0:01

Playmates

0:07

by A.M. Burridge 1.

0:27

Although everybody who knew Stephen Everton agreed that

0:29

he was the last man under heaven who

0:31

ought to have been allowed to bring up

0:34

a child, it was fortunate

0:36

for Monica that she fell into his hands.

0:39

Else she had probably starved or

0:41

drifted into some refuge for waifs

0:43

and strays. True,

0:46

her father, Sebastian Threlfold, the

0:48

poet, had plenty of casual

0:50

friends. Almost everybody knew

0:53

him slightly, and right up to

0:55

the time of his final attack

0:57

of delirium tremens, he contrived to

0:59

look one of the most interesting

1:01

of the regular frequenters of the

1:03

Café Royale. But people

1:05

are generally not hasty to bring up

1:08

the children of casual acquaintances, particularly

1:11

when such children may be

1:13

suspected of having inherited more

1:15

than a fair share of

1:17

human weaknesses. Of

1:20

Monica's mother, literally nothing was known.

1:23

Nobody seemed able to say if she were dead

1:25

or alive. Probably she

1:27

had long since deserted Threlfold

1:29

for some consort able and

1:31

willing to provide regular meals.

1:34

Everton knew Threlfold no better than a

1:36

hundred others knew him, and

1:39

was ignorant of his daughter's existence

1:41

until the father's death was a

1:43

new topic of conversation in literary

1:45

and artistic circles. People

1:48

vaguely wondered what would become of the

1:50

kid, and while they were still

1:52

wondering, Everton quietly took

1:54

possession of her. Who's

1:57

who will tell you the year of Everton's

2:00

the names of his Almei Martres,

2:02

Winchester and Magdalene College, Oxford, the

2:05

titles of his books and of

2:07

his predilections for skating and mountaineering,

2:10

but it is necessary to know the

2:12

man a little less superficially. He

2:15

was then a year or two short of fifty,

2:17

and looked ten years older. He

2:19

was a tall, lean man, with

2:22

a delicate pink complexion, an

2:24

oval head, a Roman nose,

2:26

blue eyes which looked out

2:29

mildly through strong glasses and

2:31

thin straight lips drawn tightly

2:33

over slightly protruding teeth. His

2:36

high forehead was bare, for he was bald

2:39

to the base of his skull. What

2:41

remained of his hair was a

2:43

neutral tint between black and grey,

2:45

and was kept closely cropped. He

2:48

contrived to look at once

2:50

prim and irascible, scholarly and

2:52

acute, Sherlock Holmes, perhaps,

2:56

with a touch of old maidishness. The

2:59

world knew him for a writer of

3:01

books on historical crises. They

3:03

were cumbersome books with cumbersome

3:06

titles, written by a scholar,

3:08

four scholars. They brought

3:10

him fame and not a little money. The

3:13

money he could have afforded to

3:15

be without, since he was modestly

3:17

wealthy by inheritance. He

3:20

was essentially a cold-blooded animal,

3:22

a bachelor, a man of

3:25

regular and temperate habits, fastidious

3:27

and fond of quietude and

3:30

simple comforts. Nobody

3:32

is ever likely to know why Everton

3:34

adopted the orphan daughter of a man

3:37

whom he but knew slightly and

3:39

neither liked nor respected. He

3:42

was no lover of children, and

3:44

his humours were sardonic rather than

3:46

sentimental. I am

3:48

only hazarding a guess when I

3:51

suggest that, like so many childless

3:53

men, he had theories of

3:55

his own concerning the upbringing of children,

3:57

which he wanted to see tested. Certain

4:01

it is that Monica's childhood,

4:03

which had been extraordinary enough

4:05

before, passed from

4:08

the tragic to the

4:10

grotesque. Everton

4:13

took Monica from the Bloomsbury Apartments

4:15

house, where the landlady, already nursing

4:17

a bad debt, was wondering how

4:19

to dispose of the child. Monica

4:23

was then eight years old, and a

4:25

woman of the world in her small way. She

4:28

had lived with drink and poverty

4:30

and squalor, had never played a

4:32

game nor had a playmate, had

4:35

seen nothing but the semi-side of life,

4:37

and had learned skill in practising

4:40

her father's petty shifts and mean

4:42

contrivances. She was

4:44

grave and sullen and

4:47

plain and pale, this

4:49

child who had never known

4:51

childhood. When she

4:54

spoke which was seldom as possible, her

4:57

voice was hard and gruff. She

4:59

was, poor little thing, as

5:01

unattractive as her life could

5:03

have made her. She

5:06

went with Everton without question or demur.

5:10

She would no more have questioned

5:12

anybody's ownership than if she had

5:14

been an inanimate piece of luggage

5:16

left in a cloak-room. She

5:19

had belonged to her father. Now

5:21

that he was gone to his own

5:23

place, she was the property of whomsoever

5:25

chose to claim her. Everton

5:28

took her with a cold kindness

5:30

in which was neither love nor

5:32

pity. In return she

5:35

gave him neither love nor gratitude,

5:37

but did as she was desired after

5:40

the manner of a paid servant. Everton

5:44

disliked modern children, and

5:46

for what he disliked in them he blamed

5:48

modern schools. It may have

5:50

been on this account that he did not send

5:52

Monica to one, or perhaps he

5:54

wanted to see how a child would

5:57

contrive its own education. could

6:00

already read and write, and thus

6:02

equipped she had the run of

6:04

his large library, in which was

6:07

almost every conceivable kind of book,

6:09

from heavy tones on abstruse subjects

6:11

to trashy modern novels bought and

6:13

left there by Miss Gribbin. Everton

6:17

barred nothing, recommended nothing,

6:19

but watched the tree

6:21

grow naturally untended and

6:23

unpruned. Miss Gribbin

6:25

was Everton's secretary. She was

6:28

the kind of hatchet-faced, flat-chested, middle-aged,

6:30

sexless woman who could safely share

6:32

the home of a bachelor without

6:34

either of them being troubled by

6:37

the tongue of scandal. To

6:40

her duties was now added

6:42

the instruction of Monica in

6:44

certain elementary subjects. Thus Monica

6:46

learned that a man named William

6:48

the Conqueror arrived in England in

6:52

1066, but to find out what manner of

6:54

man this William was, she had to go

6:57

to the library and read the conflicting accounts

6:59

of him, as given by the several historians.

7:02

From Miss Gribbin she learned

7:04

bare, irrefutable facts, for

7:06

the rest she was left to fend for

7:08

herself. In the

7:11

library she found herself surrounded

7:13

by all the realms of

7:15

reality and fancy, each with

7:17

its door invitingly ajar. Monica

7:21

was fond of reading. It

7:23

was indeed almost her only recreation, for

7:26

Everton knew no other children of her

7:28

age and treated her as a grown-up

7:30

member of the household. Thus

7:32

she read everything, from translations

7:34

of the Iliad to Hans

7:37

Anderson, from the Bible

7:39

to the love gush of the

7:41

modern female fiction-mongers. Everton,

7:44

although he watched her closely and

7:46

plied her with innocent-sounding questions, was

7:49

never allowed a peep into her mind. What

7:52

muddled dreams she may have had

7:54

of a strange world surrounding the

7:56

hamster the house, a world

7:58

of gods and fairies. and demons,

8:00

and strong, silent men making

8:03

love to sloppy-minded young women,

8:05

she kept to herself. Reticence

8:08

was all that she had in common with

8:10

normal childhood, and Everton noticed

8:13

that she never played. Unlike

8:16

most young animals, she did not take

8:18

naturally to playing. Perhaps

8:20

the instinct had been beaten out of her by

8:22

the realities of life while her father was alive.

8:26

Most lonely children improvise their own

8:28

games and provide themselves with a

8:30

vast store of make-believe. But

8:33

Monica, as sullen-seeming as a

8:35

caged animal, devoid alike

8:37

of the naughtiness and

8:39

the charms of childhood, rarely

8:42

crying and still more rarely

8:44

laughing, moved about the

8:46

house sedate to the verge of

8:49

being wooden. Initially

8:52

Everton, the experimentalist, had twinges

8:54

of conscience, and

8:57

grew half afraid. When

9:02

Monica was twelve, Everton moved his

9:04

establishment from Hampstead to a house

9:06

remotely situated in the middle of

9:09

Suffolk, which was part of a

9:11

recent legacy. It was

9:13

a tall, rectangular Queen Anne house,

9:16

standing on a knoll above

9:18

marshy fields and wind-bowed beechwoods.

9:21

Perhaps it had been the manor house, but

9:23

now little land went with it. A

9:26

short drive passed between rank evergreens

9:28

from the heavy wrought iron gate

9:31

to a circle of grass and flower beds in

9:33

front of the house. Behind

9:36

was an acre and a half of

9:38

rank garden given over to weeds and

9:40

marigolds. The rooms

9:43

were high and well-lighted, but the

9:45

house wore an air of depression,

9:48

as if it were a live thing, unable

9:50

to shake off some ancient

9:52

fit of melancholy. Everton

9:55

went to live in the house for a variety of reasons.

10:00

year he had been trying in vain to let

10:02

or sell it. And it

10:04

was when he found that he would have

10:06

no difficulty in disposing of his house at

10:08

Hampstead that he made up his mind. The

10:11

old house, a mile distant from

10:13

a remote suffolk village, would give

10:15

him all the solitude he required.

10:18

Moreover, he was anxious about his

10:20

health. His nervous system had

10:23

never been strong, and his

10:25

doctor had recommended the bracing air

10:27

of East Anglia. He

10:29

was not in the least concerned to find that

10:32

the house was too big for him. His

10:34

furniture filled the same number of rooms

10:36

as it had filled at Hampstead, and

10:39

the others he left empty. Nor

10:41

did he increase his staff of three

10:43

indoor servants and a gardener. Miss

10:46

Gribbin, now less dispensable than

10:48

ever, accompanied him, and

10:51

with them came Monica, to

10:53

see another aspect of life, with

10:56

the same wooden stoicism which

10:58

Everton had remarked in her on the

11:01

occasion of their first meeting. As

11:04

regarded Monica, Miss Gribbin's duties were

11:06

then becoming more and more a sine

11:08

cure. Lessons now occupied

11:10

no more than half an hour a

11:12

day. The older Monica

11:15

grew the better she was able to

11:17

grub for her education in the great

11:19

library. Between Monica and Miss

11:21

Gribbin there was neither

11:23

love nor sympathy, nor

11:26

was there any affectation of either.

11:29

In their common duty to Everton they

11:31

owed and paid certain duties to each

11:33

other. Their intercourse began

11:35

and ended there. Everton

11:39

and Miss Gribbin both liked the house at

11:41

first. It suited the

11:43

two temperaments which were alike in

11:45

their lack of festivity. Asked

11:48

if she too liked it, Monica

11:50

said simply, yes, in

11:53

a tone which implied stolid

11:55

and complete indifference. several

12:00

ways led much the same lives as

12:02

they had led at Hampstead, but

12:04

a slow change began to work in Monika.

12:08

A change so slight and subtle that

12:10

weeks passed before Everton or Miss

12:12

Gribbin noticed it. It

12:15

was late on an afternoon in

12:17

early spring when Everton first became

12:20

aware of something unusual in Monika's

12:22

demeanor. He had

12:24

been searching in the library for one of

12:26

his own books, The Fall of the Commonwealth

12:29

in England, and having failed

12:31

to find it went in search of Miss

12:33

Gribbin and met Monika instead at the foot

12:35

of the long oak staircase. Of

12:38

her he casually inquired about the book, and

12:41

she jerked her head up brightly to

12:43

answer him with an unwonted smile. Yes,

12:46

I've been reading it. I expect I

12:49

left it in the schoolroom. I'll

12:51

go and see. It was

12:53

a long speech for her to have uttered,

12:55

but Everton scarcely noticed that at the time.

12:58

His attention was directed elsewhere.

13:01

Where did you leave it? he demanded.

13:03

In the schoolroom, she repeated. I

13:06

know of no schoolroom, said

13:09

Everton, coldly. He hated

13:11

to hear anything Miss called, even were

13:13

it only a room. Miss

13:16

Gribbin generally takes you for your lessons

13:18

in either the library or the dining-room.

13:20

If it is in one of those rooms, kindly

13:23

call it by its proper name. Monika

13:25

shook her head. No, I mean

13:28

the schoolroom, the big empty room

13:30

next to the library. That's what

13:32

it's called. Everton knew

13:34

the room. It faced north and seemed darker

13:36

and more dismal than any other room in

13:39

the house. He had

13:41

wondered idly why Monika chose to

13:43

spend so much of her time

13:45

in a room bare of furniture,

13:47

with nothing better to sit on

13:49

than uncovered boards or a cushionless

13:51

window-seat, and put it down

13:53

to her genius for being unlike anybody

13:56

else. Who calls it

13:58

that? he demanded. It's

14:00

its name, said Monica, smiling.

14:04

She ran upstairs and presently returned

14:06

with the book, which she handed

14:08

to him, with another smile. He

14:10

was already wondering at her. It

14:13

was surprising and pleasant to see

14:15

her run, instead of the

14:18

heavy and clumsy walk which generally moved

14:20

her when she went to obey a

14:22

behest. And

14:24

she had smiled two

14:26

or three times in the short space of a

14:28

minute. Then he

14:30

realized that for some little while she

14:33

had been a brighter, happier creature than

14:35

ever she had been at Hampstead. �How

14:38

did you come to call that room a schoolroom?�

14:40

he asked as he took the book from her

14:42

hand. �It is the schoolroom,�

14:44

she insisted, seeking to cover

14:46

her evasion by laying stress on the

14:48

verb. That was all he could

14:51

get out of her. As

14:53

he questioned further, the smile ceased

14:56

and the pale, plain little

14:58

face became devoid of any

15:00

expression. He knew then

15:02

that it was useless to press her, but

15:05

his curiosity was aroused. He

15:07

inquired of Miss Gribbin and the servants

15:09

and learned that nobody was in the

15:11

habit of calling the long, empty apartment

15:13

the schoolroom. Clearly

15:16

Monica had given it its name. But

15:18

why? She was

15:20

so altogether remote from schools and

15:23

schoolrooms. Some germ

15:25

of imagination was active in her

15:27

small mind. Everton's

15:29

interest was stimulated. He

15:32

was like a doctor who remarks in

15:34

a patient some abnormal symptom. �Monica

15:38

seems a lot brighter and more alert

15:40

than she used to be,� he remarked

15:42

to Miss Gribbin. �Yes,� agreed

15:44

the secretary. �I have noticed that. She

15:47

is learning to play.� �To play

15:49

what? The piano? No,

15:51

no, to play childish games.

15:54

Haven't you heard of dancing about and singing?� Everton

15:57

shook his head and looked interested. I

16:00

have not, he said. Possibly my

16:02

presence acts as a check upon

16:04

her. Exuberance!

16:08

I hear her in that empty room which she

16:10

insists upon calling the schoolroom. She

16:12

stops when she hears my step. Of course,

16:14

I haven't interfered with her in any way,

16:17

but I could wish that she would not talk to

16:19

herself. I don't like

16:21

people who do that. It's somehow uncomfortable."

16:25

I didn't know she did, said

16:28

Everton, slowly. Oh, yes, quite long

16:30

conversations. I haven't actually heard

16:32

what she talks about, but sometimes you'd think that she

16:34

was in the midst of a circle of friends. In

16:38

that same room? Generally,

16:40

said Miss Gribbon, with a nod. Everton

16:43

regarded his secretary with a

16:46

slow, thoughtful smile. Development,

16:48

he said, is always extremely

16:51

interesting. I'm glad the

16:53

place seems to suit Monica. I

16:56

think it suits all of us. There

16:59

was a doubtful note in his voice as he uttered

17:02

the last words, and Miss

17:04

Gribbon agreed with him with the same lack

17:06

of conviction in her tone. As

17:08

a fact, Everton had been doubtful of late

17:11

if his health had been benefited by the

17:13

move from Hampstead. For the first

17:15

week or two, his nerves had been the better for the

17:17

change of air, but now he

17:19

was conscious of the beginning of a

17:21

relapse. His

17:23

imagination was beginning to play him tricks,

17:26

filling his mind with vague,

17:28

distorted fancies. Sometimes,

17:30

when he sat up late writing,

17:33

he was given to working at night on strong

17:35

coffee. He became

17:37

a victim of the most distressing

17:39

nervous symptoms, hard to

17:42

analyse and impossible to combat, which

17:44

invariably drove him to bed with

17:46

a sense of defeat. That

17:49

same night he suffered one of the

17:51

variations of this common experience. It

17:54

was close upon midnight when he felt

17:56

stealing over him a sense of discomfort,

17:58

which he was compelled to. classify

18:01

as fear. He

18:03

was working in a small room leading out

18:05

of the drawing-room which he had selected for

18:07

his study. At first he

18:09

was scarcely aware of the sensation. The

18:12

effect was always cumulative. The

18:15

burden was laid upon him, straw

18:17

by straw. It

18:20

began with his being oppressed

18:22

by the silence of the house.

18:25

He became more and more acutely conscious

18:28

of it, until it became

18:30

like a thing tangible, a

18:32

prison of solid walls growing around

18:34

him. The scratching

18:36

of his pen at first relieved the

18:39

tension. He wrote words, and

18:41

he raised them again for the sake of

18:43

the comfortable sound. But

18:45

presently that comfort was denied

18:47

him. For

18:49

it seemed to him that this

18:52

minute and busy noise was

18:55

attracting attention to himself. Yes,

19:00

that was it. He

19:03

was being watched. Everton

19:07

sat quite still. The pen

19:09

poised an inch above the half-covered sheet

19:11

of paper. This

19:13

had become a familiar sensation. He

19:17

was being watched. And

19:20

by what? And

19:23

from what corner of the

19:25

room? He

19:27

forced a tremulous smile to his lips.

19:30

One moment he called himself ridiculous.

19:33

The next he asked himself hopelessly

19:35

how a man could argue with

19:37

his nerves. Experience

19:39

had taught him that the only cure, and

19:41

that a temporary one, was to go to

19:43

bed. Yet he sat

19:46

on, anxious to learn

19:48

more about himself, to coax his

19:50

vague imaginings into some

19:52

definite shape. Imagination

19:56

told him that he was being watched, and although he

19:58

could not be seen, he was He called it

20:01

imagination. He was

20:03

afraid. That

20:06

rapid beating against his ribs

20:09

was his heart warning him

20:11

of fear. But

20:14

he sat rigid, anxious to

20:16

learn in what part of

20:18

the room his fancy would

20:20

place these imaginary watches.

20:24

For he was conscious of the gaze of more

20:27

than one pair of eyes being

20:29

bent upon him. At

20:31

first the experiment failed. The

20:33

rigidity of his pose, the hold he

20:36

was keeping upon himself, acted as a

20:38

break upon his mind. Presently

20:40

he realised this and relaxed the

20:43

tension, striving to give

20:45

his mind that perfect freedom which

20:47

might have been demanded by a

20:49

hypnotist or one experimenting in telepathy.

20:53

Almost at once he thought of the door. The

20:56

eyes of his mind veered around in

20:59

that direction as the needle of a

21:01

compass veers to the magnetic north. With

21:05

these eyes of his imagination he

21:08

saw the door. It

21:10

was standing half open and

21:12

the aperture was thronged with faces.

21:16

What kind of faces he

21:19

could not tell. They were

21:22

just faces. The imagination left

21:24

it at that. But

21:27

he was aware that these spies were timid.

21:30

That they were in some wise as fearful

21:32

of him as he was of them, that

21:36

to scatter them he had but to turn

21:38

his head and gaze at them with the

21:40

eyes of his body. The door

21:43

was at his shoulder. He turned his

21:45

head suddenly and gave it one swift

21:47

glance out of the tail of his

21:49

eye. However imagination

21:51

deceived him it had not played

21:53

him false about the door. It

21:56

was standing half open although he could

21:58

have sworn that he He had closed

22:00

it on entering the room. The

22:03

aperture was empty. Only

22:05

darkness, solid as the

22:07

pillar, filled the space between floor

22:09

and lintel. But

22:12

although he saw nothing as he turned his head,

22:14

he was dimly conscious of

22:17

something vanishing, a scurrying,

22:20

noiseless, and incredibly swift,

22:23

like the flitting of trout

22:25

in clear, shallow water. The

22:28

flitting of trout and lintel stood up, stretched himself,

22:30

and brought his knuckles up to his strained eyes.

22:32

He told himself that he must go to bed. It

22:35

was bad enough that he must suffer

22:37

these nervous attacks. To encourage them was

22:39

madness. But

22:42

as he mounted the stairs, he

22:45

was still conscious of not being

22:47

alone, shy,

22:50

timorous, ready to melt

22:52

into the shadows of the walls if he turned

22:55

his head. They

22:57

were following him, whispering

23:00

noiselessly, linking

23:02

hands and arms, watching

23:06

him with

23:08

the fearful, awed

23:10

curiosity of

23:13

children. The

23:18

vicar had called upon Everton. His

23:20

name was Parslow, and he

23:23

was a typical country parson of

23:25

the poorer sort, a tall, rugged,

23:27

shabby, worried man in the middle

23:29

forties, obviously embarrassed by

23:31

the eternal problem of making ends

23:34

meet on an inadequate stipend. Everton

23:37

received him courteously enough, but with

23:39

a certain coldness which implied that

23:41

he had nothing in common with

23:43

his visitor. Parslow was

23:45

evidently disappointed because the new people

23:48

were not churchgoers, nor likely to

23:50

take much interest in the parish.

23:53

The two men made half-hearted and

23:55

vain attempts to find common ground.

23:58

It was not until he was on the point of view. of leaving that

24:00

the vicar mentioned Monica. �You

24:03

have, I believe, a little girl,� he said. �Yes,

24:05

my small ward. I, I

24:07

expect you find it lonely here. I

24:10

have a little girl of the same age. She

24:12

is at present away at school, but she'll be

24:14

home soon for the Easter holidays. I

24:16

know she'd be delighted if your little ward

24:19

would come down to the vicarage and play

24:21

with her sometimes.� The

24:23

suggestion was not particularly welcome to

24:26

Everton, and his thanks were

24:28

perfunctory. This other small girl,

24:30

although she was a vicar's daughter, might

24:33

carry the contagion of other

24:35

modern children and infect Monica

24:37

with a pertness and slanginess

24:39

which he so detested. All

24:42

together he was determined to have as little

24:44

to do with the vicarage as possible. Meanwhile,

24:48

the child was becoming to him

24:50

a study of more and more

24:52

absorbing interest. The

24:54

change in her was almost as marked

24:56

as if she had just returned after

24:58

having spent a term at school. She

25:01

astonished and mystified him by using

25:03

expressions which she could scarcely have

25:05

learnt from any member of the

25:07

household. It was not the

25:09

jargon of the smart young people of the

25:11

day which slipped easily from her lips, but

25:14

the polite family slang of his own youth.

25:17

For instance, she remarked one morning

25:19

that Mead, the gardener, was a

25:21

whale at pruning vines. A

25:24

whale! The expression took

25:26

Everton back a very long way down the

25:28

level road of the spent years, took

25:31

him indeed to a nursery in

25:33

a solid respectable house in a

25:36

Belgravian square, where he had

25:38

heard the word used in that same sense

25:40

for the first time. His sister

25:42

Gertrude, aged ten, notorious in those

25:44

days for picking up loose expressions,

25:48

announced that she was getting to be a

25:50

whale at French. Yes, in

25:52

those days an expert was a whale

25:54

or a don, not as he is

25:56

today a stout fellow, but

25:58

who was a whale nowadays? place. It was

26:00

years since he'd heard the term." "'Where

26:03

did you learn to say that?" he

26:05

demanded, in so strange a tone that

26:07

Monica stared at him anxiously. "'Isn't

26:10

it right?' she asked eagerly. She

26:13

might have been a child at a

26:15

new school fearful of not having acquired

26:17

the fashionable phraseology of the place. "'It

26:20

is a slang expression,' said the purist

26:22

coldly. "'It used to mean a person

26:24

who was proficient in something. How

26:27

did you come to hear it?' She smiled

26:29

without answering, and her smile

26:31

was mysterious, even kakettish after

26:34

a childish fashion. Silence

26:36

had always been her refuge, but

26:39

it was no longer a sullen silence. She

26:43

was changing rapidly, and

26:45

in a manner to bewilder her guardian. He

26:47

failed in an effort to cross-examine her, and

26:49

later in the day consulted Miss Gribbin. "'That

26:52

child,' he said, "'is reading something that

26:54

we know nothing about.' "'Just

26:57

at present,' said Miss Gribbin, "'she's glued to

26:59

Dickens and Stevenson.' "'Then where

27:01

on earth does she get her expressions?' "'I

27:04

don't know,' the secretary retorted testily, "'any

27:06

more than I know how she learned

27:08

to play Cat's Cradle.' "'What,

27:11

that game with the string? Does she

27:13

play that?' "'I found

27:15

her doing something quite complicated and elaborate the

27:17

other day. She wouldn't tell me how she

27:19

learned to do it. I

27:22

took the trouble to question the servants, but none

27:24

of them had shown her." Everton

27:26

frowned. "'And I know of

27:28

no book in the library which tells how to

27:30

perform tricks with string. Do

27:32

you think she has made a clandestine friendship

27:34

with any of the village children?' Miss

27:37

Gribbin shook her head. "'She's too

27:39

fastidious for that. Besides, she seldom goes

27:42

into the village alone.' There

27:44

for the time the discussion ended. Everton,

27:47

with all the curiosity of the

27:49

student, watched the child as carefully

27:51

and as closely as he was

27:53

able, without at the same time

27:55

arousing her suspicions. She

27:57

was developing fast. He had no—'

28:00

that she must develop, but the manner

28:02

of her doing so amazed and mystified

28:04

him, and likely as not, denied some

28:07

preconceived theory. The

28:09

untended plant was not only

28:11

growing, but showed signs of

28:13

pruning. It was

28:15

as if there were outside influences at

28:17

work on Monica, which could have come

28:19

neither from him nor from any other

28:22

member of the household. Winter

28:24

was dying hard, and dark days

28:27

of rain kept Miss Gribbin, Monica

28:29

and Everton within doors. He

28:32

lacked no opportunities of keeping the

28:34

child under observation, and once, on

28:36

a gloomy afternoon passing the room

28:38

which he had named the schoolroom,

28:41

he paused and listened, until

28:43

he became suddenly aware that

28:45

his conduct bore an unpleasant

28:48

resemblance to eavesdropping. The

28:50

psychologist and the gentleman engaged in

28:52

a brief struggle, in which the

28:55

gentleman temporarily got the upper hand.

28:58

Everton approached the door with a heavy step

29:00

and flung it open. The

29:03

sensation he received, as he

29:05

pushed open the door, was vague, but

29:08

slightly disturbing, and it

29:10

was by no means new to him. Several

29:13

times of late, but generally after

29:15

dark, he had entered an empty

29:17

room with the impression that

29:19

it had been occupied by others

29:21

until the very moment of his

29:23

crossing the threshold. His

29:26

coming disturbed not merely one or

29:28

two, but a crowd. He

29:30

felt them rather than hurt them,

29:33

scattering, flying swiftly and silently as

29:35

shadows to incredible hiding-places, where they

29:37

held breath and watched and waited

29:40

for him to go. Into

29:42

the same atmosphere of tension he now walked

29:45

and looked about him, as if expecting to

29:47

see more than only the child who held

29:49

the door in the middle of the room,

29:52

or some tell-tale trace of other

29:54

children in hiding. Had

29:56

the room been furnished, he must have

29:58

looked involuntarily for shoe-shoes. protruding

30:00

from under tables or cetiz,

30:03

for ends of garments unconsciously

30:05

left exposed. The

30:07

long room, however, was empty,

30:09

save for Monica, from wainscot

30:11

to wainscot and from floor

30:13

to ceiling. Fronting

30:15

him were the long high windows,

30:17

starred by fine rain. With

30:21

her back to the white-filtered light, Monica

30:23

faced him, looking up to him

30:25

as he entered. He was

30:27

just in time to see a smile

30:29

fading from her lips. He

30:32

also saw, by a slight convulsive

30:34

movement of her shoulders, that she

30:36

was hiding something from him, in

30:38

the hands clasped behind her back.

30:41

"'Hello,' he said, with a kind of

30:43

forced geniality. "'What are you up to?'

30:46

She said. "'Nothing,' but not

30:49

as sullenly as she would once have said it.

30:51

"'Come,' said Everton, "'that's impossible. You

30:53

were talking to yourself, Monica. You

30:56

shouldn't do that. It's an idle

30:58

and very, very foolish habit. You'll

31:01

go mad if you continue to do that.' She

31:04

let her head droop a little. "'I

31:06

wasn't talking to myself,' she said,

31:08

in a low, half-playful but very

31:11

deliberate tone. "'That's nonsense, I heard

31:13

you. I wasn't talking

31:15

to myself. But you must

31:17

have been. There's nobody else here. There

31:19

isn't now.' "'What

31:22

do you mean, now?' "'They've

31:24

gone. You frightened them, I

31:26

expect.' "'What do you

31:28

mean?' he repeated, advancing a step or two

31:31

towards her. And whom do you call

31:33

they?' Next

31:35

moment he was angry with himself. His tone

31:37

was so heavy and serious, and the child

31:39

was half laughing at him. It

31:42

was as if she were triumphant

31:44

at having inveigled him into taking

31:46

a serious part in her own

31:48

game of make-believe. "'You wouldn't understand,'

31:51

she said. "'I understand

31:53

this, that you are wasting your

31:55

time in being a very silly little girl. What's

31:58

that you're hiding behind your back?' She

32:01

held out her right hand at once, and

32:03

clenched her fingers, and disclosed

32:05

a thimble. He

32:07

looked at it, and then into her face. "'Why

32:09

did you hide that from me?' he asked. There was no need."

32:12

She gave him her faint, secretive smile,

32:15

that new smile of hers, before replying.

32:17

"'We were playing with it. I didn't want you

32:19

to know.' "'You were playing with

32:22

it, you mean, and why didn't you want me to

32:24

know?' "'About them.' "'Because

32:27

I thought you wouldn't understand.' "'You

32:29

don't understand.' He

32:32

saw that it was useless to affect

32:34

anger or show impatience. He

32:36

spoke to her gently, even with an attempt

32:38

at displaying sympathy. "'Who are they?'

32:40

he asked. "'They're just

32:42

them, other girls.' "'I

32:44

see. And they come and play

32:46

with you, do they? And they

32:49

run away whenever I'm about, because they don't

32:51

like me. Is that it?' She

32:53

shook her head. "'It isn't that they

32:55

don't like you. I think they're like

32:57

everybody. But they're so shy. They

33:00

were shy of me for a long, long time. I

33:03

knew they were there. But it was

33:05

weeks and weeks before they'd come and play with me. It

33:08

was weeks before I even saw them.' "'Yes?'

33:11

"'Well, what are they like?' "'Oh,

33:14

they're just girls. And they're

33:16

awfully, awfully nice. Some are a

33:18

bit older than me, and some are a bit younger. And

33:21

they don't dress like other girls you

33:23

see today. They're in white, with longer

33:25

skirts, and they wear sashes.' Everton

33:28

inclined his head gravely. She

33:31

got that out of the illustrations of

33:33

books in the library, he reflected. "'You

33:36

don't happen to know their names,

33:38

I suppose?' he asked, hoping that

33:40

no quizzical note in his voice

33:42

rang through the casual but sincere

33:44

tone which he intended. "'Oh,

33:46

yes. There's Mary Hewitt. I think

33:49

I love her best of all. And

33:51

Elsie Power and how many of

33:53

them altogether?' "'Seven. It's

33:56

just a nice number, and this is the

33:58

schoolroom where we play games.' I

34:00

love games. I wish I'd learned

34:02

to play games before." "'And you've

34:05

been playing with the thimble?' "'Yes, hunt the

34:07

thimble,' they call it. One

34:09

of us hides it, and then the rest of us try

34:11

to find it, and the one who finds it

34:13

hides it again. "'You mean you

34:16

hide it yourself, and then go and

34:18

find it?' The smile

34:20

left her face at once, and

34:22

the look in her eyes warned him that

34:24

she was done with her confidences. "'Ah,'

34:27

she exclaimed, "'you don't understand.

34:30

After all, I somehow

34:32

knew you wouldn't.' Everton,

34:34

however, thought he did. His face

34:36

wore a sudden smile of relief. "'Well, never

34:38

mind,' he said. "'But I shouldn't play too

34:41

much if I were you.' With

34:43

that he left her. But curiosity

34:45

tempted him, not in vain, to linger

34:47

and listen for a moment on the

34:50

other side of the door which he

34:52

had closed behind him. He

34:54

heard Monica whisper, "'Mary! Elsie! Come on,

34:57

it's all right. He's gone now.'" At

35:00

an answering whisper, very

35:02

unlike Monica's, he

35:05

started violently and then

35:07

found himself grinning at his own discomforture.

35:10

It was natural that Monica, playing

35:13

many parts, should try to change

35:15

her voice with every character. He

35:18

went downstairs, sunk in a brown

35:20

study which brought him to certain

35:22

interesting conclusions. A little

35:24

later he communicated these to Miss Gribbon.

35:27

"'I've discovered the cause of the change in

35:29

Monica. She's invented for

35:31

herself some imaginary friends—other little girls,

35:34

of course.' Miss

35:36

Gribbon started slightly and looked

35:38

up from the newspaper which he had been reading. "'Really,'

35:41

she exclaimed. "'Isn't that rather

35:43

an unhealthy sign?' "'No, I

35:45

should say not. Being imaginary

35:47

friends is quite a common symptom

35:49

of childhood, especially among young girls.

35:52

I remember my sister used to have one, and

35:54

was very angry when none of the rest of

35:56

us would take the matter seriously.' In

35:59

Monica's case, I should say it

36:01

was perfectly normal, normal, but interesting. She

36:04

must have inherited an imagination from that

36:06

father of hers, with the

36:08

result that she has seven imaginary friends,

36:11

all properly named if you please. You

36:14

see, being lonely and having no friends

36:16

of her own age, she would naturally

36:18

invent more than one friend. They're

36:21

all nicely and primly dressed, I must

36:23

tell you, out of Victorian

36:25

books which she has found in the

36:27

library. It can't be healthy,

36:30

said Miss Gribbin, pursing her lips, and

36:32

I can't understand how she's learned certain

36:34

expressions and a certain style of talking

36:36

and games, all out of

36:38

books, and she pretends to herself

36:40

that they have taught her. But

36:43

the most interesting part of the affair is this.

36:46

It's given me my first practical

36:48

experience of telepathy, of the

36:50

existence of which I had hitherto been

36:52

rather sceptical. Miss Monica

36:55

invented this new game, and before

36:57

I was aware that she had

36:59

done so, I have had at

37:01

different times distinct impressions of

37:04

there being a lot of little girls about the

37:06

house. Miss Gribbin

37:08

started and stared. Her

37:11

lips parted, as if you were about to speak,

37:14

but it was as if she changed her mind

37:16

while framing the first words she had been about

37:18

to utter. Monica, he

37:20

continued smiling, invented these friends,

37:22

and has been making me

37:24

telepathically aware of them too.

37:27

I've lately been most concerned about the

37:29

state of my nerves. Miss

37:32

Gribbin jumped up as if in anger, but

37:34

her brow was smooth and her mouth dropped

37:36

at the corners. Mr Everton,

37:39

she said, I wish you had not

37:41

told me all this. Her lips worked.

37:44

You see, she added unsteadily.

37:47

I don't believe in telepathy. Vent

38:00

was shortly afterwards signalised by a note

38:02

from the vicar to Everton, inviting him

38:04

to send Monica down to have tea

38:07

and play games with his little daughter

38:09

on the following Wednesday. The

38:12

invitation was an annoyance and an

38:14

embarrassment to Everton. Here

38:16

was the disturbing factor, the

38:18

outside influence which might possibly

38:21

thwart his experiment in the

38:23

upbringing of Monica. He

38:25

was free, of course, simply to decline

38:27

the invitation, so coldly and briefly as

38:30

to make sure that it would not

38:32

be repeated. But the

38:34

man was not strong enough to stand on

38:36

his own feet, impervious to the winds of

38:38

criticism. He was sensitive and

38:41

had little wish to seem churlish,

38:43

still less to appear ridiculous. Taking

38:46

the line of least resistance, he

38:49

began to reason that one child,

38:51

herself no older than Monica, and

38:53

in the atmosphere of her own

38:55

home, could make little impression. It

38:58

ended in his allowing Monica to go.

39:02

Monica herself seemed pleased at the

39:04

prospect of going, but expressed her

39:06

pleasure in a discreet, restrained, grown-up

39:09

way. Miss Gribbin accompanied

39:11

her as far as the vicarage door-step,

39:14

arriving with her punctually at half-past

39:16

three on a sullen and muggy

39:18

afternoon, and handed her over to

39:20

the woman of all work who answered the summons

39:23

at the door. Miss

39:25

Gribbin reported to Everton on her return.

39:28

An idea which she conceived to

39:30

be humorous had possession of her mind,

39:32

and in talking to Everton she uttered

39:34

one of her infrequent laughs. I

39:36

only left her at the door, she said, so I

39:38

didn't see her meet the other little girl. I

39:41

wish I'd stayed to see that, he must

39:43

have been funny. She

39:45

irritated Everton by speaking exactly as

39:48

if Monica were a captive animal

39:50

which had just been shown for

39:52

the first time in its life

39:54

another of its own kind. The

39:57

analogy thus conveyed to Everton was close enough

39:59

to make him wince. He

40:01

felt something like a twinge of

40:03

conscience, and it may have

40:05

been then that he asked himself for the

40:07

first time if he were being

40:10

fair to Monica. It

40:12

had never once occurred to him to ask himself

40:14

if she were happy. The

40:16

truth was that he understood children so

40:18

little as to suppose that physical cruelty

40:20

was the one kind of cruelty from

40:22

which they were capable of suffering. Had

40:25

he ever before troubled to ask himself if

40:28

Monica were happy, he had

40:30

probably given the question a curt dismissal

40:32

with the thought that she had no

40:34

right to be otherwise. He

40:36

had given her a good home,

40:38

even luxuries, together with every opportunity

40:40

to develop her mind. For

40:43

companions she had himself, Miss Grimin,

40:45

and to a limited extent the

40:47

servants. Ah,

40:50

but that picture, conjured up by

40:52

Miss Grimin's words with her accompaniment

40:54

of unreasonable laughter, the

40:56

little creature meeting for the first

40:59

time another little creature of its

41:01

own kind, and looking bewildered, knowing

41:03

neither what to do nor what

41:05

to say. There was pathos in

41:07

that, uncomfortable pathos for

41:09

Everton. Those imaginary

41:12

friends, did they really mean

41:14

that Monica had needs of which he

41:16

knew nothing, of which he had never

41:18

troubled to learn? He was

41:21

not an unkind man, and

41:23

it hurt him to suspect that he might

41:25

have committed an unkindness. The

41:27

modern children whose behaviour and manners

41:29

he disliked were perhaps

41:31

only obeying some inexorable law

41:33

of evolution. Suppose

41:35

in keeping Monica from their companionship

41:37

he were actually flying in the

41:39

face of nature. Suppose,

41:42

after all, if Monica were to

41:44

be natural, she must go unhindered

41:46

on the tide of her generation.

41:49

He compromised with himself, pacing the

41:51

little study. He would watch

41:54

Monica much more closely, question her when

41:56

he had the chance. Then,

41:58

if he found she was not happy, and really

42:01

needed the companionship of other children,

42:03

he would see what could be done. But

42:06

when Monica returned home from the vicarage, it

42:08

was quite plain that she had not enjoyed

42:10

herself. She was subdued,

42:13

and said very little about her

42:15

experience. Quite obviously the

42:17

two little girls had not made very

42:19

good friends. Questioned, Monica

42:21

confessed that she did

42:23

not like Gladys much.

42:26

She said this very thoughtfully with a little

42:28

pause before the adverb. Why

42:31

don't you like her? Everton demanded

42:33

bluntly. I don't know, she's

42:35

so funny, not like other girls. And

42:38

what do you know about other

42:40

girls? he demanded, faintly amused. Well,

42:43

she's not a bit like... Monica

42:45

paused suddenly and lowered her gaze.

42:49

Not like your friends, you mean, Everton

42:51

asked. She gave him

42:53

a quick, penetrating little glance and then lowered

42:55

her gaze once more. No, she said, not

42:58

a bit. She wouldn't

43:00

be, of course. Everton

43:02

teased the child with no more questions for the

43:04

time being, and let her go. She

43:06

ran off at once to the great

43:08

empty room, there to seek that uncanny

43:11

companionship which had come to suffice her.

43:14

For the moment Everton was satisfied.

43:16

Monica was perfectly happy as she

43:18

was, and had no need of

43:20

Gladys, or probably any other child

43:22

friends. His experiment with

43:24

her was shaping successfully. She

43:27

had invented her own young friends, and had

43:29

gone off eagerly to play with the creations

43:31

of her own fancy. This

43:33

seemed very well at first. Everton

43:37

reflected that it was just what he would

43:39

have wished, until he realised

43:41

suddenly, with a little shock of

43:43

discomfort, that it was not

43:45

normal, and it was

43:48

not healthy. 5.

43:51

Although Monica plainly had no great desire

43:53

to see any more of Gladys Parzlow,

43:55

common civility made it necessary for the

43:58

vicar's little daughter to be asked to

44:00

pay a return visit. Most

44:02

likely Gladys Parzlow was as unwilling

44:04

to come as Monica to entertain

44:07

her. Stern, disciplined, however,

44:09

presented her at the appointed

44:11

time on an afternoon pre-arranged

44:13

by correspondence, when

44:15

Monica received her coldly and with

44:18

dignity tempered by a sort of

44:20

grown-up graciousness. Monica

44:22

bore her guest away to the big

44:25

empty room, and that was the last

44:27

of Gladys Parzlow seen by Everton or

44:29

Miss Gribbin that afternoon. Monica

44:32

appeared alone when the gong sounded for

44:34

tea, and announced, in a subdued tone,

44:37

that Gladys had already gone home. �Did

44:40

you quarrel with her?� Miss Gribbin asked

44:42

quickly. �No.� �Then

44:45

why has she gone like this?� �She

44:47

was stupid,� said Monica simply. �That's all.�

44:50

�Perhaps it was you who was stupid. Why did

44:52

she go?� �She got frightened.� �Frightened?�

44:56

�She didn't like my friends.� Miss

44:58

Gribbin exchanged glances with Everton.

45:01

�She didn't like a silly little girl who

45:03

talks to herself and imagines things. No wonder

45:06

she was frightened.� �She

45:08

didn't think they were real at first

45:10

and laughed at me,� said Monica, sitting

45:12

down. �Naturally.� And then, when

45:15

she saw them, Miss Gribbin

45:17

and Everton interrupted her simultaneously

45:19

repeating in unison, and with

45:22

well-matched astonishment, her two last

45:24

words. And then, when

45:26

she saw them, Monica continued, unperturbed, she

45:28

didn't like it. I think she was

45:30

frightened. Anyhow, she said she wouldn't

45:32

stay and went straight off home. I

45:35

think she's a stupid girl. We all had a good

45:37

laugh about her after she was gone. She

45:40

spoke in her ordinary matter-of-fact

45:42

tones. And if she were

45:44

secretly pleased at the state of perturbation into

45:46

which her words had obviously thrown Miss Gribbin,

45:48

she gave no sign of it. Miss

45:51

Gribbin immediately exhibited outward signs

45:53

of anger. �You are

45:55

a very naughty child to tell such

45:58

untruths. You know perfectly well that� Gladys

46:00

couldn't have seen your friends. You have

46:02

simply frightened her by pretending to talk

46:04

to people who weren't there, and it

46:06

will serve you right if she never

46:08

comes to play with you again." "'She

46:11

won't,' said Monica, and she did see them,

46:13

Miss Gribbin." "'How do you know?'

46:15

Everton asked, by her face, and she spoke

46:17

to them too when she ran to the

46:20

door. They were very shy at first

46:22

because Gladys was there. They wouldn't come for a

46:24

long time, but I begged them, and at last

46:26

they did." Everton checked

46:28

another outburst from Miss Gribbin with a look.

46:31

He wanted to learn more, and

46:33

to that end he applied some show of

46:35

patience and gentleness. "'Where did

46:37

they come from?' he asked. "'From outside the

46:40

door?' "'Oh, no, from where they always come.'

46:42

"'And where's that?' "'I

46:45

don't know. They don't seem to know

46:47

themselves. It's always from some direction where

46:49

I'm not looking. Isn't it strange?' "'Very.

46:52

And do they disappear in

46:54

the same way?' Monica frowned

46:56

very seriously and thoughtfully. "'It's

46:59

so quick. You can't tell where they go. When

47:01

you or Miss Gribbin come in—' "'They

47:03

always fly on our approach, of course.

47:06

But why?' "'Because they're dreadfully,

47:08

dreadfully shy. But not so

47:10

shy as they were. Perhaps soon they'll

47:12

get used to you, and not mind

47:14

at all.' "'That's a comforting

47:16

thought,' said Everton, with a dry laugh."

47:19

When Monica had taken her tea and

47:22

departed, Everton turned to his secretary. "'You

47:25

were wrong to blame the child. These

47:27

creations of her fancy are perfectly real

47:29

to her. Her powers

47:31

of suggestion have been strong enough to

47:34

force them to some extent on me.

47:36

The little pars-low girl, being younger and

47:38

more receptive, actually sees them. It's

47:41

a clear case of telepathy and

47:43

auto-suggestion. I have never

47:45

studied such matters, but I should

47:47

say that these instances are of

47:50

some scientific interest.' Miss

47:52

Gribbin's lips tightened, and he saw

47:54

her shiver slightly. "'Mr.

47:56

Parslow will be angry,' was all she said.

47:59

"'I really can't—'" cannot help that. Perhaps it's all

48:01

for the best. If Monica doesn't like his

48:03

little daughter, they had better not be brought

48:06

together again." For

48:08

all that, Everton was a little embarrassed when

48:10

on the following morning he met the vicar

48:12

out walking. If the Reverend

48:15

Parzellone knew that his little daughter had

48:17

left the house so unceremoniously on the

48:19

preceding day, he would either wish to

48:21

make an apology or perhaps require one,

48:24

according to his view of the situation.

48:27

Everton did not wish to deal in apologies one

48:29

way or the other. He did

48:31

not care to discuss the vagaries of children,

48:34

and altogether he wanted to have

48:36

as little to do with Mr.

48:38

Parzellone as was conveniently possible. He

48:41

would have passed with a brief acknowledgment of

48:43

the vicar's existence, but as

48:45

he had feared, the vicar stopped him.

48:49

"'I've been meaning to come and see you,'

48:51

said the Reverend Parzellone. Everton

48:54

halted and sighed inaudibly, thinking that

48:56

perhaps this casual meeting out of

48:58

doors might, after all, have saved

49:00

him something. "'Yes,' he said.

49:03

"'I will walk in your direction, if I may,' the

49:06

vicar eyed him anxiously. "'There

49:08

is something you must certainly be told.

49:10

I don't know if you guess or

49:12

if you already know. If

49:14

not, I don't know how you'll take it. I really

49:17

don't.' Everton looked puzzled.

49:20

Whichever child the vicar might blame for the

49:22

hurried departure of Gladys, there

49:24

seemed no cause for such a portentous

49:26

face and manner. "'Really?' he

49:29

asked. "'Is it something serious?' "'I

49:32

think so, Mr. Everton. You

49:34

are aware, of course, that my

49:36

little girl left your house yesterday

49:38

afternoon with some lack of ceremony.'

49:40

"'Yes, sir,' Monica told her she'd

49:42

gone. If they couldn't agree, it

49:45

was surely the best thing she could have done,

49:47

although it may sound inhospitable of me to say

49:49

it. "'Excuse me, Mr. Parzellone,

49:51

but I hope you're not trying to

49:53

embroil me in quarrels between children.' The

49:56

vicar stared in his turn. "'I

49:59

am not,' he said. said, and I am

50:01

unaware that there was any quarrel. I

50:03

was going to ask you to forgive Gladys, that there

50:06

was some excuse for her lack of ceremony. She

50:08

was badly frightened, poor child." Then

50:11

it is my turn to express regret.

50:14

I had Monica's version of what happened. Monica

50:17

has been left a great deal on

50:19

her own resources, and having no playmates

50:21

of her own age, she seems

50:23

to have invented some. Ah!

50:27

said the reverend Paslow, drawing a deep

50:29

breath. Unfortunately, Everton

50:32

continued, Monica has an

50:34

uncomfortable gift for impressing her fancies

50:36

on other people. I

50:38

have often thought I felt the presence of children

50:41

about the house, and so I

50:43

am almost sure has Miss Gribbin. I

50:46

am afraid that when your little girl came to

50:48

play with her yesterday afternoon, Monica

50:50

scared her by introducing her

50:52

invisible friends, and by talking

50:55

to imaginary and therefore invisible

50:57

little girls. The vicar

50:59

laid a hand on Everton's arm. There

51:02

is something more in it than that.

51:05

Gladys is not an imaginative child.

51:07

She is indeed a very practical

51:09

little person. I have never yet

51:12

known her to tell me a lie. What

51:14

would you say, Mr. Everton, if

51:16

I were to tell you that

51:18

Gladys positively asserts that she saw

51:21

those other children? Something

51:25

like a cold draught went through

51:27

Everton. An ugly suspicion,

51:30

vague and almost shapeless, began

51:33

to move in dim recesses of his

51:35

mind. He

51:37

tried to shake himself free of it,

51:39

to smile and to speak lightly. I

51:43

shouldn't be in the least surprised.

51:45

Nobody knows the limits of telepathy

51:47

and auto-suggestion. If I can

51:49

feel the presence of children who Monica has

51:51

created out of her own imagination, why

51:54

shouldn't your daughter, who is probably more

51:56

receptive and impressionable than I am, be

51:58

able to see them? The

52:01

Reverend Paslow shook his head. Do

52:04

you really mean that? he asked. Doesn't

52:06

it seem to you a little far-fetched?

52:10

Everything we don't understand must seem

52:12

far-fetched if one had dared to

52:14

talk of wireless thirty years ago.

52:17

Mr. Everton, do you know that

52:19

your house was once a girl's school?

52:22

Once more Everton experienced that

52:24

vague feeling of discomfiture. I

52:27

didn't know, he said, still indifferently.

52:30

My aunt, whom I never saw, was

52:32

there. Indeed, she died there. There

52:35

were seven who died. Diphtheria broke

52:37

out there many years ago. It

52:39

ruined the school, which was shortly afterwards closed.

52:42

Did you know that, Mr. Everton? My

52:45

aunt's name was Mary Hewitt. Good

52:48

God! Everton cried out sharply.

52:51

Good God! Ah,

52:53

said Paslow, now do you

52:55

begin to see? Everton,

52:58

suddenly a little giddy, passed

53:00

a hand across his forehead. That

53:03

is one of the names that

53:05

Monica told me, he faltered. How

53:07

could she know? How

53:09

indeed. Mary Hewitt's

53:12

great friend was Elsie Power. They

53:14

died within a few hours of each other. That

53:17

name too, she told me, and there

53:20

were seven. How could she have known?

53:23

Even the people around here wouldn't have remembered

53:25

names after all these years. Gladys

53:27

knew them, but that was only partly why

53:30

she was afraid. Yet I

53:32

think she was more awed than afraid, because

53:34

she knew instinctively that the children who

53:37

came to play with little Monica, although

53:39

they were not of this world,

53:42

were good children, blessed children. What

53:45

are you telling me? Everton burst out. Don't

53:48

be afraid, Mr. Everton. You're

53:50

not afraid, are you? If

53:52

those whom we call dead still remain close

53:54

to us, what more

53:56

natural than these children should come back

53:59

to play with? with a lonely

54:01

little girl who lacked human playmates. It

54:04

may seem inconceivable, but how

54:06

else explain it? How

54:09

could little Monica have invented those

54:11

two names? How could she

54:13

have learned that seven little girls once died in

54:15

your house? Only the very

54:17

old people about here remember it, and even they

54:20

could not tell you how many died, or the

54:22

name of any of the little victims. Haven't

54:25

you noticed a change in your ward,

54:27

since first she began to imagine

54:30

them, as you thought? Everton

54:33

nodded heavily. Yes, he

54:35

said, almost unwittingly. She

54:37

learned all sorts of tricks of speech, childish

54:40

gestures which she never had

54:42

before, and games. I

54:44

couldn't understand Mr. Paslow. What

54:47

in God's name am I to do? The

54:50

Reverend Paslow still kept a hand on

54:53

Everton's arm. If

54:55

I were you, I should send her off

54:57

to school. It may not be very good

54:59

for her. Not good for her, but the

55:01

children you say, children, I might

55:04

have said angels, they will never

55:06

harm her. But Monica

55:08

is developing a gift of seeing

55:11

and conversing with beings

55:14

that are invisible and

55:17

inaudible to others. It

55:19

is not a gift to be encouraged. She

55:22

may in time see and converse with others

55:25

wretched souls who

55:28

are not God's children. She

55:31

may lose the faculty if she mixes with others

55:33

of her age. Out of her

55:35

need, I am sure these came to her. I

55:38

must think, said Everton. He

55:41

walked on dazedly. In

55:43

a moment or two, the whole aspect of life

55:45

had changed. It had

55:47

grown clearer, as

55:50

if he had been blind from birth,

55:52

and was now given the first glimmerings

55:55

of light. He looked forward

55:57

no longer into the face of a blank and

55:59

feature-filled book. wall, but through

56:01

a curtain beyond which life

56:04

manifested itself vaguely, but

56:06

at least perceptibly. His

56:08

footfalls on the ground beat out

56:10

the words, There

56:13

is no death. There

56:15

is no death. That

56:21

evening after dinner he sent for Monica,

56:24

and spoke to her in an unaccustomed

56:26

way. He was strangely

56:28

shy of her, and his hand, which

56:30

he rested on one of her slim shoulders,

56:33

lay there awkwardly. Do

56:35

you know what I'm going to do with you, young woman? he

56:37

said. I'm going to pack you off to school.

56:40

Oh! she stared at him, half

56:42

smiling. Are you really? Do

56:45

you want to go? She considered the

56:47

matter frowning and staring at the tips of

56:49

her fingers. I don't know. I

56:52

don't want to leave them. Who?

56:54

he asked. Oh, you know, she

56:56

said. And turned her

56:58

head half shyly. What, your friends,

57:00

Monica? Yes. Wouldn't

57:03

you like other playmates? I don't know. I

57:06

love them, you see. But they said, they

57:08

said I ought to go to school if you

57:10

ever sent me. They might be angry

57:12

with me if I was to ask you to let me

57:14

stay. They wanted me to play

57:16

with other girls who aren't, who

57:18

aren't like they are, because you

57:20

know they are different from children

57:22

that everybody can see. And

57:25

Mary told me not to, not to

57:27

encourage anybody else who was different,

57:30

like them. Everton

57:32

drew a deep breath. We'll

57:34

have a talk tomorrow about finding a school for you,

57:36

Monica, he said. Run off to bed now. Good

57:40

night, my dear. He hesitated, then

57:42

touched her forehead with his lips.

57:45

She ran from him, nearly as shy

57:47

as Everton himself, tossing back

57:49

her long hair. But

57:51

from the door she gave him

57:54

the strangest little brimming glance, and

57:56

there was that in her eyes which

57:59

he had never seen before. before. Late

58:02

that night, Everton entered the

58:04

great empty room which Monica had

58:06

named the schoolroom. A

58:09

flag of moonlight from the window lay

58:11

across the floor, and

58:13

it was empty to the gaze. But

58:16

the deep shadows hid little shy

58:18

presences, of which some

58:20

unnamed and undeveloped sense in

58:23

the man was acutely aware.

58:26

Children, he whispered. Children.

58:30

He closed his eyes and stretched out his

58:32

hands. Still they were

58:34

shy and held aloof, but

58:36

he fancied that they came a little nearer.

58:40

Don't be afraid, he whispered. I am

58:44

only a very lonely man. Be

58:47

near me after Monica is gone.

58:50

He paused, waiting. Then,

58:53

as he turned away, he

58:55

was aware of little caressing hands

58:57

upon his arm. He

59:00

looked around at once, but the

59:02

time had not yet come for him to see.

59:05

He saw only the barred window,

59:08

the shadows on either wall, and

59:11

the flag of moonlight. Everybody

59:23

dies, don't they? Isn't

59:28

that so? You tried

59:30

to get into the lock drawer today, didn't you? How

59:33

do the date come back, Mama? What's

59:35

the secret? So that

59:37

was Playmates by A.M. Burridge. And

59:40

now we've come to the part of the

59:42

podcast where I discuss the story and my

59:44

reactions and thoughts to it. If

59:46

you are just looking for straight stories for

59:48

hours on end to get

59:51

off to sleep or something, then please go

59:53

to the YouTube channel playlist called Sleep Stories

59:55

and you'll find there are long compilations of

59:57

stories with no ads. from

1:00:00

the beginning and the end and no

1:00:02

commentary. In fact it's just story after

1:00:04

story. Another solution might be to

1:00:06

go to the full audiobook playlist

1:00:09

and I've done the full audiobooks of

1:00:11

The Phantom of the Operage, it's like

1:00:13

nine hours. Frankenstein's about eight, Dracula's about

1:00:15

14. But

1:00:18

there are a whole bunch of those long, so that's

1:00:20

a solution to the problem. If

1:00:22

you don't like Ouds at all then

1:00:24

of course this is a little selling

1:00:26

thing here. You could become a patron.

1:00:29

So if you go to www.patreon.com, what

1:00:32

you'll find is there's a

1:00:34

library, I'll keep a link to my

1:00:43

Google Drive where I have all the stories

1:00:45

so you can kind of download them to

1:00:48

your heart's content. No hands on

1:00:50

those ones. So those are two solutions and now let's

1:00:52

talk about the story. Playmates,

1:00:55

the quietly unsettling world of

1:00:58

Playmates by A.M. Borridge. So it's a

1:01:00

short story, it's not that short, it's

1:01:02

about just shy of an hour.

1:01:07

So maybe about 10,000 words even. It

1:01:11

was published in 1927 in the

1:01:13

anthology Some Ghost Stories and

1:01:16

because it was a good story it's

1:01:18

been anthologised a number of times, particularly,

1:01:21

well in number of, but where I

1:01:23

first came across it I think is

1:01:25

a 1983 anthology by Roald

1:01:27

Dahl, his book of ghost stories. There's

1:01:31

been an edition of A.M. Borridge's work

1:01:33

put out by the British Library called

1:01:35

Little Blue Flames and

1:01:37

I had the great privilege

1:01:39

of sitting at a

1:01:42

talk given by the editor of

1:01:45

that Little Blue Flames British Library

1:01:47

Nick Freeman and the

1:01:49

previous night I bought the book

1:01:51

and I didn't know he

1:01:53

was going to be giving a talk and then when

1:01:56

he came up I thought this guy, he makes some

1:01:58

very sensible things. to

1:02:00

say. So he talks

1:02:02

in his introduction, this is quite interesting,

1:02:05

during the Battle of Passchendaele in

1:02:07

1917, Private A. M.

1:02:09

Burridge of the artists rifles had

1:02:11

some form of premonition he described

1:02:13

as seeing through the dark glass.

1:02:16

Shortly before his platoon was to attack

1:02:18

the German lines, he recalled later in

1:02:20

1930, their commander, so the attack was

1:02:22

in 1917, obviously, their

1:02:25

commander smiled at something Burridge said and as

1:02:27

he smiled I saw death looking at me

1:02:29

from out of his eyes and I knew

1:02:31

that his number was up. The

1:02:34

bluntness of the trench slang cannot disguise

1:02:36

what was obviously a terrifying experience. I

1:02:39

can't describe what I saw, Burridge continues,

1:02:41

it was just death and it made

1:02:43

me afraid in a ghastly, shuddering way.

1:02:45

The momentary transfiguration was just as unpleasant

1:02:47

as if his features had melted into

1:02:49

the bones of a death's head. The

1:02:51

young officer was killed a few minutes

1:02:53

later. So, when

1:02:57

he's talking about Burridge, he says,

1:02:59

this is Nick Freeman, he said, these ghosts, Burridge's

1:03:02

ghosts, are quite different from

1:03:04

the ghosts conjured by many of his contemporaries.

1:03:07

So his ghosts manifest themselves without

1:03:10

warning in commonplace surroundings, rented rooms,

1:03:12

railway carriages, hotels, a party game,

1:03:14

a holiday cottage and are more

1:03:16

likely to be the spirits of

1:03:19

the relatively recently departed than malign

1:03:21

ancient forces on nameless cosmic horrors.

1:03:23

First one, of course, is a

1:03:25

mention of M.R. James and the

1:03:28

second is Lovecraft. They are quite

1:03:30

different from the ghosts conjured by

1:03:32

many of their contemporaries who just

1:03:34

said that. Burridge admired M.R. James,

1:03:37

who grudgingly admitted that his stories

1:03:39

kept on the right side and

1:03:41

were not altogether bad, but

1:03:44

his own fiction was set in a world

1:03:46

far removed from the academic antiquarianism of casting

1:03:48

the runes which we've done or the Latin

1:03:50

cryptograms of the treasure of Albert Thomas, which

1:03:52

we haven't done, M.R. James, and his ghosts

1:03:55

were more human than the intensely horrible face

1:03:57

of crumpled linen that terrifies the house. plus

1:03:59

parkings at the final finale of A Whistle

1:04:01

and I'll Come to You. Burridge

1:04:04

avoided the mysticism of Arthur Macken,

1:04:06

which I love, the pantheism of

1:04:08

Algernon Blackwood, which can be

1:04:10

pretty good in Descent Into Egypt

1:04:12

and The Man Whom the Trees Loved, and the

1:04:15

dreamy poetry of Walter de la Mer, thinking of

1:04:19

Quinkwunks and All Hallows.

1:04:22

His writing has something of the briskness

1:04:24

of E.F. Benson's spook stories. I can

1:04:27

see that. We did an E.F. Benson

1:04:29

last week in the tube, but his

1:04:31

characters are usually less socially elevated. They

1:04:34

were from different social classes. His

1:04:36

work shows, this is Burridge, a notable

1:04:38

awareness of the injustices wrought by wealth

1:04:40

and class. And he lacks

1:04:43

Benson's enthusiasm for the monstrous, the

1:04:45

bioluminescent giant caterpillar of

1:04:48

negotium perembalands. Great story of the shadowy

1:04:50

thing that waved as if it had been

1:04:52

ahead and for part of some huge snake

1:04:55

in And No Birds Sings, which I

1:04:57

haven't done that. Have no place in

1:04:59

Burridge's world. Burridge

1:05:02

wrote an essay in 1921 called The

1:05:04

Supernatural in Fiction expressed his admiration for

1:05:06

the perfect fusion of style and content

1:05:08

in Henry James's The Turn of the

1:05:11

Screw. Absolutely you can see that.

1:05:14

He liked H.G. Wells, whose plain

1:05:16

style influenced his own. He

1:05:19

saw himself as more akin to a journalist

1:05:21

than a Jamesian artist. There's a very interesting

1:05:23

thing where he says he

1:05:26

began to see the rewards of his

1:05:28

labours with short stories because his father

1:05:31

or his family had been writers, professional

1:05:33

writers. So Burridge started by writing children's

1:05:35

stories to chums and other boys' papers.

1:05:38

And he moved on to the adult

1:05:42

market. He said he claimed to be lazy,

1:05:44

but he clearly thrived on deadline adrenaline. He

1:05:47

preferred the swift returns from short

1:05:49

stories and serials to the uncertainties

1:05:51

of royalty payments. And

1:05:53

then of course when war broke out in 1914, he signed up. most

1:06:00

popular in the 20s. He

1:06:04

did a couple of collections, some

1:06:06

ghost stories, 1927, which we've already

1:06:08

referenced, someone in the room 1931, both of which

1:06:10

were well received. Perhaps

1:06:12

surprising, however, neither was reprinted despite

1:06:14

the presence of the tales such

1:06:16

as Smee, The Waxwork and The

1:06:19

Sweeper in other anthologies

1:06:21

which we've all done. I like Burridge.

1:06:24

And it's very interesting he says that about,

1:06:26

when you compare with other writers,

1:06:28

you can, it's like Flavors

1:06:31

of Wine, isn't it? They're all

1:06:33

writing ghost stories, but somebody's a

1:06:36

Rioja and somebody's a Merlot and

1:06:38

somebody's a Retzina. So they're

1:06:41

all different. So I can see when

1:06:43

he goes through that, he's not M.R.

1:06:45

James, he's not Lovecraft, he's not Henry

1:06:47

James, he's not, I could gut the

1:06:49

list, could go on, couldn't it? He's an

1:06:52

ordinary man in many ways, although this story is

1:06:55

more in line with the

1:06:57

privileged world of somebody

1:06:59

like Walter de la Mer or E.F.

1:07:02

Benson. E.F. Benson's are more upper

1:07:05

class, socially upper class and amusingly

1:07:07

upper class in many ways. Whereas

1:07:10

this is quite sombre,

1:07:13

this story, but it's got a lovely

1:07:15

uplift at the end. It leads

1:07:17

me on to, and I haven't even spoken about the

1:07:19

story, but Roald Dahl,

1:07:21

who produced his collection, Ghost

1:07:24

Stories, Book of Ghost Stories, I think

1:07:26

in 83, he was

1:07:29

approached, this is from Roald Dahl's

1:07:31

introduction to his and he says

1:07:33

Alfred Knopf, the American publisher, had

1:07:35

a half-brother called Edwin. Edwin

1:07:37

was a film producer in Hollywood and a long time ago

1:07:39

back in 1958. This is Roald

1:07:41

Dahl, went to him with the idea that

1:07:43

we should do a television series together of

1:07:45

nothing but ghost stories. He liked

1:07:48

it, so they agreed that Roald Dahl

1:07:50

would go off and search out the

1:07:52

24 super ghost stories that

1:07:55

were going to be the basis of the story and Roald

1:07:57

Dahl says on the face of it my job didn't

1:07:59

appear to be too too onerous in the second half

1:08:01

of the last century. And then the

1:08:04

early part of this one, ghost stories were very

1:08:06

much the fashion. Dickens had

1:08:08

written one, J.M. Berry had done

1:08:10

several, so had Hartley, Dickens, E.F.

1:08:12

Benson, John Collier and the rest.

1:08:14

So he said he started to

1:08:16

read, he read 749 ghost

1:08:19

stories, this is Darl, I was

1:08:21

completely dazed

1:08:23

by reading so much rubbish. But

1:08:26

as I staggered away from the piles of books and magazines,

1:08:28

I had the satisfaction of knowing that I had found 24

1:08:31

good ones and another 10 besides. So

1:08:33

basically he says he reads hundreds of

1:08:36

ghost stories and mostly they were trash.

1:08:39

I think he's being a little harsh,

1:08:42

but he's right in that many,

1:08:44

many of the stories that were

1:08:46

written are rotten.

1:08:49

And so he actually, I don't know if you've

1:08:52

got this, it's a book worth getting if you're

1:08:54

interested in this and I'm very, well,

1:08:57

I'll tell you there's a story. So I've

1:08:59

got a lot of anthologies of ghost stories and

1:09:02

I've got too many books and I need to

1:09:04

get rid of some. So I'm working my way

1:09:06

through them and taking the stories and I came

1:09:08

across this one and I saw, oh, we've done

1:09:10

most of these. So WS

1:09:12

by L.P. Hartley, Good, Harry by Rosemary

1:09:15

Timpely, Good, The Corner Shop, Cynthia Asquith,

1:09:17

Good, In The Tube, Benson, Christmas Meeting,

1:09:19

Rosemary Timpely, he's put her in twice

1:09:21

so he must like her. I think

1:09:24

Burridge gets in twice as well. He

1:09:26

gets The Sweeper, which we've

1:09:28

done, and Playmate, so he gets Robert

1:09:31

Eichmann, Mary Treadgold, which we haven't

1:09:33

done, Elias and the Drow by

1:09:35

Jonas Lear, The Ghost of a

1:09:37

Hand by Sheridan Le Fanu. Afterward

1:09:41

done, Edith Wharton on the Brighton Road, Richard Middleton,

1:09:43

The Upper Birth, F. Marion Crawford. So the only

1:09:45

one out of this I haven't done so far.

1:09:48

There are no, there are two. One

1:09:50

is The Telephone by Mary Treadgold and The Ghost

1:09:52

of a Hand by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. I've done

1:09:54

a lot of Sheridan Le Fanu stuff in the

1:09:56

past. Never done any Mary Treadgold.

1:10:00

After all, dials picked them. They're probably worth doing,

1:10:02

so I think I will do them. And then

1:10:04

when I've done those, I can give this book

1:10:06

away. Hooray! And I've saved an

1:10:09

inch from my bookshelf, which will be

1:10:11

filled with more books. But no, it's

1:10:13

a, it's a, I process books,

1:10:15

so I get loads in. And

1:10:18

I read them, and I keep some, and I

1:10:20

get rid of those ones, and then eventually I

1:10:22

leave in the ones I kept and mostly get

1:10:24

rid of. But I'm still surrounded by books. Anyway,

1:10:27

so I thought those introductions to both of

1:10:29

those were worth reading. I think the thing

1:10:31

to say about dials choice is

1:10:35

he likes stories

1:10:37

that aren't just scare stories.

1:10:39

He likes them, and that

1:10:41

betrays his interest in proper

1:10:44

literature, if you like, which is

1:10:46

about characters and character and human

1:10:48

concern. So not for him, the

1:10:50

pulp story that is simply there

1:10:52

to scare. These

1:10:55

stories he has picked have kind of other

1:10:57

themes to them, and we'll talk about what

1:10:59

they are in this one. I

1:11:01

also note that in many of his stories,

1:11:03

there's a kind of a nice little uplift

1:11:05

at the end. There's a moral win at

1:11:08

the end, rather than just being kind of

1:11:10

Lovecraftian dismal, like we are

1:11:12

all doomed. The weather is going to kill

1:11:14

us. I heard that on the, I was

1:11:16

watching Bodkin, which is this Netflix series set

1:11:19

in West Cork in Ireland, and the guy

1:11:21

says, haven't you heard, the weather's going to kill

1:11:23

us all? If it

1:11:25

doesn't stop raining here, it might do that. Anyway,

1:11:29

so we've talked about the story

1:11:32

itself, where it came from, and

1:11:34

the fact that Burridge wrote a

1:11:36

bunch of good stories, and

1:11:39

he was a very workaday bloke.

1:11:41

You know, he was a proper writer, and then

1:11:43

he was brave, and he

1:11:45

volunteered for the artist's rifles, and

1:11:48

then he had some pretty horrific experiences in

1:11:51

the First World War. As

1:11:53

anybody who went to it did, as probably

1:11:55

anybody who's, I've never fought in a war,

1:11:57

but I can imagine that pretty much everybody

1:11:59

who has. probably had a very, some

1:12:02

very unpleasant experiences to say the least. Okay,

1:12:06

so what we've got are the themes are

1:12:09

loneliness and isolation and

1:12:11

we have Monica and Everton.

1:12:14

So Everton is the, Stephen Everton

1:12:16

is this dry as dust historian

1:12:18

who writes, does quite well

1:12:20

out of very dull books and

1:12:22

he's a bit of an intellectual snob and

1:12:25

in fact a snob in fact because he doesn't want the

1:12:27

kid picking up ordinary

1:12:30

slangy ways. So

1:12:32

there he is and he's cold, isn't he?

1:12:34

He treats her a person as

1:12:37

an experiment and the fact that she has

1:12:39

had a luch father who

1:12:42

was an artiste and this is

1:12:44

of course the image of the

1:12:46

artist, isn't it, that they don't play by

1:12:48

the convention so they they are irresponsible to

1:12:50

their children and maybe many of them are

1:12:53

and were. But certainly this poor

1:12:55

little girl is, you

1:12:57

know, this guy was an artist but

1:13:00

he didn't, he had responsibilities to people.

1:13:02

I suppose that might be a theme

1:13:04

here that we

1:13:06

as humans have responsibility to other

1:13:08

humans rather than just living

1:13:10

a hedonistic life and following. Maybe that's

1:13:12

me, you know, that's my way

1:13:15

of looking at the world following our own

1:13:17

kind of drinking and whatever else.

1:13:20

Womanizing if you're into that kind

1:13:22

of thing. So

1:13:25

she is traumatised, she's

1:13:27

damaged, she probably would end up in

1:13:29

psychiatric services and care these days. But

1:13:34

I think nothing is a

1:13:36

coincidence really, is it? So it's portrayed that

1:13:38

he picks her as a kind of a

1:13:41

cold experiment but I think that what that

1:13:43

suggests is that underneath this exterior of his

1:13:45

which is really cold and academic and clinical

1:13:47

and even to himself, I

1:13:50

think there's a couple of things in

1:13:52

this. He adheres to this mechanistic,

1:13:57

materialistic, scientific ist.

1:14:00

cold world. There's

1:14:03

no emotion in it. But

1:14:05

I think what I was going to say

1:14:07

is the fact that he does this, because he doesn't know the

1:14:09

girl and he kind of

1:14:11

tells himself it's because he wants to

1:14:13

conduct an experiment or sort of tells

1:14:15

himself, I think it's left intentionally vague,

1:14:18

it isn't explicit, it is there as

1:14:20

part of the explanation but

1:14:22

it's vague, he doesn't really know why he does it well.

1:14:25

The reason is he's actually a human being, somebody

1:14:28

who's been pretty damaged himself I reckon.

1:14:31

So if we can explain

1:14:33

the young girl

1:14:35

Monica's coldness and distance due

1:14:38

to the fact of the neglect she

1:14:40

suffered basically at the hands

1:14:42

of her father and her mother just skipped.

1:14:44

Now I'm telling you, if you have patients

1:14:47

like this and I've retired now, very

1:14:50

few people walk away unscathed from

1:14:53

their mother abandoning them and the

1:14:55

father being an irresponsible lout,

1:14:59

not a lout in the sense of punching people

1:15:01

but a posh lout in

1:15:03

that, his loutishness is expressed in drunkenness

1:15:05

and promiscuousness and a lack of attention

1:15:08

to his daughter who he

1:15:10

has in my view a

1:15:12

responsibility towards. So

1:15:14

she's damaged. What is

1:15:16

this man Everton's damage because he

1:15:19

has a similar presentation, he has

1:15:21

also shut down to the world

1:15:23

and it's not spelled out

1:15:25

but it is certainly a subtext

1:15:27

and I infer it that

1:15:30

he himself had had some

1:15:33

kind of damage to make him

1:15:35

so emotionally cold and withdrawn.

1:15:37

And I think there are

1:15:40

things working in him that he isn't conscious

1:15:42

of when he selects this young girl to

1:15:44

look after as his experiment. We always used

1:15:46

to say, I used to have again going

1:15:48

back to work, have so many

1:15:50

patients and they'd had

1:15:53

hard times and I'd say well

1:15:55

particularly if they were young I'd say well you know

1:15:57

what would you want to do with your life? be

1:16:00

a psychologist, I want to be a psychiatrist,

1:16:02

I want to be a mental health nurse.

1:16:04

Right. And we always used

1:16:07

to say, what's happening there is you want to

1:16:09

look after somebody in the way you should have

1:16:11

been looked after. So the

1:16:13

urge in the person is to care for somebody,

1:16:16

to give them the care that they missed out on

1:16:18

themselves. And I think this subconsciously

1:16:20

is going on with Everton. It isn't

1:16:22

a bad bloke really. He's cold and

1:16:25

he's snobbish, but he's

1:16:27

not a bad bloke as shows,

1:16:29

I think, as we go forward.

1:16:34

So the supernatural story is

1:16:37

used as a, I

1:16:39

think it's used in lots of ways, but

1:16:41

on one level, it is a vehicle to

1:16:43

show this transformation of the

1:16:46

character arc because by

1:16:50

accepting the irrational, again,

1:16:53

it's almost a shadow figure, the passing

1:16:55

Parzlo, who he thinks is nothing. He

1:16:57

thinks he's a country bumpkin. And so

1:16:59

he's only here because he couldn't get

1:17:01

a better job because everybody in the

1:17:03

country must be stupid and have no

1:17:05

finer feelings, you know, so

1:17:08

and finer understanding. So, you know, he's

1:17:10

a second right man to this first

1:17:12

right academic, you know. But

1:17:15

Parzlo is the key that turns in

1:17:17

the lock. Parzlo is the one who

1:17:19

gives him the information that opens the

1:17:21

irrational. So what we have is the

1:17:23

irrational world of ghosts and

1:17:26

all the things that he

1:17:28

stuffed down. And then when

1:17:30

he says at the end, there is

1:17:32

no death, there is no death, it's almost like there

1:17:36

is a story we haven't been told about

1:17:38

this man. And if I were to imagine

1:17:40

it, I would say that his parents perhaps

1:17:42

died. And so he didn't

1:17:44

have a nurturing upbringing. And that's

1:17:47

his trauma. And so the fact that

1:17:49

he's that the dead can still have

1:17:52

emotional contact with the living in this

1:17:54

story, if he comes

1:17:56

to accept it and he comes to

1:17:58

abandon his clinical cold mechanism. mechanistic Newtonian,

1:18:01

although Newton was an alchemist, let's remember

1:18:03

that. So

1:18:05

that's where Newton's ideas of force

1:18:07

is. The idea of a force

1:18:09

operates a distance. It's magic. It

1:18:11

is an occult idea. These ideas

1:18:14

were prevalent in Renaissance magic. And

1:18:16

then Newton, who knows all about

1:18:18

that, comes up with gravity.

1:18:20

Oh, no, it's science, you know. It's an

1:18:22

occult force. Nobody knows how it works. It's

1:18:25

magic. OK, I know I'm

1:18:27

kind of egging a bit. I'm just winding

1:18:29

the scientists up a little bit, because sometimes you

1:18:32

shouldn't be too dogmatic about things. And I

1:18:34

suppose that is my life lesson. Don't be

1:18:36

dogmatic about things. Keep your mind open. You

1:18:38

might be wrong. Is it Cromwell? Who

1:18:41

had his faults? Not Thomas,

1:18:43

Oliver, who said, I

1:18:47

beseech you in the bowels of Christ

1:18:49

to at least consider you

1:18:51

may be wrong. Now, I may have

1:18:53

misattributed that and misquoted it, but

1:18:56

it's a good, good rule for life.

1:18:59

Excuse me. So that was a

1:19:02

music starting, saying that I've talked too much. So

1:19:05

I think it's an interesting story in that, you

1:19:07

know, the loneliness, because if you close yourself down

1:19:09

emotionally, one thing you can be guaranteed is that

1:19:11

you will be lonely. And

1:19:14

it takes the

1:19:16

supernatural. And I

1:19:18

suppose the the intervention

1:19:21

of a not

1:19:23

despised but overlooked man in the realm

1:19:26

of Parselow the Parson to turn the

1:19:28

key. So

1:19:32

I think that is it's

1:19:34

loneliness is about opening yourself

1:19:36

to life. And he does that in the

1:19:38

end. And he himself is

1:19:41

brought back to life in some sense, a

1:19:43

fuller life by. The

1:19:47

ghosts, the girl ghosts who are angels. And I

1:19:49

thought it was quite chilling in the vicar says

1:19:52

of the past and says, listen,

1:19:54

you don't encourage Monica to be talking the ghost

1:19:56

because these are lovely, these little seven here, they're

1:19:58

little angels. But there's other things. of

1:20:00

that ilk who aren't so easy. So

1:20:02

she's gonna go to school and of

1:20:05

course Monica goes into a normal life

1:20:07

with normal children living a

1:20:09

normal you know and that has got to be a

1:20:11

win as well. So I think this story ends up

1:20:13

as a win-win. I want

1:20:15

to when I was reading it

1:20:17

there were two stories that jumped into my

1:20:19

mind and the first is Roger Kipling's They

1:20:22

which was published before this in 1904. I've

1:20:24

done this story, you know

1:20:26

I've done a lot now. So the

1:20:29

story is it's a beautiful English summer and this guy is

1:20:31

back from the colonies and

1:20:34

he is driving and he comes across this

1:20:36

grand house and it's a I won't spoil

1:20:38

it for you but there are ghost children

1:20:40

in it and that

1:20:44

is also a very uplifting story.

1:20:46

So that's a very beautiful

1:20:49

story if you haven't heard

1:20:51

that They by Rudyard Kipling listen to my

1:20:53

version don't listen to anybody else's and

1:20:56

you'll find it just if you google it

1:20:58

you'll come across a version They by Rudyard

1:21:00

Kipling but don't listen

1:21:02

to anybody else's because I'll be upset and

1:21:06

will I be upset? I won't know to be

1:21:08

fair so I won't be upset so yeah if

1:21:10

you want listen to somebody else's and

1:21:13

then the other one of course is Susan Hill's The Woman

1:21:15

in Black. So one published 20 years

1:21:18

before and the other published 60 years

1:21:21

after. What

1:21:24

is the commonality between them is

1:21:27

that this all three stories are set

1:21:29

in these remote grand

1:21:31

houses as is turn of the screw of

1:21:34

course it's a staple it's a gothic staple

1:21:36

but not a gothic stable those are different

1:21:38

set of stories. I've

1:21:40

got a few stories with gothic stables in as well but

1:21:44

the one in black very different so we

1:21:46

have the schoolroom don't we and we have

1:21:48

the dead children in all of these stories

1:21:51

in playmates and they they

1:21:54

are uplifting whereas the

1:21:57

Susan Hill story The Woman in Black which

1:22:00

I've done a version for members, so

1:22:03

if you want to become a member, you can listen to that.

1:22:08

It's harrowing and evil, there's a malevolence,

1:22:11

so I suppose we can go either

1:22:14

way. It's

1:22:18

not something to be talked about in

1:22:20

an entertainment podcast, but

1:22:22

the loss of a child is a

1:22:24

profound thing. And

1:22:28

you can understand

1:22:30

why there's such loss, why

1:22:32

the woman in black in this story is

1:22:34

so full of almost hatred

1:22:37

for the living for what was taken

1:22:39

from her. But

1:22:42

let's circle round back

1:22:44

to this story playmates with a

1:22:46

reference today saying, you know, actually

1:22:49

this is a story where there's

1:22:51

a moral

1:22:54

win at the end. And that it

1:22:56

is a bit like, some of Walter de

1:22:58

la Mer's stuff is like that, you know.

1:23:00

It's not like, well, a Deus Ex machine,

1:23:02

a happy ending. It isn't that, you know,

1:23:04

and everything, they all lived happily ever after.

1:23:06

It's not that. It's

1:23:08

organic, it comes from the story. That's why it's so

1:23:10

well done. You can tell this guy was a professional

1:23:12

writer. This is a very well

1:23:14

crafted story, in my opinion. There's

1:23:18

nothing in it, I think, is

1:23:21

flawed or extraneous or

1:23:23

unnecessary. I think it's

1:23:26

great. Okay, so

1:23:28

that was that one playmates by A.M. Burridge.

1:23:31

Thank you for listening. I hope you enjoyed

1:23:33

my yatta and

1:23:35

yatranon and

1:23:38

yes, yes, soon. I'll speak to

1:23:40

you soon anyway. I had

1:23:42

some good news, by the way. I'd

1:23:45

finished recording and remember

1:23:48

I lost my wallet and oh no,

1:23:50

it was cash in, it was all

1:23:52

the cards, everything, driving license, my NHS

1:23:54

identity card and then a

1:23:56

very lovely man came and brought it

1:23:58

yesterday and said he... found it on the golf

1:24:00

course, he was a golfer, and

1:24:04

I offered him a reward, he wouldn't take it, and he

1:24:06

just said it's just nice to be able to do nice

1:24:08

things and I thought, do you know what mate, that is

1:24:10

absolutely right, and I am gonna go

1:24:12

forward now with that on mind and I'm gonna do

1:24:14

something nice for somebody. I don't even know who it

1:24:17

is or what it is I'm gonna do,

1:24:19

but I'm gonna be really

1:24:21

nice to somebody, like somebody was really

1:24:23

nice to me yesterday. Everybody

1:24:30

dies, don't they? Let's certainly come

1:24:33

back, then. Isn't that so?

1:24:36

We come back, then. Isn't

1:24:38

that so?