[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After waiting a moment, Bingley asked whether all of her sisters were at Longbourn.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Though it was a simple question, Elizabeth understood the special meaning behind it. When everyone was ready to leave,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mr. Darcy and his sister expressed their wish of having Mr. and Mrs. Gardner and Miss Bennet to dinner at Pemberley.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was decided they would meet for dinner the day after the next.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When the visitors had gone, Elizabeth thought that their visit had been one of great satisfaction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She wanted to be alone because she was fearful of questions from her uncle and aunt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She stayed with them only long enough to hear that they thought most highly of Bingley. Her thoughts were of Pemberley all that evening


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The evening was not long enough for her to decide how she felt about Darcy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Her hatred toward him had disappeared long ago, and she now felt ashamed about ever disliking him. Above all, she felt very grateful.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not because he had once loved her, but because he loved her enough to forgive the way that she had not accepted his offer. He might have tried to avoid meeting her


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She wondered how much happiness it would bring to both of them if she were to encourage his feelings of love for her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Compliment me on wearing a lot of, you know, big clothes or whatever or not being super sexually whatever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think anyone is allowed to wear whatever they want and do whatever they want and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have to take all your clothes off to be desirable. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everybody's hot. Let them be hot. Let them be naked, dude. For real. Bro, let them go. I just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is just what I want to wear right now and if I want to take all my clothes off tomorrow, I'm going to. Nobody can stop that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And don't you DASK come down again until the dust of prayer is ground into your repentant knees. Upstairs!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Look here, Sparky, don't you get to thinking wrong things about Thunder. He's a good man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When that happens, seems like he can't no ways hold back from drowning out the sound with liquor. And that's all there is to it. Don't you worry none about me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well boy, some men folks quarrel over women. With Godon Thunder, it was a horse, a mare, to a racing man more precious than any beautiful woman.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was an important race with a mare in it. Godaw set a heap of store on that mare as a win in that race. But something happened to one of her legs and she lost.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Godaw set out to ruin Thunder. Took all his horses away from Roundhouse. Thunder tried hard to fight him back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All he needed was money enough to keep Roundhouse a-goin', and he figured on winnin' that in the next big race. Everybody knew we had a better horse than Godot's.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Don't have to tell you no more, you're seeing the rest for yourself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You mean after 18 years he still feels like that? 18 years or 80. A racing man never changes how he feels.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Be that as it may, it ain't gonna happen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There ain't no foals, no horses.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What are you and Thunder so thick as thieves about all of a sudden? Oh, it's a secret. A secret, huh?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whenever you see a bum so bright he could have been rich if he tried, say horse to him. Watch him scratch. However, so be it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that old classic, clam juice. Okay. So here's how the game works. I'm gonna ask you a question. You can either answer that question, or if you don't want to answer that question, you have to eat whatever I give you. And then we'll do that vice versa. So I will give you...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll stay right there, I'll give you the sardine smoothie. Okay. Neither Kendall nor myself have seen these questions. Are you ready? Uh huh. Okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Three of your nieces and nephews are named Dream, North and Saint.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm gonna give you, yeaah, I'm gonna give you the bird saliva.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who is your least favourite member of Taylor Swift's squad?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's Selena Gomez, Hailey Steinfeld, Cara Delevingne, Uzo Aduba, Carly Kloss, Gigi Hadid, or Taylor Swift.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, I'm gonna give you...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll give you... I said, well, yeah, I'm gonna give you the clam juice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your sister Kylie was supposed to be on our show tonight.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But she cancelled yesterday morning because she was sick. Yeah, she was sick.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I sent her a long letter, uhm, uh, describing what Deadpool is and what we're hoping to do and somehow she got two hours later or something, she said yes. And then we said,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And conscious that Walter, lying on his camp bed a few feet away from her, lay awake.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She had never known that one could suffer so much, and she asked herself desperately what she had done to deserve it. She could not make out why Charlie did not love her. It was her fault, she supposed, but she had done everything she knew to make him fond of her. They had always got on so well. They laughed all the time they were together. They were not only lovers, but good friends. She could not understand. She was broken.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But she had no idea how she was going to live if she was never to see him again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If Walter was taking her to Mei Tan Fu as a punishment, he was making a fool of himself. For what did she care now what became of her? She had nothing to live for anymore. It was rather hard to be finished with life at 27.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He talked to her as though she were a stranger with whom he happened to be making the journey, of indifferent things, from politeness Kitty imagined, or because, so he could render more marked, the gulf that separated them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In a flash of insight, she had told Charlie that Walter had sent her to him with the threat of divorce as the alternative to her accompanying him to the stricken city in order that she might see for herself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a trick which accorded very well with his sardonic humour. He knew exactly what would happen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At first she thought he was only playing with her, until they actually started, no, later, till they left the river and took to the chairs for the journey across country.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She thought she would give that little laugh of his and tell her that she need not come. She had no inkling what was in his mind. He could not really desire her death. He had loved her so desperately. She knew what love was now, and she remembered a thousand signs of his adoration. For him, really, in the French phrase, she did make fine weather and foul. It was impossible that he did not love her still.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She had not made him suffer as Charlie had made her suffer. And yet, if Charlie made a sign...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Notwithstanding everything, even though she knew him now, she would abandon all the world had to offer and fly to his arms.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even though he was callous and unkind, she loved him. At first she thought that she had only to bide her time, and sooner or later Walter would forgive her. She had been too confident of her power over him to believe that it was gone forever. Many waters could not quench love.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was weak if he loved her, and felt that love her he must. But now she was not quite sure. When in the evening he sat reading, in the straight-backed blackwood chair of the inn, with the light of a hurricane lamp on his face, she was able to watch him at her ease. She lay on the pallet on which her bed presently would be set, and she was in shadow. Those straight, regular features of his made his face look very severe.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You could hardly believe that it was possible for them on occasion to be changed by so sweet a smile.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was able to read as calmly as though she were a thousand miles away.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She was startled to see in his eyes a look of physical distaste. Yes, it startled her. Was it possible that his love had left him entirely? Was it possible that he really designed her death? It was absurd. That would be the act of a madman. It was odd, the little shiver that ran through her as the thought occurred to her that perhaps Walter was not quite sane.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She looked in the direction he pointed, and there on the top of the hill saw an archway.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She knew by now that it was a memorial in compliment of a fortunate scholar or a virtuous widow. She had passed many of them since they left the river. But this one, silhouetted against the westerning sun, was more fantastic and beautiful than any she had seen. Yet, she knew not why. It made her uneasy. It had a significance which she felt, but could not put into words. Was it a menace that she vaguely discerned, or was it derision?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She was passing a grove of bamboos and they leaned over the causeway strangely as if they would detain her. Though the summer evening was windless, their narrow green leaves shivered a little. It gave her the sensation that someone hidden among them was watching her as she passed. Now they came to the foot of the hill and the rice fields ceased. The bearers took it with a swinging stride.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that the ground was ribbed like the sea sand when the tide has gone out. And this she knew too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For she had passed just such a spot as they approached each popular city and left it. It was the graveyard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now she knew why the bearers had called her attention to the archway that stood on the crest of the hill. They had reached the end of their journey.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They passed through the archway and the chair bearers paused to change the pole from shoulder to shoulder. One of them wiped his sweating face with a dirty rag. The causeway wound down. There were bedraggled houses on each side. Now the night was falling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the bearers on a sudden broke into excited talk and, with a jump that shook her, ranged themselves as near as they could to the wall. In a moment she knew what had startled them, for as they stood there, chattering to one another,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Four peasants passed, quick and silent, bearing a new coffin, unpainted.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's fresh wood gleamed white in the approaching darkness. Kitty felt her heart beat in terror against her ribs. The coffin passed, but the bearers stood still. It seemed as though they could not summon up the will to go on. But there was a shout from behind and they started. They did not speak now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They walked for a few minutes longer and then turned sharply into an open gateway. The chair was set down. She had arrived.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Chapter 31. It was a bungalow, and she entered the sitting room.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She sat down while the coolies, straggling in one by one, brought in their loads.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Walter in the courtyard gave directions where this or that was to be placed. She was very tired. She was startled to hear an unknown voice. May I come in? She flushed and grew pale. She was overwrought and it made her nervous to meet a stranger. A man came out of the darkness for the long low room was lit only by a shaded lamp and held out his hand. My name is Waddington. I'm the deputy commissioner. Oh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, very nice fellow. I'll show you his grave tomorrow if you like. How kind you are, said Kitty with a smile. At that moment, Walter came in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Waddington had introduced himself to him before coming in to see Kitty and now he said, I've just been breaking it to your missus that I'm dining with you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Since Watson died, I haven't had anybody much to talk to but the nuns. And I can never do myself justice in French.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Besides, there's only a limited number of subjects you can talk to them about. I've just told the boy to bring in some drinks, said Walter. The servant brought whiskey and soda, and Kitty noticed that Waddington helped himself generously. His manner of speaking and his easy chuckle had suggested to her when he came in that he was not quite sober. Here's luck, he said. Then turning to Walter, you got your work cut out for you here?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there was in his voice a sort of ghostly laughter so that you could not listen to him without smiling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I've lost half my staff and the others are ready to lie down and die at any minute. Somebody's got to stay and keep things together. Have you been inoculated? Yes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Watson did me, but he did himself too and it didn't do him much good, poor Blighter. He turned to Kitty, and his funny little face was gaily puckered. I don't think there's any great risk if you take proper precautions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Have your milk and water boiled and don't eat fresh fruit or uncooked vegetables. Have you brought any gramophone records with you? No, I don't think so, said Kitty. I'm sorry for that. I was hoping you would. I haven't had any for a long time and I'm sick of my old ones. The boy came in to ask if they would have dinner. You won't dress tonight, will you? asked Waddington.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My boy died last week, and the boy I have now is a fool, so I haven't been dressing in the evening. I'll go and take off my hat, said Kitty. Her room was next door to that in which they sat. It was barely furnished. An armour was kneeling on the floor, the lamp beside her, unpacking Kitty's things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the dining room was small, and the greater part of it was filled by an immense table.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Missionaries always have large dining tables, Waddington explained.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They get so much a year more for every child they have, and they buy their tables when they marry, so that there shall be plenty of room for little strangers. From the ceiling hung a large paraffin lamp.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] His baldness had deceived her into thinking him no longer young, but she saw now that he must be well under forty. His face, small under a high rounded forehead, was unlined and fresh colored. It was ugly like a monkey's, but with an ugliness that was not without charm. It was an amusing face.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] His features, his nose and his mouth, were hardly larger than a child's. And he had small, very bright blue eyes. His eyebrows were fair and scanty. He looked like a funny little old boy. He helped himself constantly to liquor.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And as dinner proceeded, it became evident that he was far from sober. But if he was drunk, it was without offensiveness, gaily.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As a satyr might be who had stolen a wineskin from a sleeping shepherd. He talked of Hong Kong. He had many friends there, and he wanted to know about them. He had been down for the races a year before, and he talked of ponies and their owners. By the way, what about Townsend? He asked suddenly. Is he going to become Colonial Secretary? Kitty felt herself flush, but her husband did not look at her. I shouldn't wonder, he answered. He's the sort that gets on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So short away from them, the great city lay in terror.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And death, sudden and ruthless, hurried through its torturous streets. But Waddington began to speak of London. He talked of the theatres.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He laughed as he recollected the humor of this slow comedian and sighed as he reflected on the beauty of that star of musical comedy. He was pleased to be able to boast that a cousin of his had married one of the most celebrated. He had lunched with her and she'd given him her photograph. He would show it to them when they came and dined with him at the customs. Walter looked at his guest with a cold and ironic gaze, but he was evidently not a little amused by him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he made an effort to show a civil interest in topics of which Kitty was well aware he knew nothing. A faint smile lingered on his lips. But Kitty, she knew not why, was filled with awe. In the house of that dead missionary, over against the stricken city, they seemed immeasurably apart from all the world. Three solitary creatures and strangers to each other. Dinner was finished and she rose from the table.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He told Walter, and take you to see the magistrate and Colonel Yu, and then we'll go along to the convent. You've got your work cut out, I can tell you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Chapter 33. Her night was tortured with strange dreams.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She seemed to be carried in her chair, and she felt the swaying motion as the bearers marched with their long, uneven stride.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She entered cities vast and dim, where the multitude thronged about her with curious eyes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then she came to the memorial arch, and its fantastic outline seemed on a sudden to gain a monstrous life. Its capricious contours were like the waving arms of a Hindu god, and as she passed under it, she heard the echo of mocking laughter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then Charlie Townsend came towards her and took her in his arms, lifting her out of the chair and said it was all a mistake. He had never meant to treat her as he had, for he loved her and he couldn't live without her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She felt his kisses on her mouth and she wept with joy, asking him why he had been so cruel. But though she asked, she knew it did not matter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then there was a hoarse, abrupt cry, and they were separated, and between, hurrying silently, coolies passed in their ragged blue, and they bore a coffin. She awoke with a start. The bungalow stood halfway down a steep hill, and from her window she saw the narrow river below her, and opposite, the city. The dawn had just broken, and from the river rose a white mist,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shrouding the junks that lay moored close to one another like peas in a pod. There were hundreds of them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the sun touched the mist so that it shone whitely like the ghost of snow on a dying star. Though on the river it was light, so that you could discern palely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The lines of the crowded junks and the thick forests of their masts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In front, it was a shining wall the eye could not pierce.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But rather to rise out of nothing at the touch of a magic wand. It towered.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the magician who built worked swiftly, and now a fragment of coloured wall crowned the bastion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In a moment, out of the mist, looming vastly and touched here and there by a yellow ray of sun, there was seen a cluster of green and yellow roofs. Huge, they seemed, and you could make out no pattern.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wayward and extravagant, but of an unimaginable richness. This was no fortress, nor a temple.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was too airy, fantastic and unsubstantial to be the work of human hands. It was the fabric of a dream. The tears ran down Kitty's face.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And she gazed, her hands clasped to her breast, and her mouth, for she was breathless, open a little. She had never felt so light of heart, and it seemed to her as though her body were a shell that lay at her feet, and she pure spirit. Here was beauty. She took it as the believer takes in his mouth the wafer which is God.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Behind its crenellations lay the city in the dread grip of the pestilence. Vaguely she knew that terrible things were happening there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not from Walter, who when she questioned him, for otherwise he rarely spoke to her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And hardly any of those who were attacked by the disease recovered from it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The gods had been brought out from the abandoned temples and placed in the streets.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Offerings were laid before them and sacrifices made, but they did not stay the plague.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The people died so fast that it was hardly possible to bury them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In some houses, the whole family had been swept away and there was none to perform the funeral rites. The officer commanding the troops was a masterful man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He forced his soldiers to bury such as there was no one else to bury. And he had shot with his own hand an officer who demurred at entering a stricken house.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kitty sometimes was so frightened that her heart sank within her and she would tremble in every limb.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was all very well to say that the risk was small if you took reasonable precautions. She was panic stricken. She turned over in her mind crazy plans of escape.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To get away, just to get away she was prepared to set out as she was and make her way alone without anything but what she stood up in to some place of safety.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She thought of throwing herself on the mercy of Waddington, telling him everything and beseeching him to help her to get back to Hong Kong.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Her mother would make her see very plainly that having married her off, she counted on being rid of her. And besides, she did not want to go to her mother. She wanted to go to Charlie, and he did not want her. She knew what he would say if she suddenly appeared before him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She saw the sullen look of his face and the shrewd hardness behind his charming eyes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It would be difficult for him to find words that sounded well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sometimes she was seized with such a frenzy that she wished she had let Walter divorce her, ruining herself if only she could have ruined him too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Certain things he had said to her made her blush with shame when she recalled them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The first time she was alone with Waddington, she brought the conversation round to Charlie. Waddington had spoken of him on the evening of their arrival.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I suppose he's far and away the most popular man in Hong Kong. I know that it is stock in trade. He's made a science of popularity.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And even if he doesn't do what you want he manages to give you the impression that it's only because it's not humanly possible. That is surely an attractive trait.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Charm and nothing but charm. At last grows a little tiresome, I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've known Charlie Townsend for a good many years, and once or twice I've caught him with the mask off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You see, I never mattered. Just a subordinate official in the customs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I know that he doesn't in his heart give a damn for anyone in the world but himself. Kitty, lounging easily in her chair, looked at him with smiling eyes. She turned her wedding ring round and round her finger. Of course he'll get on. He knows all the official ropes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Before I die, I have every belief that I shall address him as your excellency and stand up when he enters the room. Most people think he deserves to get on. He's generally supposed to have a great deal of ability. Ability? What nonsense. He's a very stupid man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He gives you the impression that he dashes off his work and gets it through from sheer brilliancy. Nothing of the kind. He's as industrious as a Eurasian clerk. How has he got the reputation of being so clever?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are many foolish people in the world. And when a man in a rather high position puts on no frills, slaps them on the back and tells them he'll do anything in the world for them, they are very likely to think him clever. And then of course there's his wife. There's an able woman if you like. She has a good sound head and her advice is always worth taking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As long as Charlie Townsend's got her to depend on, he's pretty safe never to do a foolish thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They don't want clever men. Clever men have ideas, and ideas cause trouble.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh yes, Charlie Townsend will get to the top of the tree all right. I wonder why you dislike him. I don't dislike him. But you like his wife better. Smiled Kitty.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm an old fashioned little man, and I like a well-bred woman. I wish she were well dressed, as well as well-bred. Doesn't she dress well? I never noticed. I've always heard that they were a devoted couple, said Kitty, watching him through her eyelashes. He's very fond of her. I will give him that credit. I think that is the most decent thing about him. Cold praise.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He has his little flirtations, but they're not serious. He's much too cunning to let them go to such lengths as might cause him inconvenience.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She says she'd like to be able to make friends of the poor little things who fall to Charlie, but they're always so common.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She says it's really not very flattering to her that the women who fall in love with her husband are so uncommonly second rate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When Waddington left her, Kitty thought over what he had so carelessly said.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It hadn't been very pleasant to hear, and she had had to make something of an effort not to show how much it touched her. It was bitter to think that all he said was true.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She knew that Charlie was stupid and vain, hungry for flattery.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And she remembered the complacency with which she had told her little stories to prove his cleverness. He was proud of a low cunning.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How worthless must she be if she had given her heart so passionately to such a man because, because he had nice eyes and a good figure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She wished to despise him because so long as she only hated him, she knew that she was very near loving him. The way he had treated her should have opened her eyes. Walter had always held him in contempt. Oh, if she could only get him out of her mind altogether.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And had his wife chaffed him about her obvious infatuation for him, Dorothy would have liked to make a friend of her, but that she found her second rate. Kitty smiled a little.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How indignant her mother would be to know that her daughter was considered that. But at night she dreamt of him again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She laughed with soft affection because he minded so much. She loved him all the more for his childlike vanity, and she could be sorry for him and comfort him. When she awoke, tears were streaming from her eyes. She did not know why it seemed to her so tragic to cry in her sleep.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Chapter 5 The Apparition of a File of Soldiers


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bringing down the butt-ends of their loaded muskets in our doorstep caused the dinner party to rise from table in confusion and caused Mrs. Joe re-entering the kitchen empty-handed


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The sergeant and I were in the kitchen, and Mrs. Joe stood staring.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But as I have mentioned, at the door to this smart young shaver, which he hadn't, I want to chase in the name of the King, and I want the blacksmith.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The honor and pleasure of his fine wife's acquaintance. Speaking for the king, I answer, a little job done. This was received as rather neat in the sergeant.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In so much as Mr. Pumblechook cried audibly, oh, good again. You see, blacksmith, said the sergeant, who had by this time picked out Joe with his eye, we have had an accident with these.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I find the lock of one of them goes wrong, and the coupling don't act pretty.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As they are wanted for immediate service, will you throw your eye over them? Joe threw his eye over them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And pronounced that the job would necessitate the lighting of his forge-fire, and would take nearer two hours than one. Will he? Then will you set about it at once, blacksmith?" said the off-hand sergeant, as it's on his majesty's service. And if my men can beat a hand anywhere, they make themselves useful. With that, he called to his men, who came trooping into the kitchen one after another, and piled their arms in a corner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now with their hands loosely clasped before them. Now resting a knee or a shoulder. Now easing a belt or a pouch.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now opening the door to spit stiffly over the high stocks out into the yard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All these things I saw without then knowing that I saw them, for I was in an agony of apprehension.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But beginning to perceive that the handcuffs were not for me, and that the military had so far got the better of the pie as to put it in the background, I collected a little more of my scattered wits.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Said the sergeant, addressing himself to Mr. Pumblechook, as to a man whose appreciative powers


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Justified the inference that he was equal to the time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, uh, just gone half past two. That's not so bad," said the sergeant, reflecting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even if I was forced to halt here nigh two hours, that would do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How far might you call yourselves from the marshes hereabouts? Not above a mile, I reckon. Just a mile, said Mrs. Joe. That'll do. We begin to close in upon him about dusk. A little before dusk, my orders are. That'll do. A convict sergeant?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ask Mr. Wopsle, in a matter of course way. Aye, returned the sergeant, too. They're pretty well known to be out on the marshes still, and they won't try to get clear of him before dusk. Anybody here seen anything of any such game?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They'll find themselves trapped in a circle, I expect, sooner than they count on. Now, blacksmith, if you're ready, His Majesty the King is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Joe had got his coat and waistcoat and cravat off, and his leather apron on, and passed into the forge. One of the soldiers opened its wooden windows, another lighted the fire, another turned to at the bellows, the rest stood round the blaze, which was soon roaring.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then Joe began to hammer and clink, hammer and clink, and we all looked on. The interest of the impending pursuit not only absorbed the general attention, but even made my sister liberal. She drew a pitcher of beer from the cask for the soldiers, and invited the sergeant to take a glass of brandy. But Mr. Pumblechook said sharply, Give him wine, mum.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So the sergeant thanked him, and said that as he preferred his drink without tar, he would take wine, if it was equally convenient. When it was given him, he drank his majesty's health and compliments of the season, and took it all at a mouthful, and smacked his lips.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Good stuff, eh, sergeant, said Mr. Pumblechook.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because, returned the sergeant, clapping him on the shoulder, you're a man that knows what's what.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do you think so?" said Mr. Pumblechook, with his former laugh. Have another glass. With you? Hob and knob? returned the sergeant. The top of mine to the foot of yours. The foot of yours to the top of mine. Ring once, ring twice. The best tune on the musical glasses.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your health. May you live a thousand years and never be a worse judge of the right sort than you are at the present moment of your life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The sergeant tossed off his glass again and seemed quite ready for another glass.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I noticed that Mr. Pumblechook, in his hospitality, appeared to forget that he had made a present of the wine, but took the bottle from Mrs. Joe.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And had all the credit of handing it about in a gush of joviality. Even I got some. And he was so very free of the wine that he even called for the other bottle, and handed that about with the same liberality when the first was gone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As I watched them, while they all stood clustering about the forge, enjoying themselves so much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I thought what terrible good sauce for a dinner my fugitive friend on the marshes was.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They had not enjoyed themselves a quarter so much, before the entertainment was brightened with the excitement he furnished. And now...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When they were all in lively anticipation of the two villains being taken.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And when the bellows seemed to roar for the fugitives, the fire to flare for them, the smoke to hurry away in pursuit of them, Joe to hammer and clink for them,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And all the murky shadows on the wall to shake at them in menace as the blaze rose and sank and the red hot sparks dropped and died. The pale afternoon outside almost seemed in my pitying young fancy to have turned pale on their account. Poor wretches. At last Joe's job was done, and the ringing and roaring stopped. As Joe got on his coat,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He mustered courage to propose that some of us should go down with the soldiers and see what came of the hunt. Mr. Pumblechook and Mr. Hubbell declined on the plea of a pipe and lady society, but Mr. Wopsle said he would go if Joe would.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Joe said he was agreeable and would take me if Mrs. Joe approved. We never should have got leave to go, I'm sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But for Mrs. Joe's curiosity to know all about it and how it ended. As it was, she merely stipulated,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A sergeant took a polite leave of the ladies, and parted from Mr. Pumblechook as from a comrade.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Though I doubt if he were quite as fully sensible of that gentleman's merits under arid conditions as when something moist was going. His men resumed their muskets and fell in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mr. Wopsle, Joe, and I received strict charge to keep in the rear, and to speak no word after we've reached the marshes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When we were all out in the raw air, and were steadily moving towards our business, I treasonably whispered to Joe, I hope, Joe, we shan't find them. And Joe whispered to me, I'd give a shilling if they had cut and run, Pip.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We were joined by no stragglers from the village, but the weather was cold and threatening, the way dreary, the footing bad, darkness coming on, and the people had good fires indoors and were keeping the day. A few faces hurried to glowing windows and looked after us, but none came out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We passed the finger post and held straight on to the churchyard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then we struck out on the open marshes, through the gate at the side of the churchyard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A bitter sleet came rattling against us here on the east wind, and Joe took me on his back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Would my particular convict suppose that it was I who had brought the soldiers there? He had asked me if I was a deceiving imp.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Would he believe that I was both imp and hound in treacherous earnest and had betrayed him?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was of no use asking myself this question now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There I was, on Joe's back, and there was Joe beneath me, charging at the ditches like a hunter, and stimulating Mr. Wopsle not to tumble on his Roman nose, and to keep up with us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The soldiers were in front of us, extending into a pretty wide line with an interval between man and man. We were taking the course I had begun with, and from which I had diverged in the mist. Either the mist was not out again yet, or the wind had dispelled it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With my heart thumping like a blacksmith at Joe's broad shoulder, I looked all about for any sign of the convicts. I could see none. I could hear none.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mr. Wopsle had greatly alarmed me more than once by his blowing and hard breathing, but I knew the sounds by this time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And could dissociate them from the object of pursuit. I got a dreadful start when I thought I heard the file still going, but it was only a sheep bell.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The sheep stopped in the eating, and looked timidly at us. And the cattle, their heads turned from the wind and sleet, stared angrily, as if they held us responsible for both annoyances.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But except these things, and the shudder of the dying day in every blade of grass, there was no break in the bleak stillness of the marshes. The soldiers were moving on in the direction of the old battery, and we were moving on a little way behind them, when all of a sudden we all stopped.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For they had reached us on the wings of the wind and rain, a long shout. It was repeated. It was at a distance towards the east, but it was long and loud. Nay, there seemed to be two or more shouts raised together, if one might judge from a confusion in the sound.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To this effect the sergeant and the nearest men were speaking under their breath when Joe and I came up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that the course should be changed, and that his men should make towards it at the double.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Joe pounded away so wonderfully that I had to hold on tight to keep my seat. It was a run indeed now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Down banks, and up banks, and over gates, and splashing into dikes, and breaking among coarse rushes, no man cared where he went. As we came nearer to the shouting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It became more and more apparent that it was made by more than one voice. Sometimes it seemed to stop altogether, and then the soldiers stopped. When it broke out again, the soldiers made for it at a greater rate than ever, and we after them. After a while, we had so run it down, that we could hear one voice calling, Murder! and another voice, Cornwakes!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And when it had come to this, the soldiers ran like deer, and Joe too. The sergeant ran in first, when we had run the noise quite down, and two of his men ran in close upon him. Their pieces were cocked and levelled when we all ran in. Here are both the men, panted the sergeant, struggling at the bottom of a ditch. Surrender, you too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And confound you for two, wild beasts. Come asunder.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When some more men went down into the ditch to help the sergeant, and dragged out separately, my convict and the other one. Both were bleeding and panting and execrating and struggling, but of course I knew them both directly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The other convict was livid to look at, and, in addition to the old bruised left side of his face, seemed to be bruised and torn all over.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He could not so much as get his breath to speak, until they were both separately handcuffed, but leaned upon a soldier to keep himself from falling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The other, with an effort at a scornful smile, which could not, however, collect the nervous working of his mouth into any set expression, looked at the soldiers, and looked about at the marshes and at the sky, but certainly did not look at the speaker


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Always working and working his dry lips, and turning his eyes restlessly about him, far and near.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At that point my convict became so fantically exasperated that he would have rushed upon him, but for the interposition of the soldiers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And anyone could see that he shook with fear, and that there broke out upon his lips curious white flakes like thin snow. Enough of this parley, said the sergeant, like those torches. As one of the soldiers, who carried a basket in lieu of a gun, went down on his knee to open it, a convict looked round him for the first time, and saw me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I had alighted from Joe's back on the brink of the ditch where we came up, and had not moved since. I looked at him eagerly when he looked at me, and slightly moved my hands and shook my head.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I had been waiting for him to see me, that I might try to assure him of my innocence.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And lighted three or four torches, and took one himself and distributed the others. It had been almost dark before, but now it seemed quite dark, and soon afterwards very dark. Before we departed from that spot,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Four soldiers, standing in a ring, fired twice into the air.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Presently we saw other torches kindled at some distance behind us, and others on the marshes on the opposite bank of the river.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When three cannon were fired ahead of us, with a sound that seemed to burst something inside my ear. You are expected on board, said the sergeant to my conduct. They know you are coming. Don't straggle, my man. Close up here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The two were kept apart, and each walked surrounded by a separate guard. I had hold of Joe's hand now, and Joe carried one of the torches. Mr. Wopsle had been for going back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But Joe was resolved to see it out, so he went on with the party.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was a reasonably good path now, mostly on the edge of the river, with a divergence here and there, where a dyke came, with a miniature windmill on it, and a muddy sluice gate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When I looked round, I could see the other lights coming in after us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The torches were carried, dropped great blotches of fire upon the track, and I could see those too, lying smoking and flaring. I could see nothing else but black darkness. Our lights warmed the air about us with their pitchy blaze.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the two prisoners seemed rather to like that, as they limped along in the midst of the muskets.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After an hour or so of this travelling, we came to a rough wooden hut and a landing place. There was a guard in the hut, and they challenged, and the sergeant answered.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then we went into the hut, where there was a smell of tobacco and whitewash, and a bright fire and a lamp, and a stand of muskets, and a drum, and a low wooden bedstead, like an overgrown mangle without the machinery, capable of holding about a dozen soldiers all at once.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Three or four soldiers will lay upon it in their great coats. Were not much interested in us, but just lifted their heads and took a sleepy stare, and then lay down again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The sergeant made some kind of report, and some entry in a book. And then the convict, whom I call the other convict, was drafted off with his guard to go on board first.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My convict never looked at me, except that once, while we stood in the hut. He stood before the fire looking thoughtfully at it, or putting up his feet by turns upon the hob, and looking thoughtfully at them as if he pitied them for their recent adventures. Suddenly he turned to the sergeant and remarked, I wish to say something respecting this escape.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You'll have opportunity enough to say about it, and hear about it, before it's done with, you know. I know. But this is another pint, a separate matter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where the church stands, and most out on the marshes. You mean stole? said the sergeant. And I'll tell you where from. From the blacksmiths. Hello? said the sergeant, staring at Joe. Hello, Pip? said Joe, staring at me. It was some broken wittles. That's what it was. And a dram of liquor. And a pie.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Have you happened to miss such an article as a pie, blacksmith?" asked the sergeant confidentially. My wife did. At the very moment when you came in. Don't you know, Pip?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Said my convict, turning his eyes on Joe in a moody manner, and without the least glance at me. So you're the blacksmith, are you? Then I'm sorry to say, I'll eat your pie. God knows you're welcome to it, so far as it was ever mine. Returned Joe, with a saving remembrance of Mrs. Joe. We don't know what you have done, but we wouldn't have you starved to death for it. Poor miserable fellow-creator.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was something that I had noticed before, clicked in the man's throat again, and he turned his back. The boat had returned, and his guard were ready.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we followed him to the landing place, made of rough stakes and stones, and saw him put into the boat, which was rowed by a crew of convicts like himself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No one seemed surprised to see him, or interested in seeing him, or glad to see him, or sorry to see him, or spoke a word, except that somebody in the boat growled as if to dogs, Give way you! which was the signal for the dip of the oars. By the light of the torches,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We saw the black hulk, lying out a little way from the mud of the shore, like a wicked Noah's ark.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cribbed and barred and moored by massive rusty chains.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The prisoners' ship seemed in my young eyes to be ironed like the prisoners. We saw the boat go alongside, and we saw him taken up the side and disappear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The ends of the torches were flung hissing into the water, and went out, as if it were all over with him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But yet, he still had this aura about him that he was just like one of us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I could close my eyes and see the arrows showing the projectory.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The stadium. That ball could have gone 700 feet. Maybe hit an alien on Mars and they'd have some cartoon or something. The extraterrestrials would go, hey where'd this come from?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mickey Mantle. Mickey Mantle. Let's go watch Mickey Mantle. I'm just glad his name wasn't Sy Schwartstein.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you say Mickey Mantle, you're saying baseball.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the truth is, he was just a regular guy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When I was a kid, I didn't really know what to make of it, I just thought it was funny.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They would have fights at the Copacabana, and they would be partying, and then the next day they'd win 17-0.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's Manil. You know, it's the Mick. And you know, he's on TV telling millions of people, I help myself too little too late.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But what he did do was help thousands if not millions of other people think twice about letting their lives get out of control.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Look, if you're worried about your gear, Susie might mind you using hers. Well?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And when he got there, Mick told him, he said, I think I may as well quit. I think I may as well give up the game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wherever I go, the kids are yelling at me, I want my maple, I want my maple, I want my maple.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thrilling! I'd like to hear one of the men call it that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, you've done something to this farm, Margaret. Tomorrowlized it. Rejuvenated it. And me. Made everything seem new and exciting. Just like my first spring here. Keep it like that, won't you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Look over there. As far as you can see, you'll be able to stand on this spot and say, all this belongs to me. Longbarrow, Badger's Hill, Couple's Hanger, Little Oak.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Daft idea. Margaret, when can we tell people about us? I don't want to wait. I'd like to go and see the parson this afternoon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's holding you back? You do want to marry me, don't you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was all fun and glory. Hey, where can we go next? What can we drink next? How much can we drink next? Looking back on it, that was not a way to get to know somebody, especially your father. We just felt like that's the only way we could get close to him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was doing drugs then, doing cocaine, drinking, and I was pretty out of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He wanted people to know that he woke up and saw the mistake he made


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that wasn't any way to live your life. As a son, it was just very uplifting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Take care the nuns don't start converting you, said Wardington, with his malicious little smile. They're much too busy, nor do they care. They're wonderful and so kind and yet


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I hardly know how to explain it. There is a wall between them and me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's as though they possessed a secret which made all the difference in their lives and which I was unworthy to share. It is not faith. It is something deeper and more, more significant. They walk in a different world from ours and we should always be strangers to them. Each day when the convent door closes behind me, I feel that for them I have ceased to exist.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a good many years now since she threw everything to the winds to be with me. I've sent her away two or three times, but she's always come back. I've run away from her myself, but she's always followed me. And now I've given it up as a bad job. I think I've got to put up with her for the rest of my life. She must really love you to distraction. It's a rather funny sensation, you know, he answered, wrinkling a perplexed forehead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I haven't the smallest doubt that if I really left her definitely, she would commit suicide.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not with any ill feeling towards me, but quite naturally, because she was unwilling to live without me. It is a curious feeling it gives one to know that. It can't help meaning something to you. But it's loving that's the important thing, not being loved. One's not even grateful to the people who love one. If one doesn't love them, they only bore one. I have no experience of the plural, he replied. Mine is only in the singular.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is she really an imperial princess? No.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is a romantic exaggeration of the nuns. She belongs to one of the great families of the Manchus, but they have, of course, been ruined by the revolution. She is, all the same, a very great lady. He said it in a tone of pride, so that a smile flickered in Kitty's eyes. Are you going to stay here for the rest of your life, then? In China, yes. What would she do elsewhere?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When I retire, I shall take a little Chinese house in Peking and spend the rest of my days there. Have you any children? No. She looked at him curiously.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was strange that this little bald headed man with his monkey face.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Should have aroused in the alien woman so devastating a passion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Notwithstanding his casual manner and his flippant phrases, gave her the impression so strongly of the woman's intense and unique devotion. It troubled her a little. It does seem a long way to Harrington Gardens, she smiled. Why do you say that? I don't understand anything. Life is so strange.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel like someone who's lived all his life by a duck pond and is suddenly shown the sea. It makes me a little breathless, and yet it fills me with elation. I don't want to die, I want to live.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm beginning to feel a new courage. I feel like one of those old sailors who set sail for undiscovered seas and I think my soul hankers for the unknown. Waddington looked at her reflectively.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Her abstracted gaze rested on the smoothness of the river. Two little drops that flowed silently, silently towards the dark, eternal sea. May I come and see the Manchu lady? Asked Kitty, suddenly raising her head. She can't speak a word of English. You've been very kind to me. You've done a great deal for me. Perhaps I could show her by my manner that I had a friendly feeling towards her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Had from the first moment strangely intrigued her fancy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the Manchu princess stood now as the symbol of something that vaguely but insistently beckoned to her. She pointed enigmatically to a mystic land of the spirit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She went to the convent as usual and set about her first work of seeing that the children were washed and dressed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Since the nuns held firmly that the night air was harmful, the atmosphere in the dormitory was close and fetid.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After the freshness of the morning, it always made Kitty a little uncomfortable, and she hastened to open such windows as would. But today she felt all of a sudden desperately sick.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And with her head swimming she stood at the window trying to compose herself. It had never been as bad as this before. Then nausea overwhelmed her and she vomited. She gave a cry so that the children were frightened.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the older girl who was helping her ran up, and seeing Kitty white and trembling, stopped short with an exclamation. Collar her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The thought flashed through Kitty's mind and then a death-like feeling came over her. She was seized with terror.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She struggled for a moment against the night that seemed agonizingly to run through her veins. She felt horribly ill. And then darkness.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When she opened her eyes, she did not at first know where she was.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She seemed to be lying on the floor and, moving her head slightly, she thought that there was a pillow under it. She could not remember.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The mother superior was kneeling by her side, holding smelling salts to her nose. And sister Saint-Joseph stood looking at her. Then it came back. Cholera. She saw the consternation on the nun's faces.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sister St. Joseph looked huge and her outline was blurred. Once more terror overwhelmed her. Oh mother, mother. She sobbed. Am I going to die? I don't want to die. Of course you're not going to die, said the mother superior. She was quite composed and there was even amusement in her eyes. But it's cholera. Where's Walter? Has he been sent for? Oh mother, mother.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Kitty seized it as though it were a hold upon the life she feared to lose. Come, come, my dear child. You mustn't be so silly. It's not cholera or anything of the kind. Where's Walter? Your husband is much too busy to be troubled. In five minutes you'll be perfectly well. Kitty looked at her with staring, harassed eyes. Why did she take it so calmly? It was cruel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Keep perfectly quiet for a minute, said the mother superior. There is nothing to alarm yourself about. Kitty felt her heart beat madly. She had grown so used to the thought of cholera that it had ceased to seem possible that she could catch it. Oh the fool she had been. She knew she was going to die. She was frightened.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She put her hands under Kitty's arms, and Sister St. Joseph helped her to her feet. She sank exhausted into the chair. I had better shut the window, said Sister St. Joseph. The early morning air cannot be good for her. No, no, said Kitty. Please leave it open. It gave her confidence to see the blue sky. She was shaken, but certainly she began to feel better.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The two nuns looked at her for a moment in silence, and Sister St. Joseph said something to the mother superior which she could not understand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then the mother superior sat on the side of the chair and took her hand. Listen, ma cher enfant. She asked her one or two questions. Kitty answered them without knowing what they meant.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The mother superior, still holding Kitty's hand, smiled with soft tenderness.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sister St. Joseph has more experience of these things than I have, dear child. And she said at once what was the matter with you. She was evidently quite right. What do you mean? asked Kitty anxiously. It is quite evident.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did the possibility of such a thing never occur to you? You are with child, my dear. The start that Kitty gave shook her from head to foot and she put her feet to the ground as though to spring up. Lie still, lie still, said the mother superior.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No mistakes is possible. I give you my word of honor. How long have you been married, my child? Asked the mother superior. Why? When my sister-in-law had been married as long as you, she had already two babies. Kitty sank back into the chair. There was death in her heart. I'm so ashamed, she whispered. Because you are going to have a baby? Why? What can be more natural?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, think what a happiness for your husband. He will be overwhelmed with joy. You have only to see him with babies and the look on his face when he plays with them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To see how enchanted he will be to have one of his own. For a little while Kitty was silent. The two nuns looked at her with tender interest and the mother superior stroked her hand. It was silly of me not to have suspected it before, said Kitty. At all events, I'm glad it's not cholera. I feel very much better. I will get back to my work. Not today, my dear child. You have had a shock.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You had much better go home and rest yourself. No, no, I would much rather stay and work. I insist. What would our good doctor say if I let you be imprudent? Come tomorrow if you like, or the day after. But today you must be quiet. I will send for a chair. Would you like me to let one of our young girls go with you? Oh no, I shall be all right alone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Chapter 56. Kitty was lying on her bed and the shutters were closed. It was after luncheon and the servants slept. What she had learnt that morning, and now she was certain that it was true, filled her with consternation. Ever since she came home she had been trying to think, but her mind was a blank and she could not collect her thoughts. Suddenly she heard a step. The feet were booted so that it could not be one of the boys.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With a gasp of apprehension, she realized that it could only be her husband. He was in the sitting room and she heard herself called. She did not reply. There was a moment's silence and then a knock on her door. Yes? May I come in? Kitty rose from her bed and slipped into a dressing gown. Yes. He entered.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She was glad that the closed shutters shadowed her face. I hope I didn't wake you. I knocked very, very gently. I haven't been asleep. He went to one of the windows and threw open the shutter. A flood of warm light streamed into the room. What is it? She asked. Why are you back so early? The sister said that you weren't very well. I thought I'd better come and see what was the matter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What would you have said if it had been cholera?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If it had been, you certainly couldn't have made your way home this morning. She went to the dressing table and passed the comb through her shingled hair. She wanted to gain time. Then sitting down, she lit a cigarette. I wasn't very well this morning and the mother superior thought I'd better come back here, but I'm perfectly all right again. I shall go to the convent as usual tomorrow. What was the matter with you? Didn't they tell you? No.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The mother superior said that you must tell me yourself. He did now what he did seldom. He looked her full in the face. His professional instincts were stronger than his personal. She hesitated. Then she forced herself to meet his eyes. I'm going to have a baby, she said.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She was accustomed to his habit of meeting with silence, a statement which you would naturally expect to evoke an exclamation, but never had it seemed to her more devastating. He said nothing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He made no gesture, no movement on his face nor change of expression in his dark eyes indicated that he had heard. She felt suddenly inclined to cry. If a man loved his wife and his wife loved him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At such a moment, they were drawn together by a poignant emotion. The silence was intolerable, and she broke it. I don't know why it never occurred to me before. It was stupid of me, but... What was one thing and another? How long have you... When do you expect to be confined? The words seemed to issue from his lips with difficulty. She felt that his throat was as dry as hers. It was a nuisance that her lips trembled so when she spoke.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If he was not of stone it must excite his pity. I suppose I've been like this between two and three months. Am I the father? She gave a little gasp. There was just a shadow of a tremor in his voice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She did not know why she thought suddenly of an instrument she had been shown in Hong Kong, upon which a needle oscillated a little.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And she had been told that this represented an earthquake a thousand miles away.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In which perhaps a thousand persons had lost their lives. She looked at him. He was ghastly pale. She had seen that pallor on him once, twice before. He was looking down, a little sideways. Well, she clasped her hands. She knew that if she could say yes, it would mean everything in the world to him. He would believe her. Of course he would believe her, because he wanted to. And then he would forgive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She knew how deep was his tenderness and how ready he was for all his shyness to expend it. She knew that he was not vindictive. He would forgive her if she could but give him an excuse to, an excuse that touched his heart, and he would forgive completely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She could count on him never to throw the past in her teeth. Cruel he might be, cold and morbid, but he was neither mean nor petty. It would alter everything if she said yes. And she had an urgent need for sympathy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The unexpected knowledge that she was with child had overwhelmed her with strange hopes and unforeseen desires. She felt weak, frightened a little, alone and very far from any friends. That morning, though she cared little for her mother, she had had a sudden craving to be with her. She needed help and consolation. She did not love water. She knew that she never could.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But at this moment she longed with all her heart for him to take her in his arms so that she could lay her head on his breast. Clinging to him, she could have cried happily. She wanted him to kiss her and she wanted to twine her arms around his neck. She began to weep.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She had lied so much and she could lie so easily. What could a lie matter when it could only do good? A lie. A lie. What was a lie? It was so easy to say yes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She saw Walter's eyes melt and his arms outstretched towards her. She couldn't say it. She didn't know why, she just couldn't. All she had gone through during these bitter weeks


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Charlie and his unkindness, the cholera, and all those people dying, the nuns.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It all seemed to have changed her so that she did not know herself. Though she was so deeply moved.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some bystander in her soul seemed to watch her with terror and surprise. She had to tell the truth. It did not seem worthwhile to lie. Her thoughts wandered strangely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On a sudden, she saw that dead beggar at the foot of the compound wall. Why should she think of him? She did not sob. The tears streamed down her face quite easily from wide eyes. At last she answered the question. He had asked her if he was the child's father. I don't know, she said. He gave the ghost of a chuckle. It made Kitty shudder. It's a bit awkward, isn't it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] His answer was characteristic. It was exactly what she would have expected him to say. But it made her heart think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She wondered if he realized how hard it had been for her to tell the truth. At the same moment, she recognized that it had not been in the least hard, but inevitable. And if he gave her credit for it, her answer, I don't know, I don't know, hammered away in her head. It was impossible now to take it back. She got her handkerchief from her bag and dried her eyes. They did not speak. There was a siphon on the table by her bed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She drank the water and he put the glass back. He sat down on a chair and lit a cigarette. He gave a little sigh. Once or twice before she had heard him sigh like that and it always gave her a catch at the heart. Looking at him now, for he was staring with abstracted gaze out of the window. She was surprised that she had not noticed before how terribly thin he had grown during the last weeks. His temples were sunken.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Through his sunburn, his face had a greenish pallor. He looked exhausted.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And she had a feeling that in his brain too those words hammered madly, I don't know, I don't know. It was strange that this moody, cold and shy man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Should have such a natural affection for very little babies. Most men didn't care much even for their own, but the nuns


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Touched and a little amused had more than once spoken of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If he felt like that about those funny little Chinese babies, what would he have felt about his own?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If I were you, I wouldn't try to do anything today. You'd better take it easy. Is there anything you want before I go? No thanks. I should be quite all right. He paused for an instant, as though he were undecided. And then, abruptly and without looking at her, took his hat and walked out of the room. She heard him go through the compound. She felt terribly alone. There was no need for self-restraint now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Kitty sat at the window looking at the fantastic roofs, dark against the starlight of the Chinese temple, when at last Walter came in. Her eyes were heavy with weeping, but she was composed. Notwithstanding all there was to harass her, she felt, perhaps only from exhaustion, strangely at peace. I thought you'd be already in bed, said Walter as he came in. I wasn't sleepy. I thought it cooler to sit up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Have you had any dinner? All I want. He walked up and down the long room and she saw that he had something to say to her. She knew that he was embarrassed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Without concern, she waited for him to summon up his resolution. He began abruptly. I've been thinking about what you told me this afternoon. It seems to me that it would be better if you went away. I have spoken to Colonel Yu, and he will give you an escort. You could take the armor with you. You will be quite safe. Where is there for me to go? You can go to your mother's. Do you think she would be pleased to see me? He paused for a moment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hesitating, as though for reflection. Then you can go to Hong Kong. What should I do there? You will need a good deal of care and attention. I don't think it's fair to ask you to stay here. She could not prevent the smile, not only of bitterness, but of frank amusement that crossed her face. She gave him a glance and very nearly laughed. I don't know why you should be so anxious about my health. He came over to the window and stood looking out at the night.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There had never been so many stars in the unclouded sky. This isn't the place for a woman in your condition. She looked at him, white in his thin clothes against the darkness. There was something sinister in his fine profile, and yet, oddly enough, at this moment, it excited in her no fear. When you insisted on my coming here, did you want it to kill me? She asked suddenly. He was so long answering that she thought he had refused to hear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wonder if you could ever have forgiven yourself if I had died. Well, you haven't. You've thrived on it. I've never felt better in my life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She had an instinct to throw herself on the mercy of his humor. After all they had gone through.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It seemed inept to attach importance to the ridiculous act of fornication. When death stood round the corner, taking lives like a gardener digging up potatoes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was foolishness to care what dirty things this person or that did with his body.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that now, already, she had difficulty in calling up his features to her imagination.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And how entirely the love of him had passed out of her heart. Because she had no feeling for Townsend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The various acts she had committed with him had lost their significance. She had regained her heart.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's no reason we shouldn't be friends just because we're not lovers. He stood very still.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the lamp light made the pallor of his impassive face startling. She did not trust him. If she said the wrong thing, he would turn upon her with such an icy sternness. She knew by now his extreme sensitiveness, for which his acid irony was a protection.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Surely what troubled him most was the wound to his vanity.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She vaguely realized that this is the hardest of all wounds to heal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was singular that men attached so much importance to their wives faithfulness. When first you'd gone with Charlie, she'd expected to feel quite different, a changed woman, but she'd seemed to herself exactly the same.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She'd experienced only well-being and a greater vitality.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She wished now that she had been able to tell Walter that the child was his. The lie would have meant so little to her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the assurance would have been so greater comfort to him. And after all, it might not be a lie.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was the woman who carried the child through long months of uneasiness and bore it with pain.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And yet a man because of his momentary connection made such preposterous claims.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why should that make any difference to him in his feeling towards the child?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then Kitty's thoughts wandered to the child which she herself would bear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She thought of it not with emotion, nor with a passion of maternity, but with an idle curiosity. I dare say you'd like to think it over a little, said Walter, breaking the long silence. Think what? He turned a little as if he were surprised. About when you want to go. But I don't want to go. Why not? I like my work at the convent. I think I'm making myself useful. I should prefer to stay as long as you do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He little knew that now the strongest emotion he excited in her and the most unexpected was pity. No, you don't love me. I often think I rather bore you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I shouldn't have thought you were the sort of person to put yourself out for a few stuffy nuns and a parcel of Chinese brats. Her lips outlined a smile.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it's rather unfair to despise me so much because you made such a mistake in your judgement of me. It's not my fault that you were such an ass.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you're determined to stay, you are of course at liberty to do so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm sorry I can't give you the opportunity of being quite magnanimous. She found it strangely hard to be quite serious with him. As a matter of fact, you're quite right. It's not only for the orphans that I'm staying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You see, I'm in the peculiar position that I haven't got a soul in the world that I can go to. I know no one who wouldn't think me a nuisance.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You must know that by bringing you here, I've condoned the offense. I didn't know. You see, I haven't made a study of infidelity. What are we going to do then when we leave here? Are we going to go on living together?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh don't you think we can let the future take care of itself. There was the weariness of death in his voice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For her restlessness had induced her immediately to resume her work and took her to drink the promised cup of tea with his mistress.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kitty had on more than one occasion dined at Waddington's house. It was a square, white and pretentious building.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Such as the customs billed for their officials all over China. And the dining room in which they ate, the drawing room in which they sat, were furnished with prim and solid furniture.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They had the appearance of being partly offices and partly hotel. There was nothing home-like in them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kitty went into a large bare room with whitewashed walls, on which hung scrolls in various calligraphies. At a square table, on a stiff armchair, both of black wood and heavily carved, sat the man Choo. She rose as Kitty and Waddington entered, but made no step forward. Here she is, said Waddington, and added something in Chinese. Kitty shook hands with her. She was slim in her long embroidered gown,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And somewhat taller than Kitty, used to the southern people, had expected. She wore a jacket of pale green silk, with tight sleeves that came over her wrists, and on her black hair, elaborately dressed, was the headdress of the Manchu women. Her face was coated with powder, and her cheeks from the eyes to the mouth heavily rouged. Her plucked eyebrows were a thin dark line, and her mouth was scarlet. From this mask,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Her black, slightly slanting large eyes, burned like lakes of liquid jet. She seemed more like an idol than a woman. Her movements were slow and assured.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kitty had the impression that she was slightly shy but very curious. She nodded her head two or three times, looking at Kitty while Waddington spoke of her. Kitty noticed her hands. They were preternaturally long, very slender, of the colour of ivory, and the exquisite nails were painted.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kitty thought she had never seen anything so lovely as those languid and elegant hands. They suggested the breeding of uncounted centuries. She spoke a little, in a high voice, like the twittering of birds in an orchard, and Waddington, translating, told Kitty that she was glad to see her. How old was she, and how many children had she got?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They sat down on three straight chairs at the square table, and a boy brought in bowls of tea, pale and scented with jasmine.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Manchu lady handed Kitty a green tin of three castle cigarettes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Beside the table and the chairs, the room contained little furniture.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was a wide pallet bed on which was an embroidered headrest and two sandalwood chests. What does she do with herself all day long? asked Kitty. She paints a little and sometimes she writes a poem, but she mostly sits.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She smokes, but only in moderation, which is fortunate, since one of my duties is to prevent the traffic in opium. Do you smoke? Asked Kitty. Seldom. To tell you the truth, I much prefer whiskey. There was in the room a faintly acrid smell. It was not unpleasant, but peculiar and exotic. Tell her that I am sorry I cannot talk to her. I am sure we have many things to say to one another.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When this was translated to the Manchu, she gave Kitty a quick glance, in which there was the hint of a smile.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She was impressive as she sat, without embarrassment, in her beautiful clothes. And from the painted face the eyes looked out wary, self-possessed, and unfathomable. She was unreal, like a picture.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kitty had never paid anything but passing and somewhat contemptuous attention to the china in which fate had thrown her. It was not done in her set.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now she seemed, on a sudden, to have an inkling of something remote and mysterious. Here was the East. Immemorial, dark and inscrutable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The beliefs and the ideals of the West seemed crude beside ideals and beliefs of which in this exquisite creature she seemed to catch a fugitive glimpse. Here was a different life, lived on a different plane. Kitty felt strangely that the sight of this idol


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With her painted face and slanting, wary eyes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Made the efforts and the pains of the everyday world she knew slightly absurd. That colored mask.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Seem to hide the secret of an abundant, profound and significant experience.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This was when Kitty, for something to say, expressed admiration of a jade bracelet she wore. She took it off, and Kitty, trying to put it on, found, though her hands were small enough, that it would not pass over her knuckles. Then the Manchu burst into childlike laughter. She said something to Waddington, and called for an armour. She gave her an instruction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the armor in a moment brought in a pair of very beautiful Manchu shoes. She wants to give you these if you can wear them, said Waddington. You'll find they make quite good bedroom slippers. They fit me perfectly, said Kitty, not without satisfaction. But she noticed a roguish smile on Waddington's face. Are they too big for her? She asked quickly. Miles.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kitty laughed, and when Waddington translated, the man Chew and the armor laughed also. When Kitty and Waddington, a little later, were walking up the hill together, she turned to him with a friendly smile. You did not tell me that you had a great affection for her. What makes you think I have? I saw it in your eyes. It's strange. It must be like loving a phantom or a dream. Men are incalculable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I thought you were like everybody else, and now I feel that I don't know the first thing about you. As they reached the bungalow, he asked her abruptly, Why did you want to see her? Kitty hesitated for a moment before answering. I'm looking for something, and I don't quite know what it is. But I know that it's very important for me to know it. And if I did, it would make all the difference. Perhaps the nuns know it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel that they hold a secret which they will not share with me. I don't know why it came into my head that if I saw this Manchu woman I should have an inkling of what I am looking for. Perhaps she would tell me if she could. What makes you think she knows it? Kitty gave him a sidelong glance but did not answer. Instead she asked him a question. Do you know it? He smiled and shrugged his shoulders.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some of us look for the way in opium and some in God. Some of us in whiskey and some in love. It is all the same way and it leads no wither.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Chapter 59. Kitty fell again into the comfortable routine of her work. And though in the early morning feeling far from well, she had spirit enough not to let it discompose her. She was astonished at the interest the nuns took in her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sisters who, when she saw them in a corridor, had done no more than bid her good morning.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, on a flimsy pretext, came into the room in which she was occupied and looked at her, chatting a little, with a sweet and childlike excitement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sister St. Joseph told her with a repetition, which was sometimes tedious, how she had been saying to herself for days past,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now I wonder, or I shouldn't be surprised, and then when Kitty fainted, there can be no doubt it jumps to the eyes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She told Kitty long stories of her sister-in-law's confinements, which, but for Kitty's quick sense of humour, would have been not a little alarming.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sister San Josef combined in a pleasant fashion the realistic outlook of her upbringing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A river wound through the meadows of her father's farm and the poplars that stood on its bank trembled in the faintest breeze with a charming intimacy with religious things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One day, firmly convinced that a heretic could know nothing of such matters, she told Kitty of the enunciation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can never read those lines in the Holy Writ without weeping, she said.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then in French, in words that Takiti sounded unfamiliar, and in their precision a trifle cold, she quoted,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The mystery of birth blew through the convent like a little fitful wind playing among the white blossoms of an orchard. The thought that Kitty was with child disturbed and excited those sterile women.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She frightened them a little now and fascinated them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They looked upon the physical side of her condition with robust common sense, for they were the daughters of peasants and fishermen, but in their childlike hearts was awe. They were troubled by the thought of her burden, and yet happy and strangely exalted,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And sister Sam Martin had said what a pity it was she was not a Catholic. But the mother superior had reproved her. She said that it was possible to be a good woman, une brave femme, she put it, even though one was Protestant.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kitty was both touched and diverted by the interest she aroused, but surprised beyond measure when she found that even the mother superior, so austere in her saintliness, treated her with a new complacence. She had always been kind to Kitty, but in a remote fashion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now she used her with a tenderness in which there was something maternal. Her voice had in it a new and gentle note.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And in her eyes was a sudden playfulness, as though Kitty were a child who had done a clever and amusing thing. It was oddly moving. Her soul was like a calm gray sea, rolling majestically, awe-inspiring in its somber greatness.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then suddenly, a ray of sunshine made it alert, friendly and gay. Often now in the evening, she would come and sit with Kitty.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I must take care that you do not tire yourself mon enfant.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She said, making a transparent excuse to herself. Oh, Dr. Fain will never forgive me. Oh, this British self-control. There he is, delighted beyond measure, and when you speak to him of it, he becomes quite pale. She took Kitty's hand and patted it affectionately. Dr. Fain told me that he wished you to go away, but you would not because you could not bear to leave us. That was kind of you, my dear child.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I want you to know that we appreciate the help you have been to us. But I think that you do not want to leave him either. And that is better.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For your place is by his side, and he needs you. Ah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I am glad to think that he has been able to do something for you, said Kitty. You must love him with all your heart, my dear. He is a saint.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Between 30 and 40. Pen pusher. Former bed wetter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And to accuse the person of not being okay. You're not okay. You are not nice. It would have been all better if you would be more friendly. Yes. Pricks work with the dark side of the force.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Chapter 4 The Opening of the Cylinder


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By sunset the crowd around the pit had grown to two or three hundred. Upon my return,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I noticed that those gathered around were shouting and pushing each other so that they could see inside the pit better.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Behind him, the top of the cylinder was indeed starting to turn and rise up like a screw.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Stay away from it! I heard Ogilvy shout to the people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A moment later the top of the machine had risen as far as it could and then fell over into the pit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It made a loud crashing sound as it struck the metal below.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then there was silence, while everyone stared into the dark entrance of the machine.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think everyone believed that a thing that looked like a human would come out to greet them. However, what slowly rose up out of the darkness was not at all human. Not even close.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then more snake-like things started to follow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The interest of the people around the pit quickly changed to great fear. Everyone began to run away.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I however found that I could not stop watching.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The best that I could do was to back up slowly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The poor fellow who had fallen in earlier was still trying to climb his way out of the pit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a grayish color and, from the way it shined in the sunlight, its skin appeared to be wet. Its head was very large and round.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Its face was made up of two huge eyes and a small v-shaped mouth which dripped with water.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From the sound of its labored breathing, it seemed to be struggling to rise against the earth's gravity.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Its appearance was horrible to see. I was frightened by it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Suddenly the Martian fell over into the pit. It made a loud thud as it hit the metal below.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And immediately another head rose up from out of the entrance. My curiosity long having been satisfied, I now felt nothing but fear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I ran as quickly as I could to the nearest trees. When I looked back toward the pit I saw the head of the man who had fallen in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He disappeared entirely, and I thought that I could hear a scream from below. I wanted to run and help him, but my fear was too great.