WEBVTT
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Well, hello, my dear, it seems to be another beautiful night. Huh.
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It's a wonderful time of year. Yes, yes, still can't
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believe it was just one year ago and I started
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seeing you every so often, that you would wander in
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the dark just to spend a little, a little of
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your tide with me or what's that? Oh no, no,
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I'm very happy about it, and very happy tonight. I
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figure we could sit back and enjoy a little extra
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yet again. So sit down in my favorite chair. Don't worry,
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they can't get in, I promise. This first one is
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is all about what happens when you deal with a
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vanishing lady.
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Tired of the everyday routine, ever dream of a life
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of romantic adventure, want to get away from it all.
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We offer you Escape, Escape designed to free you from
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the four walls of today for a half hour of
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high adventure.
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Tonight, we escape to pre war Paris and the terrifying
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experience of a young English girl who is the victim
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of a gigantic conspiracy of silence. As Alexander Walcott tells
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it in his version of the legend, The Vanishing Lady, a.
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Cup of tea brews no thank you, my dear. I
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think I'll just have a Johnny Walker and soda and
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take a look at the evening stamper.
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I'd like another, please, Mother, all right, Alice, only one sugar, tear.
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We must watch our figures.
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Nonsense.
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A going girl like Alice needs plenty of.
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Sugar, see mother, Daddy of Prune perhaps, but mother is
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still boss.
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Yes, Mother, she certainly, Alice.
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Mother, here's dear, I've been thinking. Here's dear, I've been
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thinking about my grandparents.
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Oh.
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I know all about Daddy's parents. How grandfather Stanley commanded
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a dreadnought at the Battle of Jackland.
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And how it was not a dreadnought, Alice, it was
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a heavy cruiser.
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Or a heavy cruiser and he got the VC. And
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how grandmother Stanley was a volunteer nurse at Westwall Arch
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when the Zeppelins came over. And I know about your
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father too, and how he died in India from his rooms,
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and how gallant he was.
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At the Kuiper Pass.
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But Mother, yes, dear, you never told me anything about
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grandmother Winship. I I haven't no, and I'd like to
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know something.
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About And a child sixteen, I think it's time she knew,
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but Bruce, and you'll probably feel better to get it
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off your chest.
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What Mother, what is it? Oh, my dear, I've never
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talked about your grandmother because well, I've always half believed
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that some day, somehow she would come down our garden
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walk and then I know it sounds silly, but explain
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where she has been for the last twenty years. Why
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what happened to her?
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I don't know.
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I don't suppose I ever will.
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Well I, Cynthia Darling, if it's going to upset, No.
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No, no, Bruce, You're quite right. It would be best
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to get it off my chest, as you put it, Alice.
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As you know, I was born and brought up in India.
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I was about your age. When my father was killed
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in the Cable Campaign. Mother decided to leave India for
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good and returned to her old home in Warwickshire. However,
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it was necessary for her to go to Paris to
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attend to some details of my father's estate. The Great
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Paris Exposition had just opened and the city was jammed
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with visitors from all over the world. You can imagine
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our relief when we arrived at the Grand Hotel Universal
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and heard the clerk say in quite understandable English.
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Ah, Madame, Mademoiselle Wynship, welcome, welcome, You will please to
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sign your register here and.
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Here you have our reservation.
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Indeed, yes, and you are most fortunate, Madame, that you
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telegraphed for I have reserved for you the last room
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in the house.
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Ah.
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I'm so relieved.
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Here, Cynthia, you may as well now to sign a
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register for yourself. Yes, Mama, where do I ride there
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on that line?
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Oh?
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Yes, I see.
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Well you have fatigue from your journey.
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Yes, I shall have the boys show you to your
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wounds at once, Madame, and Mademoiselle Wynship, and you may
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or twas so charan.
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To sweet machine.
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These are your baggage, madam.
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Yes, these six the baggage. Yes, Cynthia, you just carry
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the little one with the medicine in it. Yes, thank you.
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I'll take that one, the little red one.
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Yeah, this sailing is Keep.
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Your eye on that port of Cynthia. I don't trust
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this frenchman. I don't think he'll make off without things. Mama,
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here's the list, you.
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Know what I mean.
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I do wish we could have gone straight on to Southampton,
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but you only have had to come back across the
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channel to see the solicitor. We really save time this way,
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I suppose. I mean, I wish we hadn't had to
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come to Paris at all. It's it's such a sinister place.
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Oh mama, Well.
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They swell ladies the eye and care on Hu's care.
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Ladies.
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What a lovely big group. Oh look, mama, French windows
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and the park out there, and that square with the statues.
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On here, thank you ladies.
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Oh my mind, it's like something out of a book. Yes,
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my dear, that's the trouble with Paris. It's so attractive.
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But underneath it's even the gilt clock, this lovely marble table.
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Oh mamma, everything's so so so French. Well, I'll be
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very glad to be on my way to wear everything's
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English by this time tomorrow. No, come away from that
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window and help me get into something comfortable. There's a
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do yes, yes, mama. I don't know when I've been
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so tired.
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I just can't.
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Seem to catch Mama, Mama, what's the matter. Mama, speak
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to me. Oh here, I'll get you up in the bed. Now,
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let me loose in your corset. Here, mamma, here are
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the smiling, salts breathe deeply. Mama, Oh the telephone. I've
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got to get a doctor. Please hurry, please, hello operator,
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Will you please send a doctor up to room number
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Let me see number three four two. Will you please
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send a doctor to room number three four to two.
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This man was dizzy and doctor, please a doctor, doctor, women.
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I'm quite sure it was not long, although it seemed
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like an eternity before the doctor arrived, accompanied by the
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manager of the hotel. To my great relief, the doctor
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spoke English, he felt mother's poets, took her temperature, did
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the usual things that doctors do, and then he turned
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to the tail coded hotel.
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Manager measured firm doctor force pass. It's you, absolutely, monsieurs,
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she said to Fraserus losco Metre said family to Pando
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the best, and I couldn't reviva wood si less you
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say for tatel, Pierre dust jeer non sa malo tell
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me to Paris bidoracid and us exposes yoursel.
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The talk in this language I couldn't understand. I looked
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from one face to the other, trying to read from
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their expressions how serious my mother's earnest was. They were
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as casual as though they were ordering dinner. Finally I
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could stand no longer. They must please you. You must
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tell me what's the matter with.
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Her, Mademoiselle, your mother, I say, yes, seriously, it is
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a collapse. I do perhaps this train of traveling, however,
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a week or two of absolute rest will work.
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One day, a week or two. Well, we were to
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go on to England tomorrow, Oh, that.
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Would be out of the question.
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Mademoiselle. She cannot be moved for at least several days.
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Right now she must have complete hast. The next twenty
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four hours will be critical. No, no, no, no, Mademoiselle
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Lester right down too. I need your help.
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Yes, yes, of course, doctor.
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Immediately I need some mezine.
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Will you fetch it for me?
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Yes?
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But Melo is more.
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I must not leave your mother for a moment during
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his critical hours. Here I will write down this address
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and a little message to my wife.
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Your wife.
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Yes, I have the medicine already prepared at my home.
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It would be faster to go there for it to
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a pharmacy. There are very few chemists who have the ingredients.
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Couldn't you telephone malus, I have no telephone. Well, here
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is the address. Twenty four piece re volcas and here
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is the message to give to my wife.
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But doctor, I don't know Paris atolla. I'm a total
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stranger here.
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I'm sure the manager here will give the necessary instructions
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to the taximan.
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But certainly if Mademoiselle is ready.
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Before I quite knew what was happening, I was seated
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in a rickety taxicab outside the hotel, the doctor's message
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clutched in my hand, while the hotel manager gave valuable
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directions to the cab.
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Wow, tell stay on taxi to nerf not monsouvenevou brune
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la route la pri Land, conduize la pri Land mont
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posy SUSO can't pret text nou la ramney passisia mondezer camprite.
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It is arranged.
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Mademoiselle Jacques is one of our most trusted chauffeur. He
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will get you to the doctor's house and back in safety.
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Oh, thank you so much, sir, And you'll look after
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my mother. Thank you.
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But of car sab that you may be sure, how
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lazy an tondie siso lappies.
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When we left the hotel, we crossed a huge square
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with statues around it, and turned into a wide avenue,
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which led up a gentle inclined at the top of
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which was a huge arch. But before long we turned
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off to the right into narrower streets. It must have
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been twenty minutes later when we turned into another wide
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boulevard and I saw another huge arch up ahead or
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was it the same Buche haven't we passed that arch before?
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We're mademoiselle, while I lock de trion while I lock.
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Please, I don't want a sightseeing tour. I want to
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go to this address directly. Don't you understand now? Please
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take me there at once.
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Office score blue, Mademoiselle, the sway don't kill eleben said
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by your mail Marta.
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At last we turned into a narrow street and pulled
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up before a grim gray house. The blue and emo
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sign on the wall read number twenty four pieces. I
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jumped out of the cab almost before it stopped, rushed
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up the three stone steps and called at the boss
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dell no, hurry, hurry, hurry, please please hurry monjeu mademoiselle,
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monsieur le doctor by the doc go send me for
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some medicine and be here. Read this please.
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Goodney, sir gianfanmo signor percine.
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De barri membe la france, autrey.
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Thank you. The doctor's wife stood there reading you re,
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reading the note as though she didn't understand it, and
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until I thought I would scream, Oh, please, please hurry,
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give me the medicine. It's my mother. She may be dying.
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I must get back to her. Please hurry, I see you.
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She pointed to a chair and slowly walked down the
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horn and closed the door behind her. I waited and waited,
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and wondered about the time the cab had taken to
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get here, about that arch that looked so familiar, And
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I was torn by the hundred nameless anxieties that taught
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you and your nearest and dearest is ill. And then
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I heard something that throws my blood. A telephone, a
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telephone clearly ring somewhere in the house. But the doctor
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had said he had no telephone. That was the reason
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I must come all this way for the medicine. Oh no, no,
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it couldn't be in this house. It it must be
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next door or across the street. Of course, that's where
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the sound was coming from. But no, it was the
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voice of the doctor's wife answering the phone. Oh no, no,
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what monstrous plot was this? I felt my scalp crawled
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with terror, my brain pondered, my head fellows though it
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would burst. I wanted to scream, to run out of
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this awful house, to run all the way across Paris
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to the bedside of my mother.
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While that meets you, Oh, thank you, thank you.
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Now driver, please please, in the name of your own mother,