Lady Into Fox by David Garnett

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Part one of Lady into Fox. This is a LibriVox recording.
All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording

(00:25):
by Tony Addison. Lady into Fox by David Garnet. Wonderful
or supernatural events are not so uncommon. Rather, they are
irregular in their incidents. Thus there may be not one

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marble to speak of in a century, and then often
en up comes a plentiful crop of them. Monsters of
all sorts swarm suddenly upon the earth from its plays
in the sky, eclipses frightened nature, meteors fall in rain,

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while mermaids and sirens beguile, and sea serpents engulp every
passing ship, and terrible cataclysms beset humanity. But the strange
event which I shall hear relate came alone, unsupported, without companions,

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into a hostile world, and for that very reason claim
little of the general attention of mankind. For the sudden
changing of Missus Tebrick into a vixen is an established
fact for which we may attempt to account for as

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we will. Certainly it is in the explanation of the fact,
and the reconciling of it with our general notions, that
we shall find most difficulty, and not in accepting but
true a story which is so fully proved, and that

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not by one witness, but by a dozen, all respectable,
and with no possibility of collusion between them. But here
I will confine myself to an exact narrative of the
event and all that followed on it. Yet I would

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not dissuade any of my readers from attempting an explanation
of this seeming miracle, because up to that none has
been found which is entirely satisfactory. What adds to the difficulty,
to my mind, is that the metamorphosis occurred when missus

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Tebrick was a full grown woman, and that it happened suddenly,
in so short a space of time. The sprouting of
a tale, the gradual extension of hair or over the body,
the slow change of the whole anatomy by a process

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of growth. Though it would have been monstrous, it would
not have been so difficult to reconcile to our ordinary conceptions,
particularly had it happened in a young child. But here
we have something very different. A grown lady is chained

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straightway into a fox. There is no explaining that a
way by any natural philosophy. The materialism of our age
will not help us here. It is indeed a miracle,
something from outside our world altogether, an event which we

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would willingly accept if we were to meet it, invested
with the authority of divine revelation in the scriptures, but
which we are not prepared to encounter almost in our time,
happening in Oxfordshire amongst our neighbors. The only things which

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go any way towards an explanation of it are but
guess work. And I give them more because I would
not conceal anything than because I think they are of
any work. Missus Debrigg's maiden name was certainly Fox, and

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it is possible that such a miracle happening before the
family may have gained their name as a soubriquet. On
that account. They were an ancient family and have had
their seat at Tangley Hall time out of mind. It
is also true that there was a half tame fox

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once upon a time, chained up at Tangley Hall in
the inner Yard, and I have heard many speculative wise
acres in the public houses turn that to great account,
though they could not but admit that there was never
one there in miss Sylvia's time. At first I was

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inclined to think that Sylvia Fox, having once hunted when
she was a child of ten, and having been blooded,
might furnish more of an explanation. It seemed she took
great fright or disgusted at it, and vomited after it
was done. But now I do not see that it

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has much bearing on the miracle itself, even though we
know that after that she always spoke of the poor
foxes when a hunt was stirring, and never rode to
hounds till after her marriage, when her husband persuaded her
to it. She was married in the year eighteen seventy

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nine to mister Richard de Brigg after a short courtship,
and went to live after their honeymoon at Rylands near Stokoe,
Oxon one point, indeed, I have not been able to ascertain,
and that is how they first became acquainted. Tangley Hall

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is over thirty miles from Stoco and is extremely remote. Indeed,
to this day there is no proper road to it,
which is all the more more remarkable, as it is
the principal and indeed the only manor house for several
miles round. Whether it was from a chance meeting on

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the roads, or less romantic, but more probable by mister
Tubrick becoming acquainted with her uncle, a minor cannon at Oxford,
and then being invited by him to visit Tangleyhame, it
is impossible to say, but however they became acquainted. The

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marriage was a very happy one. The bride was in
her twenty third year. She was small, with remarkably small
hands and feet. It is perhaps worth noting that there
was nothing at all foxy or vixenish in her appearance.

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On the contrary, she was a more than ordinarily beautiful
and agreeable woman. Her eyes were of a clear hazel,
but exceptionally brilliant, her hair dark with a shade of
red in it, her skin brownish, with a few dark

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freckles and little moles. In manner, she was reserved almost
to shyness, but perfectly self possessed and perfectly well bred.
She had been strictly brought up by a woman of
excellent principles and considerable attainments, who died a year or

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so before the marriage, and owing to the circumstance that
her mother had been dead many years, and her father
bedridden and not altogether rational for a little while before
his death. They had few visitors but her uncle. He
often stopped with them a month or two at a stretch,

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particularly in winter, as he was fond of shooting snipe,
which are plunktiful in the valley there. That she did
not grow up a country Heyden is to be explained
by the strictness of her governess and the influence of
her uncle. But perhaps a living in so wild a

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place gave her some disposition to wildness, even in spite
of her religious upbringing. Her old nurse said Miss Sylvia
was always a little wild at heart, though if this
was true, it was never seen by anyone else except

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her husband. On one of the first days of the
year eighteen eighty, in the early afternoon, husband and wife
went for a walk in the cops on the little
hill above Ryland's. They were still at this time like
lovers in their behavior, and were always together. While they

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were walking, they heard the hounds, and later the huntsman's
horn in the distance. Mister to Brick had persuaded her
to hunt on boxing dead, but with great difficulty, and
she had not enjoyed it, though of hacking, she was
fond enough hearing the hunt, Mister to Brick quickened his

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pace so as to reach the edge of the cops,
where they might get a good view of the hounds
if they came that way. His wife hung back, and he,
holding her hand, began almost to drag her. Before they
gained the edge of the cops. She suddenly snatched her
hand away from his very violently, and cried out, so

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that he instantly turned his head where his wife had
been a moment before, was a small fox of a
buried bright dread. It looked at him very beseechingly, advanced
towards him a pace or two, and he saw at
once that his wife was looking at him from the

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animal's eyes. You may well think if he were aghast,
and so maybe was his lady at finding herself in
that shape. So they did nothing for nearly half an
hour but stare at each other, he bewildered, she asking
him with her eyes as if indeed she spoke to him,

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what am I now become? Have pity on me, husband,
Have pity on me, for I am your wife. So
that with his gazing on her, and knowing her well
even in such a shape, yet asking himself, but ever
in mind, can it be she am? I? Not dreaming?

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And her beseeching and hastily fawning on him, and seeming
to tell him that it was she. Indeed, they came
at last together, and he took her in his arms.
She lay very close to him, nestling under his coat,
and fell to licking his face, but never taking her

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eyes from his. The husband, all this while kept turning
the thing in his head and gazing on her, But
he could make no sense of what had happened, but
only comforted himself with the hope that this was but
a momentary change, and that presently she would turn back
again into the white that was one flesh with him.

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One fancy that came to him, because he was so
much more like a lover than a husband, was that
it was his fault, and this because if anything dreadful happened,
he could never blame her but himself for it. So
they passed a good while till at last the tears

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welled up in the poor fox's eyes, and she began weeping,
but quite in silence, and she trembled too, as if
she were in a fever. At this he could not
contain his own tears, but sat down on the ground
and sobbed for a great while, but between his sobs
kissing her quite as if she had been a woman,

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and not caring in his grief that he was kissing
a fox on the muzzle. They sat thus till it
was getting near dusk, when he recollected himself, and the
next thing was that he must somehow hide her and
then bring her home. He waited till it was quite
dark that he might the better bring her into her

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own house without being seen, and buttoned her inside his topcoat,
nake even in his passion, tearing open his waistcoat and
his shirt, that she might lie the closer to his heart.
For when we are overcome with the greatest sorrow, we
act not like men or women, but like children, whose

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comfort in all their troubles is to press themselves against
their mother's breast, or, if she be not there, to
hold each other tight in one another's arms. When it
was dark, he brought her in with infinite precautions, yet
not without the dog stunting her utter, which nothing could

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moderate their clamort. Having got her into the house. The
next thing he thought of was to hide her from
the servants. He carried her to the bedroom in his arms,
and then went downstairs again. Mister tu Brick had three
servants living in the house, the cook, the parlor maid,

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and an old woman who had been his wife's nurse.
Besides these woman, there was a groom or a gardener,
whichever you choose to call him, who was a single man,
and so lived out a lodging with a laboring family
about half a mile awb Mister Brick, going downstairs, pitched

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upon the parlor maid. Janet says he missuster Brick and
I have had some bad news, and missuster Brick was
called away instantly to London and left this afternoon, and
I am staying tonight to put our affairs in order.
We are shutting up the house, and I must give
you and missus Brandt a month's wages and ask you

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to leave tomorrow morning at seven o'clock. We shall probably
go away to the continent, and I do not know
when we shall come back. Please tell the others, and
now get me my tea and bring it into my
study on a tray. Janet said nothing, for she was
a shy girl, particularly before gentlemen. But when she entered

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the kitchen, mister to Brick heard a sudden burst of
conversation with many exclamations from the cook. When she came
back with his teeth, mister Brick said, I shall not
require you upstairs, pack your own things, and tell James
to have the wagonete ready for you by seven o'clock

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tomorrow morning to take you to the station. I am
busy now, but I will see you again before you go.
When she had gone, mister to Brick took the tray upstairs.
For the first moment he thought the room was empty
and his vixen got away, for he could see no
sign of for anywhere. But after a moment he saw

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something stirring in a corner of the room, and then
behold she came forth, dragging her dressing gown into which
she had somehow struggled. This must surely have been a
comical sight. But poor mister Tubrick was altogether too distressed
then or at any time afterwards, to divert himself at

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such ludicrous scenes. He only called to her softly, Sylvia, Sylvia,
what do you do there? And then in a moment
saw for himself what she would be at, and began
once more to blame himself heartily, because he had not
guessed that his wife would not like to go naked,

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notwithstanding the shape she was in. Nothing would satisfy him
then till he had clothed her suitably, bringing her dresses
from the wardrobe for her to choose, but as might
have been expected, they were too big for her nap.
But at last he picked out a little dressing jacket
that she was fond of wearing sometimes in the mornings.

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It was made of a flowered silk, trimmed with lace,
and the sleeve short enough to sit very well on
her neck. While he tied the ribbons, his poor lady
thanked him with gentle looks, and not without some modesty
and confusion. He propped her up in an armchair with

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some cushions, and they took tea together, she very delicately
drinking from a saucer and taking bread and butter from
his hands. All this showed him also he thought that
his wife was still herself. There was so little wildness
in her demeanor, and so much delicacy and decency, especially

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in her not wishing to run naked, that he was
very much comforted, and began to fancy they could be
happy enough if they could escape the world and live
always alone. From this too sanguine dream, he was aroused
by hearing the gardener speaking to the dogs, trying to
quiet them. For ever since he had come in with

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his vixen, they had been whining, barking, and growling, and
all as he knew, because there was a fox within
doors and they would kill it. He started up now,
calling to the gardener that he would come down to
the dogs himself to quiet them, and bade the man
go indoors again and leave it to him. All this

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he said in a dry, compelling kind of voice, which
made the fellow do as he was bid, though it
was against his will, for he was curious. Mister Tubrick
went downstairs, and taking his gun from the rack, loaded
it and went out into the yard. Now there were
two dogs, one a handsome Irish setter that was his

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wife's dog. She had brought it with her from Tangley
Hall on our marriage. The other was an old fox
turrier called Nully that he had had ten years or more.
When he came out into the yard, both dogs salute
to him by barking and whining twice as much as
they did before, the setter jumping up and down at

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the end of his chain in a frenzy, and Nelly shivering,
wagging her tail and looking first at her master and
then at the house door, where she could smile the fox.
Right enough, there was a bright moon so that mister
to Brick could see the dogs as clearly as could be. First,
he shot his wife's seta dead, and then looked about

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him for Nellie to give her the other barrel, but
he could see her nowhere. The bitch was clean gone till.
Looking to see how she had broken her chain, he
found her lying hid in the back of her kennel,
but that trick did not save herb for mister to Brick,
after trying to pull her out by her chain and

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finding it useless, she would not come, thrust the muzzle
of his gun into the kennel, pressed it into her body,
and so shut her awards striking a match. He looked
in the turt to make certain she was dead. Then
leaving the dogs as they were chained up, mister t

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Brick went indoors again and found the gardener, who had
not yet gone home, gave him a month's wages in
lieu of notice, and told him he had a job
for him yet to bury the two dogs, and that
he should do it that same night. But by all
this going on with so much strangeness and authority on

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his part, as it seemed to them, the servants were
much troubled. Hearing the shots. While he was out in
the yard, his wife's old nurse or nanny, ran up
to the bedroom, though she had no business there, and
so opening the door, saw the poor fox, dressed in
my lady's little jacket, lying back in the cushions, and

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in such a reverie of woe that she heard nothing.
Old Nanny, though she was not expecting to find a
mistress there, having been told that she was gone that
afternoon to London, knew her instantly and cried out, oh,
my poor precious, oh poor miss Sylvia, what dreadful change
is this. Then, seeing her mistress start and look at her,

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she cried out, but never fear, my darling, it will
all come right. Your old nanny knows you it will
all come right in the end. But though she said this,
she did not care to look again, and kept her
eyes turned away, so as not to meet the foxy
slut ones of her mistress, for that was too much
for her. So she hurried out soon fearing to be

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found there by mister de Brigg, and who knows, perhaps
shot like the dogs, for knowing the secret, mister de
brig had all this time gone about paying off his
servants and shooting his dogs as if he were in
a dream. Now he fortified himself with two or three
glasses of strong whisky and went to bed, taking his

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vixen into his arms, where he slept soundly. Whether she
did or not is more than I or anybody else
can say. And of Part one, Part two of Lady

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into Fox by David Garnet. This libribox recording is in
the public domain. Recording by Tony Addison. In the morning,
when he woke up, they had the place to themselves,
for on his instructions, the servants had all left, first

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thing Janet and the cook to Oxford, where they would
try and find new places, and Nanny going back to
the cottage near Tangley where her son lived, who was
the pigment that So with that morning there began what
was now to be their ordinary life together. He would

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get up when it was broad Dad, and first thing,
light the fire downstairs and cook the breakfast, then brush
his wife, sponge her with a damp sponge, then brush
her again, in all this using scent very freely to
hide somewhat her rank odor. When she was dressed, he

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carried her downstairs and they had their breakfast together, she
sitting up to table with him, drinking her saucer of
tea and taking her food from his fingers, or at
any rate, being fed by him. She was still fond
of the same food that she had been used to
before her transformation, A lightly boiled egg or slice of ham,

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a piece of buttered toast, or two with a little
quints and apple. Jan While I am on the subject
of her food, I should say that reading in the Encyclopedia,
he found that foxes on the continent are inordinately fond
of grapes, and that during the autumn season they abandon

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their ordinary diet for them, and then grow exceedingly fat
and lose their offensive odor. This appetite for grapes is
so well confirmed by Esop and by passages in the scriptures,
that it is strange mister Tebrick should not have known
it After reading this account, he wrote to London for

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a basket of grapes to be posted to him twice
a week, and was rejoiced to find that the account
in the encyclopedia was true. In the moment. Most important
of these particulars, his vixen relished them exceedingly and seemed
never to tire of them, so that he increased his order,

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first from one pound to three pounds, and afterwards to five.
Her odor abated so much by this means that he
came not to notice it at all, except sometimes in
the mornings before her to alect. What helped most to
make living with her bearable for him was that she

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understood him perfectly, yes, every word he said, and though
she was dumb, she expressed herself very fluently by looks
and signs, though never by the voice. Thus he frequently
conversed with her, telling her all his thoughts and hiding
nothing from her, and this the more readily because he

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was very quick to catch her meaning and her answers.
Posse pus, he would say to her, for calling her
that had been a habit with him, always sweet puss.
Some men would pity me living alone here with you,
after what has happened. But I would not change places

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while you were living with any man for the whole world.
Though you are a fox, I would rather live with
you than any woman. I swear I would, and that
too if you were changed to anything. But then, catching
her grave love, he would say, do you think I
jest on these things, my dear? I do not. I

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swear to you, my darling, that all my life I
will be true to you, will be faithful, will respect
and reverence you, who are my wife. And I will
do that not because of any hope that God in
his mercy will seek but to restore your shape, but
solely because I love you. However you may be changed,

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my love is not. Then anyone seeing them would have
sworn that they were lovers. So passionately did each look
on the other. Often he would swear to her that
the devil might have power to work some miracles, but
that he would find it beyond him to change his

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love for her. These a passionate speeches, however, they might
have struck his wife in an ordinary web, and now
seemed to be her chief comfort. She would come to him,
put her pour in his hand, and look at him
with sparkling eyes shining with joy and gratitude, would pant

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with eagerness, jump at him and lick his face. Now
he had many little things which busied him in the house,
getting his meals, setting the room straight, making the bed,
and so forth. When he was doing this housework, it
was comical to watch his vixen. Often she was, as

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it were, beside herself with vexation and distress to see
him in his clumsy way doing what she could have
done so much better had she been able. Then forgetful
of the decency under decorum which she had at first
imposed upon herself, never to run upon all fours, she

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followed him everywhere, and if he did one thing wrong,
she stopped him and showed him the way of it.
When he had forgot the hour for his meal, she
would come and tug his sleeve and tell him, as
if she spoke, husband, are we to have no luncheon
to day? This womanliness in her never failed to delight him,

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for it showed she was still his wife, buried as
it were, in the carcass of a beast, but with
a woman's soul. This encouraged him so much that he
debated with himself whether he should not read aloud to her,
as he often not done formerly. At last, since he

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could find no reason against it, he went to the
shelf and fetched down a volume of the history of
Clarissa Harlowe, which he had begun to read aloud to
her a few weeks before. He opened the volume where
he had left up with Lovelace's letter, after he had

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spent the night waiting fruitlessly in the copse. Good God,
what is now to become of me? My feet been
numbed by midnight wanderings through the heaviest dews that ever fell,
my wig and my linen dripping with the hoar wroth
dissolving on them day but just breaking a while he read,

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he was conscious of holding her attention. Then, after a
few pages, the story claimed all his so that he
read on for about half an hour without looking at her.
When he did so, he saw that she was not
listening to him, but was watching something with strange eagerness.

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Such a fixed intent look was on her face that
he was alarmed and sought the cause of it. Presently
he found that her gaze was fixed on the movements
of her pet, dub, which was in its cage hanging
in the window. He spoke to her, but she seemed displeased,

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so he laid Clarissa Harlowe aside. Nor did he ever
repeat the experiment of reading to her. Yet that same evening,
as he happened to be looking through his writing table
drawer with Puss beside him looking over his elbow, she
spied a pack of cards, and then he was forced

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to pick them out to please her, then draw them
from their case. At last, trying first one thing then another,
he found that what she was after was to play
pquet with him. They had some difficulty at first in
contriving for her to hold her cards and then to
play them, but this was at last overcome by his

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stacking them for her on a sloping board, after which
she could flip them out very neatly with her claws,
as she wanted to play them. When they had overcome
this trouble, they played three games, and most heartily she
seemed to enjoy them. Moreover, she won all three of them.

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After this they often played a quiet game of peace together,
and cribbage too. I should say that in marking the
points at cribbage on the board he always moved her
pegs for her as well. As his own, for she
could not handle them or set them in the holes.

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The weather, which had been damp and misty with frequent
downpours of rain, improved very much in the following week, and,
as often happens in January, there were several days with
the sun shining, no wind, and light frosts at night,
these frosts becoming more intense as the days went on

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till by and by they began to think of snow.
With this spell of fine weather, it was but natural
that mister Tubrick should think of taking his vixen out
of doors. This was something he had not yet done,
both because of the damp, rainy weather up till then,

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and because the mere notion of taking her out filled
him with alarm. Indeed, he had so many apprehensions beforehand
that at one time he resolved totally against it, for
his mind was filled not only with the fear that
she might escape from him and run away, which he
knew was groundless, but with more irrational visions such as

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wandering curs, traps, gins, spring guns, besides a dread of
being seen with her by the neighborhood. At last, however,
he resolved on it, and all the more, as his
vixen kept asking him in the gentlest way, might she
not go out into the garden. Yet she always listened

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very submissively when he told her that he was afraid
if they were seen together, it would excite the curiosity
of their neighbors. Besides this, he often told her of
his spears were her on account of dogs. But one
day she answered this by leading him into the hall

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and pointing boldly to his gun. After this he resolved
to take her, though with full precautions. That is, he
left the house door open, so that in case of need,
she could beat a swift retreat. Then he took his
gun under his arm, and lastly he had her well

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wrapped up in a little fur jacket, lest she should
take cold. He would have carried her too, but that
she delicately disengaged herself from his arms and looked at
him very expressively, to say that she would go by herself,
for already her first horror of being seen to go

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upon all fours was worn off, a reasoning no doubt
upon it, that either she must resign herself to go
that way, or else stay bedridden all the rest of
her life. Her joy at going into the garden was inexpressible.
First she ran this way, then that, though keeping always

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close to him, looking very sharply, with ears cocked forward,
first at one thing, then another, and then up to
catch his eye. For some time, indeed, she was almost
dancing with delight, running round him, then forward a yard
or to it, then back to him, and gamboling beside

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him as they went round the garden. But in spite
of her joy, she was full of fear. At every noise,
a cow lowing, a cock crowing, or a plant man
in the distance halloaing to scare the rooks. She started,
her ears pricked to catch the sound, her muzzle wrinkled up,

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and her nose twitched, and she would then press us
up against his legs. They walked round the garden and
down to the pond, where there were ornamental waterfowl teal
widgeon and mandarin ducks, and seeing these again gave her
great pleasure. They had always been her favorites, and now

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she was so overjoyed to see them that she behaved
with very little of her usual self restraint. First she
stared at them, then, bouncing up to her husband's knee,
sought to kindle an equal excitement in his mind. Whilst
she rested her paws on his knee, she turned her

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head again and again towards the ducks, as though she
could not take her eyes up them, and then ran
down before him to the water's edge. But her appearance
through the ducks into the utmost degree of consternation those
on shore or near the bank. Swam or flew to
the center of the pond, and there huddled in a bunch,

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and then swimming round and around there began such a
quacking that mister to Brick was nearly deafened. As I
have before said, nothing in the ludicrous way that arose
out of the metamorphosis of his wife, and such incidents
were plentiful, ever stood a chance of being smiled at

(38:25):
by him. So in this case too, For realizing that
the silly ducks fought his wife a fox indeed, and
were alarmed on that account, he found painful that spectacle,
which to others might have been amusing. Not so his vixen,
who appeared, if anything, more pleased than ever when she

(38:49):
saw in what commotion she had set them, and began
cutting a thousand pretty capers. Though at first he called
to her to come back and walk another wed. Mister
to Brick was overborne by her pleasure and sat down
while she frisked around him, happier far than he had
seen her ever since the change. First she ran up

(39:09):
to him in a laughing way, all smiles, and then
ran down again to the water's edge, and began frisking
and quollicking, chasing her own brush, dancing on her hind
legs even and rolling on the ground. Then fell to
running in circles, but all this without paying any heed
to the ducks. But they, with their necks trained out

(39:34):
or pointing one word, swam to and fro in the
middle of the pond, never stopping their quack quack quack,
and keeping time, too, for they all quacked in chorus. Presently,
she came further away from the pond, and he, thinking
they had had enough of this sort of entertainment, laid

(39:54):
hold of her and said to her, come, Sylvia, my dear,
it is growing cold, and it is time we went indoors.
I am sure taking the air has done you a
world of good, but we must not linger any more.
She appeared then to agree with him, though she threw
half a glance over her shoulder at the ducks, and

(40:16):
they both walked soberly enough towards the house. When they
had gone about half way, she suddenly slipped round and
was off. He turned quickly and saw the ducks had
been following them, so she drove them before her back
into the pond, the ducks running in terror from her
with their wings spread, and she not pressing them, for

(40:40):
he saw that had she been so minded, she could
have caught two or three of the nearest. Then, with
her brush waving above her, she came gamboling back downs
so playfully that he stroked her indulgently, though he was
first vexed and then rather puzzled that his wife should
amuse herself with so pranks. But when they got within doors,

(41:03):
he picked her up in his arms, kissed her, and
spoke to her, so be it, what a light hearted,
childish creature you are. Your courage, and the misfortune shall
be a lesson to me, But I cannot bear to
see it here. The tears stood suddenly in his eyes,
and he lay down upon the ottoman and wept, paying

(41:26):
no heed to her, until presently he was aroused by
her licking his cheek and his ear. After tea. She
led him to the drawing room and scratched at the
door till he opened it, for this was part of
the house which he had shut up, thinking three or
four rooms enough for them now, and to save the

(41:47):
dusting of it. Then it seemed she would have him
play to her on the Pianofortead. She led him to it. Nay,
what is more, she would as so pick out the
music he was to play. First it was a fugue
of handles, then one of Mendelssohn's songs without words, and

(42:08):
then the Diver, and then music from Gilbert and Sullivan.
But each piece of music she picked out was gayer
than the last one. Thus they sat happily and grossed
for perhaps an hour in the candlelight, until the extreme
cold in that unwarmed room stopped his playing and drove

(42:32):
them downstairs to the fire. Thus did she admirably comfort
her husband when he was dispirited and of Part two
Part three of A Lady into Fox by David Garnet.

(42:58):
This LibriVox recording he's in the public domain recording by
Tony Addison. Yet next morning, when he woke, he was
distressed when he found that she was not in the
bed with him, but was lying curled up at the
foot of it, cheering breakfast. She hardly listened when he spoke,

(43:23):
and then impatiently, but sat staring at the dove. Mister
Tebrick sat silently looking out of window for some time.
Then he took out his pocket book. In it there
was a photograph of his wife, taken soon after their wedding.
Now he gazed and gazed upon those familiar features. And

(43:46):
now he lifted his head and looked at the animal
before him. He laughed, then, bitterly, the first and last time,
for that matter, that mister de Brick ever laughed at
his wife's transfer formation, for he was not very humorous,
but this laugh was sour and painful to him. Then

(44:09):
he tore up the purtograph into little pieces and scattered
them out of the window, saying to himself, memories will
not help me here, And turning to the vixen, he
saw that she was still staring at the cage bird,

(44:30):
and as he looked, he saw her lick her chops.
He took the bird into the next room. Then, acting
suddenly upon the impulse, he opened the cage door and
set it free, saying, as he did. So, go, poor bird,
fly from this wretched house. While you still remember your

(44:51):
mistress who fed you from her curled lips. You are
not a fit plate thing for her neck. Farewell, poor bird, well,
unless he added with a melancholy smile, you return with
good tidings like Noah's dove. But poor gentleman, his troubles

(45:15):
were not over yet, And indeed one may say that
he ran to meet them by his constant, supposing that
his lady should still be the same to a tittle
in her behavior now that she was changed into a
without making any unwarrantable suppositions as to her soul or

(45:38):
what had now become of it, though we could find
a good deal to the purpose on that point in
the system of Paracelsus, let us consider only how much
the change in her body must need affect her ordinary conduct,
so that before we judge too harshly of this unfortunate lady,

(46:02):
we must reflect upon the physical necessities and infirmities and
appetites of her new condition, And we must magnify the
fortitude of her mind, which enabled her to behave with decorum, cleanliness,
and decency in spite of her new situation. Thus she

(46:24):
might have been expected to befoul her room. Yet never
could anyone, whether man or beast, have shown more nicety
in such matters. But at luncheon mister Tubrick helped her
to a wing of chicken, and, leaving the room for
a minute to fetch some water, which she had forgot,
found her at his return on the table, cunching the

(46:45):
very bones. He stood silent, dismayed, and wounded to the
heart at this sight. For we must observe that this
unfortunate husband thought always of his vixen as that gentle
and delicate woman she had lately been, so that whenever
his vixen's conduct went beyond that which she expected in

(47:07):
his wife, he was, as it were, cut to the quick,
and no kind of agony could be greater to him
than to see her thus forget herself. On this account,
it may indeed be regretted that Missus de Brigg had
been so exactly well bred, and in particular that her

(47:27):
table manners had always been scrupulous. Had she been in
the habit like a continental princess, I have dined with
of taking her leg of chicken by the drumstick and
gnawing the flesh it had been far better for him now,
But as her manners had been perfect, so the lapse

(47:48):
of them was proportionately painful to him. Thus in this
instance he stood, as it were, in silent agony till
she had finished her hideous cunching of the chicken bones,
and had devoured every scrap. Then he spoke to her, gently,
taking her on to his knee, stroking her furt, and

(48:10):
fed her with a few grapes, saying to her, serviet, sylviet,
is it so hard for you? Try and remember the past,
my darling, and by living with me we will quite
forget that you are no longer a woman. Surely this
affliction will pass soon as suddenly as it came, and
it will all seem to us like an evil dream. Yet,

(48:34):
though she appeared perfectly sensible of his words, and gave
him sorrowful and penitent looks like her old self, that
same afternoon, on taking her out, he had all the
difficulty in the world to keep her from going near
the ducks. There came to him then a thought that

(48:56):
was very disagreeable to him, namely that he dared not
trust his wife alone with any bird, or she would
kill it. And this was the more shocking to him
to think of, since it meant that he dares not
trust her as much as a dog, even for we
may trust dogs who are familiars with all the household pets.

(49:17):
Nay more, we can put them upon trust with anything
and know they will not touch it, not even if
they be starving. But things were come to such a
pass with his vixen that he dared not in his
heart trust her at all. Yet she was still, in
many ways so much more woman than fox, that he

(49:38):
could talk to her on any subject, and she would
understand him better, far than the Oriental women who are
kept in subjection can ever understand their masters unless they
converse on the most trifling household topics. Thus she understood
extremely well the importance and duties of religion. She would

(50:02):
listen with approval in the evening when he said the
Lord's Prayer, and was rigid in her observance of the Sabbath. Indeed,
the next day, being Sunday, he, thinking no harm, proposed
their usual game of piquet, but no, she would not play.

(50:23):
Mister Tubrick, not understanding at first what she meant, though
he was usually very quick with her, he proposed it
to her again, which she again refused, and this time,
to show her meaning, made the sign of the Cross
with her poor. This exceedingly rejoiced and comforted him in

(50:44):
his distress. He begged her pardon, and fervently thanked God
for having so good a wife, who, in spite of
all knew more of her duty to God than he did.
But here I must warn the reader from in Wring
that she was a papist, because she then made the
sign of the Cross. She made that sign, to my thinking,

(51:08):
only on compulsion, because she could not express herself except
in that way. For she had been brought up as
a true Protestant, and that she still was one is
confirmed by her objection to cards, which would have been
less than nothing to her had she been a papist. Yet,

(51:29):
that evening, taking her into the drawing room so that
he might play her some sacred music, he found her,
after some time, cowering away from him in the farthest
corner of the room, her ears flattened back, and an
expression of the greatest anguish in her eyes. When he
spoke to her, she licked his hand, but remained shivering

(51:51):
for a long time at his feet, and showed the
clearest symptoms of terror if he so much as moved
towards the piano. Seeing this, and recollecting, how ill the
ears of a dog can bear with our music, and
how this dislike might be expected to be even greater
in a fox, all of whose senses are more acute

(52:14):
from being a wild creature. A recollecting this, he closed
the piano, and, taking her in his arms, locked up
the room and never went into it again. He could
not help marveling, though, since it was but two days
after she had herself led him there and even picked

(52:34):
out for him to play and sing those pieces which
were her favorites. That night, she would not sleep with them,
neither in the bed nor on it, so that he
was forced to let her curll us up up on
the floor, but neither would she sleep there. For several
times she woke him by trotting around the room, and once,

(52:55):
when he had got sound asleep, by springing on the
bed and then off it. He woke with a violent
start and cried out, but got no answer either, except
hearing her trotting ground and round the room. Presently, he
imagined to himself that she must want something, and so
fetches her food and water, but she never so much

(53:17):
as looks at it, but still goes on her rounds
every now and then, scratching at the door. Though he
spoke to her, calling her by her name, she would
pay no heed to him or else, only for the moment.
At last he gave her up and said to her plainly,
the fit is on you now, Sylvia, to be a fox.

(53:38):
But I shall keep you close, and in the morning
you will recollect yourself and thank me for having kept you. Now.
So he lay down again, but not to sleep, only
to listen to his wife running about the room and
trying to get out of it. Thus he spent what
was perhaps the most miserable night of his existence. In

(54:02):
the morning, she was still restless and was reluctant to
let him wash and brush her, and appeared to dislike
being scented, but as it were, to bear with it
for his sake. Ordinarily she had taken the greatest pleasure
imaginable in her toilette, so that on this account added

(54:23):
to his sleepless night, mister Tubrick was utterly dejected, and
it was then that he resolved to put a project
into execution that would show him. So he thought whether
he had a wife or only a wild vixen in
his house. But yet he was comforted that she bore
it all with him, though so restlessly that he did

(54:46):
not spare her, calling her a bad wild fox, and
then speaking to her in this manner, Are you not ashamed,
Soviet to be such a madcap, such a wicked Heyden?
You who particular in dress? I see it was all vanity.
Now you have not your former advantages, who think nothing

(55:07):
of decency. His words had some effect with her too,
and with himself, so that by the time he had
finished dressing her, they were both in the lowest status,
spirits imaginable, and neither of them far from tears. Breakfast
she took soberly enough, and after that he went about

(55:28):
getting his experiment ready, which was this. In the garden,
he gathered together a nosegay of snowdrops, those being all
the flowers he could find, and then, going into the
village of Stoccoe, bought a Dutch rabbit, that is, a
black and white one from a man there who kept them.

(55:49):
When he got back, he took her flowers and at
the same time set down the basket with a rabbit
in it, with the lid open. Then he called to her, Sylvia,
I have brought some flowers for you. Look the first snowdrops.
At this, she ran up, very prettily, and never giving

(56:13):
as much as one glance at the rabbit, which had
hopped out of its basket. She began to thank him
for the flowers. Indeed, she seemed indefatigable in showing her gratitude.
Smelt them, stood a little way off looking at them,
then thanked him again, mister Tubrick, And this was all

(56:34):
part of his plan. Then took a pause and went
to find some water for them, but left the flowers
beside her. He stepped away five minutes, timing it by
his watch and listening very intently, but never heard the
rabbit squeak. Yet when he went in, what a horrid

(56:56):
shambles were spread before his eyes. Blood on the up it,
blood on the arm chairs, and antimacasses, even a little
blood spurted on to the wall. And what was worse,
missus de Brick tearing and growling over a piece of
the skin and the legs, for she had eaten up
all the rest of it. The poor gentleman was so

(57:18):
heart broken over this that he was like to have
done himself an injury, and that one moment thought of
getting his gun to have shot himself and his vixen too. Indeed,
the extremity of his grief was such that it served
him a very good turn, for he was so entirely
unmanned by it that for some time he could do

(57:40):
nothing but weep, and fell into a chair with his
head in his hands, and so kept weeping and groaning.
After he had been some little while employed in this
dismal way, his vixen, who had by this time bolted
down the rabbit's skin, head, ears and all, came to him, and,

(58:02):
putting her paws on his knees, thrust her long muzzle
into his face and began looking him. But he, looking
at her now with different eyes, and seeing her jaws
still sprinkled with fresh blood and her claws full of
the rabbit's fleck, would have none of it. But though

(58:22):
he beat her up four or five times, even to
giving her blows and kicks, she still came back to him,
crawling on her belly and imploring his forgiveness with wide open,
sorrowful eyes. Before he had made this rash experiment of
the rabbit and the flowers, he had promised himself that
if she failed in it, he would have no more

(58:44):
feeling or compassion for her than if she were, in
truth a wild vixen out of the woods. This resolution,
though the reasons were, it, had seemed to him so
very plain before, he now found more difficult to carry
out than to side on a plumb. After cursing it
and beating it up upwards of half an hour, he

(59:06):
admitted to himself that he still did care for her,
and even loved her dearly, in spite of all whatever
pretense he affected towards her. When he had acknowledged this,
he looked up at her and met her eyes fixed
upon him, and held out his arms to her, and said, oh, Soviet, Soviet,

(59:29):
would you had never done this? Would I had never
tempted you in a fatal hour? Does not this butchery
and eating of raw meat and rabbitspur disgust you? Are
you a monster in your soul as well as in
your body? Have you forgotten what it is to be
a woman? Meanwhile, with every word of his she crawled

(59:51):
a step nearer on her belly, and at flask climbed
sorrowfully into his arms. His words, then, seeing to take
effect on her, and her eyes filled with tears, and
she wept most penitently in his arms, and her body
shook with her sobs, as if her heart were breaking.
This sorrow of hers gave him the strangest mixture of

(01:00:15):
pain and joyed that he had ever known, for his
love for her returning with a rush. He could not
bear to witness her pain, and yet must take pleasure
in it, as it fed his hopes of her one
day returning to be a woman. So the more anguish
of shame his vixen underwent, the greater his hopes rose,

(01:00:37):
till his love and pity for her increasing equally. He
was almost wishing her to be nothing more than a
mere fox, than to suffer so much by being half human.
At last, he looked about him, somewhat dazed with so
much weeping, then set his vixen down on the ottoman
and began to clean up the room with a heavy heart.

(01:01:00):
He fetched a pail of water and washed out all
the stains of blood, gathered up the two antimacasses, and
fetched clean ones from the other rooms. While he went
about this work, his vixen sat and watched him very
contritely with a nose between her two front paws, And

(01:01:20):
when he had done, he brought in some luncheon for himself,
though it was already late, but none for her, she
having lately so infamously feasted. But water he gave her,
and a bunch of grapes. Afterwards, she led him to
the small tortoiseshell cabinet and would have him open it.

(01:01:44):
When he had done so, she motioned to the portable
stereoscope which lay inside. Mister Tebrick instantly fell in with
her wish, and after a few trials, adjusted it to
her vision. They spent the rest of the afternoon together
very happily, looking through the collection of views which he

(01:02:06):
had purchased of Italy, Spain and Scotland. This diversion gave
a great apparent pleasure and afforded him considerable comfort. But
that night he could not prevail upon her to sleep
in bed with him, and finally allowed her to sleep
on a mat beside the bed, where he could stretch

(01:02:27):
down and touch it. So they passed the night with
his hand upon her head. End of Part three, Part four,
Our Lady into Fox by David Garnet. This sleeprivox recording

(01:02:52):
is in the public domain recording by Tony Addison. The
next morning he had more of a struggle than ever
to wash and dress her. Indeed, at one time nothing
but holding her by the scruff prevented her from getting

(01:03:13):
away from him. But at last he achieved his object,
and she was washed, brushed, scented, and dressed, although to
be sure, the sleept him better pleased than her, for
she regarded her silk jacket with disfavor. Still at breakfast

(01:03:34):
she was well mannered, though a trifle hasty with her food.
Then his difficulties with her began, for she would go at,
but as he had his housework to do, he could
not allow it. He brought her picture books to divert her,
but she would have none of them, but stayed at

(01:03:55):
the door, scratching it with her claws industriously till she
worn away the paint. At first, he tried coaxing her
and wheedling, gave her cards to play Patience, and so on,
but finding nothing would distract her from going out, his

(01:04:15):
temper began to rise, and he told her plainly that
she must wait his pleasure, and that he had as
much natural obstinacy as she had. But to all that
he said, she paid no heed whatever, but only scratched
the ardor. Thus he let her continue until luncheon, when

(01:04:39):
she would not set up or eat off a plate,
but first was forgetting on to the table, and when
that was prevented, snatched her meat and ate it under
the table. To all his rebukes, she turned a death
or sullen ear. And so they each finished them meal,

(01:05:00):
eating little either of them. But till she would sit
at table, he would give her no more, and his
vexation had taken away his own appetite. In the afternoon
he took her out for her airing in the garden.
She made no pretense now of enjoying the first snowdrops

(01:05:23):
or the view from the terrace. No, there was only
one thing for her now, the ducks, and she was
off to them before he could stop her. Luckily, they
were all swimming when she got there, for a stream
running into the pond on the far side. It was
not frozen there. When he had got down to the pond,

(01:05:46):
she ran out onto the ice, which would not pare
his weight. And though he called her and begged her
to come back, she would not heed him, but stayed
frisking about getting as near the ducks as she dead,
but being circumspect in venturing on to the thin ice, Presently,

(01:06:07):
she turned on herself and began tearing off her clothes,
and at last, by biting, got off her little jacket,
and taking it in her mouth, stupped it into a
hole in the ice, where he could not get it.
Then she ran hither and thither, a star naked vixen,

(01:06:27):
And without giving a glance to her poor husband, who
stood silently now upon the bank, with despair and terror
settled in his mind, she let him stay there most
of the afternoon, till he was chilled through and through
and worn out with watching her. At last he reflected

(01:06:48):
how she had just stripped herself, and how in the
morning she struggled against being dressed, And he thought perhaps
he was too strict with her, and if he let
her have her own way, they could manage to be
happy somehow together, even if she did eat up the floor,
So he called out to her, then, Sylvia, come now,

(01:07:11):
be good. You sha'n't wear any more clothes if you
don't want to, and you needn't sit at table neither.
I promise you shall do as you like in that,
but you must give up one thing, and that is
you must stay with me and not go out alone,
for that's dangerous. If any dog came on you, he
would kill you. Directly he had finished speaking, she came

(01:07:35):
to him joyously began fawning on him and prancing round him,
so that, in spite of his vexation with her and
being cold, he could not help stroking her. Oh, Sylvie,
are you not wilful and cunning? I see you glory
in being so. But I shall not reproach you, but

(01:07:55):
shall stick to my side of the bargain, and you
must stick to yours. He built a big fire when
he came back to the house, and took a glass
of der spirits, also to warm himself up, for he
was chilled to the very bone. Then, after they had dinner,
to cheer himself, he took another glass, and then another,

(01:08:19):
and so on till he was very merry. He thought,
then he would play with his vixen, she encouraging him
with her pretty spotiveness. He got up to catchure them, and,
finding himself unsteady on his legs, he went down onto
all fours. The long and the short of it is

(01:08:41):
that by drinking he drowned all his sorrow, and then
would be a beast too, like his wife, though she
was warm through no fault of her own, and could
not help it. To what lengths he went then in
that drunken humor, I shall not offend my readers by relating,
shall only say that he was so drunk and Scottish

(01:09:04):
that he had a very imperfect recollection of what had
passed when he woke the next morning. There is no
exception to the rule that if a man drink heavily
at night, the next morning will show the other side
to his nature. Thus with mister Tubrick. For as he
had been beastly, merry and a very dar devil the

(01:09:26):
night before, so on his awakening was he ashamed, melancholy,
and a true penitent before his creator. The first thing
he did when he came to himself was to call
out to God to forgive him for his sin. Then
he fell into earnest prayer, and continued so for half
an hour upon his knees. Then he got up and dressed,

(01:09:50):
but continued very melancholy for the whole of the morning.
Being in this mood, you may imagine it hurt him
to see his wife running about naked, But he reflected
it would be a bad reformation that began with breaking faith.
He had made a bargain, and he would stick to it,

(01:10:11):
And so he let her be, though sorely against his will,
for the same reason, that is, because he would stick
to his side of the bargain. He did not require
her to sit up at table, but gave her her
breakfast on the dish in the corner where to tell

(01:10:31):
the truth. She, on her side, ate it all up
with great daintiness and propriety. Nor did she make any
attempt to go out of doors that morning, but lay
cled up in an armchair before the fire, dozing. After lunch,
he took her out, and she never so much as

(01:10:52):
offered to go near the ducks, but running before him,
led him on to take her a longer walk there
he consented to do, very much to her joy and delight.
He took her through the fields by the most unfrequented ways,
being much alarmed lest they should be seen by anyone.
But by good luck they walked above four miles across

(01:11:15):
country and saw nobody all the way. His wife kept
running on ahead of him, and then back to him
to lick his hand and so on, and appeared delighted
at taking exercise. And though they startled two or three
rabbits and a hurt in the course of their walk,

(01:11:37):
she never attempted to go after them, only giving them
a look and then looking back to him, laughing at him,
as it were for his warning cry of puss, come
in no nonsense, nag. Just when they got home and
were going into the porch, they came face to face
with an old woman. Mister Tabrick stopped shut in consternation

(01:12:01):
and looked about for his vixen, but she had run
forward without any shyness to greet her. Then he recognized
the intruder. It was his wife's old nurse. What are
you doing here, missus Cork, he asked her. Missus Cork
answered him in these words, poor thing, poor miss Sylvia.

(01:12:25):
It is a shame to let her run about like
a dog. It is a shame, and your own wife too.
But whatsoever, she looks like. You should trust her the
same as ever. If you do, she'll do her best
to be a good wife to you. If you don't,
I shouldn't wonder if she did turn into a proper box.
I saw her, sir, before I left, and I've had

(01:12:45):
no peace of mind. I couldn't sleep thinking of her.
So I've come back to look after her as I
have done all her life. Said, And she stooped down
and took Missus de Brigg by the poor to Brick
unlocked the door, and they went in. When missus Cork
saw the house, she exclaimed again and again the place

(01:13:09):
was a pigstyed. They couldn't live like that. A gentleman
must have somebody to look after him. She would do it.
He could just her with the secret. Had the old
woman come the day before, it is like clear enough
that mister de Brick would have sent her backing. But
the voice of conscience being woken in him by his

(01:13:30):
drunkenness of the night before, he was heartily ashamed of
his own management of the business. Moreover, the old woman's
words that it was a shame to let her run
about like a dog moved him exceedingly. Being in this mood.
The truth is he welcomed her. But we may conclude

(01:13:53):
that missus Brick was as sorry to see her old
nanny as her husband was glad if we can consider
that she had been brought up strictly by her when
she was a child and was now again in her power,
and that her old nurse could never be satisfied with
her now whatever she did, but would always think her

(01:14:13):
wicked to be a fox at all, there seems good
reason for her dislike. And it is possible too that
there may have been another cause as well, and that
is jealousy. We know her husband was always trying to
bring her back to be a woman, or at any rate,
to get her to act like one. May she not
have been hoping to get him to be like a

(01:14:35):
beast himself, or to act like one. May she not
have thought it easier to change him thus than ever
to change herself back into being a woman. If we
think that she had had a success of this kind
only the night before, when he got drunk, can we
not conclude that this was indeed the case? And then

(01:14:57):
we have another good reason why the poor lady should
hate to see her old nurse. It is certain that
whatever hopes mister to Brick had of missus Cork affecting
his wife for the better were disappointed. She grew steadily wilder,
and after a few days so intractable with her that

(01:15:19):
mister to Brick again took her under his complete control.
The first morning, missus Cork made her a new jacket,
cutting down the sleeves of a blue silk one of
Missus de Brick's and trimming it with Swan's dam and
directly she had altered it, put it on her mistress,

(01:15:40):
and fetching a mirror would have her admired the fit
of it. All the time she waited on Missus de Brick,
the old woman talked to her as though she were
a baby, and treated her as such, never thinking perhaps
that she was either the one thing or the other,
that is, either a lady to whom she owed respect

(01:16:02):
and who had rational powers exceeding her own, or else
a wild creature on whom words were wasted. But though
at first she submitted passively, Missus de Brick only waited
for her nanny's back to be turned, to tear up
a pretty piece of handiwork into shreds, and then ran

(01:16:23):
gaily about waving her brush with only a few ribbons
still hanging from her neck. So it was time after
time for the old woman was used to having her
own way until Missus Cork would I think have tried
punishing her if she had not been afraid of Missus

(01:16:45):
de Brick's rows of white teeth, which she often showed at,
then laughing afterwards, as if to say it was only plague.
Not content with tearing up the dresses that were putted
on her. One day, Sylvia slipped upstairs to her wardrobe
and tore down all her old dresses and made havoc

(01:17:06):
with them, not sparing her wedding dress either, but tearing
and ripping them all up, so that there was hardly
a shred or rag left pickin up the dresser dolling.
On this, mister t Brigg, who had let the old
woman have most of her management to see what she
could make of her, took her back under his own control.

(01:17:29):
He was sorry enough now that Missus Cork had disappointed
him in the hopes he had had of her, to
have the old woman, as it were, on his hands too.
She could be useful enough in many ways to him
by doing the housework, the cooking and mending. But still
he was anxious since his secret was in her keeping,

(01:17:49):
and the more now that she had tried her hand
with his wife and failed, for he saw that Vanity
had kept her mouth shut if she had won over
her mistress to better ways, and her love for her
would have grown by getting her own way with her.
But now that she had failed, she bore her mistress
a grudge for not being won over, or at the

(01:18:10):
best was become indifferent to the business, so that she
might very readily blab. For the moment, all mister de
Brigg could do was to keep her from going into Stokoe,
to the village, where she would meet all her old cronies,
and where there was certain to be any number of
inquiries about what was going on at Ryland's and so on.

(01:18:32):
But as he saw that it was clearly beyond his power,
however vigilant he might be to watch over the old
woman and his wife and to prevent anyone from meeting
with either of them, he began to consider what he
could best do. Since he had sent away his servants
and the gardener giving out a story of having received

(01:18:53):
bad news, and his wife going away to London, where
he would join her there, probably going out of England,
and so on, he knew well enough that there would
be a great deal of talk in the neighborhood, and
as he had now stayed on contrary to what he
had said, they would be further rumor. Indeed, had he

(01:19:14):
known it, there was a story already going round the
country that his wife would run away with Major Solmes,
and that he was gone mad with grief, that he
had shot his dogs and his horses and shut himself
up alone in the house and would speak with no one.
This story was made up by his neighbors, not because
they were fancible or wanted to deceive, but, like most

(01:19:38):
tittle tattle, to fill a gap, as few liked to
confess ignorance. And if people are asked about such or
such a man, they must have something to say, or
they suffer in everybody's opinion, or set down as dull
or out of the swim. In this way, I met
not long ago someone who, after talking some little while

(01:20:03):
and not knowing me or who I was, had told
me that David Garnett was dead and died of being
bitten by a cat after he had tormented it. He
had long grown a nuisance to his friends, as an
exorbitant sponge upon them, and the world was well rid
of him. Hearing this story of myself diverted me at

(01:20:25):
the time, but I fully believe it has served me
in good stead since, for it set me on my guard,
as perhaps nothing else would have done against accepting for
true all floating rumor and village gossip, so that now
I am, by second nature a true skeptic, and scarce
to believe anything unless the evidence for it is conclusive. Indeed,

(01:20:50):
I could never have got to the bottom of this
history if I had believed one tenth part of what
I was told. There was so much of it that
was either manifest be false and absurd, or else contradictory
to the ascertained facts. It is therefore only the bare
bones of the story which you will find written here,

(01:21:11):
For I have rejected all the flowery embroiderers, which would
be entertaining reading enough, I dare say for some. But
if there be any doubt of the truth of a thing,
it is poor sort of entertainment to read about, in
my opinion. End of Part four, Part five of Lady

(01:21:40):
into Fox by David Garnett. This LibriVox recording is in
the public domain recording by Tony Addison. To get back
to our story, mister Tubrick having said that how much

(01:22:01):
the appetite of his neighbors would be whetted to find
out the mystery by his remaining in that part of
the country, determined that the best thing he could do
was to remove. After some time turning the thing over
in his mind, he decided that no place would be
so good for his purpose as Old Nanny's cottage. It

(01:22:25):
was thirty miles away from Stokok, which in the country
means as far as Timbuctoo does to us in London.
Then it was near Tangley, and his lady, having known
it from her childhood, would feel at home there. And
also it was utterly remote, there being no village near

(01:22:47):
it or manor house other than Tangley Hall, which was
now untenanted for the greater part of the year. Nor
did it mean imparting his secret to others. There was
only Missus Cork's son, a widower, who, being out at
work all day, would be easily outwitted, the more so

(01:23:10):
as he was stone deaf and of a slow and
saturnine disposition. To be sure that there was little poly
Missus Cork's granddaughter, but either mister t Brick forgot her
altogether or else reckoned her as a mere baby and
not to be thought of as a danger. He talked

(01:23:34):
the thing over with Missus Kor, and they decided upon
it out of hand. The truth is, the old woman
was beginning to regret that her love and her curiosity
had ever brought her back to Ryland's, since so far
she had got much work and little credit by it.

(01:23:57):
When it was settled, mister Brick disposed of the remaining
business he had at Rylands in the afternoon, and that
was cheaply putting out his wife's riding horse into the
keeping of a farmer nearby, for he thought he would
drive over with his own horse and the other spare

(01:24:17):
horse tandem in the dog cart. The next morning, they
locked up the house and they departed, having first secured
Missus de Brigg in a large wicker hamper where she
would be tolerably comfortable. This was for safety, for in

(01:24:39):
the agitation of driving she might jump out, and on
the other hand, if a dog scented her and she
were loose, she might be in danger of her life.
Mister de Brick drove with the hamper beside him on
the front seat, and spoke to her gently very often.

(01:24:59):
She he was overcome by the excitement of the journey,
and kept poking her nose first through one crevice, then
through another, turning and twisting the whole time and peeping
out to see what they were passing. It was a
bitterly cold dead and when they had gone about fifteen miles,

(01:25:21):
they drew up by the roadside to rest the horses
and have their own luncheon. For he dared not stop
at an inn. He knew that any living creature in
a hamper, even if it be only an old fowl,
always draws attention. There would be several loafers, most likely,

(01:25:42):
who would notice that he had a fox with him,
And even if he left the hamper in the cart,
the dog at the inn would be sure to sniff
out her scent. So not to take any chances, he
drew up at the side of the road and arrested that.
Though it was freezing hard and a northeast wind howling,

(01:26:05):
he took down his precious hamper, unharnessed his two horses,
covered them with rugs, and gave them their corn. Then
he opened the basket and let his wife out. She
was quite beside herself with joy, running hither and thither,
bouncing up on him, looking about her, and even rolling

(01:26:27):
over on the ground. Mister to Brick took this to
mean that she was glad at making this journey, and
rejoiced equally with her. As for missus Cork, she sat
motionless on the back seat of the dog cart, while
wrapped up, eating her sandwiches, but would not speak a word.

(01:26:49):
When they had stayed there half an hour, mister to
Brick harnessed the horses again, though he was so cold
he could scarcely buckle the straps and put his vicksen
in her basket, But seeing that she wanted to look
about her, he let her tear away the osiers with
her teeth till she had made a hole big enough

(01:27:09):
for her to put her head out of. They drove
on again, and then the snow began to come down,
and that in earnest, so that he began to be
afraid they would never cover the ground. But just after
the nightfall they got in, and he was content to leave,
unharnessing the horses and baiting them to Simon, missus Cork's son.

(01:27:34):
His vixen was tired by then as well as he,
and they stept together, he in the bed and she
under it very contentedly. The next morning he looked about
him at the place and found the thing there that
he most wanted, and that was a little walled in

(01:27:56):
garden where his wife could run in freedom and yet
be in safety. After they had had breakfast, she was
wild to go out into the snow, so they went
out together. And he had never seen such a mad
creature in all this life as his wife was them,

(01:28:18):
For she ran to and fro as if she were crazy,
biting at the snow and rolling in it, and round
and round in circles, and rushed back at him fiercely,
as if she meant to bite him. He joined her
in the frolic and began snowballing her till she was
so wild that it was all he could do to

(01:28:40):
quiet her again and bring her in doors for luncheon. Indeed,
with her gambolings she trapped the whole garden over with
her feet. He could see where she had rolled in
the snow and where she had danced in it, and
looking at those prints of her feet as they went
in made his heart ache. He knew not why they

(01:29:04):
passed the first day at Old Nanny's cottage happily enough,
without their usual bickerings, and this because of the novelty
of the snow which had diverted them in the afternoon.
He first showed his wife to little Polly, who eyed
her very curiously, but hung back shyly and seemed a

(01:29:26):
good deal afraid of the fox. But mister Tobrick took
up a book and let them get acquainted by themselves,
and presently, looking up, saw that they had come together,
and Polly was stroking his wife, patting her and running
her fingers through her fer Presently she began talking to

(01:29:47):
the fox, and then brought her dollin to show her,
so that very soon they were very good playmates together.
Watching the two gave mister to Brick great delight, and
in particular when he noticed that there was something very
motherly in his vixen. She was indeed far above the

(01:30:09):
child in intelligence, and restrained herself too from any hasty action.
But while she seemed to wait on Polly's pleasure, yet
she managed to give a twist to the game. Whatever
it was that never failed to delight the little girl.
In short, in a very little while, Polly was so

(01:30:31):
taken with her new playmate that she cried when she
was parted from her, and wanted her always with her.
This disposition of Missus de Brigg's made Missus Cork more
agreeable than she had been lately, either to the husband
or the wife. Three days after they had come to

(01:30:54):
the cottage, the weather changed, and they woke up one
morning to find the snow gone, and the wind in
the south, and the sun shining, so that it was
like the first beginning of spring. Mister Tubrick let his
vixen out into the garden after breakfast, stayed with her awhile,
and then went indoors to write some letters. When he

(01:31:18):
got out again, he could see no sign of her anywhere,
so that he ran about bewildered, calling to her. At
last he spied a mound of fresh earth by the
wall in one corner of the garden, and running thither,
found that there was a hole freshly dug, seeming to
go under the wall. On this he ran out of

(01:31:39):
the garden quickly till he came to the other side
of the wall. But there was no hole there, so
he concluded that she was not yet got through, so
it proved to be for reaching down into the hole,
he felt her brush with his hand and could hear
her distinctly working away with her claws. He called to

(01:31:59):
her then, saying Sylvia, Sylvia, why do you do this?
How are you trying to escape from me? I am
your husband, and if I keep you confined, it is
to protect you, not to let you run into danger.
Show me how I can make you happy, and I
will do it, But do not try to escape from me.

(01:32:19):
I love you, Sylvia. Is it because of that that
you want to fly from me to go into the
world where you will be in danger of your life always?
There are dogs everywhere, and they all would kill you
if it were not for me. Come out, Sylvia, Come out.
But Sylvia would not listen to him, so we waited

(01:32:41):
there silent. Then he spoke to her in a different way,
asking her had she forgot the bargain she made with
him that she would not go out alone, But now,
when she had all the liberty of a garden to herself,
would she wantonly break her word? And he asked her
were they not married, and had she not always found

(01:33:03):
him a good husband to her? But she heeded this
neither until presently, his temper getting somewhat out of hand,
he cursed her obstinacy and told her if she would
be a damned box, she was welcomed to it. For
his part, he could get his own way. She had
not escaped yet, He would dig her out, for he

(01:33:26):
still had time, and if she struggled, put her in
a bag. These words brought her forth instantly, and she
looked at him with as much astonishment as if she
knew not what could have made him angry. Yes, she
even fawned on him, but in a good natured kind
of way, as if she were a very good wife,

(01:33:49):
putting up wonderfully with her husband's temper. These heirs of
hers made the poor gentleman so simple was he repent
his outburst and feel most ashamed. But for all that,
when she was out of the hole, he filled it
up with great stones and beat them in with a crowbar,

(01:34:12):
so she should find her work at that point harder
than before, if she was tempted to begin it again.
In the afternoon, he let her go again into the garden,
but sent little Polly with her to keep her company.
But presently, on looking out, he saw his vixen had

(01:34:32):
climbed up into the limbs of an old pear tree,
and was looking over the wall, and was not so
far from it, but she might jump over it if
she could get a little further. Mister t Brick ran
out into the garden as quick as he could, and
when his wife saw him, it seemed she was startled
and made a full spring at the wall, so that

(01:34:54):
she missed reaching it, and fell back heavily to the
ground and lay there insensible. When mister t Brick got
up to her, he found her head was twisted under
her by her fall, and the neck seemed to be broken.
The shock was so great to him that for some
time he could not do anything but knelt beside her,

(01:35:15):
turning her limp body stupidly in his hands. At length,
he recognized that she was indeed dead, and, beginning to
consider what dreadful afflictions God had visited him with, he
blasphemed horribly and called on God to strike him dead
and give his wife back to him. Is it not enough,

(01:35:35):
he cried, adding a foul, blasphemous oath, that you should
rob me of my dear wife, making her a fox.
But now you must rob me of that fox too,
that hath been my only solace and comfort in this affliction.
Then he burst into tears and began wringing his hands,

(01:35:55):
and continued there in such an extremity of grief for
half an hour that he cared nothing, neither what he
was doing nor what would become of him in the future,
but only knew that his life was ended now, and
he would not live any longer than he could help.
All this while the little girl Polly stood by, first staring,

(01:36:19):
then asking him what had happened, and lastly crying with fear.
But he never heeded her, nor looked at her, but
only tore his head, sometimes shouted at God, or shook
his best at Heaven. So in a fright, Polly opened
the door and ran out of the garden. At length,

(01:36:42):
worn out, and as it were, all numb with his loss,
mister Turbrick got up and went within doors, leaving his
dear fox lying near where she had fallen. He stayed
indoors only two minutes, and then came out again again,
with a razor in his hand, intending to cut his

(01:37:03):
own throat, for he was out of his senses in
this first paroxysm of grief, but his vixen was gone,
at which he looked about for a moment, bewildered and
then enraged, thinking that somebody must have taken the body.
The door of the garden being opened, he ran straight

(01:37:23):
through it. Now, this door, which had been left ajar
by Polly when she ran up, opened into a little
courtyard where the fowls were shut in at night. The
woodhouse and the privy also stood There. On the far
side of it from the garden gate were two large
wooden doors, big enough when open to let a cart enter,

(01:37:46):
and high enough to keep a man from looking over
into the yard. When mister Tubrick got into the yard,
he found his vixen leaping up at these doors, and
wild with turret, but as lively as ever he saw
her in his life. He ran up to her, but
she shrank away from him and would baner dodged him too,

(01:38:08):
but he caught hold of her. She bared her teeth
at him, but he paid no heed to that, only
picked her straight up into his arms and took her
so indoors. Yet all the while he could scarce believe
his eyes to see her living, and felt her all
over very carefully to find if she had not some
bones broken. But no, he could find none. Indeed, it

(01:38:31):
was some hours before this poor silly gentleman began to
suspect the truth which was that his vixen had practiced
a deception upon him, and all the time he was
bemoaning his loss in such heartrending terms, she was only
shamming death to run away directly. She was able if

(01:38:53):
it had not been that the yard gates were shut,
which was a mere chance. She had got her liberty
by that trick. And that this was only a trick
of hers to sham dead was plain when he had
thought it over. Indeed, it is an old and time
honored trick of the fox. It is in Esop, and

(01:39:15):
a hundred other writers have confirmed it since. But so
thoroughly had he been deceived by her that at first
he was as much overcome with joy at his wife's
still being alive as he had been with grief a
little while before, thinking her dead. He took her in
his arms, hugging her to him and thanking God a

(01:39:37):
dozen times for her preservation. But his kissing and fondling
her had very little effect now, for she did not
answer him by licking or soft looks, but stayed huddled
up and sullen, with her hair bristling on her neck
and her ears laid back. Every time he touched her.

(01:39:59):
At he thought this might be because he had touched
some broken bone or tender place where she had been hurt.
But at last the truth came to him. Thus he
was again to suffer. And though the pain of knowing
her treachery to him was nothing to the grief of
losing her, yet it was more insidious and lasting. At first.

(01:40:24):
From a mere nothing, this pain grew gradually until it
was a torture to him. If he had been one
of your stock ordinary husbands, such a one who by
experience has learnt never to inquire too closely into his
wife's doings, her comings, or goings, and never to ask

(01:40:45):
her how she has spent the day, for fear he
should be made the more of a fool. Had missed
her to break been such a one, he had been luckier,
and his pain would have been almost nothing. But you
must consider that he had never been deceived once by
his wife in the course of their married life. No,

(01:41:06):
she had never told him as much as one white lie,
but had always been frank, open and ingenuous, as if
she and her husband were not husband and wife, or
indeed of opposite sexes. Yet we must rate him as
very foolish that living thus with the fox, which beast

(01:41:30):
has the same reputation for deceitfulness, crowd and cunning in
all countries, all ages, and amongst all races of mankind.
He should expect this fox to be as candid and
honest with him in all things as the country girl
he had married. His wife's sullenness and bad temper continued

(01:41:53):
that day, for she cowered away from him and hid
under the sofa. Nor could he persuade her to come
out from there, even when it was her dinner time.
She stayed, refusing resolutely to be tempted out with food,
and lying so quiet that he heard nothing from her
for hours. At night, he carried her up to the bedroom,

(01:42:18):
but she was still sullen and refused to eat a morsel,
though she drank a little water during the night when
she fancied he was asleep and of Part five, Part
six of Lady into Fox by David Garnet. This LibriVox

(01:42:45):
recording is in the public domain recording by Tony Addison.
The next morning was the same, and by now mister
Tubrick had been through all the agonies of wounded self esteem, disillusionment,
and despair that a man can suffer, but though his

(01:43:10):
emotions rose up in his heart and nearly stifled him,
he showed no sign of them to her. Neither did
he abate one jot his tenderness and consideration for his vixen.
At breakfast he tempted her with a freshly killed young bullet.

(01:43:32):
It hurt him to make this advance to her, for
hitherto he had kept her strictly uncooked meats. But the
pain of seeing her refuse it was harder still for
him to bear. Added to this was now an anxiety
lest she should stop herself to death rather than stay

(01:43:55):
with him any longer. All that morning he kept her close,
but in the afternoon let her loose again in the garden,
after he had locked the pear tree so that she
could not repeat her performance of climbing, But seeing how
disgustedly she looked while he was by, never offering to

(01:44:18):
run or to play as she was used, but only
standing stuck still with her tail between her legs, her
ears flattened, and the hair bristling on her shoulders. Seeing this,
he left her to herself out of mere humanity. When
he came out after half an hour, he found that

(01:44:39):
she was gone, but there was a fair sized hole
by the wall, and she just buried all but her brush,
digging desperately to get under the wall and make her escape.
He ran up to the hall and put his arm
in after her and called her to come out, but
she would not, so at first he began pulling around

(01:45:02):
by the shoulder, then his hold slipping by the hind legs.
As soon as he had drawn her forth, she whipped
round and snapped at his hand and bit it through
near the joint of the thumb, but let it go instantly.
They stayed there for a minute, facing each other, he

(01:45:22):
on his knees and she facing him, the picture of
unrepentant wickedness and fury. Being thus on his knees, mister
Tubrick was down on her level very nearly, and her
muzzle was thrust almost into his face. Her ears lay
flat on her head, her gums were bared in a

(01:45:46):
silent snarl, and all her beautiful teeth threatening him that
she would bite him again. Her back, too was half arched,
all her hair bristling, and her rush held drooping. But
it was her eyes that held his, with their slip pupils,

(01:46:06):
looking at him with savage desperation and rage. The blood
ran very freely from his hand, but he never noticed
that or the pain of it either, for all his
thoughts were for his wife. What is this, Soviet? He said,
very quietly, what is this? Why are you so savage? Now?

(01:46:32):
If I stand between you and your freedom, it is
because I love you? Is it such a torment to
be with me? But Soviet never stirred a muscle. You
would not do this if you are not in anguish,
poor beast, you want your freedom. I cannot keep you.

(01:46:53):
I cannot hold you to vows made when you were
a woman. Why you have forgotten who I am. The
tears then began running down his cheeks. He sobbed and
said to her, go, I shall not keep you, poor beast,
poor beast, I love you, I love you. Go if

(01:47:14):
you want to, but if you remember me, come back.
I shall never keep you against your will. Go go,
but kiss me now. He leaned forward then and put
his lips to her snarling fangs. But though she kept snarling,
she did not bite him. Then he got up quickly
and went to the door of the garden that opened

(01:47:37):
into a little paddock against a wood. When he opened it,
she went through it like an arrow crusted the paddock
like a puff of smoke, and in a moment was
gone from his sight. Then, suddenly finding himself alone, mister
t Brick came, as it were, to himself, and ran
after her, calling her by name and shouting to her.

(01:48:00):
And so went plunging into the wood and through it
for about a mile, running almost blindly. At last, when
he was worn out, he sat down, seeing that she
had gone beyond recover it, and it was already night.
Then rising, he walked slowly homewards, wearied and spent in spirit.

(01:48:24):
As he went, he bound up his hand that was
still running with blood. His coat was torn, his hat lost,
and his face scratched right across with briars. Now in
cold blood, he began to reflect on what he had done,
and to repent bitterly. Having set his wife free, he

(01:48:45):
had betrayed her, so that now from his act she
must lead the life of a wild fox for ever,
and must undergo all the riggers and hardships of the climate,
and all the hazards of a hunted creature. When mister
t Brick got back to the cottage, he found missus

(01:49:06):
Cork was sitting up for him. It was already late.
What have you done with missus? To brick, sir, I'm
mister and I missed you, and I have not known
what to do, expecting something dreadful that happened. I have
been sitting up for you half the night. And where
is she now, sir? She accosted him so vigorously that

(01:49:28):
mister de Brick stood silent at length. He said, I
have let her go. She has run away. Poor miss Solviet,
cried the old woman, poor creature. You ought to be ashamed, sir,
let her go. Indeed, poor lady, is that the way
for her husband to talk? It is a disgrace, but
I saw it coming from the first. The old woman

(01:49:51):
was white with furyed. She did not mind what she said,
but mister de Brick was not listening to her. At
last he looked at her and saw that she had
just begun to cry. So he went out of the
room and up to bed and lay down as he
was in his clothes, utterly exhausted and felling to a

(01:50:11):
dog sleep, starting up every now and then with horror,
and then falling back with fatigue. It was late when
he woke up, but cold and roared, and he fell
cramped in all his limbs. As he lay, he heard
again the noise which had woken him, the chotting of
several horses, and the voices of men riding by the house.

(01:50:37):
Mister de Brick jumped up and ran to the window,
and then looked at and the first thing that he
saw was a gentleman in a pink coat riding at
a walk down the lane. At this sight, mister to
Brick waited no longer, but, pulling on his boots in
mad haste, ran out instantly, meaning to say that they

(01:50:59):
must not hunt, and how his wife was escaped and
they might kill her. But when he found himself outside
the cottage, words failed him, and fury took possession of him,
so that he could only cry out, how dare you
you dumn blackguard? And so with a stick in his hand,

(01:51:21):
he threw himself on the gentleman in the pink coat,
and seized his horse's rein, and catching the gentleman by
the leg, was trying to throw him. But really it
is impossible to say what mister Tubrick intended by his behavior,
or what he would have done for the gentleman, finding

(01:51:43):
himself suddenly assaulted in so unexpected a fashion by so strange.
A tousled and disheveled figure clubbed his hunting crop and
dealt him a blow on the temple, so that he
fell insensible. Another gentleman rode up at this moment, and

(01:52:03):
they were civil enough to dismount and carry mister to
Brick into the cottage, where they were met by old Nanny,
who kept bringing her hands and told them mister to
Brick's wife had run away, and she was a vixen,
and that was the cause that mister de Brick had
run out and assaulted them. The two gentlemen could not

(01:52:25):
help laughing at this, and mounting their horses, rode on
without delay, after telling each other that mister to Brigg,
whoever he was, who, was certainly a madman, and the
old woman seemed as mad as her master. This story, however,
went the rounds of the gentry in those parts, and

(01:52:48):
perfectly confirmed every one in their previous opinion, namely that
mister to Brick was mad and his wife had run
away from him. The part about her being a vixen
was laughed at by the few that heard it, but
was soon left out as immaterial to the story, and

(01:53:08):
incredible in itself, though afterwards it came to be remembered
and its significance to be understood. When mister Tubrigg came
to himself, it was past noon, and his head was
aching so painfully that he could only call to mind

(01:53:29):
in a confused way what had happened. However, he sent
off missus Cook's son directly on one of his horses,
to inquire about the hunt. At the same time he
gave orders to Old Nanny that she was to put
out food and water for her mistress, on the chance
that she might yet be in the neighborhood. By nightfall,

(01:53:53):
Simon was back with the news that the hunt had
had a very long run, but had lost one fox.
Then drawing a covert had chopped an old dog fox,
and so ended the day's sport. This put mister Tebrick
in some hopes again, and he arose at once from
his bed and went out to the wood and began

(01:54:16):
calling his wife, but was overcome with faintness and lay down,
and so passed the night in the open from mere weakness.
In the morning he got back again to the cottage,
but he had taken a chill and so had to
keep his bed for three or four days. After all

(01:54:36):
this time he had food put out for her every night,
but though rats came to it and ate of it,
there were never any prints of a fox. At last,
his anxiety began working another wad. That is, he came
to think it possible that his vixen would have gone
back to Stokoe. So he had his horses harnessed in

(01:54:59):
the dog ca and brought to the door, and then
drove over to Rylands, though we were still in a
fever and with a heavy cold upon him. After that
he lived always solitary, keeping away from his follows, and
only seeing one man called Ascut, who had been brought

(01:55:20):
up a jockey at Wantage, but was grown too big
for his profession. He mounted this loping follow on one
of his horses three days a week, and had him
follow the hunt and report to him whenever they killed.
And if he could view the fox, so much the better.
And then he made him describe it minutely, so we

(01:55:42):
should know if it were his Sylviet. But he dared
not trust himself to go himself, lest his passion should
master him and he might commit a murder. Every time
there was a hunt in the neighborhood. He set the
gates wide open at Ryland's and the house doors also,
and taking his gun, stood sentinel in the hope that

(01:56:06):
his wife would run in if she were pressed by
the hands, and so he could save her. But only
once aunt came near, when two foxhounds that had lost
the main pack strayed on to his land, and he
shot them instantly and buried them afterwards himself. It was

(01:56:26):
not long now to the end of the season, as
it was the middle of March. But living as he
did at this time, mister Tebrigg grew more and more
to be a true misanthrope. He denied admittance to any
that came to visit him, and rarely showed himself to
his fellows, but went out cheaply in the early mornings

(01:56:50):
before people were about, in the hope of seeing his
beloved fox. Indeed, it was only this hope that he
would see again that kept him alive, for he had
become so careless of his own comfort in every way
that he very seldom at a proper meal, taking no

(01:57:11):
more than a crust of bread with a morsel of
cheese in the whole day, though sometimes he would drink
half a bottle of whiskey to drown his sorrow, and
to get off to sleep. For sleep fled from him,
and no sooner did he begin dozing, but he awoke
with a start, thinking he had hurt something. He let

(01:57:33):
his beard grow too, and though he had always been
very particular in his person before, he now was utterly
careless of it. Gave up washing himself a week or
two at a stretch, and if there was dirt under
his fingernails, let it stay there. All this disorder fed

(01:57:55):
a malignant pleasure in him, for by now he had
come to hate his men, and was embittered against all
human decences under Korum. For strange to tell, he never
once in these months regretted his dear wife, whom he
had so much loved. No, all that he grieved for

(01:58:18):
now was his departed vixen. He was haunted all this
time not by the memory of a sweet and gentle woman,
but by the recollection of an animal. A beast. It
is true that could sit at table and play pique
when it would, But for all that nothing really but

(01:58:38):
a wild beast. His one hope now was the recovery
of this beast, and of this he dreamed continually. Likewise,
both waking and sleeping, he was visited by visions of her,
Her masts, her full white tag, brushed white throat, and
the thick fur in her ears all haunted him. Every

(01:59:03):
one of her foxy ways was now so absolutely precious
to him that I believe that if he had known
for certain she was dead, and had thoughts of marrying
a second time, he would never have been happy with
a woman. No, Indeed, he would have been more tempted
to get himself at tame fox, and would have counted

(01:59:24):
that as good a marriage as he could make. Yet
this all proceeded, one may say, from a passion and
a true conjugal fidelity, that it would be hard to
find matched in this world. And though we may think
him a fool, almost a madman, we must, when we
look closer, find much to respect in his extraordinary devotion.

(01:59:49):
How different indeed was he from those who, if their
wives go mad, shut them in mad houses and give
themselves up to concubinage. And nay, what is more, there
are many who extenuate such conduct too. But mister Tubrick
was of a very different temper. And though his wife

(02:00:10):
was now nothing but a hunted beast, cared for no
one in the world but heard but this devouring love
ate into him like a consumption, so that, by sleepless
nights and not caring for his person, in a few
months he was worn to the shadow of himself. His

(02:00:31):
cheeks were sunk in, his eyes hollow but excessively brilliant,
and his whole body had lost flesh, so that looking
at him, the wonder was that he was still alive.
Now that the hunting season was over, he had less
anxiety for her. Yet even so he was not positive

(02:00:52):
that the hands had not got her. For between the
time of his setting her free and the end of
the hunting season just up Easter, there were but three
vixens killed near Of those three, one was a half
blind or war eyed, and one was a very gray,
dull colored beast. The third answered more to the description

(02:01:16):
of his wife, but that it had not much black
on the legs, whereas in her the blackness of the
legs was very plain to be noticed. But yet his
fear made him think that perhaps she had got mired
in running, and the legs, being muddied, were not remarked
on as black. One morning, the first week in May,

(02:01:41):
about four o'clock, when he was out waiting in the
little cups, he sat down for a while on a
tree stump, and when he looked up, saw a fox
coming towards him over the plowed field. It was carrying
a hare over its shoulder, so that it was nearly
all hidden from him. At last, when it was not

(02:02:02):
twenty yards from him, it crossed over, going into the cubs.
When mister to Brick stood up and cried out, Sylvia, Sylvia,
is it you? The fox dropped the hair out of
his mouth and stood looking at him. And then our
gentleman saw at the first glance that this was not
his wife. For whereas missus de Brick had been a

(02:02:25):
very bright red, this was a swarthy, a duller beast. Altogether. Moreover,
it was a good deal larger and higher at the shoulder,
and had a great white tag to his brush. But
the fox, after the first instant, did not stand for
his portrait, you may be sure, but picked up his
hair and made off like an arrow. Then mister t

(02:02:48):
Brick cried out to himself, indeed, I am crazy now.
My affliction has made me lose what little reason I
ever had here am I taking every box I see
to be my wife. My neighbors call me a madman,
and now I see that they are right. Look at
me now, Oh God, how foul a creature I am.

(02:03:08):
I hate my fellows, and thin and wasted by this
consuming passion. My reason is gone, and I feed myself
on dreams. Recall me to my duty, Bring me back
to decency. Let me not become a beast likewise, but
restore me and forgive me O my Lord. With that,
he burst into scolding tears and knelt down and prayed,

(02:03:32):
a thing he had not done for many weeks. When
he rose up, he walked back, feeling giddy and exceedingly weak,
but with a contrite heart, and then washed himself thoroughly
and changed his clothes. But his weakness increasing, he lay
down for the rest of the day, but read in
the Book of Job and was much comforted and of

(02:03:57):
Part six Part seven of Lady Interfox by David Garnet.
This librevox recording is in the public domain recording by
Tony Addison. For several days after this he lived very soberly,

(02:04:23):
for his weakness continued, but every day he read in
the Bible and prayed earnestly, so that his resolution was
so much strengthened that he determined to overcome his police
or his passion, if he could, and at any rate,
to live the rest of his life very religiously. So

(02:04:46):
strong was this desiring him to amend his ways, that
he considered if he should not go to spread the
gospel abroad for the Bible society, and so spent the
rest of his days. Indeed, he began a letter to
his wife's uncle, the Cannon, and he was writing this

(02:05:06):
when he was startled by hearing a fox bark. Yet
so great was this new turn he had taken that
he did not rush out at once, as he would
have done before, but stayed where he was and finished
his letter. Afterwards, he said to himself that it was

(02:05:27):
only a wild fox and sent by the devil to
mock him, and that madness lay that way if he
should listen. But on the other hand, he could not
deny to himself that it might have been his wife,
and that he ought to welcome the prodigal. Thus he
was torn between these two thoughts, neither of which did

(02:05:49):
he completely believe. He stayed thus, tormented with doubts and
fears all night. The next morning, he woke suddenly with
a start, and on the instant heard a fox bark
once more. At that, he pulled on his clothes and
ran out as fast as he could to the garden gate.

(02:06:12):
The sun was not yet high, the dew thick everywhere,
and for a minute or two ever, a thing was
very silent. He looked about him eagerly, but could see
no fox. Yet there was already joy in his heart. Then,
while he looked up and down the road, he saw

(02:06:33):
his vixen step out of the cops about thirty yards away.
He called to her at once, my dearest wife, Oh Sylvia,
you are come back. And at the sound of his
voice he saw her wag her tail, which set his
last dad's address. But then, though he called her again,

(02:06:57):
she stepped into the cops once more, though she looked
back at him over her shoulder as she went. At this,
he ran after her, but softly and not too fast
lest he should frighten her away, and then looked about
her again and called to her. When he saw her
among the trees, still keeping her distance from him. He

(02:07:19):
followed her then, and as he approached so she retreated
from him. Yet always looking back at him. Several times
he followed after her through the underwood at the side
of the hill, when suddenly she disappeared from his sight
behind some bracken. When he got there, he could see

(02:07:40):
her nowhere, but looking about him, found a fox's earth,
but so well hidden that he might have passed it
by a thousand times and would never have found it.
And as she had made particular search at that spot.
But now though he went on his hands and knees,
he could see nothing of his vex, so that he

(02:08:01):
waited a little while wondering. Presently, he heard a noise
of something moving in the earth, and so waited silently,
then saw something which pushed itself into sight. It was
a small, stooty black beast, like a puppy. There came

(02:08:22):
another behind it, then another, and so on till there
were five of them. Lastly there came his vixen, pushing
her litter before her, And while he looked at hers silently,
a prey to his confused and unhappy emotions, he saw
that her eyes were shining with pride and happiness. She

(02:08:45):
picked up one of her youngsters then in her mouth,
and brought it to him, and laid it in front
of him, and then looked up at him, very excited,
or so it seemed. Mister Tubrick took the cub in
his hands, stroked it, and put it against his cheek.
It was a little followed with a smutty face and paws,

(02:09:06):
with staring, vacant eyes of a brilliant electric blue, and
a little tail like a carrot. When he was put down,
he took a step towards his mother, and then sat
down very comically. Mister Tubrick looked at his wife again
and spoke to her, calling her a good creature. Already

(02:09:29):
he was resigned, and now indeed, for the first time
he thoroughly understood what had happened to her, and how
far apart they were now. But looking first at one cub,
then at another, and having them sprawling over his lap,
he forgot himself only watching the pretty scene and taking

(02:09:51):
pleasure in it. Now and then he would stroke his
vixen and kiss it, liberties which she freely allowed him.
Marveled more than ever now at her beauty, for her
gentleness with the cubs, and the extreme delight she took
in them seemed to him then to make her more
lovely than before. Thus, lying amongst them at the mouth

(02:10:15):
of the earth, he idled away the whole of the morning.
First he would play with one, then with another, rolling
them over and tickling them. But they were too young
yet to lend themselves to any other more active sport
than this. Every now and then he would stroke his

(02:10:36):
vixen or look at it, And thus the time slept
away quite fast, and he was surprised when she gathered
her cubs together and pushed them before her into the earth, then,
coming back to him once or twice, very humanly bid
him good bye, and that she hoped she would see
him soon again. Now he had found out the way.

(02:11:01):
So admirably did she express her meaning that it would
have been superfluous for her to have spoken had she
been able. And mister t Brigg, who was used to her,
got up at once and went home. But now that
he was alone, all the feelings which he had not
troubled himself with when he was withered, but had, as

(02:11:23):
it were, put a side till after his innocent pleasures
were over all these came swarming back to assail him
in a hundred tormenting ways. Firstly, he asked himself was
not his wife unfaithful to him. Had she not prostituted
herself to a beast, could he still love her after that?

(02:11:48):
But this did not trouble him so much as it
might have done, for now he was convinced inwardly that
she could no longer, in fairness, be judged as a woman,
but as a fox only. And as a fox she
had done no more than other foxes. Indeed, in having
cubs and tending them with love, she had done well.

(02:12:12):
Whether in this conclusion mister t Brick was in the
right or not is not for us here to consider.
But I would only say to those who would censure
him for a too lenient view of the religious side
of the matter, that we have not seen the thing
as he did, and perhaps if it were displayed before

(02:12:35):
our eyes, we might be led to the same conclusions.
This was, however, not a tenth part of the trouble
in which mister to Brick found himself, For he asked himself, also,
was he not jealous? And looking into his heart, he
found that he was indeed jealous, yes, and angry too,

(02:12:58):
that now he must share his bixs and with wild foxes.
Then he questioned himself if it were not dishonorable to
do so, and whether he should not utterly forget her
and follow his original intention of retiring from the world
and see her no more. Thus he tormented himself for

(02:13:19):
the rest of that day, and by evening he had
resolved never to see her again. But in the middle
of the night he woke up with his head very clear,
and said to himself in wonder, am I not a madman?
I torment myself foolishly with fantastic notions? Can a man

(02:13:41):
have his honor solid by a beast? I am a man.
I am immeasurably superior to the animals. Can my dignity
allow of my being jealous of a beast? A thousand times?
No were I to lust after a vixen I were
a criminal. Indeed, I can be happy in seeing my vixen,

(02:14:02):
for I love her, But she does right to be
happy according to the laws of her being. Lastly, he
said to himself, what was he felt the truth of
this whole matter? When I am with her, I am happy.
But now I distort what is simple and drive myself
crazy with false reasoning upon it. Yet, before he stepped again,

(02:14:26):
he prayed, But though he had thought first to pray
for guidance. In reality, he prayed only that on the
morrow he would see his vixen again, and that God
would preserve her and her cubs too from all dangers,
and would allow him to see them often, so that
he might come to love them for her sake, as

(02:14:47):
if he were their father, and that if this were
a sin, he might be forgiven, for he sinned in ignorance.
The next day or two he saw Vixen and cubs again,
though his busin were cut shorter, and these visits gave
him such an innocent pleasure that very soon his notions

(02:15:07):
of honor, duty, and so on were entirely forgotten, and
his jealousy lulled asleep. One day he tried taking with
him the studioscope and a pack of cards. But though
his Sylviet was affectionate and amiable enough to let him
put the stuioscope over her muzzle, yet she would not

(02:15:30):
look through it, but kept turning her head to licky
his hand, and it was plain to him that now
she had quite forgotten the use of the instrument. It
was the same too with the cards, for with them
she was pleased enough. But only delighting to bite at
them and put them about with her paws, and never

(02:15:52):
considering for a moment whether they were diamonds or clubs,
or hearts or spades, or whether the card an ace
or not. So it was evident that she had forgotten
the nature of cards too. Thereafter he only brought them
things which he could better enjoy, that is, sugar, grapes, raisins,

(02:16:16):
and butcher's meat. By and by, as the summer wore on,
the cubs came to know him, and he then so
that he was able to tell them easily apart. And
then he christened them. For this purpose, he brought a
little bowl of water a sprinkled them as if in baptism,

(02:16:40):
and told them he was their godfather, and gave each
of them a name, calling them Sorrel, Casper, Selwyn, esther
and Angellicut. The Sorrel was a clumsy little beast, of
a cheery and indeed puppyish disposition. Casper was fierce the

(02:17:04):
largest of the five. Even in his play, he would
always bite and gave his godfather many a sharp nip
as time went on. Esther Oa was of a dark complexion,
a true brunette, and very sturdy, Angelica the brightest red
and the most exactly like her mother, while Sulwyn was

(02:17:27):
the smallest cub of a very praying, inquisitive and cunning temper,
but delicate and undersized. Thus mister Tebrick had a whole
family now to occupy him, and indeed it came to
love them with very much of a father's love and partiality.

(02:17:47):
His favorite was Angelica, who reminded him so much of
her mother in her pretty ways, because of a gentleness
which was lacking in the others, even in their play.
After her in his affections came Selwyn, whom he soon
saw was the most intelligent of the whole litter. Indeed,

(02:18:10):
he was so much more quick witted than the rest
that mister de Brick was led into speculating as to
whether he had not inherited something of the human from
his damn. Thus, very early he learnt to know his
name and would come when he was called. And what
was stranger still, he learned the names of his brothers

(02:18:31):
and sisters before they came to do so themselves. Besides
all this, he was something of a young philosopher, for
though his brother Kasper tyrannized over him. He put up
with it all with an unruffled temper. He was not, however,
above playing tricks on the others, and wondered when mister

(02:18:54):
t Brick was by, he made believe that there was
a mouse in a hole some little way off. Very
soon he was joined by Sorrow, and presently by Kasper
and Esther. When he had got them all digging, it
was easy for him to step away, And then he
came to his godfather with a sly look, sat down

(02:19:16):
before him and smiled, and then jerked his head over
towards the others, and smiled again, and wrinkled his brows,
so that mister de Brick knew as well as if
he had spoken, that the youngster was saying, have I
not made fools of them all? He was the only
one that was curious about mister t Brick. He made

(02:19:39):
him take out his watch, put his ear to it,
considered it, and wrinkled up his brows in perplexity. On
the next visit it was the same thing. He must
see the watch again and again think over it. But
clever as he was, little Selwyn could never understand it.
And if his mother remembered any thing about watches. It

(02:20:01):
was a subject which she never attempted to explain to
her children. One day, mister to Brick left the earth
as usual and ran down the slope to the road,
when he was surprised to find a carriage waiting before
his house and a coachman walking about near his gate.
Mister de Brick went in and found that his visitor

(02:20:23):
was waiting for him. It was his wife's uncle. They
shook hands, though the Reverend canon Fox did not recognize
him immediately, and mister to Brick led him into the house.
The clergyman looked about him a good deal at the
dirty and disorderly rooms, and when mister to Brick took

(02:20:45):
him into the drawing room, it was evident that it
had been unused for several months. The dust lay so
thickly on all the furniture. After some conversation on indifferent topics,
canon Fox said to him, I have called really to
ask about my niece. Mister de Brick was silent for

(02:21:06):
some time, and then said, she is quite happy now. Ah. Indeed,
I have heard she is not living with you any longer. No,
she is not living with me. She is not far away.
I see her every day. Now, indeed, where does she
live in the woods with her children? I ought to
tell you that she has changed her shape. She is

(02:21:27):
a fox. The Reverend Canon Fox got up. He was alarmed,
and everything mister Brick said confirmed what he had been
led to expect he would find at Ryland's. When he
was outside, however, he asked, mister de Brigg, you don't
have many visitors now, eh No, I never see anyone

(02:21:50):
if I can avoid it. You are the first person
I've spoken to for months. Quite right, too, my dear Bollow,
I quite understand in the circumstances. Then the cleric shook
him by the hand, got into his carriage and drove away.
At any rate, He said to himself, there will be
no scandal. He was relieved also because mister to Brick

(02:22:12):
had said nothing about going abroad to disseminate the gospel.
Canon Fox had been alarmed by the letter, had not
answered it, and thought that it was always better to
let things be and never to refer to anything unpleasant.
He did not at all want to recommend mister to
Brick to the Bible Society. If he were mad, his

(02:22:35):
eccentricities would never be noticed. At Stokoe, besides that mister
de Brick had said he was happy. He was sorry
for mister Brick too, and he said to himself that
the queer girl, his niece, must have married him, because
he was the first man she had met. He reflected

(02:22:55):
also that he was never likely to see her again,
and said a lad when he had driven some little way.
Not an affectionate disposition, then to his coachman, no, that's
all right, drive on, Hopkins. When mister Tebrick was alone,

(02:23:15):
he rejoiced exceedingly. In his solitary life. He understood, or
so he fancied, what it was to be happy, and
that he had found complete happiness now, living from day
to day, careless of the future, surrounded every morning by
playful and affectionate little creatures whom he loved tenderly, and

(02:23:37):
sitting beside their mother, whose simple happiness was the source
of his own. True happiness, he said to himself, is
to be found in bestowing love. There is no such
happiness as that of the mother for her babe, and
as I have attained it in mind for my vixen
and her children. With these feelings, he waited impatiently for

(02:24:02):
the hour on the morrow when he might hasten to
them once more, When, however, he had toiled up the
hillside to the earth, taking infinite precaution not to tread
down the bracken or make a beaten path which might
lead others to that secret spot, he bound, to his
surprise that Solvia was not there, and that there were

(02:24:25):
no cubs to be seen either. He called to them,
but it was in vain, and at last he laid
himself on the mossy bank beside the earth and waited.
And of Part seven, Part eight of Lady into Fox

(02:24:50):
by David Garnet. This LibriVox recording is in the public
domain recording by Tony Addison. For a long while, as
it seemed to him, he lay very still with closed eyes,
straining his ears to hear every rustle among the leaves,

(02:25:11):
or any sound that might be the cub stirring in
the earth. At last he must have dropped asleep, for
he woke suddenly, with all his senses alert, and opening
his eyes, found a full grown fox within six feet
of him, sitting on its haunches like a dog and
watching his face with curiosity. Mister de Brick saw instantly

(02:25:34):
that it was not Soviet when he moved, the fox
got up and shifted his eyes, but still stood his ground,
and mister de Brick recognized him then, for the dog
fox he had seen once before, carrying a head. It
was the same dark beast with a large white tug
to his brush. Now the secret was out, and mister

(02:25:56):
de Brick could see his rival before him. Here was
the real father of his godchildren, who could be certain
of their taking after him and leading over again his
wild and rakish life. Mister to Brick stared for a
long time of the handsome rogue, who glanced back at

(02:26:16):
him with distrust and watchfulness patent in his face, but
not with that defiance too, And it seemed to mister
Tabrick as if there was also a touch of cynical
humor in his look, as if he said, by Dad,
we two have been strangely brought together. And to the man,

(02:26:39):
at any rate, it seemed strange that they were thus linked,
And he wondered if the love his rival there bare
to his vixen and his cubs were the same thing
in kind as his own. We would both of us
give our lives for theirs, he said to himself, as
he reasoned upon it, we both of us are happy

(02:27:00):
cheaply in their company. What pride this follow must feel
to have such a wife and such children taking after him?
And has he not reason for his pride? He lives
in a world where he is beset with a thousand dangers.
For half the year he is hunted every where, dogs
pursue him, men lay chaps with him, or menace him.

(02:27:22):
He owes nothing to another, but he did not speak,
knowing that his words would only alarm the fox. Then
in a few minutes he saw the dog fox look
over his shoulder, and then he trotted off, as likely
as a gossamer veil blown in the wind. And in
a minute or two more back he comes, with his

(02:27:44):
vixen and the cubs all around him. Seeing the dog
fox thus surrounded by vixen and cubs was too much
for mister Tubrick. In spite of all his philosophy, A
pang of jealousy shot through him. He could see that
Sylvia had been hunting with her cubs, and also that
she had forgotten that he would come that morning, for

(02:28:07):
she started when she saw him, and though she callously
licked his hand, he could see that her thoughts were
not with him. Very soon she led her cubs into
the earth. The dog fox had vanished, and mister Tubrick
was again alone. He did not wait longer, but went home.

(02:28:28):
Now was his peace of mind all gone, The happiness
which he had flattered himself the night before. He knew
so well her to enjoy. It seemed now but a
fool's paradise in which she had been living a hundred times.
This poor gentleman bit his lip, drew down his trbous brows,
and stamped his foot, and cursed himself bitterly or coldest

(02:28:51):
lady bitch. He could not forgive himself neither that he
had not thought of the damned dog fox before, but
all the while had let the cubs frisk round him,
each one a proof that a dog box had been
at work with his vixen. Yes, jealousy was now in
the wind, and every circumstance which had been a reason

(02:29:12):
for his felicity the night before, was now turned into
a monstrous feature of his nightmare. With all this, mister
to Brick so worked upon himself that for the time
being he had lost his reason. Black was white and
white black, And he was resolved that on the morrow
he would dig the wild brooder boxes out and shoot them,

(02:29:36):
and so free himself at last from this hellish plague.
All that night he was in this mood and in agony,
as if he had broken in the crown of a
tooth and bitten on the nerve. But as all things
will have an ending, so at last mister t Brick,
worn out and wearied by this loathed passion jealousy, fell

(02:30:02):
into an uneasy, untormented sleep. After an hour or two,
the procession of confused and jumbled images which first assailed
him passed away and subsided into one clear and powerful dream.
His wife was with him, in her own proper shape,

(02:30:25):
walking as they had been on that fatal day before
her transformation. Yet she was changed to for in her
face there were visible tokens of unhappiness, her face swollen
with crying, pale and downcast, her hair hanging in disorder,
her damp hands wringing a small handkerchief into a bow,

(02:30:49):
her whole body shaken with sobs, and an air of
long neglect about her person. Between her sobs, she was
confessing to him some crime which she had committed. But
he did not catch the broken words, nor did he
wish to hear them, for he was dull by his sorrow.

(02:31:11):
So they continued walking together in sadness, as it were,
forever here, with his arm about her waist, she turning
her head to him and often casting her eyes down
in distress. At last they sat down, and he spoke, saying,
I know they are not my children, but I shall

(02:31:31):
not use them barbarously. Because of that you are still
my wife. I swear to you they shall never be neglected.
I will pay for their education. Then he began turning
over the names of schools in his mind. Eaton would
not do, nor Harrow, nor Winchester, nor Rugby. But he

(02:31:51):
could not tell why these schools would not do for
these children of hers. He only knew that every school
he thought of what impossible, But surely one could be found.
So turning over the names of schools, he sat for
a long while, holding his dear wife's hand, till at length,

(02:32:12):
still weeping. She got up and went away, And then
slowly he awoke. But even when he had opened his
eyes and looked about him, he was thinking of schools,
saying to himself that he must send them to a
private academy, or even at the worst engaged a tutor. Why, yes,
he said to himself, putting one put out of bed.

(02:32:34):
That is what it must be, a tutor. Though even
then there will be a difficulty. At first at those words,
he wondered what difficulty there would be, and recollected that
they were not ordinary children. No, they were foxes, mere foxes.

(02:32:55):
When poor mister Tubrigg had remembered this, he was, as
it were, dazed or stunned by the fact, and for
a long time he could understand nothing, but at last
burst into a flood of tears, compassionating them and himself too.
The awfulness of the fact itself that his dear wife

(02:33:17):
should have foxes instead of children filled him with an
agony of pity, and at them. When he recollected the
cause of their being foxes, that is that his wife
was a fox also, his tears broke out, and knew
and he could bear it no longer, but began calling
out in his anguish, and beat his head once or

(02:33:39):
twice against the wall, and then cast himself down on
his bed again, and wept and wept, sometimes tearing the
sheets asunder with his teeth the whole of that day,
For he was not to go to the earth till
evening he went about sorrowfully, torn by true pity for
his poor vixen and her chair children. At last, when

(02:34:02):
the time came, he went again up to the earth,
which he found deserted. But hearing his voice, out came Esther.
But though he called the others by their names, there
was no answer, and something in the way the cub
greeted him made him fancy she was indeed alone. She

(02:34:23):
was truly rejoiced to see him, and scrambled up into
his arms and thence to his shoulder, kissing him, which
was unusual in her, though natural enough in her sister Angelicate.
He sat down a little way from the earth, fondling her,
and fed her with some fish she had brought by

(02:34:43):
her mother, which she ate so ravenously that he concluded
she must have been sure to food that day, and
probably alone for some time. At last, while he was
sitting there, Esther pricked up, her ears started up, and
presently mister to Brigg saw his vixen come towards them.

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She greeted him very affectionately, but it was plain had
not much time to spare, for she soon started back
when she had come with Esther at her side. When
they had gone about a rod, the cub hung back
and kept stopping and looking back to the earth, and
at last turned and ran back home. But her mother

(02:35:26):
was not to be fobbed opso, for she quickly overtook
her child, and, gripping her by the scrub, began to
drag her along with her. Mister to Brigg, seeing then
how mutters stood, spoke to her, telling her he would
carry esther if she would lead. So after a little

(02:35:46):
while Sylvia gave her over, and then they set out
on their strange journey. Sylvia went running on a little
before while mister to Brigg followed after, with Esther in
his arms, whimpering and struggling now to be free. And indeed,
once she gave him a nip with her teeth, this

(02:36:09):
was not so strange a thing to him now, and
he knew the remedy for it, which is much the
same as with others whose tempers run too high, that
is a taste of it themselves. Mister to Brick shook
her and gave her a smart little cup, after which
though she sulked, she stopped her biting. They went thus

(02:36:31):
above a mile, circling his house, and crossing the highway
until they gained a small cupboard that lay with some
waste fields adjacent to it. And by this time it
was so dark that it was all mister to Brick
could do to pick his wed, for it was not
always easy for him to follow where his vixen bound

(02:36:53):
a big enough row for herself. But at length they
came to another earth, and by the starlight, mister de
Brigg could just make out the other cubs skylarking in
the shadows. Now he was tired, but he was happy
and laughed softly for joy. And presently his vixen, coming

(02:37:14):
to him, put her feet upon his shoulders as he
sat on the ground, and licked him. And he kissed
her back on the muzzle, and gathered her in his arms,
and rolled her in his jacket, and then laughed and
wept by turns in the excess of his joy. All
his jealousies of the night before were forgotten. Now, all

(02:37:37):
his desperate sorrow of the morning, and the horror of
his dream were gone. What if they were foxes? Mister
de Brigg found that he could be happy with them.
As the weather was hot, he lay out there all
the night first playing hide and seek with them in
the dark, tilt, missing his vixen, and the cubs proving obstreperous,

(02:38:00):
he lay down and was soon asleep. He was woken
up soon after dawn by one of the cubs tugging
at his shoelaces in play. When he sat up, he
saw two of the cubs standing near him on their
hind legs, rustling with each other. The other two were
playing hide and seek round a tree trunk. And now

(02:38:22):
Angelica let go his neceays and came romping into his
arms to kiss him and say good morning to him,
then worrying the points of his waistcoat a little shyly
after the warmth of his embrace. That moment of awakening
was very sweet to him. The freshness of the morning,

(02:38:44):
the scent of everything, of the day's rebirth, the first
beams of the sun upon a tree top near it,
and a pigeon rising into the air suddenly all delighted him.
Even the rough scent of the body of the cubin
his arms seemed to him delicious. At that moment, all

(02:39:06):
human customs and institutions seemed to him nothing but folly,
For said he, I would exchange all my life as
a man for my happiness now, and even now I
retain almost all of the ridiculous conceptions of a man.
The beasts are happier, and I will deserve that happiness

(02:39:27):
is best I can. After he had looked at the
cubs playing merrily, how with soft stuff one would creep
behind another to bounce out and startle him. A thought
came into mister Tebrick's head, and that was that these
cubs were innocent. They were a stainless snow. They could

(02:39:49):
not send, for God had created them to be thus,
and they could break none of his commandments. And he
fancied also that men say and because they cannot be
as the animals. Presently, he got up, full of happiness,
and began making his way home, when suddenly he came

(02:40:10):
to a full stop and asked himself, what is going
to happen to them? This question rooted him stockishly and
a cold and deadly feared, as if he had seen
a snake before him. At last, he shook his head
and hurried on his path. I indeed, what would become

(02:40:31):
of his vixen and her children? This thought put him
into such a fever of apprehension that he did his
best not to think of it anymore, But yet it
stayed with him all that day and for weeks after,
at the back of his mind, so that he was
not careless in his happiness as before, but as it were,

(02:40:51):
trying continually to escape his own thoughts. This made him
also anxious to pass all the time he could with
his dear Soviet, and therefore he began going out to
them for more of the daytime, and then he would
sleep the night in the woods, also as he had
done that night. And so he passed several weeks owner

(02:41:14):
returning to his house occasionally to get himself a fresh
provision of food. But after a week or ten days
at the new Earth, both his vixen and the cubs
too got a new habit of roaming for a long
while back, as he knew his vixen had been lying
out alone most of the day, and now the cubs

(02:41:36):
were all for doing the same thing. The earth, in short,
had served its purpose and was now distasteful to them,
and they would not enter it unless pressed with fear.
This new manner of their lives was an added grief
to mister Tubrick, for sometimes he missed them for hours together,

(02:41:57):
or for the whole day even, and not knowing where
they might be, was lonely and anxious. Yet his Sylvia
was thoughtful for him too, and would often send Angelicate
or another of the cubs to petch him to their
new lad or come herself if she could spare the time.
For now they were all perfectly accustomed to his presence

(02:42:19):
and had come to look on him as their natural companion.
And although he was in many ways irksome to them
by scaring rabbits, yet they always rejoiced to see him
when they had been parted from him. This friendliness of
theirs was, you may be sure, the source of most
of mister Tebrick's happiness at this time. Indeed, he lived

(02:42:44):
now for nothing but his foxes. His love for is
Rixen had extended itself insensibly to include her cubs, and
these were now his daily playmates, so that he knew
them as well as if they had been his own children.
With Selwyn and Angelica, indeed, he was always happy, and

(02:43:05):
they never so much as when they were with him.
He was not stoop in his behavior, either, but had
learnt by this time as much from his boxes as
they had from him. Indeed, never was there a more
curious alliance than this, or one with stronger effects upon

(02:43:25):
both of the parties. Mister Tubrick now could follow after
them anywhere, and keep up with them too, and could
go through a wood as silently as a deer. He
learned to conceal himself if ever a laborer passed by,
so that he was rarely seen, and never but once

(02:43:46):
in their company. But what was most strange of all,
he had got a way of going doubled up, often
almost on all fours, with his hands touching the ground
every now and then, particularly when he went up hill.
He hunted with them too, sometimes cheaply by coming up
and scaring rabbits towards where the cubs lay, ambushed so

(02:44:10):
that the bunnies ran straight into their jaws. He was
useful to them in other ways, climbing up and robbing
pigeons nests for the eggs, which they relished exceedingly, or
by occasionally dispatching a hedgehog for them, so they did
not get the prickles in their mouths. But while on
his part he thus altered his conduct, they on their side,

(02:44:35):
were not behindhand, but learned a dozen human tricks from
him that are ordinarily wanting in Reynard's education. One evening
he went to a cottager who had a row of
skeps and bought one of them, just as it was
after the man had smothered the bees. This he carried

(02:44:57):
to the foxes, that they might taste the honey, for
he had seen them dig out wild bees nests often enough.
The skeepful was indeed a wonderful feast for them. They
bit greedily into the heavy scented comb. Their jaws were
drowned in the sticky blood of sweetness, and they gorged

(02:45:18):
themselves on it without restraint. When they had crunched up
the last morsel, they tore the skeep in pieces, and
for hours afterwards they were happily employed in licking themselves clean.
That night he slept near their lad, but they left
him and went hunting. In the morning, when he woke,

(02:45:40):
he was quite numb with cold and faint with hunger.
A white nest hung over everything, and the wood smelt
of autumn. He got up and stretched his cramped limbs,
and then walked homewards. The summer was over, and mister
Tubrick noticed this now for the first time. It was
a stunner. He reflected that the cubs were past growing up.

(02:46:04):
They were boxes at all points, And yet when he
thought of the time when they had been sooti and
had blue eyes, it seemed to him only yesterday. From
that he passed to thinking of the future, asking himself,
as he had done once before, what would become of
his vixen and her children before the winter. He must

(02:46:27):
tempt them into the security of his garden and fortify
it against all the dangers that threatened them. But though
we tried to allay his fear with such resolutions, he
remained uneasy all that day. When he went out to
them that afternoon, he found only his wife Sylvia there,

(02:46:48):
and it was plain to him that she too was alarmed.
But alas poor creature, she could tell him nothing, only
lick his hands and face, and turn about, pricking her
ears at every so And where are your children, Sylvia?
He asked her several times, but she was impatient of

(02:47:08):
his questions, but at last sprang into his arms, flattened
herself upon his breast, and kissed him gently, so that
when they departed, his heart was lighter, because he knew
that she still loved him. That night he slept indoors,
but in the morning early he was awoken by the

(02:47:30):
sound of trotting horses, and running to the window saw
a farmer riding by, very sprucely dressed. Could they be
hunting so soon, he wondered, but presently reassured himself that
he could not be a hunt. Already he heard no
other sound till eleven o'clock in the morning, when suddenly

(02:47:50):
there was the clamor of hounds giving tongue, and not
so far off neither. At this mister t Brick ran
out of his house, distracted, and set open the gates
of his garden, but with iron bars and wire at
the top so the huntsmen could not follow. There was
silence again. It seems the fox must have turned away,

(02:48:13):
for there was no other sound of the hunt. Mister
to Brigg was now like one helpless with beer. He
dared not go out. It could not stay still at home.
There was nothing that he could do, yet he would
not admit this, so he busied himself in making holes
in the hedges so that Sylvia or her cubs could

(02:48:34):
enter from whatever side she came. At last, he forced
himself to go indoors and sit down and drink some tea.
While he was there, he fancied he heard the hounds again.
It was but a faint, ghostly echo of their music.
Yet when he ran out of the house, it was
already close at hand. In the cops above. Now it

(02:48:57):
was that poor mister Brick made his great mistake. For,
hearing the hounds almost outside the gate, he ran to
meet them, whereas rightly he should have run back to
the house. As soon as he reached the gate, he
saw his wife Sylvia, coming towards him, but very tired
with running, and just upon the hounds. The horror of

(02:49:21):
that sight pierced him forever afterwards. He was haunted by
those hounds, their eagerness, their desperate efforts to gain on her,
and their blind lust burg came at odd moments to
frighten him all his life. Now he should have run back,
though it was already late, but instead he cried out
to her, and she ran straight through the open gate

(02:49:43):
to him. What followed was all over in a flash,
but it was seen by many witnesses. The side of
mister de Brick's garden there is bounded by a wall
about six feet high. And curving round so that the
huntsman could see over this wall inside. One of them
indeed put his horse at it very boldly, which was

(02:50:06):
risking his neck, And although we got over safe, was
too late to be of much assistance his brixen and
at one sprung into mister Brick's arms, and before we
could turn back, the hounds were upon them and had
pulled them down. Then at that moment there was a
scream of despair heard by all the field that had

(02:50:28):
come up, which they declared afterwards was more like a
woman's voice than a man's. But yet there was no
clear proof whether it was mister Tubrick or his wife,
who had suddenly regained her voice. When the huntsman who
had let the wall got to them and had whipped
up the hounds, mister to Brick had been terribly muled

(02:50:50):
and was bleeding from twenty wounds. As for his rixen,
she was dead, though we were still clasping her dead
body in his arms. Mister Brick was carried into the
house at once and assistants sent for, But there was
no doubt now about his neighbors being in the right
when they called him mad. For a long while, his

(02:51:12):
life was dispared up, but at last he rallied, and
in the end he recovered his reason and lived to
be a great age. For that matter, he is still
alive and of Part eight and of Lady into Fox

(02:51:32):
by David Garnett,