Eden Phillpotts

“ And honestly, the longer I live, the less I see to laugh at in the world, for a thinking man with high resolves to better things. People laugh for two reasons, I believe: to throw their neighbours off the scent of the truth; or else because they are rattle-pated, light-minded fools, with no more in them than an empty pot. The ‘empties’ make the most noise, don’t they? All the same, I like to hear you laugh, because you laugh honest and it means you’re happy. And God knows if there’s one thing I want to make happy before everybody on earth, it’s you, Medora. ”

“ No, Medora; he didn’t spare your future husband because he was frightened of letting daylight into him; he spared him because he knew you loved him better than anything on earth. You put that in your pipe and smoke it, my dear. And take heart from it also; for if Ned wouldn’t sink to Kellock’s life, you may bet your pretty shoes he wouldn’t touch his money. Now I must get back.”
“There’s a lot more I’d like to say, however. When you do find a fellow creature that understands, which isn’t often, your soul craves to speak,” said Medora. ”

“ But we old people—as you call us, rather thoughtlessly, Medora—we old people don’t take you children for a model. We’ve been through those stages, and what we understand by love ain’t what you understand by it. We’ve forgotten more than you know. I should have thought now that Kellock—a man so much older than his years—might have given you a glimpse of the beauty and steadfastness of what we’ll call middling to middle-aged love, Medora? ”

“ It wasn’t Kellock’s fault, nor yet Ned’s; and I’ll swear on my knees it wasn’t mine—not altogether, because something not myself drove me and blinded me and dazed me.”
“That’s moonshine, Medora. You’re not going to make anybody believe that; and don’t you try—else there’ll be the devil to pay. It was your fault—the fault of your character—because a woman and her character must be one. But I grant this; if we can’t go outside our characters, and our characters are us and control all we do and think, then, being yourself from no fault of your own, you’re not to blame in a sense. ”

“ Ned listened to this long speech while he sowed carrots.
“These things don’t happen by chance,” concluded Knox. “A man like you bends fate to his own purpose; and fate, being a female, does a lot more for them that drive her than them that spoil her. You stand in a very strong position now, and the lucky thing is that the strong can be merciful to the weak without losing their self-respect.”
“I’ll see Kellock,” promised Ned. “I’ll see him to-morrow and hear what he’s got to say about it.”
“A very good thought, but let your mind dwell on Medora a bit before you do. ”

“ To his order of mind the situation appealed with the uttermost gravity, for not an inkling of the true Medora tinctured his impression and he was as ignorant of the true Ned. He trusted the woman absolutely and he loved her. He steadfastly believed now that the most precious life in the world to him was in torment and in danger. She had, under dreadful stress of emotion as it appeared, more than once expressed her regret at the fatal step in the past. She had mourned frankly and explicitly at taking Dingle, when she might have married Kellock himself. ”

“ It’s easy enough to be better than the world thinks you, because it judges others by itself and the mass of people have a very base standard. The law itself is disgusting and bestial in this matter. It sticks to the old, shameful conditions and demands adultery before divorce. So there must be evidence of that—we’re ordered to sink to furnishing evidence of it; but we’re made of much too fine stuff to sink to the heathen reality. We’re a cut above the dirty law—you and me. We want to live our future lives on a plane of mutual respect and admiration. ”

“ Jordan smiled at Mr. Trood’s enthusiasm.
“I love my work,” he said, “and should never give it up, unless it gave me up, Ernest, but for one reason—that I could do something better.”
“That you never would, if they made you king of England,” replied the foreman. “You’d never be so good at anything else as you are at paper-making, because you’ve got the natural genius for the job. That’s your gift—and you may lecture or you may stand on your head, or do any other mortal thing, but you won’t do it as well as you do your work at the vat.” ”

“ We mustn’t dream beautiful dreams yet. We’ve got to face reality till we alter reality.”
“My life’s not been reality so far—only a nightmare.”
[Pg 116] “Reality is nothing more than a question of time now. In fact you may say it’s begun, Medora.”
“Yes, indeed, Jordan dear. You can’t guess what heaven it is to me to know I’m in your strong hands. I’ve come to rest after being tossed by cruel storms—to rest in your arms.”
“I hope I’ll prove all you think me. I want to have the future clear and the past off our minds; and then we’ll just enjoy ourselves and have a bit of good fun.” ”

“ The world could get on perfectly well without those horses and those clothes—yes, and those people; but it couldn’t get on without us. We’re carrying on the work of civilisation, not those dolls and puppets toying together. Poverty and wealth are the result of the same vicious factor in our social system. They are interdependent and spring from the same rotten roots. Banish poverty and you do away with hunger and ignorance and misery and immorality and other ills, all of which spring from it. And there’s only one way to banish poverty, and that’s to banish wealth. ”

“ Only two people can make fools of us,” answered Jordan, “and that’s we ourselves. We’ve took the high line and we’re safe accordingly. All he’ll get out of delay is the pangs of conscience; and what’s more he’ll put himself wrong with the rest of the world.”
“That’s some comfort,” said Medora. “They smart most who smart last, I reckon. All the same it’s a blackguard thing on his part.”
“The law moves a lot slower than human passion,” he explained, “and though we say hard speeches against it, there is some advantage in a machine that can’t be got to gallop as fast as man’s hate. ”

“ If decent women can grumble about their husbands—you, for example—why shouldn’t decent men?”
“I haven’t got a husband at present,” said Medora sharply, “so you needn’t drag me in.”
“The sensible way you look facts in the face is very much to be admired,” he answered. “There’s a lot of girls, if they’d done what you’ve done, would bury their heads in the sand, like the ostrich, and think it was all right. But you don’t let the truth escape you. I admire you for that. In a way, it’s true you haven’t got a husband at present, but on the other hand, you have.” ”

“ But Medora was out for blood and her carnivorous instincts extended even to Kellock himself. He too must suffer, that she might complete her performance with due triumph. She pictured Jordan ostracised and turning to her for comfort and support. She saw herself doubted, misunderstood, but presently triumphing over everybody. She imagined Kellock lifted to heights unattainable without her steadfast aid. She felt a boundless confidence in her own intelligence and inspiration to help him. But he must certainly run away with her as a preliminary. ”

“ Trood himself appeared.
“A vatman,” said Trenchard.
“By name, Philander Knox,” explained the stranger. “I must tell you,” he added, “that I’ve got rather a queer stroke at the vat. People laugh to see me with a mould; but they don’t laugh when they see the paper.”
“We shan’t quarrel with your stroke if we don’t with your sheet,” said Trood. “I’m for a nice, easy stroke myself, because it goes farther and faster; but we all know no two men have the same stroke. We’ve got a man now with a stroke like a cow with a musket; but his paper’s all right.” ”

“ Once you’re broken in, Medora, you and him will come together in a real understanding spirit. No doubt the first stages are rather painful to a handsome, clever bit like you, with dashing ideas, and the memory of what life was with Ned; but only give Kellock time, and the past will grow dim, and you’ll get used to the everlasting Sunday idea. I greatly admire Kellock, because he never changes. He’ll be a bit monotonous at first compared with the past, but he’ll wear. You’ll feel you’re always living in cold, bitter clear moonlight with Kellock ”

“ We were lost to sense and reality, and acted in a mad and improper manner. In fact, we’ve been everything we could be, except wicked, and silliness is often punished worse than wickedness. But, though Kellock richly deserved to lose his stroke, it’s as much my fault as his own that he has done so, and I’m too sporting to turn my back on him at such a moment. If he’s ruined, then it’s my hard duty to share his trouble, and I won’t be a rat and quit a sinking ship. That’s not the sort of woman Ned Dingle married.’ So Medora argued, no doubt—not knowing, of course, what you’ve said to Kellock. ”

“ Money is the source of all evil to people and it ought not to be handled by people, but by the State. If you once knock the idea of money out of the human mind and teach it to think in different values and occupy itself, not with mean necessities and still meaner luxuries and possessions, but the things of the soul—then you get on a higher plane at once.”
But she was more interested in things as they were. A man or two obviously admired her, and the fact that she sat beside Kellock did not seem to prevent their open admiration. ”