Woodruff!??But she took no notice. she would only tease him??but it was a poor ??at best.????But presumably in such a case you would.

As a punishment to himself for his dilatoriness he took the path much too fast
. As a punishment to himself for his dilatoriness he took the path much too fast. He had to act; and strode towards where the side path came up through the brambles. abandoned woman. rounded arm thrown out. and therefore am sad. self-surprised face . did you not? .??Good heavens. Very slowly he let the downhanging strands of ivy fall back into position. I will come here each afternoon. Twelve ewes and rather more lambs stood nervously in mid-street. .??I wish that more mistresses were as fond. poor girl; and had it not been for Sarah. and then up to the levels where the flint strata emerged. . 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. Poulteney allowed herself to savor for a few earnest. It had begun. but cannot end. as faint as the fragrance of February violets?? that denied.

an added sweet. Poulteney should have been an inhabitant of the Victorian valley of the dolls we need not inquire. he was almost three different men; and there will be others of him before we are finished. glanced desperately round. Charles noted the darns in the heels of her black stockings. Poulteney went to see her. ??You shall not have a drop of tea until you have accounted for every moment of your day. She wants to be a sacrificial victim. with the grim sense of duty of a bulldog about to sink its teeth into a burglar??s ankles. no education.????Interest yourself further in my circumstances.??In twenty-four hours. whose purpose is to prevent the heat from the crackling coals daring to redden that chastely pale complex-ion). Poulteney. whose remote tip touched that strange English Gibraltar. the jet engine. a respectable place. Twelve ewes and rather more lambs stood nervously in mid-street. friends.????That does not excuse her in my eyes. in the fullest sense of that word. then that was life.

?? Sarah looked down before the accusing eyes. let open the floodgates to something far more serious than the undermining of the Biblical account of the origins of man; its deepest implications lay in the direction of determinism and behaviorism. as well as the state. we shall never be yours.. What has kept me alive is my shame.However. There slipped into his mind an image: a deliciously cool bowl of milk. or to pull the bell when it was decided that the ladies would like hot chocolate. she might even have closed the door quietly enough not to wake the sleepers.. when Sam drew the curtains.????Would ??ee???He winked then. I do not mean that I knew what I did. We also know that a genuinely created world must be independent of its creator; a planned world (a world that fully reveals its planning) is a dead world. Tranter would wish to say herself.. That his father was a rich lawyer who had married again and cheated the children of his first family of their inheritance. A distant lantern winked faintly on the black waters out towards Portland Bill. By then he had declared his attachment to me. Crom-lechs and menhirs. He walked for a mile or more.

that house above Elm House. The chalk walls behind this little natural balcony made it into a sun trap. let me add). Mrs. ??There was talk of marriage.????How could you??when you know Papa??s views!????I was most respectful. By himself he might have hesitated. But you must remember that natural history had not then the pejorative sense it has today of a flight from reality?? and only too often into sentiment. by far the prettiest. as the poet says. such a child. that is. Grogan??s tongue flickered wickedly out. ??I wish you hadn??t told me the sordid facts. Indeed.?? which would have betrayed that he was playing the doctor as well as the gentleman: ??.??They walked on a few paces before he answered; for a moment Charles seemed inclined to be serious. ??But I fear it is my duty to tell you. Very few Victorians chose to question the virtues of such cryptic coloration; but there was that in Sarah??s look which did. and far more poetry. only a year before.It was opened by a small barrel of a woman.

So did the rest of Lyme. He loved Ernestina.]He returned from his six months in the City of Sin in 1856. light.When the front door closed. to tell them of his meeting?? though of course on the strict understanding that they must speak to no one about Sarah??s wanderings over Ware Com-mons. at times. force the pace. Smithson. Strangers were strange. such as that monstrous kiss she had once seen planted on Mary??s cheeks. Here there came seductive rock pools. His leg had been crushed at the first impact.Yet this time he did not even debate whether he should tell Ernestina; he knew he would not. But it is indifferent to the esteem of such as Mrs. Smithson?? an agreeable change from the dull crop of partners hitherto presented for her examination that season. tantalizing agonies of her life as a governess; how easily she might have fallen into the clutches of such a plausible villain as Varguennes; but this talk of freedom beyond the pale.??I confess your worthy father and I had a small philosoph-ical disagreement. I shall not do so again. Perhaps it was fortunate that the room was damp and that the monster disseminated so much smoke and grease. But this is what Hartmann says. a guilt.

??And now Grogan. tender. then that was life. Their folly in that direction was no more than a symptom of their seriousness in a much more important one. but a little lacking in her usual vivacity. not knowledge of the latest London taste.????I bet you ??ave. in a not unpleasant bittersweet sort of way.. as the names of the fields of the Dairy. for your offer of assistance. But they comprehended mysterious elements; a sentiment of obscure defeat not in any way related to the incident on the Cobb.The morning. the narrow literalness of the Victorian church. Tranter??s com-mentary??places of residence. mocking those two static bipeds far below.Charles and his ladies were in the doomed building for a concert. could be attached.??Mrs. for pride. he too heard men??s low voices. a fresh-run salmon boiled.

. but this she took to be the result of feminine vanity and feminine weak-ness. has pronounced: ??The poem is a pure. .But one day. pray? Because he could hardly enter any London drawing room without finding abundant examples of the objects of his interest. then he walked round to the gorse. revealing the cruel heads of her persecutors above; but worst of all was the shrieking horror on the doomed creature??s pallid face and the way her cloak rippled upwards. I was told where his room was and expected to go up to it. neat civilization behind his back. The place provoked whist.One of the great characters of Lyme. was a highly practical consideration.????We are not in London now. It was certainly this which made him walk that afternoon to the place. Her envy kept her there; and also her dark delight in the domestic catastrophes that descended so frequently on the house. it was a timid look. Mrs. was his intended marriage with the Church. to the eyes. my goodness. Poulteney??s now well-grilled soul.

on the outskirts of Lyme. His discov-eries blew like a great wind. a breed for whom Mrs. She is a Charmouth girl. a tenmonth ago. and beyond them deep green drifts of bluebell leaves. poor man. had not . come on??what I really mean is that the idea crossed my mind as I wrote that it might be more clever to have him stop and drink milk .??My good woman. and made his way back to where he had left his rucksack. was left well provided for. only to have two days?? rain on a holiday to change districts. Charles could perhaps have trusted himself with fewer doubts to Mrs.??You are quite right. People have been lost in it for hours.. Poulteney had been dictating letters. I felt I had to see you.. Yellow ribbons and daffodils.??What if this .

when the fall is from such a height.??His master gave him a dry look. It was this that had provoked that smoth-ered laugh; and the slammed door. make me your confidant. With ??er complimums.. Once or twice she had done the incredible. sensing that a quarrel must be taking place. but sat with her face turned away. ??I meant to tell you.????Yes. The girl is too easily led. springing from an occasion. It had not. Now bring me some barley water.Back in his rooms at the White Lion after lunch Charles stared at his face in the mirror.. The madness was in the empty sea. and that the heels of her shoes were mudstained. Mrs. ??It was noisy in the common rooms.????What you are suggesting is??I must insist that Mrs.

Nothing less than dancing naked on the altar of the parish church would have seemed adequate. onto the path through the woods. Let me finish. But I have not done good deeds. cheap travel and the rest. sir. she stopped; then continued in a lower tone. as not infrequently happens in a late English afternoon. He avoided her eyes; sought. Mr. Laboring behind her. handsome. I cannot say what she might have been in our age; in a much earlier one I believe she would have been either a saint or an emperor??s mistress. to allow her to leave her post. Poulteney to know you come here. occupied in an implausible adjustment to her bonnet.?? She paused. The culprit was summoned.Thus she had evolved a kind of private commandment?? those inaudible words were simply ??I must not????whenever the physical female implications of her body. There was nothing fortuitous or spontaneous about these visits. ??His wound was most dreadful. and her future destination.

.??I did not mean to imply??????Have you read it?????Yes. She was not standing at her window as part of her mysterious vigil for Satan??s sails; but as a preliminary to jumping from it.I cannot imagine what Bosch-like picture of Ware Com-mons Mrs.??Their eyes met and held for a long moment.?? But Sam had had enough. Charles noted the darns in the heels of her black stockings. which was considered by Mrs. He had no time for books. terms synony-mous in her experience with speaking before being spoken to and anticipating her demands. Fairley??s uninspired stumbling that the voice first satisfied Mrs. because the girl had pert little Dorset peasant eyes and a provokingly pink complexion. he had decided. Her face was admirably suited to the latter sentiment; it had eyes that were not Tennyson??s ??homes of silent prayer?? at all. a little regal with this strange suppli-cant at his feet; and not overmuch inclined to help her. One phrase in particular angered Mrs. giving the faintest suspicion of a curtsy before she took the reginal hand. took her as an opportunity to break in upon this sepulchral Introit.But we started off on the Victorian home evening. one morning only a few weeks after Miss Sarah had taken up her duties. unlocked a drawer and there pulled out her diary. The veil before my eyes dropped.

Sam. This woman went into deep mourning. but of not seeing that it had taken place.. I am told they say you are looking for Satan??s sails. down the aisle of hothouse plants to the door back to the drawing room. so dull. a certainty of the innocence of this creature. He began to frequent the conversazioni of the Geological Society. There he was looked after by a manservant.. He was a man without scruples. It is better so. to trace to any source in his past; but it unsettled him and haunted him. The idea brought pleasures. since he was speaking of the girl he had raised his hat to on the previous afternoon. but Ernestina turned to present Charles.??She spoke in a rapid. And Captain Talbot was called away on duty soon after he first came.Later that night Sarah might have been seen??though I cannot think by whom. This path she had invariably taken. Doctor Grogan was not financially very dependent on Mrs.

of a man born in Nazareth. and bullfinches whistled quietly over his head; newly arrived chiffchaffs and willow warblers sang in every bush and treetop. But general extinction was as absent a concept from his mind that day as the smallest cloud from the sky above him; and even though. Poulteney was to dine at Lady Cotton??s that evening; and the usual hour had been put forward to allow her to prepare for what was always in essence. She now asked a question; and the effect was remark-able.??She offered the flint seat beneath the little thorn tree.??A demang. free as a god. I am well aware how fond you are of her. when he called to escort the ladies down Broad Street to the Assembly Rooms. and which was in turn a factor of his intuition of her appalling loneliness.?? The arrangement had initially been that Miss Sarah should have one afternoon a week free. I un-derstand. and back to the fork. Forgive me. and therefore am sad.?? and again she was silent. Poulteney have ever allowed him into her presence otherwise???that he was now (like Disrae-li) a respectable member of the Church of England. who sat as implacably in her armchair as the Queen on her throne. or address the young woman in the street. adrift in the slow entire of Victorian time. Tranter??s called; but the bowl of milk shrieked .

At last she went on. between her mistress and her mistress??s niece. It was certainly not a beautiful face. and ended by making the best of them for the rest of the world as well. and returned to Mrs. and a tragic face. but so absent-minded . in my opinion. Now with Sarah there was none of all this. ??I am grateful to you. Charles??s face is like that of a man at a funeral. on principle. But he contained his bile by reminding her that she slept every afternoon; and on his own strict orders. He began to feel in a better humor. I have Mr. He was being shaved. But he had not gone two steps before she spoke. would have asked to go back to the dormitory up-stairs. with a forestalling abruptness. real than the one I have just broken. funerals and marriages; Mr.????What about???????Twas just the time o?? day.

very subtly but quite unmistakably. by a Town Council singleminded in its concern for the communal blad-der. to avoid a roughly applied brushful of lather.????And the commons?????Very hacceptable. ??Ah! happy they who in their grief or painYearn not for some familiar face in vain??CHARLES!?? The poem suddenly becomes a missile. no.?? Mrs. battledore all the next morning. Phillpotts that women did not feel carnal pleasure. I have searched my soul a thousand times since that evening.. never serious with him; without exactly saying so she gave him the impression that she liked him because he was fun?? but of course she knew he would never marry. as at the concert. I am afraid) and returning with pretty jokes about Cupid and hearts and Maid Marian. But at least concede the impossibility of your demand.. Poulteney??s secretary. This spy. because I request it. Darwinism. It was precisely then. but at last he found her in one of the farthest corners.

Poulteney a more than generous acknowledgment of her superior status vis-a-vis the maids?? and only then condoned by the need to disseminate tracts; but the vicar had advised it. but the custom itself lapsed in relation to the lapse in sexual mores. I must give him. A stunted thorn grew towards the back of its arena. poor man. Perhaps Ernestina??s puzzlement and distress were not far removed from those of Charles. sinking back gratefully into that masculine. But she had a basic solidity of character. But she lives there.??Once again they walked on. but the doctor raised a sharp finger. it is not right that I should suffer so much. consulted. for she is one of the more celebrated younger English film actresses. in fact. He could not ask her not to tell Ernestina; and if Tina should learn of the meeting through her aunt. He heard a hissed voice????Run for ??un. Though he conceded enough to sport to shoot partridge and pheasant when called upon to do so.????Would ??ee???He winked then. my knowledge of the spoken tongue is not good.????Never mind. their freedom as well.

pillboxes. It was not .For what had crossed her mind??a corner of her bed having chanced. floated in the luminous clearing behind Sarah??s dark figure. Mrs. Upstairs. her eyes still on her gravely reclined fiance. directly over her face. but the reverse: an indication of low rank. and made his way back to where he had left his rucksack. but why I did it. She snatched it away. a millennium away from . a fresh-run salmon boiled. however much of a latterday Mrs. since many a nineteenth-century lady??and less. After all. The singer required applause.?? He bowed and left the room. When Charles finally arrived in Broad Street.. with the permission and advice to proffer a blossom or two of his own to the young lady so hostile to soot.

But I think we may safely say that it had become the objective correlative of all that went on in her own subconscious. until that afternoon when she recklessly??as we can now realize?? emerged in full view of the two men. sir.??But if I believed that someone cared for me sufficiently to share. He moved. but it seemed unusually and unwelcomely artifi-cial. Fairley herself had stood her mistress so long was one of the local wonders. After some days he returned to France. there. obscure ones like Charles. moving westward. But I must point out that if you were in some way disabled I am the only person in Lyme who could lead your rescuers to you.?? At that very same moment. ??For the bootiful young lady hupstairs.That evening Charles found himself seated between Mrs. behind his square-rimmed spectacles. Of course Ernestina uttered her autocratic ??I must not?? just as soon as any such sinful speculation crossed her mind; but it was really Charles??s heart of which she was jealous. ??These are the very steps that Jane Austen made Louisa Musgrove fall down in Persua-sion. though with very different expres-sions. Most women of her period felt the same; so did most men; and it is no wonder that duty has become such a key concept in our understanding of the Victorian age??or for that mat-ter. ??I come to the event I must tell. Most women of her period felt the same; so did most men; and it is no wonder that duty has become such a key concept in our understanding of the Victorian age??or for that mat-ter.

Charles set out to catch up. at the vicar??s suggestion. most unseemly. was still faintly under the influence of Lavater??s Physiognomy. And that was her health. tinkering with crab and lobster pots. for the Cobb has changed very little since the year of which I write; though the town of Lyme has. There were so many things she must never understand: the richness of male life. He said finally he should wait one week..??And she has confided the real state of her mind to no one?????Her closest friend is certainly Mrs. and her future destination. and which hid her from the view of any but one who came. I am expected in Broad Street. like most men of his time.????She has saved. And you must allow me to finish what I was about to say. or so it was generally supposed. I shall devote all my time to the fossils and none to you. I knew her story.The lady of the title is a sprightly French lord??s sprightly wife who has a crippling accident out hunting and devotes the rest of her excessively somber life to good works??more useful ones than Lady Cotton??s. spoiled child.

??I stayed. . say. Poulteney saw herself as a pure Patmos in a raging ocean of popery. with an unpretentious irony. of course.That evening Charles found himself seated between Mrs. whose remote tip touched that strange English Gibraltar. as she pirouetted. who had had only Aunt Tranter to show her displeasure to. consulted. Fairley will give you your wages.??Your future wife is a better judge than you are of such matters. He kept at this level.??????Ow much would??er cost then???The forward fellow eyed his victim. which was wide??and once again did not correspond with current taste. sir. ??We know more about the fossils out there on the beach than we do about what takes place in that girl??s mind. we shall never be yours. ??These are the very steps that Jane Austen made Louisa Musgrove fall down in Persua-sion. Ernestina began to cry again; then dried her eyes. for he had noticed some-thing that had escaped almost everyone else in Lyme.

?? His own cheeks were now red as well. not knowledge of the latest London taste. Mary could not resist trying the green dress on one last time. I have no one who can . not the exception. and said??and omitted??as his ec-clesiastical colleague had advised. had he not been only too conventional? Instead of doing the most intelligent thing had he not done the most obvious?What then would have been the most intelligent thing? To have waited.??She looked up at him again then. her face half hidden by the blossoms.????Charles . did Ernestina. then he would be in very hot water indeed.??I. published between 1830 and 1833??and so coinciding very nicely with reform elsewhere?? had burled it back millions. At first meetings she could cast down her eyes very prettily. but did not turn. or rather the forbidden was about to engage in him.. friends. He retained her hand. ??I have decided to leave England.??He glanced sharply down.

he would speak to Sam. since he had a fine collection of all the wrong ones.?? He paused.The two lords of creation had passed back from the subject of Miss Woodruff and rather two-edged metaphors concerning mist to the less ambiguous field of paleontology. in the most urgent terms. He felt outwitted. She knew. now long eroded into the Ven. He hesitated a while; but the events that passed before his eyes as he stood at the bay window of his room were so few. as if able to see more and suffer more.She was in a pert and mischievous mood that evening as people came in; Charles had to listen to Mrs. and the vicar had been as frequent a visitor as the doctors who so repeatedly had to assure her that she was suffering from a trivial stomach upset and not the dreaded Oriental killer. A day came when I thought myself cruel as well. a litany learned by heart.??Thus ten minutes later Charles found himself comfortably ensconced in what Dr. ??His wound was most dreadful. with the grim sense of duty of a bulldog about to sink its teeth into a burglar??s ankles. Poulteney. ??I cannot find the words to thank you.??He is married!????Miss Woodruff!??But she took no notice. she would only tease him??but it was a poor ??at best.????But presumably in such a case you would.