Ron reads H.H. Munro's "The Open Window," a masterful short story about deception and the power of suggestion. Nervous visitor Frampton Nuttall receives more than he bargained for when he meets fifteen-year-old Vera during a country visit.
• Frampton visits the Stapleton household on doctor's orders for a "nerve cure"
• Young Vera tells him a tragic tale about her aunt's husband and brothers disappearing in a bog three years ago
• The open window is supposedly kept open in eternal hope for their return
• Frampton is horrified when three figures with guns and a spaniel approach the house
• He flees in terror, unaware that Vera has fabricated the entire story
• The story reveals Vera's talent for creating "romance at short notice"
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Episode Transcript
Hello, are you tired?
You will be.
This is Ron Reads.
Today we're reading the OpenWindow by H H Monroe.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Saki.
My aunt will be down presently.
Mr Nuttall said a veryself-possessed young lady of
fifteen In the meantime, youmust try and put up with me.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Frampton Nuttall endeavoured to say the correct,
something which should dulyflatter the niece of the moment,
without unduly discounting theend that was to come.
Privately, he doubted more thanever whether these formal
visits on a succession of totalstrangers would do much toward
(01:04):
helping the nerve cure which hewas supposed to be undergoing.
I know how it will be, hissister had said when he was
preparing to migrate to thisrural retreat.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
You will bury yourself down there and not
speak to a living soul, and yournerves will be worse than ever
from moping.
I shall just give you lettersof introduction to all the
people I know there.
Some of them, as far as I canremember, were quite nice.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Frampton wondered whether Miss Stapleton, the lady
whom he was presenting one ofthe letters of introduction,
came into the nice division.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Do you know how many people around here?
Do you know many of the peoplearound here?
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Asked the niece when she judged that they had had
sufficient silent communion.
Hardly a soul, said Frampton.
My sister was staying here atthe rectory, you know, some four
years ago and she gave meletters of introduction to some
of the people here.
He made the last statement in atone of distinct regret.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Then you know practically nothing about my
aunt pursued the self-possessedyoung lady.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Only her name and address admitted the caller.
He was wondering whether MissStapleton was in the married or
widowed state, An undefinable.
Something about the room seemedto suggest masculine habitation
.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Her great tragedy happened just three years ago
said the child.
That would be since yoursister's time.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Her tragedy, asked Frampton, somehow in this
restful country spot tragedyseemed out of place.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
You may wonder why we keep that window open on an
October afternoon said the niece, indicating a large French
window that opened to the lawn.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
It's quite warm for the time of year, said Frampton,
but has that window gotanything to do with the tragedy?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Out through that window.
Three years ago today, herhusband and her two young
brothers went off for theirday's shooting.
They never came back.
In crossing the moor to theirfavorite snipe shooting ground,
they were all three engulfed ina treacherous piece of bog.
It had been that dreadful wetsummer, you know, and places
(03:50):
that were safe in other yearsgave way suddenly without
warning.
Their bodies were neverrecovered.
It was the dreadful part of it.
That was the dreadful part ofit.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Here the child's voice lost its self-possessed
note and became falteringlyhuman and became falteringly
human.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Poor Aunt always thinks that they will come back
someday and they and the littlebrown spaniel that was lost with
them and walk in at that windowjust as they used to do.
That is why the window is keptopen every evening till it is
(04:31):
quite dusk.
Poor, dear aunt.
She has often told me how theywent out her husband with his
white waterproof coat over hisarm, as he always did to tease
her because she said it got onher nerves.
(04:53):
Do you know, sometimes on stillquiet evenings like this, I
almost get a creepy feeling thatthey all walk in through that
window.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
It was a relief to Frampton when the aunt bustled
into the room with a whirl ofapologies for being late in
making her appearance.
I hope Vera has been amusingyou.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
She has been very interesting, said Frampton.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I hope you don't mind .
The open window said MrStapleton briskly.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
My husband and brothers will be home directly
from shooting, and they alwayscome in this way.
They've been out for a snipe inthe marshes today, so they'll
make a fine mess over my poorcarpets.
So like you menfolk, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
mess over my poor carpets.
So like you menfolk, isn't it?
She rattled on cheerfully aboutthe shooting and the scarcity
of birds and the prospects forduck in the winter.
To Frampton it was all purelyhorrible.
He made a desperate butpartially successful effort to
turn on to a less ghastly topic.
He was conscious that hishostess was giving him only a
(06:16):
fragment of her attention andher eyes were constantly
straying past him to the openwindow and the lawn beyond.
It was certainly an unfortunatecoincidence that he should have
paid his visit on this tragicanniversary.
The doctors agree that, inordering me complete rest in
(06:37):
absence of mental excitement andavoidance of anything in the
nature of violent physicalexercise, announced frampton,
who labored under the tolerablywidespread delusion that total
strangers and chanceacquaintances are hungry for the
least detail of one's ailmentsand infirmities, their cause and
(06:59):
cure.
On the matter of diet, they arenot so much in agreement.
He continued no, said MissStapleton in a voice which only
replaced a yawn at the lastmoment.
Then she suddenly brightenedinto alert attention, but not
into what Frampton was saying.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Here they are at last she cried.
Just in time for tea, and don'tthey look as if they were muddy
up to their eyes.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Frampton shivered slightly and turned towards the
niece with a look intended toconvey sympathetic comprehension
.
The child was staring outthrough the open window with a d
intended to convey sympatheticcomprehension.
The child was staring outthrough the open window with a
dazed horror in her eyes.
In a chill shock of namelessfear, frampton swung around in
his seat and looked in the samedirection In the deepening
(07:49):
twilight.
Three figures were walkingacross the lawn towards the
window.
They all carried guns undertheir arms and one of them was
additionally burdened with awhite coat hung over his
shoulders.
A tired brown spaniel keptclose at their heels.
Noisily they neared the houseand then a hoarse young voice
(08:11):
chanted out of the dusk.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I said, Bertie, why do you bound?
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Frampton grabbed wildly at his stick and hat.
The hall door, the gavel drive,gravel drive and the front gate
were dimly noted stages In hisheadlong retreat.
A cyclist coming along the roadhad run into the hedge to avoid
imminent collision.
Here we are, my dear said thebearer of the white Macintosh
(08:39):
coming through the window"'Fairly muddy, but most of it
is dry.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Who was that?
Who bolted out as we came up'"'A most extraordinary man, a Mr
Nuttell' said Mr Stapleton "'Hecould only talk about his
illness and dashed off without aword of goodbye or apology.
When you arrived, one wouldthink he had seen a ghost.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I expect it was the spaniel, said the niece calmly.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
He told me he had a horror of dogs.
He was once hunted into acemetery somewhere on the banks
of the Ganges by a pack ofpariah dogs, and he had spent
the night in a newly dug gravewith the creature snarling and
grinning and foaming just abovehim Enough to make anyone lose
their nerve.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Romance that short was her specialty.
You've been listening to RonReads the Open Window by HH
Monroe Saki.
If you've enjoyed this episode,please give me a five star
(09:53):
rating.
I don't think anyone has donethat yet and a kind review would
be nice.
Please share this podcast withyour friends Bye.
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