Penny Dreadfuls, 1923 · page 96 of 116
The Taking of Helen by John Masefield — page 96: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page 84: Running Prose from "The Taking of Helen" This page contains running prose narrative from what appears to be a serialized story titled "The Taking of Helen." The text depicts a scene in which characters named Helen and Paris, along with someone called "the Sightless," have sought shelter in an old woman's house. The passage shows dialogue between Helen and the elderly woman who granted them refuge, with Paris interjecting poetically. The Sightless man grows irritable about being left alone in darkness, prompting discussion about male temperament versus female acceptance of hardship. The narrative voice provides character description, particularly of the old woman's frail, possibly confused state.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
84. THE TAKING OF HELEN was not sightless, that everyone would have greeted me.”’ “T greet you last,’’ Paris said, “‘ because I, too, am a ‘poet, and was shaping a greeting in verse.”’ “Sit down among us,’ Helen said. There was a noise of shuffling and wheezing at the door of the room.’ The old lady was there, holding up her rushlight to look at them. She was short of breath, but either past alarm, or too full of pains to trouble about the presence of strangers in the house. Perhaps she did not see that they were strangers; or perhaps, being extremely old, on the brink, daily, of other worlds, she was not sure if those she saw were of this world, or hallucinations. “Madam,” Helen said, ‘your maid let us rest here. We thank you for the shelter you have given us.” ‘““Ah, dear me,” she said, “you’re welcome, you’re welcome. So the maid let you rest here? A good maid, a good maid.”’ ‘“T don’t know that she is so good,” The Sightless said, ‘to leave the house, so that I stand in the dark for hours.’”’ He went growling out of the room. “You must not mind him,” the old woman said. ‘He is still not used to this, for he is a man, and men will chafe, where women see the will of God.”’ ‘That is very true, madam,” Paris said. ‘“T hope, madam,”’ Helen said, “that you are not in sorrow here, that he should chafe.’’ CORNICLOOKS»eGO