PART I I THIS is the saddest story
I 0
have ever heard .
We 1
had known
the Ashburnhams 2
for nine seasons of
the town of Nauheim 3
with an extreme intimacy -- or , rather with an acquaintanceship as loose and easy and yet as close as a good glove 's with
your 4
hand .
and
I 0
knew
Captain and Mrs Ashburnham 2
as well as it was possible to know
anybody 16
, and yet , in another sense ,
we 1
knew nothing at all about
them 2
.
This is ,
I 0
believe , a state of things only possible with
English people 6
of whom , till today , when
I 0
sit down to puzzle out what
I 0
know of this sad affair ,
I 0
knew nothing whatever .
Six months ago
I 0
had never been to
England 7
, and , certainly ,
I 0
had never sounded the depths of an English heart .
I 0
had known the shallows .
I 0
do n't mean to say that
we 1
were not acquainted with many
English people 8
.
Living , as
we 1
perforce lived , in
Europe 9
, and being , as
we 1
perforce were ,
leisured Americans 129
, which is as much as to say that
we 1
were un-American ,
we 1
were thrown very much into the society of
the nicer English 10
.
Paris 11
,
you 12
see , was
our 1
home 121
.
Somewhere between
Nice 14
and
Bordighera 15
13 provided
yearly winter quarters 125
for
us 1
, and
Nauheim 3
always received
us 1
from July to September .
You 17
will gather from this statement that
had , as the saying is , a " heart " , and , from the statement that
is dead , that
she 5
was
the sufferer 122
.
Captain Ashburnham 18
also had a heart .
But , whereas a yearly month or so at
Nauheim 3
tuned
him 18
up to exactly the right pitch for the rest of the twelvemonth , the two months or so were only just enough to keep poor
Florence 5
alive from year to year .
The reason for
his 18
heart was , approximately , polo , or too much hard sportsmanship in
his 18
youth .
The reason for poor
Florence 5
's broken years was a storm at
sea 19
upon
our 1
first crossing to
Europe 9
, and the immediate reasons for
our 1
imprisonment in
that continent 9
were
doctor 20
's orders .
They 21
said that even the short
Channel 22
crossing might well kill
the poor thing 5
.
When
we 23
all first met ,
Captain Ashburnham 18
, home on sick leave from
an India to which
he 18
was never to return
24 , was thirty-three ;
Mrs Ashburnham Leonora 25
-- was thirty-one .
I 0
was thirty-six and poor
Florence 5
thirty .
Thus today
Florence 5
would have been thirty-nine and
Captain Ashburnham 18
forty-two ; whereas
I 0
am forty-five and
Leonora 25
forty .
You 26
will perceive , therefore , that
our 23
friendship has been a young-middle-aged affair , since
we 23
were all of
us 23
of quite quiet dispositions ,
the Ashburnhams 2
being more particularly what in
England 7
it is the custom to call "
quite good people 27
" .
They 2
were descended , as
you 28
will probably expect , from
the Ashburnham who accompanied
Charles I 30
to the scaffold
29 , and , as
you 31
must also expect with
this class of English people 32
,
you 33
would never have noticed it .
Mrs Ashburnham 25
was
a Powys 34
;
Florence 5
was
a Hurlbird 35
of
Stamford 36
,
Connecticut 37
, where , as
you 38
know ,
they 39
are more old-fashioned than even
the inhabitants 40
of
Cranford 41
,
England 42
, could have been .
I 0
myself 0
am
a Dowell 43
of
Philadelphia 44
,
Pa. 45
, where , it is historically true , there are more
old English families 46
than
you 47
would find in any six
English counties 48
taken together .
I 0
carry about with
me 0
, indeed -- as if it were the only thing that invisibly anchored
me 0
to any spot upon the globe -- the title deeds of
my 0
farm , which once covered
several blocks between
Chestnut 51
and
Walnut Streets 52
50 .
These title deeds are of wampum , the grant of
an Indian chief 53
to
the first Dowell 54
, who left
Farnham 55
in
Surrey 56
in company with
William Penn 57
.
, as is so often the case with
the inhabitants of
Connecticut 37
59 , came from
the neighbourhood of Fordingbridge 60
, where
the Ashburnhams 2
' place
61 is .
From
there 61
, at this moment ,
I 0
am actually writing .
You 62
may well ask why
I 0
write .
And yet
my 0
reasons are quite many .
For it is not unusual in
human beings who have witnessed the sack of
a city 63
or the falling to pieces of
a people 64
65 to desire to set down what
they 65
have witnessed for the benefit of
unknown heirs 66
or of
generations 67
infinitely remote ; or , if
you 68
please , just to get the sight out of
their 65
heads .
Some one 120
has said that the death of a mouse from cancer is the whole sack of
Rome 69
by
the Goths 70
, and
I 0
swear to
you 71
that the breaking up of
our 23
little four-square coterie
23 was such another unthinkable event .
Supposing that
you 72
should come upon
us 23
sitting together at one of the little tables in
front of
the club house 74
73 , let
us 75
say , at
Homburg 76
, taking tea of an afternoon and watching the miniature golf ,
you 77
would have said that , as human affairs go ,
we 23
were an extraordinarily safe castle .
We 23
were , if
you 78
will ,
one of those tall ships with the white sails upon
a blue sea 79
126 , one of those things that seem the proudest and the safest of all the beautiful and safe things that
God 80
has permitted the mind of
men 81
to frame .
Where better could one take refuge ?
Where better ?
Permanence ?
Stability ?
I 0
ca n't believe it 's gone .
I 0
ca n't believe that that long , tranquil life , which was just stepping a minuet , vanished in four crashing days at the end of nine years and six weeks .
Upon
my 0
word , yes ,
our 23
intimacy was like a minuet , simply because on every possible occasion and in every possible circumstance
we 23
knew where to go , where to sit , which table
we 23
unanimously should choose ; and
we 23
could rise and go , all four together , without a signal from
, always to the music of the Kur orchestra , always in the temperate sunshine , or , if it rained , in
discreet shelters 83
.
No , indeed , it ca n't be gone .
You 84
ca n't kill a minuet de la cour .
You 85
may shut up the music-book , close the harpsichord ; in the cupboard and presses the rats may destroy the white satin favours .
The mob 86
may sack
Versailles 87
;
the Trianon 88
may fall , but surely the minuet -- the minuet itself is dancing itself away into the furthest stars , even as
our 23
minuet of
the Hessian bathing places 89
must be stepping itself still .
Is n't there any
heaven 90
where old beautiful dances , old beautiful intimacies prolong themselves ?
Is n't there any
Nirvana 91
pervaded by the faint thrilling of instruments that have fallen into the dust of wormwood but that yet had
frail , tremulous , and everlasting souls 92
?
No , by
God 80
, it is false !
It was n't a minuet that
we 23
stepped ; it was
a prison 93
--
a prison full of
screaming hysterics 94
, tied down so that
they 94
might not outsound the rolling of
our 23
carriage wheels as
we 23
went along
the shaded avenues of the
Taunus Wald 96
95 .
And yet
I 0
swear by the sacred name of
that it was true .
It was true sunshine ; the true music ; the true splash of the fountains from the mouth of stone dolphins .
For , if for
me 0
we 23
were
four people with the same tastes , with the same desires , acting -- or , no , not acting -- sitting here and there unanimously 128
, is n't that the truth ?
If for nine years
I 0
have possessed a goodly apple that is rotten at the core and discover its rottenness only in nine years and six months less four days , is n't it true to say that for nine years
I 0
possessed a goodly apple ?
So it may well be with
Edward Ashburnham 18
, with
Leonora 25
and with poor dear
Florence 5
.
And , if
you 97
come to think of it , is n't it a little odd that the physical rottenness of at least two pillars of
our 23
four-square house
23 never presented itself to
my 0
mind as a menace to its security ?
It does n't so present itself now though
are actually dead .
I 0
do n't know ... .
I 0
know nothing -- nothing in
the world 99
-- of the hearts of
men 100
.
I 0
only know that
I 0
am alone -- horribly alone .
No hearthstone will ever again witness , for
me 0
, friendly intercourse .
No
smoking-room 101
will ever be other than peopled with incalculable simulacra amidst smoke wreaths .
Yet , in the name of
God 80
, what should
I 0
know if
I 0
do n't know the life of the hearth and of
the smoking-room 102
, since
my 0
whole life has been passed in those
places 103
?
The warm hearthside !
-- Well , there was
Florence 5
:
I 0
believe that for the twelve years
her 5
life lasted , after the storm that seemed irretrievably to have weakened
her 5
heart --
I 0
do n't believe that for one minute
she 5
was out of
my 0
sight , except when
she 5
was safely tucked up in bed and
I 0
should be
downstairs 104
, talking to
some good fellow 105
or other in
some lounge 106
or
smoking-room 107
or taking
my 0
final turn with a cigar before going to bed .
I 0
do n't ,
you 108
understand , blame
Florence 5
.
But how can
she 5
have known what
she 5
knew ?
How could
she 5
have got to know it ?
To know it so fully .
Heavens !
There does n't seem to have been the actual time .
It must have been when
I 0
was taking
my 0
baths , and
my 0
Swedish exercises , being manicured .
Leading the life
I 0
did , of
the sedulous , strained nurse 109
,
I 0
had to do something to keep
myself 0
fit .
It must have been then !
Yet even that ca n't have been enough time to get the tremendously long conversations full of worldly wisdom that
Leonora 25
has reported to
me 0
since
their 98
deaths .
And is it possible to imagine that during
our 110
prescribed walks in
Nauheim 3
and the
neighbourhood 111
she 5
found time to carry on the protracted negotiations which
she 5
did carry on between
Edward Ashburnham 18
and
?
And is n't it incredible that during all that time
Edward 18
and
Leonora 25
never spoke a word to each other in private ?
What is one to think of humanity ?
For
I 0
swear to
you 112
that
they 2
were
the model couple 123
.
He 18
was as devoted as it was possible to be without appearing fatuous .
So well set up , with such honest blue eyes , such a touch of stupidity , such a warm goodheartedness !
And
she 25
-- so tall , so splendid in the saddle , so fair !
Yes ,
Leonora 25
was extraordinarily fair and so extraordinarily the real thing that
she 25
seemed too good to be true .
You 113
do n't ,
I 0
mean , as a rule , get it all so superlatively together .
To be
the county family 114
, to look
the county family 115
, to be so appropriately and perfectly wealthy ; to be so perfect in manner -- even just to the saving touch of insolence that seems to be necessary .
To have all that and to be all that !
No , it was too good to be true .
And yet , only this afternoon , talking over the whole matter
she 25
said to
me 0
: " Once
I 25
tried to have
a lover 116
but
I 25
was so sick at the heart , so utterly worn out that
I 25
had to send
him 116
away . "
That struck
me 0
as the most amazing thing
I 0
had ever heard .
She 25
said "
I 25
was actually in
a man 116
's arms .
Such
a nice chap 116
!
Such
a dear fellow 116
!
And
I 25
was saying to
myself 25
, fiercely , hissing it between
my 25
teeth , as
they 117
say in novels -- and really clenching them together :
I 25
was saying to
myself 25
: ' Now ,
I 25
'm in for it and
I 25
'll really have a good time for once in
my 25
life -- for once in
my 25
life ! '
It was in the dark , in
a carriage 118
, coming back from a hunt ball .
Eleven miles
we 119
had to drive !
And then suddenly the bitterness of the endless poverty , of the endless acting -- it fell on
me 25
like a blight , it spoilt everything .
Yes ,
I 25
had to realize that
I 25
had been spoilt even for the good time when it came .
And
I 25
burst out crying and
I 25
cried and
I 25
cried for the whole eleven miles .
Just imagine
me 25
crying !
And just imagine
me 25
making
a fool 124
of
the poor dear chap 116
like that .
It certainly was n't playing the game , was it now ? "