worst of it was that it was all now deucedly difficult to explain to Ernestina. the closest spectator of a happy marriage. Poulteney. you??d do.

that Mrs
that Mrs. I shall be most happy . and that.?? He paused cun-ningly.[* I had better here. ??But I fear it is my duty to tell you. of falling short. in short. where some ship sailed towards Bridport. and as abruptly kneeled. have made Sarah vaguely responsible for being born as she was. ??And please tell no one you have seen me in this place.. 1867. half intended for his absentmindedness. but he abhorred the unspeakability of the hunters. He worked all the way round the rim of his bowler.??He is married!????Miss Woodruff!??But she took no notice. for incumbents of not notably fat livings do not argue with rich parishioners. Naples. Intelligent idlers always have. my dear fellow. and made his way back to where he had left his rucksack. Poulteney may have real-ized.. directly over her face. is often the least prejudiced judge. Never mind that not one in ten of the recipients could read them??indeed.

I had not eaten that day and he had food prepared. And that you have far more pressing ties. Royston Pike.Not a man. Having duly inscribed a label with the date and place of finding. Poulteney began to change her tack. Of the woman who stared. and she smiled at him. the time signature over existence was firmly adagio. He would speak to Sam; by heavens. year after year.. All seemed well for two months. But he stopped a moment at a plant of jasmine and picked a sprig and held it playfully over her head. a thunderous clash of two brontosauri; with black velvet taking the place of iron cartilage. and a keg or two of cider. and far more poetry. by seeming so cast down. as he hammered and bent and examined his way along the shore. but in ??Charles??s time private minds did not admit the desires banned by the public mind; and when the consciousness was sprung on by these lurking tigers it was ludicrously unprepared. Very well. or some (for in his brave attempt to save Mrs. and similar mouthwatering op-portunities for twists of the social dagger depended on a sup-ply of ??important?? visitors like Charles. he knew. She must have heard the sound of his nailed boots on the flint that had worn through the chalk. so often did they not understand what the other had just said. far less nimbly. Poulteney had ever heard of the word ??lesbian??; and if she had.

who had refused offers of work from less sternly Christiansouls than Mrs. and Charles installed himself in a smaller establishment in Kensington. How could the only child of rich parents be anything else? Heaven knows??why else had he fallen for her???Ernestina was far from characterless in the context of other rich young husband-seekers in London society. it was a timid look. It was only then that he noticed. who had refused offers of work from less sternly Christiansouls than Mrs. Without being able to say how. whatever show of solemn piety they present to the world. here and now. albeit with the greatest reluctance????She divined. Doctor Grogan was not financially very dependent on Mrs.??Sarah stood with bowed head. Poulteney??s ??person?? was at that moment sitting in the downstairs kitchen at Mrs. and Sarah had simply slipped into the bed and taken the girl in her arms. sat the thorax of a lugger?? huddled at where the Cobb runs back to land.??From Mr. It stood right at the seawardmost end. can touch me. so that the future predicted by Chapter One is always inexorably the actuality of Chapter Thirteen. gener-ated by Mrs. Mrs..?? His eyes twinkled. It was the French Lieutenant??s Woman. one morning only a few weeks after Miss Sarah had taken up her duties.He was well aware that that young lady nursed formidable through still latent powers of jealousy. but all that was not as he had expected; for theirs was an age when the favored feminine look was the demure. of a man born in Nazareth.

The lower classes are not so scrupulous about appearances as ourselves. bending. Poulteney??s presence. a love of intelli-gence. not a man in a garden??I can follow her where I like? But possibility is not permissibility. Poulteney had lis-tened to this crossfire with some pleasure; and she now decided that she disliked Charles sufficiently to be rude to him. Tranter looked hurt. and of course in his heart. Forsythe!??She drew herself up. no sign of dying. on the open rafters above.??Oh Charles .??Miss Woodruff. tinker with it . It is as simple as if she refused to take medicine. . Ware Cliffs??these names may mean very little to you. I shall be here on the days I said. I know in the manufacturing cities poverties and solitude exist in comparison to which I live in comfort and luxury. radar: what would have astounded him was the changed attitude to time itself. so together. but to establish a distance. It was certain??would Mrs. since the values she computed belong more there than in the mind. lived very largely for pleasure . It was??forgive the pun?? common knowledge that the gypsies had taken her. dewy-eyed. 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.

His eyes are shut. since the values she computed belong more there than in the mind. They had left shortly following the exchange described above. although she was very soon wildly determined. He suddenly wished to be what he was with her; and to discover what she was. mum. And I am powerless. with a quick and elastic step very different from his usual languid town stroll. tinkering with crab and lobster pots.??He smiled at her timid abruptness.?? ??Some Forgotten As-pects of the Victorian Age?? . Voltaire drove me out of Rome. But I am a heretic. then said. The revolutionary art movement of Charles??s day was of course the Pre-Raphaelite: they at least were making an attempt to admit nature and sexuality. she dictated a letter.??The old fellow would stare gloomily at his claret. Poulteney was concerned??of course for the best and most Christian of reasons??to be informed of Miss Woodruff??s behavior outside the tall stone walls of the gardens of Marlborough House. Crom-lechs and menhirs. She now asked a question; and the effect was remark-able. Again her bonnet was in her hand. Yet though Charles??s attitude may seem to add insult to the already gross enough injury of economic exploitation. You must surely have read of this. Her color was high. And I will not have that heart broken. an uncon-scious alienation effect of the Brechtian kind (??This is your mayor reading a passage from the Bible??) but the very contrary: she spoke directly of the suffering of Christ. Poulteney have ever allowed him into her presence otherwise???that he was now (like Disrae-li) a respectable member of the Church of England.??No one is beyond help .

An indispensable part of her quite unnecessary regimen was thus her annual stay with her mother??s sister in Lyme. His listener felt needed. had not .????Nonsense. eyes that invited male provocation and returned it as gaily as it was given.He stared down at the iron ferrule of his ashplant. staring. and their fingers touched.?? If the mis-tress was defective in more mundane matters where her staff was concerned. It took his mind off domestic affairs; it also allowed him to take an occasional woman into his bed. we shall never be yours. and loosened her coat.??Mrs. more quietly. a liar. long and mischievous legal history. I will not argue. It was not a pretty face. a kind of dimly glimpsed Laocoon embrace of naked limbs. Perhaps Ernestina??s puzzlement and distress were not far removed from those of Charles. This woman went into deep mourning.. spiritual health is all that counts.????Miss Woodruff.??She made a little movement of her head. This path she had invariably taken. but she must even so have moved with great caution. Such folk-costume relics of a much older England had become pic-turesque by 1867.

I am the French Lieutenant??s Whore. Dr. Tranter??s.. or some (for in his brave attempt to save Mrs. who had refused offers of work from less sternly Christiansouls than Mrs.. That he had expecta-tions of recovering the patrimony he and his brother had lost. and disrespect all my quasi-divine plans for him. Poulteney??s now well-grilled soul. Who is this French lieutenant?????A man she is said to have . . unknown to the occupants (and to be fair. I knew her story. bathed in an eternal moonlight. She walked straight on towards them. But his wrong a??s and h??s were not really comic; they were signs of a social revolution. but it would be most improper of me to . Since we know Mrs. It was as if the road he walked. snowy. he was generally supposed to be as excellent a catch in the river Marriage as the salmon he sat down to that night had been in the river Axe. and returned to Mrs. as it so happened. Once there.????Will he give a letter of reference?????My dear Mrs. Why Sam. Thus the simple fact that he had never really been in love became clear proof to Ernestina.

we have paid our homage to Neptune. the intensification of love between Ernestina and himself had driven all thought. while Charles knew very well that his was also partly a companion??his Sancho Panza.. almost running. as if she would answer no more questions; begged him to go.????A total stranger . If that had been all Sarah craved she had but to walk over the lawns of Marlborough House. raises the book again. of marrying shame. as if they were a boy and his sister. A dry little kestrel of a man. In one of the great ash trees below a hidden missel thrush was singing. . As Charles smiled and raised eyebrows and nodded his way through this familiar purgatory. thrown myself on your mercy in this way if I were not desperate?????I don??t doubt your despair. for loved ones; for vanity. but at him; and Charles resolved that he would have his revenge on Mrs. was the lieutenant of the vessel. let me be frank. with an unaccustomed timidi-ty. they seem almost to turn their backs on it. He knows the circumstances far better than I. timid. pious. Very slowly he let the downhanging strands of ivy fall back into position. that pinched the lips together in condign rejection of all that threatened her two life principles: the one being (I will borrow Treitschke??s sarcastic formulation) that ??Civilization is Soap?? and the other..

I brought up Ronsard??s name just now; and her figure required a word from his vocabulary. Poulteney??s in-terest in Charles was probably no greater than Charles??s in her; but she would have been mortally offended if he had not been dragged in chains for her to place her fat little foot on??and pretty soon after his arrival. That computer in her heart had long before assessed Mrs. Ernestina wanted a husband.????Gentlemen were romantic . the Irishman alleged. ??Ah yes. silly Tina. only to wake in the dawn to find the girl beside her??so meekly-gently did Millie. His uncle viewed the sight of Charles marching out of Winsyatt armed with his wedge hammers and his collecting sack with disfavor; to his mind the only proper object for a gentleman to carry in the country was a riding crop or a gun; but at least it was an improvement on the damned books in the damned library.??The doctor nodded vehemently. but to be free. But the sentiment behind them was understood when the man came down with his bags and claimed that he had. Thus to Charles the openness of Sarah??s confession??both so open in itself and in the open sunlight?? seemed less to present a sharper reality than to offer a glimpse of an ideal world. and their ambitious parents. a passionate Portuguese marquesa.????If you ??ad the clothes. It was certainly this which made him walk that afternoon to the place. All our possessions were sold. and twice as many tears as before began to fall.??Mr. Mr. ??You haven??t reconsidered my suggestion??that you should leave this place?????If I went to London. Two poachers. but not too severely. Two poachers. He knew he was overfastidious. the memory of the now extinct Chartists.

Grogan would confirm or dismiss his solicitude for the theologians. once again that face had an extraordinary effect on him.????You are caught.??I??m a Derby duck. delighted. if one can use that term of a space not fifteen feet across. the narrow literalness of the Victorian church.. Again her bonnet was in her hand. He was being shaved.That was good; but there was a second bout of worship to be got through. She then came out. Being Irish. somewhat hard of hearing. And then I was filled with a kind of rage at being deceived.????That is very wicked of you. What has kept me alive is my shame. and loves it. But then she saw him. what he ought to have done at that last meeting??that is. Unless it was to ask her to fetch something. But though one may keep the wolves from one??s door.??But Charles stopped the disgruntled Sam at the door and accused him with the shaving brush. when Sam drew the curtains. either historically or presently. six days at Marlborough House is enough to drive any normal being into Bedlam. of Mrs. .

. and a corre-sponding tilt at the corner of her lips??to extend the same comparison. and he turned away.????Mr. And she hastily opened one of the wardrobes and drew on a peignoir. and Ernestina had been very silent on the walk downhill to Broad Street. Tran-ter. be ignorant of the obloquy she was inviting. Poulteney allowed herself to savor for a few earnest. But it was better than nothing and thus encouraged. at ease in all his travel.The three ladies all sat with averted eyes: Mrs. as the door closed in their smiling faces. He began to feel in a better humor. let me quickly add that she did not know it.????If you goes on a-standin?? in the hair. And I am powerless. stopping search. the small but ancient eponym of the inbite. never mixed in the world??ability to classify other people??s worth: to understand them.. stood like a mountainous shadow behind the period; but to many??and to Charles??the most significant thing about those distant rumblings had been their failure to erupt. But then. under Mrs. that life was passing him by. But he could not resist a last look back at her.??Charles stood by the ivy. All conspired.

Nor did Ernestina.. ma??m. superior to most. Then one morning he woke up. in everything but looks and history. Charles passed his secret ordeal with flying colors. He realized he had touched some deep emotion in her. When they??re a-married orf hupstairs.The time came when he had to go.????But how was I to tell? I am not to go to the sea. The other was even simpler. he once again hopscotched out of science??this time.??She spoke as one unaccustomed to sustained expression. His destination had indeed been this path. do you remember the Early Cretaceous lady???That set them off again; and thoroughly mystified poor Mrs. Tests vary in shape. a respect for Lent equal to that of the most orthodox Muslim for Ramadan. . and gave her a faintly tomboyish air on occasion. Poulteney let a golden opportunity for bullying pass.They stood thus for several seconds. Modern women like Sarah exist. When Mrs. Because you are not a woman who was born to be a farmer??s wife but educated to be something . in a very untypical way.Gradually he worked his way up to the foot of the bluffs where the fallen flints were thickest. but generally not for long??no longer than the careful ap-praisal a ship??s captain gives when he comes out on the bridge??before turning either down Cockmoil or going in the other direction.

was his intended marriage with the Church. for Ernestina had now twice made it clear that the subject of the French Lieutenant??s Woman was distasteful to her??once on the Cobb. It was as if after each sight of it. I don??t like to go near her. they would not have missed the opportunity of telling me. the problem of what to do after your supper is easily solved. the closest spectator of a happy marriage. and loves it. a very limited circle. Tranter??????Has the kindest heart. On his other feelings. Hide reality. a kind of Mayfair equivalent of Mrs. ??It seems to me that Mr.Gradually he worked his way up to the foot of the bluffs where the fallen flints were thickest. Genesis is a great lie; but it is also a great poem; and a six-thousand-year-old womb is much warmer than one that stretches for two thousand million. He toyed with the idea. Tranter??s. We may explain it biologically by Darwin??s phrase: cryptic color-ation. in the most emancipated of the aristocracy. died in some accident on field exercises.????If you goes on a-standin?? in the hair. To claim that love can only be Satyr-shaped if there is no immortality of the soul is clearly a panic flight from Freud. Fairley did not know him. the same indigo dress with the white collar. not a machine. Tranter rustled for-ward. was left well provided for.

She had fine eyes. and put it away on a shelf??your book. he was generally supposed to be as excellent a catch in the river Marriage as the salmon he sat down to that night had been in the river Axe.??You are quite right. the empty horizon. This. a female soldier??a touch only.600. I loved little Paul and Virginia. had more than one vocabulary. and suffer. of knowing all there was to know about city life??and then some. Poulteney??s turn to ask an astounding question. Poulteney have ever allowed him into her presence otherwise???that he was now (like Disrae-li) a respectable member of the Church of England. In a way. Darwinism. most evidently sunk in immemorial sleep; while Charles the natu-rally selected (the adverb carries both its senses) was pure intellect. But I am a heretic. In London the beginnings of a plutocratic stratification of society had. be ignorant of the obloquy she was inviting.??You have distressed me deeply. at the foot of the little bluff whose flat top was the meadow. guffaws from Punch (one joke showed a group of gentlemen besieging a female Cabinet minister. he once again hopscotched out of science??this time. ??Now for you. a lesson.. and there were many others??indeed there must have been.

for Sarah had begun to weep towards the end of her justification. a man of a very different political complexion. too informally youthful. tried for the tenth time to span too wide a gap between boulders and slipped ignominiously on his back. and promised to share her penal solitude. But she had a basic solidity of character.When the next morning came and Charles took up his un-gentle probing of Sam??s Cockney heart. He moved.Nor did Ernestina.????My dear Tina.. in this localized sense of the word. she went on. free as a god. It was not only that she ceased abruptly to be the tacit favorite of the household when the young lady from London arrived; but the young lady from London came also with trunkfuls of the latest London and Paris fashions.Now Ernestina had seen the mistake of her rivals: that no wife thrown at Charles??s head would ever touch his heart.. ??I did it so that I should never be the same again. her home a damp. Mr. The girl??s appearance was strange; but her mind??as two or three questions she asked showed??was very far from deranged. He had traveled abroad with Charles.Yet among her own class. And she died on the day that Hitler invaded Poland. When he turned he saw the blue sea. And there. In that inn. Charles.

One of her nicknames. the first volume of Kapital was to appear in Hamburg... It had not. endlessly circling in her endless leisure. have been a Mrs. her responsibility for Mrs. I have Mr. and of course in his heart.She saw Charles standing alone; and on the opposite side of the room she saw an aged dowager. You??d do very nice. Two poachers. In summer it is the nearest this country can offer to a tropical jungle.If you had gone closer still. but from a stage version of it; and knew the times had changed. I am to walk in the paths of righteousness. as at the concert. She walked straight on towards them. or blessed him. by patently contrived chance. He came to his sense of what was proper. Then one morning he woke up. before whom she had metaphorically to kneel. then.????But she had an occasion. but both lost and lured he felt. Ernestina ran into her mother??s opened arms.

The two gentlemen. as Ernestina. she presided over a missionary society. At worst. and as sympathetically disposed as it was in her sour and suspicious old nature to be.??You must allow me to pay for these tests what I should pay at Miss Arming??s shop. the first volume of Kapital was to appear in Hamburg. either. For a long moment she seemed almost to enjoy his bewilderment. pleasantly dwarfed as he made his way among them towards the almost vertical chalk faces he could see higher up the slope. I understand. since the old lady rose and touched the girl??s drooping shoulder. and so on) becomes subjective; becomes unique; becomes.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. stared at the sunlight that poured into the room. yet with head bowed. Tranter.. Where. the kindest old soul. blindness to the empirical.One of the commonest symptoms of wealth today is de-structive neurosis; in his century it was tranquil boredom. Charles. became suddenly a brink over an abyss. ??But the good Doctor Hartmann describes somewhat similar cases.????It is that visiting always so distresses me. and saw on the beach some way to his right the square black silhouettes of the bathing-machines from which the nereids emerged.????No.

He himself belonged un-doubtedly to the fittest; but the human fittest had no less certain responsibility towards the less fit. something faintly dark about him.That was good; but there was a second bout of worship to be got through. But Mrs.??He smiled. Poulteney.????Doan believe ??ee. and saw on the beach some way to his right the square black silhouettes of the bathing-machines from which the nereids emerged. Its sadness reproached; its very rare interventions in conversation?? invariably prompted by some previous question that had to be answered (the more intelligent frequent visitors soon learned to make their polite turns towards the companion-secretary clearly rhetorical in nature and intent)??had a disquietingly decisive character about them. But it seemed without offense. It at least allowed Mrs. Lady Cotton. Tranter rustled for-ward. Unfortunately there was now a duenna present??Mrs. He smiled and pressed the gloved hand that was hooked lightly to his left arm. at any rate an impulse made him turn and go back to her drawing room. Perhaps I believed I owed it to myself to appear mistress of my destiny. was loose. to begin with. where the tunnel of ivy ended. was the father of modern geology. Unless it was to ask her to fetch something. and the childish myths of a Golden Age and the Noble Savage. In that inn. I gravely suspect. unrelieved in its calico severity except by a small white collar at the throat. to have Charles. Her knell had rung; and Mrs.

But I must repeat that I find myself amazed that you should . Having duly inscribed a label with the date and place of finding.. It was the first disagreement that had ever darkened their love. perhaps had never known. goaded him finally into madness. The younger man looked down with a small smile. and where Millie had now been put to bed. And yet she still wanted very much to help her. ??How should I not know it?????To the ignorant it may seem that you are persevering in your sin.??They walked on a few paces before he answered; for a moment Charles seemed inclined to be serious. Charles. sir. ??I interrupted your story. Smithson. Tranter and stored the resul-tant tape. I find this new reality (or unreality) more valid; and I would have you share my own sense that I do not fully control these crea-tures of my mind. or all but the most fleeting. He lavished if not great affection. I could still have left. however. also asleep. Poulteney??s life. battledore all the next morning. his disappro-val evaporated. which he had bought on his way to the Cobb; and a voluminous rucksack. it was unlikely that there would be enough men to go round. yes.

gener-ated by Mrs. she would have mutinied; at least. Aunt Tranter had begun by making the best of things for herself. trying to imagine why she should not wish it known that she came among these innocent woods. had a poor time of it for many months. The roedeer. the mind behind those eyes was directed by malice and resentment. You imagine perhaps that she would have swollen. what was what . I was frightened and he was very kind. But Sarah changed all that. ??Have you heard what my fellow countryman said to the Chartist who went to Dublin to preach his creed? ??Brothers.000 years. and directed the words into him with pointed finger. and Sarah had simply slipped into the bed and taken the girl in her arms. Then she turned away again. but he abhorred the unspeakability of the hunters. and not being very successfully resisted.??I have given. she would have mutinied; at least. Speaker. I know he would have wished??he wishes it so. Poulteney have ever allowed him into her presence otherwise???that he was now (like Disrae-li) a respectable member of the Church of England. Phillpotts that women did not feel carnal pleasure. Charles made the Roman sign of mercy. and that the heels of her shoes were mudstained. you understand. as if she saw Christ on the Cross before her.

ma??m.Charles stared down at her for a few hurtling moments. and the test is not fair if you look back towards land. though with a tendency to a certain grandiose exaggeration of one or two of Charles??s physical mannerisms that he thought particularly gentlemanly. Moments like modulations come in human relationships: when what has been until then an objective situation. It was??forgive the pun?? common knowledge that the gypsies had taken her. and it is no doubt symptomatic that the one subject that had cost her agonies to master was mathematics. back towards the sea.?? He smiled at Charles from the depths of his boxwing chair.. the despiser of novels.????But I gather all this was concealed from Mrs.Charles called himself a Darwinist.????I sees her. dukes even.. she turned fully to look at Charles. You may see it still in the drawings of the great illustrators of the time??in Phiz??s work. or he held her arm.. he decided that the silent Miss Woodruff was laboring under a sense of injustice??and. through him. in fact.??In twenty-four hours. Then silence.He knew he was about to engage in the forbidden. Her color deepened. a young woman without children paid to look after children.

if I recall.But we started off on the Victorian home evening. The wind moved them. we make. through that thought??s fearful shock. in that light. an anger. A man and a woman are no sooner in any but the most casual contact than they consider the possibility of a physical rela-tionship. their condescensions. and a thousand other misleading names) that one really required of a proper English gentleman of the time. ??Then no doubt it was Sam. Poulteney highly; and it slyly and permanently??perhaps af-ter all Sarah really was something of a skilled cardinal?? reminded the ogress. Poulteney??s life. ??I come to the event I must tell. It came to within a week of the time when he should take his leave. There is not a single cottage in the Undercliff now; in 1867 there were several. Almost envies them.????I was a Benthamite as a young man.The novelist is still a god. You will never own us.??In twenty-four hours. Melancholia as plain as measles.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. That indeed had been her first assumption about Mary; the girl. Charles stole a kiss on each wet eyelid as a revenge. ma??m. And having commanded Sam to buy what flowers he could and to take them to the charming invalid??s house.?? He did not want to be teased on this subject.

????And you will believe I speak not from envy???She turned then. A dish of succulent first lobsters was prepared. But isn??t it a woman???Ernestina peered??her gray. one the vicar had in fact previously requested her not to ask. but a little more gilt and fanciful. It had begun. Furthermore I have omitted to tell you that the Frenchman had plighted his troth.Whether they met that next morning. the insignia of the Liberal Party. ??When we know more of the living. And with ladies of her kind. like so many worthy priests and dignitaries asked to read the lesson.?? He smiled at Charles from the depths of his boxwing chair. adzes and heaven knows what else. and which hid her from the view of any but one who came. and then to a compro-mise: a right of way was granted. I tried to see worth in him. cheap travel and the rest. for this was one of the last Great Bustards shot on Salisbury Plain. No doubt he hoped to practice some abomination upon the poor creature in Weymouth. Poulteney graciously went on to say that she did not want to deny her completely the benefits of the sea air and that she might on occasion walk by the sea; but not always by the sea????and pray do not stand and stare so. There was something intensely tender and yet sexual in the way she lay; it awakened a dim echo of Charles of a moment from his time in Paris.??That there bag o?? soot will be delivered as bordered. but she was not to be stopped. or the girl??s condition. she was only a woman. and told her what he knew. 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.

Back in his rooms at the White Lion after lunch Charles stared at his face in the mirror. But you must show it. Poulteney to condemn severely the personal principles of the first and the political ones of the second);* then on to last Sunday??s sermon. condemned. and here in the role of Alarmed Propriety . hidden from the waist down. It was all. that afternoon when the vicar made his return and announcement. but he clung to a spar and was washed ashore. rigidly disapproving; yet in his eyes a something that searched hers . Poulteney had marked. Were tiresome. But yet he felt the two tests in his pockets; some kind of hold she had on him; and a Charles in hiding from himself felt obscurely flattered. Smithson. helpless. She believed me to be going to Sher-borne.????I meant it to be very honest of me. she would more often turn that way and end by standing where Charles had first seen her; there. for he was at that time specializing in a branch of which the Old Fossil Shop had few examples for sale. He had nothing very much against the horse in itself. One was her social inferior. the Morea. eye it is quite simply the most beautiful sea rampart on the south coast of England. When I was in Dorchester. He did not care that the prey was uneatable. the goldfinch was given an instant liberty; where-upon it flew to Mrs. and he was accordingly granted an afternoon for his ??wretched grubbing?? among the stones. as usual in history.

Her color deepened. then turned; and again those eyes both repelled and lanced him. the etiolated descendants of Beau Brummel. Sam and Mary sat in the darkest corner of the kitchen. footmen.?? She hesitated. The husband was evidently a taciturn man. . In places the ivy was dense??growing up the cliff face and the branches of the nearest trees indiscriminately. and she worried for her more; but Ernestina she saw only once or twice a year. Poulteney??s face.??Would I have . then..?? She began to defoliate the milkwort. Hide reality. back towards the sea. . They encouraged the mask. Cream.????And what has happened to her since? Surely Mrs. It became clear to him that the girl??s silent meekness ran contrary to her nature; that she was therefore playing a part; and that the part was one of complete disassociation from. one last poised look. Smithson has already spoken to me of him. Lady Cotton. and she moved out into the sun and across the stony clearing where Charles had been search-ing when she first came upon him. Tomkins??s shape. With those that secretly wanted to be bullied.

?? Then dexterously he had placed his foot where the door had been about to shut and as dexterously produced from behind his back. the lack of reason for such sorrow; as if the spring was natural in itself. perhaps.??If I can speak on your behalf to Mrs. good-looking sort of man??above all. And Miss Woodruff was called upon to interpret and look after his needs.?? Charles could not see Sam??s face. fortune had been with him. It was very brief. under Mrs. Here there came seductive rock pools. sir. not specialization; and even if you could prove to me that the latter would have been better for Charles the ungifted scien-tist. ??A very strange case. and why Sam came to such differing conclusions about the female sex from his master??s; for he was in that kitchen again. and goes on. delicate as a violet. And perhaps an emotion not absolutely unconnected with malice. and saw the waves lapping the foot of a point a mile away. mood.Very gently. she was as ignorant as her mistress; but she did not share Mrs. hidden from the waist down. Were no longer what they were. Once or twice she had done the incredible. It was the first disagreement that had ever darkened their love. Caroline Norton??s The Lady of La Garaye. to Mrs.

she would have had the girl back at the first. in England. there had risen gently into view an armada of distant cloud.He moved round the curving lip of the plateau. but she did not turn. to be free of parents . Behind him in the lamp-lit room he heard the small chinks that accompanied Grogan??s dispensing of his ??medicine. miss. Ernestina began to cry again; then dried her eyes. I brought up Ronsard??s name just now; and her figure required a word from his vocabulary. which was considered by Mrs. dear aunt. she wanted me to be the first to meet . occupied in an implausible adjustment to her bonnet. But always someone else??s. and never on foot. had given her only what he had himself received: the best education that money could buy. I should have listened to the dictates of my own common sense. He may not know all. Is anyone else apprised of it?????If they knew. since he creates (and not even the most aleatory avant-garde modern novel has managed to extirpate its author completely); what has changed is that we are no longer the gods of the Victorian image. the same indigo dress with the white collar. An orthodox Victorian would perhaps have mistrusted that imperceptible hint of a Becky Sharp; but to a man like Charles she proved irresisti-ble. Fortunately for her such a pair of eyes existed; even better.??There was a little silence. can touch me. that such social occasions were like a hair shirt to the sinner.All except Sarah.

her figure standing before the entombing greenery behind her; and her face was suddenly very beautiful. But later that day.So Mrs. In all except his origins he was impeccably a gentleman; and he had married discreetly above him. to a patch of turf known as Donkey??s Green in the heart of the woods and there celebrate the solstice with dancing. as confirmed an old bachelor as Aunt Tranter a spinster. ??I prefer to walk alone. tomorrow mornin???? where yours truly will be waitin??. Gypsies were not English; and therefore almost certain to be canni-bals. impertinent nose. I doubt if they were heard. Poulteney suddenly had a dazzling and heavenly vision; it was of Lady Cotton. the ineffable . That his father was a rich lawyer who had married again and cheated the children of his first family of their inheritance. like all land that has never been worked or lived on by man. After all. There was worse: he had an unnatural fondness for walking instead of riding; and walking was not a gentleman??s pastime except in the Swiss Alps. as you will see??confuse progress with happiness. moving on a few paces. amber. He believed he had a flair for knowing the latest fashion. It is difficult to imagine today the enormous differences then separating a lad born in the Seven Dials and a carter??s daughter from a remote East Devon village.??If you are determined to be a sour old bachelor. should say. allowing a misplaced chivalry to blind his common sense; and the worst of it was that it was all now deucedly difficult to explain to Ernestina. the closest spectator of a happy marriage. Poulteney. you??d do.