0:01

Hey, it's Otis here. Before we get

0:03

to the bedtime reading, I wanted to let you

0:05

know that I just launched a brand new show.

0:08

It's called The Daily Book Club, a daytime

0:10

companion to Sleepy, where you hear entire books,

0:12

one chapter at a time, one day at

0:15

a time. Simple as that. So

0:17

if Sleepy is how you wind down your

0:19

day, The Daily Book Club is a great

0:21

way to start your day. There's

0:23

new episodes daily. I

0:25

read in a slightly peppier voice so that

0:28

you can get really lost in these amazing

0:30

stories that have stood the test of time.

0:33

Or just like Sleepy, you can sit back and

0:35

relax and zone out to a good book. The

0:37

first book we'll be reading is The

0:39

Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnem. Story

0:42

is, in the 1920s, four

0:44

women unfulfilled with life take a

0:46

chance and abscond to a dreamy

0:48

medieval Italian castle. It's

0:50

a story dripping with wisteria, the

0:53

beauty of solitude, and an unlikely

0:55

pursuit of joy in Portofino, Italy.

0:58

I think that this is a perfect story for

1:00

the season, and you can hear it now. Find

1:02

The Daily Book Club on Spotify, Apple

1:05

Podcasts, and everywhere else. This

1:07

show has been a long time coming,

1:09

and I'm so excited to bring you

1:11

even more stories. So go subscribe to The

1:13

Daily Book Club to hear what happens next. Thanks.

1:25

Imagine unlocking a version of

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listen to podcasts. Hey

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Otis Gray here. If you like this

2:40

sleepy podcast and you're looking for even

2:42

more sleep inducing content you should check

2:44

out the I Can't Sleep podcast with

2:47

Benjamin Boster. Benjamin is a

2:49

great guy and his soothing reads of Wikipedia

2:51

articles are sure to put you to sleep

2:53

quickly and will make a great addition to

2:56

your sleep routine. Find the podcast

2:58

on your platform of choice by searching for

3:00

I Can't Sleep and click the follow button

3:02

to make sure you get the latest episodes.

3:05

Go listen to I Can't Sleep for more

3:07

snoozy content. Hey

3:16

my name is Otis Gray and you're

3:18

listening to Sleepy. A

3:26

podcast where I read old books to help you get

3:29

to sleep. I've

3:33

got a very lovely bedtime

3:35

story for you tonight from

3:38

one of my favorite authors Edith Nesbitt.

3:42

And before we get to the bedtime reading I

3:44

just want to profoundly thank all of

3:47

our brand new patrons on patreon.com which

3:49

is a website where you can go and pledge a

3:51

couple bucks for an ad-free version of the show. So

3:56

this week's wonderful new patrons. Eric

4:00

Poulin, Jessica Smith,

4:03

Carol Rich, Lisa

4:06

Yoshikawa, Joseph

4:08

Superman, Ryland

4:10

Reeder, Cynthia

4:13

Cunningham, Hillary

4:15

Burton, Conal

4:17

Enquez, Jackie

4:19

Hoekse, Nathan,

4:23

Linda W. Browning, Tierra

4:25

Smith, True Crime

4:27

and Caffeine, Cheryl

4:30

B., Mary

4:32

Contravo, Ted Barnett,

4:35

Danae Robertson, and

4:37

an extra big shout out to Kobe

4:40

Lopez. Thank

4:43

you all so, so much for being a part of

4:46

making this show. It really, really

4:48

means a lot. And

4:51

for those of you who don't know, all of

4:53

these names that I just read are brand

4:56

new supporters on patreon.com, which

4:58

is a website where you can go and support the people

5:00

who make the stuff they like. So,

5:03

if you like the Sleepy Podcast and you wanna be

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a part of making it, go

5:07

to patreon.com/Sleepy Radio.

5:11

$2 gets you an ad-free version of the show, but

5:14

even if you donate $1, I'll read

5:16

your name in the opening credits after you do. So

5:19

again, if you wanna be a part of making this show,

5:22

go to patreon.com/Sleepy Radio.

5:26

Thank you. And

5:28

as always, the music you're hearing is by

5:30

my good friend James Lepkowski, and

5:33

the cover up for Sleepy is by Gracie

5:35

Kainan. Tonight,

5:39

I'm gonna be giving you

5:41

this wonderful novel written

5:43

by Edith Nesbitt called

5:45

Twilight Sleep. It

5:48

is obviously a really good one to

5:50

snooze to, and I

5:53

love anything Edith Nesbitt, so

5:55

I really hope that you like falling asleep

5:57

to it. So

6:00

without further ado, Twilight

6:02

Sleep, a very meandering

6:05

novel by Edith Nesbeth. And

6:09

now is the time for you to fluff up

6:12

your pillow just how you like it. Feel

6:15

yourself melt into your bed. Get

6:19

real comfortable. Close

6:21

your eyes. And

6:23

let me read to you. Chapter

6:40

1 Ms.

6:43

Bruss, the perfect secretary, received Nona

6:46

Manfern at the door of her

6:48

mother's boudoir, the

6:50

office of Ms. Manfern's children, called it, with

6:53

a gesture of the kindliest denial. She

6:59

wants to, you know, dear. Your

7:02

mother always wants to see you, pleaded Maisie Bruss, in

7:06

a voice which seemed to be thinned

7:08

and sharpened by continuous telephoning. Ms.

7:14

Bruss, attached to Mrs. Manfern's

7:16

service and shortly after the latter's second

7:18

marriage, had known

7:20

Nona from her childhood and

7:22

was privileged, even now that she was out,

7:26

to treat her with a certain

7:28

benevolent familiarity, benevolence being

7:30

the note of the Manfern household. But

7:36

look at her list. Just for

7:38

this morning, the secretary continued,

7:41

handing over a tall Morocco frame tablet, one

7:45

which was inscribed in the colorless secretary's hand. 730,

7:49

mental uplift. 745, breakfast. 8,

7:56

psychoanalysis. A15 See

8:00

cook. Silent

8:03

meditation. Facial

8:07

massage. Nine.

8:10

Man with Persian miniatures. Correspondence.

8:19

Manicure. Eurythmic

8:24

exercises. Hair

8:27

waved. Sit

8:31

for boost. Receive

8:35

Mother's Day deputation. Dancing

8:39

lesson. Birth

8:43

Control Committee at Mrs. The

8:46

manicure is there now. Late as

8:48

usual. That's what martyrizes

8:51

your mother. Everybody

8:53

is being so unpunctual. This

8:56

New York life is killing her. I'm

9:01

not unpunctual, said Nona Manford, leading

9:04

in the doorway. No,

9:07

and a miracle too. The

9:10

way you girls keep up your dancing all night.

9:13

You and Lita, what times you

9:15

two do have? Miss

9:18

Brass was becoming almost maternal. But

9:21

just run your eye down that list. You

9:24

see your mother didn't expect to see you

9:27

before lunch now, did she? Nona

9:31

shook her hand. No.

9:35

But you might perhaps squeeze me in. It

9:40

was said in a friendly, reasonable

9:42

tone. On both

9:44

sides, the matter was being examined

9:46

with an evident desire for impartiality

9:48

and goodwill. Nona

9:52

was used to her mother's engagements, used

9:55

to being squeezed in between faith healers, art dealers,

9:57

social service workers, and her family. workers

10:00

and manicures. When

10:04

Mrs. Manfur did see her children, she

10:07

was perfect to them. But

10:09

in this killing New York life, with

10:12

its ever-multiplying duties and

10:14

responsibilities, if her

10:16

family had been allowed to tumble in

10:18

at all hours and devour time, her

10:21

nervous system simply couldn't have stood it,

10:23

and how many duties would have been left undone.

10:29

Mrs. Manfur's motto had always

10:32

been, there's a time for everything. But

10:35

there were moments when this optimistic view

10:37

failed her, and she began to

10:40

think there wasn't. This

10:43

morning, for instance, as Ms.

10:45

Brass pointed out, she had

10:47

had to tell the new French sculptor, who

10:50

had been all the rage in New York for the last

10:52

month, that she wouldn't be able to sit

10:54

for him for more than fifteen minutes

10:57

on account of the birth control committee meeting at 11.30

10:59

at Bessette. Nona

11:06

seldom assisted at these meetings, her

11:09

own time being through force

11:12

of habit rather than real inclination,

11:14

so fully taken up with exercise, athletics,

11:17

and the ceaseless rush from thrill

11:19

to thrill, which was supposed to

11:21

be the happy privilege of you. But

11:26

she had had glimpses enough of the scene, of

11:29

the audience of bright elderly women,

11:32

with snowy hair, the eurythmic

11:34

movements, and finely

11:36

wrinkled, over-massaged faces, on which

11:39

a smile, glassy, benevolent sat,

11:42

like their rimless, print-sniff. They

11:47

were all inexorably earnest, aimlessly

11:50

kind and fathomlessly pure,

11:53

and all rather too well-dressed, except

11:56

the prominent woman of the occasion, who

11:59

you may have seen. We usually wore dowdy clothes

12:01

and had steel-rimmed spectacles

12:03

and straggling wisps of hair.

12:09

Whatever the question dealt with, these

12:11

ladies always seemed to be the same and

12:14

always advocated with equal zeal,

12:16

birth control, and unlimited maternity,

12:19

free love, or the return to

12:22

the traditions of the American home. Neither

12:27

they nor Mrs. Manford seemed aware

12:29

that there was anything contradictory in

12:32

these doctrines. All

12:35

they knew was that they were

12:37

determined to force certain persons to do

12:39

things that those persons preferred not to

12:41

do. None,

12:45

glancing down the saried list, recalled

12:48

a saying of her mother's former

12:50

husband, Arthur Weyand, your

12:54

mother and her friends would like to teach the whole

12:56

world how to say its prayers and brush

12:58

its teeth. The

13:02

girl had laughed as she could

13:04

never help laughing at Weyand's sallies, but

13:08

in reality she admired her

13:10

mother's zeal, though she

13:12

sometimes wondered if it were not a

13:14

little too promiscuous. Fiona

13:18

was the daughter of Mrs. Manford's

13:20

second marriage, and her

13:23

own father, Dexter Manford,

13:25

who had had to make his way in the world and

13:28

taught her to revere activity as a virtue

13:30

in itself. His

13:35

tone in speaking of Pauline's zeal was

13:37

very different from Weyand's. He

13:40

had been brought up to think there was

13:42

a virtue in work, per se, even

13:45

if it served no more useful purpose than

13:47

the revolving of a squirrel in a wheel.

13:52

Perhaps your mother tries to cover too much

13:54

ground, but it's very

13:56

fine of her, you know, if she

13:58

never spares herself. Nor us. Nona

14:03

sometimes felt tempted to have. A

14:07

man for his admiration was contagious. Yes,

14:11

Nona did admire her mother's altruistic

14:13

energy, but she knew

14:16

well enough that neither she nor her

14:18

brother's wife, Leda, would ever follow such

14:20

an example. She

14:22

no more than Leda. They

14:25

belonged to another generation, to the

14:28

bewilder, disenchanted young people who had grown

14:30

up since the Great War, whose

14:33

energies were more spasmonic and

14:35

less definitely directed, and

14:38

who, above all, wanted a more

14:40

personal outlet for them. Father,

14:44

earthquakes, and Bolivia, Leda

14:47

had once whispered to Nona, when

14:49

Mrs. Manford had convoked the bright elderly

14:51

women to deal with a seismic disaster

14:53

at the other end of the world,

14:56

the repetition of which these ladies

14:58

somehow felt could be avoided that

15:01

they sent out a commission immediately

15:03

to teach the Bolivians to

15:05

do something they didn't want to do, not

15:07

to believe in earthquakes, for instance.

15:14

The young people certainly felt no corresponding

15:16

desire to set the houses of others

15:18

in order. Why

15:21

shouldn't the Bolivians have earthquakes if they chose

15:23

to live in Bolivia? And

15:26

why must Pauline Manford lie awake over

15:28

in New York and have

15:30

to learn a new set of mahatma

15:32

exercises to dispel the resulting wrinkles? I

15:38

suppose if we feel like that, it's

15:40

really because we're too lazy to

15:42

care, Nona reflected with

15:44

her incorrigible honesty. She

15:50

turned from Miss Bruss with a slight shrug. Oh,

15:53

well, she murmured. You

15:56

know, Pat, Miss Bruss volunteered.

16:00

Things always get worse as the

16:02

season goes on, and the last fortnight

16:04

in February is the worst of all, especially

16:07

with Easter coming as early as it does

16:09

this year. I

16:11

never could see why they picked out such

16:14

an awkward day for Easter. Perhaps

16:16

those Florida hotel people didn't. Why?

16:21

Your poor mother wasn't even able to see

16:23

your father this morning before he went downtown.

16:26

No, she thinks it's all wrong to let him

16:29

go to his office like that, without

16:31

finding time for a quiet little chat first.

16:35

Just a cheery word to put him in the right mood for

16:37

the day. Oh,

16:40

by the way, my dear, I wonder

16:42

if you happen to have heard him saying he's dining

16:44

at home tonight. Because,

16:47

you know, he never does remember

16:49

to leave word about his plans, and

16:51

if he hasn't, I'd better telephone to

16:53

the office to remind him that it's the

16:55

night of the big dinner for

16:58

the Marchese. Well,

17:00

I don't think father's dining at home, said

17:03

the girl, indifferently. Oh,

17:10

my gracious, collectivist breath, dashing

17:12

across the room to the telephone on her

17:15

own private desk. The

17:18

engagement list had slipped from her hands,

17:21

and Nona Manford, picking it up, ran her glance over it. She

17:24

read, 4 p.m. C.A., 4.30 p.m., musical,

17:26

torfred law. 4

17:38

p.m., C.A. No

17:41

doubt been almost sure it was Mrs. Manford's day for

17:43

going to see her divorce title. The

17:46

husband, Arthur Wyant, they faced

17:49

a mysterious person, always designated on

17:52

Mrs. Manford's list as A, an

17:54

hence known to her children as Exhibit

17:57

A. It

18:00

was rather a bore, for Nona had

18:02

meant to go and see him or so at

18:04

about that hour, and she always

18:06

timed her visit so that they should not

18:09

clash with Mrs. Manferns. Not

18:12

because the latter disapproved of Nona's

18:14

friendship with Arthur Woyan. She

18:17

thought it beautiful of the girl to

18:19

show him such kindness. But

18:21

because Woyan, Nona, were

18:24

agreed that on these occasions the presence

18:26

of the former Mrs. Woyan spoiled their

18:28

fun. But

18:32

there was nothing to do about it. Mrs.

18:35

Manferns' plans were unchangeable. Even

18:39

illness and death barely caused a ripple in

18:41

them. One

18:44

might as well have tried to bring down

18:46

one of the pyramids by poking it with

18:48

a parasol that attempt

18:50

to disarrange the close mosaic of

18:52

Mrs. Manferns' engagement list. Mrs.

19:00

Manferns' style couldn't have done it. Not

19:03

with the best will in the world. And

19:05

Mrs. Manferns' will, as her

19:08

children and all her household knew, was

19:10

the best in the world. Nona

19:15

Manferns moved away with a final

19:17

shrug. She

19:19

had wanted to speak to her mother about

19:21

something rather important. Something

19:24

she had caught a startling glimpse of the

19:26

evening before in the queer little

19:28

half-formed mind of her sister-in-law, Lita,

19:32

the wife of her half-brother, Jim Woyan.

19:35

The Lita with whom, as Mrs.

19:37

Brass remarked, she, Nona,

19:39

danced away the nights. As

19:44

nobody on earth, as dear to Nona, as

19:47

that same Jim, her elder

19:49

by six or seven years, and

19:51

who had been brother, comrade, guardian,

19:54

almost father to her, her

19:57

own father, Dexter Manfern.

20:00

was so clever, capable, and kind,

20:02

being almost always too busy at

20:04

the office, or too

20:06

firmly requisitioned by Mrs. Manfern,

20:09

when he was at home, to be able to spare

20:11

such time for his daughter. Jim,

20:16

bless him, always had time. No

20:20

doubt that was what his mother meant when she

20:22

called him lazy. As

20:24

lazy as his father, she had once added,

20:27

with one of her rare flashes of impatience.

20:31

Nothing so conducive to impatience than

20:34

Mrs. Manfern as the thought

20:36

of anybody as having the least

20:38

fraction of unapportioned time and

20:40

not immediately planning to do something with it.

20:45

If only they could have given it to her. And

20:48

Jim, who loved and admired her,

20:51

as all her family did, was

20:53

always conscientiously trying to fill his

20:56

days, or to conceal

20:58

from her their occasional vacuity. But

21:03

he had a way of not being in a hurry, and

21:06

this had been all to the good for little

21:08

Nona, who could always count on

21:11

him to ride or walk with her, to

21:13

slip off with her to a concert or a

21:16

movie. Or more

21:18

pleasantly still, just to be

21:20

there, idling in

21:22

the big untenanted library of Cedar

21:25

Lynch, the place in the

21:27

country, or in his untidy

21:29

study on the third floor of the

21:31

townhouse, and ready to

21:33

answer questions, help her

21:35

look up hard words in dictionaries, mentor

21:38

golf sticks, or get

21:40

a thorn out of her cellophane's paw. Jim

21:46

was wonderful with his hands, and

21:48

he could repair clocks, start up

21:50

mechanical toys, make fascinating

21:53

models of houses or gardens, apply

21:56

a tourniquet, scramble eggs, maybe

21:59

because mother's this way. visitors, preferably

22:02

the earnest ones who

22:04

held forth about causes or messages

22:06

in her gilded drawing

22:08

rooms, and make

22:10

delicious colored maps of imaginary continents

22:13

concerning which Nona wrote interminable

22:16

stories. And

22:19

all these gifts he had, the last,

22:22

made no particular use as yet except

22:25

to enchant his little half-sister. It

22:30

had been just the same Nona knew with

22:32

his father, poor

22:34

useless exhibit A. Mrs.

22:38

Manford said it was their old New

22:41

York blood. She

22:43

spoke of them with mingled contempt and

22:45

pride as if they were the

22:47

last of the Capetians, exhausted

22:50

by a thousand years of sovereignty. Her

22:55

own right corpsecicles were tinged with a

22:57

more plebeian dye. Her

23:00

progenitors had mined in Pennsylvania

23:02

and made bicycles at exploit and

23:05

now gave their name to one of the

23:07

most popular automobiles in the United States. Not

23:12

that other ingredients were lacking in

23:14

her hereditary makeup. Her

23:17

mother was said to have contributed

23:19

Southern geniality by being a Pascal

23:22

of Tallahassee. Mrs.

23:25

Manford, in certain words, spoke

23:28

of the Pascals of Tallahassee

23:31

as if they accounted for all that was

23:33

noblest in her. But

23:36

when she was exhorting Jim to

23:39

action, it was her father's

23:41

blood that she invoked. In

23:45

spite of the Pascal tradition, there

23:48

was no shame in being entrained. My

23:51

father's father came over from Scotland

23:54

with two sixpences in his pocket

23:58

and Mrs. Manford would glance. was

24:00

pardonable pride at the glorious

24:03

Gainsborough over the dining-room

24:05

mantle-piece, which she sometimes

24:07

almost mistook for an ancestral

24:09

portrait. Had

24:12

I her healthy, handsome family sitting

24:14

about the dinner-table, laden

24:17

with Georgian silver and orchids from

24:19

her own hothouses. From

24:23

the threshold, Nona called back to

24:25

Miss Bruss. Please

24:28

tell mother I shall probably be luncheon with

24:30

Jim and Lita. But

24:33

Miss Bruss was passionately saying to

24:36

an unseen interlocutor, Oh,

24:39

but Mr. Wrigley, but you

24:41

must make Mr. Manford understand that

24:43

Mrs. Manford counts on him for

24:45

dinner this evening. The

24:48

dinner dance for the Marcheza, you

24:50

know. The

24:54

marriage of her half-brother had been

24:56

Nona Manford's first real sorrow, not

24:59

that she had disapproved of his choice. How

25:03

could anyone take that funny, irresponsible

25:05

little Lita cleft seriously enough to

25:07

disprove of her? The

25:11

sisters-in-law were soon the best of friends,

25:14

if Nona had a fault to fine with Lita, though

25:17

that she didn't worship the incomparable Jim

25:19

as blindly as her sister did. But

25:24

then Lita was made to be

25:26

worshipped, not to worship. That

25:29

was manifest in the calm gaze

25:31

of her long, narrow, nut-colored eyes,

25:34

in the erratic fixity of her lovely

25:36

smile, in the very shape of her

25:38

hands, so slim yet dimple,

25:42

hands which had never grown up and

25:44

which drooped from her wrists as if listlessly

25:46

waiting to be cast, or

25:49

lay like rare shells or up-curved

25:51

magnolia petals on the

25:53

cushions luxuriously pile about her indolent

25:55

body. clients

26:00

had been married for nearly two

26:02

years now. The

26:04

baby was six months old. The

26:07

pair were beginning to be regarded as one

26:09

of the old couples of their set, one

26:12

of the settled landmarks in the matrimonial

26:14

quaxons of New York. Known

26:19

as love for her brother was too disinterested

26:22

for her not to rejoice in this. Above

26:25

all things she wanted her old gin to

26:27

be happy, and happy

26:30

she was sure he was, or

26:32

had been until lately. The

26:37

mere getting away from Mrs. Manford's

26:39

iron rule had been a greater

26:41

relief than he himself perhaps guessed.

26:46

And then he was still the foremost of

26:48

Leda's worshippers, still enchanted

26:50

by the childish winds, the

26:53

unpunctuality, the irresponsibility

26:55

which made life with her

26:57

such a thrillingly unsettled business

26:59

after the clockwork routine of

27:02

his mother's perfect establishment. All

27:07

this Nona rejoiced him, but

27:10

she ached at times with the loneliness

27:12

of the perfect establishment now

27:14

that Jim, its one disturbing

27:16

element, had left. Some

27:21

guessed her loneliness, she was sure. It

27:24

was he who encouraged the growing

27:26

intimacy between his wife and his

27:28

half-sister, and tried to make

27:30

the latter feel that this house was another home

27:33

to her. Leda

27:38

had always been amiably disposed

27:40

toward Nona. The two,

27:43

though so fundamentally different, were

27:47

nearly of an age, and united by the prevailing

27:49

passion for every form of sport. Leda,

27:55

in spite of her soft, curled-up

27:57

attitudes, was not only a tireless

28:00

dancer, but a brilliant, if

28:02

uncertain, tennis player, and

28:04

an adventurous rider to hounds. Between

28:09

her hours of lolling and

28:11

smoking amber scented cigarettes, every

28:14

moment of her life was crammed with

28:17

dancing, riding, or games. During

28:21

the two or three months before the baby's

28:23

birth, when Lita had been

28:25

reduced to partial inactivity, Nona

28:28

had rather feared that her perpetual

28:30

craving for new thrills might

28:33

lead to some insidious form of

28:35

time-killing, some of

28:37

the drinking or drugging that went on among

28:39

the young women of their son. But

28:42

Lita had sunk into a state

28:45

of smiling animal patience, as

28:47

if the mysterious work going on in

28:49

her tender young body had a sacred

28:51

significance for her, that it

28:54

was enough to lie still and let it

28:56

happen. All

28:59

she asked was that nothing should hurt her.

29:02

She had the blind dread of physical

29:04

pain common also to most of the

29:06

young women of her son. But

29:10

all that was so easily managed nowadays.

29:14

Mrs. Manford, who took charge

29:16

of the business, Lita being an

29:18

orphan, of course knew

29:20

the most perfect twilight sleep establishment in

29:23

the country, installed

29:25

Lita in its most luxurious suite

29:28

and filled her rooms with spring flowers,

29:30

hothouse fruits, new

29:32

novels, and all the latest picture papers.

29:36

And Lita, drifted into motherhood, as

29:39

lightly and unperceivingly as if the

29:41

wax doll which suddenly appeared in

29:44

the cradle or bedside, had been

29:46

brought there in one of the big bunches

29:48

of hothouse roses that she found every morning

29:50

on her pillow. Of

29:55

course, there ought to be no pain, nothing

29:58

but beauty. to

30:00

be one of the loveliest, most poetic things

30:02

in the world to have a baby. This

30:04

is Man for Declare, in

30:06

that bright, efficient voice which

30:09

made loveliness and poetry sound

30:11

like the attributes of an

30:13

advanced industrialism, and

30:15

baby is something to be turned out in

30:17

series like Ford's. And

30:20

Jim's joy in his son had

30:23

been unbounded, and Lita

30:25

really hadn't minded in the least. Chapter

30:35

2 The

30:39

Marcheza was something which happened at

30:41

irregular but inevitable moments in Mrs.

30:43

Manford's life. Most

30:47

people would have regarded the Marcheza

30:49

as a disturbance, some

30:51

as a distinct inconvenience, a

30:54

pessimistic as a misfortune. It

30:59

was a matter of conscious pride to Mrs. Manford that,

31:01

while recognizing these elements in

31:03

the case, she

31:05

had always contrived to make out of it

31:08

something not only showy but even enviable. For

31:13

after all, if your husband, even an

31:16

ex-husband, has a first cousin called Amalasunta

31:20

Delyduci Deocera,

31:23

who has married the Marchese Venturino de Sanfidele of

31:25

one of the great Neapolitan families, it seems

31:27

stupid and wasteful not to make some use of such a conjunction of

31:34

names and situations, and

31:37

to remember only as the Wyand's dad, that when Amalasunta

31:39

came to New York, it was always to

31:41

get money, or to get her dreadful

31:43

son out of a new scrape, or to

31:46

consult the family lawyers as to some new way of guarding

31:48

the remains of her fortune against

31:51

Venturino's systematic depredations. This

32:00

is Manford knew in advance the hopelessness

32:03

of these quests. All

32:05

of them, that is, except that

32:07

which consisted in borrowing money from

32:09

herself. She

32:13

always lay Amalasunta to her three

32:15

thousand dollars and put

32:17

it down to the profit and loss

32:19

column of her carefully kept private accounts.

32:23

She even gave the Marchesa her own

32:25

last year's claws, cleverly

32:27

retouched, and in

32:29

return she expected Amalasunta to shed

32:32

on the Manford entertainments. That

32:34

exotic luster, which the near-relative

32:36

of Adú, who is also a grandi

32:39

of Spain, and a great

32:41

dignitary of the Papal Corr trails with

32:43

her, are the dustiest

32:45

byways, even if her mother

32:47

has been a mere, merry wyant of Albany.

32:53

Mrs. Manford had been successful. The

32:56

Marchesa, without taking thought,

32:59

fell naturally into the part assigned to her.

33:03

In her stormy and uncertain life, New

33:06

York, where her rich relations live,

33:09

and from which she always came back with

33:11

a few thousand dollars and clothes

33:13

that could be made to last a year, and

33:16

good advice about putting the screws on

33:18

Venturino was like a foretaste of

33:20

heaven. Live

33:23

there? Carina? No.

33:26

It is too uneventful. As

33:30

heaven must be. But

33:33

everybody is celestially kind, and

33:36

Venturino has learned that

33:38

there are certain things my American relations

33:40

will not tolerate. Such

33:43

was Amalasunta's version of her visits to

33:45

New York, but she recounted

33:48

them in the drawing rooms of Rome, Naples,

33:50

or St. Moritz. Where

33:53

is it in New York? Quite carelessly

33:55

and unthinkingly. For

33:57

no one was simpler at heart than Amalasunta.

34:03

She pronounced names and

34:05

raised suggestions which cast a romantic

34:07

glow of unreality over a world

34:10

bounded by Wall Street on

34:12

the south and Long Island in most

34:14

other directions. And

34:17

in this glow, Pauline Manford

34:20

was always eager to son her

34:22

other guests. My

34:27

husband's cousin, become,

34:30

since the divorce from Wyance, my

34:32

son's cousin, was still

34:35

after twenty-seven years a useful social

34:37

card. The

34:40

Marchese de San Fidelle, now

34:43

woman of fifty, was still in

34:45

Pauline's house, a pretext for dinners,

34:49

a means of paying off social scores,

34:52

a small but steady luminary in the

34:54

uncertain New York heavens. Pauline

35:00

could never see her rather forlorn wisp

35:02

of a figure, always

35:04

clothed in careless, unnoticeable black,

35:08

even when she wore Mrs. Manford's old

35:10

dresses, without a vision

35:12

of echoing Roman staircases, of

35:15

the torch-lit arrival of cardinals at

35:17

the Lucerra receptions, of

35:20

a great fresco-like background of poems,

35:22

princes, dilapidated palaces,

35:26

cypress-guarded villas, scandals,

35:28

tragedies, and interminable feuds

35:31

about inheritances. It's

35:35

all so dreadful, the

35:37

wicked lives those great Roman families

35:39

led. After

35:42

all, poor Amala Sunta has

35:44

good American blood in her. Her

35:47

mother was a Wyant. Mary

35:50

Wyant, Mary, Prince, Adaviano, de

35:52

Lago Negro, the duco

35:54

de Ciarra San, who used

35:56

to be at the Italian Legation in Washington.

36:01

But what is Amalasuntha to do? In

36:04

a country where there is no divorce, and

36:07

a woman just has to put up with

36:09

everything. The

36:12

Pope is Ben-Moschim. He

36:14

sides entirely with Amalasuntha. But

36:18

Venturino's people are very powerful too. A

36:21

great Neapolitan family, yes. Cardinal

36:24

Rvalo is Venturino's uncle. So

36:28

that altogether has been

36:31

dreadful for Amalasuntha, and

36:33

such an oasis to her, coming back

36:35

to her own people. Aline

36:40

Manford was quite sincere in believing that

36:42

it was dreadful for Amalasuntha. Aline

36:46

herself could conceive of nothing more

36:48

shocking than a social organization which

36:50

should not recognize divorce, and

36:53

let all kinds of domestic evils

36:55

fester undisturbed instead of

36:58

having people's lives disinfected and

37:00

whitewashed at regular intervals, like

37:02

the summer. But

37:05

while Mrs. Manford thought all this, in

37:08

fact, in the very act of thinking it, she

37:11

remembered that Cardinal Rvalo, Venturino's

37:14

uncle, had been mentioned

37:16

as one of the probable delegates

37:18

to the Roman Catholic Congress, which

37:21

was to meet at Baltimore that winter, and

37:24

wonder whether an evening party for

37:27

his eminence could not be organized

37:29

with Amalasuntha's hope. He

37:31

even got as far as considering the

37:34

effect of torch-bearing footmen and

37:36

silk stockings lying in the Manford

37:38

staircase, which was of marble, thank

37:41

goodness, and of

37:43

Dexter Manford and Jim receiving the

37:45

prints of the church on the

37:47

doorstep and walking upstairs

37:50

backward, carrying silver

37:52

candelabra. So

37:54

Pauline wasn't sure she could persuade them to go

37:56

as far as that. Pauline

38:01

felt no more inconsistency in this

38:03

double train of thought than

38:05

she did in shuddering at the crimes of

38:07

the Roman Church and longing to

38:09

receive one of its dignitaries with all

38:12

the proper ceremonial. She

38:15

was used to such rapid adjustments, and

38:18

proud of the fact that whole

38:21

categories of contradictory opinions lay down

38:23

together in her mind as peacefully

38:25

as the happy families exhibited by

38:28

strolling circuses. And

38:31

of course, if the Cardinal did come to

38:33

her house, she would show

38:35

her American independence by inviting also

38:37

the Bishop of New York, her

38:40

own Episcopal Bishop, and

38:42

possibly the Chief Rabbi, also

38:45

a friend of hers. And

38:50

certainly that wonderful, much-slandered

38:52

Mahatma, in whom she

38:54

still so thoroughly believed. But

38:59

the word pulled her up short. Yes,

39:02

certainly, she believed in Mahatma,

39:05

she had every reason to. Standing

39:07

before the tall, threefold mirror in her dressing

39:10

room, she glanced into

39:12

the huge bathroom beyond, which

39:14

looked like a biological laboratory, with

39:17

its white tiles, polished pipes,

39:20

weighing machines, mysterious

39:22

appliances, gymnastics,

39:24

and physical culture, and

39:27

recalled with gratitude that it

39:30

was certainly those arrhythmic exercises of

39:32

the Mahatma's holy ecstasy, he

39:34

called them, which had reduced

39:37

her hips after everything else had failed.

39:41

And this gratitude for the reduction of

39:43

her hips was exactly on the same

39:45

plane in her neat,

39:47

card-catalogued mind, with her

39:49

enthusiastic faith in this

39:52

wonderful mystical teaching about self-annihilation,

39:55

interior existence, and

39:57

astral affinities. Also

40:02

incomprehensible, and so pure." Yes,

40:07

she would certainly ask the Mahatma. It

40:11

would do the cardinal good to have a talk with him. She

40:15

could almost hear his eminent saying and

40:17

a voice shaking behind emotion. Mrs.

40:20

Manford, I want to

40:22

thank you for making me know that wonderful man. If

40:25

it hadn't been for you. She

40:29

did like people who said to her,

40:31

they've had it been for you. The

40:36

telephone on her dressing table rang. Miss.

40:39

Bruss had switched on from the Boudoir.

40:43

Mrs. Manford, as she unhooked

40:45

the receiver, cast a nervous glance at

40:47

the clock. She

40:50

was already seven minutes late for her,

40:52

Marcel waving, and... Ah,

40:56

it was Dexter's voice. Automatically

41:00

she composed her face to a

41:02

wifly smile, and her

41:04

voice to a corresponding annotation. Yes,

41:08

Pauline, dear. Oh,

41:11

about dinner tonight. Why,

41:13

you know, Amala Sunta. You

41:16

say you're going to a theater with Jim and

41:18

Lita. But,

41:21

Dexter, you can't. They're

41:23

dining here, Jim and Lita are. But

41:26

of course. Yes, it must

41:28

have been a mistake. Lita's

41:30

so flighty, I know. The

41:34

smile grew a little pinched, the voice

41:36

echoed it, then patiently. Yes,

41:39

what else? Oh,

41:43

oh, Dexter. What do you mean?

41:46

The Mahatma. Why? I

41:49

don't understand. What

41:52

she did. She

41:54

was conscious of turning white under her

41:56

discreet cosmetics. Somewhere

41:59

in the... The deaths of her there

42:01

had lurked for the last weeks an unexpressed

42:03

fear of this very thing. A

42:06

fear that the people who were opposed to

42:09

the teaching of the Hindu sage, New

42:11

York's great spiritual uplift of the

42:13

last two years, were

42:15

gaining power and beginning to be a

42:18

menace. And

42:20

here was Dexter Manford actually

42:23

saying something about having been asked

42:25

to conduct an investigation into

42:27

the state of things at the Mahatma's

42:30

school of Oriental thought, in

42:32

which all sorts of unpleasantness might

42:34

be involved. Of

42:38

course Dexter never said much about

42:40

professional matters on the telephone. He

42:43

did not do his wife's

42:45

thinking say enough about them when he got

42:47

home. But

42:50

what little she now gathered made her

42:52

feel positively ill. Oh

42:58

Dexter, but I must tell

43:00

you about this at once. He

43:02

couldn't come back to lunch, I suppose. Not

43:05

possibly. No. This

43:08

evening there will be no chance. Why

43:11

the dinner for Amla Sintha? Oh,

43:13

please don't forget it again. With

43:18

one hand on the receiver, she reached

43:20

out with the other for her engagement list, the

43:23

duplicate of Miss Brosses, and

43:25

ran a nervous, unseeing eye over it.

43:29

A scandal. Another scandal.

43:32

It mustn't be. She

43:34

loathed scandals. And

43:37

besides, she did believe in the Mahatma. He

43:40

had vision. From

43:44

the moment when she picked up that word

43:46

in a magazine article, she

43:48

had felt she had a complete answer about her.

43:50

But I must see you

43:53

before this evening, Dexter. Wait. I'm

43:56

looking over my engagements. She

44:01

came to 4 p.m. See

44:04

A. 4.30,

44:06

Musical, Torfried Lob. No,

44:10

she couldn't give up Torfried Lob. She

44:13

was one of the fifty or sixty ladies

44:15

who had discovered him the previous winter, and

44:19

she knew he counted on her presence

44:21

as recital. Well

44:23

then, for once, A

44:26

must be sacrificed. Listen,

44:30

Dexter, if I were to

44:32

come to the office at 4, yeah,

44:35

sure. Is that right? And

44:38

don't do anything till I see you. Promise?

44:44

She hung up with a sigh of relief. She

44:47

would try to readjust things so as to

44:49

see A the next day. Though

44:53

readjusting her list in the height of

44:55

the season was as exhausting as a

44:57

major operation. In

45:02

her momentary irritation, she

45:04

was almost inclined to feel as if

45:06

it were Arthur's fault for figuring on that

45:08

day's list and thus

45:10

unsettling all her arrangements. Poor

45:15

Arthur. From the first,

45:18

he had been one of her failures. He

45:20

had a little cemetery of them, a

45:23

very small one, planted over

45:25

with quick-growing things so that

45:27

you might have walked all through her life and

45:29

not noticed there were any graves in it. To

45:34

the inexperienced Pauline of thirty

45:36

years ago, fresh from the

45:38

factory smoke of exploit, Arthur

45:41

Wyant had symbolized the tempting contrast

45:43

between a city absorbed in making

45:45

money and a society bent on

45:47

enjoying it. Such

45:51

a brilliant figure and nothing to

45:53

show for it. She

45:56

didn't know exactly what she had expected, her

45:59

own ideal. of manly achievement being at

46:01

that time solely based on the power

46:03

of getting rich faster than your neighbors,

46:06

which Arthur would certainly never do. His

46:12

father-in-law, at exploit, had

46:15

seen at a glance that it was no use

46:17

taking him into the motor business, and

46:20

had remarked philosophically to Pauline,

46:23

better disregard him as a piece of jewelry.

46:26

I guess we can afford it. The

46:30

jewelry must at least be brilliant,

46:33

and Arthur had somehow faded. At

46:37

one time, she hoped he might

46:40

play a part in state politics, with

46:42

Washington and its enticing diplomatic society

46:44

at the end of the vista,

46:48

but he shrugged that away as contemptuously

46:50

as what he called trade. At

46:54

Cedarledge, he farmed a little, fussed

46:57

over the accounts, and muddled

46:59

away her money till she replaced him

47:01

by a trained superintendent. And

47:04

in town, he spent hours playing bridge at

47:07

his club, took an intermittent

47:09

interest in racing, and went

47:11

and sat every afternoon with his mother, old

47:13

Mrs. Wyant, in the dreary

47:16

house near Stuyvesant Square, which

47:18

had never been done over, and

47:21

was still lit by carcel lamps. An

47:28

obstacle and a disappointment. That

47:30

was what he had always been. Still,

47:33

she would have borne with his

47:35

inadequacy as a resultless planning, dreaming

47:38

and dawing, even his

47:40

growing tendency to drink as the

47:43

wives of her generation were taught to bear

47:45

with such failings had it

47:47

not been for the discovery that he

47:49

was also immoral. Immorality,

47:52

no high-minded woman could

47:55

condone. And when,

47:57

on a return from a rescuer in college.

48:01

She found that he had drifted into a

48:03

fernome love affair with the dependent cousin who

48:05

had lived with his mother. Every

48:08

law of self-respect known to

48:10

Pauline decreed his repudiation. Old

48:14

Mrs. Wyant, horror struck, banished

48:17

the cousin and pleaded for her son.

48:21

Pauline was adamant. She

48:24

addressed herself to the rising divorce lawyer,

48:26

an extra man-fern, and

48:29

in his capable hands the affair was

48:31

settled rapidly, discreetly, without

48:34

scandal or recrimination.

48:39

Wyant withdrew to his mother's house

48:42

and Pauline went to Europe, a free

48:44

woman. In

48:48

the early days of the new century, divorce

48:51

had not become the social institution in

48:53

New York, and the blood

48:55

of Wyant's pride was deeper than Pauline had

48:57

foreseen. He

49:01

lived in complete retirement at his mother's,

49:04

saw his boy at the dates prescribed by

49:06

the Corps, and sank

49:08

into a store of premature old

49:10

age, which contrasted painfully even to

49:13

Pauline herself with her own recovered

49:15

youth and elasticity. The

49:19

contrast caused her a retrospective

49:21

pain, and gradually,

49:24

after her second marriage and

49:26

Old Mrs. Wyant's death, she

49:29

came to regard poor Arthur not as

49:31

a grievance but as a responsibility. She

49:37

prided herself on never neglecting

49:39

her responsibilities, and

49:41

therefore fell to not unnatural vexation

49:43

with Arthur for having figured among

49:45

her engagements that day, unless a

49:48

blind shirt to postpone them. Moving

49:53

back to the dressing table, she

49:56

caught a reflection in the tall triple glass.

49:59

I gave it to her. Those find wrinkles about lid

50:01

and lips. Those. Vertical lines

50:04

between the eyes. Surinam

50:06

per minute. Now. Not

50:08

for a moment. She.

50:11

Commanded are so. Now.

50:13

Pauline, Stop worrying. You

50:16

know perfectly well that there is no such thing

50:18

as worry. That. Only

50:20

dispatch there. Are one of

50:22

exercise. And everything's really all right.

50:25

Then. They insincere town of a mother

50:27

soothing a bruised baby. She

50:32

looked again. And. Fancy. The

50:34

wrinkles were really fainter. The.

50:37

Vertical lines less the. Once.

50:41

More she saw before her

50:43

interact athletic woman. With.

50:45

All her hair Dollar Day. And

50:48

just a hint of rouge. Because people

50:50

into. Brining. Still

50:52

fresh, complex, Sar.

50:57

Small symmetrical features. The.

51:00

Black browse drawn with a light

51:02

stroke over hand sewn directly gazing

51:05

gray eyes. The. Abundant

51:07

whining hair which still responded

51:09

so crisply to the waivers

51:11

hand. The firmly

51:13

planted V. Fan art in stamps.

51:16

Rising to slim ankles, How.

51:21

Absurd. How unlike

51:23

or so to be upset by that

51:25

foolish news. She

51:28

would look in on Dexter. And sell

51:30

them a harm a business and five minutes.

51:33

That there was to be a scandal. The.

51:36

Wasn't going to have dachshund mix up in a. Above.

51:39

All not against the Mahatma. Chicken.

51:44

Ever forget. That. It was

51:46

the man I had first holder suicide

51:48

guy. The.

51:51

Made opened an inner door an inch or two.

51:54

To say rebuking me. Madam.

51:57

The hairdresser, the missile

51:59

process to remind you." Yes,

52:03

yes, yes, Mrs. Manford

52:05

responded hastily, repeating

52:07

below her breath as

52:09

she flung herself into her kimono and

52:11

settled down before her toilet table. Now,

52:17

I forbid you to let yourself feel

52:19

horrified. You know there's

52:21

no such thing as hurry. Let

52:26

her eye again turned anxiously to the

52:28

little clock among her scent bottles, and

52:31

she wondered if she might not save

52:33

time by dictating to Maisie Brass while

52:35

she was being waved in manicure. She

52:40

envied women who had no sense of

52:42

responsibility, like Jim's little Eda.

52:46

As for so, the only

52:48

world she knew rested on her shoulders. Thank

53:03

you for listening to Sleepy. Goodnight.

54:00

you