Programming note: Mark remains his now familiar "unstabilised" self, but tomorrow, Wednesday, shall endeavour to rouse himself from his sickbed for another edition of our Clubland Q&A. He'll be taking questions from Mark Steyn Club members live around the planet at 3pm North American Eastern - that's 8pm Greenwich Mean Time/9pm Central European. We hope you can swing by.
~Welcome to the conclusion of our seventy-sixth Tale for Our Time: Christmas at Thompson Hall by Anthony Trollope. In tonight's final episode our protagonists are fleeing Paris in hopes of arriving at the beloved hall in time for church on Christmas morning:
We all know how people under a cloud are apt to fail in asserting their personal dignity. On the former day a separate vehicle had been ordered by Mr Brown to take himself and his wife to the station, but now, after his misfortunes, he contented himself with such provision as the people at the hotel might make for him. At the appointed hour he brought his wife down, thickly veiled. There were many strangers, as she passed through the hall, ready to look at the lady who had done that wonderful thing in the dead of night, but none could see a feature of her face as she stepped across the hall and was hurried into the omnibus. And there were many eyes also on Mr Jones, who followed her very quickly, for he also, in spite of his sufferings, was leaving Paris on the evening in order that he might be with his English friends on Christmas-day. He, as he went through the crowd, assumed an air of great dignity, to which, perhaps, something was added by his endeavours as he walked to save his poor throat from irritation. He, too, got into the same omnibus, stumbling over the feet of his enemy in the dark...
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear Mark read the conclusion of Christmas at Thompson Hall simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
Our Tales for Our Time Christmas season resumes this Friday, and thence through to Christmas Eve. In the meantime, we note that today marks the quarter-millennial of Jane Austen. If you've only joined the Club in recent years, well, Mark's reading of Northanger Abbey remains one of our most popular serialisations. On the other hand, if you're alarmed by the new trailer for a dumbed-down Animal Farm, Steyn's version is full-strength Orwell.
If you've yet to hear either or any of them, you can enjoy eight-and-a-half years' worth of audio adventures - by Conan Doyle, Kafka, Wodehouse, Gogol, Dickens, Baroness Orczy, H G Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson and more - by joining The Mark Steyn Club. For details on membership, see here - and, if you're seeking the perfect Christmas present for a fan of classic fiction, don't forget our Steyn Club Gift Membership. Sign up that special someone today!
Tales for Our Time will return with another Yuletide yarn this weekend.