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058 - A Wintry Day and Night

Bleak House

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Bleak House is Charles Dickens masterful ninth novel, first published in 20 monthly installments from March 1852 to September 1853. Renowned as one of Dickens most accomplished works, it weaves a rich tapestry of minor characters and intricate subplots that captivate readers. The story unfolds through the eyes of the resilient Esther Summerson, alongside an omniscient narrator, bringing to life unforgettable figures such as the ominous lawyer Tulkinghorn, the well-meaning yet melancholic John Jarndyce, and the whimsical Harold Skimpole. At its heart lies a protracted legal battle over the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, with profound implications for all involved. (Summary from Wikipedia)

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058 - A Wintry Day and Night

Bleak House

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Bleak House058 - A Wintry Day and Night. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.

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for more information or to volunteer. Please visit Libravox.org. Bleakhouse by Charles Dickens, chapter 58, a wintry day and night. Still impassive as behooves its breeding. The deadlock townhouse carries itself as usual towards the street of dismal grandeur. There are powdered heads from time to time in the little windows of the hall, looking out at the untax powder, falling all day from the sky. And in the same conservatory, there is a peach blossom turning itself exotically to the great hall fire from the ripping weather out of doors. It is given out that my lady has gone down into Lincolnshire but is expected to return presently. Rumor, busy overmuch, however, will not go down into Lincolnshire. It persists in flitting and chattering about town. It knows that

the poor unfortunate man, Sir Leicester, has been sadly used. It hears my child, all sorts of shocking things. It makes the world a five miles round, quite merry. Not to know that there is something wrong at the deadlocks is to auger yourself unknown. One of the peachy cheek charmers with the skeleton throats is already apprised of all the principal circumstances that will come out before the lords on Sir Leicester's application for a bill of divorce. At blaze and sparkles the jewelers, and at sheen and glosses the mercers, it is and will be for several hours the topic of the age, the feature of the century. The patronesses of those establishments albeit so loftily inscrutable, being as nicely wed and measured there as any other article of the stock and trade, are perfectly understood in this new fashion by the rawest hand behind the

counter. Our people, Mr. Jones, said blaze and sparkle to the hand in question on engaging him. Our people, sir, are sheep, mere sheep, where two or three marked ones go, all the rest follow. Keep those two or three in your eye, Mr. Jones, and you have the flock. So likewise, sheen and gloss to their Jones in reference to knowing where to have the fashionable people and how to bring what they, sheen and gloss, choose into fashion. On similar unerring principles, Mr. Slattery, the librarian, and indeed the great farmer of gorgeous sheep admits this very day. Why yes, sir. There certainly are reports concerning Lady Dudlock, very current indeed among my high connections, sir. You see, my high connection must talk about something, sir, and it's only to get a subject into vogue with one or two ladies I could name, to make it go down with a whole.

Just what I should have done with those ladies, sir, in the case of any novelty you had left to me to bring in. They have done of themselves, in this case, through knowing Lady Dudlock, and being perhaps a little innocently jealous of her too, sir. You'll find, sir, that this topic will be very popular among my high connection. If it had been a speculation, sir, it would have brought money. And when I say so, you may trust to my being right, sir, for I have made it my business to study my high connection and to be able to wind it up like a clock, sir. Thus, rumor thrives in the capital and will not go down into Lincolnshire. By half past five, post-maridian, horseguards time, it has even elicited a new remark from the honorable Mr. Stables, which bids fair to outshine the old one, on which he has so long rested his colloquial reputation.

This sparkling Sally is to the effect that, although he always knew she was the best groomed woman in the stud, he had no idea she was a boulder. It is immensely received in turf circles. At feasts and festivals also, in firmaments she has often graced, and among constellations she has outshown by yesterday. She is still the prevalent subject. What is it? Who is it? When was it? Where was it? How was it? She is discussed by her dear friends with all the gentilest slang in Vogue, with the last new word, the last new manner, the last new draw, and the perfection of polite indifference. A remarkable feature of the theme is that it is found to be so inspiring that several people come out upon it who never came out before, positively say things. William Buffy carries one

of these smartnesses from the place where he dines down to the house with a whip for his party hands it about, with his snuff box, to keep men together who want to be off, with such effect that the speaker who has had it privately insinuated into his own ear under the corner of his wig cries, order at the bar three times without making an impression. And not the least amazing circumstances connected with her being vaguely the town talk is that people hovering on the conon fines of Mr. Slattery's high connection, people who know nothing and ever did know nothing about her, think it is essential to their reputation to pretend that she is their topic too, and to retail her at second hand with the last new word and the last new manner and the last new draw, and the last new polite indifference and all the rest of it, all at second hand,

but considered equal to new in inferior systems and to fainter stars. If there be any man of letters, art or science among these little dealers how noble in him to support the feeble sisters on such majestic crutches. So goes the wintry day outside the deadlock mansion. How within it, Sir Lester lying in his bed can speak a little though with difficulty and indistinctness. He is enjoined to silence and to rest and they have given him some opiate to lull his pain for his old enemy is very hard with him. He is never asleep though sometimes he seems to fall into a dull waking dose. He caused his bedstead to be moved out nearer to the window when he heard it was such inclement weather and his head to be so adjusted that he could see the driving snow

and sleet. He watches it as it falls throughout the whole wintry day. Upon the least noise in the house which is kept hushed his hand is at the pencil. The old housekeeper sitting by him knows what he would write and whispers. No, he has not come back yet, Sir Lester. It was late last night when he went. He has been but a little time gone yet. He withdraws his hand and falls to looking at the sleet and snow again until they seem by being long looked at to fall so thick and fast that he is obliged to close his eyes for a minute on the giddy whirl of white flakes and icy blots. He began to look at them as soon as it was light. The day is not yet far spent when he conceives it to be necessary that her rooms should be prepared for her. It is very cold and wet. Let there be good fires. Let them know that she is expected. Please see to it yourself. He writes to this purpose on his

sleet and misses round swell with a heavy heart obeys. For I dread George the old lady says to her son who waits below to keep her company when she has a little leisure. I dread my dear that my lady will never more set foot within these walls. That is a bad presentiment mother nor yet within the walls of Chesney walled my dear. That is worse but why mother? When I saw my lady yesterday George she looked to me and I may say at me too as if the step on the ghost's walk had almost walked her down. Come come you alarm yourself with old story fears mother. No I don't my dear no I don't it's going on for sixty years that I have been in this family and I never had any fears for it before but it's breaking up my dear the great old deadlock family is breaking up. I hope not mother

I am thankful I have lived long enough to be with Sir Leicester in this illness and trouble for I know I am not too old nor too useless to be a welcomeer sight to him than anybody else in my place would be but the step on the ghost's walk will walk my lady down George it has been many a day behind her and now it will pass her and go on well mother dear I say again I hope not ah so do I George the old lady returns shaking her head and parting her folded hands but if my fears come true and he has to know it who will tell him are these her rooms Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing victory lane yeah it's even better with Chamba by my side race to chamba casino dot com let's chamba no purchase necessary VTW group void work prohibited by law CT and C's 21 plus sponsored by chamba casino these are my lady's rooms just as she left

why now says the trooper glancing around him and speaking in a lower voice I begin to understand how you come to think as you do mother rooms get an awful look about them when they are fitted up like these for one person you are used to see in them and that person is away under any shadow let alone being god knows where he is not far out as all partings for shadow the great final one so empty rooms bereft of a familiar presence mournfully whisper what your room and what mine must one day be my lady state has a hollow look thus gloomy and abandoned and in the inner apartment where mr. bucket last night made his secret perquisition the traces of her dresses and her ornaments even the mirrors accustomed to reflect them when they were a portion of herself have a desolate and vacant air dark and cold as the wintry day is it is darker and colder in these deserted chambers

than in many a hut that will barely exclude the weather and though the serpents heap fires in the grates and set the couches and the chairs within the warm glass screens that let their ruddy light shoot through to the furthest corners there is a heavy cloud upon the rooms which no light will dispel the old housekeeper and her son remain until the preparations are complete and then she returns upstairs volumnia has taken Mrs. Ronswell's place in the meantime though pearl necklaces and rouge pots however calculated to embellish bath or but in different comforts to the invalid under present circumstances volumnia not being supposed to know and indeed not knowing what is the matter has founded a ticklish task to offer appropriate observation and consequently has supplied their place with distracting smoothings of the bed linen elaborate

locomotion on tiptoe vigilant peeping at her kinsman's eyes and one exasperating whisper to herself of he is asleep in disproof of which superfluous remark Sir Leicester has indignantly written on the slate i am not yielding therefore the chair at the bedside of the quaint old housekeeper volumnia sits at a table a little removed sympathetically sighing Sir Leicester watches the sleet and snow and listens for the returning steps that he expects in the ears of his old servant looking as if she had stepped out of an old picture frame to attend a summoned deadlock to another world the silences fraught with echoes of her own words who will tell him he has been under his valid hands this morning to be made presentable and is as well got up as the circumstances will

allow he is propped with pillows his gray hair is brushed in its usual manner his linen is arranged to a nicety and he is wrapped in a responsible dressing gown his eyeglass and his watch are ready to his hand it is necessary lest his own dignity now perhaps then for her sake that he should be seen as little disturbed and as much himself as may be women will talk and volumnia though a deadlock is no exceptional case he keeps her here there is little doubt to prevent her talking somewhere else he is very ill but he makes his present stand against distress of mind and body most courageously the fair volumnia being one of those sprightly girls who cannot long continue silent without imminent peril of seizure by the dragon boredom soon indicates the approach of that monster with a series of undisguisable yawns finding it impossible to suppress those yawns

by any other process than conversation she compliments Mrs. Roundswell on her son declaring that he positively is one of the finest figures she ever saw and as soldierly a looking person she should think as what's his name her favorite life guardsman the man she dots on the dearest of creatures who was killed at waterloo so lester hears this tribute with so much surprise and stares about him in such a confused way that Mrs. Roundswell feels it necessary to explain Miss deadlock don't speak of my eldest son, surlester but my youngest I have found him he has come home surlester breaks silence with a harsh cry George your son George come home Mrs. Roundswell the old housekeeper wipes her eyes thank god yes surlester does this discovery of someone lost

this return of someone so long gone come upon him as a strong confirmation of his hopes does he think shall I not with the aid I have recall her safely after this there being fewer hours in her case than there are years in his it is of no use in treating him he is determined to speak now and he does in a thick crowd of sounds but still intelligibly enough to be understood why did you not tell me Mrs. Roundswell it happened only yesterday surlester and I doubted you're being well enough to be talked to of such things besides the giddy of alumnae and now remembers with her little scream that nobody was to have known of his being Mrs. Roundswell's son and that she was not to have told but Mrs. Roundswell protests with warmth enough to swell the stomacher that of course she would have told surlester as soon as he got better where is your son

George Mrs. Roundswell asks surlester Mrs. Roundswell not a little alarmed by his disregard of the doctors and junctions replies in London where in London Mrs. Roundswell is constrained to admit that he is in the house bring him here to my room bring him directly the old lady can do nothing but go and search of him surlester with such power of movement as he has arranges himself a little to receive him when he has done so he looks out again at the falling sleet and snow and listens again for the returning steps a quantity of straw has been rumbled down in the street to deaden the noises there and she might be driven to the door perhaps without his hearing wheels he is lying thus apparently forgetful of his newer and minor surprise when the housekeeper returns accompanied by her trooper son mr. George approaches softly to the bedside makes his bow

squares his chest and stands with his face flushed very heartily ashamed of himself good heaven and it is really George Roundswell exclaim surlester do you remember me George the trooper needs to look at him and to separate this sound from that sound before he knows what he has said but doing this and being a little help by his mother he replies I must have a very bad memory indeed surlester if I fail to remember you when I look at you George Roundswell surlester observes with difficulty I see something of a boy at Chesney World I remember well very well he looks at the trooper until tears come into his eyes and then he looks at the sleet and snow again I ask your pardon surlester says the trooper

but would you accept of my arms to raise you up you would lie easier surlester if you would allow me to move you if you please George Roundswell if you will be so good the trooper takes him in his arms like a child lightly raises him and turns him with his face more towards the window thank you you have your mother's gentleness return surlester and your own strength thank you he signs to him with his hand not to go away George quietly remains at the bedside waiting to be spoken to why did you wish for secrecy it takes surlester some time to ask this truly I am not much to boast of surlester and I I should still surlester if you was not so indisposed which I hope you will not be long I should still hope for the favor of being allowed to remain unknown in general that

involves explanations not very hard to be guessed at not very well timed here and not very credible to myself however opinions made differ on a variety of subjects I should think it would be universally agreed surlester that I am not much to boast of you have been a soldier observed surlester and a faithful one George makes his military bow as far as that goes surlester I have done my duty under discipline and it was the least I could do you find me says surlester whose eyes are much attracted towards him far from well George round so well I am very sorry both to hear it and to see it surlester I am sure you are no in addition to my older malady I have had a sudden and bad attack something that didn't's making endeavour an endeavour to pass one hand down one

side and confuses touching his lips George with a look of ascent and sympathy makes another bow the different times when they were both young men the trooper much the younger of the two and looked at one another down at Chesney wall arise before them both and soften both surlester evidently with a great determination to say in his own manner something that is on his mind before relapsing into silence tries to raise himself among his pillows a little more George observed of the action takes him in his arms again and places him as he desires to be thank you George you are another self to me you have often carried my spare gun at Chesney wall George you are familiar to me in these strange circumstances very familiar he has put surlester's sounder arm over his shoulder in lifting him up and surlester is slow in drawing

it away again as he says these words I was about to add he presently goes on I was about to add respecting this attack that it was unfortunately simultaneous with a slight misunderstanding between my lady and myself I do not mean that there was any difference between us for there has been none but that there was a misunderstanding of certain circumstances important only to ourselves which deprives me for a little while of my lady's society she has found it necessary to make a journey I trust will shortly return volomnia tolerate a cure from 2311 racing another checkered flag for the books time to celebrate with chamba jump in at chamba casino dot com let's chamba no purchase necessary btw group boy were prohibited by law cc and c 21 plus sponsored by chamba casino do I make myself intelligible the words are not quite under my command in the manner of pronouncing them

volomnia understands him perfectly and in truth he delivers himself with far greater plainness than could have been supposed possible a minute ago the effort by which he does so is written in the anxious and laboring expression of his face nothing but the strength of his purpose enables him to make it therefore volomnia I desire to say in your presence and in the presence of my old retainer and friend Mrs. Roundswell whose truth and fidelity no one can question and in the presence of her son George who comes back like a familiar recollection of my youth in the home of my ancestors at Chesney world in case I should relapse in case I should not recover in case I should lose both my speech and the power of writing though I hope for better things the old housekeeper weeping silently volomnia in the greatest agitation with the freshest bloom on her cheeks the

trooper with his arms folded and his head a little bent respectfully attentive therefore I desire to say and to call you all to witness beginning volomnia with yourself most solemnly that I am on unaltered terms with lady deadlock that I assert no cause whatever of complaint against her that I have ever had the strongest affection for her and that I retain it undiminished say this to herself and to everyone if you ever say less than this you will be guilty of deliberate falsehood to me volomnia tremblingly protests that she will observe his injunctions to the letter my lady is too high in position too handsome too accomplished too superior in most respects to the best of those by whom she is surrounded not to have her enemies and producers I dare say

let it be known to them as I make it known to you that being of sound mind memory and understanding I revoke no disposition I have made in her favor I abridged nothing I have ever bestowed upon her I am on unaltered terms with her and I recall having the full power to do it if I were so disposed as you see no act I have done for her advantage and happiness his formal array of words might have at any other time as it has often had something ludicrous in it but at this time it is serious and affecting his noble earnestness his fidelity his gallant shielding of her his generous conquest of his own wrong and his own pride for her sake are simply honorable, manly and true nothing less worthy can be seen through the luster of such qualities in the communist mechanic nothing less worthy can be seen in the best born gentleman in such a light

both aspire alike both rise alike both children of the dust shine equally overpowered by his exertions he lays his head back on his pillows and closes his eyes for not more than a minute when he again resumes his watching of the weather and his attention to the muffled sounds in the rendering of those little services and in the manner of their acceptance the trooper has become installed as necessary to him nothing has been said but it is quite understood he falls a step or two backward to be out of sight and mounts guard a little behind his mother's chair the net day is now beginning to decline the mist and the sleet into which the snow has all resolved itself are darker and the blaze begins to tell more vividly upon the room walls and furniture the gloom augments the bright gas springs up in the streets and the pertenacious

oil lamps which yet hold their ground there with their source of life half frozen and half thought twinkle gaspingly like fiery fish out of water as they are the world which has been rumbling over the straw and pulling at the bed to inquire begins to go home begins to dress to dine to discuss its dear friend with all the last new modes as already mentioned now does Sir Leicester become worse restless uneasy and in great pain volumna lights a candle with a predestined aptitude for doing something objectionable is bitten to put it out again for it is not yet dark enough yet it is very dark too as dark as it will be all night by and by she tries again no put it out it is not dark enough yet his old housekeeper is the first to understand that he is striving to uphold the fiction with himself that it is not growing

late George she whispers softly when volumna has gone down to dinner Sir Leicester don't like the thought of shutting out my lady for another night go away a little while my dear I'll speak to him the trooper retires and Mrs. Brownswell takes her chair at the bedside Sir Leicester that's Mrs. Brownswell surely yes Sir Leicester I was afraid you had left me his hand is lying close beside her she kisses it it's the dull one says Sir Leicester but I feel that Mrs. Brownswell it is too dark to see him she thinks however that he puts his other hand before his eyes where's your son George he's not gone I want him here I want only you and him I would rather have no one else tonight he hoped he might be of some use and he's not gone Sir Leicester I thank him dear Sir Leicester my honored master she softly whispers I must for your

own good and my duty take the freedom of begging and praying that you will not lie here in the lone darkness watching and waiting and dragging through the time let me draw the curtains in light the candles and make things more comfortable about you the church clocks will strike the hours just the same Sir Leicester and the night will pass away just the same my lady will come back just the same I know it Mrs. Brownswell but I am weak and he has been so long gone not so very long Sir Leicester not 24 hours yet but that is a long time oh it is a long time he says it with a groan that rings her heart she knows that this is not a period for bringing the rough light upon him she thinks his tears too sacred to be seen even by her therefore she sits in the darkness for a while without a word then gently begins to move about now stirring the fire now standing at the

dark window looking out finally he tells her with recovered self command as you say Mrs. Brownswell it is no worse for being confessed it is getting late and they are not come like the room when it is lighted and the weather shut out it is only left to him to listen but they find that however dejected and ill he is he brightens when a quiet pretence is made of looking at the fires in her rooms and being sure that everything is ready to receive her poor pretence as it is these allusions to her being expected keep up hope within him midnight comes and with it the same blank the carriages in the streets are few and other late sounds in that neighborhood there are none unless a man so very nomatically drunk as to stray into the frigid zone goes brawling and bellowing along

the pavement upon this wintry night it is so still that listening to the intense silence is like looking at intense darkness if any distance sound be audible in this case it departs through the gloom like a feeble light in that and all is heavier than before the corporation of servants are dismissed to bed not unwilling to go for they were up all last night and only Mrs. Brownswell and George keep watching Sir Leicester's room as the night lags totally on or rather when it seems to stop all together at between two and three o'clock they find a restless craving on him to know more about the weather now he cannot see it hence George patrolling regularly every half hour to the room so carefully looked after extends his march to the hall door looks about him and brings back the best report he can make of the worst of nights the sleet still falling and even the stone

footways lying ankle deep in icy sludge the lumbna in her room upper retired landing on the staircase the second turning past the end of the carving and gilding a cousinly room containing a fearful abortion of a portrait of Sir Leicester banished for its crimes and commanding in the day a solemn yard planted with dried up shrubs like anti-deluvian specimens of black tea is a prey to horrors of many kinds bubble wall is here from 23 11 racing you know it's slower than a pace car waiting at the car wash that's when I fire up chumba casino it turns those slow minutes in the fast fun with new games every week you'll never get bored next time you're stuck in the slow lane speed up with chumba play now at chumba casino dot com let's chumba sponsored by chumba casino no purchase necessary vgw group void were prohibited by law 21 plus terms and conditions apply

not last nor lease among them possibly is a horror of what may befall her little income in the event as she expresses it of anything happening to Sir Leicester anything in this sense meaning one thing only and that the last thing that can happen to the consciousness of any baronet in the known world and effective these horrors is that volumnia finds that she cannot go to bed in her own room or sit by the fire in her own room but must come forth with her fair head tied up in a profusion of shawl and her fair form enrobed in drapery and parade the mansion like a ghost particularly haunting the rooms warm and luxurious prepared for one who still does not return solitude under such circumstances being not to be thought of volumnia is attended by her maid who impressed from her own bed for that purpose extremely cold very sleepy and generally

an injured maid as condemned by circumstances that take office with a cousin when she had resolved to be made to nothing less than 10,000 a year has not a sweet expression of countenance the periodical visits of the trooper to these rooms however in the course of his patrolling is an assurance of protection and company both to mistress and maid which renders them very acceptable in the small hours of the night whenever he is heard advancing they both make some little decorative preparation to receive him at other times they divide their watches into short scraps of oblivion and dialogues not wholly free from a surby as to whether misdeadlock sitting with her feet upon the fender was or was not falling into the fire when rescued to her great displeasure by her guardian genius the maid how is Celeste now mr. George inquires volumnia adjusting

the cow over her head why Celeste is much the same miss he is very low and ill and he even wanders a little sometimes has he asked for me inquires volumnia tenderly why no I can't say he has missed not within my hearing that is to say this is a truly sad time mr. George it is indeed miss hadn't you better go to bed you had a deal better go to bed miss deadlock quote the maid sharply but volumnia answers no no she may be asked for she may be wanted at a moment's notice she never should should forgive herself if anything was to happen and she was not on the spot she declines to enter on the question mooted by the maid how the spot comes to be there and not in her room which is nearer to Sir Lester's but staunchly declares that on the spot she will remain volumnia further makes a merit of not having closed an eye as if she had 20 or 30

though it is hard to reconcile this statement with her having most indisputably opened two within five minutes but when it comes to four o'clock and still on the same blank volumnia's constancy begins to fail her or rather it begins to strengthen for she now considers that it is her duty to be ready for the morrow when much may be expected of her that in fact how so ever anxious to remain upon the spot it may be required of her as an act of self devotion to desert the spot so when the trooper reappears with his hadn't you better go to bed miss or when the maid protests more sharply than before you had a deal better go to bed miss deadlock she meekly rises and says do with me what you think best mr. George undoubtedly thinks it best to escort her on his arm to the door of her cousinly chamber and the maid as undoubtedly thinks it best to hustle her into bed

with mighty little ceremony accordingly these steps are taken and now the trooper in his rounds has the house to himself there is no improvement in the weather from the portico from the eaves from the parapet from every ledge and post and pillar drips the fad snow it has crept as if for shelter into the lintels of the great door under it into the corners of the windows into every chink and crevice of retreat and their wastes and dies it is falling still upon the roof upon the skylight even through the skylight and drip drip drip with the regularity of the ghost's walk on the stone floor below the trooper his old recollections awakened by the solitary grandeur of a great house no novelty to him once at Chesney world goes up the stairs and through the chief rooms holding up his light at arm's length thinking of his varied fortunes within the

last few weeks and of his rustic boyhead and of the two periods of his life so strangely brought together across the wide intermediate space thinking of the murdered man whose images fresh in his mind thinking of the lady who has disappeared from these very rooms and the token of whose recent presence are all here thinking of the master of the house upstairs and of the foreboding who will tell him he looks here and looks there and reflects how he might see something now which it would tax his boldness to walk up to lay his hand upon and prove to be a fancy but it is all blank blank as the darkness above and below while he goes up the great staircase again blank as the oppressive silence all is still in readiness George Woundswell quite orderly

and right to lester no word of any kind the trooper shakes his head no letter that can possibly have been overlooked but he knows there is no such hope as that and lays his head down without looking for an answer very familiar to him as he set himself some hours ago George Woundswell lifts him into easier positions through the long remainder of the blank wintry night and equally familiar with his unexpressed wish extinguishes the light and undraws the curtains at the first late break of day the day comes like a phantom cold colorless and vague it sends a warning streak before it of a death like you as if it cried out look what i am bringing you who watch there who will tell him end of chapter 58 hey it's bubble walless from 2311 racing you know what feels like forever

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