking inspired by the very characteristics that would once have provoked her disapproval. Susie had had plenty of people, and the trouble was that the Hickses, judged by her standards, were failures. It was not only that they were ridiculous, so heaven knew were many of their rivals, but the Hickses were both ridiculous, and unsuccessful. They had consistently resisted the efforts of the experienced advisors, who had first described them on the horizon and tried to help them upward. They were always taking up the wrong

Starting point is 01:20:48 people, giving the wrong kind of party, and spending millions on things that nobody who mattered cared about. They all believed passionately in movements, and causes, and ideals, and were always attended by the exponents of their latest beliefs, always asking you to hear lectures by haggard women in peplums, and having their portraits painted by wild people who never turned out to be the fashion. All this would formerly have increased Susie's contempt. Now she found herself liking the Hicks' most for their failings. She was touched by their simple good faith, their isolation in the midst of all their queer apostles and parasites, their way of drifting about an alien and indifferent world in a compactly clinging group of which Eldorotter Tooker, the doctor, and the two secretaries

Starting point is 01:21:32 formed the outer fringe, and by their view of themselves as a kind of collective reincarnation of some past state of princely culture, symbolized for Mrs. Hicks in what she called the Court of the Renaissance. El Dorada, of course, was their chief prophetess, but even the intensely bright and modern young secretaries, Mr. Beck and Mr. Buttles, showed a touching tendency to share her view, and spoke of Mr. Hicks as, promoting art, in the spirit of Pandelfino, celebrating the munificence of the Medici's. I'm really getting fond of the Hickses. I believe I should be nice to them, even if they were staying at Danieles, Susie said

Starting point is 01:22:09 to Shreford. And even if you owned the yacht, he answered, and for once his banter struck her as beside the point. The ibis carried them, during the endless June days, far and wide along the enchanted shores. They roamed among the Eugenians. They saw Aquile and Pomposa and Ravenna. Their hosts would glit.

Starting point is 01:22:29 gladly have taken them farther, across the Adriatic, and on into the golden network of the Aegean. But Susie resisted this infraction of Nick's rules, and he himself preferred to stick to his task. Only now he wrote in the early mornings, so that on most days they could set out before noon, and steam back late to the low fringe of lights on the lagoon. His work continued to progress, and as Page was added to Page, Susie obscurely but surely perceived that each one corresponded with a hidden secretion of energy, the gradual forming within him of something that might eventually alter both their lives. In what sense she could not conjecture, she merely felt that the fact of his having chosen a job and stuck to

Starting point is 01:23:09 it, if only through a few rosy summer weeks, had already given him a new way of saying yes and no. End of Chapter 6. Part 1, Chapter 7 of the Glimpses of the Moon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clette. The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton, Part 1, Chapter 7 Of some new ferment at work in him, Nick Lansing himself was equally aware. He was a better judge of the book than he was trying to write than either Susie or Strefford. He knew its weaknesses, its treacheries, its tendency to slip through his fingers just as he thought his grasp tightest,

Starting point is 01:23:56 but he knew also that at the very moment when it seemed to have failed him, it would suddenly be back, beating its loud wings in his face. He had no delusions as to its commercial value, and had winced more than he had triumphed when Susie produced her allusion to Marius. His book was to be called the Pageant of Alexander. His imagination had been enchanted by the idea of picturing the young conquerors advance through the fabulous landscapes of Asia. He liked writing descriptions, and vaguely felt that under the guise of fiction he could develop his theory of Oriental influences in Western art, at the expense of less learning than if he had tried to put his ideas into an essay.

Starting point is 01:24:34 He knew enough of his subject to know that he did not know enough to write about it, but he consoled himself by remembering that Wilhelm Meister had survived many weighty volumes on aesthetics, and between his moments of self-discussed, he took himself at Susie's valuation, and found an unmixed joy in his task. Never! no never had he been so boundlessly, so confidently happy. His hack work had given him the habit of application, and now habit wore the glow of inspiration. His previous literary ventures had been timid and tentative. If this one was growing and strengthening on his hands, it must be because the conditions were

Starting point is 01:25:10 so different. He was at ease. He was secure. He was satisfied. And he had also, for the first time since his early youth, before his mother's death, the sense of having someone to look after, someone who was his own particular care, and to whom he was answerable for himself and his actions, as he had never felt himself answerable to the hurried and indifferent people among whom he had chosen to live.

Starting point is 01:25:32 Susie had the same standards as these people. She spoke their language, though she understood others. She required their pleasures if she did not revere their gods. But from the moment that she had become his property, he had built up in himself a conception of her answering to some deep-seated need of veneration. She was his. He had chosen her. She had taken her place in the long line of Lansing women, who had been loved,

Starting point is 01:25:54 honored and probably deceived by bygone Lansing men. He didn't pretend to understand the logic of it, but the fact that she was his wife gave purpose and continuity to his scattered impulses and a mysterious glow of consecration to his task. Once or twice, in the first days of his marriage, he had asked himself with a slight shiver what would happen if Susie should begin to bore him. The thing had happened to him with other women as to whom his first emotions had not differed in intensity from those she inspired. The part he had played in his previous, but he had played in his previous love affairs might indeed have been summed up in the memorable line, I am the hunter and the prey, for he had invariably ceased to be the first, only to regard himself as the

Starting point is 01:26:34 second. This experience had never ceased to cause him the liveliest pain, since his sympathy for his pursuer was only less keen than his commiseration for himself, but as he was always a little sorrier for himself, he had always ended by distancing the pursuer. All these prenatal experiences now seemed utterly inapplicable to the new man he had become. He could not imagine being bored by Susie, or trying to escape from her if he were. He could not think of her as an enemy, or even as an accomplice, since accomplices are potential enemies. She was some one with whom, by some unheard-of miracle, joys above the joys of friendship were to be tasted, but who, even through these fleeting ecstasies, remained simply

Starting point is 01:27:15 and securely his friend. These new feelings did not affect his general attitude toward life. They merely confirmed his faith in his ultimate jolliness. Never had he more thoroughly enjoyed the things he had always enjoyed. A good dinner had never been as good to him, a beautiful sunset as beautiful. He still rejoiced in the fact that he appreciated both with an equal acuity. He was as proud as ever of Susie's cleverness and freedom from prejudice. She couldn't be too modern for him now that she was his. He shared to the full her passionate enjoyment of the present, and all her feverish eagerness to make it last. He knew when she was thinking of ways of extending their golden opportunity, and he secretly thought with her, wondering what new means they could devise. He was thankful that Ellie Vanderlin was still absent, and began to hope they might have the palace to themselves for the remainder of the summer. If they did, he would have time to finish his book, and Susie to lay up a little interest on their wedding checks, and thus their enchanted year might conceivably be prolonged to two. Late as the season was, their presence and Streffords in Venice had already drawn thither several wandering members of their set.

Starting point is 01:28:20 It was characteristic of these indifferent but agglutinate of people that they could never, remain long parted from each other without a dim sense of uneasiness. Lansing was familiar with the feeling. He had known slight twinges of it himself, and had often ministered to its qualms and others. It was hardly stronger than the faint gnawing which recalls the tea-hour to one who has lunched well, and is sure of dining as abundantly, but it gave a purpose to the purposeless, and helped many hesitating spirits over the annual difficulty of deciding between Doville and San Maritz, Beirits, and Capri. Nick was not surprised to learn that it was becoming the fashion that summer, to pop down to Venice and take a look at the Lansing's.

Starting point is 01:28:58 Streffey had set the example, and Streffey's example was always followed. And then Susie's marriage was still a subject of sympathetic speculation. People knew the story of the wedding checks, and were interested in seeing how long they could be made to last. It was going to be the thing that year to help prolong the honeymoon by pressing houses on the adventurous couple. Before June was over a band of friends were basking with the Lansings on the Lido. Fink found himself unexpectedly disturbed by their arrival. To avoid comment and banter he put

Starting point is 01:29:27 his book aside and forbade Susie to speak of it, explaining to her that he needed an interval of rest. His wife instantly and exaggeratedly adopted this view, guarding him from the temptation to work as jealously as she had discouraged him from idling, and he was careful not to let her find out that the change in his habits coincided with his having reached a difficult point in his book. But though he was not sorry to stop writing, he found himself unexpectedly oppressed by the weight of his leisure. For the first time, communal dawdling had lost its charm for him, not because his fellow-doddlers were less congenial than of old, but because in the interval he had known something so immeasurably better. He had always felt himself to be the superior of his

Starting point is 01:30:06 habitual associates, but now the advantage was too great. Really, in a sense, it was hardly fair to them. He had flattered himself that Susie would share this feeling, but he perceived with annoyance that the arrival of their friends heightened her animation. It was as if the inward glow which had given her a new beauty, were now refracted upon her by the presence of the very people they had come to Venice to avoid. Lansing was vaguely irritated, and when he asked her how she liked being with their old crowd again, his irritation was increased by her answering with a laugh, that she only hoped the poor dears didn't see too plainly how they bored her. The patent insincerity of the reply was a shock to Lansing. He knew that Susie was not really

Starting point is 01:30:45 bored, and he understood that she had simply guessed his feelings, and instinctively adopted then, that henceforth she was always going to think as he thought. To confirm this fear, he said carelessly, "'Oh, all the same, it's rather jolly knocking about with them again for a bit.' And she answered at once, and with equal conviction, "'Yes, isn't it? The old darlings, all the same.' A fear of the future again laid its cold touch on Lansing. Susie's independence and self-sufficiency had been among her chief attractions. If she were to turn into an echo, their delicious duet ran the risk of becoming the dullest of monologues. He forgot that five minutes earlier

Starting point is 01:31:23 he had resented her being glad to see their friends, and for a moment he found himself leaning dizzily over that insoluble riddle of the sentimental life, that to be differed with is exasperating, and to be agreed with, monotonous. Once more he began to wonder if he were not fundamentally unfitted for the married state, and was saved from despair only by remembering that Susie's subjection to his moods was not likely to last. But even then it never occurred to him to reflect that his apprehensions were superfluous, since their tie was avowedly a temporary one. Of the special understanding on which their merit had been based, not a trace remained in

Starting point is 01:31:57 his thoughts of her. The idea that he or she might ever renounce each other for their mutual good had long since dwindled to the ghost of an old joke. It was borne in on him, after a week or two of unbroken sociability, that of all his old friends it was the Mortimer Hickses who bore him the least. The Hickses had left the Ibis for an apartment in a vast, dilapidated palace, near the Canareggio. They had hired the apartment from a painter, one of their newest discoveries, and they put up philosophically with the absence of modern conveniences, in order to secure

Starting point is 01:32:27 the inestimable advantage of atmosphere. In this privileged air they gathered about them their usual mixed company of quiet, studious people, and noisy exponents of new theories, themselves totally unconscious of the disparity between their different guests, and beamingly convinced that at last they were seated at the source of wisdom. In the old days, Lansing would have got half an hour's amusement, followed by a long evening of boredom, from the sight of Mrs. Hicks, vast and jewelled, seated between a quiet-looking professor of archaeology and a large-browed composer, or the high priest of a new dance-step, while Mr. Hicks, beaming above his vast white waistcoat, saw to wit that the champagne flowed more abundantly than the talk, and the

Starting point is 01:33:07 bright young secretaries industriously, kept up, with the dizzy cross-current of prophecy and erudition. But a change had come over Lansing. Hitherto it was in contrast to his own friends that the Hickses had seemed most insufferable. Now it was as an escape from these same friends, that they had become not only sympathetic, but even interesting. It was something, after all, to be with people, who did not regard Venice simply as affording exceptional opportunities for bathing and adultery, but who irreverently, if confusedly, aware that they were in the presence of something unique and ineffable, and determined to make the utmost

Starting point is 01:33:41 of their privilege. all, he said to himself one evening as his eyes wandered, with something of a convalescent simple joy, from one to another of their large, confiding faces. After all, they've got a religion. The phrase struck him in the moment of using it, as indicating a new element in his own state of mind, and as being, in fact, the key to his new feeling about the Hickses. Their muddled ardour for great things was related to his own new view of the universe. The people who felt, however dimly, the wonder and weight of life, must ever after be nearer. to him than those to whom it was estimated solely by one's balance at the bank. He supposed,

Starting point is 01:34:18 on reflection, that that was what he meant when he thought of the Hickses as having a religion. A few days later, his well-being was unexpectedly disturbed by the arrival of Fred Gillo. Lansing had always felt a tolerant liking for Gillo, a large, smiling, silent young man with an intense and serious desire to miss nothing attainable by one of his fortune and standing. What use he made of his experiences, Lansing, who had always gone into his own modest, adventures rather thoroughly, had never been able to guess, but he had always suspected the prodigal Fred of being no more than a well-discised looker on. Now, for the first time he began to view him with another eye. The Gillows were, in fact, the one uneasy point in Nick's conscience.

Starting point is 01:34:58 He and Susie from the first had talked of them less than of any other members of their group. They had tacitly avoided the name from the day on which Susie had come to Lansing's lodgings, to say that Ursula Gillow had asked her to renounce him. Till that other day, just before their marriage when she had met him with the rapturous cry. Here's our first wedding present! Such a thumping big check from Fred and Ursula! Plenty of sympathizing people were ready, Lansing knew, to tell him just what had happened in the interval between those two dates.

Starting point is 01:35:27 But he had taken care not to ask. He had even affected an initiation so complete that the friends who burned to enlighten him were discouraged by his so obviously knowing more than they, and gradually he had worked himself around to their view, and had taken it for granted that he really did. Now he perceived that he knew nothing at all, and that the—' "'Hello, old Fred!' with which Susie hailed Gillo's arrival, might be either the usual tribal welcome, since they were all old, and all nicknamed in their private jargon, or greeting that concealed inscrutable depths of complicity.

Starting point is 01:35:58 Susie was visibly glad to see Gillo, but she was glad of everything just then, and so glad to show her gladness. The fact disarmed her husband and made him ashamed of his uneasiness. You ought to have thought this all out sooner, or else you ought to chuck the of it at all. Was a sound but ineffectual advice he gave himself on the day after Gillo's arrival, and immediately set to work to rethink the whole matter. Fred Gillo showed no consciousness of disturbing anyone's peace of mind.

Starting point is 01:36:25 Day after day he sprawled for hours on the Lido Sands, his arms folded under his head, listening to Streffey's nonsense, and watching Susie between sleepy lids. But he betrayed no desire to see her alone, or draw her into talk apart from the others. More than ever he seemed content to be the gratified spectator of a costly show got up for his private entertainment. It was not until he heard her one morning, grumble a little at the increasing heat in the menace of mosquitoes, that he said, quite as if they had talked the matter over long before and finally settled it, the more will be ready any time after the first of August.

Starting point is 01:36:59 Nick fancied that Susie coloured a little, and drew herself up more defiantly than usual, as she sent a pebble skimming across the dying ripples at their feet. You'll be a lot cooler in Scotland. Fred added, with what for him was an unusual effort at explicitness. "'Oh, shall we?' she retorted gaily, and added with an air of mystery and importance, pivoting about on her high heels. Nick's got work to do here. It will probably keep us all summer. "'Work! Rot! You'll die of the smells!' Gilo stared perplexedly skyward from under his tilted hat-brim, and then brought out as from the depth of a rankling grievance. I thought it was all

Starting point is 01:37:36 understood." "'Why?' Nick asked his wife that night as they re-entered Ellie's cool drawing-room after a late dinner at the Lido. Did Gillo think it was understood that we were going to his moor in August? He was conscious of the oddness of speaking of their friend by his surname, and reddened at his blunder. Susie had let her lace cloak slide to her feet, and stood before him in the faintly lit room, slim and shimmering white through black transparencies.

Starting point is 01:38:01 She raised her eyebrows carelessly. I told you long ago he'd asked us there for August. You didn't tell me you'd accepted. She smiled as if he had said something as simple as Fred. I accepted everything, from everybody. What could he answer? It was the very principle on which their bargain had been struck. And if he were to say,

Starting point is 01:38:21 Ah, but this is different because I'm jealous of Gillow! What light would such an answer shed on his past? The time for being jealous, if so antiquated an attitude were on any ground defensible, would have been before his marriage. and before the acceptance of the bounties which had helped to make it possible. He wondered a little now that in those days such scruples had not troubled him. His inconsistency irritated him, and increased his irritation against Gillo. I suppose he thinks he owns us, he grumbled inwardly.

Starting point is 01:38:50 He had thrown himself into an arm-chair, and Susie, advancing across the shining arabesques of the floor, slid down at his feet, pressed her slender length against him, and whispered with lifted face and lips close to his. we needn't ever go anywhere you don't want to. For once her submission was sweet, and folding her close he whispered back through his kiss. Not there, then. In her response to his embrace, he felt the acquiescence of her whole happy self and whatever future he decided on, if only it gave them enough of such moments as this, and as they held each other fast in silence, his doubts and distrust began to seem like a silly injustice. "'Let us stay here as long as ever Ellie will let us,' he

Starting point is 01:39:31 said, as if the shadowy walls and shining floors were a magic boundary drawn about his happiness. She murmured her ascent, and stood up, stretching her sleepy arms above her shoulders. "'How dreadfully late it is! Will you unhook me? Oh, there's a telegram!' She picked it up from the table, and tearing it open, stared a moment at the message. "'It's from Ellie. She's coming to-morrow.' She turned to the window and strayed out onto the balcony. Nick followed her with enlacing arm. The canal below them lay in moonless shadow, barred with a few lingering lights. A last snatch of gondola music came from far off, carried upward on a sultry gust.

Starting point is 01:40:10 Dear old Ellie, all the same. I wish all this belonged to you and me. Susie sighed. End of Chapter 7. Part 1. Chapter 8 of the Glimpses of the Moon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clet. Clet. The Glims of the Moon by Edith Wharton. Part 1, Chapter 8

Starting point is 01:40:43 It was not Mrs. Vanderland's fault if, after her arrival, her palace seemed to belong any less to the Lansing's. She arrived in a mood of such general benevolence that it was impossible for Susie, when they finally found themselves alone, to make her view even her own recent conduct in any but the most benevolent light. I knew you'd be the veriest angel about it all, darling, because I knew you'd understand me, especially now, she declared, her slim hands in Susie's, her big eyes, so like Clarissa's, resplendent with past pleasures and future plans. The expression of her confidence was unexpectedly distasteful to Susie Lansing, who had never lent

Starting point is 01:41:26 so cold an ear to such warm avowals. She had always imagined that being happy oneself made one, as Mrs. Van Gogh. underland appeared to assume, more tolerant of the happiness of others, of however doubtful elements composed, and she was almost ashamed of responding so languidly to her friend's outpourings, but she herself had no desire to confide her bliss to Ellie, and why should not Ellie observe a similar reticence? It was all so perfect—you see, dearest, I was meant to be happy—that lady continued, as if the possession of so unusual a characteristic singled her out for some.

Starting point is 01:42:04 special privileges. Susie, with a certain sharpness, responded that she had always supposed we all were. Oh, no, dearest, not governesses, and mother-in-laws, and companions, and that sort of people. They wouldn't know how if they tried. But you and I, darling. Oh, I don't consider myself in any way exceptional, Susie intervened. She longed to add, Not in your way at any rate.

Starting point is 01:42:29 But a few minutes earlier Mrs. Vanderlin had told her that the palace was at her disposal for the rest of the summer, and that she herself was only going to perch there, if they'd let her, long enough to gather up her things and start for San Maritz. The memory of this announcement had the effect of curbing Susie's irony, and of making her shift the conversation to the safer, if scarcely less absorbing topic, of the number of day and evening dresses required for a season at San Maritz. As she listened to Mrs. Vandrelin, no less eloquent on this theme than on the other, Susie began to measure the gulf between her past and present. "'This is the life I used to lead.

Starting point is 01:43:07 These are the things I used to live for,' she thought, as she stood before the outspread glories of Mrs. Vanderlin's wardrobe. Not that she did not still care. She could not look at Ellie's laces and silks and furs without picturing herself in them, and wondering by what new miracle of management she could give herself the air of being dressed by the same consummate artists. But these had become minor interests. The past few months had given her a new perspective, and the thing that most puzzled and

Starting point is 01:43:35 disconcerted her about Ellie was the fact that love and finery and bridge and dining out were seemingly all on the same plane to her. The inspection of the dresses lasted a long time, and was marked by many fluctuations of mood on the part of Mrs. Vanderlin, who passed from comparative hopefulness to despair at the total inadequacy of her wardrobe. It wouldn't do to go to San Maritz looking like a frump, and yet there was no time to get anything sent from Paris, and whatever she did she wasn't going to show herself in any dowdy rearrangements done at home. But suddenly, light broke upon her, and she clasped her hands for joy. Why, Nelson'll bring them! I'd forgotten all about Nelson. There will be just time if I

Starting point is 01:44:19 wire to him at once. Is Nelson going to join you at San Maritz? Susie asked, surprised. Heaven's no! He's coming here to pick up Clarissa and take her to some stuffy cure in Austria with his mother. It's too lucky. There's just time to telegraph him to bring my things. I didn't mean to wait for him, but it won't delay me more than a day or two." Susie's heart sank. She was not much afraid of Ellie alone, but Ellie and Nelson together formed an incalculable menace. No one could tell what spark of truth might dash from their collision. Susie felt that she could deal with the two dangers separately and successively,

Starting point is 01:44:54 but not together and simultaneously. "'But, Ellie, why should you wait for Nelson? I'm certain to find someone here who's going to San Maritz and will take your things if he brings them. It's a pity to risk losing your rooms.' This argument appealed for a moment to Mrs. Vanderlin. "'That's true. They say all the hotels are jammed. You dear, you're always so practical.'

Starting point is 01:45:17 She clasped Susie to her scented bosom. "'And you know, darling, I'm sure you'll be glad to get rid of me, you and Nick. Oh, don't be hypocritical and say nonsense. You see, I understand. I used to think of you so often, you two, during those blessed weeks when we two were alone. The sudden tears, brimming over Ellie's lovely eyes and threatening to make the blue circles below them run into the adjoining carmine, filled Susie with compunction. Poor thing! Oh, poor thing! she thought, and hearing herself called by Nick, who was waiting to take her out for their usual sunset on the lagoon, she felt a wave of pity for the deluded creature who would never taste that highest of imaginable joys.

Starting point is 01:45:58 But all the same, Susie reflected as she hurried down to her husband. I'm glad I persuaded her not to wait for Nelson. Some days had elapsed since Susie and Nick had had a sunset to themselves, and in the intervals Susie had once again learned the superior quality of the sympathy that held them together. She now viewed all the rest of life as no more than a show. a jolly show which it would have been a thousand pities to miss but which if the need arose they could get up and leave at any moment provided that they left it together in the dusk while their prow slid over inverted palaces and through the scent of hidden gardens she leaned against him and murmured her mind returning to the recent scene with ellie nick should you hate me dreadfully if i had no clothes her husband was kindling a cigarette and the match lit up the grin with which he answered but my dear have i ever shown the slightest symptom oh rubbish when a woman says no clothes she means not the right clothes he took a meditative puff ah you've been going over ellie's finery with her yes all those trunks and trunks full and she finds she's got nothing for San Maritz."

Starting point is 01:47:09 "'Of course,' he murmured, drowsy with content, and manifesting but a languid interest in the subject of Mrs. van der Luyland's wardrobe. Only fancy. She very nearly decided to stop over for Nelson's arrival next week, so that he might bring her two or three more trunkfuls from Paris. But, mercifully, I've managed to persuade her that it would be foolish to wait. Susie felt a hardly perceptible shifting of her husband's lounging body, and was aware, through all her watchful tentacles of a widening of his half-closed lids.

Starting point is 01:47:41 "'You managed?' she fancied he paused on the word ironically. "'But why?' "'Why, what? "'Why on earth should you try to prevent Ellie's waiting for Nelson, if for once in her life she wants to?' Susie, conscious of reddening suddenly, drew back as though the leap of her tell-tale heart might have penetrated the blue flannel shoulder against which she leaned. "'Really, dearest,' she murmured. But with a sudden doggedness he renewed his—why?

Starting point is 01:48:10 Because she's in such a fever to get to San Maritz, and in such a funk lest the hotel shouldn't keep her rooms, Susie somewhat breathlessly produced. Ah, I see. Nick paused again. Your devoted friend, aren't you? What an odd question! There's hardly anyone I've reason to be more devoted to than Ellie,

Starting point is 01:48:31 his wife answered, and she felt his contrite clasp on her hand. "'Darling. No, nor I, or more grateful to for leaving us alone in this heaven. Dimness had fallen on the waters, and her lifted lips met his bending ones. Trailing late into dinner that evening, Ellie announced that, after all, she had decided it was safest to wait for Nelson. "'I should simply worry myself ill if I weren't sure of getting my things,' she said, in the tone of tender solicitude with which she always discussed her own difficulties. After all, people who deny themselves everything do get warped and bitter, don't they?

Starting point is 01:49:11 She argued plaintively, her lovely eyes wandering from one to the other of her assembled friends. Streford remarked gravely that it was the complaint which had fatally undermined his own health, and in the laugh that followed the party drifted into the great vaulted dining-room. "'Oh, I don't mind you're laughing at me, Streffie darling,' his hostess retorted, pressing his arm against her own, and Susie, receiving the shock of their rapidly exchanged glance, said to herself, with a sharp twinge of apprehension, "'Of course, Streffey knows everything. He showed no surprise at finding Ellie away when he arrived. And if he knows, what's to prevent Nelson's finding out?' For Strefford, in a mood of mischief, was no more to be trusted than a malicious child.

Starting point is 01:49:54 Susie instantly resolved to risk speaking to him, if need be, even betraying to him the secret of the letters. Only by revealing the depth of her own danger could she hope to secure his silence. On the balcony late in the evening, while the others were listening indoors to the low modulations of a young composer who had embroidered his fancies on Browning's ta-cotta, Susie found her chance. Strefford, unsummoned, had followed her out, and stood silently smoking at her side. "'You see, Streff, why should you and I make mysteries to each other?' She suddenly began. "'Why, indeed?

Starting point is 01:50:29 "'But do we?' Susie glanced back at the group around the piano. "'About Ellie, I mean. And Nelson.' "'The Lord! Ellie and Nelson? You call that a mystery? I should as soon apply the term to one of the million candle-powder advertisements that adorn your native thoroughfares.' "'Well, yes, but—' she stopped again, had she not tacitly promised Ellie not to speak. "'My, Susan, what's wrong?' Stratford asked. "'I don't know.' "'Well, I do, then.

Starting point is 01:51:03 You're afraid that if Ellie and Nelson meet here shall blurt out something injudicious?' "'Oh, she won't,' Susie cried with conviction. "'Well, then, who will?' "'I trust that superhuman child not to. And you and I and Nick.' "'Oh,' she gasped, interrupting him. "'That's just it. Nick doesn't know, doesn't even suspect, and if he did?'

Starting point is 01:51:28 Stratford flung away his cigar and turned to scrutinise her. I don't see. Hanged if I do. What business is it of any of us, after all? That, of course, was the old view that cloaked connivance in an air of decency, but to Susie it no longer carried conviction, and she hesitated. If Nick should find out that I know. Good Lord!

Starting point is 01:51:48 Doesn't he know that you know? After all, I suppose it's not the first time. She remained silent. The first time you've received confidences, from married friends. Does Nick suppose you've lived even to your tender age without— Hang it, what's come over, you, child? What had, indeed, that she could make clear to him? And yet more than ever she felt the need of having him securely on her side. Once his word was pledged, he was safe. Otherwise there was no limit to his capacity for willful harmfulness.

Starting point is 01:52:21 Look here, Streff. You and I know that Ellie hasn't been away for a cure, and that if poor Clarissa was sworn to secrecy, it was not because it worries father to think that mother needs to take care of her health. She paused, hating herself for the ironic note she had tried to sound. "'Well?' he questioned, from the depths of the chair into which she had sunk. "'Well, Nick doesn't—doesn't dream of it! If he knew that we owed our summer here to—to my knowing—' Streford sat silent. She felt his astonished stare to the darkness. "'Jove!' he said at last with a low whistle. Susie bent over the balustrade, her heart thumping against the stone rail.

Starting point is 01:53:04 "'What was left of soul, I wonder?' The young composer's voice shrilled through the open windows. Strefford sank into another silence, from which he roused himself only as Susie turned back toward the lighted threshold. "'Well, my dear, we'll see it through between us. You and I, and Clarissa,' he said with his raspiness. laughing, rising to follow her. He caught her hand and gave it a short pressure as they re-entered the drawing-room, where Ellie was saying plaintively to Fred Gillow,

Starting point is 01:53:33 I can never hear that thing sung without wanting to cry like a baby. End of Chapter 8. Part 1, Chapter 9 of The Glimpses of the Moon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clette. The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton. Part 1. Chapter 9 Nelson van der Leyen, still in his travelling clothes, paused on the threshold of his own dining-room and surveyed the scene with pardonable satisfaction. He was a short, round man with a grizzled head, small facetious eyes, and a large and credulous smile. At the luncheon-table sat his wife, between Charlie Strefford and Nick Lansing. Next to Streford, perched on her high-chair,

Starting point is 01:54:26 Clarissa throned in infant beauty, while Susie Lansing cut up a peach for her. Through wide orange awnings the sun slanted in upon the white-clad group. "'Well, well, well, so I've caught you at it,' cried the happy father, whose inveterate habit it was to address his wife and friends, as if he had surprised them at an inopportune moment. Stealing up from behind, he lifted his daughter into the air, while a chorus of, "'Hello, old Nelson!' hailed his appearance. It was two or three years since Nick Lansing had seen Mr. Vanderlin, who was now the London representative of the big New York Bank of Vanderlain and Company, and had exchanged his sumptuous

Starting point is 01:55:05 house in Fifth Avenue for another, more sumptuous still, in Mayfair, and the young man looked curiously and attentively at his host. Mr. Vanderlin had grown older and stouter, but his face still kept its look of somewhat worn optimism. He embraced his wife, greeted Susan. and distributed cordial hand-grasps to the two men." "'Hello!' he exclaimed, suddenly noticing a pearl and coral trinket hanging from Clarissa's neck.

Starting point is 01:55:33 "'Who's been giving my daughter jewelry, I'd like to know?' "'Oh, Streffey did. Just think, father, because I said I'd rather have it than a book, you know,' Clarissa lucidly explained, her arms tight about her father's neck, her beaming eyes on Strefford. Nelson van derland's own eyes took on the look of shrewdness, which came into them whenever there was a question of material values. "'What, Streffy?

Starting point is 01:55:57 Caught you out it, eh? Upon my soul, spoiling the brat like that. You'd no business to, my dear chap. A lovely Baroque pearl!' he protested, with the half-apologetic tone of the rich man embarrassed by too costly a gift from an impecunious friend. "'Oh, hadn't I? Why? Because it's too good for Clarissa, or too expensive.

Starting point is 01:56:19 for me. Of course you daren't imply the first, and as for me, I've had a windfall, and am blowing it on the ladies." Streford, Lansing had noticed, always used American slang when he was slightly at a loss, and wished to divert attention from the main point. But why was he embarrassed, whose attention did he wish to divert? It was plain that Vanderland's protest had been merely formal, like most of the wealthy he had only the dimest notion of what money represented to the poor. But it was unusual for Strefford to give anyone a present, and especially an expensive one. Perhaps that was what had fixed Vanderlans' attention.

Starting point is 01:56:56 "'A windfall,' he gaily repeated. "'No, a tiny one. I was offered a thumping rent for my little place at Como, and dashed over here to squander my millions with the rest of you,' said Streford imperturbably. Thanderland's look immediately became interested and sympathetic. "'What? The scene of the honeymoon?' He included Nick and Susie in his friendly smile. "'Just so. The reward of virtue. I say, give me a cigar, will you old man?

Starting point is 01:57:25 I left some awfully good ones at Como. Worse luck. And I don't mind telling you that Ellie's no judge of tobacco, and that Nick's too far gone in bliss to care what he smokes.' Strefford grumbled, stretching a hand toward his host cigar-case. "'I do like jewelry best,' Clarissa murmured, hugging her father. Nelson Vanderlin's first word to his wife had been that he had brought her all her togary, and she had welcomed him with appropriate enthusiasm. In fact, to the lookers-on, her joy at

Starting point is 01:57:54 seeing him seemed rather too patently in proportion to her satisfaction at getting her clothes. But no such suspicion appeared to mar Mr. Vanderland's happiness in being, for once, and for nearly twenty-four hours, under the same roof with his wife and child. He did not conceal his regret at having promised his mother to join her the next day, and added, with a wistful glance at Ellie, if only I'd known you meant to wait for me." But being a man of duty, in domestic, as well as business affairs, he did not even consider the possibility of disappointing the exacting old lady to whom he owed his being. "'Mother cares for so few people,' he used to say, not without a touch of filial pride

Starting point is 01:58:33 in the parental exclusiveness, that I have to be with her rather more than if she were more sociable. And with smiling resignation he gave orders that Clarissa should be ready to start the next evening. And meanwhile, he concluded, we'll have all the good time that's going." The ladies of the party seemed united in the desire to further this resolve, and it was settled that as soon as Mr. Vandrelin had dispatched a hasty luncheon, his wife, Clarissa, and Susie, should carry him off for a tea-pick-at Torchello. They did not even suggest that Streford or Nick should be of the party, or that any

Starting point is 01:59:05 of the other young men of the group should be summoned. As Susie said, Nelson wanted to go off alone with his harem. And Lansing and Streford were left to watch the departure of the happy Pasha, ensconced between attentive beauties. "'Well, that's what you call being married,' Streford commented, waving his battered Panama at Clarissa. "'Oh, no, I don't,' Lansing laughed. "'He does.'

Starting point is 01:59:29 "'But do you know?' Stratford paused and swung about on his companion. "'Do you know, when the rude awakening comes, I don't care to be there. I believe there'll be some crockery broken." shouldn't wonder," Lansing answered indifferently. He wandered away to his own room, leaving Streford to philosophize to his pipe. Lansing had always known about poor old Nelson. Who hadn't? Except poor old Nelson. The case had once seemed amusing because so typical. Now it rather irritated Nick that Vanderland should be so complete an ass. But he would be off the next

Starting point is 02:00:04 day, and so would Ellie. And then, for many enchanted weeks, the palace would once more be the property of Nick and Susie. Of all the people who came and went in it, they were the only ones who appreciated it, or knew how it was meant to be lived in, and that made it theirs in the only valid sense. In this light it became easy to regard the Vanderlands as mere transient intruders. Having relegated them to this convenient distance, Lansing shut himself up with his book. He had returned to it with fresh energy after his few weeks of holiday-making, and was determined to finish it quickly. He did not expect that it would bring to him to the in much money but if it were moderately successful it might give him an opening in the reviews and magazines and in that case he meant to abandon archaeology for novels since it was only as a purveyor of fiction that he could count on earning a living for himself and susy

Starting point is 02:00:53 late in the afternoon he laid down his pen and wandered out of doors he loved the increasing heat of the venetian summer the bruised peach tints of worn house fronts the enamelling of sunlight on dark green canals the smell of half-decade fruits and flowers thick thickening the languid air. What visions could he build, if he dared, of being tucked away with Susie in the attic of some tumble-down palace, above a jade-green waterway, with a terrace overhanging a scrap of neglected garden, and checks from the publishers dropping in at convenient intervals? Why should they not settle in Venice if he pulled it off? He found himself before the Church of the Scalzi, and, pushing open the leathern door, wandered up the nave under the whirl of rose and lemon angels in Tepelot's great fault. it was not a church in which one was likely to run across sightseers but he presently remarked a young lady standing alone near the choir and assiduously applying her field-glass to the celestial vortex from which she occasionally glanced down at an open manual

Starting point is 02:01:54 as lansing's step sounded on the pavement the young lady turning revealed herself as miss hicks ah you like this too it's several centuries out of your line though isn't it nick asked as they shook hands she gazed at him gravely why shouldn't one like things that are out of one's line she answered and he agreed with a laugh that it was often an incentive she continued to fix her grave eyes on him and after one or two remarks about the teapelos he perceived that she was feeling her way toward a subject of more personal interest i'm glad to see you alone she said at length with an abruptness that might have seemed awkward had it not been so completely unconscious she turned toward a cluster of straw chairs and signed to nick to seat himself beside her. "'I seldom do,' she added, with the serious smile that made her heavy face almost handsome, and as she went on, giving him no time to protest, I wanted to speak to you, to explain about Father's invitation to go with us to Persia and Turkestan. To explain?'

Starting point is 02:02:58 "'Yes. You found the letter when you arrived here just after your marriage, didn't you? You must have thought it odd our asking you just then, but we hadn't heard that you were married. Oh, I guessed as much. It happened very quietly, and I was remiss about announcing it even to old friends. Lansing frowned. His thoughts had wandered away to the evening when he had found Mrs. Hicks' letter in the mail awaiting him at Venice. The day was associated in his mind with the ridiculous and mortifying episode of the cigars, the expensive cigars that Susie had wanted to carry away from Streford's villa. Their brief exchange of views on the subject

Starting point is 02:03:33 had left the first blur on the perfect surface of his happiness, and he still felt an uncomfortable heat at the remembrance. For a few hours the prospect of life with Susie had seemed unendurable, and it was just at that moment that he had found the letter from Mrs. Hicks, with its almost irresistible invitation. If only her daughter had known how nearly he had accepted it. It was a dreadful temptation, he said, smiling. To go with us? Then why? Oh, everything's different now. I've got to stick to my writing. Miss Hicks still bent on him the same unblinking scrutiny. Does that mean that you're going to give up your real work?"

Starting point is 02:04:11 "'My real work? Archaeology?' He smiled again to hide a twitch of regret. Why, I'm afraid it hardly produces a living wage, and I've got to think of that." He coloured suddenly, as if suspecting that Miss Hicks might consider the avowal an opening, for he hardly knew what ponderous offer of aid. The Hicks' munificence was too uncalculating not to be occasionally oppressive. But looking at her again he saw that her eyes were full of tears.

Starting point is 02:04:36 I thought it was your vocation, she said. So did I, but life comes along and upsets things. Oh, I understand. There may be things worth giving up all other things for. There are, cried Nick, with beaming emphasis. He was conscious that Miss Hicks's eyes demanded of him even more than this sweeping affirmation. But your novel may fail, she said with her odd harshness. It may.

Starting point is 02:05:05 It probably will, he agreed, but if one stopped to consider such possibilities, Don't you have to, with a wife? Oh, my dear Coral, how old are you? Not twenty, he questioned, laying a brotherly hand on hers. She stared at him a moment, and sprang up clumsily from her chair. I was never young, if that's what you mean. It's lucky, isn't it, that my parents gave me such a grand education, because you see The arts a wonderful resource." She pronounced it, resource.

Starting point is 02:05:38 He continued to look at her kindly. You won't need it, or any other, when you grow young, as you will some day," he assured her. "'Do you mean when I fall in love? But I am in love.' Oh, there is Eldorada and Mr. Beck. She broke off with a jerk, signaling with her field-glass to the pair who had just appeared at the farther end of the nave.

Starting point is 02:05:58 I told them that if they'd meet me here to-day I try to make them understand, Diapelo. As you see at home we never have really understood Tepelo, and Mr. Beck and El Dorado are the only ones to realize it. Mr. Buttell simply won't." She turned to Lansing and held out her hand. I am in love, she repeated earnestly, and that's the reason why I find art such a resource. She restored her eyeglasses, opened her manual, and strode across the church to the expectant neophytes.

Starting point is 02:06:27 Lansing, looking after her, wondered for half a moment whether Mr. Beck were the object of this apparently unrequited sentiment, then, with a queer start of introspection, abruptly decided that, no, he certainly was not. But then—but then—' Well, there was no use in following up such conjectures. He turned homeward, wondering if the picnickers had already reached Palazzo Vanderlin. They got back only in time for a late dinner, full of chaff and laughter, and apparently still enchanted with each other's society. Nelson Vanderlin beamed on his wife, sent his daughter off to bed with a kiss, and leaning back in his armchair before the fruit and flower-laden table, declared that he never spent a jollier day in his life.

Starting point is 02:07:11 Susie seemed to come in for a full share of his approbation, and Lansing thought that Ellie was unusually demonstrative to her friend. Streford, from his hostess's side, glanced across now and then at young Mrs. Lansing, and his glance seemed to Lansing a confidential comment on the Vanderlin raptures. But then Streford was always having private jokes. with people or about them, and Lansing was irritated with himself for perpetually suspecting his best friends of vague complicities at his expense. If I'm going to be jealous of Streffy now!" he concluded with the grimace of self-derision.

Starting point is 02:07:43 Certainly Susie looked lovely enough to justify the most irrational pangs. As a girl she had been, for some people's taste, a trifle fine drawn and sharp-edged. Now to her old lightness of line was added a shadowy bloom, a sort of star-reflecting depth. Her movements were slower, less angular. Her mouth had a kneading droop. Her lid seemed weighed down by their lashes. And then suddenly the old spirit would reveal itself through the new languor, like the tartness at the core of a sweet fruit.

Starting point is 02:08:12 As her husband looked at her across the flowers and lights, he laughed inwardly at the nothingness of all things else. Vandrelin and Clarissa left betimes the next morning, and Mrs. Vanderlind, who was to start for San Maritz in the afternoon, devoted her last hours to anxious conference with her maid and Susie. Strefford, with Fred Gillow and the others, had gone for a swim at the Lido, and Lansing seized the opportunity to get back to his book. The quietness of the great echoing place gave him a foretaste of the solitude to come.

Starting point is 02:08:43 By mid-August all their party would be scattered. The Hicks is off on a cruise to Crete and the Aegean. Fred Gillo on the way to his more, Streford, to stay with friends in Capri till his annual visit to Northumberland in September. One by one the others would follow. and Lansing and Susie be left alone in the great sun-proof palace, alone under the star-laden skies, alone with the great orange moons, still theirs, above the bell-tower of San Giorgio. The novel, in that blessed quiet, would unfold itself as harmoniously as his dreams.

Starting point is 02:09:15 He wrote on, forgetful of the passing hours, till the door opened and he heard a step behind him. The next moment two hands were clasped over his eyes, and the air was full of Mrs. Vanderlind's last night. new scent. "'You dear thing! I'm just off, you know,' she said. Susie told me you were working, and I forbade her to call you down. She and Streffy are waiting to take me to the station, and I've run up to say good-bye." Ellie, dear.

Starting point is 02:09:42 Full of compunction. Lansing pushed aside his writing and started up, but she pressed him back into his seat. No, no. I should never forgive myself if I'd interrupted you. I oughtn't to have come up. Susie didn't want me to. But I had to tell you, dear. I had to thank you.

Starting point is 02:09:57 you. In her dark travelling dress and hat, so discreetly conspicuous, so negligent and so studied, with a veil masking her paint and gloves hiding her rings, she looked younger, simpler, more natural than he had ever seen her. Poor Ellie, such a good fellow, after all. "'To thank me? For what? For being so happy here?' he laughed, taking her hands. She looked at him, laughed back, and flung her arms about his neck. "'For helping me to be so happy else where? You and sir.' Susie, you two blessed darlings, she cried with a kiss on his cheek. Their eyes met for a second, then her arm slipped slowly downward, dropping to her sides. Lansing sat before her like a stone.

Starting point is 02:10:40 Oh, she gasped. Why do you stare so? Didn't you know? They heard Streford's shrill voice on the stairs. Ellie, where the do you saw you? Susie's in the gondola. You'll miss the train. Lansing stood up and caught Mrs. Vandrelin by the wrist. What do you mean? What? What are you talking about?" Oh, nothing! But you were both such bricks about the letters, and when Nelson was here, too— Nick, don't hurt my wrist so! I must run!"

Starting point is 02:11:07 He dropped her hand and stood motionless, staring after her and listening to the click of her high heels as she fled across the room and along the echoing corridor. When he turned back to the table he noticed that a small Morocco case had fallen among his papers. In falling it had opened, and before him, on the pale velvet lining, lay a scarf-pin set with a perfect pearl. He picked the box up, and was about to hasten after Mrs. Vanderlin—it was so like her to shed jewels on her path, when he noticed his own initials on the cover. He dropped the box as if it had been a hot coal, and sat for a long while, gazing at the gold

Starting point is 02:11:42 N. L. which seemed to have burnt itself into his flesh. At last he roused himself and stood up. End of Chapter 9. Part 1. Chapter 10 of the Glims of the Moon This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clette The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton. Part 1, Chapter 10 With a sigh of relief, Susie drew the pins from her hat and threw herself down on the lounge.

Starting point is 02:12:20 The ordeal she had dreaded was over, and Mr. and Mrs. Vanderlin had safely gone there several ways. Poor Ellie was not noted for prudence, and when life smiled on her she was given to betraying her gratitude too openly. But thanks to Susie's vigilance—and no doubt to Strefford's tacit cooperation—the dreaded twenty-four hours were happily over. Nelson van der Leyen departed without a shadow on his brow, and though Elie's, when she came down from bidding Nick goodbye, had seemed to Susie less serene than usual, she became her normal self as soon as it was discovered that the red Morocco bag with her jewel-box was missing. Before it had been discovered in the depths of the gondola, they had reached the station, and there was

Starting point is 02:12:59 just time to thrust her into her sleeper, from which she was seen to wave an unperturbed farewell to her friends. "'Well, my dear, we've been it through,' Streford remarked with a deep breath as the San Moritz Express rolled away. "'Oh!' Susie sighed in mute complicity. Then as if to cover herself betrayal. Poor darling! She does so like what she likes."

Starting point is 02:13:22 "'Yes, even if it's a rotten bounder,' Streford agreed. "'A rotten bounder? Why, I thought, that it was still young Davenant—Lord no, not for the last six months. Didn't she tell you?" Susie felt herself redden. I didn't ask her. Ask her? You mean you didn't let her?

Starting point is 02:13:42 I didn't let her. And I don't let you—Suzie added sharply, as he helped her into the gondola. Oh, all right? I dare say you're right. It simplifies things. Strefford placidly acquiesed. She made no answer, and in silence they could. glided homeward. Now, in the quiet of her own room, Susie lay and pondered on the distance

Starting point is 02:14:04 she had travelled during the last year. Streford had read her mind with his usual penetration. It was true that there had been a time which she would have thought it perfectly natural, that Ellie should tell her everything, that the name of young Davonant's successor should be confided to her as a matter of course. Apparently even Ellie had been obscurely aware of the change, for after a first attempt to force her confidences on Susie, she had contended herself with vague expressions of gratitude, elusive smiles and sighs, and the pretty surprise of the sapphire bangle slipped on to her friend's wrist in the act of their farewell embrace. The bangle was extremely handsome.

Starting point is 02:14:40 Susie, who had an auctioneer's eye for values, knew to a fraction the worth of those steep, convex stones, alternating with small emeralds and brilliance. She was glad to own the bracelet, and enchanted with the effect it produced on her slim wrist. Yet even while admiring it, and rejoicing that it was hers, she had already transmuted it into specie, and reckoned just how far it would go toward the paying of domestic necessities. For whatever came to her now interested her only as something more to be offered up to Nick. The door opened, and Nick came in. Dusk had fallen, and she could not see his face, but something in the jerk of the door-handle roused

Starting point is 02:15:18 her ever-wakeful apprehension. She hurried toward him with outstretched wrist. Look, dearest, wasn't it too darling of Ellie?" She pressed the button of the lamp that lit her dressing-table, and her husband's face started unfamiliarly out of the twilight. She slipped off the bracelet and held it up to him. "'Oh, I can go you one better,' he said with a laugh, and pulling a Morocco case from his pocket he flung it down among the scent-bottles.

Starting point is 02:15:45 Susie opened the case automatically, staring at the pearl because she was afraid to look again at Nick. "'Will he gave you this?' she asked at length. "'Yes. She gave me this.' There was a pause. "'Would you mind telling me?' Lansing continued in the same dead-level tone, "'Exactly for what services we've both been so handsomely paid.' "'The pearl is beautiful,' Susie murmured, to gain time,

Starting point is 02:16:10 while her head spun round with unimaginable terrors. "'So are your sapphires. Though on closer examination, my services would appear to have been valued rather higher than yours. Would you be kind enough to tell me just what they were?" Susie threw her head back and looked at him. "'What on earth are you talking about, Nick? Why should Ellie have given us these things? Do you forget that it's like our giving her a pen-wiper or a button-hook? What is it you are trying to suggest?'

Starting point is 02:16:39 It had cost her a considerable effort to hold his eyes while she put the question. Something had happened between him and Ellie. That was evident. One of those hideous, unforeseeable blunders that may cause one's cleverest plans to crumble at a stroke. And again Susie shuddered at the frailty of her bliss. But her old training stood her in good stead. There had been more than one moment in her past when everything—somebody else is everything—had depended on her keeping a cool head and a clear glance. It would have been a wonder, if now, when she felt her own everything at stake, she had not been able to put up as good a defense. "'What is it?' she repeated impatiently, as Lansing continued to remain silent.

Starting point is 02:17:18 That's what I'm here to ask, he returned, keeping his eyes as steady as she kept hers. There's no reason on earth, as you say, why Ellie shouldn't give us presents, as expensive presents as she likes, and the pearl is a beauty. All I ask is, for what specific services were they given? For allowing for all the absence of scruple that marks the intercourse of truly civilized people, you'll probably agree that there are limits. At least up to now there have been limits. I really don't know what you mean. I suppose Ellie wanted to show that she was grateful to us for looking after Clarissa. But she gave us all this in exchange for that, didn't she?

Starting point is 02:17:54 He suggested, with a sweep of the hand around the beautiful shadowy room, a whole summer of it if we choose. Susie smiled. Apparently she didn't think that enough. What a doting mother. It shows the store she sets upon her child. Well, don't you set store upon Clarissa? Clarissa is exquisite, but her mother didn't mention her on offering me this recompense.

Starting point is 02:18:17 Susie lifted her head again. Whom did she mention? Vanderlin, said Lansing. Vanderlin? Nelson? Yes, and some letters. Something about letters. What is it, my dear, that you and I have been hired to hide from Vanderlin?

Starting point is 02:18:35 Because I should like to know, Nick broke out savagely, if we've been adequately paid. Susie was silent. She needed time to reckon up her forces and study her next move. and her brain was in such a whirl of fear that she could only at last retort what is it that ellie said to you lansing laughed again that's just what you'd like to find out isn't it in order to know the line to take in making your explanation the sneer had an effect that he could not have foreseen and that susy herself had not expected Oh, don't! Don't let us speak to each other like that!" she cried, and sinking down by the dressing-table she hid her face in her hands. It seemed to her now that nothing mattered except that their love for each other, their

Starting point is 02:19:19 faith in each other, should be saved from some unhealable hurt. She was willing to tell Nick everything. She wanted to tell him everything, if only she could be sure of reaching a responsive cord in him. But the scene of the cigars came back to her, and be numbed her. If only she could make him see that nothing was of any account as long as they continued to love each other." His touch fell compassionately on her shoulder.

Starting point is 02:19:42 "'Poor child, don't,' he said. Their eyes met, but his expression checked the smile breaking through her tears. "'Don't you see,' he continued, "'that we've got to have this thing out.' She continued to stare at him through a prism of tears. "'I can't. While you stand up like that!' She stammered childishly. She had cowered down again into a corner of the lounge, but Lansing did not seat himself

Starting point is 02:20:08 at her side. He took a chair facing her, like a collar on the farther side of a stately tea-tray. "'Will that do?' he asked with a stiff smile as if to humor her. "'Nothing will do, as long as you're not you.' "'Not me?' she shook her head wearily. "'What's the use? You accept things theoretically, and then when they happen—' "'What things?

Starting point is 02:20:31 What has happened?' A sudden impatience mastered her. What did he suppose, after all? But you know all about Ellie! We used to talk about her often enough in old times, she said. Ellie and young Davenant. Young Davenant, or the others? Or the others.

Starting point is 02:20:48 But what business was it of ours? Ah, that's just what I think! She cried, springing up with an explosion of relief. Lansing stood up also, but there was no answering light in his face. We're outside of all that. We've nothing to do with it, have we? He pursued. "'Nothing, whatever.'

Starting point is 02:21:05 "'Then what on earth is the meaning of Ellie's gratitude? Gratitude for what we've done about some letters, and about Vanderlin.' "'Oh, not you!' Susie cried involuntarily. "'Not I. Then you?' He came close and took her by the wrist. "'Answer me. Have you been mixed up in some dirty business of Ellie's?' There was a pause.

Starting point is 02:21:24 She found it impossible to speak with that burning grasp on the wrist where the bangle had been. At length he let her go and moved away. "'answer,' he repeated. "'I've told you it was my business and not yours.' He received this in silence. Then he questioned. "'You've been sending letters for her, I suppose. To whom?'

Starting point is 02:21:42 "'Oh, why do you torment me? Nelson was not supposed to know that she'd been away. He left me the letters to post to him once a week. I found them here the night we arrived. It was the price for this.' "'Oh, Nick, say it's been worth it. Say at least that it's been worth it,' she implored him. He stood motionless, unresponding, one hand drummed on the corner of her dressing-table,

Starting point is 02:22:06 making the jeweled bangle dance. How many letters? "'I don't know. Four, five, what does it matter?' "'And once a week, for six weeks.' "'Yes.' "'And you took it all as a matter of course?' "'No, I hated it. But what could I do?' "'What could you do?'

Starting point is 02:22:25 "'When our being together depended on it. "'Oh, Nick, how could you think I'd give you a little? up. Give me up, he echoed. Well, doesn't our being together depend on, and what we can get out of people? And hasn't there always got to be some give and take? Did you ever in your life get anything for nothing? She cried with sudden exasperation. You've lived among these people as long as I have. I suppose it's not the first time. By God, but it is, he exclaimed, Flushing. And that's the difference, the fundamental difference. The difference. Between you and me!

Starting point is 02:23:02 I've never in my life done people's dirty work for them, least of all for favors in return. I suppose you guessed it, or you wouldn't have hidden this beastly business from me." The blood rose to Susie's temples also. Yes, she had guessed it. Instinctively, from the day she had first visited him in his bare lodgings, she had been aware of his stricter standard. But how could she tell him that under his influence her standard had become stricter, too, and that it was as much to hide her humiliation from herself as to escape his anger that she had held her tongue.

Starting point is 02:23:33 "'You knew I wouldn't have stayed here another day if I'd known,' he continued. "'Yes, and then where in the world should we have gone?' "'You mean that, in one way or another, what you call give and take is the price of our remaining together.' "'Well, isn't it?' she faltered. "'Then we'd better part, hadn't we?' he spoke in a low tone thoughtfully and deliberately as if this had been the inevitable conclusion to which their passionate argument had led susy made no answer for a moment she ceased to be conscious of the causes of what had happened the thing itself seemed to have smothered her under its ruins nick wandered away from the dressing-table and stood gazing out of the window at the darkening canal flecked with lights she looked at his back and wondered what would happen if she were to go up to him and fling her arms about him but even if her touch could have broken the spell well, she was not sure she would have chosen that way of breaking it. Beneath her speechless

Starting point is 02:24:30 anguish there burned the half-conscious sense of having been unfairly treated. When they had entered into their queer compact, Nick had known, as well as she on what compromises and concessions the life they were to live together must be based. That he should have forgotten it seemed so unbelievable that she wondered with a new leap of fear, if he were using the wretched ellies' indiscretions, as a means of escape from a tie already wearied of. Suddenly she raised her head with a laugh. After all, you were right when you wanted me to be your mistress." He turned on her with an astonished stare.

Starting point is 02:25:04 You! My mistress! Through all her pain she thrilled with pride of the discovery that such a possibility had long since become unthinkable to him, but she insisted, That day at the Fulmers, Have you forgotten, when you said it would be sheer madness for us to marry? Lansing stood leaning in the embrasure of the window, his eyes fixed on the most the mosaic volutes of the floor. I was right enough when I said it would be sheer madness for us to marry."

Starting point is 02:25:31 He rejoined at length. She sprang up, trembling. "'Well, that's easily settled. Our compact—' Oh, that compact!' he interrupted her with an impatient laugh. "'Aren't you asking me to carry it out now?' "'Because I said we'd better part,' he paused. But the compact—I'd almost forgotten it—was to the effect, wasn't it, that we were to give

Starting point is 02:25:52 each other a helping hand if either of us had a better chance. The thing was absurd, of course, a mere joke. From my point of view, at least, I shall never want any better chance—any other chance. Oh, Nick! Oh, Nick! But then—' She was close to him, his face looming down through her tears, but he put her back. It would have been easy enough, wouldn't it? He rejoined. If we'd been as detachable as all that—as it is, it's going to hurt horribly.

Starting point is 02:26:19 But talking it over won't help. You were right just now, when you asked how else we were going to live. We're born Paris. sights, both, I suppose, or we'd have found out some way long ago. But I find there are things I might put up with for myself at a pinch, and should, probably, in time, that I can't let you put up with for me, ever. Those cigars at Como. Do you suppose I didn't know it was for me? And this, too. Well, it won't do. It won't do. He stopped as if his courage failed him, and she moaned out, "'But you're writing! If your book's a success! My poor Susie! That's all

Starting point is 02:26:55 part of the humbug. We both know that my sort of writing will never pay. And what's the alternative except more of the same kind of baseness, and getting more and more blunted to it? At least, till now, I've minded certain things. I don't want to go on until I find myself taking them for granted." She reached out a timid hand. "'But you needn't ever, dear, if you'd only leave it to me.' He drew back sharply. "'That seems simple to you, I suppose. Well, men are different.' He walked toward the same.

Starting point is 02:27:25 dressing-table and glanced at the little enameled clock which had been one of her wedding presents. Time to dress, isn't it? Shall you mind if I leave you to dine with Streffy and whoever else is coming? I'd rather like a long tramp, but no more talking just at present except with myself." He passed her by and walked rapidly out of the room. Susie stood motionless, unable to lift a detaining hand or to find a final word of appeal. On her disordered dressing-table, Mrs. van der Lund's gift glittered in the rosy lamplight. Yes, men were different, as he said.

Starting point is 02:27:57 End of Chapter 10. Part 1, Chapter 11 of the Glimpses of the Moon. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clette. The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton. Part 1, Chapter 11 But there were necessary accommodations. There always had been.

Starting point is 02:28:29 Nick, in old times, had been the first two. own it. How they had laughed at the perpendicular people—the people who went by on the other side—since you couldn't be a good Samaritan without stooping over and poking into heaps of you didn't know what—and now Nick had suddenly become perpendicular. Susie, that evening at the head of the dinner-table, saw in the breaks between her scudding thoughts the nauseatingly familiar faces of the people she called her friends—strefford, Fred Gillow—a giggling fool of a young Breckenridge of their New York group, who had arrived that day, and Prince Narone Altenari, Ursula's Prince, who in

Starting point is 02:29:08 Ursula's absence had a tiresome cure, had quite simply and naturally preferred to join her husband at Venice. Susie looked from one to the other of them, as if with newly opened eyes, and wondered what life would be like with no faces but such as theirs to furnish it. Ah! Nick had become perpendicular. all, most people went through life making a given set of gestures, like dance steps learned in advance. If your dancing manual told you at a given time to be perpendicular, you had

Starting point is 02:29:38 to be automatically. And that was Nick. "'But what on earth, Susie?' Gillow's puzzled voice suddenly came to her as from immeasurable distances. Are you going to do in this beastly stifling hole for the rest of the summer? "'Ask Nick, my dear fellow,' Strefford answered for her, and, by the way, Where is Nick, if one may ask?' Young Breckenridge interposed, glancing up to take belated note of his host's absence. "'Dining out,' said Susie glibly, "'people turned up, blighting bores that I wouldn't have dared to inflict on you.'

Starting point is 02:30:13 How easily the old familiar fibbing came to her. "'The kind to whom you say, "'Now mind you look me up, and then spend the rest of your life dodging like our good hickses,' Strefford amplified. The Hicks's! But, of course, Nick was with the Hickses. It went through Susie like a knife, and the dinner she had so lightly fibbed became a hateful truth.

Starting point is 02:30:37 She said to herself feverishly. I'll call him up there after dinner, and then he will feel silly. But only to remember that the Hickses, in their medieval setting, had, of course, sternly denied themselves a telephone. The fact of Nick's temporary and accessibility, since he was now convinced that he really was at the Hickses, turned her distress into a mocking irritation. Ah, that was where he carried his principles, his standards, or whatever he called, the new set of rules he had suddenly begun to apply to the old game.

Starting point is 02:31:08 It was stupid of her not to have guessed it at once. Oh, the Hicks'es! Nick adores them, you know. He's going to marry Coral next, she laughed out, flashing the joke around the table with all her practised flippancy. Lord! gasped Gillo, inarticulate. while the prince displayed the unsurprised smile which Susie accused him of practicing every

Starting point is 02:31:29 morning with his Mueller exercises. Suddenly Susie felt Strefford's eyes upon her. "'What's the matter with me? Too much rouge,' she asked, passing her arm and his as they left the table. "'No, too little. Look at yourself,' he answered in a low tone. "'Oh, and these cadaverous old looking-glasses everybody looks fished up from the canal.' She jerked away from him to spin down the long floor of the salon, hands on hips, whistling a ragtime tune. The Prince and young Breckenridge caught her up, and she spun back with the latter, while

Starting point is 02:32:05 Gillo, it was believed to be his sole accomplishment, snapped his fingers in simulation of bones, and shuffled after the couple on stamping feet. Susie sank down on a sofa near the window, fanning herself with a floating scarf, and the men foraged for cigarettes and rang for the gondoliers, who came in with trays. of cooling drinks." "'Well, what next? This ain't all, is it?' Gillo presently queried, from the divan where he lulled half asleep with dripping brow.

Starting point is 02:32:34 Fred Gillo, like nature, aboard a void, and it was inconceivable to him that every hour of man's rational existence should not furnish a motive for getting up and going somewhere else. Young Breckenridge, who took the same view, and the prince, who earnestly desired to, reminded the company that somebody they knew was giving a dance that night at the Lido." Streford vetoed the Lido, on the ground that he'd just come back from there, and proposed that they should go out on foot for a change.

Starting point is 02:33:01 "'Why not? What fun!' Susie was up in an instant. Let's pay somebody a surprise visit. I don't know who. Streffy. Prince, can't you think of somebody who'd be particularly annoyed by our arrival?" No.

Starting point is 02:33:15 The list's too long. Let's start and choose our victim on the way," Streford suggested. Susie ran to her room for a light cloak, and without changing her high-heeled satin slippers went out with the four men. There was no moon—thank heaven there was no moon. But the stars hung over them as close as fruit, and secret fragrances dropped on them from garden walls. Susie's heart tightened with memories of Como.

Starting point is 02:33:42 They wandered on, laughing and dawdling, and yielding to the drifting whims of aimless people. Presently someone proposed, taking a nearer look at the façade. of San Giorgio Maggiore, and they hailed a gondola, and were rowed out through the bobbing lanterns and twanging guitar-strings. When they landed again, Gillow, always acutely bored by scenery, and particularly resentful of midnight aesthetics, suggested a night-club near at hand, which was said to be jolly. The Prince warmly supported this proposal, but on Susie's curt refusal they started their

Starting point is 02:34:15 rambling again, circuitously threading the vague, dark lanes, and making for the Piazza and Florian's ices. Suddenly at a Calais corner, unfamiliar and yet somehow known to her, Susie paused to stare about her with a laugh. "'But the Hickses! Surely that's their palace! And the windows all lit up! They must be giving a party! Oh, do! Let's go up and surprise them!' The idea struck her as one of the drolless that she had ever originated, and she wondered that her companion should respond to languidly. "'I can't see anything very thrilling and surprising the Hickses,' Gillo protested. defrauded of possible excitements. And Stratford added, "'It would surprise me more than them if I went.'

Starting point is 02:34:59 But Susie insisted feverishly. "'You don't know. It may be awfully exciting. I have an idea that Coral's announcing her engagement—her engagement to Nick. Come, give me a hand, Streff, and you the other Fred.' She began to hum the first bars of Donna Anna's entrance in Don Giovanni. "'Pity I haven't got a black cloak and a mask.' "'No, your face will do.' said Strefford, laying his hand on her arm. She drew back, flushing crimson. Breckenridge and the Prince had sprung on ahead, and Gillo, lumbering after them, was already half-way up the stairs.

Starting point is 02:35:33 "'My face? My face? What's the matter with my face? Do you know any reason why I shouldn't go to the Hickses to-night?' Susie broke out in sudden wrath. "'None whatever. Except that if you do it will bore me to death,' Streford returned with serenity. "'Oh, in that case!' "'No, come on. I hear those fools banging on the door already.' He caught her by the hand, and they started up the stairway. But on the first landing she paused, twisted her hand out of his, and without a word, without

Starting point is 02:36:05 a conscious thought, dashed down the long flight, across the great resounding vestibule, and out into the darkness of the Calais. Streford caught up with her, and they stood a moment silent in the night. "'Susie, what the devil's the matter?' The matter? Can't you see? That I'm tired, that I've got a splitting headache, that you bore me to death—one and all of you!" She turned and laid a deprecating hand on his arm. "'Streffy, old dear, don't mind me, but for God's sake find a gondola and send me home.'

Starting point is 02:36:35 "'Alone?' "'Alone.' It was never any concern of strefs if people wanted to do things he did not understand, and she knew that she could count on his obedience. They walked on in silence to the next canal, and he was never. he picked up a passing gondola and put her in it. "'Now go and amuse yourself,' she called after him, as the boat shot under the nearest bridge. Anything—anything to be alone—away from the folly and futility that would be all she had left

Starting point is 02:37:04 if Nick were to drop out of her life. But perhaps he has dropped already—droped for good, she thought, as she set her foot on the Vanderlin threshold. The short summer night was already growing transparent. A newborn breeze stirred the soiled surface of the water, and sent it lapping freshly against the old palace doorways. Nearly two o'clock. Nick had no doubt come back long ago.

Starting point is 02:37:29 Susie hurried up the stairs, reassured by the mere thought of his nearness. She knew that when their eyes and their lips met, it would be impossible for anything to keep them apart. The gondolier dozing on the landing roused himself to receive her, and to proffer two envelopes. The upper one was a telegram for Streford. She threw it down again and paused under the lantern hanging from the painted vault, the other envelope in her hand. The address it bore was in Nick's writing.

Starting point is 02:37:54 "'When did the Signor leave this for me? Has he gone out again?' "'Gone out again, but the Signor had not come in since dinner. Or that the gondolier was positive, as he had been on duty all the evening. A boy had brought the letter, an unknown boy. He had left it without waiting. It must have been about half an hour after the signora had herself gone out with her guests.' Susie, hardly hearing him, fled on to her own room, and there, beside the very lamp which,

Starting point is 02:38:21 two months before, had illuminated Ellie Vanderlin's fatal letter, she opened Nix. "'Don't think me hard on you, dear, but I've got to work this thing out by myself. The sooner the better, don't you agree? So I'm taking the express to Milan presently. You'll get a proper letter in a day or two. I wish I could think now of something to say that would show you I'm not a brute. But I can't. N. L.

Starting point is 02:38:46 There was not much of the night left in which to sleep, even had a semblance of sleep been achievable. The letter fell from Susie's hands, and she crept out onto the balcony and cowered there, her forehead pressed against the balustrade, the dawn wind stirring in her thin laces. Through her closed eyelids and the tightly clenched fingers pressed against them, she felt the penetration of the growing light, the relentless advance of another day, a day without purpose, and without meaning, a day without Nick. At length she dropped her hands, and staring from dry lids, saw a rim of fire above the roofs

Starting point is 02:39:23 across the Grand Canal. She sprang up, ran back into her room, and dragging the heavy curtains shut across the windows, stumbled over in the darkness to the lounge, and fell among its pillows, faced downward, groping, delving for a deeper night. She started up, stiff and aching, to see a golden wedge of sun on the floor at her feet, She had slept, then. Was it possible? It must be eight or nine o'clock already. She had slept, slept like a drunkard, with that letter on the table at her elbow. Ah, now she remembered. She had dreamed that the letter was a dream. But there inexorably it lay, and she picked it up, and

Starting point is 02:40:06 slowly, painfully re-read it. Then she tore it into shreds, hunted for a match, and kneeling before the empty hearth, as though she were accomplishing some funeral. right. She burnt every shred of it to ashes. Nick would thank her for that some day. After a bath and a hurried toilet, she began to be aware of feeling younger and more hopeful. After all, Nick had merely said that he was going away for a day or two, and the letter was not cruel. There were tender things in it, showing through the curt words. She smiled at herself a little stiffly in the glass, put a dash of red on her colorless lips, and rang for the maid. "'Coffee, Giovanna, please. And will you tell me,

Starting point is 02:40:45 Mr. Strefford that I should like to see him presently." If Nick really kept to his intentions of staying away for a few days, she must trump up some explanation of his absence. But her mind refused to work, and the only thing she could think of was to take Streford into her confidence. She knew that he could be trusted in a real difficulty. His impish malice transformed itself into a resourceful ingenuity when his friends required it.

Starting point is 02:41:09 The maid stood looking at her with a puzzled gaze, and Susie somewhat sharply repeated her order. But don't wake him on purpose," she added, foreseeing the probable effect on Streford's temper. "'But, Signora, the gentleman is already out.' "'Already out?' Streford, who could hardly be routed from his bed before luncheon-time. "'Is it so late?'

Starting point is 02:41:30 Susie cried, incredulous. After nine, and the gentleman took the eight o'clock train for England, Gervaiso said he had received a telegram. He left word that he would write to the Signora. The door closed upon the maid, and Susie continued to gaze at her painted image in the glass, as if she had been trying to outstair an importunate stranger. There was no one left for her to take counsel of, then. No one but poor Fred Gillow.

Starting point is 02:41:56 She made a grimace at the idea. But what on earth could have summoned Strefford back to England? End of Chapter 11. Part 1, Chapter 12 of the Glimpses of the Moon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clette The Glimpses of the Moon By Edith Wharton

Starting point is 02:42:24 Part 1, Chapter 12 Nick Lansing in the Milan Express was roused by the same bar of sunshine lying across his knees. He yawned, looked with disgust at his stolidly sleeping neighbors, and wondered why he had decided to go to Milan, and what on earth he should do when he got there. The difficulty about trenchant decisions

Starting point is 02:42:46 was that the next morning they generally left one facing a void. When the train drew into the station at Milan, he scrambled out, got some coffee, and having drunk it decided to continue his journey to Genoa. The state of being carried passively onward, postponed action and dulled thought, and after twelve hours of furious mental activity, that was exactly what he wanted. He fell into a doze again, waking now and then to haggard intervals of more thinking, and then dropping off to the clank and rattle of the train. Inside his head, in his waking intervals, the same clanking and grinding of wheels and chains went on unremittingly. He had done all his

Starting point is 02:43:25 lucid thinking within an hour of leaving the Palazzo Vanderlin the night before. Since then, his brain had simply continued to revolve indefatigably about the same old problem. His cup of coffee, instead of clearing his thoughts, had merely accelerated their pace. At Genoa he wandered about in the hot streets. bought a cheap suitcase and some underclothes, and then went down to the port in search of a little hotel he remembered there. An hour later he was sitting in the coffee-room, smoking and glancing vaguely over the papers while he waited for dinner, when he became aware of being timidly but intently examined by

Starting point is 02:43:59 a small, round-faced gentleman with eyeglasses who sat alone at the adjoining table. "'Hello? Buttles!' Lansing exclaimed, recognizing with surprise the recalcitrant secretary, who had resisted Miss Hicks's endeavor to convert him to Tiepolo. Mr. Buttles, blushing to the roots of his scant hair, half rose and bowed ceremoniously. Nick Lansing's first feeling was of annoyance at being disturbed in his solitary broodings, his next, of relief at having to postpone them even to converse with Mr. Buttles. "'No idea you were here. Is the yacht in the harbor?' he asked, remembering that the ibis must be just about to spread her wings.

Starting point is 02:44:36 Mr. Buttles, at salute behind his chair, signed a mute negation, for the moment he seemed to embarrass to speak. "'Ah, you're here as an advance guard. I remember now. I saw Miss Hicks in Venice the day before yesterday,' Lansing continued, dazed at the thought that hardly forty-eight hours had passed since his encounter with Coral in the Scalcy. Mr. Butler, instead of speaking, had tentatively approached his table.

Starting point is 02:45:03 May I take this seat for a moment, Mr. Lansing? Thank you. No, I am not here as an advance guard, though I believe the ibis is due some time to-morrow. He cleared his throat, wiped his eyeglasses on a silk handkerchief, replaced them on his nose, and went on solemnly. Perhaps, to clear up any possible misunderstanding, I ought to say that I am no longer in the employ of Mr. Hicks. Lansing glanced at him sympathetically. It was clear that he suffered horribly and impartial to him. imparting this information, though his compact face did not lend itself to any dramatic display

Starting point is 02:45:38 of emotion." "'Really?' Nick smiled and then ventured. "'I hope it's not owing to conscientious objections to Tiepolo.' Mr. Buttle's blush became a smouldering agony. "'Ah, Miss Hicks, mentioned to you—told you—' "'No, Mr. Lansing, I am principled against the effete art of Tiepolo, and of all his contemporaries, I confess.

Starting point is 02:46:01 But if Miss Hicks chooses to surrender herself momentarily to the unwholesome spell of the Italian decadence, it is not for me to protest or to criticize. Her intellectual and aesthetic range so far exceeds my humble capacity that it would be ridiculous, unbecoming. He broke off, and once more wiped a faint moisture from his eyeglasses. It was evident that he was suffering from a distress which he longed and yet dreaded to communicate. But Nick made no farther effort to bridge the gulf of his own preoccupations, And Mr. Buttles, after an expectant pause, went on,

Starting point is 02:46:34 "'If you see me here to-day, it is only because, after a somewhat abrupt departure, I find myself unable to take leave of our friends without a last look at the ibis—the scene of so many stimulating hours.' "'But I must beg you,' he added earnestly, "'should you see Miss Hicks, or any other member of the party, to make no allusion to my presence in Genoa?' "'I wish,' said Mr. Buttles with simplicity, to preserve the strictest incognito. Lansing glanced at him kindly. Oh, but isn't that a little unfriendly?

Starting point is 02:47:09 No other course is possible, Mr. Lansing, said the ex-Secretary, and I commit myself to your discretion. The truth is, if I am here it is not to look once more at the ibis, but at Miss Hicks, once only. You will understand me, and appreciate what I am suffering. He bowed again. and trotted away on his small, tightly-booted feet, pausing on the threshold to say, "'From the first it was hopeless,' before he disappeared through the glass doors.

Starting point is 02:47:40 A gleam of commiseration flashed through Nek's mind. There was something quaintly poignant in the sight of the brisk and efficient Mr. Buttles, reduced to a limp image of unrequited passion, and what a painful surprise to the Hicks is to be thus suddenly deprived of the secretary, who possessed the foreign languages. Mr. Beck kept the accounts, and settled with the—and the hotel-keepers, but it was Mr. Buttle's loftier task to entertain in their own tongue, the unknown geniuses who flocked about the Hickses, and Nick could imagine how disconcerting his departure must be on the eve of their Grecian cruise, which Mrs. Hicks would certainly call an odyssey. The next moment the vision of Coral's hopeless suitor had faded, and Nick was

Starting point is 02:48:20 once more spinning around on the wheel of his own woes. The night before, when he had sent his note to Susie, from a little restaurant close to Palazzo Vanderlin that they often patron He had done so with the firm intention of going away for a day or two in order to collect his wits and think over the situation. But after his letter had been entrusted to the landlord's little son, who was a particular friend of Susie's, Nick had decided to await the lad's return. The messenger had not been bidden to ask for an answer, but Nick, knowing the friendly and inquisitive Italian mind, was almost sure that the boy, in the hope of catching a glimpse

Starting point is 02:48:54 of Susie, would linger about while the letter was carried up, and he pictured the maid knocking in his wife's darkened room, and Susie dashing some powder on her tear-stained face before she turned on the light. Poor foolish child! The boy had returned rather sooner than Nick expected, and he had brought no answer, but merely the statement that the Signora was out—that everybody was out. Everybody? The Signora and the four gentlemen who were dining at the palace—they all went out together

Starting point is 02:49:22 on foot soon after dinner. There was no one to whom I could give the note, but the gondolier on the landing, for the signora had said she would be very late. and had sent the maid to bed, and the maid had, of course, gone out immediately with her enamorato." "'Ah,' said Nick, slipping his reward into the boy's hand, and walking out of the restaurant. Susie had gone out, gone out with their usual band, as she did every night in these sultry summer weeks, gone out after her talk with Nick, as if nothing had happened, as if his whole world and hers had not crashed in ruins at their feet.

Starting point is 02:49:56 Ah, poor Susie! After all, she had merely obeyed the instinct of self-preservation, the old hard habit of keeping up, going ahead and hiding her troubles. Unless, indeed, the habit had already engendered indifference, and it had become as easy for her as for most of her friends, to pass from drama to dancing, from sorrow to the cinema. What of soul was left, he wondered. His train did not start till midnight, and after leaving the restaurant, Nick tramped

Starting point is 02:50:25 the sultry byways till his tired legs brought him to a standstill under the vine-covered purgola of a gondolier's wine-shop at a landing close to the piazzetta. There he could absorb the cooling drinks until it was time to go to the station. It was after eleven, and he was beginning to look about for a boat, when a black prow pushed up to the steps, and with much chaff and laughter a party of young people in evening dress jumped out. Nick, from under the darkness of the vine, saw that there was only one lady among them, and it did not need the lamp above the landing to reveal her identity.

Starting point is 02:50:59 Shelly, bare-headed and laughing, a light scarps slipping from her bare shoulders, a cigarette between her fingers, took Strefford's arm and turned in the direction of Florians, with Gillo, the Prince, and young Breckenridge in her wake. Nick had relived this rapid scene hundreds of times during his hours in the train, and his aimless trampings through the streets of Genoa. In that squirrel-wheel of a world of his and Susie's you had to keep going, or drop out, and Susie it was evident had chosen to keep going. Under the lamp-flare on the landing he had had a good look at her face, and he had seen that

Starting point is 02:51:34 the mask of paint and powder was carefully enough adjusted to hide any ravages the scene between them might have left. He even fancied that she had dropped a little atropine into her eyes. There was no time to spare if he meant to catch the midnight train, and no gondola inside but that which his wife had just left. He sprang into it, and bade the gondolier carry him to the station. The cushions, as he leaned back, gave out a breath of her scent. And in the glare of electric light at the station he saw at his feet a rose which had fallen from her dress. He ground his heel into it as he got out.

Starting point is 02:52:08 There it was then. That was the last picture he was to have of her. For he knew now that he was not going back—at least not to take up their life together. He supposed he should have to see her once to talk things over, settle something for their future. He'd been sincere in saying that he bore her no ill-will, only that he could never go back into that slough again. If he did, he knew he would inevitably be drawn under, slipping downward from concession to concession.

Starting point is 02:52:35 The noises of a hot summer night in the port of Genoa would have kept the most carefree from slumber. But though Nick lay awake he did not notice them, for the tumult in his brain was more deafening. Dawn brought a negative relief, and out of sheer weariness he dropped into a heavy sleep. When he woke it was nearly noon, and from his window he saw the well-known outline of the the ibis, standing up dark against the glitter of the harbor. He had no fear of meeting her owners, who had doubtless long since landed and be taken themselves to cooler and more fashionable regions.

Starting point is 02:53:06 Oddly enough, the fact seemed to accentuate his loneliness, his sense of having no one on earth to turn to. He dressed, and wandered out disconsolately to pick up a cup of coffee in some shady corner. As he drank his coffee his thoughts gradually cleared. It became obvious to him that he had behaved like a madman or a petulant child. He preferred to think it was like a madman. If he and Susie were to separate there was no reason why it should not be done decently and quietly, as such transactions were habitually managed among people of their kind.

Starting point is 02:53:37 It seemed grotesque to introduce melodrama into their little world of unruffled Sybarites, and he felt inclined now to smile at the incongruity of his gesture. But suddenly his eyes filled with tears. The future without Susie was unbearable, inconceivable. Why, after all, should they separate? That's the question, her soft face seemed close to his, and that slight lift of the upper lip that made her smile so exquisite. Well, he would go back.

Starting point is 02:54:05 But not with any presence of going to talk things over, come to an agreement, wind up their joint life like a business association. No. If he went back, he would go without conditions, for good, forever. Only what about the future? What about the not far distant day when the wedding-checks would have been specks? and Granny's pearls sold, and nothing left except unconcealed and unconditional dependence on rich friends the role of the acknowledged hangers-on.

Starting point is 02:54:34 Was there no other possible solution? No new way of ordering their lives? No. There was none. He could not picture Susie out of her setting of luxury and leisure, could not picture either of them living such a life as the Nat Fulmer's, for instance. He remembered the shabby, untidy bungalow in New Hampshire, the slatternly servants, un-eatable food, and ubiquitous children. How could he ask Susie to share such a life with him?

Starting point is 02:55:00 If he did, she would probably have the sense to refuse. Their alliance had been based on a moment's midsummer madness. Now the score must be paid. He decided to write. If they were to part he could not trust himself to see her. He called a waiter, asked for pen and paper, and pushed aside of pile of unread newspapers on the corner of the table where his coffee had been served. As he did so, his eye lit on a daily mail of two days before. As a pretext for postponing his letter, he took up the paper and glanced down the first page. He read, Tragic yachting accident in the Solent, the Earl of Alteringham, and his son, Viscount Dombley,

Starting point is 02:55:38 drowned in a midnight collision. Both bodies recovered. He read on. He grasped the fact that the disaster had happened the night before he had left Venice, and that, as the result of a fog in the Solent, their old friend Strefer was now Earl of Altringham, and possessor of one of the largest private fortunes in England. It was vertiginous to think of their old and pecunius Streff as the hero of such an adventure. And what irony in that double turn of the wheel, which in one day had plunged him, Nick Lansing,

Starting point is 02:56:07 into nethermost misery, while it tossed the other to the stars? With an intents or precision he saw again Susie's descent from the gondola at the Calais steps, the sound of her laughter and of Strefford's chaff, the way she had caught his arm and clung to it, sweeping the other men on in her train. Strefford! Susie, and Strefford! More than once Nick had noticed the softer inflections of his friend's voice when he spoke to Susie, the brooding look in his lazy eyes when they rested on her.

Starting point is 02:56:36 In the security of his wedded bliss Nick had made light of those signs. The only real jealousy he had felt had been of Fred Gillow, because of his unlimited power to satisfy a woman's whims. Yet Nick knew that such material advantages would never again suffice for Susie. With Strefford it was different. She had delighted in his society while he was notoriously ineligible. Might not she find him irresistible now? The forgotten terms of their bridal compact came back to Nick, the absurd agreement on which

Starting point is 02:57:04 he and Susie had solemnly pledged their faith. But was it so absurd, after all? It had been Susie's suggestion—not his, thank God. And perhaps, in making it she had been more serious than he imagined. Perhaps, even if their rupture had not occurred, Strefford's sudden honours might have caused her to ask for her freedom. Money, luxury, fashion, pleasure. Those were the four cornerstones of her existence.

Starting point is 02:57:29 He had always known it. She herself had always acknowledged it, even in their last dreadful talk together, and for once he had gloried in her frankness. How could he ever have imagined that, to have her fill of these things, she would not in time stoop lower than she had yet stooped? Perhaps in giving her up to Streford he might be saving her. At any rate, the taste of the past was now so bitter to him that he would not, that he was moved to thank whatever gods there were for pushing that mortuary paragraph

Starting point is 02:57:56 under his eye." "'Susie, dear,' he wrote, "'the fate seemed to have taken our future in hand, and spared us the trouble of unraveling it. If I have sometimes been selfish enough to forget the conditions on which you agreed to marry me, they have come back to me during these two days of solitude. You've given me the best a man can have, and nothing else will ever be worth much to me. But since I haven't the ability to provide you with what you want, I recognize that I've no right to stand in your way. We must owe no more Venetian palaces to underhand services.

Starting point is 02:58:26 I see by the newspapers that Streff can now give you as many palaces as you want. Let him have the chance. I fancy he'll jump at it, and he's the best man in sight. I wish I were in his shoes. I'll write again in a day or two when I've collected my wits, and can give you an address. Nick." He added a line on the subject of their modest funds, put the letter into an envelope, and addressed it to Mrs. Nicholas Lansing. As he did so, he reflected that it was the first time he had ever written his wife's married name. "'Well, by God, no other woman shall have it after her,' he vowed, as he groped in his pocket-book for a stamp. He stood up with a stretch of weariness, the heat was stifling, and put the letter in his pocket. "'I'll post it

Starting point is 02:59:12 myself. It's safer,' he thought. "'And then what in the name of goodness shall I do next, I wonder?' He jammed his hat down in his head, and walked out into the sun-blaze. As he was turning away from the square by the General Post Office, a white parasol waved from a passing cab, and Coral Hicks leaned forward with an outstretched hand. "'I knew I'd find you,' she triumphed. "'I've been driving up and down in this broiling sun for hours, shopping and watching for you at the same time.' He stared at her blankly, too bewildered even to wonder how she knew he was in Genoa,

Starting point is 02:59:47 And she continued with the kind of shy imperiousness that always made him feel in her presence, like a member of an orchestra under a masterful baton. Now please get right into this carriage, and don't keep me roasting here another minute." To the cab-driver she called out, "'Al Porto!' Nick Lansing sank down beside her. As he did so, he noticed a heap of bundles at her feet, and felt that he had simply added one more to the number. He supposed that she was taking her spoils to the ibis, and that he would be carried up to

Starting point is 03:00:15 the deck-house to be displayed with the others. Well, it would all help to pass the day, and by night he would have reached some kind of a decision about his future. On the third day after Nick's departure, the post brought to the Palazzo Vanderlin three letters for Mrs. Lansing. The first to arrive was a word from Strefford, scribbled in the train, and posted at Turin. In it he briefly said that he'd been called home by the dreadful accident of which Susie had probably read in the daily papers.

Starting point is 03:00:43 He added that he would write again from England, and then, in a blotted postage, script. I wanted uncommonly badly to see you for good-bye, but the hour was impossible. Regards to Nick, do write me just a word to Walteringham." The other two letters which came together in the afternoon were both from Genoa. Susie scanned the addresses and fell upon the one in her husband's writing. Her hand trembled so much that for a moment she could not open the envelope. When she had done so, she devoured the letter in a flash, and then sat and brooded over the

Starting point is 03:01:14 outspread page as it lay on her knee. It might mean so many things. She could read into it so many harrowing alternatives of indifference and despair, of irony and tenderness. Was he suffering tortures when he wrote it, or seeking only to inflict them upon her? Or did the words represent his actual feelings, no more and no less? And did he really intend her to understand that he considered it his duty, to abide by the letter of their preposterous compact?

Starting point is 03:01:41 He had left her in wrath and indignation. Yet, as the closer scrutiny revealed, there was not a war. word of reproach in his brief lines. Perhaps that was why in the last issue they seemed so cold to her. She shivered and turned to the other envelope. The large stilted characters, though half familiar, called up no definite image. She opened the envelope and discovered a postcard of the ibis, canvas spread, bounding over a rippled sea. On the back was written, "'So awfully dear of you to lend us Mr. Lansing for a little cruise, you may count on our taking the best of care of him.

Starting point is 03:02:16 Coral. End of Chapter 12. End of Part 2. Chapter 13. Of the Glimpses of the Moon. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clette. The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton. Part 2. Chapter 13.

Starting point is 03:02:44 When Violet Melrose had said to Susie Branch the winter before in New York, But why on earth don't you and Nick go to my little place at Versailles for the honeymoon? I'm off to China, and you could have it to yourselves all summer." The offer had been tempting enough to make the lovers waver. It was such an artless, ingenuous little house, so full of the demoralizing simplicity of great wealth, that it seemed to Susie just the kind of place in which to take the first steps in renunciation. But Nick had objected that Paris, at that time of year, would be swarming with acquaintances

Starting point is 03:03:17 who would hunt them down at all hour. And Susie's own experience had led her to remark that there was nothing the very rich enjoyed more than taking potluck with the very poor. They therefore gave Strefford's villa the preference, with an inward proviso, on Susie's part, that Violet's house might very conveniently serve their purpose at another season. These thoughts were in her mind as she drove up to Mrs. Melrose's door on a rainy afternoon late in August. Her boxes piled high on the roof of the cab she had taken at the station.

Starting point is 03:03:46 She had travelled straight through from Venice, stopping in Milan just long enough to pick up a reply to the telegram she had dispatched to the perfect housekeeper, whose permanent presence enabled Mrs. Melrose to say, "'Oh, when I'm sick of everything I just rush off without warning to my little shanty at Versailles, and live there all alone on scrambled eggs.' The perfect housekeeper had replied to Susie's enquiry, "'I'm sure Mrs. Melrose most happy, and Susie, without further thought, had jumped into a Versailles train, and now stood in the thin rain before the sphinx guarded threshold of the pavilion. The revolving year had brought round the season at which Mrs. Melrose's house might be

Starting point is 03:04:23 convenient. No visitors were to be feared at Versailles at the end of August, and though Susie's reasons for seeking solitude were so remote from those she had once prefigured, they were none the less cogent. To be alone. Alone. After those first exposed days when, in the persistent presence of Fred Gillow and his satellites, and in the mocking radiance of late summer on the lagoon. She had fumed and turned about in her agony like a trapped animal in a cramping cage.

Starting point is 03:04:51 To be alone had seemed the only respite—the one craving—to be alone somewhere in a setting as unlike as possible to the sensual splendors of Venice—under skies as unlike its azure roof. If she could have chosen she would have crawled away into a dingy inn in a rainy northern town, where she had never been, and no one knew her. Failing that, unobtainable luxury, here she was on the threshold of an empty house, in a deserted place, under lowering skies. She had shaken off Fred Gillow, sulkily departing for his moor, where she had half promised to join him in September. The Prince, young Breckenridge, and the few remaining survivors of the Venetian group, had dispersed in the direction of the

Starting point is 03:05:32 Engadine, or Burrits, and now she could at least collect her wits, take stock of herself, and prepare the countenance with which she was to face the next stage in her career. Thank God it was raining at Versailles. The door opened. She heard voices in the drawing-room, and a slender, languishing figure appeared on the threshold. "'Darling!' Violet Melrose cried in an embrace, drawing her into the dusky-perfumed room. "'But I thought you were in China!' Susie stammered. "'In China! In China!' Mrs. Melrose stared with dreamy eyes, and Susie remembered her drifting, disorganized life, a life more planless, more inexplicable. than that of any of the other ephemeral beings blown about upon the same winds of pleasure.

Starting point is 03:06:18 "'Well, madam, I thought so myself, until I got a wire from Mrs. Melrose last evening,' remarked the perfect housekeeper, following with Susie's handbag. Mrs. Melrose clutched her cavernous temples in her attenuated hands. "'Of course! Of course I had meant to go to China! No, India!' "'But I've discovered a genius, and genius, you know!' Unable to complete her thought, she sank down upon a pilloway Devon, stretched out an arm, cried, "'Folmer! Fulmer!' And while Susie Lansing stood in the middle of the room with widening eyes, a man emerged from a more deeply cushioned and scented twilight of some inner apartment, and she saw with surprise, Nat Fulmer, the good Nat Fulmer of the New Hampshire bungalow, and the ubiquitous

Starting point is 03:07:05 progeny, standing before her in lordly ease, his hands in his pockets, a cigarette between his lips, his feet solidly planted in the insidious depths of one of Violet Melrose's white leopard skins. "'Susie!' he shouted with open arms, and Mrs. Melrose murmured. "'You didn't know, then. You hadn't heard of his masterpieces.' In spite of herself, Susie burst into a laugh. "'Is not your genius?' Mrs. Melrose looked at her reproachfully. Fulmer laughed.

Starting point is 03:07:35 "'No, I'm graces. But Mrs. Melrose has been our providence and—' "'Providence,' his hostess interrupted. "'Don't talk as if you were at a prayer-meeting. He had an exhibition in New York. It was the most fabulous success. He's come abroad to make studies for the decoration of my music-room in New York. Ursula Gillow has given her garden-house at Rosalind to do, and Mrs. Bockeheimer's ballroom. Oh, Fulmer, where are the cartoons?' She sprang up, tossed about some fashion papers heaped on a lacquer table, and sank back, exhausted by the effort.

Starting point is 03:08:10 i'd got as far as brindisi i've travelled day and night to be here to meet him she declared but you darling and she held out a caressing hand to susy i'm forgetting to ask if you've had tea an hour later over the tea-table susy already felt herself mysteriously reabsorbed into what had so long been her native element ellie van der lind had brought a breath of it to venice but susy was then nourished on another air the air of nick's presence and personality now that she was abandoned, left again to her own devices, she felt herself suddenly at the mercy of the influences from which she thought she had escaped. In the queer, social whirligigig from which she had so lately fled, it seemed naturally enough that a shake of the box should have tossed Nat Fulmer into celebrity, and sent Violet Melrose chasing back from the ends of the earth to bask in his success. Susie knew that Mrs. Melrose belonged to the class of moral parasites, for in that strange

Starting point is 03:09:07 world the parts were sometimes reversed, and the wealthy preyed upon the pauper. Wherever there was a reputation to baton, there poor Violet appeared, a harmless vampire in pearls, who sought only to feed on the notoriety which all her millions could not create for her. Anyone less versed than Susie in the shallow mysteries of little world would have seen in Violet Melrose a baleful enchantress, in Nat Fulmer, her helpless victim. Susie knew better. Violet, poor Violet, was not even that. The insignificant Ellie Vanderlin, with her brief, trivial passions, her artless mixture of amorous and social interests, was a woman with a purpose, a creature who fulfilled herself. But Violet was only a drifting interrogation.

Starting point is 03:09:52 And what of Fulmer? Mustering with new eyes, his short, sturdily built figure, his nondescript bearded face, and the eyes that dreamed and wandered, and then suddenly sank into you like claws. Susie seemed to have found the key to all his years of dogged toil, his indifference to neglect, indifference to poverty, indifference to the needs of his growing family. Yes. For the first time she saw that he looked commonplace enough to be a genius. Was a genius, perhaps, even though it was violet Melrose who affirmed it. Susie looked steadily at Fulmer.

Starting point is 03:10:25 Their eyes met, and he smiled at her faintly through his beard. Yes. I did discover him. I did, Mrs. Melrose was insisting, from the depths of the black velvet divan in which she lay sunk like a wan near it in a midnight sea. You mustn't believe a word that Ursula Gillow tells you, about having pounced on his spring snowstorm in a dark corner of the American artist's exhibition. Skide, if you please. They skied him less than a year ago. And naturally, Ursa never in her life looked higher than the first line at a picture show. And now she actually pretend.

Starting point is 03:11:02 Oh, for pity sake, don't say it doesn't matter, Fulmer. Your saying that just encourages her and makes people think she did, where in reality, anyone who saw me at the exhibition on Varnishing Day. Who? Well, Eddie Breckenridge, for instance. He was in Egypt, you say? Perhaps he was, as if one could remember the people about one, when suddenly one comes upon a great work of art as St. Paul did, didn't he?

Starting point is 03:11:28 And the scales fell from his eyes. Well, that's exactly what happened. to me that day. And Ursula, everybody knows, was down at Rosalind at the time and didn't come up for the opening of the exhibition at all. And Fulmer sits there and laughs and says it doesn't matter, and that he'll paint another picture any day for me to discover. Susie had wrung the doorbell with a hand trembling with eagerness, eagerness to be alone, to be quiet, to stare her situation in the face, and collect herself before she came out again among her kind. She had stood on the doorstep, cowering among her bags.

Starting point is 03:12:02 counting the instance till a step sounded and the doorknob turned, letting her in from the searching glare of the outer world. And now she had sat for an hour in Violet's drawing-room, in the very house where her honeymoon might have been spent, and no one had asked her where she had come from, or why she was alone, or what was the key to the tragedy written on her shrinking face. That was the way of the world they lived in. Nobody questioned, nobody wondered any more, because nobody had time to remember. The old risk of prying curiosity, of malicious gossip, was virtually over.

Starting point is 03:12:35 One was left with one's drama, one's disaster on one's hands, because there was nobody to stop and notice the little shrouded object one was carrying. As Susie watched the two people before her, each so frankly unaffected by her presence, Violet Melrose so engrossed in her feverish pursuit of notoriety, Fulmer so plunged in the golden sea of his success, she felt like a ghost, making inaudible and imperceptible appeals to the grosser senses of the living. If I wanted to be alone, she thought, I'm alone enough, in all conscience. There was a deathly chill in such security.

Starting point is 03:13:11 She turned to Fulmer. And Grace? He beamed back without sign of embarrassment. Oh, she's here, naturally. We're in Paris, kids and all, in a pension where we can polish up the lingo. But I hardly ever lay eyes on her, because she's as deep in music as I am in paint. It was as big a chance for her as for me, you see. and she's making the most of it, fiddling and listening to the fiddlers.

Starting point is 03:13:34 Well, it's a considerable change from New Hampshire. He looked at her dreamily, as if making an intense effort to detach himself from his dream, and situate her in the fading past. Remember the bungalow? And Nick! Ah, how's Nick? He brought out triumphantly. Oh, yes, darling Nick!

Starting point is 03:13:52 Mrs. Melrose chimed in, and Susie, her head erect, her cheeks aflame, declared with resonance, Most awfully well, splendidly. "'He's not here, though,' from Fulmer. "'No, he's off travelling, cruising.' Mrs. Melrose's attention was faintly roused. "'With anybody interesting?' "'No, you wouldn't know them. People we met.'

Starting point is 03:14:14 She did not have to continue, for her hostess's gaze had again strayed. "'And you've come for your clothes, I suppose, darling. Don't listen to people who say that skirts are to be wider. I've discovered a new woman, a genius, and she absolutely swore. You—' "'Her name's my secret, but we'll go to her together.' Susie rose from her engulfing armchair. "'Do you mind if I go up to my room? I'm rather tired, coming straight through.' "'Of course, dear. I think there are some people coming to dinner. Mrs. Match, will tell you.

Starting point is 03:14:47 She has such a memory. "'Fulmer, where on earth are those cartoons of the music-room?' Their voices pursued Susie upstairs. As, in Mrs. Match's perpendicular wake, she mounted to the white-panelled room with its gay linen hangings, and the low bed heaped with more cushions. "'If we'd come here,' she thought, everything might have been different. And she shuddered at the sumptuous memories of the Palazzo Vanderlin, and the great painted bedroom where she had met her doom. Mrs. Match, hoping she would find everything, and mentioning that dinner was not till nine, shut her softly in among her terrors.

Starting point is 03:15:24 "'Find everything!' Susie echoed the phrase. Oh, yes, she would always find everything. Every time the door shut on her now, and the sound of voices ceased, her memories would be there waiting for her, every one of them, waiting quietly, patiently, obstinately, like poor people in a doctor's office, the people who are always last to be attended to, but whom nothing will discourage or drive away, people to whom time is nothing, fatigue nothing, hunger nothing, other engagements nothing, who just wait. Thank heaven, after all, that she had not found the house empty, if, whenever she returned to her room she was to meet her memories there. It was just a week since Nick had left her. During that week, crammed with people, questions, packing, explaining, evading, she had believed that in solitude lay her salvation.

Starting point is 03:16:14 Now she understood that there was nothing she was so unprepared for, so unfitted for. When in all her life had she ever been alone? And how was she to bear it now, with all these ravening memories besetting her? Dinner not till nine. What on earth was she to do till nine o'clock? She knelt before her boxes, and feverishly began to unpack. Gradually, imperceptibly, the subtle influences of her old life were stealing into her. As she pulled out her tossed and crumpled dresses, she remembered Violet's emphatic warning.

Starting point is 03:16:47 Don't believe the people who tell you that skirts are going to be wider! Were hers, perhaps, too wide as it was? She looked at her limp raiment, piling itself. up on bed and sofa, and understood that, according to Violet standards, and that of all of her set, these dresses, which Nick had thought so original and exquisite, were already commonplace and dowdy, fit only to be passed on to poor relations or given to one's maid. And Susie would have to go on wearing them till they felt a bit, or else—well, or else begin the old life again in some new form. She laughed aloud at the turn of her thoughts. Dresses? How long! How long! Little they had mattered a few short weeks ago. And now, perhaps, they would again be one of the most foremost considerations of her life. How could it be otherwise, if she were to return again to her old dependents on Ellie van der Leigh Ursula Gillo, Violet Melrose?

Starting point is 03:17:42 And beyond that, only the Bokheimers in their kind awaited her. A knock at the door. What a relief! It was Mrs. Match again with a telegram. To whom had Susie given her new address? With a throbbing heart she tore open the envelope and read, "'Shall in Paris Friday for twenty-four hours. Where can I see you, write Nouveau-Lox?" "'Ah, yes. She remembered now. She had written to Streford. And this was his answer. He was

Starting point is 03:18:08 coming.' She dropped into a chair, and tried to think. What on earth had she said in her letter? It had been mainly, of course, one of condolence, but now she remembered having added in a precipitate post-script. "'I can't give your message to Nick, for he's gone off with the Hicks's. I don't know where, or for how long. It's all right, of course. It was in our bargain." She had not meant to put in that last phrase, but as she sealed her letter to Streford, her eyes had fallen on Nick's missive which lay beside it. Nothing in her husband's brief lines had embittered her as much as the illusion to

Starting point is 03:18:41 Streford. It seemed to imply that Nick's own plans were made, that his own future was secure, and that he could therefore freely and handsomely take thought for hers, and give her a pointer in the right direction. Sudden rage had possessed her at the thought. Where she had at first read jealousy she now saw only a cold providence, and in a blur of tears she had scrawled her postscript to Streford. She remembered that she had not even asked him to keep her secret.

Starting point is 03:19:06 Well, after all, what would it matter if people should already know that Nick had left her? Their parting could not long remain a mystery, and the fact that it was known might help her to keep up a pretence of indifference. It was in the bargain—in the bargain— rang through her brain as she re-read Strefford's telegram. She understood that he had snatched the time for this hasty trip solely in the hope of seeing her, and her eyes filled. The more bitterly she thought of Nick, the more this proof of Streford's friendship moved her. The clock, to her relief, reminded her that it was time to dress for dinner. She would go down presently, chat with Violet and Fulmer, and with

Starting point is 03:19:43 Violet's other guests, who would probably be odd and amusing, and too much out of her world to embarrass her by awkward questions. She would sit at a softly lit table, breathe with delicate scents, eat exquisite food—trust Mrs. Match, and be gradually drawn again under the spell of her old associations—anything—anything but to be alone." She dressed with even more than her habitual care, reddened her lips attentively, brushed the faintest bloom of pink over her drawn cheeks, and went down, to meet Mrs. Match coming up with a tray. "'Oh, madam, I thought you were too tired.

Starting point is 03:20:17 I was bringing it up to you myself—just a little morsel of chicken.' Susie, glancing past her, saw through the open door that the lamps were not lit in the drawing-room. "'Oh, no, I'm not tired, thank you. I thought Mrs. Melrose expected friends at dinner.' "'Friends at dinner to-night?' Mrs. Match heaved a despairing sigh. "'Sometimes,' the sigh seemed to say, her mistress put too great a strain upon her. "'Why, Mrs. Melrose and Mr. Fulmer were engaged to dine in Paris. They left an hour ago. Mrs. Melrose told me she'd told you,' the housekeeper wailed. susie kept her little fixed smile i must have misunderstood in that case well yes if it's no trouble i believe i will have my tray upstairs slowly she turned and followed the housekeeper up into the dread solitude she had just left

Starting point is 03:21:09 End of Chapter 13. Part 2. Chapter 14 of The Glimpses of the Moon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clette. The Glimpses of the Moon. By Edith Wharton. Part 2. Chapter 14. The next day a lot of people turned up unannounced for luncheon.

Starting point is 03:21:38 They were not of the far-fetched and the exotic, in whom Mrs. Melrose now specialized, but merely commonplace fashionable people belonging to Susie's own group, people familiar with the amusing romance of her penniless marriage, and to whom she had to explain, though none of them really listened to the explanation, that Nick was not with her just now, but had gone off cruising, cruising in the Aegean with friends, getting up material for his book. This detail had occurred to her in the night. It was the kind of encounter she had most dreaded, but it proved, after all, easy enough to go through compared with those endless hours of turning to and fro the night before, in the cage of her lonely room.

Starting point is 03:22:16 Anything, anything but to be alone." Gradually, from the force of habit, she found herself actually in tune with the talk of the luncheon-table, interested in the references to absent friends, the light allusions to last year's loves and quarrels, scandals, and absurdities. The women in their pale summer dresses were so graceful, indolent and sure of themselves, the men so easy and good-humored. Perhaps, after all, Susie reflected, it was the world she was meant for. since the other the brief paradise of her dreams had already shut its golden doors upon her and then as they sat on the terrace after luncheon looking across at the yellow tree-tops of the park one of the women said something made just an illusion that susy would have let pass unnoticed in the old days but that now filled her with a sudden deep disgust

Starting point is 03:23:04 she stood up and wandered away away from the mall through the fading garden two days later susy and strefford sat on the terrace of the twilery above the seine She had asked him to meet her there, with the desire to avoid the crowded halls and drawing-room of the Nouveau-Lux, where even at that supposedly dead season, people one knew were always drifting to and fro, and they sat on the bench in the pale sunlight, the discoloured leaves heaped at their feet, and no one to share their solitude but a lame working-man and a haggard woman, who were lunching together mournfully at the other end of the majestic vista. Strefford, in his new morning, looked unnaturally prosperous and well-valited, But his ugly, untidy features remained as undisciplined, his smile as whimsical as of old.

Starting point is 03:23:48 He had been on cool, though friendly terms with the pompous uncle and the poor sickly cousin, whose joint disappearance had so abruptly transformed his future, and it was his way to understate his feelings, rather than to pretend more than he felt. Nevertheless, beneath his habitual bantering tone, Susie discerned a change. The disaster had shocked him profoundly. already in his brief sojourn amongst his people, and among the great possession so tragically acquired, old instincts had been awakened, forgotten associations had spoken in him. Susie listened to him wistfully, silenced by her imaginative perception of the distance that these things had put between them. It was horrible, seeing them both there together, laid out in that hideous Pusian chapel at Aldringham, the poor boy especially. I suppose that's really what's cutting me up now. He must—he murmured, almost apologetically. "'Oh, it's more than that, more than you know,' she insisted, but he jerked back. "'Now, my dear, don't be edifying, please,' and fumbled for a cigarette in the pocket, which was already beginning to bulge with his miscellaneous properties.

Starting point is 03:24:55 "'And now about you, for that's what I came for,' he continued, turning to her with one of his sudden movements. "'I couldn't make head or tail of your letter.' She paused a moment to steady her voice. "'Couldn't you? I suppose you'd forgotten my bargain with Nick. He hadn't, and he's asked me to fulfill it.' Strefford stared. "'What? That nonsense about your setting each other free if either of you had the chance to make a good match?' She sighed. Yes.

Starting point is 03:25:25 "'And he's actually asked you?' "'Well, practically, he's gone off with the Hickses. Before going he wrote me that we'd better both consider ourselves free, and Coral sent me a postcard to say that he's a that she would take the best of care of him." Strefford mused his eyes upon a cigarette. "'But what the deuce led up to all this? It can't have happened like that out of a clear sky.' Susie flushed, hesitated, looked away.

Starting point is 03:25:52 She had meant to tell Strefford the whole story. It had been one of her chief reasons for wishing to see him again, and half unconsciously perhaps she had hoped, in his laxer atmosphere, to recover something of her shattered self-esteem. But now she suddenly felt the impossibility of confessing to any of any other—theirphersonally anyone, the depths to which Nick's wife had stooped. She fancied that her companion guessed the nature of her hesitation. "'Don't tell me anything you don't want to, you know, my dear.' "'No, I do want to. Only it's difficult. You see, we had so very little money.' "'Yes.' And Nick, who was thinking of his book and of all sorts of big things, fine

Starting point is 03:26:30 things, didn't realize, left it all to me—to manage.' She stumbled over the word, remembering how Nick had always winced at it. But Streford did not seem to notice her, and she hurried on, unfolding in short, awkward sentences, the avowal of the pecuniary difficulties, and of Nick's inability to understand that, to keep on with the kind of life they were leading, one had to put up with things, except favors. Borrow money, you mean? Well, yes, and all the rest. No, decidedly she could not reveal to Streford the episode of Ellie's life.

Starting point is 03:27:06 letters. Nick suddenly felt, I suppose, that he couldn't stand it, she continued, and instead of asking me to try, to try to live differently, go off somewhere with him and live, like work people, in two rooms without a servant as I was ready to do. Well, instead he wrote to me that it had all been a mistake from the beginning, that we couldn't keep it up, and had better recognize the fact, and he went off on the Hicks's yacht. The last evening that you were in Venice, the day he didn't come back to dinner, he had gone off to Genoa to meet them. I suppose he intends to marry Coral." Strefford received this in silence.

Starting point is 03:27:41 "'Well, it was your bargain, wasn't it?' he said at length. "'Yes, but—' "'Exactly. I always told you so. You weren't ready to have him go yet, that's all.' She flushed to the forehead. "'Oh, Streff, is it really all?' "'A question of time.

Starting point is 03:28:00 If you doubt it, I'd like to see you try, for a while, in those two rooms without a servant, And then let me hear from you. Why, my dear, it's only a question of time in a palace, with a steam-yard lying off the doorstep, and a flock of motors in the garage. Look around you and see. And did you ever imagine that you and Nick, of all people, were going to escape the common doom, and survive like Mr. and Mrs. Tithonus, while all about you the eternal passions were crumbling to pieces, and your native divorce-states, piling up their revenues?"

Starting point is 03:28:31 She sat with bent head, the weight of the long years to come, pressing like a leaden load on her shoulders. But I'm so young, life's so long. What does last, then? Ah, you're too young to believe me, if I were to tell you, though you're intelligent enough to understand. What does, then?

Starting point is 03:28:50 Why, the hold of the things we all think we could do without. Habits, they outstand the pyramids, comforts, luxuries, the atmosphere of ease. Above all, the power to get away from dullness and monotony, from constraints and ugliness. You chose that power instinctively before you were even grown up. And so did Nick. And the only difference between you is that he's had the sense to see sooner than you

Starting point is 03:29:15 that those are the things that last, the prime necessities. I don't believe it. Of course you don't. At your age one doesn't reason one's materialism. And besides, you're mortally hurt that Nick is found out sooner than you, and hasn't disguised his discovery under any hypocritical phrases. But surely there are people—yes, saints and geniuses and heroes—all the fanatics. To which of their categories do you suppose we soft people belong?

Starting point is 03:29:44 And the heroes and the geniuses? Haven't they their enormous frailties and their giant appetites? And how should we escape being the victims of our little ones? She sat for a while without speaking. But Streff, how can you say such things when I know you care? Care for me, for instance? "'Care?' he put his hand on hers. "'But, my dear, it's just the fugitiveness of mortal caring that makes it so exquisite.

Starting point is 03:30:12 It's because we know we can't hold fast to it, or to each other, or to anything.' "'Yes, yes, but hush, please. Oh, don't say it!' She stood up, the tears in her throat, and he rose also. "'Come along, then. Where do we lunch?' he said, with a smile, slipping his hand through her arm. Oh, I don't know. Nowhere. I think I'm going back to Versailles.

Starting point is 03:30:38 Because I've disgusted you so deeply. Just my luck. When I came over to ask you to marry me. She laughed, but he had suddenly become grave. Upon my soul, I did. Dear Streff, as if—now! Oh, not now, I know. I'm aware that even with your accelerated divorce method—'

Starting point is 03:31:00 It's not that. I told you it was no use, Streff. I told you long ago in Venice.' He shrugged ironically. "'It's not Streff who's asking you now. Streff was not a marrying man. He was only trifling with you. The present offer comes from an elderly peer of independent means.

Starting point is 03:31:20 Think it over, my dear, as many days out as you like, and five footmen kept. There's not the least hurry, of course, but I rather think Nick himself would advise it. She flushed to the temples, remembering that Nick had, and the remembrance made Streford's sneering philosophy seem less unbearable. Why should she not lunch with him, after all? In the first days of his morning he had come to Paris expressly to see her, and to offer her one of the oldest names, and one of the greatest fortunes in England. She thought of Ursula Gillo, Ellie Vanderlin, Violet Melrose, of their condescending kindnesses, their last year's dresses, their Christmas checks,

Starting point is 03:32:00 and all the careless bounties that were so easy to bestow and so hard to accept. I should rather enjoy paying them back, something in her maliciously murmured. She did not mean to marry Streford. She had not even got as far as contemplating the possibility of a divorce, but it was undeniable that this sudden prospect of wealth and freedom was like fresh air in her lungs. She laughed again, but now without bitterness. Very good, then. We'll lunch together. But it's Streff I want to lunch with to-day."

Starting point is 03:32:31 "'Ah, well,' her companion agreed, "'I'd rather think that for tete-a-tete he's better company.' During their repast in a little restaurant over the sun, where she insisted on the cheapest dishes because she was lunching with Streff, he became again his old, whimsical, companionable self. Once or twice she tried to turn the talk to his altered future, and the obligations and interest that lay before him, but he shrugged away from the subject, questioning her in search.

Starting point is 03:32:58 instead about the motley company at Violet Melrose's, and fitting a droll or malicious anecdote to each of the people she named. It was not till they had finished their coffee, and she was glancing at her watch with a vague notion of taking the next train, that he asked abruptly,—' "'But what are you going to do? You can't stay forever at Violets.' "'Oh, no,' she cried with a shiver. "'Well, then.

Starting point is 03:33:21 You've got some plan, I suppose.' "'Have I?' she wondered, jerked back into grim reality from the soothing interlude of their hour together. "'You can't drift indefinitely, can you? Unless you mean to go back to the old sort of life once for all.' She reddened, and her eyes filled. "'I can't do that, Streff. I know I can't.'

Starting point is 03:33:43 "'Then what?' She hesitated and brought out with lowered head. Nick said he would write again. In a few days. I must wait.' "'Oh, naturally, don't do anything in a hurry.' Strefford also glanced at his watch. "'Garsons' Addison—'I'm taking the train back to-night, and I have a lot of things left to do.

Starting point is 03:34:03 But look here, my dear. When you come to a decision one way or the other, let me know, will you? Oh, I don't mean in the matter I've most at heart. We'll consider that closed for the present. But at least I can be of use in other ways. Hang it, you know, I can even lend you money. There's a new sensation for our jaded pallets. Oh, Streff! Strife! She could only falter. And he pressed on gaily. Try it. Now do try it. I assure you there'll be no interest to pay and no conditions attached, and promise to let me know when you've decided anything." She looked into his humorously puckered eyes, answering their friendly smile with hers.

Starting point is 03:34:41 "'I promise,' she said. End of Chapter 14. Part 2. Chapter 15 of the Glimpses of the Moon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clette The Glimpses of the Moon By Edith Wharton Part 2, Chapter 15

Starting point is 03:35:09 That hour with Strefford had altered her whole perspective Instead of possible dependence And in forced return to the old life of connivances and concessions She saw before her, whenever she chose to take them, Freedom, power, and dignity Dignity It was odd what we were. weight that word had come to have for her. She had dimly felt its significance, felt the need

Starting point is 03:35:35 of its presence in her inmost soul, even in the young, thoughtless days when she had seemed to sacrifice so little to the austere divinities. And since she had been Nick Lansing's wife, she had consciously acknowledged it, had suffered and agonized when she fell beneath its standard. Yes, to marry Strefford would give her that sense of self-respect, which, in a world such as theirs, only wealth and position could ensure. If she had not the mental or moral training to attain independence in any other way, was she to blame for seeking it on such terms. Of course there was always the chance that Nick would come back, would find life without her as intolerable as she was finding it without him. If that happened! Ah, if that happened!

Starting point is 03:36:21 Then she would cease to strain her eyes into the future, would seize upon the present moment, and plunge into it to the very bottom of oblivion. Nothing on earth would matter then—money or freedom or pride, or her precious moral dignity, if only she were in Nick's arms again. But there was Nick's icy letter, there was Coral Hicks's insolent postcard, to show how little chance there was of such a solution. Susie understood that, even before the discovery of her transaction with Ellie Vanderlin, Nick had secretly wearied, if not of his wife, at least of the life that their marriage compelled him to lead. His passion was not strong enough, had never been strong enough, to outweigh his prejudices, scruples, principles, or whatever one chose

Starting point is 03:37:06 to call them. Susie's dignity might go up like Tinder in the blaze of her love, but his was made of a less combustible substance. She had felt in their last talk together that she had forever destroyed the inner harmony between them. Well, there it was, and the fault was doubtless neither hers nor his, but that of the world they had grown up in, of their own moral contempt for it, and physical dependence on it, of his half-talents and her half-principals, of the something in them both that was not stout enough to resist, nor yet pliant enough to yield. She stared at the fact on the journey back to Versailles, and all that sleepless night

Starting point is 03:37:47 in her room. And the next morning, when the housemaid came in with her breakfast-tray, she felt the factitious energy that comes from having decided, however half-heartedly, on a definite course. She had said to herself, "'If there's no letter from Nick this time next week, I'll write to Streff.' And the week had passed, and there was no letter. It was now three weeks since he had left her, and she had had no word but his note from Genoa.

Starting point is 03:38:16 She had concluded that, foreseeing the probability of her leaving Venice, he would write to her in care of their Paris bank. But though she had immediately notified the bank of her change of address, no communication from Nick had reached her, and she smiled with a touch of bitterness at the difficulty he was doubtless finding in the composition of the promised letter. Her own scrap-basket, for the first days, had been heaped with the fragments of the letters she had begun, and she told herself that, since they both found it so hard to write, it was probably because they had nothing left to say to each other.

Starting point is 03:38:48 Meanwhile, the days that Mrs. Melrose's drifted by as they had been wont to drift, when under the roofs of the rich, Susie Branch had marked time between one episode and the next of her precarious existence. Her experience of such sojourns was varied enough to make her acutely conscious of their effect on her temporary hosts, and in the present case she knew that Violet was hardly aware of her presence. But, if no more than tolerated, she was at least not felt to be an inconvenience. When your hostess forgot about her. you, it proved that at least you were not in her way." Violet, as usual, was perpetually on the wing, for her profound indolence expressed itself

Starting point is 03:39:27 in a disordered activity. Nat Fulmer had returned to Paris, but Susie guessed that his benefactress was still constantly in his company, and that, when Mrs. Melrose was whirled away in her noiseless motor, it was generally toward the scene of some new encounter between Fulmer and the Arts. On these occasions she sometimes offered to carry Susie to Paris, and they devoted several long and hectic mornings to the dressmakers, where Susie felt herself gradually succumbing to the familiar spell of heaped-up finery. It seemed impossible, as furs and laces and brocades were tossed aside, brought back, and

Starting point is 03:40:04 at last carelessly selected from, that anything but the whim of the moment need count in deciding whether one should take all or none, or that any woman could be worth looking at, who did not possess the means to make her choice, regardless of cost. Once alone, and in the street again, the evil fumes would evaporate, and daylight re-enter Susie's soul. Yet she felt that the old poison was slowly insinuating itself into her system. To dispel it, she decided one day to look up Grace Fulmer. She was curious to know how the happy-go-lucky companion of Fulmer's evil days was bearing the weight of his prosperity, and she vaguely felt that it would be refreshing to see someone who had never been afraid of poverty.

Starting point is 03:40:47 The airless pension sitting-room, where she waited, while a reluctant maid-servant screamed about the house for Mrs. Fulmer, did not have the hoped-for effect. It was one thing for Grace to put up with such quarters when she shared them with Fulmer, but to live there while he basked in the lingering radiance of Versailles, or rolled from chateau to picture-gallery in Mrs. Melrose's motor, showed a courage that Susie felt unable to emulate. "'My dear! I knew you'd look me up.

Starting point is 03:41:15 up?" Grace's joyous voice ran down the stairway, and in another moment she was clasping Susie to her tumbled person. "'Nat couldn't remember if he'd given you our address, though he promised me he would the last time he was here.' She held Susie at arm's length, beaming upon her with blinking, short-sighted eyes. The same old disheveled Grace, so careless of her neglected beauty and her squandered youth, so amused and absent-minded and improvident, that the boisterous air of the New Hampshire bungalow seemed to enter with her into the little air-tied salon.

Starting point is 03:41:47 While she poured out the tale of Nat's sudden celebrity, and its unexpected consequences, Susie marvelled and dreamed. Was the secret of his triumph, perhaps, due to those long, hard, unrewarded years, the steadfast scorn of popularity, the indifference to every kind of material ease in which his wife had so gaily abetted him? Had it been bought at the cost of her own freshness and her own talent, of the children's advantages of everything except the closeness of the tie between husband and wife. Well, it was worth the price, no doubt. But what if, now that honors and prosperity had come,

Starting point is 03:42:23 the tie were snapped, and grace were left alone among the ruins. There was nothing in her tone or words to suggest such a possibility. Susie noticed that her ill-assorted raiment was costlier in quality, and more professional and cut than the homemade garments which had draped her growing bulk at the bungalow. It was clear that she was trying to dress up, and up to Nat's new situation. But above all, she was rejoicing in it, filling her hungry lungs with the strong air of his success. It had evidently not occurred to her as yet that those who consent to share the bread of adversity may want the whole cake of prosperity for themselves.

Starting point is 03:42:57 My dear, it's too wonderful! He's told me to take as many concerted opera tickets as I like. He lets me take all the children with me. The big concerts don't begin till later, but of course the opera is always going. And there are little things. There's music in Paris at all seasons. And later it's just possible we may get to Munich for a week. Oh, Susie! Her hands clasped her eyes brimming. She drank the new wine of life almost sacramentally. Do you remember Susie when you and Nick came to stay at the bungalow? Nat said you'd be horrified by our primitiveness. But I knew better. And I was right, wasn't I? Seeing us so happy made you and Nick decide to follow our example, didn't it? She glowed with remembrance. And now what are your plans? Is Nick's book nearly done? I suppose you'll have to live very economically till he finds a publisher. And the baby, darling, what is that to be? If you're

Starting point is 03:43:52 coming home soon I could let you have a lot of the children's little old things." You're always so dear, Grace, but we haven't any special plans as yet—not even for a baby. And I wish you'd tell me all of yours instead." Mrs. Fulmer asked nothing better. Susie perceived that, so far, the greater part of her European experience had consisted in talking about what it was to be. Well, you see, Nat is so taken up all day with sightseeing and galleries and meeting important people, that he hasn't had time to go about with us. And as so few theatres are open and there's so little music, I've taken the opportunity

Starting point is 03:44:25 to catch up with my mending. Junie helps me with it now. She's our eldest, do you remember? She's grown into a big girl since you saw her. And later, perhaps, were to travel. And the most wonderful thing of all, next to Nat's recognition, I mean, is not having to contrive and skimp and give up something every single minute. Just think!

Starting point is 03:44:44 Nat has even made special arrangements here in the pension, so that the children all have second-helpings to everything. And when I go up to bed I can think of my music, instead of lying awake, calculating, and wondering how I can make things come out at the end of the month. Oh, Susie, that's simply heaven! Susie's heart contracted. She had come to her friend to be taught again the lesson of indifference to material things, and instead she was hearing from Grace Fulmer's lips the long repressed avowal of their tyranny.

Starting point is 03:45:14 After all, that battle with poverty on the New Hampshire hillside had not been the easy, smiling business that Grace and Nat had made it appear. And yet—and yet— Susie stood up abruptly, and straightened the expensive hat which hung irresponsibly over Grace's left ear. "'What's wrong with it? Junie helped me choose it, and she generally knows—' Mrs. Fulmer wailed with helpless hands. "'It's the way you wear it, dearest, and the bow is rather top-heavy.

Starting point is 03:45:44 Let me have it a minute, please.' Susie lifted the hat from her friend's head and began to manipulate its trimming. This is the way Maria Guy, or Suzanne would do it. And now go on about Nat.' She listened musingly while Grace poured forth the tale of her husband's triumph, of the notices in the papers, the demand for his work, the fine ladies' battles over their priority in discovering him, and the multiplied orders that had resulted from their rivalry.

Starting point is 03:46:11 Of course they're simply furious with each other, Mrs. Melrose and Mrs. Gillow especially, because each one pretends to have been the first to notice his spring snowstorm, and in reality it wasn't either of them, but only poor Bill Haslett, an art critic we've known for years, who chanced on the picture and rushed off to tell the dealer who was looking for a new painter to push. Grace suddenly raised her soft, myopic eyes to Susie's face. But do you know, the funny thing is that I believe that I believe that. Nad is beginning to forget this, and to believe that it was Mrs. Melrose who stopped

Starting point is 03:46:41 short in front of his picture on the opening day, and screamed out, "'This is genius!' It seems funny he should care so much, when I've always known he had genius, and he has known it too. But they're all so kind to him, and Mrs. Melrose especially, and I suppose it makes a thing sound new to hear it said in a new voice." Susie looked at her meditatively. "'And how should you feel if Nat liked too much to hear Mrs. Melrose say it?'

Starting point is 03:47:07 too much i mean to care any longer what you felt or thought her friend's worn face flushed quickly and then paled susy almost repented the question but mrs fulmer met it with a tranquil dignity you haven't been married long enough dear to understand how people like nat and me feel about such things or how trifling they seem in the balance the balance of one's memories Susie stood up again and flung her arms about her friend. "'Oh, Grace!' she laughed with wet eyes. "'How can you be as wise as that, and yet not have sense enough to buy a decent hat?' She gave Mrs. Fulmer a quick embrace and hurried away. She had learned her lesson after all, but it was not exactly the one she had come to seek. The week she had allowed herself had passed, and still there was no word from Nick.

Starting point is 03:47:57 She allowed herself yet another day, and that too went by without a letter. She then decided on a step from which her pride had hitherto recoiled. She would call at the bank and ask for Nick's address. She called, embarrassed and hesitating, and was told after inquiries in the post-office department, that Mr. Nicholas Lansing had given no address since that of the Palazzo Vanderlin, three months previously. She went back to Versailles that afternoon with the definite intention of writing to Streford, unless the morning's post brought a letter.

Starting point is 03:48:27 The next morning brought nothing from Nick, but a scribbled message from Mrs. Melrose. Would Susie, as soon as possible, come into her room for a word? Susie jumped up, hurried through her bath, and knocked at her hostess's door. In the immense low bed that faced the rich umbrage of the park, Mrs. Melrose lay smoking cigarettes and glancing over her letters. She looked up with her vague smile and said dreamily, "'Susie, darling, have you any particular plans?

Starting point is 03:48:53 For the next few months, I mean.' Susie colored. She knew the intonation of old, and fancy, understood what had implied. Plans, dearest. Any number. I'm tearing myself away the day after to-morrow, to the gillows more very probably, she hastened to announce.

Starting point is 03:49:11 Instead of the relief she had expected to read on Mrs. Melrose's dramatic countenance, she discovered there the blankest disappointment. Oh, really? That's too bad. Is it absolutely settled? As far as I'm concerned, said Susie crisply. The other sighed. I'm too sorry.

Starting point is 03:49:29 You see, dear, I'd meant to ask you to stay on here quietly and look after the Fulmer children. Fulmer and I are going to Spain next week. I want to be with him when he makes his studies, receives his first impressions. Such a marvelous experience to be there when he and Velazquez meet. She broke off, lost in prospective ecstasy. And you see, as Grace Fulmer insists on coming with us. Ah, I see. Well, there are the five children, such a problem.

Starting point is 03:49:59 sighed the benefactress. "'If you were at a loose end, you know, dear, while Nick's away with his friends, I could really make it worth your while.' "'So awfully good of you, Violet, only I'm not as it happens.' "'Oh, the relief of being able to say that, gaily, firmly, and even truthfully, take charge of the former children indeed.

Starting point is 03:50:20 Susie remembered how Nick and she had fled from them that autumn afternoon in New Hampshire. The offer gave her a salutary glimpse of the way in which, as the years passed, and she lost her freshness and novelty, she would more and more be used as a convenience, a stopgap, writer of notes, runner of errands, nursery governess or companion. She called to mind several elderly women of her acquaintance, pensioners of her own group, who still wore its livery, struck its attitudes and chattered its jargon, but had long since been ruthlessly relegated to these slave-aunt offices. Never in the world would she

Starting point is 03:50:56 rejoin their numbers. Mrs. Melrose's face fell, and she looked at Susie with the plaintive bewilderment of the wielder of millions to whom everything that cannot be bought is imperceptible. "'But I can't see why you can't change your plans,' she murmured with a soft persistency. "'Ah, well, you know,' Susie paused on a slow, inward smile. "'They're not mine only as it happens.' Mrs. Melrose's brow clouded, the unforeseen complication of Mrs. Fulmation of Mrs. Fulmereau's Her Her presence on the journey had evidently tried her nerves, and this new obstacle to her arrangements shook her faith in the divine order of things. "'Your plans are not yours only. But surely you won't let Ursula Gillo dictate to you. There's my Jade Pendant, the one you said you liked the other day.

Starting point is 03:51:45 The Fulmers won't go with me, you understand, unless they're satisfied about the children. The whole plan will fall through. "'Susie, darling, you were always too unselfish. I hate to see you sacrificed to Ursula.' Susie's smile lingered. Time was when she might have been glad to add the jade pendant to the collection already enriched by Ellie Vanderlin's sapphires. More recently she would have resented the offer as an insult to her newly-found principles. But already the mere fact that she might henceforth, if she chose, be utterly out of reach of such bribes, enabled her to look down on them with tolerance. Oh, the blessed moral freedom that wealth conferred! She recalled Mrs. Fulmer's uncontrollable cry, "'The most wonderful thing of all is not having to contrive

Starting point is 03:52:32 and skimp and give up something every single minute.' "'Yes, it was only on such terms that one could call one's soul one's own. The sense of it gave Susie the grace to answer amicably, "'If I could possibly help you out, Violet, I shouldn't want a present to persuade me.' And as you say, there's no reason why I should sacrifice myself to Ursula or to anybody else. Only as it happens. She paused and took the plunge. I'm going to England because I've promised to see a friend. That night she wrote to Streford.

Starting point is 03:53:07 End of Chapter 15. Part 2, Chapter 16 of the glimpses of the moon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. recording by Elizabeth Clette The Glimpses of the Moon By Edith Wharton Part 2, Chapter 16 Stretched out under an awning on the deck of the ibis,

Starting point is 03:53:36 Nick Lansing looked up for a moment at the vanishing cliffs of Malta and then plunged again into his book. He had had nearly three weeks of drug-taking on the ibis. The drugs he had absorbed were of two kinds, visions of fleeing landscapes, looming up from the blue sea to vanish into it again, and visions of study absorbed from the volumes piled up day and night at his elbow. For the first time in months he was in reach of a real library, just the kind of scholarly yet miscellaneous library that his restless and impatient spirit craved. He was aware that the books he read, like the fugitive

Starting point is 03:54:12 scenes on which he gazed, were merely a form of anesthetic. He swallowed them with the careless greed of the sufferer who seeks only to still pain and deaden memory. But they were beginning to produce in him a moral languor that was not disagreeable, that indeed, compared with the fierce pain of the first days, was almost pleasurable. It was exactly the kind of drug that he needed. There is probably no point on which the average man has more definite views than on the uselessness of writing a letter that is hard to write. In the line he had sent to Susie from Genoa, Nick had told her that she would hear from him again in a few days. But when the few days had passed, and he began to consider setting himself to the task, he found fifty reasons

Starting point is 03:54:55 for postponing it. Had there been any practical questions to write about, it would have been different. He could not have borne for twenty-four hours the idea that she was in uncertainty as to money. But that had all been settled long ago. From the first she had had the administering of their modest fortune. On their marriage, Nick's own meager income, paid in none too regularly by the agent who had managed for years the dwindling family properties, had been transferred to her. It was the only wedding present he could make. And the wedding-checks had, of course, been all deposited in her name. There were, therefore, no business reasons for communicating with her, and when it came to reasons of another order, the mere thought of them benumbed him.

Starting point is 03:55:36 For the first few days he reproached himself for his inertia. Then he began to seek reasons for justifying it. After all, for both their sakes, awaiting policy might be the wisest he could pursue. He had left Susie because he could not tolerate the conditions on which he had discovered their life together to be based, and he had told her so. What more was there to say? Nothing was changed in their respective situations. If they came together it could be only to resume the same life, and that, as the days went by, seemed to him more and more impossible. He had not yet reached the point of facing a definite separation, but whenever his thoughts traveled back over their past life, he recoiled from any attempt to return to it.

Starting point is 03:56:19 As long as this state of mind continued, there seemed nothing to add to the letter he had already written, except, indeed, the statement that he was cruising with the Hickses, and he saw no pressing reason for communicating that. To the Hicks'es he had given no hint of his situation. When Coral Hicks, a fortnight earlier, had picked him up in the broiling streets of Genoa, and carried him off to the ibis, he had thought only of a cool dinner. and perhaps a moonlight sail. Then, in reply to their friendly urging, he had confessed that he had not been well, had indeed gone off hurriedly for a few days' change of air, and that left him without defence against the immediate proposal that he should take his change of air on

Starting point is 03:56:59 the ibis. They were just off to Corsica and Sardinia, and from there to Sicily, he could rejoin the railway at Naples, and be back at Venice in ten days. Ten days of respite. The temptation was irresistible. And he really liked the kind, uncomplicated hickses. A wholesome honesty and simplicity breathed through all their opulence, as if the rich trappings of their present life still exhaled the fragrance of their native prairies. The mere fact of being with such people was like a purifying bath. When the yacht touched at Naples, he agreed, since they were so awfully kind, to go on to Sicily. And when the chief steward, going shore at Naples for the last time before they got up steam, said, "'Any letters for the post, sir?'

Starting point is 03:57:41 He answered, as he had answered at each previous halt. "'No, thank you. None.' "'Now they were heading for roads and Crete. Crete, where he had never been, where he had so often long to go. In spite of the lateness of the season, the weather was still miraculously fine. The short waves danced ahead under a sky without a cloud, and the strong boughs of the ibis hardly swayed as she flew forward over the flying crests. Only his hosts and their daughter were on the yacht, of course, with El Dorado

Starting point is 03:58:13 Tooker and Mr. Beck in attendance. An eminent archaeologist, who was to have joined them at Naples, had telegraphed an excuse at the last moment, and Nick noticed that, while Mrs. Hicks was perpetually apologizing for the great man's absence, Coral merely smiled and said nothing. As a matter of fact, Mr. and Mrs. Hicks were never as pleasant as when one had them to oneself. In company, Mr. Hicks ran the risk of appearing over-hospitable, and Mrs. Hicks confused dates and names in the desire to embrace all culture in her conversation. But alone with Nick, their old travelling companion, they shone out in their native simplicity, and Mr. Hicks talked soundly of investments, and Mrs. Hicks recalled her early married days in Apex City, when, on being brought home to her new house in Escalis Avenue, her first thought had been, How on earth shall I get all those windows washed? of Mr. Buttles had been as serious to them as Nick had supposed. Mr. Beck could never hope to replace him. Apart from his mysterious gift of languages, at his almost superhuman faculty

Starting point is 03:59:19 for knowing how to address letters to eminent people, and in what terms to conclude them, he had a smattering of archaeology and general culture on which Mrs. Hicks had learned to depend, her own memory being, alas, so inadequate to the range of her interests. Her daughter might perhaps have helped her, but it was not Miss Hicks's way to mother, her parents. She was exceedingly kind to them, but left them, as it were, to bring themselves up as best they could, while she pursued her own course of self-development. A somber zeal for knowledge filled the mind of this strange girl. She appeared interested only in fresh opportunities of adding to her store of facts. They were illuminated by a little imagination

Starting point is 03:59:58 and less poetry, but carefully cataloged and neatly sorted in her large, cool brain. They were always as accessible as the volumes in an up-to-date public library. To Nick there was something reposeful in this lucid intellectual curiosity. He wanted, above all things, to get away from sentiment, from seduction, from the moods and impulses and flashing contradictions that were Susie. Susie was not a great reader. Her store of facts was small, and she had grown up among people who dreaded ideas as much as if they had been a contagious disease. But in the early days especially, when Nick had put a book in her hand, or read a poem to her, her swift intelligence had instantly shed a new light on the subject, and, penetrating to its depths, had extracted

Starting point is 04:00:44 from them whatever belonged to her. What a pity that this exquisite insight, this intuitive discrimination, should, for the most part, have been spent upon reading the thoughts of vulgar people, and extracting a profit from them, should have been wasted since her childhood on all the hideous intricacies of managing. and visible beauty how she cared for that too he had not guessed it or rather he had not been sure of it till the day when on their way through paris he had taken her to the louvre and they had stood before the little crucifixion of mantegna he had not been looking at the picture or watching to see what impression it produced on susy His own momentary mood was for Correggio and Fragonard, the laughter of the music-losson and the bold, pagan joys of the Antiope, and then he had missed her from his side, and when he came to where she stood, forgetting him, forgetting everything, he had seen the glare of that

Starting point is 04:01:38 tragic sky in her face, her trembling lip, the tears on her lashes. That was Susie. Closing his book, he stole a glance at Coral Hicks's profile, thrown back against the cushions of the deck-chair at his side. There was something harsh and bracing in her blunt, primitive build, in the projection of the black eyebrows that nearly met over her thick, straight nose, and the faint, barely visible blacked down on her upper lip. Some miracle of will-power, combined with all the artifices as wealth can buy, had turned the fat, sallow girl he remembered, into this commanding young woman, almost handsome, at times indisputably handsome, in her big, authoritative

Starting point is 04:02:19 way. Watching the arrogant lines of her profile against the Blue Sea, he remembered with a thrill that was sweet to his vanity, how twice, under the dome of the Scalcy and in the streets of Genoa, he had seen those same lines softened at his approach, turn womanly, pleading, and almost humble. That was Coral. Suddenly she said, without turning toward him, "'You've had no letter since you've been on board.' He looked at her, surprised. "'No, thank the Lord,' he laughed. "'And you haven't written one either,' she continued in her hard statistical tone. "'No,' he again agreed with the same laugh.

Starting point is 04:03:00 "'That means that you really are free.' "'Free?' He saw the cheek nearest him redden. "'Really off on a holiday, I mean, not tied down.' After a pause he rejoined. "'No, I'm not particularly tied down.' And your book?" Oh, my book!"

Starting point is 04:03:22 He stopped and considered. He had thrust the pageant of Alexander into his handbag on the night of his flight from Venice, but since then he had never looked at it. Too many memories and illusions were pressed between its pages, and he knew just at what page he had felt Ellie Vanderlin bending over him from behind, caught a whiff of her scent, and heard her breathless, I had to thank you." "'My books hung up,' he said impatiently. annoyed with Miss Hicks's lack of tact. There was a girl who never put out feelers.

Starting point is 04:03:54 Yes, I thought it was. She went on quietly, and he gave her a startled glance. What the devil else did she think, he wondered. He had never supposed her capable of getting far enough out of her own thick carapace of self-sufficiency to penetrate into anyone else's feelings. The truth is, he continued, embarrassed. I suppose I dug away at it rather too continuously. That's probably why I felt the need of it. change. You see, I'm only a beginner." She still continued her relentless questioning. But later—you'll go on with it, of course. Oh, I don't know. He paused, glanced down at the

Starting point is 04:04:32 glittering deck, and then out across the glittering water. I've been dreaming dreams, you see. I rather think I shall have to drop the book altogether, and try to look out for a job that will pay. To indulge in my kind of literature one must first have an assured income. He was instantly annoyed with himself for having spoken. Hitherto in his relations with the Hicks's, he had carefully avoided the least allusion that might make him feel the heavy hand of their beneficence. But the idle procrastinating weeks had weakened him, and he had yielded to the need of putting into words his vague intentions. To do so would perhaps help to make them more definite. To his relief, Miss Hicks made no immediate reply, and when she spoke it was in a softer voice,

Starting point is 04:05:15 and with an unwonted hesitation. It seems a very little. to shame that with gifts like yours you shouldn't find some kind of employment that would leave you leisure enough to do your real work." He shrugged ironically. "'Yes, there are a goodish number of us hunting for that particular kind of employment.' Her tone became more businesslike. "'I know it's hard to find—almost impossible. But would you take it, I wonder, if it were offered to you?'

Starting point is 04:05:41 She turned her head slightly, and their eyes met. For an instant blank terror loomed upon him, but before he had time to face it. face it, she continued, in the same untroubled voice. Mr. Buttle's place, I mean. My parents must absolutely have someone they can count on. You know what an easy place it is. I think he would find the salary satisfactory. Nick drew a deep breath of relief. For a moment her eyes had looked as they had in the scultzy, and he liked the girl too much not to shrink from reawakening that look. But Mr. Buttle's place. Why not?

Starting point is 04:06:14 Poor Buttles! he murmured, to gain time. "'Oh,' she said, "'you won't find the same reasons as he did "'for throwing up the job. "'He was the martyr of his artistic convictions.' "'He glanced at her sideways, "'wondering. "'After all, she did not know of his meeting

Starting point is 04:06:30 "'with Mr. Buttles in Genoa, "'nor of the latter's confidences. "'Perhaps she did not even know "'of Mr. Buttell's hopeless passion. "'At any rate, her face remained calm. "'Why not consider it? "'At least just for a few months, "'till after our expedition to Mesopotamia,'

Starting point is 04:06:45 She pressed on, a little breathlessly. You're awfully kind, but I don't know. She stood up with one of her abrupt movements. You needn't all at once. Take time to think it over. Father wanted me to ask you, she appended. He felt the inadequacy of his response. It tempts me awfully, of course.

Starting point is 04:07:05 But I must wait, at any rate. Wait for letters. The fact is I shall have to wire from roads to have them sent. I had chucked everything, even letters, for a few weeks. Ah, you are tired, she murmured, giving him a last downward glance as she turned away. From Rhodes, Nick Lansing telegraphed to his Paris bank to send his letters to Candia, but when the ibis reached Candia and the mail was brought on board, the thick envelope handed to him contained no letter from Susie.

Starting point is 04:07:35 Why should it, since he had not yet written to her? He had not written, no. But in sending his address to the bank, he knew he had given her the opportunity of reaching him, if she wished to, and she had made no sign. Late that afternoon, when they returned to the yacht from their first expedition, a packet of newspapers lay on the deckhouse table. Nick picked up one of the London journals, and his eye ran absently down the list of social events. He read,

Starting point is 04:08:02 Among the visitors expected next week at Ruan Castle, let for the season to Mr. Frederick J. Gillow of New York, are Prince Altanari of Rome, the Earl of Alteringham and Mrs. Nicholas Lansing, who arrived in London last week from Paris. Nick threw down the paper. It was just a month since he had left the Palazzo Vanderlin and flung himself into the night express from Milan. A whole month, and Susie had not written. Only a month, and Susie and Streford were all ready together. End of Chapter 16. Part 2. Chapter 17 of the glimpses of the moon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth. Elizabeth Clett.

Starting point is 04:08:51 The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton. Part 2. Chapter 17 Susie had decided to wait for Strefford in London. The new Lord Altringham was with his family in the north, and though she found a telegram on arriving saying that he would join her in town the following week, she had still an interval of several days to fill. London was a desert. The rain fell without ceasing, and alone in the shabby family hotel.

Starting point is 04:09:19 which, even out of season, was the best she could afford, she sat at last face to face with herself. From the moment when Violet Melrose had failed to carry out her plan for the former children, her interest in Susie had visibly waned. Often before, in the old days, Susie Branch had felt the same abrupt change of temperature in the manner of the hostess of the moment, and often—how often—had yielded—and performed the required service—rather than risk the constant consequences of an estrangement. To that, at least, thank heaven, she need never stoop again.

Starting point is 04:09:55 But as she hurriedly packed her trunks at Versailles, scraped together an adequate tip for Mrs. Match, and bad goodbye to Violet, grown suddenly fond and demonstrative as she saw her visitors safely headed for the station. As Susie went through the old familiar mummery of the enforced leave-taking, there rose in her so deep a disgust for the life of makeshifts and accommodations, that if at that moment Nick had reappeared and held out his arms to her, she was not sure she would have had the courage to return to them. In her London's solitude, the thirst for independence grew fiercer. Independence with ease, of course.

Starting point is 04:10:31 Oh, her hateful, useless love of beauty! The curse it had always been to her! The blessing it might have been, if only she had the material means to gratify and to express it. And instead it only gave her a morbid loathing of that hideous hotel-eship. bedroom drowned in yellow rainlight, of the smell of soot and cabbage through the window, the blistered wallpaper, the dusty wax bouquet under glass globes, and the electric lighting so contrived that as you turned on the feeble globe hanging from the middle of the ceiling, the feebler one beside the bed went out.

Starting point is 04:11:06 What a sham world she and Nick had lived in during their few months together! What right had either of them to those exquisite settings of the life of leisure? the long white house hidden in camellias and cypresses above the lake, or the great rooms on the Gideka with the shimmer of the canal always playing over their frescoed ceilings. Yet she had come to imagine that these places really belonged to them, that they would always go on living, fondly and irreproachably, in the frame of other people's wealth. That, again, was the curse of her love of beauty, the way she always took to it as if it belonged to her. Well, the awakening was bound to come, and it was perhaps better that it should have come so soon. At any rate, there was no use in letting

Starting point is 04:11:48 her thoughts wander back to that shattered fool's paradise of theirs. Only, as she sat there and reckoned up the days till Streford arrived, what else in the world was there to think of? Her future and his? But she knew that future by heart already. She had not spent her life among the rich and fashionable without having learned every detail of the trappings of a rich and fashionable marriage. She had calculated long ago just how many dinner-dresses, how many tea-gowns, and how much lacy lingerie, would go to make up the outfit of the future countess of Alteringham. She had even decided to which dressmaker she would go for her chinchilla cloak, for she meant to have one, and down to her feet, and softer and more voluminous and more extravagantly

Starting point is 04:12:30 sumptuous than violets or Ursula's, not to speak of silver foxes and sables, nor yet of the Altringham jewels. She knew all this by heart, had always known it. It all belonged to the makeup of the life of elegance. There is nothing new about it. What had been new to her was just that short interval with Nick. A life unreal indeed in its setting, but so real in its essentials, the one reality she had ever known.

Starting point is 04:13:00 As she looked back on it she saw how much it had given her besides the golden flush of her happiness, the sudden flowering of sensuous joy in heart and body. Yes, there had been the flowering, too, in pain like birth pangs, of something graver, stronger, fuller of future power, something she had hardly heated in her first light rapture, but that always came back and possessed her stilled soul when the rapture sank, the deep, disquieting sense of something that Nick and love had taught her, but that reached out even beyond love and beyond Nick. Her nerves were racked by the ceaseless swish, swish of the rain on the dirty pains,

Starting point is 04:13:41 and the smell of cabbage and coal that came in under the door when she shut the window. This nauseating foretaste of the luncheon she must presently go down to was more than she could bear. It brought with it a vision of the dank coffee-room below, the sooty smyrna rug, the rain on the skylight, the listless waitresses handing about food that tasted as if it had been rained on, too. There was really no reason why she should let some of her. such material miseries add to her depression. She sprang up, put on her hat and jacket, and calling for a taxi drove to the London branch of the Nouveau-Lux Hotel. It was just one o'clock, and she was sure to pick up a luncheon, for though London was empty that great establishment was

Starting point is 04:14:21 not—it never was. Along those sultry velvet-carpeted halls—in that great, flowered and scented dining-room, there was always a come and go of rich, aimless people—the busy people, who, having nothing to do, perpetually put—perpetually put in the—and-and-and-goed, pursue their inexorable task from one end of the earth to the other. Oh, the monotony of those faces. The faces one always knew, whether one knew the people they belonged to or not. A fresh disgust seized her at the sight of them. She wavered, and then turned and fled. But on the threshold is still more familiar figure met her, that of a lady in exaggerated pearls and sables, descending from an exaggerated motor, like the motors and magazine

Starting point is 04:15:02 advertisements, the huge arcs in which jeweled beauties and slender youths paused to gaze at snow-peaks from an alpine summit. It was Ursula Gillo. Dear old Ursula, on her way to Scotland, and she and Susie fell on each other's necks. It appeared that Ursula, detained till the next evening by a dressmaker's delay, was also out of a job and killing time, and the two were soon smiling at each other over the exquisite preliminaries of a luncheon which the head-waiter had authoritatively asked Mrs. Gillow to, leave to him, and as usual. Ursula was in a good humor.

Starting point is 04:15:35 It did not often happen, but when it did, her benevolence knew no bounds. Like Mrs. Melrose, like all her tribe, in fact, she was too much absorbed in her own affairs to give more than a passing thought to anyone else's, but she was delighted at the meeting with Susie, as her wandering kind always were when they ran across fellow-wanderers, unless the meeting happened to interfere with choicer pleasures. Not to be alone was the urgent thing. And Ursula, who had been forty-eight hours alone in London, had once exacted from her friend a promise that they should spend the rest of the day together. But once the bargain struck, her mind turned again to her own affairs, as she poured out her confidences to Susie over a succession of dishes that manifested the head-waiter's understanding of the case.

Starting point is 04:16:17 Ursula's confidences were always the same, though they were usually about a different person. She demolished and rebuilt her sentimental life with the same frequency and impetuosity as that with which she changed her dressmaker. did over her drawing-rooms, ordered new motors, altered the mounting of her jewels, and generally renewed the setting of her life. Susie knew in advance what the tale would be, but to listen to it over perfect coffee, an amber-scented cigarette at her lips, was pleasanter than consuming cold mutton alone in a mouldy coffee-room. The contrast was so soothing that she even began to take a languid interest in her friend's narrative. After luncheon they got into the motor together and began a systematic round of the West End shops. Furrier's, jewelers,

Starting point is 04:16:59 and dealers in old furniture. Nothing could be more unlike Violet Melrose's long, hesitating sessions before the things she thought she wanted, till the moment came to decide. Ursula pounced on silver foxes and old lacquer, as promptly and decisively as on the objects of her surplus sentimentality. She knew at once what she wanted, and valued it more after it was hers. "'And now, I wonder if you couldn't help me choose a grand piano,' She suggested, as the last antiquarian bowed them out. A piano? Yes, for Ruan.

Starting point is 04:17:32 I'm sending one down for Grace Fulmer. She's coming to stay. Did I tell you? I want people to hear her. I want her to get engagements in London. My dear, she's a genius. A genius! Grace!

Starting point is 04:17:47 Susie gasped. I thought it was Nat. Nat! Nat! Nat! Falmer! Ursula laughed derisively. Ah, of course.

Starting point is 04:17:56 you've been staying with that silly Violet. The poor thing is off her head about Nat. It's really pitiful. Of course he has talent. I saw that long before Violet had ever heard of him. Why, on the opening day of the American artist's exhibition last winter, I stopped short before his spring snowstorm, which nobody else had noticed till that moment,

Starting point is 04:18:16 and said to the prince who was with me, The man has talent. But genius. Why, it's his wife who has genius. Have you ever heard Grace, play the violin. Poor Violet, as usual, is off on the wrong tack. I've given Fulmer my garden-house to do, no doubt Violet has told you, because I wanted to help him. But grace is my discovery, and I'm determined to make her known, and to have everyone understand

Starting point is 04:18:41 that she is the genius of the two. I've told her she simply must come to Ruan, and bring the best accompanist that she can find. You know poor Neroni is dreadfully bored by sport, though of course he goes out with the guns. And if one didn't have a little art in the evening. Oh, Susie, do you mean to tell me you don't know how to choose a piano? I thought you were so fond of music. I am fond of it, but without knowing anything about it, in the way we're all of us fond of the worthwhile things in our stupid set, she added to herself, since it was obviously useless to impart such reflections to Ursula. But are you sure Grace is coming? She questioned aloud. Quite sure. Why shouldn't she? I wired to her yesterday. I'm giving her a thousand

Starting point is 04:19:26 dollars and all her expenses. It was not till they were having tea in a Piccadilly tea-room that Mrs. Gillo began to manifest some interest in her companion's plans. The thought of losing Susie became suddenly intolerable to her. The prince, who did not see why he should be expected to linger in London out of season, was already at Ruan, and Ursula could not face the evening and the whole of the next day by herself. "'But what are you doing in town, darling?'

Starting point is 04:19:50 "'I don't remember if I've asked you,' she said, resting her firm elbows on the tea-table, while she took a light from Susie's cigarette. Susie hesitated. She had foreseen that the time must soon come when she should have to give some account of herself, and why should she not begin by telling Ursula? But telling her what? Her silence appeared to strike Mrs. Gillow as a reproach, and she continued with compunction.

Starting point is 04:20:14 And Nick? Nick's with you? How is he? I thought you and he still were in Venice with Ellie Vanderlin. We were for a few weeks, She studied her voice. It was delightful, but now we're both on our own again. For a while.

Starting point is 04:20:30 Mrs. Gillow scrutinized her more searchingly. Oh, you're alone here then, quite alone. Yes, Nick's cruising with some friends in the Mediterranean. Ursula's shallow gaze deepened singularly. But Susie, darling, then if you're alone, and out of a job just for the moment? Susie smiled. Well, I'm not sure. Oh, but if you are, darling, and you would come to Ruan!

Starting point is 04:20:57 I know Fred asked you, didn't he? And he told me that both you and Nick had refused. He was awfully huffed at your not coming. But I suppose that was because Nick had other plans. We couldn't have him now because there's no room for another gun. But since he's not here and you're free! Why, you know, dearest, don't you, how we'd love to have you! Fred would be too glad, too outrageously glad!

Starting point is 04:21:19 But you don't much mind Fred's love-making, do you? And you'd be such a help to me, if that's any argument. With that big house full of men and people flocking over every night to dine, and Fred caring only for sport, and Nerone simply loathing it and ridiculing it! Not a minute to myself to try to keep him in a good humour. Oh, Susie, darling, don't say no, but let me telephone at once for a place in the train to-morrow night. Susie leaned back, letting the ash lengthen on her cigarette. How familiar, how hatefully familiar was that old appeal! Ursula felt the pressing need of someone to flirt with Fred for a few weeks. And here was the very person she needed." Susie shivered at the thought.

Starting point is 04:21:58 She had never really meant to go to Ruan. She had simply used the more as a pretext when Violet Melrose had gently put her out of doors. Rather than do what Ursula asked, she would borrow a few hundred pounds of Streford, as he had suggested, and then look about for some temporary occupation until— Until she became Lady Altringham—well, perhaps. At any rate, she was not going back to slave for Ursula. She shook her head with a faint smile. I'm so sorry, Ursula.

Starting point is 04:22:27 Of course I want awfully to oblige you. Mrs. Gillow's gaze grew reproachful. I should have supposed you would, she murmured. Susie, meeting her eyes, looked into them down a long vista of favors bestowed, and perceived that Ursula was not the woman to forget on which side the obligation lay between them. Susie hesitated. She remembered the weeks of ecstasy she had owed to the Gillow's wedding check, and it hurt her to appear on grateful.

Starting point is 04:22:52 If I could, Ursula, but really I'm not free at the moment." She paused and then took an abrupt decision. The fact is I'm waiting here to see Strefford. Strefford? Lord Altringham! Ursula stared. Oh, yes, I remember. You and he used to be great friends, didn't you?

Starting point is 04:23:14 Her roving attention deepened. But if Susie were waiting to see Lord Altringham, one of the richest men in England, Suddenly Ursula opened her gold-meshed bag and snatched a miniature diary from it. But wait a moment! Yes, it is next week! I knew it was next week he's coming to Rwan. But you darling, that makes everything all right. You'll send him a wire at once and come with me to-morrow,

Starting point is 04:23:35 and meet him there instead of in this nasty, sloppy desert. Oh, Susie, if you only knew how hard life is for me in Scotland between the Prince and Fred, you couldn't possibly say no. Susie still wavered. But after all, if Streford were really bound, for Ruan, why not see him there, agreeably and at leisure, instead of spending a dreary day with him in roaming the wet London streets, or screaming at him through the rattle of a restaurant orchestra. She knew he would not be likely to postpone his visit to Ruan in order to linger

Starting point is 04:24:03 in London with her. Such concessions had never been his way, and were less than ever likely to be, now that he could do so thoroughly and completely as he pleased. For the first time she fully understood how difficult his destiny had become. Now, of course, all his days and hours were mapped out in advance. Invitations assailed him, opportunities pressed on him. He had only to choose. And the women! She had never before thought of the women. All the girls in England would be wanting to marry him, not to mention her own enterprising compatriots. And there were the married women, who were even more to be feared. Strath might, for the time, escape marriage, though she could guess the power of persuasion, family pressure, all the converging

Starting point is 04:24:45 traditional influences he had so often ridiculed. Yet, as she knew, had never completely thrown off. Yes, those quiet, invisible women at Alteringham, his uncle's widow, his mother, the spinster sisters, it was not impossible that, with tact and patience, and the stupidest women could be tactful and patient on such occasions, they might eventually persuade him that it was his duty, they might put just the right young loveliness in his way. But meanwhile, now, at once, there were the married women. Ah, they wouldn't wait.

Starting point is 04:25:16 They were doubtless laying their traps already. Susie shivered at the thought. She knew too much about the way the trick was done, had followed too often all the sinuosities of such approaches. Not that they were very sinuous nowadays. More often there was just a swoop into pounce when the time came. But she knew all the arts and the wiles that led up to it. She knew them.

Starting point is 04:25:36 Oh, how she knew them! Though with strep, thank heaven she had never been called upon to exercise them, his love was there for the asking. Would she not be a fool to refuse it? Perhaps, though on that point her mind still wavered. But at any rate she saw that, decidedly, it would be better to yield to Ursula's pressure, better to meet him at Ruan in a congenial setting, where she would have time to get her bearings, observe what dangers threatened him, and make up her mind whether, after all,

Starting point is 04:26:04 it was to be her mission to save him from the other women. Well, if you like, then, Ursula! Oh, you angel, you! I'm so glad! We'll go to the nearest post-office and send off the wire ourselves. As they got into the motor, Mrs. Gillow seized Susie's arm with a pleading pressure, "'and you will let Fred make love to you a little, won't you, darling?' End of Chapter 17. Part 2, Chapter 18, of The Glimpses of the Moon.

Starting point is 04:26:39 This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clet The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton. Part 2 Chapter 18 "'But I can't think,' said Ellie Vanderlin earnestly. "'Why, you don't announce your engagement before waiting for your divorce. People are beginning to do it, I assure you, it's so much safer!' Mrs. van der Luen, on the way back from San Maritz to England, had paused in Paris to renew

Starting point is 04:27:10 the depleted wardrobe, which, only two months earlier, had filled so many trunks to bursting. Other ladies, flocking there from all points of the globe for the same purpose, disputed with her the Louis XVIth sweets of the Nouveau-Lux, the pink-candled tables in the restaurant, the hours for trying on at the dressmakers, and just because they were so many, and all feverishly fighting to get the same things at the same time, they were all excited, happy, and at ease. It was the most momentous period of the year, the height of the dressmaker's season. Mrs. Vanderlin had run across Susie Lansing at one of the Rue de la Paye, or

Starting point is 04:27:46 openings, where rows of ladies, wan with heat and emotion, sat for hours in rapt attention, while spectral apparitions and incredible Raymond tottered endlessly past them on aching feet. Distracted from the regal splendors of a chinchilla cloak by the sense that another lady was also examining it, Mrs. van derlyn turned in surprise at the sight of Susie, whose head was critically bent above the fur. "'Soozy! I'd no idea you were here! I saw on the papers that you were with the gillows!' The customary embraces followed. Then Mrs. Vanderlin, her eyes, pursuing the matchless cloak as it disappeared down a vista

Starting point is 04:28:21 of receding mannequins, interrogated sharply. Are you shopping for Ursula? If you mean to order that cloak for her, I'd rather know. Susie smiled, and paused a moment before answering. During the pause she took in all the exquisite details of Ellie Vanderlin's perpetually youthful person, from the plumed crown of her head to the perfect arch of her patent-leather shoes. At last she said quietly,

Starting point is 04:28:43 No, today I'm shopping for myself. Yourself? Yourself? Mrs. Vandrelin echoed with a stare of incredulity. Yes, just for a change, Susie serenely acknowledged. But the cloak! I meant the chinchilla cloak! The one with the ermine lining!

Starting point is 04:29:03 Yes, it is awfully good, isn't it? But I mean to look elsewhere before I decide. Ah, how often had she heard her friends use that phrase, and how amusing it was now. to see Ellie's amazement as she heard it tossed off in her own tone of contemptuous satiety. Susie was becoming more and more dependent on such diversions. Without them, her days, crowded as they were, would nevertheless have dragged by heavily. But it still amused her to go to the big dressmakers, watch the mannequins sweep by, and be seen by her friends superciliously

Starting point is 04:29:34 examining all the most expensive dresses in the procession. She knew the rumor was abroad that she and Nick were to be divorced, and that Lord Altringham was devoted to her. she neither confirmed nor denied the report she just let herself be luxuriously carried forward on its easy tide but although it was now three months since nick had left the palazzo vanderlin she had not yet written to him nor he to her Meanwhile, in spite of all that she packed into them, the days passed more and more slowly, and the excitements that she had counted on no longer excited her. Strefford was hers. She knew that he would marry her as soon as she was free. They had been together at Ruan for ten days, and after that she had motored south with him,

Starting point is 04:30:15 stopping on the way to see Altringham, from which, at the moment, his mourning relatives were absent. At Altringham they had parted, and after one or two more visits in England she had come back to Paris, where he was now about to join her. her few hours at Altringham she had understood that he would wait for her as long as was necessary. The fear of the other women had ceased to trouble her. But perhaps for that very reason, the future seemed less exciting that she had expected. Sometimes she thought it was the sight of that great house which had overwhelmed her.

Starting point is 04:30:44 It was too vast, too venerable, too like a huge monument built of ancient territorial traditions and obligations. Perhaps it had been lived in for too long by too many serious-minded and conscientious women. Somehow she could not picture it invaded by bridge and debts and adultery. And yet that was what would have to be, of course. She could hardly picture either Streford or herself continuing there the life of heavy county responsibilities, dull parties, laborious duties, weekly church-going, and presiding over local committees.

Starting point is 04:31:14 What a pity they couldn't sell it and have a little house on the Thames. Nevertheless, she was not sorry to let it be known that Altringham was hers when she chose to take it. At times she wondered whether Nick knew, whether rumours had won. reached him. If they had, he had only his own letter to thank for it. He had told her what course to pursue, and she was pursuing it. For a moment the meeting with Ellie Vanderlin had been a shock to her. She had hoped never to see Ellie again. But now that they were actually face to face, Susie perceived how dulled her own sensibilities were. In a few moments she had

Starting point is 04:31:46 grown used to Ellie, as she was growing used to everybody into everything in the old life she had returned to. What was the use of making such a fuss about things? She and Mrs. van der Leyen left the dressmakers together, and after an absorbing session at a new milliners were now taking tea in Ellie's drawing-room at the Nouveau-lux. Ellie, with her spoiled child's persistency, had come back to the question of the chinchilla cloak. It was the only one she had seen that she fancied in the very least, and as she hadn't a decent fur garment left to her name, she was naturally in somewhat of a hurry.

Starting point is 04:32:15 But, of course, if Susie had been choosing that model for a friend—' Susie, leaning back against her cushions, examined through half-closed lids Mrs. Vanderlin's small, delicately restored countenance, which wore the same expression of childish eagerness as when she discoursed of the young davenant of the moment. Once again Susie remarked that, in Ellie's agitated existence, every interest appeared to be on exactly the same plain. The poor, shivering dear, she answered, laughing. Of course it shall have its nice warm winter cloak, and I'll choose another one instead. Oh, you darling, you! If you would! Of course, whoever you were ordering it for need never know.

Starting point is 04:32:54 Ah, you can't comfort yourself with that, I'm afraid. I've already told you that I was ordering it for myself. Susie paused to savour to the full Ellie's look of blank bewilderment. Then her amusement was checked by an indefinable change in her friend's expression. Oh, dearest, seriously, I didn't know there was someone. Susie flushed the forehead. A horror of humiliation overwhelmed her, that Ellie should dare to think that of her, that anyone should dare to.

Starting point is 04:33:24 "'Some one buying chinchilla cloaks for me?' "'Thanks,' she flared out. "'I suppose I ought to be glad that the idea didn't immediately occur to you. At least there was a decent interval of doubt.' She stood up, laughing again, and began to wander about the room. In the mirror above the mantle she caught sight of her flushed angry face and of Mrs. Vanderlin's disconcerted stare. She turned toward her friend.

Starting point is 04:33:47 "'I suppose everybody else will think it if you do, so perhaps I'd better explain.' She paused and drew a quick breath. Nick and I mean to part, have parted, in fact. He's decided that the whole thing was a mistake. He will probably marry again soon, and so shall I. She flung the avowal out, breathlessly, in her nervous dread of letting Ellie Vanderlin think for an instant longer that any other explanation was conceivable. She had not meant to be so explicit. But once the words were spoken, she was not altogether sorry. Of course people would soon begin to wonder why she was again straying about the world alone, and since it was by Nick's choice, why should she not say so?

Starting point is 04:34:24 Remembering the burning anguish of those last hours in Venice, she asked herself what possible consideration she owed to the man who had so humbled her. Ellie Vanderlin glanced at her in astonishment. "'You? You and Nick are going to part!' A light appeared to dawn on her. "'Ah, then that's why he sent me back my pin, I suppose.' "'Your pin?' Susie wondered, not at once remembering. "'The poor little scarf-pin I gave him before I left Venice.

Starting point is 04:34:53 He sent it back almost at once, with the oddest note, just, I haven't earned it, really. I couldn't think why he didn't care for the pin, but now I suppose it was because you and he had quarreled. Though really, even so, I can't see why he should bear me a grudge. Susie's quick blood surged up. Nick had sent back the pin, the fatal pin. And she, Susie, had kept the bracelet, locked it up out of sight, shrunk away from the little packet whenever her hand touched it in packing or unpacking, but never thought of returning it. No, not once.

Starting point is 04:35:28 Which of the two, she wondered, had been right. Was it not an indirect slight to her that Nick should fling back the gift to poor, uncomprehending Ellie? Or was it not rather another proof of his finer moral sensitiveness? And how could one tell in their bewildering world? It was not because we've quarrelled. We haven't quarreled, she said slowly, moved by the sudden desire to defend her privacy and Nix, to screen from every eye their last bitter hour together. We've simply decided that

Starting point is 04:35:56 our experiment was impossible, for two paupers. "'Ah, well, of course we all felt that at the time. And now somebody else wants to marry you. And it's your trousseau you were choosing that cloak for,' Ellie cried an incredulous rapture. Then she flung her arms about Susie's shrinking shoulders. "'You lucky, lucky girl! You clever, clever darling! But who on earth can he be?' And it was then that Susie, for the first time, had pronounced the name of Lord Altringham. "'Streff! Streff! How dear old Streff! You mean to say he wants to marry you?' As the news took possession of her mind, Ellie became Dithee Rambach.

Starting point is 04:36:37 "'But, my dearest, what a miracle of luck! Of course I always knew he was awfully gone on you!' Fred Davenant used to say so I remember. And even Nelson, who's so stupid about such things, noticed it in Venice. But then it was so different. No one could possibly have thought of marrying him then, whereas now, of course, every woman is trying for him. Oh, Susie, whatever you do, don't miss your chance. You can't conceive of the wicked plotting and intriguing there will be to get him, on all sides, and even where one least suspects it. You don't know what horrors women will do, and even girls." A shudder ran through her at the thought, and she caught Susie's wrists and vehement fingers. "'But I can't think, my dear, why you don't

Starting point is 04:37:18 your engagement at once! People are beginning to do it, I assure you, it's so much safer." Susie looked at her, wondering, not a word of sympathy for the ruin of her brief bliss, not even a gleam of curiosity as to its cause. No doubt, Ellie Vanderlin, like all Susie's other friends, had long since discounted the brevity of her dream, and perhaps planned a sequel to it before she herself had seen the glory fading. She and Nick had spent the greater part of their few weeks together under Ellie Vanderlin's roof. But to Ellie, obviously, the fact meant no more than her own escapade, at the same moment, with young Davinence supplanter, the bounder whom Streford had never named. Her one thought for her friend was that Susie should at last

Starting point is 04:38:01 secure her prize, her incredible prize. And therein, at any rate, Ellie showed the kind of cold disinterestedness that raised her above the smiling perfidy of the majority of her kind. At least her advice was sincere, and perhaps it was wise. Why should Susie not let everyone know that she meant to marry Strefford as soon as the formalities were fulfilled? She did not immediately answer Mrs. Vanderlund's question, and the latter, repeating it, added impatiently, "'I don't understand you. If Nick agrees!'

Starting point is 04:38:31 "'Oh, he agrees,' said Susie. "'Then what more do you want?' "'Oh, Susie, if you'd only follow my example.' "'Your example?' Susie paused, weighed the word, was struck by something embarrassed, arch, yet half-apologetic in her friend's expression. "'Your example,' she repeated. "'Why, Ellie, what on earth do you mean?

Starting point is 04:38:53 Not that you're going to part from poor Nelson.' Mrs. van derleyn met her reproachful gaze with a crystalline glance. "'I don't want to, heaven knows. Poor dear Nelson! I assure you I simply hate it. He's always such an angel to Clarissa, and then we're used to each other. But what in the world am I to do? Algae's so rich, so appallingly rich,

Starting point is 04:39:15 I have to be perpetually on the watch to keep other women away from him, and it's too exhausting." "'Algy?' Mrs. Vanderland's lovely eyebrows rose. "'Algy? Algy! Balchheimer! Didn't you know, I think he said you've dined with his parents? Nobody else in the world is as rich as the Bokheimers, and algae's their only child.' "'Yes, it was with him. With him I was so dreadfully happy last spring. And now I'm in mortal terror of losing him. And I do assure you there's no other way of keeping them when they're as hideously rich as that." Susie rose to her feet.

Starting point is 04:39:49 A little shudder ran over her. She remembered now having seen Algie Bokheimer at one of his parents' first entertainments in their newly inaugurated marble halls in Fifth Avenue. She recalled his two faultless clothes and his small, glossy, furtive countenance. She looked at Ellie Vanderlin with sudden scorn. "'I think you're abominable,' she exclaimed.

Starting point is 04:40:11 The other's perfect little face collapsed. Abominable? Abominable? Susie! Yes, with Nelson and Clarissa and your past together, and all the money you can possibly want, and that man! Abominable!

Starting point is 04:40:29 Ellie stood up trembling. She was not used to scenes, and they disarranged her thoughts as much as her complexion. You're very cruel, Susie, so cruel and dreadful that I hardly know how to answer you, she stammered. But you simply don't know what you. you're talking about, as if anybody ever had all the money they wanted."

Starting point is 04:40:48 She wiped her dark-rimmed eyes with a cautious handkerchief, glanced at herself in the mirror, and added magnanimously, but I shall try to forget what you've said." End of Chapter 18. Part 2. Chapter 19 of the Glimpses of the Moon. This Librovoc's recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clutt. The Glimpses of the Moon. By Edith Wharton Part 2 Chapter 19

Starting point is 04:41:22 Just such a revolt as she had felt as a girl, such a disgusted recoil from the standards and ideals of everybody about her as had flung her into her mad marriage with Nick, now flamed in Susie Lansing's bosom. How could she ever go back into that world again? How echo its appraisals of life and bowed down to its judgments? Alas, it was only by marrying according to its standards that she could escape such subjection. Perhaps the same thought had actuated Nick. Perhaps he had understood sooner than she, that to attain moral freedom they must both be above material cares. Perhaps. Her talk with Ellie Vanderlin had left Susie so oppressed and humiliated, that she almost

Starting point is 04:42:09 shrank from her meeting with Alteringham the next day. She knew that he was coming to Paris for his final time. answer, he would wait as long as was necessary, if only she would consent to take immediate steps for a divorce. She was staying at a modest hotel in the Foburg Saint-Germain, and had once more refused his suggestion that they should lunch at the Nouveau-Lux, or at some fashionable restaurant of the boulevard. As before, she insisted on going to an out-of-the-way place near the Luxembourg, where the

Starting point is 04:42:36 prices were moderate enough for her own purse. "'I can't understand,' Strefford objected as they turned from her hotel door to this obscure retreat. Why you insist on giving me bad food, and depriving me of the satisfaction of being seen with you? Why must we be so dreadfully clandestine? Don't people know by this time that we're to be married?" Susie winced a little. She wondered if the word would always sound so unnatural on his lips. "'No,' she said with a laugh. "'They simply think that, for the present, you're giving me pearls and chinchilla cloaks.' he wrinkled his brows good-humoredly well so i would with joy at this particular minute don't you think perhaps you'd better take advantage of it i don't wish to insist but i foresee that i'm much too rich not to become stingy

Starting point is 04:43:29 She gave a slight shrug. At present there's nothing I love more than pearls and chinchilla, or anything else in the world that's expensive and enviable. Suddenly she broke off, coloring with the consciousness that she had said exactly the kind of thing that all the women who were trying for him, except the very cleverest, would be sure to say, and that he would certainly suspect her of attempting the conventional comedy of disinterestedness than which nothing was less likely to deceive or to flatter him. His twinkling eyes played curiously over her face, and she went on, meeting them with a smile.

Starting point is 04:44:02 But don't imagine all the same that if I should—decide. It would be all together for your beau-year.' He laughed, she thought, rather dryly. "'No,' he said, "'I don't suppose that's ever likely to happen to me again.' "'Oh, Streff!' she faltered with compunction. It was odd. Once upon a time she had known exactly what to say to the man of the moment, whomever he was, and whatever kind of talk he required. She had even in the difficult days before her marriage reeled off glibly enough the sort of limelight sentimentality that plunged poor Fred Gillow into such speechless beatitude. But since then she had spoken the language of

Starting point is 04:44:40 real love, looked with its eyes, embraced with its hands, and now the other trumpery art had failed her, and she was conscious of bungling and groping like a beginner under Strefford's ironic scrutiny. They had reached their obscure destination, and he opened the door and glanced in. It's jammed, not a table, and stifling! Where shall we go? Perhaps they could give us a room to ourselves, he suggested. She assented, and they were led up a corkscrew staircase to a squat-ceilinged closet,

Starting point is 04:45:13 lit by the arched top of a high window, the lower panes of which served the floor below. Streford opened the window, and Susie, throwing her cloak on the divan, leaned on the balcony while he ordered luncheon. On the whole, she was glad they were to be alone. Just because she felt so sure of Streford it seemed ungenerous to keep him longer in suspense, the moment had come when they must have a decisive talk, and in the crowded rooms below it would have been impossible. Streford, when the waiter had brought the first course and left them to themselves,

Starting point is 04:45:43 made no effort to revert to personal matters. He turned instead to the topic always most congenial to him, the humors and ironies of the human comedy, as presented by his own particular group. His malicious commentary on life had always amused, Susie, because of the shrewd flashes of philosophy he shed on the social antics they had so often watched together. He was, in fact, the one person she knew, excepting Nick, who was in the show, and yet outside of it. And she was surprised, as the talk proceeded, to find herself so little interested in his scraps of gossip and so little amused by his comments on them. With an inward shrug of discouragement, she said to herself that probably nothing would ever really amuse her again.

Starting point is 04:46:26 Then, as she listened, she began to understand that her disappointment arose from the fact that Strefford, in reality, could not live without these people whom he saw through and satirized, and that the rather commonplace scandals he narrated interested him as much as his own racy considerations on them. and she was filled with terror at the thought that the inmost core of the richly decorated life of the Countess of Alteringham would be just as poor and low-ceiling to place as the little room in which he and she now sat, elbow to elbow, yet so unapproachably apart. If Streford could not live without these people, neither could she and Nick, but for reasons how different! And if his opportunities had been theirs, what a world they would have created for themselves! Such imaginings were vain, and she shrank back from them into the present. After all, as Lady Altringham, she would have the power to create that world which she and Nick had dreamed,

Starting point is 04:47:21 only she must create it alone. Well, that was probably the law of things. All human happiness was thus conditioned and circumscribed, and hers no doubt must always be of the lonely kind, since material things did not suffice for it, even though it depended on them as Grace Fulmer's, for instance, never had. Yet even Grace Fulmer had succumbed to Ursula's offer, and had arrived at Ruan the day before Susie left, instead of going to Spain with her husband and Violet Melrose. But then Grace was

Starting point is 04:47:52 making the sacrifice for her children, and somehow one had the feeling that in giving up her liberty she was not surrendering a tittle of herself. But the difference was there. "'How I do bore you!' Susie heard Strefford exclaim. She became aware that she had not been listening. Stray echoes of names, of places and people, Violet Melrose, Ursula, Prince Altaneri, others of their group and persuasion, had vainly knocked at her barricaded brain. What had he been telling her about them? She turned to him and their eyes met. His were full of a melancholy irony. Susie, old girl, what's wrong? She pulled herself together.

Starting point is 04:48:31 I was thinking, Streff, just now. When I said I hated the very sound of pearls and Ginchilla, how impossible it was that you should have believed me. In fact, what a blunder I'd made in saying it. He smiled. Because it was what so many other women might be likely to say, so awfully unoriginal, in fact. She laughed for sheer joy at his insight. It's going to be easier than I imagined, she thought.

Starting point is 04:48:57 Aloud, she rejoined. Oh, Streff! How you're always going to find me out! Where on earth shall I ever hide from you? Where? he echoed her laugh laying his hand lightly on hers in my heart i'm afraid in spite of the laugh his accent shook her something about it took all the mockery from his retort checked on her lips the what a valentine and made her suddenly feel that if he were afraid so was she yet she was touched also and wondered half exultingly if any other woman had ever caught that particular deep inflection of his shrill voice she had never ever caught that particular deep inflection of his shrill voice she had never liked him as much as at that moment and she said to herself with an odd sense of detachment as if she had been rather breathlessly observing the vacillations of some one whom she longed to persuade but dared not now now if he speaks i shall say yes

Starting point is 04:49:52 he did not speak but abruptly and as startlingly to her as if she had just dropped from a sphere whose inhabitants had other methods of expressing their sympathy he slipped his arm around her and bent his keen ugly melting face to her-he had just dropped from a sphere whose inhabitants had other methods of expressing their sympathy he slipped his arm around her and bent his keen ugly melting face to her hers. It was the lightest touch. In an instant she was free again. But something within her gasped and resisted, long after his arm and his lips were gone, and he was proceeding with a two-studied ease to light a cigarette and sweeten his coffee. He had kissed her. Well, naturally, why not? It was not the first time she had been kissed. It was true that one didn't habitually associate streff with such demonstrations, but she had not that excuse for surprise. for even in venice she had begun to notice that he looked at her differently and avoided her hand when he used to seek it no she ought not to have been surprised nor ought a kiss to have been so disturbing Such incidents had punctuated the career of Susie Branch, there had been in particular,

Starting point is 04:50:53 in far-off, discarded times, Fred Gillows, large, but artless embraces. Well, nothing of that kind had seemed of any more account than the click of a leaf in a woodland walk. It had all been merely epidermal, ephemeral, part of the trivial accepted business of the social comedy. But this kiss of Streffers was what Nix had been, under the New Hampshire pines on the day that had decided their fate. It was a kiss with a future in it, like a ring slipped upon her soul. And now, in the dreadful pause that followed, while Strefford fidgeted with his cigarette-case and rattled the spoon in his cup, Susie remembered what she had seen through the circle of Nick's

Starting point is 04:51:35 kiss—that blue, illimitable distance which was at once the landscape at their feet, and the future in their souls. that was what Strefford's sharply narrowed eyes were seeing now, that same illimitable distance that she had lost for ever. Perhaps he was saying to himself, as she had said to herself when her lips left Nix, Each time we kiss we shall see it all again. Whereas all she herself had felt was the gasping recoil from Streford's touch, and an intenser vision of the sordid room in which he and she sat, and of their two selves, more

Starting point is 04:52:10 distant from each other than if their embrace had been a sudden thrusting apart. The moment prolonged itself, and they sat numb. How long had it lasted? How long ago was it that he had thought, it's going to be easier than I imagined? Suddenly she felt Strefford's queer smile upon her, and saw in his eyes a look, not of reproach or disappointment, but of deep and anxious comprehension. Instead of being angry or hurt, he had seen, he had understood, he was sorry for her. Impulsively she slipped her hand into his, and they sat silent for another moment. Then he stood up and took her cloak from the divan. "'Shall we go now? I've got cars for the private view of the Reynolds' exhibition at the Petitpaleigh. There are some portraits from Alteringham. It might amuse you.' In the taxi she had time, through their light rattle of talk, to readjust herself and drop back into her usual feeling of friendly ease with him.

Starting point is 04:53:08 He had been extraordinarily considerate, for anyone who had been, who always so undisguisedly sought his own satisfaction above all things, and if his considerateness were just an indirect way of seeking that satisfaction now, well, that proved how much he cared for her, how necessary to his happiness she had become. The sense of power was undeniably pleasant. Pleasanter still was the feeling that someone really needed her, that the happiness of the man at her side depended on her yes or no. She abandoned herself to the feeling, forgetting the abysmal interval of his caress, or at least the happiness of her side, or at least her own. least saying to herself that in time she would forget it, that really there was nothing

Starting point is 04:53:44 to make a fuss about and being kissed by anyone she liked as much as Streff. She had guessed at once why he was taking her to see the Reynolds's. Fashionable and artistic Paris had recently discovered English 18th century art. The principal collections of England had yielded up their best examples of the great portrait painter's work, and the private view at the Petit Palais was to be the social event of the afternoon. Everybody, Strefford's everybody, and Susie's, was sure to be there, and these, actually— she knew were the occasions that revived Strefford's intermittent interest in art. He really liked picture-shows as much as the races, if one could be sure of seeing as many people there.

Starting point is 04:54:20 With Nick how different it would have been. Nick hated openings and varnishing days, and worldly aesthetics in general. He would have waited till the tide of fashion had ebbed, and slipped off with Susie to see the pictures some morning when they were sure to have the place to themselves. But Susie divined that there was another reason for Streford's suggestion. She She had never yet shown herself with him publicly, among their group of people. Now he had determined that she should do so, and she knew why. She had humbled his pride. He had understood and forgiven her.

Starting point is 04:54:51 But she still continued to treat him as she had always treated the Strefford of old. Charlie Strefford! Dear old, negligible, impecunious Streff! And he wanted to show her, ever so casually and adroitly, that the man who had asked her to marry him, was no longer Strefford, but Lord Altringham. very threshold, his ambassador's greeting marked the difference. It was followed, wherever they turned, by ejaculations of welcome from the rulers of the world they moved in. Everybody rich enough, or titled enough, or clever enough, or stupid enough, to have forced a way into the social

Starting point is 04:55:23 citadel was there, waving and flag-flying from the battlements, and to all of them Lord Altringham had become a marked figure. During their slow progress through the dense mass of important people who made the approach to the picture so well worth fighting for, he never left Susie's side, or failed to make her feel herself a part of his triumphal advance. She heard her name mentioned. Lansing, a Mrs. Lansing, an American. Susie Lansing? Yes, of course.

Starting point is 04:55:50 You remember her? At Newport, at San Maritz. Exactly. Divorced already. They say so. Susie, darling, I'd no idea you were here. And Lord Alteringham. You've forgotten me, I know, Lord Altringham.

Starting point is 04:56:04 Yes, last year in Cairo. Or at Newport, or in Scotland. "'Susie, dearest, when will you bring Lord Altringham to dine, "'any night that you and he are free all arranged to be?' "'You and he. They were you and he already.' "'Ah, there's one of them, of my great-grandmothers,' "'Strefford explained, giving a last push that drew him and Susie to the front rank "'before a tall, isolated portrait, which, by sheer majesty of presentment,

Starting point is 04:56:33 "'sat in its great carved golden frame as on a throne above the other pictures. Susie read on the scroll beneath it, the Honourable Diana Lefano, 15th Countess of Alteringham, and heard Strefford say, "'Do you remember? It hangs where you notice the empty space above the mantelpiece in the Van Dyke room.

Starting point is 04:56:51 They say Reynolds stipulated that it should be put with the Van Dykes.' She had never before heard him speak of his possessions, whether ancestral or merely material, in just that full and satisfied tone of voice, the rich man's voice. She saw that he was already feeling the influence of his surroundings.

Starting point is 04:57:08 that he was glad the portrait of a countess of Alteringham should occupy the central place in the principal room of the exhibition, that the crowd about it should be denser there than before any of the other pictures, and that he should be standing there with Susie, letting her feel, and letting all the people about them guess, that the day she chose she could wear the same name as his pictured ancestress. On the way back to her hotel, Streford made no farther allusion to their future. They chatted like old comrades in their respective corners of the taxi. But as the carriage stopped at her door, he said, I must go back to England the day after

Starting point is 04:57:42 tomorrow. Worst luck. Why not dine with me to-night at the Nouveau-Lux? I've got to have the ambassador and Lady Ascot, with their youngest girl, and my old Dune's aunt, the Dowager duchess, who's over here hiding from her creditors. But I'll try to get two or three amusing men to leaven the lump. We might go on to a boat afterwards, if you're bored, unless the dancing amuses you more. She understood that he had decided to hasten his departure rather than linger on.

Starting point is 04:58:08 on in uncertainty. She also remembered having heard the Ascot's youngest daughter, Lady Joan Seneschal, spoken of as one of the prettiest girls of the season, and she recalled the almost exaggerated warmth of the ambassador's greeting at the private view. "'Of course I'll come, Streff dear,' she cried, with an effort at gaiety that sounded successful to her own strained ears, and reflected itself in the sudden lighting up of his face. She waved a good-bye from the step, saying to herself as she looked after him, He'll drive me home tonight, and I shall say yes, and then he'll kiss me again. But the next time it won't be nearly as disagreeable.

Starting point is 04:58:44 She turned into the hotel, glanced automatically at the empty pigeon-hole for letters under her key-hook, and mounted the stairs following the same train of images. Yes, I shall say yes to-night, she repeated firmly, her hand on the door of her room. That is, unless they've brought up a letter. She never re-entered the hotel without imagining that. that the letter she had not found below had already been brought up. Opening the door, she turned on the light and sprang to the table on which her correspondence sometimes awaited her.

Starting point is 04:59:16 There was no letter, but the morning papers, still unread, lay at hand, and glancing listlessly down the column which chronicles the doings of society, she read, After an extended cruise in the Aegean and the Black Sea on their steam-yacht, Ibis, Mr. and Mrs. Mortimer Hicks and their daughter are established at the Nouveau-Lox in Rome. They have lately had the honor of entertaining at dinner the reigning prince of Tutteauberger Valdine and his mother, the Princess Dowager, with their suite. Among those invited to meet their serene highnesses were the French and Spanish ambassadors, the Duchess de Vichy, Prince and Princess Bani di Lucca, Lady Penelope Pentiles, Susie's eye flew impatiently on the long list of titles,

Starting point is 04:59:56 and Mr. Nicholas Lansing of New York, who has been cruising with Mr. and Mrs. Hicks on the Ibus for the last few months. chapter nineteen part two chapter twenty of the glimpses of the moon this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by elizabeth clet the glimpses of the moon by edith wharton part two chapter twenty the mortimer hickses were in rome not as they would in former times have been in one of the antiquated hostelries of the piazza di spagna or the porta del popolo where of old they had so gaily defied fever and nourished themselves on local color, but spread out, with all the ostentation of Philistine millionaires, under the piano nobile ceilings of one of the high-perched palaces, where, as Mrs. Hicks shamelessly declared, they could, rely on the plumbing, and have the privilege of overlooking the Queen Mother's Gardens. It was that speech, uttered with beaming a plal

Starting point is 05:01:05 at a dinner-table surrounded by the cosmopolitan nobility of the Eternal City, that had suddenly revealed to Lansing the profound change in the Hicks' point of view. As he looked back over the four months since he had so unexpectedly joined the Ibis at Genoa, he saw that the change, at first insidious and unperceived, dated from the ill-fated day when the Hickses had run across a reigning prince on his travels. Hitherto they had been proof against such perils. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hicks had often declared that the aristocracy of the intellect was the only one which attracted them. but in this case the prince possessed an intellect in addition to his few square miles of territory and to one of the most beautiful field-marshal's uniforms that had ever encased a royal warrior the prince was not a warrior however he was stooping pacific and spectacled and his possession of the uniform had been revealed to mrs hicks only by the gift of a full-length photograph in a bond street frame with anastasius written slantingly across its legs the prince and herein lay the hicks's undoing

Starting point is 05:02:09 undoing, the prince was an archaeologist, an earnest, anxious, inquiring, and scrupulous archaeologist. Delicate health, so his sweet hinted, banished him for a part of each year from his cold and foggy principality, and in the company of his mother, the active and enthusiastic Dowager princess, he wandered from one Mediterranean shore to another, now assisting at the exhumation of Ptolemaic mummies, now at the excavation of Delphic temples or of North African basilicas. The beginning of winter usually brought the prince and his mother to Rome or niece, unless indeed they were summoned by family duties to Berlin, Vienna, or Madrid, for an extended

Starting point is 05:02:51 connection with the principal royal houses of Europe compelled them, as the princess mother said, to be always burying or marrying a cousin. At other moments they were seldom seen in the glacial atmosphere of courts, preferring to royal palaces those of the other and more modern type, in one of which the hickses were now lodged. Yes, the prince and his mother, they gaily avowed it, reveled in palace hotels, and being unable to afford the luxury of inhabiting them, they liked, as often as possible, to be invited to dine there by their friends. Or even to tea, my dear, the princess laughingly avowed, for I'm so awfully fond of buttered scones,

Starting point is 05:03:29 and Anastasius gives me so little to eat in the desert. The encounter with these ambulent highnesses had been fatal, Lansing now perceived it, to Mrs. Hicks's principles. She had known a great many archaeologists, but never one as agreeable as the prince, and, above all, never one who had left a throne to camp in the desert and delve in Libyan tombs. And it seemed to her infinitely pathetic that these two gifted beings, who grumbled when they had to go to marry a cousin at the Palace of St. James or of Madrid, and hastened back breathlessly to the far-off point, where, metaphorically speaking, pick-axe and spade had dropped from their royal hands, that these heirs of the ages should be unable to offer themselves the comforts of up-to-date

Starting point is 05:04:10 hotel life, and should enjoy themselves, like babies, when they were invited to the other kind of palace to feast on buttered scones and watch the tango. She simply could not bear the thought of their privations, and neither after a time could Mr. Hicks, who found the prince more democratic than anyone he had ever known at Apex City, and was immensely interested by the fact that their spectacles came from the same optician. But it was, above all, the artistic tendencies of the prince and his mother which had conquered the Hickses. There was fascination in the thought, that, among the rabble of vulgar uneducated royalties who overran Europe from Berets to the Engadine, gambling, tangoing, and sponging on no less vulgar plebeians, they, the unobtrusive

Starting point is 05:04:54 and self-respecting Hickses should have had the luck to meet this cultivated pair, who joined them and gentle ridicule of their own frivolous kinsfolk, and whose tastes were exactly those of the eccentric, unreliable, and sometimes money-borrowing persons, who had hitherto represented the higher life to the Hicks's. Now, at last, Mrs. Hicks saw the possibility of being at once artistic and luxurious, of surrendering herself to the joys of modern plumbing, and yet keeping the talk on the highest level. If the poor, dear princess, wants to dine at the Nouveau-Lux, why shouldn't we give her that pleasure? pleasure," Mrs. Hicks, smilingly inquired. And as for her enjoying her buttered scones like a baby, as she says, I think it's the sweetest

Starting point is 05:05:38 thing about her." Coral Hicks did not join in this chorus, but she accepted, with her curious air of impartiality, the change in her parents' manner of life, and for the first time, as Nick observed, occupied herself with her mother's toilet, with the result that Mrs. Hicks' outline became firmer, her garments soberer in hue and finer in material. So that, should anyone chance to detect the daughter's likeness to her mother, the result was less likely to be disturbing. Such precautions were the more needful,

Starting point is 05:06:09 Lansing could not but note because of the different standards of the society in which the Hicksies now moved, for it was a curious fact that admission to the intimacy of the prince and his mother, who continually declared themselves to be the pariahs, the outlaws, the bohemians among crowned heads, nevertheless involved not only living in the palace hotels, but mixing with those who frequented them. The Prince's aide-de-combe, an agreeable young man of easy manners, had smilingly hinted that their serene highnesses, though so thoroughly democratic and unceremonious, were yet accustomed to inspecting

Starting point is 05:06:41 in advance the names of the persons whom their hosts wished to invite with them, and Lansing noticed that Mrs. Hicks' lists, having been submitted, usually came back lengthened by the addition of numerous wealthy and titled guests. Their highnesses never struck out a name. They welcomed with enthusiasm and curiosity the Hicks' oddest and most inexplicable friends, at most putting off some of them to a later day on the plea that it would be cozier to meet them on a more private occasion. But they invariably added to the list any friends of their own,

Starting point is 05:07:12 with the gracious hint that they wish these latter, though socially so well provided for, to have the immense privilege of knowing the Hicks. And thus it happened that one on the first, that one October gales necessitated laying up the ibis, the Hickses, finding again in Rome the august travellers from whom they had parted the previous month in Athens, also found their visiting list enlarged by all that the capital contained of fashion. It was true enough, as Lansing had not failed to note, that the Princess Mother adored prehistoric art and Russian music, and the paintings of Goghain and Matisse. But she also, and with a beaming unconsciousness of perspective,

Starting point is 05:07:49 adored large pearls and powerful motors, caravan tea and modern plumbing, perfumed cigarettes and society's scandals. And her son, while apparently less sensible to these forms of luxury, adored his mother and was charmed to gratify her inclinations without cost to himself, since poor Mama, as he observed, is so courageous when we are roughing it in the desert. The smiling aide-de-camp, who explained these things to Lansing, added with an intenser smile that the prince and his mother were under obligations, either social or cousinly, to most of the titled persons whom they begged Mrs. Hicks to invite, and it seems to their serene highnesses, he added, the most flattering return they can make for the hospitality of their friends to give them such an

Starting point is 05:08:33 intellectual opportunity. The dinner-table at which their highness's friends were seated on the evening in question represented numerically one of the greatest intellectual opportunities yet afforded them. Thirty guests were grouped about the flower-reathed board, from which, as El Dorada and Mr. Beck had been excluded on the plea that the Princess Mother liked cozy parties, and begged her host that there should never be more than thirty at table. Such, at least, was the reason given by Mrs. Hicks to her faithful followers, but Lansing had observed that of late, the same skilled hand which had refashioned the Hicks' social circle, usually managed to exclude from it the timid presences of the two secretaries.

Starting point is 05:09:13 Their banishment was the more displeasing to Lansing from the fact that, for the last three months, He had filled Mr. Buttle's place, and was himself their salaried companion. But since he had accepted the post, his obvious duty was to fill it in accordance with his employer's requirements, and it was clear even to El Dorada and Mr. Beck that he had, as El Dorotta ungrudgingly said, something of Mr. Buttle's marvelous social gifts. During the cruise his task had not been distasteful to him. He was glad of any definite duties, however trivial, he felt more independent as the Hicks' is secretary than as their pampered guest, and the love of his task.

Starting point is 05:09:48 a large check which Mr. Hicks handed over to him on the first of each month refreshed his languishing sense of self-respect. He considered himself absurdly overpaid. But that was the Hicks' affair, and he saw nothing humiliating in being in the employ of people he liked and respected. But from the moment of the ill-fated encounter with the wandering princes, his position had changed as much as that of his employers. He was no longer, to Mr. and Mrs. Hicks, a useful and estimable assistant, on the same level

Starting point is 05:10:16 as El Dorada and Mr. Beck, he had. He had become a social asset of unsuspected value, equaling Mr. Buttles in his capacity for dealing with the mysteries of foreign etiquette, and surpassing him in the art of personal attraction. Nick Lansing, the Hicks, is found, already knew most of the Princess Mother's rich and aristocratic friends. Many of them hailed him with enthusiastic, old Nix, and he was almost as familiar with His Highness's own aid to comp, as with all the secret ramifications of love and hate that made dinner-giving so much more of a science in Rome than at Apex City.

Starting point is 05:10:49 Mrs. Hicks at first had hopelessly lost her way in this labyrinth of subterranean scandals, rivalries and jealousies, and finding Lansing's hand within reach, she clung to wit with pathetic tenacity. But if the young man's value had risen in the eyes of his employers, it had deteriorated in his own. He was condemned to play a part he had not bargained for, and it seemed to him more degrading when paid in bank-notes than if his retribution had consisted not. merely in good dinners and luxurious lodgings. The first time the smiling aide-de-camp

Starting point is 05:11:20 had caught his eye over a verbal slip of Mrs. Hicks's, Nick had flushed the forehead, and gone to bed swearing that he would chuck his job the next day. Two months had passed since then, and he was still the paid secretary. He had contrived to let the aide-de-comp feel that he was too deficient in humor to be worth exchanging glances with, but even this had not restored his self-respect, and on the evening in question as he looked about to the long table, he said to himself with a hundredth time that he would give up his position on the morrow. Only, what was the alternative?

Starting point is 05:11:54 The alternative, apparently, was Coral Hicks. He glanced down the line of diners, beginning with the tall, lean countenance of the Princess Mother, with its small inquisitive eyes perched as high as attic windows under a frizzled thatch of hair, and a pediment of uncleaned diamonds, passed on to the vacuous and overfed or fashionably haggard masks of the ladies next in rank, and finally caught, between branching orchids, a distant glimpse of Miss Hicks. In contrast with the others, he thought, she looked surprisingly noble. Her large grave features made her appear like an old monument in a street of palace hotels,

Starting point is 05:12:30 and he marvelled at the mysterious law which had brought this archaic face out of Apex City, and given to the oldest society of Europe a look of such mixed modernity. perceived that the aide-de-combe, who was his neighbor, was also looking at Miss Hicks. His expression was serious and even thoughtful, but as his eyes met Lansing's, he readjusted his official smile. I was admiring our hostess's daughter. Her absence of jewels is—er—an inspiration, he remarked in the confidential tone which Lansing had come to dread.

Starting point is 05:13:03 "'Oh, Miss Hicks is full of inspirations,' he returned curtly, and the aide-de-camp bowed with an admiring air, as if inspirations were rarer than pearls, as in his milieu they undoubtedly were. She is the equal of any situation, I am sure, he replied, and then abandoned the subject with one of his automatic transitions. After dinner, in the embrasure of a drawing-room window, he surprised Nick by returning to the same topic, and this time without thinking it needful to readjust his smile. His face remained serious, though his manner was studiously informal. I was admiring at dinner Miss Hicks's invariable sense of appropriateness. It must permit her friends to foresee for her almost any future, however exalted. Lansing hesitated and controlled his annoyance. Decidedly he wanted

Starting point is 05:13:48 to know what was in his companion's mind. What do you mean by exalted, he asked, with a smile of faint amusement? Well, equal to her marvelous capacity for shining in the public eye. Lansing still smiled. The question is, I suppose, whether her desire to shine equals her capacity. The aide-de-comp stared. You mean she's not ambitious? On the contrary, I believe her to be immeasurably ambitious. Immeasurably? The aide-de-camp seemed to try to measure it. But not surely beyond. Beyond what we can offer! His eyes completed the sentence, and it was Lansing's turn to stare. The Ed de Compe faced the stare. Yes, his eyes could

Starting point is 05:14:32 included in a flash, while his lips let fall. The Princess Mother admires her immensely. But at that moment a wave of Mrs. Hicks' fan drew them hurriedly from their embrasure. Professor d'Archievio had promised to explain to us the difference between the Sassanian Byzantine motives and Carolingian art, but the manager has sent up word that the two new Creole dancers from Paris have arrived, and her serene highness wants to pop down to the ballroom and take a peek at them. She's sure the professor will understand. And accompany us, of course, The princess irresistibly added. Lansing's brief colloquy in the Nouveau-Luck's window had lifted the scales from his eyes.

Starting point is 05:15:09 Innumerable dim corners of memory had been flooded with light by that one quick glance of the aide-de-comps. Things he had heard, hints he had let pass, smiles, insinuations, cordialities, rumors of the improbability of the prince's founding of family, suggestions as to the urgent need of replenishing the Tuto-Burger treasury. Miss Hicks, Perforce, had accompanied her parents and their princely guest to the ballroom, but as she did not dance, and took little interest in the sight of others so engaged, she remained aloof from the party, absorbed in archaeological discussion, with the baffled but smiling savant, who was to have enlightened the party on the difference

Starting point is 05:15:46 between Sasanian and Byzantine ornament. Lansing, also aloof, had picked out a post from which he could observe the girl. She wore a new look to him since he had seen her as the center of all these scattered threads of intrigue. Yes, decidedly she was growing handsomer, or else she had learned how to set off her massive lines instead of trying to disguise them. As she held up her long eyeglass to glance absently at the dancers, he was struck by the large beauty of her arm, and the careless assurance of the gesture. There was nothing nervous or fussy about Coral Hicks, and he was not surprised that, plasticly at least, the Princess Mother had discerned her possibilities.

Starting point is 05:16:24 Nick Lansing, all that night, sat up and stared at his future. He knew enough of the society into which the Hickses had drifted, to guess that, within a very short time, the hint of the Prince's aide-de-camp would reappear in the form of a direct proposal. Lansing himself would probably, as the one person in the Hicks' entourage with whom one could intelligibly commune, be entrusted with the next step in the negotiations. He would be asked, as the aide-de-camp would have said, to feel the ground. It was clearly part of the state policy. of Tutoburg to offer Miss Hicks, with the hand of its sovereign, an opportunity to replenish its treasury.

Starting point is 05:17:00 What would the girl do? Lansing could not guess, yet he dimly felt that her attitude would depend in a great degree upon his own, and he knew no more what his own was going to be than on the night, four months earlier, when he had flung out of his wife's room in Venice to take the midnight express for Genoa. The whole of his past, and above all the tendency on which she had once prided himself to live in the present, and take whatever chances it offered, now made it harder for him to act.

Starting point is 05:17:26 He began to see that he had never, even in the closest relations of life, looked ahead of his immediate satisfaction. He had thought it rather fine to be able to give himself so intensely to the fullness of each moment, instead of hurrying past it in pursuit of something more, or something else, in the manner of the over-scrupulous or the under-imaginative, whom he had always grouped together and equally pitied. It was not till he had linked his life with Susie's that he had begun to feel it reaching forward into a future he longed to make sure of, to fasten upon and shape to his own wants and purposes,

Starting point is 05:17:57 till by an imperceptible substitution, that future had become his real present, his all-absorbing moment of time. Now the moment was shattered, and the power to rebuild it failed him. He had never before thought about putting together broken bits. He felt like a man whose house has been wrecked by an earthquake, and who, for lack of skilled labor, is called upon for the first time to wield a trowel and carry bricks. He simply did not know how. Willpower, he saw, was not a thing one could suddenly decree oneself to possess. It must be built up imperceptibly and laboriously out of a succession of small efforts to meet definite objects, out of the facing of daily difficulties instead of cleverly eluding them, or shifting their burden on others. The making of the substance

Starting point is 05:18:42 called character was a process about as slow and arduous as the building of the pyramids, and the thing itself, like those awful edifices, was mainly useful to lodge one's descendants in after they too were dust. Yet the pyramid instinct was the one which had made the world, made man, and caused his fugitive joys to linger like fading frescoes on imperishable walls. End of Chapter 20. Part 2, Chapter 21 of the Glimpses of the Moon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clette The Glimsies of the Moon

Starting point is 05:19:26 By Edith Warden Part 2, Chapter 21 On the drive back from her dinner at the Nouveau Lux, events had followed the course foreseen by Susie. She had promised Strefford to seek legal advice about her divorce, and he had kissed her, and the promise had been easier to make than she had expected, the kiss less difficult to receive.

Starting point is 05:19:49 She had gone to the dinner a quiver with the mortification of learning, that her husband was still with the Hickses. Morally sure of it, though she had been, the discovery was a shock, and she measured for the first time the abyss between fearing and knowing. No wonder he had not written. The modern husband did not have to. He had only to leave it to time in the newspapers to make known his intentions. Susie could imagine Nix saying to himself, as he sometimes used to say when she reminded him of an unanswered letter. But there are lots of ways of answering a letter, and writing doesn't happen to be more. mine. Well, he had done it in his way, and she was answered. For a minute, as she laid aside the

Starting point is 05:20:29 paper, darkness submerged her, and she felt herself dropping down into the bottomless anguish of her dreadful vigil in the Palazzo Vandrelin. But she was weary of anguish. Her healthy body and nerves instinctively rejected it. The wave was spent, and she felt herself irresistibly struggling back to light and life and youth. He didn't want her. Well, she would try not to want him. there lay all the old expedients at her hand the rouge for her white lips the atropine for her blurred eyes the new dress on her bed the thought of streford and his guests awaiting her and of the conclusions that the diners of the nouveau lux would draw from seeing them together thank heaven no one would say poor old susy did you know nick has chucked her they would all say poor old nick yes i dare say she was sorry to chuck him but aldergham's mad to marry her and what could she do and once again events had followed the course she had foreseen seeing her at lord altringham's table with the ascots and the old duchess of dunes the interested spectators could not but regard the dinner as confirming the rumour of her marriage as ellie said people didn't wait nowadays to announce their engagements till the tiresome divorce proceedings were over ellie herself prodigally purled and ermine'd had floated in late with algy bockheimer in her wake and sat in conspicuous tte tte nodding and signalling her sympathy to susy

Starting point is 05:21:51 approval beamed from every eye it was awfully exciting they all seemed to say seeing susy lansing pull it off as the party after dinner drifted from the restaurant back into the hall she caught in the smiles and hand pressures crowding about her the scarcely repressed hint of official congratulations and Violet Melrose, seated in a corner with Fulmer, drew her down with a wan, jade-circled arm to whisper tenderly, "'It's most awfully clever of you, darling, not to be wearing any jewels.' In all the women's eyes she read the reflected lustre of the jewels she could wear when she chose. It was as though their glitter reached her from the far-off bank where they lay sealed up in the Altringham's strong-box. What a fool she had been to think that Streford would ever believe she didn't care for them. The ambassadress, a blank, perpendicular person, had been a shade less affable than Susie could have wished. But then there was Lady Joan, and the girl was handsome,

Starting point is 05:22:46 alarmingly handsome to account for that. Probably everyone in the room had guessed it. And the old Duchess of Dunes was delightful. She looked rather like Strefford in a wig and false pearls. Susie was sure they were as false as her teeth, and her cordiality was so demonstrative that the future bride found it more difficult to account for than Lady Ascot. coldness, till she heard the old lady, as they passed into the hall, breathe in a hissing whisper to her nephew. Streff, dearest. When you have a minute's time and can drop in at my wretched little pension, I know you can

Starting point is 05:23:17 explain in two words what I ought to do to pacify those awful money-lenders. And you'll bring your exquisite American to see me, won't you? No. Joan Seneschal's too fair for my taste. Incipid. Yes. The taste of it all was again sweet on her lips. Few days later, she began to wonder how the thought of Strefford's endearments could have been

Starting point is 05:23:39 so alarming. To be sure he was not lavish of them, but when he did touch her, even when he kissed her, it no longer seemed to matter. An almost complete absence of sensation had mercifully succeeded to the first wild flurry of her nerves. And so it would be, no doubt, with everything else in her new life. If it failed to provoke any acute reactions, whether of pain or pleasure, the very absence of sensation would make for peace.

Starting point is 05:24:03 And in the meanwhile she was tasting what she had been. begun to suspect was the maximum of bliss to most of the women she knew. Days packed with engagements, the exhilaration of fashionable crowds, the thrill of snapping up a jewel or a bibelow, or a new model that one's best friend wanted, or of being invited to some private show, or some exclusive entertainment that one's best friend couldn't get to. There was nothing now that she couldn't buy, nowhere that she couldn't go. She had only to choose and to triumph. And for a while the surface excitement of her life gave her the illusion of enjoyment of enjoyment. Strufford, as she had expected, had postponed his return to England, and now they

Starting point is 05:24:40 had been for nearly three weeks together in their new and virtually avowed relation. She had fancied that, after all, the easiest part of it would be just the being with Strefford, the falling back on their old tried friendship to efface the sense of strangeness. But, though she had so soon grown used to his caresses, he himself remained curiously unfamiliar. She was hardly sure at times that it was the old Strefford she was talking to. It was so much. It was so much of the old strefford she was talking to. It was not that his point of view had changed, but that new things occupied and absorbed him. In all the small sides of his great situation he took an almost childish satisfaction, and though he still laughed at both its privileges and its obligations, it was now with a jealous laughter.

Starting point is 05:25:21 It amused him inexhaustibly, for instance, to be made up to by all the people who had always disapproved of him, and to unite at the same table persons who had to dissemble their annoyance at being invited together, lest they should not be invited at all. Equally exhilarated, was the capricious favoring of the dull and dowdy on occasions when the brilliant and disreputable expected his notice. It enchanted him, for example, to ask the old Duchess of Dunes and Violet Melrose to dine with the vicar of Alteringham, on his way to Switzerland for a month's holiday, and to watch the face of the vicar's wife, while the Duchess narrated her last difficulties with bookmakers and money-lenders, and Violet proclaimed the rights of love

Starting point is 05:25:58 and genius to all that had once been supposed to belong exclusively to respectability and dullness. Susie had to confess that her own amusements were hardly of a higher order, but then she put up with them for lack of better, whereas Streford, who might have had what he pleased, was completely satisfied with such triumphs. Somehow, in spite of his honours and his opportunities, he seemed to have shrunk. The old Streford had certainly been a larger person, and she wondered if material prosperity were always a beginning of ossification. Streford had been much more fun when he lived by his wits. Sometimes, now, when he tried to talk of politics, or assert himself on some question of public interest, she was startled by his limitations. Formerly, when he was not sure of his ground, it had been his way to turn the difficulty by glib nonsense or easy irony. Now he was actually dull, at times almost pompous. She noticed, too, for the first time that he did not always hear clearly when several people were talking at once, or when he was at the theatre.

Starting point is 05:26:57 and he developed a habit of saying over and over again, "'Dill so-and-so speak indistinctly, "'or am I getting deaf, I wonder?' "'Which wore on her nerves by its suggestion "'of a corresponding mental infirmity.' These thoughts did not always trouble her. "'The current of idle activity on which they were both gliding "'was her native element as well as his,

Starting point is 05:27:19 "'and never had its tide been as swift, "'its waves as buoyant. "'In his relation to her, too, he was full of tact "'and consideration. She saw that he still remembered their frightened exchange of glances after their first kiss, and the sense of this little hidden spring of imagination in him was sometimes enough for her thirst. She had always had a rather masculine punctuality in keeping her word, and after she had promised Strefford to take steps toward a divorce,

Starting point is 05:27:45 she had promptly set about doing it. A sudden reluctance prevented her asking the advice of friends like Ellie Vanderlin, whom she knew to be in the thick of the same negotiations, and all she could think of was to consult a young American lawyer, practicing in Paris, with whom she felt she could talk the more easily because he was not from New York, and probably unacquainted with her history. She was so ignorant of the procedure in such matters that she was surprised and relieved at his asking few personal questions, but it was a shock to learn that a divorce could not be obtained, either in New York

Starting point is 05:28:15 or Paris, merely on the ground of desertion or incompatibility. "'I thought nowadays, if people preferred to live apart, it could always be managed,' she stammered, wondering at her own ignorance, after the many conjugal rupture she had assisted at. The young lawyer smiled and coloured slightly. His lovely client evidently intimidated him by her grace, and still more by her inexperience. "'It can be, generally,' he admitted, and especially so if—' "'As I gather is the case, your husband is equally anxious.' "'Oh, quite,' she exclaimed, suddenly humiliated by having to admit it.

Starting point is 05:28:53 "'Well, then, may I suggest that—' that, to bring matters to a point, the best way would be for you to write to him." She recoiled slightly. It had never occurred to her that the lawyers would not manage it without her intervention. "'Write to him. But what about?' "'Well, expressing your wish to recover your freedom. "'The rest, I assume,' said the young lawyer.

Starting point is 05:29:16 "'Maybe left to Mr. Lansing.' She did not know exactly what he meant, and was too much perturbed by the idea of having to communicate with Nick to follow any other train of thought. How could she write such a letter? And yet how could she confess to the lawyer that she had not had the courage to do so? He would, of course, tell her to go home and be reconciled. She hesitated perplexedly. Wouldn't it be better, she suggested, if the letter were to come from—from your office?

Starting point is 05:29:44 He considered this politely. On the whole, no. If, as I take it, an amicable arrangement is necessary, to secure the requisite evidence than a line from you, suggesting an interview, seems to be more advisable. An interview? Is an interview necessary? She was ashamed to show her agitation to this cautiously smiling young man, who must wonder at her childish lack of understanding,

Starting point is 05:30:07 but the break in her voice was uncontrollable. Oh, please write to him. I can't, and I can't see him. Oh, can't you arrange it for me? she pleaded. She saw now that her idea of a divorce had been that it was something one went out or sent out to buy in a shop, something concrete, and portable, that Streford's money could pay for, and that it required no personal participation to obtain. What a fool the lawyer must think her. Stiffening herself, she rose from her seat.

Starting point is 05:30:36 My husband and I don't wish to see each other again. I'm sure it would be useless and very painful. You are the best judge, of course, but in any case a letter from you, a friendly letter seems wiser, considering the apparent lack of evidence. Very well, then, I'll write, she agreed, and hurried away, scarcely here. hearing his parting injunction that she should take a copy of her letter. That night she wrote, At the last moment it might have been impossible,

Starting point is 05:31:03 if at the theatre Little Breckenridge had not bobbed into her box. He was just back from Rome, where he had dined with the Hickses. A bang-up show! They're really lances! You wouldn't know them! And he had met there, Lansing, whom he reported as intending to marry Coral, as soon as things were settled. You were dead right, weren't you, Susie? he snickered. That night in Venice last summer, when we all thought you were joking about their engagement. Pity now, you chucked our surprise visit to the Hickses, and sent

Starting point is 05:31:28 Streff up to drag us back just as we were breaking in. You remember?' He flung off the Streff, airily, in the old way, but with a tentative side-glance at his host. And Lord Alteringham, leading towards Susie, said coldly, was Breckenridge speaking about me? I didn't catch what he said. Does he speak indistinctly? Or am I getting deaf, I wonder? After that, it seemed comparatively easy, when Strefford had dropped her at her hotel, to go upstairs and write. She dashed off the date and her address, and then stopped, but suddenly she remembered Breckenridge's snicker, and the words rushed from her. "'Nick, dear, it was July when you left Venice, and I have had no word from you since the note

Starting point is 05:32:10 in which you said you had gone for a few days, and that I should hear soon again. You haven't written yet, and it is five months since you left me. That means, I suppose, that you want to take back your freedom and give me mine. Wouldn't it be kinder in that case to tell me so? It is worse than anything to go on as we are now. I don't know how to put these things, but since you seem unwilling to write to me, perhaps you would prefer to send your address to Mr. Frederick Spearman, the American lawyer here. His address is 100 Boulevard-houseman. I hope—she broke off in the last word. Hope? What did she hope, either for him or for herself?

Starting point is 05:32:45 Wishes for his welfare would sound like a mockery, and she would rather her letter should seem bitter than unfeeling. Above all, she wanted to get it done. To have to rewrite even those few lines would be torture. So she left, I hope, and simply added, to hear before long what you have decided. She read it over and shivered. Not one word of the past, not one allusion to that mysterious interweaving of their lives which had enclosed them one and the other like the flower in its sheath. What place had such memories in such a letter? She had the feeling that she wanted to hide that other Nick away in her bosom, and with him the other Susie, the Susie he had once imagined her to be. Neither of them seemed concerned with the present business.

Starting point is 05:33:28 The letter done, she stared at the sealed envelope till its presence in the room became intolerable, and she understood that she must either tear it up or post it immediately. She went down to the hall of the sleeping hotel, and bribed the night-porter to carry the letter to the nearest post-office, though he objected that at that hour no time would be gained. I want it out of the house, she insisted, and waited sternly by the desk, in her dressing-gown, till he had performed the errand. As she re-entered her room, the disordered writing-table struck her, and she remembered the lawyer's injunction to take a copy of her letter, a copy to be filed away

Starting point is 05:34:04 with the documents in Lansing v. Lansing. She burst out, laughing at the idea. What were lawyers made of, she wondered? Didn't the man guess, by the mere look in her eyes and the sound of her voice, that she would never, as long as she lived, forget a word of that letter. That night after night she would lie down as she was lying down to-night, to stare wide-eyed for hours into the darkness, while the voice in her brain monotonously hammered out,

Starting point is 05:34:29 Nick, dear, it was July when you left me, and so on, word after word, down to the last fatal syllable. End of Chapter 21. Part 2, Chapter 22, of the glimpses of the moon. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clette The Glimpses of the Moon By Edith Wharton

Starting point is 05:34:59 Part 2, Chapter 22 Strefford was leaving for England. Once assured that Susie had taken the first step towards freeing herself, he frankly regarded her as his affianced wife, and could see no reason for further mystery. She understood his impatience to have their plans settled. It would protect him from the formidable men of the marriageable, and cause people, as he said, to stop meddling. Now that the novelty

Starting point is 05:35:25 of his situation was wearing off, his natural indolence reasserted itself, and there was nothing he dreaded more than having to be on his guard against the innumerable plans that his well-wishers were perpetually making for him. Sometimes, Susie fancied he was marrying her because to do so was to follow the line of least resistance. "'To marry me is the easiest way of not marrying all the others,' she laughed, as he stood before her one day in a quiet alley of the Bois de Boulogne, insisting on the settlement of various preliminaries. I believe I'm only a protection to you." An odd gleam passed behind his eyes, and she instantly guessed that he was thinking, "'And what else am I to you?' She changed colour,

Starting point is 05:36:05 and he rejoined, laughing also. Well, you're that, at any rate, thank the Lord.' She pondered, and then questioned, but in the interval, how are you going to defend yourself for another year? "'Ah, you've got to see to that. You've got to take a little house in London. You've got to look after me, you know.' It was on the tip of her tongue to flash back, "'Oh, if that's all you care!' But caring was exactly the factor she wanted, as much as possible, to keep out of their talk and their thoughts. She could not ask him how much he cared without laying herself open to the same question, and that way terror lay. As a matter of fact, though Streford was not an ardent wooer, perhaps from tact, perhaps from temperament, perhaps merely from the long habit of belittling and disintegrating every sentiment and every conviction, yet she knew he did care for her as much as he was capable of caring for anyone.

Starting point is 05:36:55 If the element of habit entered largely into the feeling, if he liked her, above all, because he was used to her, knew her views, her indulgences, her allowances, knew he was never likely to be bored, and almost certain to be amused by her, why such ingredients, though not of the fieriest, were perhaps those most likely to keep his feeling for her at a pleasant temperature. she had had a taste of the tropics and wanted more equable weather but the idea of having to fan his flame gently for a year was unspeakably depressing to her yet all this was precisely what she could not say the long period of probation during which as she knew she would have to amuse him to guard him to hold him and to keep off the other women was a necessary part of their situation she was sure that as little breckinridge would have said she could pull it off but she did not want to think about it what she would have preferred would have been to go away no matter where and not see strefford again till they were married but she dared not tell him that either

Starting point is 05:37:54 a little house in london she wondered well i suppose you've got to have some sort of a roof over your head i suppose so he sat down beside her if you like me well enough to live at oldringham some day won't you in the meantime let me provide you with a smaller and more convenient establishment Still, she hesitated. The alternative she knew would be to live on Ursula Gillow, Violet Melrose, or some other of her rich friends, any one of whom would be ready to lavish the largest hospitality on the prospective Lady Altringham. Such an arrangement in the long run would be no less humiliating to her pride, no less destructive to her independence than Altringham's little establishment. But she temporised. I shall go over to London in December, and stay for a while with various people. Then we can look about. All right. as you like. He obviously considered her hesitation ridiculous, but was too full of satisfaction at her

Starting point is 05:38:49 having started divorce proceedings to be chilled by her reply. "'And now, look here, my dear. Couldn't I give you some sort of a ring?' "'A ring?' she flushed at the suggestion. "'What's the use, Streff, dear? With all those jewels locked away in London.' "'Oh, I dare say you'll think them old-fashioned. And hang it, why shouldn't I give you something new. I ran across Ellie and Bockeme yesterday in the Rue de la Peix, picking out sapphires. Do you like sapphires, or emeralds, or just a diamond? I've seen a thumping one. I'd like you to have it. Ellie and Bacchheimer. How she hated the conjunction of the names. Their case always seemed to her

Starting point is 05:39:27 like a caricature of her own, and she felt an unreasoning resentment against Ellie for having selected the same season for her unmating and remating. I wish she wouldn't speak of them, Streff, as if they were like us. I can hardly bear to sit in the same room with Ellie Vanderlin. Hello, what's wrong? You mean because of her giving up Clarissa? Not that only—you don't know. I can't tell you. She shivered at the memory, and rose restlessly from the bench where they had been sitting. Strefford gave his careless shrug. Well, my dear, you can hardly expect me to agree, for after all it was to Ellie I owed the luck of being so long alone with you in Venice. If she and algae hadn't prolonged their honeymoon at the villa. He stopped abruptly, and looked at Susie. She was

Starting point is 05:40:13 conscious that every drop of blood had left her face. She felt it ebbing away from her heart, flowing out of her, as if from all her severed arteries, till it seemed as though nothing were left of life in her but one point of irreducible pain. "'Elly! At your villa? What do you mean? Was it Ellie and Bokheimer who—' Streford still stared? "'You mean to say you didn't know? You to say you didn't know?" "'Who came after Nick and me?' she insisted. "'Why, do you suppose I'd have turned you out otherwise? That beastly Bokheimer simply smothered me with gold.

Starting point is 05:40:48 Ah, well, there's one good thing. I shall never have to let the villa again. I rather like the little place myself, and I dare say once in a while we might go there for a day or two.' "'Susie, what's the matter?' he exclaimed. She returned his stare, but without seeing him. Everything swam and danced before her eyes. Then she was there while I was posting all those letters for her.

Starting point is 05:41:09 Letters? What letters? What makes you look so frightfully upset? She pursued her thoughts as if he had not spoken. She and Algie Bokheim arrived there the very day that Nick and I left. I suppose so. I thought she'd told you. Ellie always tells everybody everything. She would have told me, I dare say, but I wouldn't let her. Well, my dear, that was hardly my fault, was it? Though I really don't see. But Susie, still blind to everything but the dance of dizzy sparks before her eyes, pressed on as if she had not heard him. It was their motor, then, that took us to Milan. It was Algae Bokheimer's motor! She did not know why, but this seemed to her the most humiliating incident in the whole hateful business.

Starting point is 05:41:50 She remembered Nick's reluctance to use the motor. She remembered his look when she had boasted of her managing. The nauseam mounted to her throat. Strefford burst out laughing. I say, you borrowed their motor, and you didn't know whose it was. How could I know? I persuaded the chauffeur, for a little tip. It was to save our railway fares to Milan. Extra luggage cost so frightfully in Italy. Good old Susie, well done, I can see you doing it. Oh, how horrible! How horrible! she groaned.

Starting point is 05:42:22 Horrible what's horrible? Why, you're not seeing, not feeling! She began impetuously, and then stopped. How could she explain to him that what revolted her was not so much the fact of his having given the little house, as soon as she and Nick had left it, to those two people of all others, though the vision of them in the sweet secret house, and under the plain trees of the terrace, drew such a trail of slime across her golden hours? No, it was not that from which she most recoiled, but from the fact that Streford, living in luxury in Nelson Vanderlin's house, should at the same time have secretly abetted Ellie van derland's love affairs, and allowed her, for a handsome price, to shelter them under his own roof.

Starting point is 05:43:04 The reproach trembled on her lip, but she remembered her own part in the wretched business, and the impossibility of avowing it to Stufford, and of revealing to him that Nick had left her for that very reason. She was not afraid that the discovery would diminish her in Streford's eyes. He was untroubled by moral problems, and would laugh away her avowal, with a sneer at Nick in his new part of moralist. that was just what she could not bear, that any one should cast a doubt on the genuineness of Nick's standards, or should know how far below them she had fallen. She remained silent, and Streford after a moment drew her gently down to the seat beside

Starting point is 05:43:39 him. "'Susie, upon my soul, I don't know what you're driving at. Is it me you're angry with, or yourself? And what's it all about? Are you disgusted because I let the villa to a couple who weren't married?' "'But hang it, they're the kind that paid the highest price, and I had to earn my living. somehow. One doesn't run across a bridal pair every day. She lifted her eyes to his puzzled, incredulous face. Poor Streff! No, it was not with him that she was angry. Why should she be?

Starting point is 05:44:08 Even that ill-advised disclosure had told her nothing she had not already known about him. It had simply revealed to her once more the real point of view of the people he and she lived among had shown her that in spite of the superficial difference, he felt as they felt, judged as they judged, was blind as they were, and as she would be expected to be, should she once again become one of them. What was the use of being placed by fortune above such shifts and compromises, if in one's heart one still condoned them? And she would have to. She would catch the general note, grow blunted as those other people were blunted, and gradually come to wonder at her own revolt, as Strefford now honestly wondered at it. She felt as though she were on the point of losing some new-found treasure, a treasure precious only to herself,

Starting point is 05:44:52 But beside which all he offered her was nothing, the triumph of her wounded pride nothing, the security of her future, nothing." "'What is it, Susie?' he asked, with the same puzzled gentleness. "'Ah, the loneliness of never being able to make him understand. She had felt lonely enough when the flaming sword of Nick's indignation had shut her out from their paradise, but there had been a cruel bliss in the pain. Nick had not opened her eyes to new truths, but had waked in her again something which had lain unconscious under years of accumulated indifference, and that reawakened sense had never left her since, and had somehow kept her from utter loneliness

Starting point is 05:45:30 because it was a secret shared with Nick, a gift she owed to Nick, and which, in leaving her, he could not take from her. It was almost, she suddenly felt, as if he had left her with a child. "'My dear girl,' Streford said, with a resigned glance at his watch, "'you know with dining at the embassy.' embassy?' She looked at him vaguely. Then she remembered, "'Yes, they were dining that night of the ascots, with Strefford's cousin, the Duke of Dunes, and his wife, the handsome, irreproachable young Duchess, with the old gambling dowager Duchess, whom her son and daughter-in-law had come over from England to see, and with other English and French guests of a rank and standing worthy of the Dunes's. Susie knew

Starting point is 05:46:12 that her inclusion in such dinner could mean but one thing. It was her definite recognition as Alteringham's future wife. She was, the little American, whom one had to ask when one invited him, even on ceremonial occasions. The family had accepted her. The embassy could but follow suit. "'It's late, dear, and I've got to see someone on business first,' Strefford reminded her patiently. "'Oh, Streff, I can't! I can't!' the words broke from her without her knowing what she was saying. "'I can't go with you. I can't go to the embassy. I can't go on any longer like this.' She lifted her eyes to his in desperate appeal. "'Oh, understand! Please do understand!' she wailed, knowing while she spoke the utter impossibility

Starting point is 05:46:56 of what she asked. Strefford's face had gradually paled and hardened. From sallow it turned to a dusky white, and lines of obstinacy deepened between the ironic eyebrows and about the weak amused mouth. "'Understand? What do you want me to understand?' he laughed. "'That you're trying to chuck me already.' she shrank at the sneer of the already but instantly remembered that it was the only thing he could be expected to say since it was just because he couldn't understand that she was flying from him oh streff if i only knew how to tell you-it doesn't matter so much about the how is that what you're trying to say

Starting point is 05:47:32 her head drooped and she saw the dead leaves whirling across the path at her feet lifted on a sudden wintry gust the reason he continued clearing his throat with a stiff smile is not quite as important to me as-iq at her feet lifted on a sudden wintry gustavis the reason he continued clearing his throat with a stiff smile is not quite as important to me as as the fact. She stood speechless, agonized by his pain. But still she thought he had remembered the dinner at the embassy. The thought gave her courage to go on. It wouldn't do, Streff. I'm not a bit the kind of person to make you happy. Oh, leave that to me, please, won't you? No, I can't. Because I should be unhappy, too. He clicked at the leaves as they whirled passed. You've taken a rather long time to find it out. She saw that his newborn sense of his own consequence was making him suffer even more than his wounded affection, and that again gave her courage. If it's taken long it's all the more reason why I shouldn't take longer. If I've made a

Starting point is 05:48:24 mistake, it's you who would have suffered from it. Thanks, he said, for your extreme solicitude. She looked at him helplessly, penetrated by the despairing sense of their inaccessibility to each other. Then she remembered that Nick, during their last talk together, had seemed as inaccessible, and wondered if, when human souls try to get too near each other, they do not inevitably become mere blurs to each other's vision. She would have liked to say this to Streff, but he would not have understood it either. The sense of loneliness once more enveloped her, and she groped in vain for a word that should reach him. Let me go home alone, won't you? she appealed to him. Alone? She nodded. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. He tried rather valiantly to smile. "'Hang to-morrow. Whatever is wrong it needn't prevent my seeing you home.' He glanced toward the taxi that awaited them at the end of the deserted drive. "'No, please, you're in a hurry, take the taxi. I want immensely a long walk by myself,

Starting point is 05:49:24 through the streets with the lights coming out.' He laid his hand on her arm. "'I say, my dear, you're not ill.' "'No, I'm not ill. But you may say I am to-night at the embassy.' He released her and drew back. "'Oh, very well.' he answered coldly and she understood by his tone that the knot was cut and that at that moment he almost hated her she turned away hastening down the deserted alley flying from him and knowing as she fled that he was still standing there motionless staring after her wounded humiliated uncomprehending it was neither her fault nor his end of chapter twenty two part two chapter twenty three of the glimpses of the moon

Starting point is 05:50:15 This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clette The Glimpses of the Moon By Edith Warden Part 2 Chapter 23 As she fled on toward the lights of the streets, a breath of freedom seemed to blow into her face. Like a weary load the accumulated hypocrisies of the last months had dropped from her,

Starting point is 05:50:39 she was herself again, Nix, Susie, and no one else's. She sped on, staring with bright, bewildered eyes at the stately facades of the Lamouette quarter, the perspectives of bare trees, the awakening glitter of shop windows holding out to her all the things she would never again be able to buy. In an avenue of shops she paused before milliner's window and said to herself, Why shouldn't I earn my living by trimming hats? She met workgirls streaming out under a doorway and scattering to catch trams and omnibuses, and she looked with newly wakened interest at their tired, independent faces.

Starting point is 05:51:18 "'Why shouldn't I earn my living as well as they do?' she thought. A little farther on she passed a sister of charity with softly trotting feet, a calm, anonymous glance, and hands hidden in her capacious sleeves. Susie looked at her and thought, "'Why shouldn't I be a sister, and have no money to worry about, and trot about under a white coiff helping poor people?' all these strangers on whom she smiled in passing and glanced back at enviously were free from the necessities that enslaved her and would not have known what she meant if she had told them that she must have so much money for her dresses so much for her cigarettes so much for bridge and cabs and tips and all kinds of extras and that at that moment she ought to be hurrying back to a dinner at the british embassy where her permanent right to such luxuries was to be solemnly recognized and ratified the artificiality and unreality of her life overcame her as with stifling fumes she stopped at a street corner

Starting point is 05:52:18 drawing long panting breaths as if she had been running a race then slowly and aimlessly she began to saunter along a street of small private houses in damp gardens that led to the avenue du She sat down on a bench. Not far off, the Arc de Triumph raised its august bulk, and beyond it a river of lights streamed down toward Paris, and the stir of the city's heartbeats troubled the quiet in her bosom. But not for long. She seemed to be looking at it all from the other side of the grave, and as she got up and wandered down the Champs-Aise, half empty in the evening lull between dusk and dinner, she felt as if the glittering avenue were really changed into the field. of shadows from which it takes its name, and as if she were a ghost among ghosts. Halfway home, a weakness of loneliness overcame her, and she seated herself under the trees near the Rompont. Lines of motors and carriages were beginning to animate the converging thorafares, streaming abreast, crossing, winding in and out of each other in a tangle of hurried pleasure-seeking. She caught the light on jewels and shirt-fronts, and hard, bored eyes emerging from dim billows of fur and velvet. She seemed to hear what the couples were saying to each other. She pictured the

Starting point is 05:53:34 drawing-rooms, restaurants, dance-halls they were hastening to, the breathless routine that was hurrying them along, as time, the old vacuum-cleaner, swept them away with the dust of their carriage-wheels, and again the loneliness vanished in a sense of release. At the corner of the Place to La Concorde she stopped, recognizing a man an evening dress who was hailing a taxi. Their eyes met, and Nelson van der Leyen came forward. Here was the last person she cared to run across, and she shrank back involuntarily. What did he know? What had he guessed of her complicity in his wife's affairs? No doubt Ellie had blabbed it all out by this time. She was just as likely to confide her love affairs to Nelson as to anyone else, now that the Bokheimer Prize was landed.

Starting point is 05:54:21 Well, well, well, so I've caught you at it. Glad to see you, Susie, my dear. she found her hand cordially clasped in van derlind's and his round pink face bent on her with all its old urbanity did nothing matter then in this world she was fleeing from did no one love or hate or remember no idea you were in paris just got here myself vanderland continued visibly delighted at the meeting look here don't suppose you're out of a job this evening by any chance and would come and cheer up alone bachelore no you are well that's luck for once i say where shall we go one of the places where they dance i suppose yes i twirl the light fantastic once in a while myself got to keep up with the times hold on taxi here i'll drive you home first and wait while you jump into your talkery lots of time as he steered her toward the carriage she noticed that he had a gouty limp and pulled himself in after her with difficulty mayn't i come as i am nelson i don't feel like dancing let's go and dine in one of those nice smoky little restaurants by the place de la He seemed surprised, but relieved at the suggestion, and they rolled off together. In a corner at Bouges they found a quiet table, screened from the other diners, and while Vanderlin adjusted his eyeglasses to study the cart, Susie stole a long look at him. He was dressed with even

Starting point is 05:55:45 more than his usual formal trimness, and she detected in an ultra-flat wrist-watch and discreetly expensive waistcoat buttons, an attempt at smartness altogether new. His face had undergone the same change. Its familiar look of worn optimism had been, as it were, done up to match his clothes, as though a sort of moral cosmetic had made him pinker, shinier, and sprightlier without really rejuvenating him. A thin veil of high spirits had merely been drawn over his face, as the shining strands of hair were skillfully brushed over his baldness. "'Here! Cart de Van, waiter! What champagne, Susie?' He chose fastidiously the best the cellar could produce, grumbling a little at the bourgeois character

Starting point is 05:56:27 of the dishes. Capital food of its kind, no doubt, but coarseish, don't you think? Well, I don't mind. It's rather a jolly change from the luxe cooking. A new sensation. I'm all for new sensations, ain't you, my dear? He refilled their champagne glasses, flung an arm sideways over his chair, and smiled at her with a foggy benevolence. As the champagne flowed, his confidences flowed with it. Suppose you know what I'm here for, this divorce business. We want to to settle it quietly without a fuss and of course paris is the best place for that sort of job live and let live no questions asked none of your dirty newspapers great country this no hypocrisy they understand life over here susy gazed and listened she remembered that people had thought nelson would make a row when he found out he had always been addicted to truculent anecdotes about unfaithful wives and the very formula of his perpetual ejaculation caught you at it eh seemed to hint at a constant constant preoccupation with such ideas. But now it was evident that, as the saying was, he had

Starting point is 05:57:33 swallowed his dose like all the others. No strong blast of indignation had momentarily lifted him above his normal stature. He remained a little man among little men, and his eagerness to rebuild his life with all the old smiling optimism reminded Susie of the patient industry of an ant remaking its ruined ant-heap. "'Tell you what? Great thing, this liberty! Everything's changed nowadays. days. Why shouldn't marriage be too? A man can get out of a business partnership when he wants to, but the Parsons want to keep us new-stup to each other for life because we blundered into a church one day and said yes before one of them. No, no, that's too easy. We've got beyond that. Science and

Starting point is 05:58:13 all these new discoveries. I say the Ten Commandments were made for man and not man for the commandments, and there ain't a word against divorce in them anyhow. That's what I tell my poor old mother, who builds everything on her Bible. Find me the place where it says, Thou shalt not sue for for divorce. It makes her wild, poor old lady, because she can't, and she don't know how they happen to have left it out. I'd rather think Moses left it out because he knew more about human nature than these sniveling modern parsons do. Not that they'll always bear investigating, either. But I don't care about that. Live and let live, eh, Susie? Have we all got a right to our affinities? I hear you're following our example yourself. First-rate idea. I don't mind telling

Starting point is 05:58:52 you I saw it coming on last summer at Venice. Caught you at it, so to speak. Old Nelson ain't as blind as people think. Here, let's open another bottle to the health of Streff and Mrs. Treff." She caught the hand with which he was signaling to the sommelier. This flushed and garrulous Nelson moved her more poignantly than a more heroic figure. No more champagne, please, Nelson. Besides, she suddenly added, it's not true. He stared. Not true that you're going to marry Altringham? No. By George, then what on earth did you chuck nick for? Ain't you got an affinity, me, my dear?" She laughed and shook her head.

Starting point is 05:59:29 "'Do you mean to tell me it's all Nick's doing, then?' "'I don't know.' "'Let's talk of you instead, Nelson. I'm glad you're in such good spirits. I rather thought,' he interrupted her quickly. "'Thought I'd cut up a rumpus, do some shooting. I know, people did.' He twisted his mustache, evidently proud of his reputation.

Starting point is 05:59:47 "'Well, maybe I did see red for a day or two. But I'm a philosopher first and last. Before I went into banking, I'd made and lost two fortunes out west. well how did i build him up again not by shooting anybody even myself by just buckling to and beginning all over again and that's what i am doing now beginning all over again his voice dropped from boastfulness to a note of wistful melancholy the look of strained jauntiness fell from his face like a mask and for an instant she saw the real man old ruined lonely yes that was it he was lonely desperately lonely foundering in such deep seas of solitude that any presence out of the past was like a spar to which he clung whatever he knew or guessed of the part she had played in his disaster it was not callousness that had made him greet her with such forgiving warmth but the same sense of smallness insignificance and isolation which perpetually hung like a cold fog on her own horizon suddenly she too felt old old and unspeakably tired "'It's be nice seeing you, Nelson. But now I must be getting home.'

Starting point is 06:00:55 He offered no objection, but asked for the bill, resumed his jaunty air while he scattered Largesse among the waiters, and sauntered out behind her after calling for a taxi. They drove off in silence. Susie was thinking, "'And Clarissa?' But dared not ask. Vanderlin lit a cigarette, hummed a dance-tune, and stared out of the window. Suddenly she felt his hand on hers. "'Susie, do you ever see her?' "'See, Ellie!' he nodded without turning toward her. "'Not often. Sometimes.'

Starting point is 06:01:27 "'If you do, for God's sake, tell her I'm happy. Happy as a king. Tell her you could see for yourself that I was.' His voice broke in a little gasp. "'I—I'll be damned if—if she shall ever be unhappy about me—if I can help it.' The cigarette dropped from his fingers, and with a sob he covered his face. "'Oh, poor Nelson! Poor Nelson!' Susie breathed. while their cab rattled across the place to carousel and over the bridge he continued to sit beside her with hidden face at last he pulled out a scented handkerchief rubbed his eyes with it and groped for another cigarette i'm all right tell her that will you susie there are some of our old times i don't suppose i shall ever forget but they make me feel kindly to her and not angry i didn't know it would be so beforehand but it is and now the thing's settled i'm as right as a trivet and you can tell her so look here susy he caught her by the arm as the taxi drew up at her hotel tell her i understand will you i'd rather like her to know that i'll tell her nelson she promised and climbed the stairs alone to her dreary room susy's one fear was that Strefford, when he returned the next day, should treat their talk of the previous

Starting point is 06:02:37 evening as a fit of nerves to be jested away. He might indeed resent her behavior too deeply to seek to see her at once, but his easy-going modern attitude toward conduct and convictions made that improbable. She had an idea that what he had most minded was her dropping so unceremoniously out of the embassy dinner. But after all, why should she see him again? She had had enough of explanations during the last months to have learned how seldom they explain anything. If the other person did not understand at the first word, at the first glance even, subsequent elucidation served only to deepen the obscurity. And she wanted, above all, and especially since her hour with Nelson Vangelin, to keep herself free, aloof, to retain her hold on her precariously

Starting point is 06:03:20 recovered self. She sat down and wrote to Strefford, and the letter was only a little less painful to write than the one she had dispatched to Nick. It was not that her own feelings were in any like measure engaged, but because, as the decision to give up Strefford affirmed itself, she remembered only his kindness, his forbearance, his good humor, and all the other qualities she had always liked in him, and because she felt ashamed of the hesitations which must cause him so much pain and humiliation. Yes, humiliation, chiefly. She knew that what she had to say would hurt his pride, in whatever way she framed her renunciation, and her pen wavered, hating its task. Then she remembered Vanderlin's words about his wife.

Starting point is 06:04:02 There are some of our old times, I don't suppose I shall ever forget. And a phrase of Grace Fulmer's that she had but half grasped at the time. You haven't been married long enough to understand how trifling such things seem in the balance of one's memories. Here were two people who had penetrated farther than she into the labyrinth of the wedded state, and struggled through some of its thornyest passages, and yet both, one consciously, the other half unaware, testified to the the mysterious fact which was already dawning on her, that the influence of a marriage begun in mutual understanding is too deep not to reassert itself even in the moment of flight and denial.

Starting point is 06:04:38 "'The real reason is that you're not Nick,' was what she would have said to Strefford, if she had dared to set down the bare truth, and she knew that, whatever she wrote, he was too acute not to read that into it. He'll think it's because I'm still in love with Nick, and perhaps I am. But even if I were the difference doesn't seem to love. there, after all, but deeper, in things we've shared that seemed to be meant to outlast love, or to change it into something different. If she could have hoped to make Strefford understand that, the letter would have been easy

Starting point is 06:05:09 enough to write. But she knew just at what point his imagination would fail, in what obvious and superficial inferences it would rest. Poor Streff! Poor me! she thought as she sealed the letter! After she had dispatched it a sense of blankness to send it on her! She had succeeded in driving from her mind all vain hesitations, doubts, returns upon herself. Her healthy system naturally rejected them.

Starting point is 06:05:35 But they left a queer emptiness in which her thoughts rattled about as thoughts might, she supposed in the first moments after death, before one got used to it. To get used to being dead—that seemed to be her immediate business. And she felt such a novice at it, felt so horribly alive. How had those others learn to do without living? Nelson, while he was still in the throes, and probably would never understand or be able to communicate the lesson when he mastered it. But Grace Fulmer. She suddenly remembered that Grace was in Paris, and set forth to find her. End of Chapter 23. Part 2. Chapter 24 of The Glimses of the Moon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clette. The Glimses of the Moon. By Edith Warton. Part 2 Chapter 24

Starting point is 06:06:33 Nick Lansing had walked out a long way into the Campagna. His hours were seldom his own, for both Mr. and Mrs. Hicks were becoming more and more addicted to sudden and somewhat imperious demands upon his time. But on this occasion he had simply slipped away after luncheon, and taking the tram to the Porta Salaria had wandered on thence in the direction of the Ponte Nomenanto. He wanted to get away and think, but now that he had done it, the business was proved as unfruitful as everything he had put his hand to since he had left Venice. Think. Think about what? His future seemed to him a negligible matter since he had received,

Starting point is 06:07:11 two months earlier, the few lines in which Susie had asked him for her freedom. The letter had been a shock, though he had fancied himself so prepared for it, yet it had also, in another sense, been a relief. Since now that at last circumstances compelled him to write to her, they also told him what to say. And he had said it as brief for. and simply as possible, telling her that he would put no obstacle in the way of her release, that he held himself at her lawyer's disposal to answer any further communication, and that he would never forget their days together, or cease to bless her for them. That was all. He gave his Roman banker's address and waited for another letter, but none came. Probably the formalities,

Starting point is 06:07:50 whatever they were, took longer than he had supposed, and being in no haste to recover his own liberty, he did not try to learn the cause of the delay. From that moment, however, he considered himself virtually free, and ceased by the same token to take any interest in his own future. His life seemed as flat as a convalescence first days after the fever has dropped. The only thing he was sure of was that he was not going to remain in the Hicks' employ. When they left Rome for Central Asia he had no intention of accompanying them. The part of Mr. Buttle's successor was becoming daily more intolerable to him, for the very reasons that had probably made it most gratifying to Mr. Buttles. To be treated by Mr. and Mr. Buttell's, to be treated by Mr.

Starting point is 06:08:30 Mrs. Hicks as a paid oracle, a paraded and petted piece of property, was a good deal more distasteful than he could have imagined any relation with these kindly people could be. And since their aspirations had become frankly social, he found his task, if easier, yet far less congenial than during his first months with them. He preferred patiently explaining to Mrs. Hicks, for the hundredth time, that Sassania and Saracenic were not interchangeable terms, to unraveling for her the genealogies of her titled guests, and remind her to her to her, when she seated her dinner parties, that dukes ranked higher than princes. No, the job was decidedly intolerable, and he would have to look out for another means of earning

Starting point is 06:09:10 his living. But that was not what he had really got a way to think about. He knew he should never starve. He had even begun to believe again in his book. What he wanted to think of was Susie. Or rather, it was Susie that he could not help thinking of, on whatever train of thought he set out. Again and again he fancied he had established a truce with the past, He had come to terms, the terms of defeat and failure with that bright enemy called happiness,

Starting point is 06:09:35 and, in truth, he had reached the point of definitely knowing that he could never return to the kind of life that he and Susie had embarked on. It had been the tragedy of their relation that loving her roused in him ideal she could never satisfy. He had fallen in love with her because she was, like himself, amused, unprejudiced, and disenchanted, and he could not go on loving her unless she ceased to be all these things. From that circle there was no issue, and in it he desperately revolved. If he had not heard such persistent rumors of her remarriage to Lord Altringham, he might

Starting point is 06:10:05 have tried to see her again. But aware of the danger and the hopelessness of a meeting, he was, on the whole, glad to have a reason for avoiding it. Such, at least, he honestly supposed to be his state of mind until he found himself, as on this occasion, free to follow out his thought to its end. That end, invariably, was Susie. Not the bundle of qualities and defects into which his critical spirit had tried to sort her out, but the soft blur of identity, of personality, of eyes, hair, mouth, laugh, tricks

Starting point is 06:10:37 of speech and gesture that were all so solely and profoundly her own, and yet so mysteriously independent of what she might do, say, think, in crucial circumstances. He remembered her once saying to him, "'After all, you were right when you wanted me to be your mistress, and the indignant stare of incredulity with which he had answered her. Yet in these hours it was the palpable image of her that clung closest, till as invariably happened, his vision came full circle, and feeling her on his breast, he wanted her also in his soul. Well, such all-encompassing loves were the rarest of human experiences, he smiled at his

Starting point is 06:11:15 presumption in wanting no other. Wearily he turned, and tramped homeward through the winter twilight. At the door of the hotel he ran across the prince of Tutoburg's aide-de-camp. They had not met for some days. And Nick had a vague feeling that if the prince's matrimonial designs took definite shape, he himself was not likely, after all, to be their chosen exponent. He had surprised, now and then, a certain distrustful coldness under the Princess Mother's cordial glance, and had concluded that she perhaps suspected him of being an obstacle to her son's aspirations. He had no idea of playing that part, but was not sorry to appear to, for he was sincerely attached to Coral Hicks,

Starting point is 06:11:53 and hoped for her a more human fate than that of becoming Prince Anastasius's consort. This evening, however, he was struck by the beaming alacrity of the Aid de Comps' greeting. Whatever cloud had hung between them had lifted, the Tutoburg clan, for one reason or another, no longer feared or distrusted him. The change was conveyed in a mere hand-pressure, a brief exchange of words, for the Aid de Camp was hastening after a well-known dowager of the old Roman world, whom he helped into a large coronet at Brom, which looked as if it had been extracted, for some ceremonial purpose, from a museum of historic vehicles. And in an instant, it flashed

Starting point is 06:12:29 on Lansing that this lady had been the person chosen to lay the prince's offer at Miss Hicks's feet. The discovery piqued him, and instead of making straight for his own room, he went up to Mrs. Hicks's drawing-room. The room was empty, but traces of elaborate tea pervaded it, and an immense bouquet of stiff roses lay on the center table. As he turned away, Eldorada tooker, flushed, and tear-stained, abruptly entered. "'Oh, Mr. Lansing, we were looking everywhere for you.' "'Looking for me?' "'Yes, Coral especially.

Starting point is 06:13:00 She wants to see you. She wants you to come to her own sitting-room.' She led him across the ante-chamber and down the passage to the separate suite which Miss Hicks inhabited. On the threshold, Eldorada gasped out emotionally, "'You'll find her looking lovely,' and jerked away with a sob as he entered. Coral Hicks was never lovely, but she certainly looked unusually handsome. Perhaps it was the long dress of black velvet, which, outlined against a shaded lamp, made her

Starting point is 06:13:27 strong build seemed slenderer, or perhaps the slight flush on her dusky cheek, a bloom of womanhood hung upon her which she made no effort to dissemble. Indeed, it was one of her originalities that she always gravely and courageously revealed the utmost of whatever mood possessed her. "'How splendid you look,' he said, smiling at her. She threw her head back and gazed him straight in the eyes. "'That's going to be my future job!' To look splendid? Yes.

Starting point is 06:13:55 And wear a crown? And wear a crown. They continued to consider each other without speaking. Nick's heart contracted with pity and perplexity. Oh, Coral, it's not decided. She scrutinized him for a last penetrating moment, then she looked away. I'm never long deciding. He hesitated, choking with contradictory impulses, and afraid to formulate any, lest they should either mislead or pain her.

Starting point is 06:14:21 Why didn't you tell me? He questioned, lamely, and instantly perceived his blunder. She sat down and looked up at him under brooding lashes. Had he ever noticed the thickness of her lashes before? Would it have made any difference if I had told you? Any difference? Sit down by me, she commanded. I want to talk to you.

Starting point is 06:14:42 You can say now whatever you might have said sooner. I'm not married yet. I'm still free. You haven't given your answer. It doesn't matter if I have. The retort frightened him with the glimpse of what she still expected of him, and what he was still so unable to give. That means you've said yes, he pursued, to gain time. Yes or no, it doesn't matter. I had to say something. What I want is your advice.

Starting point is 06:15:08 At the eleventh hour, or the twelfth? She paused. What shall I do? she questioned, with a sudden accent of helplessness. He looked at her as helplessly. He could not say, ask yourself, ask your parents. Her next word would sweep away such frail hypocrisies. Her, what shall I do, meant what are you going to do? And he knew it, and knew that she knew it. I'm a bad person to give anyone matrimonial advice, he began with a strange smile, but I had such a different vision for you. What kind of a vision? She was merciless. Merely what people call happiness, dear.

Starting point is 06:15:47 People call. You see you don't believe in it yourself. Well, neither do I, in that form at any rate. He considered, I believe in trying for it, even if the trying's the best of it. Well, I've tried and failed, and I'm twenty-two, and I never was young. I suppose I haven't enough imagination. She drew a deep breath. Now I want something different. She appeared to search for the word.

Starting point is 06:16:13 I want to be— Prominent, she declared. Prominent. She reddened swarthy. Oh, you smile, you think it's ridiculous. It doesn't seem worthwhile to you. That's because you've always had all those things. But I haven't.

Starting point is 06:16:29 I know what father pushed up from, and I want to push up as high again, higher. No, I haven't got much imagination. I've always liked facts, and I find I shall like the fact of being a princess, choosing the people I associate with, and being up above all those European grandees that father and mother bowed down to, though they think they despise them. You can be up above these people by just people. being yourself. You know how. But I need a platform, a skyscraper. Father and mother's slave

Starting point is 06:16:57 to give me my education. They thought education was the important thing—but since we've all three of us got mediocre minds, it has just landed us among mediocre people. Don't you suppose I see through all the sham science and sham art and sham everything were surrounded with? That's why I want to buy a place at the very top, where I shall be powerful enough to get about me the people I want, the big people, the right people, and to help them I want to promote culture, like those Renaissance women you're always talking about. I want to do it for Apex City, do you understand? And her father and mother, too. I want all those titles carved on my tombstone. They're facts, anyhow. Don't laugh at me. She broke off with one of her clumsy smiles, and moved

Starting point is 06:17:40 away from him to the other end of the room. He sat looking at her with a curious feeling of admiration. her harsh positivism was like a tonic to his disenchanted mood, and he thought, What a pity. Aloud, he said, I don't feel like laughing at you. You're a great woman. Then I shall be a great princess. Oh, but you might have been something so much greater. Her face flamed again.

Starting point is 06:18:03 Don't say that. He stood up involuntarily, and drew near her. Why not? Because you're the only man with whom I can imagine that other kind of greatness. It moved him. moved him unexpectedly he got as far as saying to himself good god if she were not so hideously rich and then of yielding for a moment to the persuasive vision of all that he and she might do with those very riches which he dreaded after all there was nothing mean in her ideals they were hard and material in keeping with her primitive and massive person but they had a certain grim nobility and when she spoke of the other kind of greatness he knew that she understood what she was talking of and was not merely saying something to draw him on to get him to commit himself. There was not a drop of guile in her, except that which

Starting point is 06:18:51 her very honesty distilled. "'The other kind of greatness,' he repeated. "'Well, isn't that what you said happiness was? I wanted to be happy, but one can't choose.' He went up to her. No, one can't choose. And how can anyone give you happiness who hasn't got it himself?' He took her hands, feeling how large, muscular, and voluntary they were, even as they melted in his palms. My poor coral, What of use can I ever be to you? What you need is to be loved.

Starting point is 06:19:24 She drew back and gave him one of her straight, strong glances. No, she said gallantly, but just to love. End of Chapter 24. End of Part 2. Part 3, Chapter 25, of the glimpses of the moon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clette The Glimpses of the Moon

Starting point is 06:19:55 By Edith Wharton Part 3, Chapter 25 In the persistent drizzle of a Paris winter morning, Susie Lansing walked back alone from the school at which she had just deposited the four eldest Fulmers to the little house in Passy, where for the last two months she had been living with them. She had on ready-made boots, an old waterproof, and a last year's hat, but none of these facts disturbed her, though she took no particular pride in them. The truth was that she was too busy

Starting point is 06:20:24 to think much about them. Since she had assumed the charge of the Fulmer children, in the absence of both their parents in Italy, she had to pass through such an arduous apprenticeship of motherhood that every moment of her waking hours was packed with things to do at once, and other things to remember to do later. There were only five Fulmers, but at times they were like an army with banners, and their power of self-multipication was equalled only by the manner in which they could dwindle, vanish, grow mute, and become, as it were, a single, tumbled, brown head bent over a book, in some corner of the house in which nobody would ever have thought of hunting for them, and which, of course, were at the Bonn's room in the attic, or the subterranean closet

Starting point is 06:21:03 where the trunks were kept, had been singled out by them, for that very reason. These changes from ubiquity to invisibility would have seemed to Susie, a few months earlier, one of the most maddening of many characteristics not calculated to promote repose. But now she felt differently. She had grown interested in her charges, and the search for a clue to their methods, whether tribal or individual, was as exciting to her as the development of a detective story. What interested her most in the whole stirring business was the discovery that they had a method. These little creatures, pitched upward into experience on the tossing waves of their parents' agitated lives, had managed to establish a rough and ready system of self-government.

Starting point is 06:21:43 Juney, the eldest, the one who already chose her mother's hats and tried to put order in her wardrobe, was the recognized head of the state. At twelve she knew lots of things which her mother had never thoroughly learned, and Susie, her temporary mother, had never even guessed at. She spoke with authority on all vital subjects, from castor oil to flannel underclothes, from the fair sharing of stamps or marbles, to the number of helpings of rice-pudding or jam which each child was entitled to. There was hardly any appeal from her verdict, yet each of her subjects revolved in his or her own orbit of independence, according to laws which Junie acknowledged and respected, and the interpreting of this mysterious charter of rights and privileges had not been without difficulty

Starting point is 06:22:26 for Susie. Besides this, there were material difficulties to deal with. The six of them, and the breathless bun who cooked and slave for them all, had but a slim budget to live on. And, as Junie remarked, you'd have thought the boys ate their shoes the way they vanished. They ate, certainly, a great deal else, and mostly of a nourishing and expensive kind. They had definite views about the amount and quality of their food, and were capable of concerted rebellion when Susie's catering fell beneath their standard. All this made her life

Starting point is 06:22:57 a hurried and harassing business, but never, what she had most feared it would be, a dull or depressing one. It was not, she owned to herself, that the society of the former children had roused in her any abstract passion for the young. She knew, had—had her—haddard. known since Nick's first kiss, how she would love any child of his and hers, and she had cherished poor little Clarissa Vanderlin with a shrinking and wistful solicitude. But in these rough young Fulmers she took a positive delight, and for reasons that were increasingly clear to her. It was because, in the first place, they were all intelligent, and because their intelligence had been fed only on things worth caring for. However inadequate Grace Fulmer's bringing

Starting point is 06:23:36 up of her increasing tribe had been, they had heard in her company nothing trivial or dull, good music good books and good talk had been their daily food and if at times they stamped and roared and crashed about like children unblessed by such privileges at others they shone with the light of poetry and spoke with the voice of wisdom that had been susy's discovery for the first time she was among awakening minds which had been wakened only to beauty from their cramped and uncomfortable household grace and nat fulmer had managed to keep out mean envies vulgar admiration shabby discontents. Above all the din and confusion the great images of beauty had brooded, like those ancestral figures that stood apart on their shelf in the poorest Roman households. No, the task she had undertaken for want of abett her, gave Susie no sense of a missed vocation. Mothering on a large scale would never, she perceived, be her job. Rather it gave her, in odd ways, the sense of being herself mothered, of taking her first steps in the life of immaterial

Starting point is 06:24:41 values, which had begun to seem so much more substantial than any she had known. On the day when she had gone to Grace Fulmer for counsel and comfort, she had little guess that they would come to her in this form. She had found her friend, more than ever distracted and yet buoyant, riding the large, untidy waves of her life with the splashed ease of an amphibian. Grace was probably the only person among Susie's friends who could have understood why she could not make up her mind to marry altering them. But at the moment Grace was too much absorbed in her own problems to pay much attention to her friends, and according to her won't, she immediately unpacked her difficulties. Nat was not getting what she had hoped out of his European opportunity. Oh, she was enough

Starting point is 06:25:23 of an artist herself to know that there must be fallow periods, that the impact of new impressions seldom produced immediate results. She had allowed for all that. But her past experience of Nat's moods had taught her to know just when he was assimilating, when impressions were fructifying in him. And now they were not, and he knew it as well as she did. There had been too much rushing about, too much excitement and sterile flattery. Mrs. Melrose, well, yes, for a while, the trip to Spain had been a love journey, no doubt. Grace spoke calmly, but the lines of her face sharpened. She had suffered, oh, horribly, at his going to Spain without her. Yet she couldn't, for the children's sake afford to miss the big sum that Ursula Gillo had given her

Starting point is 06:26:03 for her fortnight at Ruan. And her playing had struck people, and led on her. on the way back to two or three profitable engagements in private houses in London. Fashionable society had made a little fuss about her, and it had surprised and pleased Nat, and given her a new importance in his eyes. He was beginning to forget that I wasn't only a nursery-maid, and it's been a good thing for him to be reminded, but the great thing is that, with what I've earned he and I can go off to southern Italy and Sicily for three months. You know I know how to manage, and alone with me, Nat will settle down to work, to observing, feeling,

Starting point is 06:26:38 soaking things in. It's the only way. Mrs. Melrose wants to take him to pay all the expenses again. Well, she shan't. I'll pay them." Her worn cheek flushed with triumph. And you'll see what wonders will come of it. Only there's the problem of the children. Junie quite agrees that we can't take them. Thereupon she had unfolded her idea. If Susie was at a loose end and hard up, why shouldn't she take charge of the children while their parents were in Italy? For three months at most, Grace could promise a child. shouldn't be longer. They couldn't pay her much, of course, but at least she would be lodged and fed. And you know it will end by interesting you, I'm sure it will, the mother concluded,

Starting point is 06:27:16 her irrepressible hopefulness rising even to this height, while Susie stood before her with a hesitating smile. Take care of five Fulmers for three months. The prospect cowed her. If there had been only Junie and Jordy, the oldest and youngest of the band, she might have felt less hesitation. But there was Nat, the second in age, whose motor-horn had driven her and Nick out to Hillside on their fatal day at the Fulmers, and there were the twins, Jack and Peggy, of whom she had kept memories almost equally disquieting. To rule this uproarious tribe would be a sterner business than trying to beguile Clarissa

Starting point is 06:27:50 Vanderlain's ladylike leisure, and she would have refused on the spot, as she had refused once before, if the only possible alternatives had not come to seem so much less bearable. And if Junie, called in for advice and standing there, small, plain and competent, had not said in her quiet, grown-up voice, Oh, yes, I'm sure Mrs. Lansing and I can manage while you're away, especially if she reads aloud well." "'Reads aloud well.

Starting point is 06:28:15 The stipulation had enchanted, Susie. She had never before known children who cared to be read aloud to. She remembered with a shiver her attempts to interest Clarissa in anything but gossip in the fashions, and the tone in which the child had said, showing Strufford's trinket to her father, because I said I'd rather have it than a book.' And here were children who consented to be left for three months by their parents. but on condition that a good reader was provided for them. "'Very well, I will.

Starting point is 06:28:42 But what shall I be expected to read to you?' She had gaily questioned, and Junie had answered, after one of her sober pauses of reflection. The little ones like nearly everything. But Nat and I want poetry particularly, because if we read it to ourselves we so often pronounce the puzzling words wrong, and then it sounds so horrid. "'Oh, I hope I shall pronounce them right,' Susie murmured, stricken with self-distrust and humility. Apparently she did, for her reading was a success,

Starting point is 06:29:10 and even the twins, and Jordy, once they had grown used to her, seemed to prefer a ringing page of Henry V, or the fairy scenes from the Midsummer Night's dream, to their own more specialized literature, though that had also at times to be provided. There were, in fact, no lulls in her life with the Fulmers, but its commotions seemed to Susie less meaningless, and therefore less fatiguing, than those that punctuated the existence of people like Alteringham, Ursula Gillo, Ellie Vanderlin in their train, and the noisy, uncomfortable little house at Passy was beginning to greet her with the eyes of home when she returned there after her tramps

Starting point is 06:29:44 to and from the children's classes. At any rate she had the sense of doing something useful, and even necessary, and of earning her own keep, though on so modest a scale, and when the children were in their quiet mood and demanded books or music, or even on one occasion at the surprising Junie's instigation, a collective visit to the Louvre, where they recognized the most unlikely pictures, and the two elders emitted startling technical judgments, and called their companion's attention to detail she had not observed. On these occasions, Susie had a surprised sense of being drawn back into her brief life with Nick, or even still farther and deeper, into those visions of Nick's own childhood on which the trivial later years had heaped their

Starting point is 06:30:25 dust. It was curious to think that if he and she had remained together, and she had had a child, The vision used to come to her in her sleepless hours when she looked at little Jordy in his cot by her bed. Their life together might have been very much like the life she was now leading, a small, obscure business to the outer world, but to themselves how wide and deep and crowded. She could not bear at that moment the thought of giving up this mystic relation to the life she had missed. In spite of the hurry and fatigue of her days, the shabbiness and discomfort of everything, and the hours when the children were as horrid as any other children, and turned a conspiracy of heart. hostile faces to all her appeals. In spite of all this she did not want to give them up, and had decided when their parents returned, to ask to go back to America with them. Perhaps if Nat's success continued and Grace was able to work at her music, they would need a kind of governess

Starting point is 06:31:16 companion. At any rate, she could picture no future less distasteful. She had not sent to Mr. Spearman Nick's answer to her letter. In the interval between writing to him and receiving his reply she had broken with Strefford. She had therefore no object in seeking her freedom. If Nick wanted his, he knew he had only to ask for it, and his silence as the weeks passed woke a faint hope in her. The hope flamed high when she read one day in the newspapers, a vague but evidently inspired allusion to the possibility of an alliance between his serene highness, the reigning prince of Tutteuthorg Waldheim and Miss Coral Hicks of Apex City. It sank to ashes, when, a few days later, her eye lit on a paragraph wherein Mr. and Mrs. Mortimer Hicks requested to state

Starting point is 06:31:59 that there was no truth in the report. On the foundation of these two statements, Susie raised one watchtower of hope after another, feverish edifices, demolished or rebuilt by every chance hint from the outer world wherein Nick's name figured with the Hickses. And still, as the days passed and she heard nothing, either from him or from her lawyer, her flag continued to fly from the quaking structures. Apart from the custody of the children, children. There was indeed little to distract her mind from these persistent broodings. She winced sometimes at the thought of the ease with which her fashionable friends had let her drop out of sight. In the perpetual purposeless rush of their days, the feverish making of winter

Starting point is 06:32:37 plans, hurrying off to the Riviera or San Maritz, Egypt or New York, there was no time to hunt up the vanished or to wait for the laggard. Had they learned that she had broken her engagement, how she hated the word, to Strefford, and had the fact gone about that she was once more only a poor hanger on, to be taken up when it was convenient, and ignored in the intervals. She did not know, though she fancied Strefford's newly developed pride would prevent his revealing to anyone what had passed between them. For several days after her abrupt flight he had made no sign, and though she longed to write and ask his forgiveness, she could not find the words. Finally, it was he who wrote, a short note, from Alteringham, typical of all that was best in

Starting point is 06:33:18 the old Strefford. He said he had gone down to Alteringham, to think quietly over their last talk, and to try to understand what she had been driving at. He had to own that he couldn't, but that he supposed was the very head and front of his offending. Whatever he had done to displease her he was sorry for, but he asked in view of his invincible ignorance to be allowed not to regard his offence as a cause for a final break. The possibility of that he found would make him even more unhappy than he had foreseen. As she knew, his own happiness had always been his first object in life, and he therefore

Starting point is 06:33:50 begged her to suspend her decision a little longer. He expected to be in Paris within another two months, and before arriving he would write again, and ask her to see him. The letter moved her but did not make her waver. She simply wrote that she was touched by his kindness, and would willingly see him if he came to Paris later, though she was bound to tell him that she had not yet changed her mind, and did not believe it would promote his happiness to have her try to do so. He did not reply to this, and there was nothing further to keep her thoughts from revolving endlessly

Starting point is 06:34:19 about her inmost hopes and fears. On the rainy afternoon in question, tramping home from the Coor, to which she was to return at six, she had said to herself that it was two months that very day since Nick had known she was ready to release him, and that after such a delay he was not likely to take any further steps. The thought filled her with a vague ecstasy. She had had to fix an arbitrary date as the term of her anguish, and she had fixed that one.

Starting point is 06:34:44 And behold, she was justified. For what could his silence mean but that he too? on the hall table lay a typed envelope with the Paris postage mark. She opened it carelessly, and saw that the letterhead bore Mr. Spearman's office address. The words beneath spun round before her eyes. Has notified us that he is at your disposal, carry out your wishes, arriving in Paris, fix an appointment with his lawyers. Nick! It was Nick the words were talking of. It was the fact of Nick's return to Paris that was being described in those preposterous terms. She sank down on the bench beside the dripping umbrella stand and stared vacantly before her.

Starting point is 06:35:21 It had fallen at last. This blow in which she now saw that she had never really believed. And yet she had imagined that she was prepared for it, had expected it, was already planning her future life in view of it, and effaced impersonal life in the surface of somebody else's children, when, in reality, under that thin surface of abnegation and acceptance all the old hopes had been smoldering red-hot in their ashes. What was the use of any self-discipline? any philosophy, any experience, if the lawless self underneath, could in an instant consume

Starting point is 06:35:52 them like Tinder. She tried to collect herself, to understand what had happened. Nick was coming to Paris, coming not to see her, but to consult his lawyer. It meant, of course, that he had definitely resolved to claim his freedom, and that if he had made up his mind to this final step, after more than six months of inaction and seeming indifference, it could only be because something unforeseen and decisive had happened to him. Feverishly, she put together again the stray scraps of gossip and the newspaper paragraphs that had reached her in the last months. It was evident that Miss Hicks' projected marriage with the Prince of Tutoberg-Waldheim had been broken off at the last moment, and broken off, because she intended to marry Nick. The announcement of his arrival

Starting point is 06:36:32 in Paris, and the publication of Mr. and Mrs. Hicks' formal denial of their daughter's betrothal coincided too closely to admit of any other inference. Susie tried to grasp the reality of these assembled facts, to picture to herself their actual tangible results. She thought of Coral Hicks, bearing the name of Mrs. Nick Lansing, her name, Susie's own, and entering drawing-rooms with Nick in her wake, gaily welcomed by the very people who, a few months before, had welcomed Susie with the same warmth. In spite of Nick's growing dislike of society, and Coral's attitude of intellectual superiority, their wealth would fatally draw them back into the world to which Nick was attached by all his habits and associations.

Starting point is 06:37:13 and no doubt it would amuse him to re-enter that world as a dispenser of hospitality to play the part of host where he had so long been a guest just as susie had once fancied it would amuse her to re-enter it as lady altringham but try as she would now that the reality was so close on her she could not visualize it or relate it to herself the mere juxtaposition of the two names coral nick which in old times she had so laughingly coupled now produced a blur in her brain she continued to sit helplessly beside the halter table, the tears running down her cheeks. The appearance of the bun aroused her. Her youngest charge, Jordy, had been feverish for a day or two. He was better, but still confined to the nursery, and he had heard Susie unlock the house door, and could not imagine why she had not come straight up to him. He now began to manifest his indignation in a series of racking howls, and Susie, shaken out of her trance, dropped her cloak and umbrella and hurried up. Oh, that child! she groaned. Under the fulmer roof there was little time or space for the indulgence of private sorrows.

Starting point is 06:38:15 From morning till night there was always some immediate practical demand on one's attention, and Susie was beginning to see how, in contracted households. Children may play a part less romantic, but not less useful than that assigned to them in fiction, through the mere fact of giving their parents no leisure to dwell on irremediable grievances. Though her own apprenticeship to family life had been so short, she had already acquired the knack of rapid mental readjustment, and as she hurried up to the nursery her private cares were dispelled by a dozen problems of temperature, diet, and medicine. Such readjustment was, of course, only momentary, yet each time it happened it seemed to give her more firmness and flexibility of temper.

Starting point is 06:38:53 What a child I was myself six months ago! She thought, wondering that Nick's influence and the tragedy of their parting, should have done less to mature and steady her than these few weeks in a house full of children. Pacifying Geordie was not easy, for he had long since learned to use his grievances as a pretext for keeping the offender at his beck with a continuous supply of stories, songs, and games. You'd better be careful never to put yourself in the wrong with Jordy, the astute Junie had warned Susie at the outset, because he's got such a memory, and he won't make it up with you

Starting point is 06:39:25 till you've told him every fairy tale he's ever heard before. But on this occasion as soon as he saw her, Jordy's indignation melted. She was still in the doorway, compunctious, abject and racking her dazed brain for his favorite stories, when she saw, by the smoothing out of his mouth and the sudden serenity of his eyes, that he was going to give her the delicious, but not wholly reassuring shock of being a good boy. Thoughtfully he examined her face as she knelt down beside the cot. Then he poked out a finger and pressed it on her tearful cheek. "'Poor Susie got a pain, too,' he said, putting his arms about her, and as she hugged him

Starting point is 06:40:00 close, he added philosophically, Tell Jordy a new story, darling, and you'll forget all about it. End of Chapter 25. Part 3, Chapter 26, of the Glimpses of the Moon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clutt. The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton. Part 3, Chapter 26.

Starting point is 06:40:33 Nick Lansing arrived in Paris two days. after his lawyer had announced his coming to Mr. Spearman. He had left Rome with the definite purpose of freeing himself and Susie, and though he was not pledged to Coral Hicks, he had not concealed from her the object of his journey. In vain had he tried to rouse in himself any sense of interest in his own future. Beyond the need of reaching a definite point in his relation to Susie, his imagination could not travel. But he had been moved by Coral's confession, and his reason told him that he and she would probably be happy together, with the temperate happiness based on a community of tastes and an enlargement of opportunities. He meant, on his return

Starting point is 06:41:12 to Rome, to ask her to marry him, and he knew that she knew it. Indeed, if he had not spoken before leaving, it was with no idea of evading his fate, or keeping her longer in suspense, but simply because of the strange apathy that had fallen on him since he had received Susie's letter. In his incessant self-communings, he dressed up this apathy at the as a discretion which forbade his engaging corals future till his own was assured but in truth he knew that corals future was already engaged and his with it in rome the fact had seemed natural and even inevitable in paris it instantly became the thinnest of unrealities not because paris was not rome nor because it was paris but because hidden away somewhere in that vast unheeding labyrinth was the half-forgotten part of himself that was susy for weeks for months past his mind had been saturated with susy she had never seemed more insistently near him than as their separation lengthened and the chance of reunion became less probable it was as if a sickness long smoldering in him had broken out and become acute, enveloping him in the nessish shirt of his memories. There were moments

Starting point is 06:42:22 when, to his memory, their actual embraces seemed perfunctory, accidental, compared with this deep deliberate imprint of her soul on his. Yet now it had become suddenly different, now that he was in the same place with her, and might at any moment run across her, meet her eyes, hear her voice, avoid her hand, now that penetrating ghost of her with which she had been living was sucked back into the shadows, and he seemed, for the first time since their parting, to be again in her actual presence. He woke to the fact on the morning of his arrival, staring down from his hotel window on a street she would perhaps walk through that very day, and over a limitless huddle of roofs, one of which covered her at that hour. The abruptness of the transition

Starting point is 06:43:05 startled him. He had not known that her mere geographical nearness would take him by the throat in that way. What would it be, then, if she were to walk into the room? Thank heaven that need never happen. He was sufficiently informed as to French divorce proceedings to know that they would not necessitate a confrontation with his wife, and with ordinary luck and some precautions, he might escape even a distant glimpse of her. He did not mean to remain in Paris more than a few days, and during that time it would be easy, knowing, as he did, her tastes and Altringham's, to avoid the places where she was likely to be met. He did not know where she was living, but imagined her to be staying with Mrs. Melrose, or some other rich friend, or else lodged in prospective affluence

Starting point is 06:43:44 at the Nouveau-lux, or in a pretty flat of her own. Trust Susie. Ah, the pang of it. To manage. His first visit was to his lawyers, and as he walked through the familiar streets, each approaching face, each distant figure seemed hers. The obsession was intolerable. It would not last, of course, but meanwhile he had the exposed sense of a fugitive in a nightmare, who feels himself the only creature visible in a ghostly and besetting multitude. the eye of the metropolis seemed fixed on him in an immense unblinking stare. At the lawyers he was told that, as a first step to freedom, he must secure a domicile in Paris.

Starting point is 06:44:24 He had, of course, known of this necessity. He had seen too many friends through the divorce court in one country or another, not to be fairly familiar with the procedure. But the fact presented a different aspect as soon as he tried to relate it to himself and Susie. It was as though Susie's personality were a medium through which events still took on a transfiguring color. He found the domicile that very day, a tawdry-de-chernished re de Chauci, obviously destined to far different uses. And as he sat there, after the concierge had discreetly withdrawn with first-quarters payment in her pocket, and stared about

Starting point is 06:44:57 him at the vulgar, plushy place, he burst out laughing at what it was about to figure in the eyes of the law. A home, and a home desecrated by his own act. The home in which he and Susie had reared their precarious bliss, and seen it crumbed. at the brutal touch of his unfaithfulness and his cruelty, for he had been told that he must be cruel to her as well as unfaithful. He looked at the walls, hung with sentimental photogravers, at the shiny bronze nudes, the moth-eaten animal skins, and the bedisned bed, and once more the unreality, the impossibility of all that was happening to him, entered like a drug into his veins. To rouse himself he stood up, turned the key on the hideous place, and returned

Starting point is 06:45:39 to his lawyers. He knew that in the hard, dry atmosphere of the office, the act of giving the address of the flat would restore some kind of reality to the phantasmal transaction. And with wonder he watched the lawyer, as a matter of course, pencil the street and the number on one of the papers enclosed in a folder on which his own name was elaborately engrossed. As he took leave, it occurred to him to ask where Susie was living—at least he imagined that it had just occurred to him, and that he was making the inquiry merely as a measure of precaution, in order to know what quarter of Paris to avoid. But in reality the question had been on his lip since he had first entered the office, and lurking in his

Starting point is 06:46:14 mind since he had emerged from the railway station that morning. The fact of not knowing where she lived made the whole of Paris a meaningless, unintelligible place, as useless to him as the face of a huge clock that has lost its hour-hand. The address in Passy surprised him. He had imagined that she would be somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Champs-Elysé, or the Place de laet-oile, but probably either Mrs. Melrose or Ellie Vanderlin had taken a house at Passie. Well, it was something of a relief to know that she was so far off. No business called him to that almost suburban region beyond the Trocadero, and there was much less chance of meeting her than if she had been in the center of Paris. All day he wandered, avoiding the fashionable quarters, the streets in which private

Starting point is 06:46:56 motors glittered five deep, and furred and feathered silhouettes glided from them into tea-rooms, picture galleries, and jewelers' shops. In some such scenes Susie was no doubt figuring, slenderer, finer, vivider than the other images of clay, but imitating their gestures, chattering their jargon, winding her hand among the same pearls and sables. He struck away across the Sen, along the key to the Cite, the network of old Paris, the great grave vaults of San Eustace, the swarming streets of the mare. He gazed at monuments, dawdled before shop windows, sat in squares and on keys, watching people bargain, argue, philander, quarrel, work-girls stroll past in length

Starting point is 06:47:36 band, beggars wine on the bridges, derelicts doze in the pale winter sun, mothers in morning hasten by taking children to school, and street-walkers beat their weary rounds before the cafes. The day drifted on. Toward evening he began to grow afraid of his solitude, and to think of dining at the Nouveau-Lux, or some other fashionable restaurant where he would fairly be sure to meet acquaintances, and be carried off to a theatre, a Bwatt or a dancing-hall. Anything, anything now to get away from the maddening round of his thoughts.

Starting point is 06:48:06 He felt the same blank fear of solitude as months ago in Genoa. Even if he were to run across Susie and Altringham—what of it—better get the job over. People had long since ceased to take on tragedy airs about divorce—dividing couples dined together to the last, and met afterwards in each other's houses—happy in the consciousness that their respective remarriages had provided two new centers of entertainment. Yet most of the couples who took their remating so philosophically had doubtless had their hour of enchantment, of belief in the immortality of loving, whereas he and Susie had simply and frankly entered into a business contract for their mutual advantage. The fact gave the

Starting point is 06:48:43 last touch of incongruity to his agonies and exultations, and made him appear to himself as grotesque and superannuated as the hero of a romantic novel. He stood up from a bench on which he had been lounging in the Luxembourg gardens, and hailed a taxi. Dusk had fallen, and he meant to go back to his hotel, take a rest, and then go out to d'clock. dine. But instead he threw Susie's address to the driver, and settled down in the cab, resting both hands on the knob of his umbrella, and staring straight ahead of him as if he were accomplishing some tiresome duty that had to be got through with before he could turn his mind to more important things. It's the easiest way, he heard himself say. At the street corner,

Starting point is 06:49:23 her street corner, he stopped the cab, and stood motionless while it rattled away. It was a short, vague street, much further off than he had expected, and fading away at the farther end in a dusky blur of hoardings overhung by trees. A thin rain was beginning to fall, and it was already night in this inadequately lit suburban quarter. Lansing walked down the empty street. The houses stood a few yards apart, with bare twigged shrubs between, and gates and railings dividing them from the pavement. He could not at first distinguish their numbers, but presently, coming abreast of a street-lamp, he discovered that the small, shabby façade it illuminated was precisely the one he sought. The discovery surprised him. He had imagined that, as frequently happened in the outlying

Starting point is 06:50:09 quarters of Passie and Lamuette, the mean street would lead to a stately private hotel, built upon some bowery fragment of an old country place. It was the latest whim of the wealthy to establish themselves on these outskirts of Paris, where there was still space for Verger, and he had pictured Susie behind some pillared house-front, with lights pouring across glossy turf to sculptured gate-posts. Instead, he saw a six-windowed house, huddled among neighbors of its kind, with the family wash fluttering between meager bushes. The arc light beat ironically on its front, which had the worn look of a tired workwoman's face, and Lansing, as he leaned against the opposite railing, vainly tried to fit his vision of Susie into so

Starting point is 06:50:51 humble a setting. The probable explanation was that his lawyer had given him the wrong address, not only the wrong number, but the wrong street. He pulled out the slip of paper, and was crossing over to decipher it under the lamp, when an errand-boy appeared out of the obscurity and approached the house. Nick drew back, and the boy, unlatching the gate, ran up the steps and gave the bell a pull. Almost immediately the door opened, and there stood Susie, the light full upon her, and upon a red-cheeked child against her shoulder. The space behind them was dark, or so dimly lit that it formed a black background to her vivid figure.

Starting point is 06:51:26 She looked at the errand-boy without surprise, took his parcel, and after he had turned away, lingered a moment in the door, glancing down the empty street. That moment, to her watcher, seemed quicker than a flash, yet as long as a lifetime. There she was, a stoned throwaway, but utterly unconscious of his presence. His Susie, the old Susie, and yet a new Susie, curiously transformed, transfigured almost by the new attitude in which he beheld her. In the first shock of the vision he forgot his surprise at her being in such a place, forgot to wonder whose house she was in, or whose was the sleepy child in her arms.

Starting point is 06:52:05 For an instant she stood out from the blackness behind her, and through the veil of the winter night, a thing apart, an unconditioned vision, the eternal image of the woman and the child, and in that instant everything within him was changed and renewed. His eyes were still absorbing her, finding again the familiar curves of her light body, noting the thinness of the lifted arm that upheld the little boy, the droop of the shoulder he weighed on, the brooding way in which her cheek leaned to his even while she looked away, then she drew back, the door closed, and the street-lamp again shone on blackness. "'But she's mine!' Nick cried, in a fierce triumph of recovery.

Starting point is 06:52:44 His eyes were so full of her that he shut them to hold in the crowding vision. It remained with him at first as a complete picture, then gradually it broke up, into its component parts the child vanished the strange house vanished and Susie alone stood before him his own Susie only his Susie yet changed worn tempered older even with sharper shadows under the cheek-bones the brows drawn the joint of the slim wrist more prominent it was not thus that his memory had evoked her and he recalled with a remorseful pang the fact that something in her look her dress her tired and drooping attitude suggested poverty, dependence, seemed to make her, after all, a part of the shabby house,

Starting point is 06:53:26 in which at first sight her presence had seemed so incongruous. But she looks poor, he thought, his heart tightening. And instantly it occurred to him that these must be the Fulmer children with whom she was living, while their parents travelled in Italy. Rumours of Nat Fulmer's sudden ascension had reached him, and he had heard that the couple had lately been seen in Naples and Palermo. No one had mentioned Susie's name in connection with them, and he could hardly tell why he had arrived at this conclusion, except perhaps because it seemed natural that, if Susie

Starting point is 06:53:55 were in trouble, she should turn to her old friend Grace. But why in trouble? What trouble? What could have happened to check her triumphant career? That's what I mean to find out, he exclaimed. His heart was beating with a tumult of new hopes and old memories. The sight of his wife, so remote in mean and manner from the world in which she had imagined her to be reabsorbed, changed in a flash his own relation to life, and flung a mist of

Starting point is 06:54:20 unreality over all that he had been trying to think most solid and tangible. Nothing now was substantial to him but the stones of the street in which he stood, the front of the house which hid her, the bell handle he already felt in his grasp. He started forward, and was halfway to the threshold when a private motor turned the corner, the twin glitter of its lamps carpeting the wet street with gold to Susie's door. Lansing drew back into the shadow as the motor swept up to the house. A man jumped out, and the light fell on Strefford's shambling figure, its lazy, disjointed movements so unmistakably the same under his fur coat, and in the new setting of prosperity. Lansing stood motionless, staring at the door. Streford

Starting point is 06:55:02 rang, and waited. Would Susie appear again? Perhaps she had done so before only because she had been on the watch. But no. After a slight delay a bonn appeared, the breathless made of all work of a busy household, and at once effaced herself, letting the visitor in. Lansing was sure that not a Word passed between the two of enquiry on Lord Altringham's part, or of acquiescence on the servants. There could be no doubt that he was expected. The door closed on him, and a light appeared behind the blind of the adjoining window. The maid had shown the visitor into the sitting-room and lit the lamp. Upstairs, meanwhile, Susie was no doubt running skillful fingers through her tumbled hair

Starting point is 06:55:39 and daubing her pale lips with red. Ah, how Lansing knew every movement of that familiar right, even to the pucker of the brow and the pouting thrust out of the lower lip. He was seized with a sense of physical sickness as the succession of remembered gestures pressed upon his eyes, and the other man? The other man inside the house

Starting point is 06:55:58 was perhaps at that very instant smiling over the remembrance of the same scene. At the thought, Lansing plunged away into the night. End of Chapter 26. Part 3, Chapter 27, of the glimpses of the moon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. recording by elizabeth clatt the glimpses of the moon by edith wharton part three chapter twenty seven susie and lord altringham sat in the little drawing-room divided from each other by a table carrying a smoky lamp and heaped with tattered school-books in another half-hour the bun despatched to fetch the children from their classes would be back with her flock and at any moment geordy's imperious cries might summon his slave up to the nursery in the

Starting point is 06:56:51 in the scant time allotted them the two sat and visibly wondered what to say strefford on entering had glanced about the dreary room with its piano laden with tattered music the children's toys littering the lame sofa the bunches of dyed grass and impaled butterflies flanking the cast bronze clock then he had turned to susy and asked simply why on earth are you here she had not tried to explain from the first she had understood the impossibility of doing so and she would not betray her secret longing to return to nick now that she knew that nick had taken definite steps for his release in dread lest streford should have heard of this and should announce it to her coupling it with the news of nick's projected marriage and lest hearing her fears thus substantiated she should lose her self-control She had preferred to say in a voice that she tried to make indifferent, "'The proceedings, or whatever the lawyers call them, have begun. While they're going on, I like to stay quite by myself. I don't know why.' Strefford at that had looked at her keenly.

Starting point is 06:57:54 "'Ah,' he murmured, and his lips were twisting into their old mocking smile. "'Speaking of proceedings,' he went on carelessly, "'what stage of Ellie's reached, I wonder? I saw her and Vandalin and Bokheimer all lunching cheerfully together today at Leroo. The blood rushed to Susie's forehead. She remembered her tragic evening with Nelson Vanderlin only two months earlier, and thought to herself, "'In time, then, I suppose, Nick and I—' Allowed, she said, I can't imagine how Nelson and Ellie can ever want to see each other again, and in a restaurant of all places.'

Starting point is 06:58:28 Streffert continued to smile. "'My dear, you're incorrigibly old-fashioned. Why should two people who've done each other the best turn they could by getting out of each other's way at the right moment behave like sworn enemies ever afterward. It's too absurd. The humbug's too flagrant. Whatever our generation has failed to do, it's got rid of humbug, and that's enough to immortalise it. I dare say Nelson and Ellie never liked each other better than they do today. Twenty years ago they'd have been afraid to confess it, but why shouldn't they now?" Susie looked at Streford, conscious that under his words was the ache of the disappointment she had caused him, and yet

Starting point is 06:59:04 conscious also that that very ache was not the overwhelming penetrating emotion he perhaps wished it to be, but a pang on a par with a dozen others, and that even while he felt it he foresaw the day when he should cease to feel it, and she thought to herself that this certainty of oblivion must be bitterer than any certainty of pain. A silence had fallen between them. He broke it by rising from his seat, and sang with a shrug, "'You'll end by driving me to marry Joan Sennishol?' Susie smiled. "'Well, why not? She's lovely.'

Starting point is 06:59:35 "'Yes. But she'll bore me.' Poor Streff! So should I. Perhaps. But nothing like a soon. He grinned sardonically. There'd be more margin. He appeared to wait for her to speak. And what else on earth are you going to do? He concluded, as she still remained silent. Oh, Streff, I couldn't marry you for a reason like that, she murmured at length. Then marry me and find your reason afterward. Her lips made a movement of denial, and still in silence she held out her hand for good-bye. He clasped it and turned away, but on the threshold he paused, his screwed-up eyes fixed

Starting point is 07:00:15 on her wistfully. The look moved her, and she added hurriedly, "'The only reason I can find is one for not marrying you, it's because I can't yet feel unmarried enough.' "'Unmarried enough? But I thought Nick was doing his best to make you feel that.' "'Yes, but even when he has—sometimes I think even that won't make any difference.' He still scrutinize her, hesitatingly, with the gravest eyes she had ever seen. seen in his careless face. My dear, that's rather the way I feel about you, he said simply as he turned to go.

Starting point is 07:00:46 That evening after the children had gone to bed, Susie sat up late in the cheerless sitting-room. She was not thinking of Streford, but of Nick. He was coming to Paris. Perhaps he had already arrived. The idea that he might be in the same place with her at that very moment, and without her knowing it, was so strange and painful that she felt a violent revolt of all her strong and joy-loving youth. Why should she go on suffering so unbearably, so abjectly, so miserably?

Starting point is 07:01:13 If only she could see him, hear his voice, even hear him say again such cruel and humiliating words as he had spoken on that dreadful day in Venice, when that would be better than this blankness, this utter and final exclusion from his life? He had been cruel to her, unimaginably cruel, hard, arrogant, unjust, and had been so, perhaps, deliberately because he already wanted to be free. But she was ready to face even that possibility, to humble herself still farther than he had humbled her. She was ready to do anything, if only she might see him once again. She leaned her aching head on her hands and pondered.

Starting point is 07:01:49 Do anything, but what could she do? Nothing that should hurt him, interfere with his liberty, be false to the spirit of their pact, on that she was more than ever resolved. She had made a bargain, and she meant to stick to it, not for any abstract reason, but simply because she happened to love him in that way. Yes, but to see him again only once. Suddenly she remembered what Strefford had said about Nelson van der Leyen and his wife. Why should two people who've just done each other the best turn they could behave like sworn enemies ever after?

Starting point is 07:02:21 If, in offering Nick his freedom, she had indeed done him such a service as that, perhaps he no longer hated her, would no longer be unwilling to see her. At any rate, why should she not write to him on that assumption? right in a spirit of simple friendliness, suggesting that they should meet and settle things. The business-like words settle, how she hated it, would prove to him that she had no secret designs upon his liberty. Besides, he was too unprejudiced, too modern, too free from what Streford called humbug, not to understand and accept such a suggestion. After all, perhaps Streford was right.

Starting point is 07:02:57 It was something to have rid human relations of hypocrisy, even if, in the process, so many exquisite things seemed somehow to have been torn away with it. She ran up to her room, scribbled a note, and hurried with it through the rain and darkness to the post-box at the corner. As she returned through the empty street she had an odd feeling that it was not empty, that perhaps Nick was already there, somewhere near her in the night, about to follow her to the door, enter the house, go up with her to her bedroom in the old way. It was strange how close he had been brought by the mere fact of her having written that little

Starting point is 07:03:29 note to him. In the bedroom, Jordy lay in his critical. in ruddy slumber, and she blew out the candle, and undressed softly for fear of waking him. Nick Lansing, the next day, received Susie's letter, transmitted to his hotel from the lawyer's office. He read it carefully, two or three times over, weighing and scrutinizing the guarded words. She proposed that they should meet to, settle things.

Starting point is 07:03:54 What things? And why should he accede to such a request? What secret purpose had prompted her? It was horrible that nowadays in thinking of Susie he should always be. suspect ulterior motives, be meanly on the watch for some hidden tortuousness. What on earth was she trying to manage now, he wondered? A few hours ago, at the sight of her, all his hardness had melted, and he had charged himself with cruelty, with injustice, with every sin of pride against himself and her.

Starting point is 07:04:21 But the appearance of Strefford, arriving at that late hour, and so evidently expected and welcomed, had driven back the rising tide of tenderness. Yet, after all, what was there to wonder at? Nothing was changed in their respective situations. He had left his wife deliberately, and for reasons which no subsequent experience had caused him to modify. She had apparently acquiesced in his decision, and had utilized it, as she was justified in doing, to assure her own future.

Starting point is 07:04:47 In all this, what was there to wail or knock the breast between two people who prided themselves on looking facts in the face, and making their grim best of them without vain repinings? He had been right in thinking their marriage an act of madness. Her charms had overruled his judgment, and they had had had had to be a good, and they had their year, their mad year, or at least all but two or three months of it. But his first intuition had been right, and now they must both pay for their madness. The fates seldom forget the bargains made with them, or fail to ask for compound interest. Why not them?

Starting point is 07:05:18 Now that the time had come, pay up gallantly and remember of the episode only would have made it seem so supremely worth the cost. He sent a pneumatic telegram to Mrs. Nicholas Lansing to say that he would call on her that afternoon at four. That ought to give us time, he reflected dryly, to settle things, as she calls it, without interfering with Strefford's afternoon visit. End of Chapter 27. Part 3, Chapter 28, of the Glimpses of the Moon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 07:05:55 Recording by Elizabeth Clette. The Glimpses of the Moon, by Edith Wharton. Part 3, Chapter 28. Her husband's note had briefly said, Today at four o'clock, N. L. All day she poured over the words in an agony of longing, trying to read into them regret, emotion, memories, some echo of the tumult in her own bosom.

Starting point is 07:06:19 But she had signed Susie, and he signed N.L. That seemed to put an abyss between them. After all, she was free and he was not. Perhaps in view of his situation she had only increased the distance between them by her unconventional request for a meeting. She sat in the little drawing-room, and the cast-bron's clock ticked out the minutes. She would not look out of the window.

Starting point is 07:06:42 It might bring bad luck to watch for him. And it seemed to her that a thousand invisible spirits, hidden demons of good and evil pressed about her, spying out her thoughts, counting her heartbeats, ready to pounce upon the least symptom of overconfidence and turn it deftly to derision. Oh, for an altar on which to pour out propitiatory office,

Starting point is 07:07:01 offerings. But what sweeter could they have than her smothered heartbeats, her choked back tears. The bell rang, and she stood up as if a spring had jerked her to her feet. In the mirror between the dried grasses her face looked long, pale, inanimate. Ah, if he should find her too changed, if there were but time to dash upstairs and put on a touch of red! The door opened. It shut on him. He was there. He said, You wanted to see me? She answered. Yes, and her heart seemed to stop beating. At first she could not make out what mysterious change had come over him, and why it was that in looking at him she seemed to be looking at a stranger.

Starting point is 07:07:43 Then she perceived that his voice sounded as it used to sound when he was talking to other people, and she said to herself, with a sick shiver of understanding, that she had become an other person to him. There was a deathly pause. Then she faltered out, not knowing what she said, Nick, you'll sit down, he said, thanks, but did not seem to have heard her, for he continued to stand motionless, half the room between them. And slowly the uselessness, the hopelessness of his being there overcame her. A wall of granite seemed to have built itself up between them.

Starting point is 07:08:17 She felt as if it hid her from him, as if with those remote new eyes of his he were staring into the wall and not at her. Suddenly she said to herself, he's suffering more than I am, because he pities me, and is afraid to tell me that he he is going to be married. The thought stung her pride, and she lifted her head and met his eyes with a smile. "'Don't you think?' she said. It's more sensible, with everything so changed in our lives, that we should meet as friends in this way. I wanted to tell you that you needn't feel—feelin the least unhappy about me." A deep flush rose to his forehead. "'Oh, I know. I know that,' he declared hastily, and added with a factitious animation.

Starting point is 07:08:56 "'But thank you for telling me.' "'There's nothing, is there?' she continued. "'To make our meeting in this way in the least embarrassing or painful to either of us, when both have found—' She broke off and held her hand out to him. "'I've heard about you and Coral,' she ended. He just touched her hand with cold fingers, and let it drop. "'Thank you,' he said for the third time.

Starting point is 07:09:19 "'You won't sit down.' He sat down. "'Don't you think,' she continued, "'that the new way of—of meeting his friends and talking things over without ill-will, is much pleasanter and more sensible after all." He smiled. "'It's immensely kind of you to feel that.' "'Oh, I do feel it!' she stopped short, and wondered what on earth she had meant to say next,

Starting point is 07:09:43 and why she had so abruptly lost the thread of her discourse. In the pause she heard him cough slightly and clear his throat. "'Let me say, then,' he began, "'that I'm glad, too, immensely glad that your own future is so satisfactorily settled.' she lifted her glance again to his walled face in which not a muscle stirred yes it-it makes everything easier for you doesn't it for you too i hope he paused and then went on i want also to tell you that i perfectly understand oh she interrupted so do i your point of view i mean they were again silent nick why can't we be friends real friends won't it be easier she broke out at last with twitching lips "'Easier. "'I mean, about talking things over.

Starting point is 07:10:32 "'Arrangements. "'There are arrangements to be made, I suppose.' "'I suppose so,' he hesitated. "'I'm doing what I'm told, simply following out instructions. "'The business is easy enough, apparently. "'I'm taking the necessary steps.' "'She reddened a little and drew a gasping breath. "'The necessary steps. What are they?

Starting point is 07:10:51 "'Everything the lawyer tells one is so confusing. "'I don't understand yet how it's done.' "'My share, you mean.' "'Oh, it's very simple.' He paused and added in a tone of labored ease. "'I'm going down to Fontainebleau to-morrow.' She stared, not understanding. "'To Fontainebleau?'

Starting point is 07:11:09 Her bewilderment drew from him his first frank smile. "'Well, I chose Fontainebleau. I don't know why, except that we've never been there together.' At last she suddenly understood, and the blood rushed to her forehead. She stood up without knowing what she was doing, her heart and her throat. How grotesque! How utterly disgusting! He gave a slight shrug. I didn't make the laws.

Starting point is 07:11:34 But isn't it too stupid and degrading that such things should be necessary when two people want to part? She broke off again, silenced by the echo of that fatal, want to part. He seemed to prefer not to dwell farther on the legal obligations involved. You haven't yet told me, he suggested, how you happen to be living here. Here, with the former children. She roused herself, trying to catch his easier note. "'Oh, I've simply been governessing them for a few weeks while Nat and Grace are in Sicily.' She did not say—it's because I've parted with Strefford.

Starting point is 07:12:09 Somehow it helped her wounded pride a little to keep from him the secret of her precarious independence. He looked his wonder. "'All alone with that bewildered bun! But how many of them are there?' "'Five! Good Lord!' he contemplated the clock with unseeing eyes, and then turned them again on her face. I should have thought a lot of children would rather get on your nerves. Oh, not these children. They're so good to me. Ah, well, I suppose it won't be for long. He sent his eyes again about the room, which his absent-minded gaze seemed to reduce to its dismal constituent elements, and added with an obvious

Starting point is 07:12:45 effort at Smalltalk. I hear the Fulmers are not hitting it off very well since his success. Is it true that he's going to marry Violet Melrose? The blood rose to Susie's face. Oh, never, never! He and Grace are traveling together now. Oh, I didn't know. People say things. He was visibly embarrassed with the subject and sorry that he had broached it.

Starting point is 07:13:06 Some of the things that people say are true. But Grace doesn't mind. She says she and Nat belong to each other. They can't help it, she thinks, after having been through such a lot together. Dear old Grace. He had risen from his chair, and this time she made no effort to detain him.

Starting point is 07:13:23 He seemed to have recovered his self-composure. and it struck her painfully, humiliatingly almost, that he should have spoken in that light way of the expedition to Fontainebleau on the morrow. Well, men were different, she supposed. She remembered having felt that once before about Nick. It was on the tip of her tongue to cry out, But wait, wait, I'm not going to marry Strefford after all! But to do so would seem like an appeal to his compassion, to his indulgence, and that was

Starting point is 07:13:50 not what she wanted. She could never forget that he had left her because he had not been able to forgive her for managing, and not for the world would she have him think that this meeting had been planned for such a purpose. If he doesn't see that I am different in spite of appearances, and that I never was what he said I was that day, if in all these months it hasn't come over him, what's the use of trying to make him see it now?' she mused. And then her thoughts hurrying on.

Starting point is 07:14:15 Perhaps he's suffering, too. I believe he is suffering. At any rate he's suffering for me, if not for himself. But if he's pledged to Coral, what can I do? what would he think of me if I tried to make him break his word to her? There he stood, the man who was going to Fontainebleau tomorrow, who called it taking the necessary steps, who could smile as he made the careless statement.

Starting point is 07:14:37 A world seemed to divide them already. It was as if their parting were already over. All the words, cries, arguments, beating loud wings in her dropped back into silence. The only thought left was, How much longer does he mean to go on standing there? He may have read the question in her face. face, before turning back from an absorbed contemplation of the window-curtains, he said, "'There's nothing else.'

Starting point is 07:15:00 "'Nothing else?' "'I mean, you spoke of things to be settled.' She flushed, suddenly remembering the pretext she had used to summon him. "'Oh,' she faltered, "'I didn't know. I thought there might be—but the lawyers, I suppose.' She saw the relief on his contracted face. "'Exactly. I've always thought it was best to leave it to them. "'I assure you—' Again, for a moment, the smile strained his lips.

Starting point is 07:15:26 I shall do nothing to interfere with a quick settlement. She stood motionless, feeling herself turned to stone. He appeared already a long way off, like a figure of vanishing down a remote perspective. Then, good-bye. She heard him say from its farther end. Oh, good-bye, she faltered, as if she had not had the word ready, and was relieved to have him supply it. He stopped again on the threshold, looked back at her, began to speak.

Starting point is 07:15:55 "'I've,' he said. Then he repeated, "'Good-bye, as though to make sure he had not forgotten to say it, and the door closed on him. It was over. She had had her last chance, and missed it. Now whatever happened the one thing she had lived and longed for would never be.

Starting point is 07:16:13 He had come, and she had let him go again. How had it come about? Would she ever be able to explain it to herself? How was it that she so fertile in strategy, so practiced in feminine arts, had stood there before him, helpless, inarticulate, like a schoolgirl a choke with her first love-longing? If he was gone, and gone never to return, it was her own fault, and none but hers. What had she done to move him, detain him, make his heart beat and his head swim as hers were beating and swimming?

Starting point is 07:16:45 She stood aghast at her own inadequacy, her stony inexpressiveness. And suddenly she lifted her hands to her throbbing forehead and cried out, "'But this is love! This must be love!' She had loved him before, she supposed, for what else was she to call the impulse that had drawn her to him, taught her how to overcome his scruples, and whirled him away with her on their mad adventure. Well, if that was love, this was something so much larger and deeper that the other feeling seemed the mere dancing of her blood in tune with his.

Starting point is 07:17:18 But no. real love, great love, the love that poets sang, and privileged and tortured beings lived and died of, that love had its own superior expressiveness and the sure command of its means. The petty arts of coquetry were no farther from it than the numbness of the untaught girl. Great love was wise, strong, powerful, like genius, like any other dominant form of human power. It knew itself, and what it wanted, and how to attain its ends.

Starting point is 07:17:47 Not great love, then. Thus the common, humble average of human love was hers. And it had come to her so newly, so overwhelmingly, with a face so grave, a touch so startling, that she had stood there petrified, humbled at the first look of its eyes, recognizing that what she had once taken for love was merely pleasure and springtime and the flavor of youth. But how was I to know? And now it's too late, she wailed.

Starting point is 07:18:17 End of Chapter 28. Part 3. Chapter 29 of The Glimpses of the Moon. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clette. The Glimpses of the Moon. By Edith Wharton. Part 3. Chapter 29. The inhabitants of the little house in Passy were of necessity early risers, but when Susie jumped out of bed the next morning, no one else was astir, and it lacked nearly an hour of the call of the Bunn's alarm-clock. For a moment Susie leaned out of her dark room into the darker night. A cold drizzle fell on her face, and she shivered and drew back. Then, lighting a candle and shading it, as her habit was, from the sleeping child, she slipped on her dressing-gown and opened the

Starting point is 07:19:10 door. On the threshold she paused to look at her watch—only half-past five. She thought with compunction of the unkindness of breaking in on Junie Fulmer's slumbers, but such scruples did not weigh an ounce in the balance of her purpose. Poor Junie would have to over-sleep herself on Sunday, that was all. Susie stole into the passage, opened a door, and cast her light on the girl's face. "'Junie! Dearest Junie! You must wake up!' Junie lay in the abandonment of youthful sleep, but at the sound of her name she sat up with the promptness of a grown person on whom domestic burdens have long weighed. "'Which one of them is it?' she asked, one foot already out of bed.

Starting point is 07:19:50 "'Oh, Junie, dear, no, it's nothing wrong with the children or with anybody,' Susie stammered on her knees by the bed. In the candlelight she saw Junie's anxious brow darken reproachfully. "'Oh, Susie, then why? I was just dreaming we were all driving about Rome in a great big motor-car with father and mother.' "'I'm so sorry, dear. What a lovely dream. I'm a brute to have interrupted it.' She felt the little girl's awakening scrutiny. If there's nothing wrong with anybody, why are you crying, Susie? Is it you there's something

Starting point is 07:20:22 wrong with? What has happened?" Am I crying?" Susie rose from her knees and sat down on the counterpane. "'Yes, it is me, and I had to disturb you.' "'Oh, Susie, darling, what is it?' Junie's arms were about her on a flash, and Susie grasped them in burning fingers. "'Junie, listen. I've got to go away at once, to leave you all for the whole day. I may not be back till late this evening, late to night. night, I can't tell. I promised her mother I'd never leave you. But I've got to, I've got to." Junie considered her agitated face with fully awakened eyes.

Starting point is 07:20:57 "'Oh, I won't tell, you know, you old brick,' she said with simplicity. Susie hugged her. "'Oh, Junie, Junie, you darling! But that wasn't what I meant. Of course you may tell. You must tell. I shall write to your mother myself. But what worries me is the idea of having to go away, away from Paris for the whole day with Jordy still coughing a little, and no one but that silly Angel to stay with him while you're out, and no one but you to take yourself and the others to school. But Junie—Juny, I've got to do it—she sobbed out, clutching the child tighter. Junie Fulmer, with her strangely mature perception of the case, and seemingly of every

Starting point is 07:21:33 case that Fate might call on her to deal with, sat for a moment motionless in Susie's hold. Then she freed her wrists with an adroit twist, and leaning back against the pillows, said judiciously, "'You'll never in the world bring up a family of your own if you take on like this over other people's children." Through all her turmoil of spirit the observation drew a laugh from Susie. "'Oh, the family of my own! I don't deserve one the way I'm behaving to your—' Junie still considered her. "'My dear, a change will do you good. You need it,' she pronounced.

Starting point is 07:22:05 Susie rose with a laughing sigh. "'I'm not at all sure it will, but I've got to have it all the same. Only I do feel anxious and I can't even leave you my address.' Junie still seemed to examine the case. "'Can't you even tell me where you're going?' she ventured, as if not quite sure of the delicacy of asking. "'Well, no, I don't think I can, not to like it back. Besides, even if I could it wouldn't be much use because I couldn't give you my address there.

Starting point is 07:22:31 I don't know what it will be.' "'But what does it matter if you're coming back to-night?' "'Of course I'm coming back. How could you possibly imagine I should think of leaving you for more than one day?' "'Oh, I shouldn't be afraid. Not much, that is, with the poker and Nat's water-and-water-and-and-water-es. pistol, amended Junie, still judicious. Susie again unfolded her vehemently, and then turned to more practical matters.

Starting point is 07:22:53 She explained that she wished, if possible, to catch an eight-thirty train from the Guard-Lillon, and that there was not a moment to lose if the children were to be dressed and fed, and full instructions written out for Junie and Angel before she rushed for the underground. While she bathed Jordy, and then hurried into her own clothes, she could not help wondering at her own extreme solicitude for her charges. She remembered with a pang how often she had deserted Clarissa Vanderlin for the whole day, and even for two or three in succession. Poor little Clarissa, whom she knew to be so unprotected, so exposed to evil influences.

Starting point is 07:23:26 She'd been too much absorbed in her own greedy bliss to be more than intermittently aware of the child. But now she felt no sorrow however ravaging, no happiness however absorbing, would ever again isolate her from her kind. And then these children were so different. The exquisite Clarissa was already the predestined victim of her surroundings. Her budding soul was divided from Susie's by the same barrier of incomprehension that separated the latter from Mrs. Vanderlin. Clarissa had nothing to teach Susie but the horror of her own hard little appetites,

Starting point is 07:23:57 whereas the company of the noisy argumentative Fulmers had been a school of wisdom and abnegation. As she applied the brush to Jordy's shining head and the handkerchief to his snuffling nose, the sense of what she owed him was so borne in on Susie that she interested in. interrupted the process to catch him to her bosom. "'I'll have such a story to tell you when I get back to-night, if you'll promise me to be good all day,' she bargained with him. And Jordy, always astute, bargained back. Before I promise, I'd like to know what story.'

Starting point is 07:24:26 At length all was in order. Junie had been enlightened, and Angel stunned by the minuteness of Susie's instructions, and the latter, waterproofed and stoutly shod, descended the doorstep, and paused to wave at the pyramid of heads yearning to her from an upper window. It was hardly light and still raining when she turned into the dismal street. As usual, it was empty, but at the corner she perceived a hesitating taxi, with luggage piled beside the driver. Perhaps it was some early traveller just arriving, who would release the carriage in time for

Starting point is 07:24:56 her to catch it, and thus avoid the walk to the metro, and the subsequent strap hanging, for it was the work-people's hour. Susie raced toward the vehicle, which, overcoming its hesitation, was beginning to move in her direction. Observing this, she stopped to see where it would discharge its load. Thereupon the taxi stopped also, and the load discharged itself in front of her, in the shape of Nick Lansing. The two stood staring at each other through the rain, till Nick broke out, "'Where are you going? I came to get you.'

Starting point is 07:25:26 "'To get me! To get me!' she repeated. Beside the driver she had suddenly remarked the old suitcase from which her husband had obliged her to extract Strefford cigars as they were leaving Como, and everything that had happened since seemed to fall away and vanish in the pang and rapture of that memory. To get you, yes, of course. He spoke the words peremptorily, almost as if they were in order. Where were you going? he repeated. Without answering, she turned toward the house. He followed her, and the laden taxi closed the procession. Why are you out in such weather without an umbrella? He continued in the same severe tone,

Starting point is 07:26:02 drawing her under the shelter of his. Oh, because Junie's umbrella is in tatters and I had to leave her mine, as I was going away for the whole day." She spoke the words like a person in a trance. "'For the whole day, at this hour? Where?' They were on the doorstep, and she fumbled automatically for her key, let herself in, and led the way to the sitting-room. It had not been tidied up since the night before. The children's school-books lay scattered on the table and sofa, and the empty fireplace was grey with ashes. She turned to Nick in the pallid light.

Starting point is 07:26:34 "'I was going to see you,' she stammered. "'I was going to follow you to follow you to find. "'Hontemble, if necessary, to tell you—to prevent you—' He repeated in the same aggressive tone. "'Tell me what? Prevent what? Tell you that there must be some other way, some decent way of our separating without that horror, that horror of your going off with a woman.'

Starting point is 07:26:52 He stared, and then burst into a laugh. The blood rushed to her face. She had caught a familiar ring in his laugh, and it wounded her. What business had he at such a time to laugh in the old way? I'm sorry, but there is no other way, I'm afraid. No other way but one—' He corrected himself. She raised her head sharply.

Starting point is 07:27:10 Well? That you should be the woman. Oh, my dear. He had dropped his mocking smile and was at her side, her hands in his. Oh, my dear, don't you see that we've both been feeling the same thing and at the same hour? You lay awake thinking of it all night, didn't you? So did I. Whenever the clock struck I said to myself, she's hearing it, too.

Starting point is 07:27:32 And I was up before daylight and packed my traps, for I never want to set foot again in that awful hope. hotel where I've lived in hell for the last three days. And I swore to myself that I'd go off with a woman by the first train I could catch—and so I mean to, my dear." She stood before him, numb. Yes, numb. That was the worst of it. The violence of the reaction had been too great, and she could hardly understand what he was saying. Instead, she noticed that the tassel of the window-blind was torn off again. Oh, those children! And vaguely wondered if his luggage were safe on the waiting-taxie. One heard such stories. His voice

Starting point is 07:28:07 came back to her. "'Susie! Listen!' he was entreating. "'You must see yourself that it can't be. We're married. Isn't that all that matters?' "'Oh, I know. I've behaved like a brute, a cursed, arrogant ass. You couldn't wish that ass a worse kicking than I've given him.' "'But that's not the point, you see. The point is that we're married.' "'Married? Doesn't it mean something to you? Something inexorable?' It does to me. I didn't dream it would, in just that way. But all I can say is that I suppose the people who don't feel it aren't really married, and they'd better separate much better.

Starting point is 07:28:40 As for us. Through her tears, she gasped out, "'That's what I felt. That's what I said to Streff.' He was upon her with a great embrace. "'My darling, my darling, you have told him.' "'Yes,' she panted. "'That's why I'm living here,' she paused. "'And you've told Coral?' She felt his embrace relax.

Starting point is 07:29:00 He drew away a little, still holding her, but with lowered head. "'No, I... Haven't. Oh, Nick, but then—' He caught her to him again, resentfully. "'Well, then what? What do you mean? What earthly difference does it make?' "'But if you told her you're going to marry her?' Try as she would, her voice was full of silver chimes. "'Marry her! Marry her!' he echoed.

Starting point is 07:29:23 "'But how could I? What does marriage mean anyhow? If it means anything at all, it means you! And I can't ask Coral Hicks just to come and live with me, can I?' Between crying and laughing she lay on his breast, and his head. hand passed over her hair. They were silent for a while. Then he began again. "'You said it yourself yesterday, you know.' She strayed back from sunlit distances. "'Yesterday?' "'Yes. That Grace Fulmer says you can't separate two people who've been through a lot of things.' "'Ah, been through them together. It's not the things, you see. It's the togetherness,'

Starting point is 07:29:58 she interrupted. "'The togetherness, that's it.' He seized on the word as if it had been just coined to express their case, and his mind could rest in it without further labor. The doorbell rang, and they started. Through the window they saw the taxi driver gesticulating inquiries as to the fate of the luggage. He wants to know if he's to leave it here, Susie laughed. No, no, you're to come with me, her husband declared. Come with you! She laughed again at the absurdity of the suggestion. Of course, this very instant! What did you suppose that I was going away without you?

Starting point is 07:30:30 Run up and pack your things, he commanded. My things! My things! But I can't leave the children!' He stared between indignation and amusement. "'Can't leave the children? Nonsense! Why you said yourself you were going to follow me to Fontainebleau?' She reddened again. This time a little painfully. I didn't know what I was doing. I had to find you, but I should have come back this evening no matter what happened. No matter what.' She nodded and met his gaze resolutely. No, but really. Really, I can't leave the children till Nat and Grace come back. I promised I wouldn't. Yes, but you didn't know, then. Why on earth can't their nurse look after them? There isn't any nurse but me. Good Lord. But it's only for two weeks more, she pleaded.

Starting point is 07:31:16 Two weeks! Do you know how long I've been without you? He seized her by both wrists and drew them against his breast. Come with me at least for two days, Susie, he entreated her. "'Oh!' she cried. "'That's the very first time you've said my name.' "'Susie, Susie, then, my Susie, Susie! "'And you've only said mine once, you know.' "'Nick!' she sighed, at peace, "'as if the one syllable were a magic seed

Starting point is 07:31:41 "'that hung out great branches to envelop them. "'Well, then, Susie, be reasonable, come!' "'Reasonable! Oh, reasonable!' she sobbed through laughter. "'Unreasonable, then, that's even better!' She freed herself and drew back gently. Nick, I swore I wouldn't leave them and I can't. It's not only my promise to their mother. It's what they've been to me themselves.

Starting point is 07:32:04 You don't know. You can't imagine the things they've taught me. They're awfully naughty at times because they're so clever. But when they're good, they're the wisest people I know. She paused, and a sudden inspiration illuminated her. But why shouldn't we take them with us? She exclaimed. Her husband's arms fell away from her,

Starting point is 07:32:23 and he stood dumbfounded. Take them with us. Why not? All five of them. Of course I couldn't possibly separate them. Hanjuni and Nat will help us to look after the young ones. Help us, he groaned. Oh, you'll see, they won't bother you.

Starting point is 07:32:40 Just leave it to me. I'll manage. The word stopped her short, and an agony of crimson suffused her from brow to throat. Their eyes met, and without a word he stooped and laid his lips gently on the stain of red on her neck. "'Neck,' she breathed, her hands in his. "'But those children?'

Starting point is 07:32:58 Instead of answering, she questioned, "'Where are we going?' His face lit up. "'Anywhere, dearest, that you choose.' "'Well, I choose Fontainebleau,' she exulted. "'So do I. But we can take all those children to an hotel at Fontainebleau, can we?' he questioned weakly.

Starting point is 07:33:16 "'You see, dear, there's the mere expense of it.' Her eyes were already travelling far ahead of him. The expense won't amount to much. I've just remembered that Angel, the Bonn, has a sister who was a cook there in a nice old-fashioned pension, which must be almost empty at this time of year. I'm sure I can—' Arrange, easily, she hurried on, nearly tripping again over the fatal word. And just think of the treat it will be to them. This is Friday, and I can get them let off their afternoon classes, and keep them in the country till Monday.

Starting point is 07:33:44 Oh, poor darlings! They haven't been out of Paris for months! And I dare say the change will cure Jordy's cough. "'Jordy's the youngest,' she explained, surprised to find herself, even in the rapture of reunion, so absorbed in the welfare of the Fulmers. She was conscious that her husband was surprised also, but instead of prolonging the argument he simply questioned, "'Was Jordy the chap you had in your arms when you opened the front door the night before last?' she echoed.

Starting point is 07:34:10 "'I opened the front door the night before last.' To a boy with a parcel. "'Oh!' she sobbed. "'You were there. You were watching!' He held her to him, and the currents flowed between them, warm and full, as on the night of their moon over Como. In a trice after that she had the matter in hand and her forces marshalled.

Starting point is 07:34:31 The taxi was paid, Nick's luggage deposited in the vestibule, and the children, just piling down to breakfast, were summoned in to hear the news. It was apparent that, seasoned to surprises as they were, Nick's presence took them aback. But when, between laughter and embraces, his identity and his right to be where he was, had been made clear to them, Junie dismissed the matter by asking him in her practical way, "'Then I suppose we may talk about you to Susie now?' And thereafter all five addressed themselves to the vision of their imminent holiday. From that moment the little house became the centre of a whirlwind.

Starting point is 07:35:05 Treats so unforeseen, and of such magnitude, were rare in the young Fulmer's experience, and had it not been for Junie's steadying influence, Susie's charges would have got out of hand. But young Nat, appealed to by Nick on the ground of their common manhood, was induced to forego celebrating the event on his motor-horn the very same which had tortured the new hampshire echoes and to assert his authority over his juniors and finally a plan began to emerge from the chaos and each child to fit into it like a bit of a picture puzzle susy riding the whirlwind with her usual firmness nevertheless felt an undercurrent of anxiety there had been no time as yet between her and nick to revert to money matters and where there was so little money it could not obviously much matter but that was the more reason for being secretly aghast at her intrepid resolve not to separate herself from her charges a three days honeymoon with five children in the party and children with the former appetite could not but be a costly business and while she settled details packed them off to school and routed out such nondescript receptacles as the house contained in the way of luggage her thoughts remained fixed on the familiar financial problem yes it was cruel to have it rear its hated head even through the bursting boughs of her new spring but there it was the perpetual serpent in her eden to be bribed fed sent to sleep with such scraps as she could beg borrow or steal for it and she supposed it was the price that fate meant her to pay for her blessedness and was sure than ever that the blessedness was worth it only how was she to compound the business with her new principles

Starting point is 07:36:38 with the children's things to pack luncheon to be got ready and the fontainebleau pension to be telephoned to there was little time to waste on moral casuistry and susie asked herself with a certain irony if the chronic lack of time to deal with money difficulties had not been the chief cause of her previous lapses there was no time to deal with this question either no time in short do anything but rush forward on a great gale of plans and preparations in the course of which she whirled nick forth to buy some charcuterie for luncheon and telephone to fontainebleau once he was gone and after watching him safely round the corner she too got into her wraps and transferring a small packet from her dressing-case to her pocket hastened out in a different direction end of chapter twenty nine part three chapter thirty of the glimpses of the moon This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Elizabeth Clette The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Warden. Part 3. Chapter 30 It took two brimming taxi-cabs to carry the Nicholas Lansing's to the station on their second honeymoon.

Starting point is 07:37:50 In the first were Nick, Susie, and the luggage of the whole party, little Nat's motorhorn included as a last concession, and because he had hitherto forborne to play on it. And in the second, the five Fulmers, the bullers, the bullers, the bull-the-bush. Bun, who at the eleventh hour had refused to be left, a cage full of canaries, and a foundling kitten who had murderous designs on them, all of which had to be taken, because, if the bun came, there would be nobody left to look after them. At the corner, Susie tore herself from Nick's arms and held up the procession while she ran back to the second taxi to make sure that the bun had brought the house-key.

Starting point is 07:38:24 It was found, of course, that she hadn't, but that Junie had. Whereupon the caravan got underway again, and reached the station just as the train was starting, and there, by some miracle of good nature on the part of the guard, they were all packed together into an empty compartment, no doubt, as Susie remarked, because train officials never failed to spot a newly married couple, and treat them kindly. The children, sentinled by Junie, at first gave promise of superhuman goodness. But presently their feelings overflowed, and they were not to be quieted, till it had been agreed that Nat should blow his motor-horn at each halt, while the twins called out the names of the

Starting point is 07:39:00 stations, and Jordy, with the canaries and kitten, affected to change trains. Luckily the halts were few, but the excitement of travel, combined with overindulgence in the chocolates imprudently provided by Nick, overwhelmed Jordy with a sudden melancholy that could be appeased only by Susie's telling him stories till they arrived at Fontainebleau. The day was soft, with mild gleams of sunlight on decaying foliage, and after luggage and livestock had been dropped at the pension, Susie confessed that she had promised the children a scamper in the forest, and buns in a tea-shop afterward. Nick placidly agreed, and darkness had long fallen, and a great many buns been consumed, when at length the procession turned

Starting point is 07:39:40 down the street toward the pension, headed by Nick with the sleeping Jordy on his shoulder, while the others, speechless with fatigue and food, hung heavily on Susie. It had been decided that, as the bun was of the party, the children might be entrusted to her for the night, and Nick and Susie established themselves in an adjacent hotel. Nick had flattered himself that they might remove their possessions there when they return from the tea-room, but Susie, manifestly surprised at the idea, reminded him that her charges must first be given their supper and put to bed. She suggested that he should meanwhile take the bags to the hotel, and promised to join him as soon as Jordy was asleep. She was a long time coming, but waiting for her was

Starting point is 07:40:19 sweet, even in a deserted hotel reading-room, insufficiently heated by a sulky stove, and after he had glanced through his morning's mail, hurriedly thrust into his pocket as he left Paris, He sank into a state of drowsy beatitude. It was all the maddest business in the world, yet it did not give him the sense of unreality that had made their first adventure a mere golden dream, and he sat and waited with the security of one in whom dear habits have struck deep roots. In this mood of acquiescence, even the presence of the five Fulmers seemed a natural and necessary consequence of all the rest. And when at length Susie appeared, a little pale and tired, with the brooding inward look that busy mothers bring from the nursery, that too seemed natural and necessary and part of the new order of things they had wandered out to a cheap restaurant for dinner now in the damp december night they were walking back to the hotel under a sky full of rain-clouds

Starting point is 07:41:12 they seemed to have said everything to each other and yet barely to have begun what they had to tell and at each step they took their heavy feet dragged a great load of bliss in the hotel almost all the lights were already out and they groped their way to the third-floor room which is the only one that susie had found cheap enough A ray from a street lamp struck up through the unshuttered windows, and after Nick had revived the fire they drew their chairs close to it, and sat quietly for a while in the dark. Their silence was so sweet that Nick could not make up his mind to break it. Not to do so gave his tossing spirit such a sense of permanence, of having at last unlimited time before him in which to taste his joy and let its sweetness stream through him. But at length he roused himself to say, It's queer how things coincide.

Starting point is 07:41:58 I've had a little bit of good news in one of the letter. I got this morning." Susie took the announcement serenely. "'Well, you would, you know,' she commented, as if the day had been too obviously designed for Bliss to escape the notice of its dispensers. "'Yes,' he continued with a thrill of pardonable pride. "'During the cruise I did a couple of articles on Crete—oh, just travel impressions, of course.

Starting point is 07:42:20 They couldn't be more. But the editor of the new review has accepted them, and asks for others. And here's his check, if you please. So you see you might have let me take the jolly room downstairs. with the pink curtains, and it makes me awfully hopeful about my book. He had expected a rapturous outburst, perhaps some reassertion of wifely faith in the glorious future that awaited the pageant of Alexander, and deep down under the lover's well-being the author felt a faint twinge of mortified vanity, when Susie, leaping to her feet, cried

Starting point is 07:42:49 out, ravenously and without preamble. "'Oh, Nick! Nick! let me see how much they've given you!' He flourished the check before her in the firelight. "'A couple of hundred, you mercenary wretch!' Oh, oh, she gasped, as if the good news had been almost too much for her tense nerves, and then surprised him by dropping to the ground, and bearing her face against his knees. "'Susie! My Susie!' he whispered, his hand on her shaking shoulder. "'Why, dear, what is it? You're not crying.'

Starting point is 07:43:18 "'Oh, Nick! Nick! Two hundred! Two hundred dollars! Then I've got to tell you. Oh, now, at once!' A faint chill ran over him, and involuntary. His hand drew back from her bowed figure. "'Now? Oh, why now?' he protested. "'What on earth does it matter now, whatever it is?' "'But it does matter. It matters more than you can think.' She straightened herself, still kneeling before him, and lifted her head so that the firelight

Starting point is 07:43:46 behind her turned her hair into a ruddy halo. "'Oh, Nick! The bracelet! Ellie's bracelet! I've never returned it to her!' she faltered out. He felt himself recoiling under the hands with which she clutched his knees. for an instant he did not remember what she alluded to it was the mere mention of ellie van der lind's name that had fallen between them like an icy shadow what an incorrigible fool he had been to think that they could ever shake off such memories or cease to be the slaves of such a past the bracelet oh yes he said suddenly understanding and feeling the chill mount slowly to his lips yes the bracelet oh nick i meant to give it back at once i did i did but the day you went away i forgot everything else. And when I found the thing in the bottom of my bag weeks afterwards, I thought everything was over between you and me, and I had begun to see Ellie again, and she was kind to me, and how could I? To save his life he could have found no answer, and she pressed on.

Starting point is 07:44:45 And so this morning, when I saw you were frightened by the expense of bringing all the children with us, and when I felt I couldn't leave them and couldn't leave you either. I remembered the bracelet, and I sent you off to telephone while I rushed round the corner to a little jewelers where I'd been before, and pawned it so that you shouldn't have to pay for the children. But now, darling, you see, if you've got all that money I can get it out of pawn at once, can't I, and send it back to her? She flung her arms about him, and he held her fast, wondering if the tears he felt were hers or his. Still he did not speak, but as he clasped her close, she added, with an irrepressible flash of her old irony. Not that Ellie will understand

Starting point is 07:45:23 why I've done it. She's never yet been able to make out why you returned her scarf-pin. For a long time she continued to lean against him, her head on his knees, as she had done on the terrace of Como on the last night of their honeymoon. She had ceased to talk, and he sat silent also, passing his hand quietly to and fro over her hair. The first rapture had been succeeded by soberer feelings. Her confession had broken up the frozen pride about his heart, and humbled him to the earth. But it had also roused forgotten things. memories and scruples swept aside in the first rush of their reunion. He and she belonged to each other for always.

Starting point is 07:46:02 He understood that now. The impulse which had first drawn them together again, in spite of reason, in spite of themselves almost, that deep-seated, instinctive need that each had of the other, would never again wholly let them go. Yet as he sat there he thought of Strefford. He thought of Coral Hicks. He had been a coward in regard to Coral. And Susie had been sincere and courageous in her.

Starting point is 07:46:24 regard to Strefford. Yet his mind dwelt on quarrel with tenderness, with compunction, with remorse, and he was almost sure that Susie had already put Strefford utterly out of her mind. It was the old contrast between the two ways of loving, the man's way and the woman's, and after a moment it seemed to Nick natural enough that Susie, from the very moment of finding him again, should feel neither pity nor regret, and that Streford should be all ready to her as if he had never been. After all, there was something provisional. evidential in such arrangements. He stooped closer, pressed her dreaming head between his hands, and whispered, "'Wake up. It's bedtime.' She rose, but as she moved away to turn on the

Starting point is 07:47:07 light he caught her hand and drew her to the window. They leaned on the sill in the darkness, and through the clouds, from which a few drops were already falling, the moon, laboring upward, swam into a space of sky, cast her troubled glory on them, and was again— Hidden. End of Chapter 30. End of the Glimpses of the Moon. By Edith Wharton.

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