The Grey Woman by Mrs. Gaskell (Part 3)

"indeed, I have sometimes fancied since that the flower-garden, to which the only access from the castle was through his rooms, was designed in order to give me exercise and employment under his own eye."

What is it that makes his fall in love? Is it a pretty face? A fancy title? An obligation? In this Elizabeth Gaskell tale, narrator Rae Wilson invites us to explore that very question.

Read the Story

Music and Sound Effects by:

No Way Out - by David Robson

The Mooche by Duke Ellington

"Sneaky Snitch" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Echoes in the Dark, a podcast dedicated to the oral tradition of storytelling. If you're looking to enjoy more classic literature, struggle to find the time to read, hate reading, or just love listening to stories, then this podcast is for you. At the end of each story, I'll share my analysis on the story's deeper meanings. The Grey Woman by Mrs. Gaskell. In part two of this story, Anna's letter tells of how she and her maid Amante have discovered her husband's deadly secret, and the two women flee in the night for fear if he finds out what they know.

SPEAKER_04 0:42

They later find themselves trapped in the loft of a stranger and are working to escape undetected and unrecognizable. If you haven't listened to part two of this story, please go back and listen.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Then come right back here and enjoy part three. And now The Grey Woman by Mrs. Gasp.

SPEAKER_04 1:08

But towards the second day, she required me two to exert myself, and then all my heavy despair returned. I let her dye my fair hair and complexion with the decaying shells of the stored up walnuts. I let her blacken my teeth, and even voluntarily broke a front tooth the better to effect my disguise. And through it all I had no hope of evading my terrible husband. The third night the funeral was over, the drinking ended, the guests gone, the miller put to bed by his man being too drunk to help himself. They stopped a little while in the kitchen talking and laughing about the news housekeeper likely to come, and they too went off, shutting but not locking the door. Everything favoured us. Amante had tried her ladder on one of the two previous nights and could, by dexterous throw from beneath, unfasten it from the hook to which it was fixed, when it had served its office. She made up a bundle of worthless old clothes in order that we might the better preserve our characters of a travelling peddler and his wife. She stuffed a hump of her back, she thickened my figure, she left her own clothes deep down beneath a heap of others in the chest from which she had taken the men's dress, which she wore. And with a few francs in her pocket, the sole money we had either of us had about us when we escaped, we let ourselves down the ladder, unhooked it, and passed into the cold darkness of night again. We had discussed the route which it would be well for us to take while we lay perdu in our loft. Amante had told me then that her reason for inquiring when we first left Le Rocher, by which I had first been brought to it, was to avoid the pursuit which she was sure would first be made in the direction of Germany. But that now she thought we might return to that district of country where my German fashion of speaking French would excite least observation, I thought about Amante herself had something peculiar in her accent, which I had heard Monsieur de la Torreille sneer at as Norman Patois, but I said not a word beyond agreeing to her proposal that we should bend our steps towards Germany. Once there we should, I thought, be safe. Alas, I forgot the unruly time that was overspreading all Europe, overturning all law, and all the protection which law gives. How we wandered, not daring to ask our way, how we lived, how we struggled through many a danger and still more terrors of danger I shall not tell you now. I will only relate two of our adventures before we reached Frankfurt. The first, although fatal to an innocent lady, was yet, I believe, the cause of my safety. The second, I shall tell you that you may understand why I did not return to my former home, as I had hoped to do when we lay in the miller's loft, and I first became capable of groping after an idea of what my future life might be. I cannot tell you how much in these doubtings and wanderings I became attached to Monte. I have sometimes feared since, lest I cared for her only because she was so necessary to my safety. But no, it was not so or not so only or principally. She said once that she was flying for her own life as well as for mine. But we dared not speak much of our danger or on the horrors that had gone before. We planned a little what was to be our future course, but even for that we did not look forward long. How could we, when every day we scarcely knew if we should see the sun go down? For Amonty knew or conjectured far more than I did of the atrocity of the gang to which Monsieur de la Tourelle belonged, and every now and then, just as we seemed to be sinking into the calm of security, we fell upon traces of a pursuit after us in all directions. Once I remember, we must have been nearly three weeks wearily walking through unfrequented ways, day after day, not daring to make inquiry as to our whereabouts, nor yet to seem purposeless in our wanderings. We came to a kind of lonely roadside farriers in blacksmiths. I was so tired that Amante declared that, come what might, we would stay there all night, and accordingly she entered the house and boldly announced herself as a traveller tailor, ready to do any odd jobs of work that might be required for a night's lodging and food for herself and wife. She had adopted this plan once or twice before and with good success, for her father had been a tailor in ruin, and as a girl she had often helped him with his work and knew the tailor's slang and habits, down to the particular whistle and cry which in France tells so much to those of a trade. At this blacksmith's, as at most other solitary houses far away from a town, there was not only a store of men's clothes laid by as wanting mending when the housewife could afford time, but there was a natural craving after news from a distance. Such news as a wandering tailor is bound to furnish. The early November afternoon was closing into evening as we sat down, the cross legged on the great table in the blacksmith's kitchen drawn close to the window, I close behind her, sewing at another part of the same garment, and from time to time well scolded by my seeming husband. All at once she turned round to speak to me. It was only one word. Cottage I had seen nothing. I sat out of the light, but I turned sick for an instant, and then I braced myself up into a strange strength of endurance to go through I knew not what. The blacksmith's forge was in a shed beside the house and fronting the road. I heard the hammers stop plying their continual rhythmic beat. She had seen why they ceased. A rider had come up to the forge and dismounted, leading his horse to be reshawed. The broad red lights of the forge fire had revealed the face of the rider to Monte, and she apprehended the consequence that really ensued. The rider, after some words with the blacksmith, was ushered in by him into the house place where we sat. Here, good wife, a cup of wine, and some gallet for this gentleman Anything, anything, madame, that I can eat and drink in my hand while my horse is being shod. I am in haste and must go on to Forbach tonight. The blacksmith's wife lighted her lamp. Amante had asked her for it five minutes before. How thankful we were that she had no more speedily complied with our request. As it was, we sat in dusk shadow, pretending to stitch away but scarcely able to see. The lamp was placed on the stove near which my husband, for it was he, stood and warmed himself. By and by he turned round and looked all over the room, taking us in with about the same degree of interest as the inanimate furniture. Amante, cross legged, fronting him, stooped over her work, whistling softly all the while. He turned again to the stove, impatiently rubbing his hands. He had finished his wine and gallowed and wanted to be off. I am in haste, my good woman. Ask thy husband to get on more quickly, I will pay him double if he makes haste. The woman went on to his bidding. And once more turned round to face us. Amante went on to the second part of the tune. He took it up, whistled a suck it for an instant or so, and then the blacksmith's wife re entering, he moved towards her as if to receive her answer the more speedily.

SPEAKER_02 10:15

One moment, Monsieur, only one moment.

SPEAKER_04 10:19

There was a nail out of the off foreshoe, which my husband is replacing. It would delay Monsieur again if that shoe also came off. Madame is right, he said. But my haste is urgent. If Madame knew my reasons, she would pardon my impatience. Once a happy husband, now a deserted and betrayed man, I pursue a wife on whom I lavished all my love, but who has abused my confidants and fled from my house, doubtless to some powder mower, carrying off with her all the jewels and money on which she could lay her hands.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

It is possible Madame may have heard or seen something of her.

SPEAKER_04 11:03

She was accompanied in her flight by a base, proflagent woman from Paris, whom I, unhappy man, had myself engaged for my wife's waiting maid, little dreaming what corruption I was bringing into my house. Is it possible? said the coat woman, throwing up her hands. Amante went on whistling a little lower out of respect to the conversation. However, I am tracing the wicked fugitives. I am on their track. And the handsome, effeminate face looked as ferocious as any demon's. They will not escape me, but every minute is minute of misery to me till I meet my wife. Madame has sympathy, has she not? He drew his face into a hard, unnatural smile, and then both went out to the forge as if once more to hasten the blacksmith over his work. Amante stopped her whistling for one instant. Go on as you are without change of an eyelid even. In a few minutes he will be gone and it will be over. It was a necessary caution, for I was on the point of getting way and throwing myself weakly upon her neck. He went on, she whistling and stitching, I making semblance to sew. And it was well we did so, for almost directly he came back for his whip which he had laid down and forgotten, and again I felt one of those sharp, quick scanning glances sit all around the room, and taking in all. Then we heard him right away, and then it had been long too dark to see well. I dropped my work, and gave way to my trembling and shuddering. The blacksmith's wife returned. She was a good creature. Amante told her I was cold and weary, and insisted on my stopping my work and going to sit near the stove, hastening at the same time her preparations for supper, which, in honor of us and of Moncio's liberal payment, was to be a little less frugal and ordinary. It was well for me that she made me taste a little of the cider soup she was preparing, or I could not have held up, in spite of Amante's warning look and the remembrance of her fruit exhortations to act resolutely up to the characters we had assumed, whichever befell. To cover my agitation, Amante stopped her whistling and began to talk, and by the time the blacksmith came in, she and the good woman of the house were in full flow. He began at once upon the handsome gentleman who had paid him so well. All his sympathy was with him, and both he and his wife only wished that he might overtake his wicked wife and punish her as she deserved. And then the conversation took a turn not uncommon to those whose lives are quiet and monotonous. Everyone seemed to vie with each other in telling about some horror, and the savage and mysterious band of robbers caught the chauffeurs, who infested all the roads leading to the Rhine with Schinderhanis at their head, furnished many a tale which made the very marrow of my bones run cold, and quenched even Amante's power of talking. Her eyes grew large and wild, her cheeks blanched, and for once she sought by her looks help from me. The new call upon me aroused me. I rose and said with their permission my husband and I would seek our bed, for that we had travelled far and were early risers. I added that we would get up betimes and finish our piece of work. The blacksmith said we should be early birds if we rose before him, and the good wife seconded my proposal with kindly bustle. One other such story as those they had been relating, and I do believe Amante would have fainted. As it was, a night's rest set her up. We arose and finished our work betimes and shared the plentiful breakfast of the family. Then we had set forth again only knowing that to Forbach we must not go, yet believing, as was indeed the case, that Forbach lay between us and that Germany to which we were directing our course. Two days more we wandered on, making a round, I suspect, and returning upon the road to Forbach, a league or two nearer to that town than the blacksmith's house. But as we never made in Cariz, I hardly knew where we were. When we came one night to a small town with a good large rambling inn in the very center of the principal street, we had begun to feel as if there were more safety in towns than in the loneliness of the country. As we had parted with a ring of mine, not many days before to a travelling jeweller who was too glad to purchase it far below its real value to make many inquiries as to how it came into the possession of a poor working tailor. Such as the Monty seemed to be, we resolved to stay at this inn all night and gather such particulars and information as we could by which to direct our onward course. We took our supper in the darkest corner of the Sala Mangier, having previously bargained for a small bedroom across the court and over the stables. We needed food sorely, but we hurried on our meal from dread of anyone entering that public room who might recognize us. Just in the middle of our meal, the public diligence drove lumbering up under the port course and disgorged its passengers. Most of them turned into the room where we sat, scouring and fearful for the doors opposite the porter's lodge, and both opened on to the wide covered entrance from the street. Among the passengers came in a young fair haired lady, attended by an airdilly French maid. The poor young creature tossed her head and shrank away from the common room full of evil smells and promiscuous company, and demanded in German French to be taken to some private apartments. We heard that she and her maid had come in the coop, and probably from pride, poor young lady. She had avoided all association with her fellow passengers thereby exciting their dislike and ridicule. All these little pieces of hearsay had a significance to us afterwards, though at the time, the only remark made that bore upon the future was Amont's whisper to me that the young lady's hair was exactly the color of mine, which she had cut off and burnt in the stove in the miller's kitchen in one of her descents from our hiding place in the loft. As soon as we could, we struck around in the shadow, leaving the boisterous merry fellow passengers to their supper. We crossed the court, borrowed a lantern from the ulster, and scrambled up the rude steps to our chamber above the stable. There was no door into it. The entrance was the hole into which the ladder fitted. The window looked into the court. We were tired and soon fell asleep. I was wakened by a noise in the stable below. One instant of listening, and I awakened a Monty placing my hand on her mouth to prevent any exclamation in her half browsed state. We heard my husband speaking about his horse to the Osler. It was his voice. I'm sure of it. Monty said so too. We durst not move to rise and satisfy ourselves. For five minutes or so he went on giving directions, then he left the stable, and softly stealing to our window, we saw him cross the court and reenter the inn. We consulted as to what we should do. We feared to excite remark or suspicion by descending and leaving our chamber, or else immediate escape was our strongest idea. Then the ostler left the stable, locking the door on the outside. We must try and drop through the window, if indeed it is well to go at all, said Amante. With reflection came wisdom. We should excite suspicion by leaving without paying our bill. We were on foot and might easily be pursued. So we sat on our bed's edge talking and shivering, while from across the court the laughter rang merrily, and the company slowly dispersed one by one, their lights flitting past the windows as they went upstairs and settled each one to his rest. We crept into our bed, holding each other tight and listening to every sound as if we thought we were trapped, and might meet our death at any moment. In the dead of night, just as the profound stillness preceding the turn into another day, we heard a soft, cautious step crossing the yard. The key into the stable was turned, someone came into the stable. We felt rather than heard him there. A horse started a little and made a restless movement with its feet, then winnied recognition. He who had entered made two or three low sounds to the animal, and then led him into the court. Amante sprang to the window with the noiseless activity of the cat. She looked out but dared not speak a word. We heard the great door to the street open, a pause for mounting, and the horse's footsteps were lost in the distance. Then Amante came back to me. It was he. He is gone, said she, and once more we lay down, trembling and shaking. This time we fell sound asleep. We slept long and late. We were awakened by many hurrying feet and many confused voices. All the world seemed awake and astir. We rose and dressed ourselves, and coming down we looked around among the crowd collected in the courtyard in order to To assure ourselves he was not there before we left the shelter of the stable. The instant we were seen, two or three people rushed to us. Have you heard? Do you know? That poor young lady oh come and see. And so we were hurried almost in spite of ourselves across the court and up the great open stairs to the main building of the inn into a bedchamber, where lay the beautiful young German lady, so full of peaceful pride the night before, now white and still in death. By her stood the French maid, crying and gesticulating Well Madame, if you had but suffered me to stay with you.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

Oh Baron what will he say? And so she went on.

SPEAKER_04 22:54

Her state had but just been discovered. It had been supposed that she was fatigued and was sleeping late until a few minutes before. The surgeon of the town had been sent for, and the landlord of the inn was trying vainly to enforce order until he came, and from time to time, drinking little cups of brandy and offering them to the guests, who were all assembled there, pretty much as the servants were doing in the courtyard. At last the surgeon came. All fell back and hung on the words that were to fall from his lips. See, said the landlord, this lady came last night by the diligence with her maid, doubtless a great lady, for she must have a private sitting room.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

She was the Madame the Baroness de Rodia, said the French maid.

SPEAKER_04 23:51

And was difficult to please in the matter of supper on the sleeping room. She went to bed well, though fatigued.

SPEAKER_02 23:59

Her maid left her. I begged to be allowed to sleep in her room as we were in a strange inn of the cat of which we knew nothing, but she would not let me. My mistress was such a great lady.

SPEAKER_04 24:16

And slept with my servants, continued the landlord. This morning we thought Madame was still slumbering, but when eight, nine, ten, and near eleven o'clock came, I bade her maid use my pass key and enter her room.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

That locked only closed, and here she was found. Dead is she not, Monsieur, with her face down on her pillow and her beautiful hair all scattered wild. She never would let me tie it up, saying it made her headache.

SPEAKER_04 24:53

Such hair, said the waiting maid, lifting up a long golden tress and letting it fall again. I remembered De Monte's words the night before, and crept close up to her. Meanwhile, the doctor was examining the body underneath the bedclothes which the landlord until now had not allowed to be disarranged. The surgeon drew out his hand, all bathed and stained with blood, and holding up a short sharp knife with a piece of paper fastened round it. Here has been foul play, he said. The deceased lady has been murdered. This dagger was aimed straight at her heart. Then, putting on his spectacles, he read the writing on the bloody paper, dimmed and horribly obscure as it was. Numer Anis Le Chauffeinjon Let us go, said I to Amati, who let us leave this horrible place. Wait a little, said she. Only a few minutes more it would be better. Immediately the voices of all proclaimed their suspicions of the cavalier who had arrived last the night before. He had, they said, made so many inquiries about the young lady whose supercilious conduct all in the Salle Amang had been discussing on his entrance. They were talking about her as we left the room. He must have come in directly afterwards and not until he had learnt all about her, had he spoken of the business which necessitated his departure at dawn of day, and made his arrangement with both of the landlord and Osler for the possession of the keys of the stable and Port Cosia. In short, there was no doubt as to the murderer, even before the arrival of the legal functionary, who had been sent for by the surgeon, but the word on the paper chilled everyone with terror. Les chauffeurs? Who were they? No one knew some of the gang might even then be in the room, overhearing and noting down fresh objects for vengeance. In Germany, I had heard little of this terrible gang, and I had paid no greater heed to the stories related once or twice about them in Karl Run than one does the tales about ogres. But here, in their very haunts, I learnt the full amount of the terror they inspired. No one would be legally responsible for any evidence criminating the murderer. The public prosecutor shrank from the duties of his office. What do I say? Neither Amante nor I, knowing far more of the actual guilt of the man who had killed that poor sleeping young lady, durst breathe a word. We appeared to be wholly ignorant of everything. We who might have told so much.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

But how could we?

SPEAKER_04 28:18

We were broken down with terrific anxiety and fatigue with the knowledge that we, above all, were doomed victims, and that the blood heavily dripping from the bedclothes onto the floor, was dripping thus out of the poor dead body, because when living, she had been mistaken for me. At length, Amante went up to the landlord and asked permission to leave his inn doing all openly and humbly, so as to excite neither ill will nor suspicion. Indeed, suspicion was otherwise directed, and he willingly gave us leave to depart. A few days afterwards, we were across the Rhine in Germany making our way towards Frankfurt, but still keeping our disguises and Amante still working at her trade. On the way we met a young man, a wandering journeyman from Heidelberg. I knew him, although I did not choose that he should know me. I asked him as carelessly as I could, how the old miller was now. He told me he was dead. This realization of the worst apprehensions caused by his long silence shocked me inexpressibly. It seemed as though every prop gave way from under me. I had been talking to Amonty only that very day of the safety and comfort of the home that awaited her in my father's house, of the gratitude which the old man would feel towards her and how there in that peaceful dwelling, far away from the horrible land of France she could find ease and security for all the rest of her life. All this I thought I had to promise, and even yet more had I looked for for myself. I looked to the unburdening of my heart and conscience by telling all I knew to my best and wisest friend. I looked to his love as a sure guidance as well as a comforting stay, and behold, he was gone away from me forever. I had left the room hastily on hearing of this sad news from the Heidelberg. Presently Amante followed. Poor Madame, said she, consoling me to the best of her ability. And then she told me by degrees what more she had learned respecting my home about which she knew almost as much as I did from my frequent talks on the subject both at Le Rochia and on the dreary, doleful road we had come along. She had continued the conversation after I left by asking about my brother and his wife. Of course they lived on at the mill, but the man said, with what truth I know not, but I believed it firmly at the time, that Babette had completely got the upper hand of my brother, who only saw through her eyes and heard with her ears. But there had been much hideover gossip of late days about her sudden intimacies with the grand French gentleman who had appeared at the mill, a relation by marriage, married in fact to the Miller's sister, who by all accounts had behaved abominably and ungratefully. But that was no reason for Babette's extreme and sudden intimacy with him going about everywhere with the French gentleman, and since he left, as the Heidelberger said he knew for a fact, corresponding with him constantly. Yet her husband saw no harm in it all, seemingly, though, to be sure, he was so out of spirits, what with his father's death and news of his sister's infamy, that he hardly knew how to hold up his head. Now, said Amante, all this proves that Monsieur de la Torelle has suspected that you would go back to the nest in which you were reared, and that he has been there and found that you have not yet returned. But probably he still imagines that you will do so and has accordingly engaged your sister in law as a kind of informant. Madame has said that her sister in law bore no extreme goodwill and the defamatory story he has got, the start of us in spreading will not tend to increase the favour in which your sister in law holds you. No doubt the assassin was retracing his steps when we met him near Faubach, and having heard of the poor German lady with her French maid and her pretty blonde complexion, he followed her. If Madame will still be guided by me. And my child, I beg of you still to trust me, said Amante, breaking out her respectful formality into the way of talking more natural to those who had shared and escaped from common dangers. More natural too, where the speaker was conscious of a power of protection which the other did not possess. We will go on to fake foot and lose ourselves for a time at least in the numbers of people who throng a great town, and you have told me that Frankfurt is a great town. We will still be husband and wife. We will take a small lodging and you should housekeep and live indoors. I, as the rougher and the more alert, will continue my father's trade and seek work at the tailor's shop. I could think of no better plan, so we followed this out in a back street at Frankfurt, where we found two furnished rooms to let on a sixth story. The one we entered had no light from day, a dingy lamp swung perpetually from the ceiling, and from that, or from the open door leading into the bedroom beyond, came our light. The bedroom was more cheerful, but very small. Such as it was, it almost exceeded our possible means. The money from the sale of my ring was almost exhausted, and Amante was a stranger in the place speaking only French. Moreover, and the good Germans were hating the French people right heartedly. However, we succeeded better than our hopes and even laid by a little against the time of my confinement. I never stirred abroad and saw no one. Anamante's want of knowledge of German kept her in a state of comparative isolation.

SPEAKER_03 35:33

At length, my child was born. My poor, worse than fatherless child. It was a girl, as I had prayed for.

SPEAKER_04 35:45

I had feared lest a boy might have something of the tiger nature of its father, but a girl seemed all my own. And yet not all my own. For the faithful Amonty's delight and glory in the babe almost succeeded mine in outward show it certainly did. We had not been able to afford my attendance beyond what a neighboring sage Fem could give, and she came frequently, bringing with her a little store of gossip and wonderful tales cold out of her own experience every time. One day, she began to tell me about a great lady in whose service her daughter had lived as Skolyan or some such thing. Such a beautiful lady, with such a handsome husband. But grief comes to the palaces as well as to the garret, and why or wherefore no one knew. But somehow, the Baron de Roder must have incurred the vengeance of the terrible chauffeurs, for not many months ago, as Madame was going to see her relations in Els, she was stabbed dead as she lay in bed at some hotel on the road.

SPEAKER_03 37:08

Had I not seen it in the gazette? Had I not heard?

SPEAKER_04 37:13

Why she had been told that as far off as Lyon, there were placards offering a heavy reward on the part of the Baron de Roder for information respecting the murderer of his wife. But no one could help him, for all who could bear evidence were in such terror of the chauffeurs, there were hundreds of them she had been told, rich and poor, great gentlemen and peasants, all leagued together by most frightful oaths to hunt to the death any who bore witness against them, so that even they who survived the tortures to which the chauffeurs subjected many of the people whom they plunder, dared not to recognize them again, would not dare, even did they see them at the bar of a court of justice. For if one were condemned, were there not hundreds sworn to avenge his death? I told all this to Amante, and we began to fear that if Monsieur de la Torelle or Le Febble, or any of the gang at Le Rochers had seen these placards, they would know that the poor lady stabbed by the former was the Baroness de Rodier, and that they would set forth against in search of me. This fresh apprehension told on my health and impeded my recovery. We had so little money we could not call in a physician. At least not one in established practice. But Amante found out a young doctor for whom indeed she had sometimes worked, and offering to pay him in kind, she brought him to see me her sick wife. He was very gentle and thoughtful, though like ourselves very poor. But he gave much time and consideration to the case, saying once to Monty that he saw my constitution had experienced some severe shock from which it was probable that my nerves would never entirely recover. By and by I shall name this doctor, and then you will know better than I could describe his character. I grew strong in time, stronger at least. I was able to work a little at home and to sun myself and my baby at the garret window and the roof. It was all the air I dared to take. I constantly wore the disguise I had first set out with, as constantly had I renewed the disfiguring dye which changed my hair and complexion. But the perpetual state of terror in which I had been during the whole months succeeding my escape from Le Rocher made me loathe the idea of ever again walking in open daylight, exposed to the sight and recognition of ever passer by. In vain? Amante reasoned, in vain the doctor urged. Dacile in every other thing. In this I was obstinate. I would not stir out. One day Amante returned from her work, full of news, some of it good, some such as to cause us apprehension. The good news was this. The master for whom she worked as a juryman was going to send her with some others to a great house at the other side of Frankfurt, where there were to be private theatricals, and where many new dresses and much alteration of old ones would be required. The tailors employed were all to stay at this house until the day of the representation was over, as it was at some distance from the town, and no one could tell when their work would be ended. But the pay was to be proportionately good. The other thing she had to say was this. She had that day met the travelling jeweller to whom she and I had sold my ring. It was rather a peculiar one given to me by my husband. We had felt at the time that it might be the means of tracing us, but we were penniless and starving, and what else could we do? She had seen that this Frenchman had recognized her and at the same instant that she did him. And she thought at the same time that there was a gleam of more than common intelligence on his face as he did so. This idea had been confirmed by his following her for some way on the other side of the street, but she had evaded him with her better knowledge of the town and the increasing darkness of the night. Still, it was well that she was going to such a distance from our dwelling on the next day, and she had brought me in a stock of provisions, begging me to keep within doors, with a strange kind of fearful oblivion of the fact that I had never set foot beyond the threshold of the house since I had first entered it, scarce ever venture down the stairs. But although my poor, my dear, very faithful Amante was like one possessed that last night, she spoke continually of the dead, which is a bad sign for the living.

SPEAKER_03 42:53

She kissed you. Yes It was you, my daughter, my darling, who I bore beneath my bosom away from the fearful castle of your father. I call him so for the first time. I must call him so once again before I have done. Amante kissed you, sweet baby, blessed little comforter, as if she never could leave off. And then she went away alive. Two days.

SPEAKER_04 43:32

Three days passed away.

SPEAKER_03 43:35

That third evening, I was sitting within my bolted doors, you asleep on your pillow by my side, when a step came up the stair and I knew it must be for me, for ours were the topmost rooms. Someone knocked. I held my very breath, but someone spoke, and I knew it was the good doctor Voltaire. Then I crept to the door and answered. Are you alone?

SPEAKER_04 44:07

asked I. Yes, said he in a still lower voice. Let me in. I let him in and he was as alert as I in bolting and barring the door. Then he came and whispered to me his doleful tale. He had come from a hospital in the opposite quarter of the town. The hospital which he visited. He should have been with me sooner, but he had feared least he should be watched. He had come from Amante's deathbed. Her fears of the jeweler were too well founded. She had left the house where she was employed that morning to transact some errand connected with her work in the town. She must have been followed, and dogged on her way back through solitary wood paths for some of the wood rangers belonging to the great house had found her lying there, stabbed to death, but not dead. With the Ponard again plunged through the fatal writing once more. But this time with the word en so as to show that the assassin was aware of his previous mistake.

SPEAKER_03 45:30

Numero enanci le chauffeurs se vanjon They had carried her to the house and given her restoratives till she had recovered the feeble use of her speech, but oh faithful dear friend and sister Even then she remembered me and refused to tell what no one else among her fellow workmen knew where she lived or with whom.

SPEAKER_04 46:02

Life was ebbing away fast, and they had no resource but to carry her to the nearest hospital where, of course, the fact of her sex was made known. Fortunately, both for her and for me, the doctor in attendance was the very doctor Voss, whom we already knew. To him, while awaiting her confessor, she told enough to enable him to understand the position which I was left before the priest had heard half her tale, Amante was dead. Dr. Voss told me he had made all sorts of detours and waited thus late at night for fear of being watched and followed. But I do not think he was. At any rate, as I afterwards learnt from him, the Baron Rudier, on hearing of the similitude of this murder with that of his wife in every particular, made such a search after assassins that, although they were not discovered, they were compelled to take to flight for the time. I can hardly tell you now by what arguments doctor Voss, at first merely my benefactor, sparing me a portion of his small modicum, at length persuaded me to become his wife. His wife, he called it, I called it, for we went through the religious ceremony too much slighted at the time, and as we were both Lutherans and Monsieur de la Torelle had pretended to be of the reformed religion, a divorce from the latter would have been easily procurable by German law, both ecclesiastical and legal, could we have summoned so fearful a man into any court? The good doctor took me and my child by stealth to his modest dwelling, and there I lived in the same deep retirement, never seeing the full light of day, although when the dye had once passed away from my face, my husband did not wish me to renew it. There was no need. My yellow hair was grey, my complexion was ashen colored. No creature could have recognized the fresh colored, bright haired young woman of eighteen months before. The few people whom I saw knew me only as Madame Voss, a widow much older than himself, whom doctor Voss had secretly married. They called me the Grey Woman. He made me give you his surname.

SPEAKER_03 48:54

Till now you have known no other father. While he lived you needed no father's love.

SPEAKER_04 49:03

Once only once did the old terror come upon me for some reason which I forget, I broke through my usual custom and went to the window of my room for some purpose. Either to shut or open it. Looking out into the street for an instant, I was fascinated by the sight of Monsieur de la Torelle, gay, young, elegant as ever, walking along on the opposite side of the street. The noise I had made with the window caused him to look up. He saw me, an old grey woman, and he did not recognize me. Yet it was not three years since we had parted, and his eyes were keen and dreadful like those of the lynx. I told Monsieur Vos on his return home and he tried to cheer me, but the shock of seeing Monsieur de La Torelle had been too terrible for me. I was ill for long months afterwards. Once again I saw him dead. He and Le Fouvre were at last caught, hunted down by the Baron de Rodier in some of their crimes. Dr. Voz had heard of their arrest, their condemnation, their death, but he never said a word to me until one day he bade me show him that I loved him by my obedience and my trust. He took me a long carriage journey, whereto I know not, for we never spoke of that day again. I was led through a prison and to a closed courtyard where, decently draped in the last robes of death, concealing the marks of decapitation, Le Monsieur de la Torelle, and two or three others whom I had known at Le Rocher. After that conviction, doctor Voss tried to persuade me to return to a more natural mode of life and to go out more. But although I sometimes complied with his wish, yet the old terror was ever strong upon me, and he, seeing what an effort it was, gave up urging me at last. You know all the rest? How we both mourned bitterly the loss of that dear husband and father, for such I will call him ever and as such you must consider him my child after this one revelation is over. Why has it been made, you ask? For this reason, my child. The lover whom you have only known as Monsieur Le Brun, a French artist, told me but yesterday his real name dropped because the bloodthirsty Republicans might consider it as too aristocratic. It is Maurice de Poissy. So that was The Grey Woman by Mrs. Gaskell, and I actually this is the first time I've looked at a work from this author. Um that was a lot.

SPEAKER_01 52:35

Going into this, I was originally gonna record um another story, and I thought, you know what?

SPEAKER_04 52:42

Let's do another female author. I feel like it's been guy-heavy the last few episodes. Let's look at another female author. And I want to do something short. I don't have a lot of time, just want to do a short, good, solid story. And I kept finding all these stories that just felt long. I'm like, come on, there's gotta be something short out there. And so when I found this story, I thought, oh, this this looks short. This this should be fine. And once I got into it, I was like, oh my gosh, there are all these accents, we are in different countries. Um, it it was a lot, but was it worth it? Well, it was worth it for me. I hope you enjoyed the story and um that you were able to understand all of the different happenings. It was, I thought it was a crazy ride, but so well written. Oh my goodness. There really is, for me at least, there's no mystery when it comes to what is this story about. Okay, so in terms of spook and gore, it's got it. It's spooky. We've got an old creepy castle, we've got dark shadows, we've got those elements of gothic literature. We don't have some creepy monster coming out or anything like that, but we do have this kind of Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde thing going on with her husband. Um, this man, Monsieur de la Tourelle, is a many, he's a beast, and I, for one, did not see it coming. Maybe you did. Maybe you knew that when she encountered him at the Rupert's home, she would be slowly getting herself involved with a man who would turn out to be a murderer. Okay, so what are some of the big issues that Gaskell is addressing in the story? Well, right up front, we get the very tough, um, tough path of you what it's like to be respectable, respectful, and um gosh, not a troublemaker, right? So the whole introduction of the courtyard and hey, let's all come over here and have some tea. And now we're at this, we're inside because it was raining, and so we just happen to be inside and we see this beautiful picture, and then we ask about it. And the Miller or Baker or whatever he, I think he's a Miller, um gives us these letters that were written about the portrait. All of that seemed a little unnecessary at first, but in reflection, I do appreciate that the author gave us this because she wanted to do a slow build into the story. She didn't want to just rush into, I'm a young lady and I found myself suddenly being married off to this guy who I thought was cute.

SPEAKER_01 56:12

And so I actually do appreciate the introduction. It it does work. It does work. And you got to remember at the time people didn't have TikTok, so they needed something to do.

SPEAKER_04 56:23

Um, with that being said, when Reese was doing a little bit of research on this author, I did come to learn that Gasco herself had traveled to Heidelberg a couple of times, three times, in fact, and um on separate occasions, she brought her own children. So she was someone who loved food, loved travel, and that's why we get this tale where the characters are traveling about, and we have this overlapping of languages, and we have this um tribute to the food scene at the beginning of a story by showing us people just enjoying their afternoon by going out to have coffee and some some uh delicious, savory whatever they're eating.

SPEAKER_01 57:16

Whatever they're eating at this guy's place.

SPEAKER_04 57:18

Um, so I thought that was really interesting that she brought some of her own personal passions in terms of just culture into the story.

SPEAKER_01 57:29

Now, of course, Gaskell brings in her personal views on society as well.

SPEAKER_04 57:40

What am I talking about? So we realize very quickly that had our main character stood up to Mrs. Rupert um Arushe in the beginning and said, I am I I am not to be married off.

SPEAKER_01 58:04

I did not intend to mislead this man, but this ain't happening. Mind you, that would have ruined all her prospects for future gentlemen. Okay. Um, but maybe if she'd been able to stay up and say, I'm not taking that gift.

SPEAKER_04 58:23

Of course, she's got this woman who's insisting, this guy's giving you gifts, you better take it. Don't be rude, don't be impolite. So then we come to the fact of, well, maybe if she found herself so overwhelmed with these gifts, to be able to say, you know, right home and be like, Dad, I I I I can't be here anymore.

SPEAKER_01 58:47

Now, to be fair, she knows that she's not really wanted at home because her sister-in-law hates her and thinks of her as a rival.

SPEAKER_04 58:56

So, to be honest, I see the position she got stuck in. Not really sure how old she is in this scene. Um I'm trying to reflect, but she's gonna be on the younger side, having, you know, she just would have gotten, she finished schooling, right? So she's what, late teens or something of that nature. It's not going to be that she has a whole lot of experience with being courted by men and being out in society. She's from the country, so she never gets like a coming out ball or has to socialize with these people. It's all very new and really all understandable. And I just found myself going, oh my gosh, how could she avoid this situation? But honestly, I can imagine a lot of young women falling into that situation because you want to be polite. And so Gaskell's just showing us right there, like, hey, what point, at what point does a young woman be able to take control of her own destiny, of her own agency, and to be able to say, hey, I want to slow down. And to be fair, the main character liked this guy at first. She's like, Yeah, he's cute. They just, I just don't want to get married now. And she even like straight up says it, like, I just don't want to get married now. I want to, I want to slow down.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:34

Um, you know, her father's just like, uh, not an option. Which, to be fair, he's looking at this guy who's into his daughter. The guy's got money, he's clearly going to be able to provide a good life for his daughter, and he's got the impression from others that this is a good match.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:03

What's he to do? He's just a miller from the country, right? So, at what point is a woman able to take control of her own life, her own destiny? And in the United States, that's still very much an issue today. Um, when we look at uh reproductive rights. At what point does a woman is she able to say, hey, this is what I want? We can also see this in terms of archaic uh divorce laws, where in some states women are um not granted any money, or if the woman cheats on her spouse, then she gets nothing.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:54

If he cheats, he has to pay support. But if she cheats, she ain't getting a dime, even if he cheated first.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:03

So there are these kind of archaic laws in the books, and again, at what point is a woman able to not have to fear she won't have a livelihood.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:17

All right, so there's that. Gaskell is definitely saying, hey, um, is this okay?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:24

I don't know. I don't do you think this is okay, reader. And when I looked at Gaskell's history, she did spend a lot of time in feminist and abolitionist circles. So she was very um aware of women's rights and the pro-women's rights movement, as well as the rights of uh slaves, right? So she was kind of fighting for equal rights all around.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:53

And in terms of the rights of slaves, well, we see in this story that Amante, the dutiful maid, who starts, she's assigned a position of servitude.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:09

However, um the lady of the house does say, like, hey, we have more in common than what others might think. We come from a very similar background, we're two country girls, and becomes her close confidant, her best friend, her sister, even, and later on does you know say, Oh, my sister. So there is that evidence of our authors saying, Hey, I believe that the people who are in positions of servitude are very much just like us, they have feelings and uh past and futures just like we do. We also look at the servants of Monsieur de la Tourelle, right? So all of his house people, um of them operating on fear, some of them seem to almost be more powerful than he, they share that same desire for money and for death, just like Monsieur de la Tourelle. What is their difference? One's got a title. So I think that's a pretty interesting statement. Instead of giving us a um, you know, the exact title of these people are enslaved, um, we have the servants in the home. We also kind of have Monsieur de la Tour enslaving his wife, right? She's to only go in the rooms which he permits her, and um can only talk to the people he wants her to talk to, only get the communications that he wants.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:10

Is that enslavement or is that imprisonment? That's a good question. I'm gonna say that's more of imprisonment.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:18

Um she does get pregnant. There was a question in my mind of did she want to be sleeping with this man? She does say that he his mood was kind of hot and cold. So sometimes he was really nice to her, and sometimes he wasn't. And so often she'd just be like, whatever, just to keep you from going off and flying off at the handle. Um, not unusual that he would have relations with this wife. Um, and she would be understanding it's her duty to fulfill those that wifely role. But I did, I just did kind of find myself going where there's some really Good times we just don't really get into, or was she just like, oh, okay, you're here. All right, I'll just lay here. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. We also have the message of never giving up. So um, even though it just seems like they're never, they're never gonna make it. This the castle itself is constructed to ensure no one can get out easily, especially if you don't know your way around, but they do manage to get out. Um, and they find themselves then in a loft with no ladder, and then they manage to get out of that. Um yeah, just on multiple occasions, it seems like they're dooms, they're at the end. I was I was sure there was gonna be an encounter at the end. I did not see coming that this other woman would be mistaken for her and then uh stabbed, basically. But I do like that Gasco kept that that particular death as part of our solution for his ultimate downfall, the ultimate downfall of Monsieur de la Tourelle. So on many occasions, our main character wants to give up. She's like, oh my goodness, he's going to get me. And Amante's like, nope, girl, you better hang in there. We came this far. And to be fair, Amante knows that if uh her mistress says anything or gives herself up, then Amante's gonna die too. So she's not about to, you know, in her life like that, just like uh-uh, it's not happening. So the the whole never get up just really stays throughout the entire novel, which is fabulous, fabulous message. We also have this idea that stays with the entire novel, which is trauma lingers forever. Forever. Yes, at one point, our main character is very disillusioned thinking, if I can just get back to my dad's house, everything will be great there. Everything will be great. And Amonty probably knew the whole time like everything's not gonna just be great going back to your dad's house, but it's something, it's someplace to go, right? We never get a sense that Amonty has um a hometown to go return to hide out in. We never hear much about her past, and that's fair because um that's you know, this is a servant, basically. So Gaskell gives us, well, she has this Normandy accent. Hmm, like she's from somewhere, she has a past too. She's just like just like me, um, in in that she's a country girl. Where's she really from? So we definitely see that trauma lingers forever because even after de la Torelle is dead, this woman still will not go out and about. And her new loving husband, Dr. Voss, tries to get her to go out, but realized it is just such an effort. And he probably can see, he probably can see just how upset she is at the idea of going out. Maybe she can't really relax when she goes out. That finally he's just like, I get it. And that's gotta be hard because he's a doctor, he he knows what will help someone, but on the other hand, he can also see that that process of going from one stage to the next, from going uh to be completely fearful of being stuck at home to then being fearful of being outside of the home, it's it's gotta be really difficult to watch. And I feel like for anyone who is a therapist watching their loved one struggle with something, that's gotta be rough. Okie dokie. What else do we have here? There's so many lessons, you guys. Uh, what is true love? We have the love of the doctor, Dr. Voss, for our main character. Um, I like that it said, um, he called me his wife. I called me his wife, like like we called this a marriage. Even though we weren't getting married for love, um, we understood each other, we expected each other, and we knew there weren't really many options for me. Um, but we do understand that these two developed a wonderful love over time. Now, whether or not they shared a bed or anything like that, that's never really stated. But her love for him is very clear. And I was actually really emotional at the end when she talks of his passing. Um, we have the love of mother for child. This letter starts off with child, you're asking if I love you and if I actually want you to be happy. I'm doing this because I love you, because I want you to be happy. I am telling you up front why you cannot marry him. This is what I need you to understand. What a fabulous twist, by the way, in my opinion, that her daughter, the daughter of Monsieur de la Torelle, the daughter who has a different last name in order to protect her, winds up by fate meeting a young man who she falls in love with, who happens to be the son of um Monsieur Poissy, who was the dead man in her husband's chambers. I did not see that coming. I thought it was a fabulous, fabulous term of events. Hopefully, you enjoyed that too. Um, wow. Because my labrain, I'm thinking, well, what's what's so wrong if she marries uh is she worried that like uh people will find out that her daughter's history is her father's really a murderer?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:00

No, it's a bit awkward for you to be married to the son of the man that your father murdered, just FYI.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:12

I thought, oof, yep, that's that's probably not a good marriage right there. Um, even though the two kids didn't do anything wrong, it's still linking over them. Okay, but that's not the only love story we get. Oh no, because we have the love between Amante and Madame de la Torelle, our main character, right? So um Amante makes herself a man. She goes from I'm gonna be the servant and serve you and look after you, to you know what? I'm going to be the man in this relationship and I'm gonna provide for you. If I was just a servant, I would serve you and I would be paid. That's not an option anymore. I can't be paid to serve you. So now I'm gonna make sure we're both taken care of. I'm going to be the provider for this relationship, I'm going to make us money, and I'm going to keep us safe. And I thought that was really beautiful. And you see the love of that relationship. Because Amonty at any point could have been like, okay, girl, you were too much. I can't handle this. And also, Amonty knew the way out of the castle, so she could have left at any point. So these different ways of showing love, I think, is really, really powerful. Even the Miller in the beginning, who brings in his clientele into his home when the rain happens, right? He loves his job. He's showing a love for his clientele, which is just truly fabulous. We also have what is true love. What is true love? So we have this marriage that happens, not out of love, but out of obligation. And to be fair, uh, Monsieur de la Tourelle, he gives lots of presents to his wife. That's what a lot of husbands do nowadays. And to be fair, um women may not do it so much with their husbands, but they definitely do it with the children. I love you so much. I'm going to give you all these things that I think you'll love. Just do what I say, and we'll both be happy. We'll both be happy. Do what I say, we'll both be happy. Here are all these things that you love. You'll have no reason to complain. And there are a lot of women who find themselves in relationships where they are told they don't have to work as long as they do what they're told and you know, be available when I need you to be available. And then lastly, what is a woman's place? What is a woman's place in society? What is a woman's place in the home? Um, yes, we have Amante, who is a woman who changes to no longer adopt that feminine side of her in order to survive. Um, we have our main character who goes through with this marriage and then goes through with being locked up in the house forever, in order not just to survive, but that's because what was expected of her. That's what a good girl does, that's what a woman does. And she didn't cause a fuss when her sister-in-law was like, oh, she needs to go. She didn't cause a fuss, she didn't want to be a burden. And I myself have thought on on many occasions, how do I not cause a fuss? How do I not be a burden? Um, and I wonder about certain areas of my own life where things may have turned out a lot differently had I been more willing to just say no. Nope, that's not happening. And our we see the growth in our main character when it comes to her going out into the light, into the daylight. Um, once she's been away from uh her ex-husband for some time, and she's in this village with the small little chambers. She is agreeable to many, many things. But going outside, she's like, nope, it's not happening. You guys can beg all you want, but it's not gonna happen. And so she does find the strength to stand on her own two feet and to say no at times. Um and that is that that's self-preservation, but it's important, it's important for uh anyone and everyone to find a way to stand their ground and say no, this I will not do, I cannot do, and I know it is in my best interest for what I need right now. Wow, so many things. What is love? Um wow, I mean, you would think she was doing the right thing, she saw a young man, he looked attractive, but she wasn't gonna jump in right away. She wants to slow down. Um, he's got they did the research, he's got a good track record. He must be. He must be a good guy. But it certainly makes if you're in the dating, right? You're like, what questions can I ask before I go on my next date? Well, with that being said, I hope you liked this story. I loved it. I will have to say, it was much longer than I had realized, and the multiple accents and locations definitely was not what I was expecting, but I gave it my best try in terms of maintaining some level of consistency. I encourage you to read over the story. It is it is well worth the read. I'm probably gonna be reading it um a second or third time this week. I loved it so much. But you can also just listen to this recording a second or third time. I hope you enjoyed this story and do come back for another Gothic tale.