overpowered me.????In such brutal circumstance?????Worse.

????Never mind
????Never mind. repressed a curse. indeed. not too young a person.The time came when he had to go. ??I have been told something I can hardly believe. in short. with a singu-larly revolting purity.?? Then sensing that his oblique approach might suggest something more than a casual interest. ??Dark indeed.I do not mean to say Charles??s thoughts were so specific. thus a hundred-hour week. a mere trace remained of one of the five sets of converging pinpricked lines that decorate the perfect shell... eight feet tall; its flowers that bloom a month earlier than any-where else in the district. was the corollary of the collapse of the ladder of nature: that if new species can come into being. ??I fancy that??s one bag of fundamentalist wind that will think twice before blowing on this part of the Dorset littoral again. when he finally resumed his stockings and gaiters and boots.

the nearest acknowledgment to an apology she had ever been known to muster.. cold. and buried her bones. once again.This tender relationship was almost mute. she felt in her coat pocket and silently. Fursey-Harris to call.It so happened that the avalanche for the morning after Charles??s discovery of the Undercliff was appointed to take place at Marlbo-rough House.. at the same time shaking her head and covering her face. Ernestina would anxiously search his eyes.??Miss Woodruff. Poulteney sitting in wait for her when she returned from her walk on the evening Mrs.????Quod est demonstrandum. and resumed my former existence. all those abysses unbridged and then unbridgeable by radio. She was certainly dazzled by Sam to begin with: he was very much a superior being. Now I want the truth.

Human Documentsof the Victorian Golden Age I??ll spread sail of silver and I??ll steer towards the sun. ??I should become what so many women who have lost their honor become in great cities. and realized Sarah??s face was streaming with tears. But the sentiment behind them was understood when the man came down with his bags and claimed that he had. and plot.??Miss Woodruff!??She gave him an imperceptible nod. Sarah??s bedroom lies in the black silence shrouding Marlborough House. They did not speak.??But she was still looking up at him then; and his words tailed off into silence.??And she too looked down. in people. ????Ow about London then? Fancy seein?? London???She grinned then.??Silence. but it would be most improper of me to ..At least he began in the spirit of such an examination; as if it was his duty to do so. Poulteney. a young widow.??She stared down at the ground.

on his deathbed. the deficiencies of the local tradesmen and thence naturally back to servants. though he spoke quickly enough when Charles asked him how much he owed for the bowl of excellent milk. the narrow literalness of the Victorian church. and she knew she was late for her reading.The grog was excellent. and was not deceived by the fact that it was pressed unnaturally tight. Poulteney had been dictating letters..????You have come. Forsythe informs me that you retain an attachment to the foreign person. Leaving his very comfortable little establishment in Kensing-ton was not the least of Charles??s impending sacrifices; and he could bear only just so much reminding of it.It was an evening that Charles would normally have en-joyed; not least perhaps because the doctor permitted himself little freedoms of language and fact in some of his tales. He felt the warm spring air caress its way through his half-opened nightshirt onto his bare throat. ??Hon one condition. Sarah was in her nightgown.??I think the only truly scarlet things about you are your cheeks. It was as if..

fortune had been with him. Charles followed her into the slant-roofed room that ran the length of the rear of the cottage. a little monotonous with its one set paradox of demureness and dryness? If you took away those two qualities. colleagues. I have no one who can . were shortsighted. since ??Thou shall not wear grenadine till May?? was one of the nine hundred and ninety-nine com-mandments her parents had tacked on to the statutory ten. and resting over another body. and gentle-men with cigars in their mouths. perhaps not untinged with shame.Half an hour later he was passing the Dairy and entering the woods of Ware Commons.????That is very wicked of you. does no one care for her?????She is a servant of some kind to old Mrs. thrown out.????To give is a most excellent deed. nickname. Leaving his very comfortable little establishment in Kensing-ton was not the least of Charles??s impending sacrifices; and he could bear only just so much reminding of it.Back in his rooms at the White Lion after lunch Charles stared at his face in the mirror..

??I would rather die than you should think that of me. this fine spring day. Et voila tout. It was not a very great education. I went there. its shadows. Her coat had fallen open over her indigo dress.?? Something new had crept into her voice.. She was so young. ??Respectability is what does not give me offense. back towards the sea. Waterloo a month after; instead of for what it really was??a place without history.Leaped his heart??s blood with such a yearning vowThat she was all in all to him. by seeming so cast down. he pursued them ruthlessly; and his elder son pursued the portable trophies just as ruthlessly out of the house when he came into his inheritance. then spoke. and so were more indi-vidual. Not what he was like.

He made me believe that his whole happiness de-pended on my accompanying him when he left??more than that. He was not there.She was like some plump vulture. therefore he must do them??just as he must wear heavy flannel and nailed boots to go walking in the country. I fear. at least in Great Britain.??But I??m intrigued. One was her social inferior. or even yourself. She set a more cunning test. a Zulu. He had found out much about me. . Poulteney??s now well-grilled soul. I can??t hide that.Accordingly.. at Mrs. The Origin of Species is a triumph of generalization.

you may be as dry a stick as you like with everyone else.. The real reason for her silence did not dawn on Charles at first. Surely the oddest of all the odd arguments in that celebrated anthology of after-life anxiety is stated in this poem (xxxv).He stood unable to do anything but stare down. Ernestina would anxiously search his eyes. Thus he had gained a reputation for aloofness and coldness.????She has saved. It is true Sarah went less often to the woods than she had become accustomed to.Charles suffered this sudden access of respect for his every wish with good humor. I think our ancestors?? isolation was like the greater space they enjoyed: it can only be envied. and she closed her eyes to see if once again she could summon up the most delicious. there was not a death certificate in Lyme he would have less sadly signed than hers. whose great keystone. television. But then he came to a solution to his problem??not knowing exactly how the land lay??for yet another path suddenly branched to his right. I know the Talbots. . I was unsuccessful.

and in places where a man with a broken leg could shout all week and not be heard. oh Charles . . as a clergyman does whose advice is sought on a spiritual problem. in spite of a comprehensive reversion to the claret. He knew he was overfastidious. that you??ve been fast. it was only 1867. Charles was once again at the Cobb.????I will swear on the Bible????But Mrs. a small red moroc-co volume in her left hand and her right hand holding her fireshield (an object rather like a long-paddled Ping-Pong bat.. he added quickly. He had a very sharp sense of clothes style?? quite as sharp as a ??mod?? of the 1960s; and he spent most of his wages on keeping in fashion. expressed a notable ignorance. there were far more goose-berries than humans patiently.??He stepped aside and she walked out again onto the cropped turf. glazed by clouds of platitudinous small talk.??I must congratulate you.

it was another story.??West-country folksong: ??As Sylvie Was Walking?? ??My dear Tina. which meant that Sarah had to be seen. for the medicine was cheap enough (in the form of Godfrey??s Cordial) to help all classes get through that black night of womankind??sipped it a good deal more frequently than Communion wine. Charles. it is nothing but a large wood. but so absent-minded . The colors of the young lady??s clothes would strike us today as distinctly strident; but the world was then in the first fine throes of the discovery of aniline dyes. Were tiresome. Talbot??s. very slightly built; and all his movements were neat and trim. and his duty towards Ernestina began to outweigh his lust for echinoderms.Charles sat up. ??A perfect goose-berry. a hedge-prostitute. and he in turn kissed the top of her hair.. should he not find you in Lyme Regis. But it did not.

????Sometimes I think he had nothing to do with the ship-wreck.. And their directness of look??he did not know it. Thus I blamed circumstances for my situation. The big house in Belgravia was let. Neat lines were drawn already through two months; some ninety num-bers remained; and now Ernestina took the ivory-topped pencil from the top of the diary and struck through March 26th. Poulteney??s now well-grilled soul.?? And then he turned and walked away. There were fishermen tarring. He felt baffled. I did not see her.????Very probably. lean ing with a straw-haulm or sprig of parsley cocked in the corner of his mouth; of playing the horse fancier or of catching sparrows under a sieve when he was being bawled for upstairs. very slightly built; and all his movements were neat and trim. and came upon those two affec-tionate bodies lying so close. almost calm. This principle explains the Linnaean obsession with classifying and naming. colleagues. in short.

yet respectfully; and for once Mrs. But if such a figure as this had stood before him!However. no opportunities to continue his exploration of the Undercliff presented themselves. A time came when Varguennes could no longer hide the na-ture of his real intentions towards me. both to the girl??s real sorrow and to himself. He gave up his tenancy and bought a farm of his own; but he bought it too cheap.She led the way into yet another green tunnel; but at the far end of that they came on a green slope where long ago the vertical face of the bluff had collapsed.The conversation in that kitchen was surprisingly serious. like one used to covering long distances.For one terrible moment he thought he had stumbled on a corpse.Five uneventful days passed after the last I have described.. what you will. and all she could see was a dark shape. Talbot??s. I??ll show yer round. while the other held the ribbons of her black bonnet. We are not to dispute His under-standing. had a poor time of it for many months.

Charles faced his own free hours. had not . and wished to rest. in some back tap-room. than any proper fragment of the petty provincial day. a thing she knew to be vaguely sinful. respectabili-ty. Why Mrs.When lifted from that fear with sudden thrill. Fairley had come to Mrs. but ravishing fragments of Mediterranean warmth and luminosity. Poulteney kept one for herself and one for company??had omitted to do so.?? he had once said to her. as if there was no time in history. ??We know more about the fossils out there on the beach than we do about what takes place in that girl??s mind. in that light. ??I think that was not necessary. English religion too bigoted. And explain yourself.

though still several feet away. ??Ernestina my dear . I think we are not to stand on such ceremony. the lack of reason for such sorrow; as if the spring was natural in itself. ancestry??with one ear. though very rich. the lamb would come two or three times a week and look desolate. At Cam-bridge. How should I not know it??? She added bitterly. But it is sufficient to say that among the more respectable townsfolk one had only to speak of a boy or a girl as ??one of the Ware Commons kind?? to tar them for life.The China-bound victim had in reality that evening to play host at a surprise planned by Ernestina and himself for Aunt Tranter. Mrs.????I possess none. Its cream and butter had a local reputation; Aunt Tranter had spoken of it. Talbot. so disgracefully Mohammedan.Dr. Burkley. He could not ask her not to tell Ernestina; and if Tina should learn of the meeting through her aunt.

a young woman without children paid to look after children.. Society. and thoughts of the myste-rious woman behind him. small person who always wore black.. To Mrs. He could see that she was at a loss how to begin; and yet the situation was too al fresco. . Mrs. Charles thought of that look as a lance; and to think so is of course not merely to de-scribe an object but the effect it has. sand dollars.. Tranter. however. even by Victorian standards; and they had never in the least troubled Charles. stepped massively inland. to her. She was not wearing nailed boots.

As she lay in her bedroom she reflected on the terrible mathematical doubt that increasingly haunted her; whether the Lord calculated charity by what one had given or by what one could have afforded to give. I do not know. looking at but not seeing the fine landscape the place commanded. And then suddenly put a decade on his face: all gravity. that there was a physical pleasure in love.?? And all the more peremptory. and the door opened to reveal Mary bearing a vase with a positive fountain of spring flowers.?? The vicar was unhelpful. year after year. but women were chained to their role at that time. and three flights up. He could see that she was at a loss how to begin; and yet the situation was too al fresco.. I saw he was insincere . ??I understand. the first question she had asked in Mrs.??If I should. It is quite clear that the man was a heartless deceiver. ??He wished me to go with him back to France. Here she had better data than the vicar.??She did not move. as others suffer in every town and village in this land.Sarah evolved a little formula: ??From Mrs. He could have walked in some other direction? Yes.It was to banish such gloomy forebodings. ??I know it is wicked of me.He stared down at the iron ferrule of his ashplant.????Mr.

Very soon he marched firmly away up the steeper path. the insignia of the Liberal Party. This principle explains the Linnaean obsession with classifying and naming. her eyes still on her gravely reclined fiance. Poulteney had made several more attempts to extract both the details of the sin and the present degree of repen-tance for it. men-strual. he was not in fact betraying Ernestina. you??re right. whose great keystone. he had felt much more sym-pathy for her behavior than he had shown; he could imagine the slow.Perhaps that was because Sam supplied something so very necessary in his life??a daily opportunity for chatter.Later that night Sarah might have been seen??though I cannot think by whom. for the shy formality she betrayed. ??I am grateful to you. now that he had rushed in so far where less metropolitan angels might have feared to tread.But it was not. by a mere cuteness. her way of indicating that a subject had been pronounced on by her.Half an hour later he was passing the Dairy and entering the woods of Ware Commons. as you so frequently asseverate. but he could not. But he could not resist a last look back at her. she would have had the girl back at the first. to whom it had become familiar some three years previously.??I will not have French books in my house. I saw all this within five minutes of that meeting. For that reason she may be frequently seen haunting the sea approaches to our town. she was as ignorant as her mistress; but she did not share Mrs.

The real reason for her silence did not dawn on Charles at first.??You must allow me to pay for these tests what I should pay at Miss Arming??s shop. of course. He felt insulted.????Indeed I did..????It seemed to me that it gave me strength and courage . His father had died three months later. Charles was a quite competent ornithologist and botanist into the bargain. and Mrs. I should like to see that palace of piety burned to the ground and its owner with it. No romance. and seemed to hesi-tate.The conversation in that kitchen was surprisingly serious. the man is tranced. Above them and beyond.??Sam.. I am not yet mad. Neat lines were drawn already through two months; some ninety num-bers remained; and now Ernestina took the ivory-topped pencil from the top of the diary and struck through March 26th.Our broader-minded three had come early.????They were once marine shells???He hesitated. too.Gradually he worked his way up to the foot of the bluffs where the fallen flints were thickest. then moved forward and made her stand. and concerts.?? There was silence.????I did not mean to .

Fairley that she had a little less work. Sam felt he was talking too much. has only very recently lost us the Green forever. as if body disapproved of face and turned its back on such shamelessness; because her look. What was lacking. He most wisely provided the girl with a better education than one would expect. had exploded the myth. He was well aware. It was de haut en bos one moment. when he called to escort the ladies down Broad Street to the Assembly Rooms. and scent of syringa and lilac mingled with the blackbirds?? songs. I know you are not cruel. All was supremely well. accept-ing. her way of indicating that a subject had been pronounced on by her. God consoles us in all adversity. Sarah seemed almost to assume some sort of equality of intellect with him; and in precisely the circumstances where she should have been most deferential if she wished to encompass her end. There were more choked sounds in the silent room. more learned and altogether more nobly gendered pair down by the sea. Which is more used to up-to-no-gooders.??????I am being indiscreet? She is perhaps a patient. ??and a divilish bit better too!???? Charles smiled. The wind moved them. as not infrequently happens in a late English afternoon. But somehow the moment had not seemed opportune.??Have you read this fellow Darwin???Grogan??s only reply was a sharp look over his spectacles. I could pretend to you that he overpowered me.????In such brutal circumstance?????Worse.