Welcome to Part Eight of our current audio entertainment, my serialization of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. First-week Founding Member Marian Booker has been enjoying it as an accompaniment to preparations for the season:
It has been lovely listening to this story as I decorate the Christmas tree. Thanks for this lovely story.
Thank you for listening, Marian. In tonight's episode, Ebenezer Scrooge confronts his own fate:
He recoiled in terror, for the scene had changed, and now he almost touched a bed: a bare, uncurtained bed: on which, beneath a ragged sheet, there lay a something covered up, which, though it was dumb, announced itself in awful language.The room was very dark, too dark to be observed with any accuracy, though Scrooge glanced round it in obedience to a secret impulse, anxious to know what kind of room it was. A pale light, rising in the outer air, fell straight upon the bed; and on it, plundered and bereft, unwatched, unwept, uncared for, was the body of this man.
Scrooge glanced towards the Phantom. Its steady hand was pointed to the head. The cover was so carelessly adjusted that the slightest raising of it, the motion of a finger upon Scrooge's part, would have disclosed the face. He thought of it, felt how easy it would be to do, and longed to do it; but had no more power to withdraw the veil than to dismiss the spectre at his side.
Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here, and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command: for this is thy dominion!
What happens next? Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read Part Eight of our entertainment simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
If you'd like to know more about The Mark Steyn Club, please click here - and, if you have a loved one who might enjoy Tales for Our Time, there's always our limited-time-only Christmas Gift Membership, which includes your choice of a handsome hardback or CD set personally autographed by yours truly.
Alternatively, there are bargains galore at the Steyn store in our Steynamite Christmas Specials. And do join me tomorrow evening, Saturday, for the concluding episode of A Christmas Carol.
