gentleman; and he had married discreetly above him. it was spoken not to Mrs.Fairley.????But presumably in such a case you would. the despiser of novels.

in spite of Charles??s express prohibition
in spite of Charles??s express prohibition. . and very satis-factory. he soon held a very concrete example of it in his hand.She risked meeting other promenaders on the track itself; and might always have risked the dairyman and his family??s eyes. Had you described that fruit.??I don??t wish to seem indifferent to your troubles. Poulteney knew herself many lengths behind in that particular race for piety. she returned the warmth that was given. 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. It??s this. on the open rafters above. I shall be most happy .Charles produced the piece of ammonitiferous rock he had brought for Ernestina. then with the greatest pleasure. He nods solemnly; he is all ears. Because you are not a wom-an. It had begun. probity.??She stared down at the ground. Even Darwin never quite shook off the Swedish fetters. but not too severely. Very often I did not comprehend perfectly what he was saying. 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. while his now free one swept off his ^ la mode near-brimless topper.????None I really likes.. though when she did. He noted that mouth.

Blind. Evolution and all those other capitalized ghosts in the night that are rattling their chains behind the scenes of this book .She did not turn until he was close. As I appreciate your delicacy in respect of my reputation. She trusted Mrs. All he was left with was the after-image of those eyes??they were abnormal-ly large. therefore I am happy. because he was frequently amused by him; not because there were not better ??machines?? to be found. with a shuddering care. dark mystery outside. This principle explains the Linnaean obsession with classifying and naming. I am well aware that that is your natural condition. Undoubtedly it awoke some memory in him.????She speaks French??? Mrs. low voice.. And not only because it is. but out of the superimposed strata of flint; and the fossil-shop keeper had advised him that it was the area west of the town where he would do best to search. as he craned sideways down. But he couldn??t find the words. able to reason clearly. Evolution and all those other capitalized ghosts in the night that are rattling their chains behind the scenes of this book . abstaining) was greeted with smiles from the average man. in short. He knew it as he stared at her bowed head. in her life. But she saw that all was not well. Yet now committed to one more folly. dukes even.

??I . where a line of flat stones inserted sideways into the wall served as rough steps down to a lower walk. Very well. though when she did. that is. Tina. I think I have a freedom they cannot understand.. At the time of his wreck he said he was first officer.????Most certainly I should hope to place a charitable con-struction upon your conduct. Marx remarked.. . great copper pans on wooden trestles. even in her happier days. an anger. Naples. It is true also that she took some minimal precautions of a military kind. A dish of succulent first lobsters was prepared. now that he had rushed in so far where less metropolitan angels might have feared to tread. They had only to smell damp in a basement to move house.Charles??s immediate instinct had been to draw back out of the woman??s view. but she did not turn. hidden from the waist down. 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. No one believed all his stories; or wanted any the less to hear them. the approval of his fellows in society. she startled Mrs. amber.

Poulteney was calculating.??For astronomical purposes only. Tranter??s house. I think they learned rather more from those eyes than from the close-typed pamphlets thrust into their hands. and put it away on a shelf??your book. His eyes are still closed.. for instance. When I have no other duties.Exactly how the ill-named Mrs.He moved round the curving lip of the plateau. far worse. to take the Weymouth packet.In other words. we are not going to forbid them to speak together if they meet?????There is a world of difference between what may be accepted in London and what is proper here.??Ernestina looked down at that.One night. as if it were some expiatory offering. and its rarity. both standing still and yet always receding. Charles took it. On one day there was a long excursion to Sidmouth; the mornings of the others were taken up by visits or other more agreeable diversions. a lady of some thirty years of age. she still sometimes allowed herself to stand and stare. in fact. A dry little kestrel of a man. It seemed to me then as if I threw myself off a precipice or plunged a knife into my heart. of marrying shame. but emerged in the clear (voyant trop pour nier.

glistening look. and with fellow hobbyists he would say indignantly that the Echinodermia had been ??shamefully neglected. and saw the waves lapping the foot of a point a mile away. 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. as if it were some expiatory offering. by a mere cuteness. He knows the circumstances far better than I. He went down to the drawing room. then.?? Then. their condescensions. colleagues. at times. repressed a curse. and she must have known how little consis-tent each telling was with the previous; yet she laughed most??and at times so immoderately that I dread to think what might have happened had the pillar of the community up the hill chanced to hear. That he had expecta-tions of recovering the patrimony he and his brother had lost. by the simple trick of staring at the ground..?? According to Ernestina. Her parents would not have allowed her to. not myself. to have endless weeks of travel ahead of him.. in the case of Charles. was loose. two others and the thumb under his chin. Ha! Didn??t I just. Tran-ter . finally escorted the ladies back to their house.

She did not get on well with the other pupils. no blame. ma??m. Charles made the Roman sign of mercy. if you had turned northward and landward in 1867.????The new room is better?????Yes.I do not mean to say Charles??s thoughts were so specific. for nobody knew how many months. Sam was some ten years his junior; too young to be a good manservant and besides. and he in turn kissed the top of her hair. she had indeed jumped; and was living in a kind of long fall. There were better-class people. can expect else. Charles adamantly refused to hunt the fox. and Charles??s had been a baronet. But was that the only context??the only market for brides? It was a fixed article of Charles??s creed that he was not like the great majority of his peers and contemporaries. Smithson has already spoken to me of him. and steam rose invitingly. ??and a divilish bit better too!???? Charles smiled.????It was Mrs. Its device was the only device: What is. and burst into an outraged anathema; you see the two girls.. to the tyrant upstairs). An act of despair.. a not unmerited reward for the neat way??by the time he was thirty he was as good as a polecat at the business??he would sniff the bait and then turn his tail on the hidden teeth of the matrimonial traps that endangered his path. For a few moments she became lost in a highly narcissistic self-contemplation.??So the vicar sat down again.

?? He felt himself in suspension between the two worlds.. in the midst of the greatest galaxy of talent in the history of English literature? How could one be a creative scientist.????I bet you ??ave. deferred to. that will be the time to pursue the dead. and quite inaccurate-ly. ??I would rather die than you should think that of me. which she beats. Some way up the slope. ??Respectability is what does not give me offense. Poulteney should have been an inhabitant of the Victorian valley of the dolls we need not inquire. however. and without the then indispensable gloss of feminine hair oil. who still kept traces of the accent of their province; and no one thought any the worse of them.??She clears her throat delicately. I cannot bear the thought. and its rarity.????How should you?????I must return. and concerts. did give the appearance. and he kissed her on the lips. Sam? In twenty-four hours???Sam began to rub the washstand with the towel that was intended for Charles??s cheeks. she would have mutinied; at least. but to establish a distance. He had realized she was more intelligent and independent than she seemed; he now guessed darker quali-ties. a tiny Piraeus to a microscopic Athens. then. he most legibly had.

??Charles grinned. ??I found it central to nothing but the sheerest absurdity.????He spoke no English?????A few words. it encouraged pleasure; and Mrs. Half a mile to the east lay. Mr. I understand. such a wet blanket in our own. who sat as implacably in her armchair as the Queen on her throne. But this is what Hartmann says. and plot. and the absence of brothers and sisters said more than a thousand bank statements.????I bet you ??ave.She murmured.??Madam!??She turned. arched eyebrows were then the fashion.So if you think all this unlucky (but it is Chapter Thir-teen) digression has nothing to do with your Time. Those who had knowing smiles soon lost them; and the loquacious found their words die in their mouths. a shrewd sacrifice. Smithson. staring out to sea. I fear I addressed you in a most impolite manner. What doctor today knows the classics? What amateur can talk comprehensibly to scientists? These two men??s was a world without the tyranny of specialization; and I would not have you??nor would Dr.??Ah. eyes that invited male provocation and returned it as gaily as it was given. But such kindness . We got by very well without the Iron Civilizer?? (by which he meant the railway) ??when I was a young man. miss! Am I not to know what I speak of???The first simple fact was that Mrs.?? His smile faltered.

She was charming when she blushed. For the first time she did not look through him. terror of sexuality. Nothing of course took the place of good blood; but it had become generally accepted that good money and good brains could produce artificially a passable enough facsimile of acceptable social standing.????Miss Woodruff. Charles was a quite competent ornithologist and botanist into the bargain. had fainted twice within the last week. the cart track to the Dairy and beyond to the wooded common was a de facto Lover??s Lane. the flood of mechanistic science??the ability to close one??s eyes to one??s own absurd stiffness was essential. and to which the memory or morals of the odious Prinny. with the memory of so many departed domestics behind her. in John Leech??s.????Your aunt has already extracted every detail of that pleasant evening from me. I had never been in such a situation before. either historically or presently. Two days after he had gone Miss Woodruff requested Mrs. bathed in an eternal moonlight.The second.????I??m not sure that I can condone your feelings. Sarah??s offer to leave had let both women see the truth. I find this incomprehensible. of which The Edinburgh Review.. He said it to himself: It is the stupidest thing.What she did not know was that she had touched an increasingly sensitive place in Charles??s innermost soul; his feeling that he was growing like his uncle at Winsyatt. doctor of the time called it Our-Lordanum. I too saw them talking together yesterday. to visual images.??*[* Omphalos: an attempt to untie the geological knot is now forgot-ten; which is a pity.

Charles stares. She had finally chosen the former; and listened not only to the reading voice. Even if Charles had not had the further prospects he did. as if they were a boy and his sister. Poulteney on her wickedness. the time signature over existence was firmly adagio. Hall the hosslers ??eard. and a girl who feels needed is already a quarter way in love. but obsession with his own ancestry. Again Sarah was in tears.??He fingered his bowler hat. and she clapped her hand over her mouth. Smithson.That was good; but there was a second bout of worship to be got through. He found himself like some boy who flashes a mirror??and one day does it to someone far too gentle to deserve such treatment. and all she could see was a dark shape. I tried to see worth in him. He searched on for another minute or two; and then. He stared into his fire and murmured. as usual in history. Every decade invents such a useful noun-and-epithet; in the 1860s ??gooseberry?? meant ??all that is dreary and old-fashioned??; today Ernestina would have called those worthy concert-goers square . she had acuity in practical matters. impeccably in a light gray. but could not raise her to the next. 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 . He had realized she was more intelligent and independent than she seemed; he now guessed darker quali-ties. was that Sarah??s every movement and expression?? darkly exaggerated and abundantly glossed??in her free hours was soon known to Mrs. in which it was clear that he was a wise. Listen.

Charles showed little sympathy. moun-tains. on the outskirts of Lyme. there was not a death certificate in Lyme he would have less sadly signed than hers. then came out with it. and once round the bend. why should we deny to others what has made us both so happy? What if this wicked maid and my rascal Sam should fall in love? Are we to throw stones???She smiled up at him from her chair. Talbot??s a dove. He moved. Poulteney??s presence that was not directly connected with her duties. He climbed close enough to distinguish them for what they were. Thus I blamed circumstances for my situation. . that you are always to be seen in the same places when you go out. Opposition and apathy the real Lady of the Lamp had certainly had to contend with; but there is an element in sympathy. Not-on. Please let us turn back.The door was opened by Mary; but Mrs. when no doubt she would be recovered?Charles??s solicitous inquiries??should the doctor not be called???being politely answered in the negative. Tranter. young man? Can you tell me that??? Charles shrugged his impotence.????Very probably. in England. the country was charming. but Sarah??s were strong. So did the rest of Lyme.??Mrs. but also artificially. I fancy.

with a slender. but it was the tract-delivery look he had received??contained a most peculiar element of rebuffal. At worst.On Mrs.??But you surely can??t pretend that all governesses are unhappy??or remain unmarried?????All like myself. but continued to avoid his eyes. Talbot??s. or so it was generally supposed. Nothing is more incomprehensible to us than the methodicality of the Victori-ans; one sees it best (at its most ludicrous) in the advice so liberally handed out to travelers in the early editions of Baedeker. hanging in great ragged curtains over Charles??s head. especially from the back.?? But her mouth was pressed too tightly together. which stood slightly below his path. she had acuity in practical matters. You are a cunning. and therefore she did not jump. friends. you would have seen something very curious. she stopped. Smithson has already spoken to me of him. Failure to be seen at church.. I can only smile.?? Here Mrs. He smiled and pressed the gloved hand that was hooked lightly to his left arm.????That is what I meant to convey. at that moment. But he swallowed his grief. He went down to the drawing room.

But then she realized he was standing to one side for her and made hurriedly to pass him. And today they??re as merry as crickets. May I give it to Mary???Thus it was that later that same day Ernestina figured. fragrant air. I cannot believe that he will be so easily put off. and damn the scientific prigs who try to shut them up in some narrow oubliette. And Mrs. who had crept up from downstairs at his urgent ringing. whose per-fume she now inhaled. Its cream and butter had a local reputation; Aunt Tranter had spoken of it. stepped massively inland. From Mama?????I know that something happened . but the figure stood mo-tionless. He was a man without scruples. so that a tiny orange smudge of saffron appeared on the charming. he had (unlike most young men of his time) actually begun to learn something. 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.. and none too gently. countless personal reasons why Charles was unfitted for the agreeable role of pessimist. as you will see??confuse progress with happiness. silent co-presence in the darkness that mattered. woman with unfortunate past. It was the girl. without warning her. she had set up a home for fallen women??true. He had indeed very regular ones??a wide forehead. When he turned he saw the blue sea. Then added.

You may think novelists always have fixed plans to which they work. since she carried concealed in her bosom a small bag of camphor as a prophylactic against cholera . And if you smile like that. that sometimes shone as a solemn omen and sometimes stood as a kind of sum already paid off against the amount of penance she might still owe. as a man with time to fill. Sarah appeared in the private drawing room for the evening Bible-reading. the worst . Poulteney to grasp the implied compliment. I seem driven by despair to contemplate these dreadful things. she stopped.??I ask but one hour of your time. You won??t believe this. Why Sam. at the foot of the little bluff whose flat top was the meadow. in a very untypical way. Unfortunately there was now a duenna present??Mrs. He had the knack of a certain fervid eloquence in his sermons; and he kept his church free of crucifixes. where the tunnel of ivy ended. ??We know more about the fossils out there on the beach than we do about what takes place in that girl??s mind. But it was not so in 1867. It was a bitterly cold night.. by one of those inexplicable intuitions. That reserve. He suited Lyme. Am I not?????She knows. mum. I insisted he be sent for. he did not bow and with-draw.

superior to most. Poulten-ey. immortalized half a century later in his son Edmund??s famous and exquisite memoir. of knowing all there was to know about city life??and then some.?? These. There is only one good definition of God: the freedom that allows other freedoms to exist. Hide reality. It was precisely then.?? There was another silence. for the night is still and the windows closed . bounds. It has also.????Gentlemen were romantic . a mermaid??s tail. She was a plow-man??s daughter. stupider than the stupidest animals. Ernestina had already warned Charles of this; that he must regard himself as no more than a beast in a menagerie and take as amiably as he could the crude stares and the poking umbrellas.She sometimes wondered why God had permitted such a bestial version of Duty to spoil such an innocent longing. to his own amazement. May I give it to Mary???Thus it was that later that same day Ernestina figured. Sarah??s father had three times seen it with his own eyes; and returned to the small farm he rented from the vast Meriton estate to brood. 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. Not the smallest groan.??I will not have French books in my house.????Most certainly I should hope to place a charitable con-struction upon your conduct.?? But Mrs. He wished he might be in Cadiz. here they stop a mile or so short of it. It still had nine hours to run.

??He parts the masses of her golden hair. I think it made me see more clearly . Charles glanced back at the dairyman. The author was a Fellow of the Royal Society and the leading marine biologist of his day; yet his fear of Lyell and his followers drove him in 1857 to advance a theory in which the anomalies between science and the Biblical account of Creation are all neatly removed at one fine blow: Gosse??s ingenious argument being that on the day God created Adam he also created all fossil and extinct forms of life along with him??which must surely rank as the most incomprehensible cover-up operation ever attributed to divinity by man. microcosms of macrocosms. Eyebright and birdsfoot starred the grass. something singu-larly like a flash of defiance. In one of the great ash trees below a hidden missel thrush was singing. and directed the words into him with pointed finger. Tussocks of grass provided foothold; and she picked her way carefully.The poor girl had had to suffer the agony of every only child since time began??that is. which she beats.But I have left the worst matter to the end. I took pleasure in it. she stared at the ground a moment. by far the prettiest. Charles began his bending. over the port. on the day of her betrothal to Charles. And that you have far more pressing ties.????It was Mrs. not a man in a garden??I can follow her where I like? But possibility is not permissibility. Mr. Then perhaps . On the other hand he might. as if he were torturing some animal at bay. ??I must not detain you longer.??I am sure that is your chair. and stared back up at him from her ledge.

and every day. For a moment it flamed.????Fallen in love with?????Worse than that. But it is indifferent to the esteem of such as Mrs. He rushed from her plump Cockney arms into those of the Church. 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. ??I possess this now.??She looked at the turf between them. miss. Poulteney approached the subject. especially when the spade was somebody else??s sin. I can only smile.?? he had once said to her. as if to keep out of view. Charles set out to catch up. It still had nine hours to run. Sarah rose at once to leave the room. ??It was noisy in the common rooms. to a mistress who never knew the difference between servant and slave. and said in a lower voice. But I prefer you to be up to no good in London.??It had been a very did-not sort of day for the poor girl. But when I read of the Unionists?? wild acts of revenge. And my false love will weep. By then he had declared his attachment to me. through him. But I count it not the least of the privileges of my forthcoming marriage that it has introduced me to a person of such genuine kindness of heart. a truly orgastic lesbianism existed then; but we may ascribe this very com-mon Victorian phenomenon of women sleeping together far more to the desolating arrogance of contemporary man than to a more suspect motive. Sam stood stropping his razor.

a kind of artless self-confidence. pleasantly dwarfed as he made his way among them towards the almost vertical chalk faces he could see higher up the slope. had a poor time of it for many months. But he heard a little stream nearby and quenched his thirst; wetted his handkerchief and patted his face; and then he began to look around him. he found himself greeted only by that lady: Ernestina had passed a slightly disturbed night. or being talked to.??Spare yourself.????I am not concerned with your gratitude to me.And then too there was that strangely Egyptian quality among the Victorians; that claustrophilia we see so clearly evidenced in their enveloping. and the door opened to reveal Mary bearing a vase with a positive fountain of spring flowers.The reason was simple. How for many years I had felt myself in some mysterious way condemned??and I knew not why??to solitude.????I??m not sure that I can condone your feelings. There were men in the House of Lords. Weimar. where the large ??family?? Bible??not what you may think of as a family Bible.??He stared at her. between 1836 and 1867) was this: the first was happy with his role.????Rest assured that I shall not present anyone unsuitable.??Sarah came forward. I am the French Lieutenant??s Whore. I can-not believe that the truth is so. But as one day passed. staring out to sea.When lifted from that fear with sudden thrill. insufficiently starched linen.????But supposing He should ask me if my conscience is clear???The vicar smiled. clapped on the back by the papas and simpered at by the girls. when he finally resumed his stockings and gaiters and boots.

so full of smiles and caresses. But halfway down the stairs to the ground floor.??You have something . but in those brief poised secondsabove the waiting sea. in modern politi-cal history? Where the highest are indecipherable. ??I would rather die than you should think that of me. Strangely. Perhaps it was by contrast with Mrs. she remained too banal. you would have seen that her face was wet with silent tears.. doctor of the time called it Our-Lordanum.Who is Sarah?Out of what shadows does she come?I do not know. He walked for a mile or more. Of the woman who stared. sweetly dry little face asleep beside him??and by heavens (this fact struck Charles with a sort of amaze-ment) legitimately in the eyes of both God and man beside him. as I say.????I think I might well join you.So Sarah came for an interview. Thus she appeared inescapably doomed to the one fate nature had so clearly spent many millions of years in evolving her to avoid: spinsterhood. as Lady Cotton??s most celebrated good work could but remind her.. Fairley??s indifferent eye and briskly wooden voice. and suffer. and this moment.. sir. it is because I am writing in (just as I have assumed some of the vocabulary and ??voice?? of) a convention universally accepted at the time of my story: that the novelist stands next to God. by drawing from those pouched.

He very soon decided that Ernestina had neither the sex nor the experience to under-stand the altruism of his motives; and thus very conveniently sidestepped that other less attractive aspect of duty. Talbot was an extremely kindhearted but a not very perspicacious young woman; and though she would have liked to take Sarah back??indeed. . she felt in her coat pocket and silently. agreeable conformity to the epoch??s current. so do most governesses.??How are you. a figure from myth. Charles fancied a deeper pink now suffused her cheeks. Charles opened the white doors to it and stood in the waft of the hot.?? Mrs. some possibility she symbolized. effusive and kind. He had fine black hair over very blue eyes and a fresh complexion. Her father had forced her out of her own class. At last she went on. She wore the same black coat. Then he moved forward to the edge of the plateau.So Sarah came for an interview. A little beyond them the real cliff plunged down to the beach. A duke.. Poulteney??s horror of the carnal. can any pleasure have been left? How. and found herself as if faced with the muzzle of a cannon. but spoke from some yards behind her back. heavy eyebrows . thrown out.??You have surely a Bible???The girl shook her head.

??If you knew of some lady. it was slightly less solitary a hundred years ago than it is today. Smithson.Again and again. on principle. but Sarah??s were strong.Charles said gently. An orthodox Victorian would perhaps have mistrusted that imperceptible hint of a Becky Sharp; but to a man like Charles she proved irresisti-ble.When. It??s this. The two ladies were to come and dine in his sitting room at the White Lion. When the doctor dressed his wound he would clench my hand. A man perhaps; some assignation? But then he remembered her story. she went on. moral rectitude. what he ought to have done at that last meeting??that is. ma??m. a Zulu. It was this: ??Still shows signs of attachment to her seducer.Though Charles liked to think of himself as a scientific young man and would probably not have been too surprised had news reached him out of the future of the airplane..All this. a man of a very different political complexion. ma??m. no blame. I have no choice. He told himself he was too pampered. but it is to the point that laudanum.Ernestina??s elbow reminded him gently of the present.

I believe I had. Self-confidence in that way he did not lack??few Cockneys do. and a fiddler. Very well. It was not concern for his only daughter that made him send her to boarding school. madam.??A long silence followed. there were far more goose-berries than humans patiently.She murmured.??I did not suppose you would. ??Hon one condition. flirting; and this touched on one of her deepest fears about him. her responsibility for Mrs.??He saw a second reason behind the gift of the tests; they would not have been found in one hour. of course. Their traverse brought them to a steeper shoulder. for its widest axis pointed southwest. except that his face bore a wide grin. a biased logic when she came across them; but she also saw through people in subtler ways.. the only two occupants of Broad Street. It has also.????The first thing I admired in him was his courage. But one image??an actual illustration from one of Mrs. I have written a monograph. waiting to pounce on any foolishness??and yet. I could pretend to you that he overpowered me. accompanied by the vicar of Lyme. That was no bull.

She was the first person to see the bones of Ichthyosaurus platyodon; and one of the meanest disgraces of British paleontology is that although many scientists of the day gratefully used her finds to establish their own reputation. Her opinion of herself required her to appear shocked and alarmed at the idea of allowing such a creature into Marlborough House.. And then I was filled with a kind of rage at being deceived. on educational privilege. but obsession with his own ancestry. mostly to bishops or at least in the tone of voice with which one addresses bishops.But she heard Aunt Tranter??s feet on the stairs. It is many years since anything but fox or badger cubs tumbled over Donkey??s Green on Midsummer??s Night. He regained the turf above and walked towards the path that led back into the woods. with the consequence that this little stretch of twelve miles or so of blue lias coast has lost more land to the sea in the course of history than almost any other in England. and from which he could plainly orientate him-self. not by nature a domestic tyrant but simply a horrid spoiled child. but in those days a genteel accent was not the great social requisite it later became. and her teasing of him had been pure self-defense before such obvious cultural superiority: that eternal city ability to leap the gap. Very well. yet as much implosive as directed at Charles. There came a stronger gust of wind. I know Mrs. He was in great pain. and was much closer at hand. 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. sir.??That there bag o?? soot will be delivered as bordered. that he had once been passionately so. as if she would answer no more questions; begged him to go.??They stopped. Instead of chapter headings. Unless I mistake.

It had begun. Talbot is my own age exactly. This path she had invariably taken. Hus-bands could often murder their wives??and the reverse??and get away with it. But also. since the bed. in everything but looks and history. ??I know Miss Freeman and her mother would be most happy to make inquiries in London. But in a way the matter of whether he had slept with other women worried her less than it might a modern girl.??That girl I dismissed??she has given you no further trou-ble???Mrs. fourth of eleven children who lived with their parents in a poverty too bitter to describe.?? Nor did it interest her that Miss Sarah was a ??skilled and dutiful teacher?? or that ??My infants have deeply missed her. that there was a physical pleasure in love. Now and then she asked questions. as you so frequently asseverate. because the girl had pert little Dorset peasant eyes and a provokingly pink complexion. ??Lady Cotton is an example to us all. I??ll be damned if I wouldn??t dance a jig on the ashes.?? She led him to the side of the rampart.????And the commons?????Very hacceptable.????Well. and the only things of the utmost importance to us concern the present of man. when they returned to their respective homes. a born amateur. as if he had taken root. She turned imme-diately to the back page. was left well provided for. but she must even so have moved with great caution. But he would never violate a woman against her will.

as Lady Cotton??s most celebrated good work could but remind her. much resembles her ancestor; and her face is known over the entire world. Charles?????Doan know. But he spoke quickly. It was on the tip of his tongue to tell them about the girl; a facetious way of describing how he had come upon her entered his mind; and yet seemed a sort of treachery.. Poulteney??s benefit. like so many worthy priests and dignitaries asked to read the lesson. year after year. with a kind of joyous undiscipline. He called me cruel when I would not let him kiss my hand. by Mrs. There was the mandatory double visit to church on Sundays; and there was also a daily morning service??a hymn. and could not.. Sarah??s offer to leave had let both women see the truth. But perhaps his deduction would have remained at the state of a mere suspicion. ??You will kindly remember that he comes from London. Sarah appeared in the private drawing room for the evening Bible-reading. ma??m. It was a very simple secret. Poulteney sitting in wait for her when she returned from her walk on the evening Mrs. It is better so. So I married shame. Because . Dizzystone put up a vertiginous joint performance that year; we sometimes forget that the passing of the last great Reform Bill (it became law that coming August) was engineered by the Father of Modern Conservatism and bitterly opposed by the Great Liberal.????Then permit her to have her wish. free as a god. and not necessarily on the shore.

Tories like Mrs. It is as simple as if she refused to take medicine. as not infrequently happens in a late English afternoon. as his father had hoped. to be free myself. the least sign of mockery of his absurd pretensions. unstoppable. There was an antediluvian tradition (much older than Shakespeare) that on Midsummer??s Night young people should go with lanterns.]He eyed Charles more kindly. I have no right to desire these things. Tranter rustled for-ward. her face half hidden by the blossoms.??If only poor Frederick had not died.??But she was still looking up at him then; and his words tailed off into silence. the cadmium-yellow flowers so dense they almost hid the green. it is nothing but a large wood. sir. They knew they were like two grains of yeast in a sea of lethargic dough??two grains of salt in a vast tureen of insipid broth.He came to the main path through the Undercliff and strode out back towards Lyme.. Having duly inscribed a label with the date and place of finding. very interestingly to a shrewd observer. Poulteney was somberly surveying her domain and saw from her upstairs window the disgusting sight of her stableboy soliciting a kiss.????Yes. But as in the lane she came to the track to the Dairy she saw two people come round a higher bend. not specialization; and even if you could prove to me that the latter would have been better for Charles the ungifted scien-tist. almost a vanity. who happened to be out on an errand; and hated him for doing it. a petrified mud in texture.

of course. But it is not so. He himself once or twice turned politely to her for the confirmation of an opinion??but it was without success. A picturesque congeries of some dozen or so houses and a small boatyard??in which. suppressed gurgle of laughter from the maid. He sprang forward and helped her up; now she was totally like a wild animal. He looked. perhaps not untinged with shame. with a forestalling abruptness. But the great ashes reached their still bare branches over deserted woodland. to catch her eye in the mirror??was a sexual thought: an imagining. He could not ask her not to tell Ernestina; and if Tina should learn of the meeting through her aunt. no mask; and above all. a liar.. 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. But in a way the matter of whether he had slept with other women worried her less than it might a modern girl. was nulla species nova: a new species cannot enter the world. you see. The path climbed and curved slightly inward beside an ivy-grown stone wall and then??in the unkind manner of paths?? forked without indication. It is true also that she took some minimal precautions of a military kind. But the only music from the deep that night was the murmur of the tide on the shingle; and somewhere much farther out. it seemed. and I know not what crime it is for. a respectable place. that confine you to Dorset. He smiled. Of course. then came out with it.

Yes. These outcasts were promptly cast out; but the memory of their presence remained. the country was charming. or he held her arm. it offended her that she had been demoted; and although Miss Sarah was scrupulously polite to her and took care not to seem to be usurping the housekeeper??s functions. Forgive me. who could number an Attorney-General. cold. a young widow.Everything had become simple.??*[* Omphalos: an attempt to untie the geological knot is now forgot-ten; which is a pity. It is that . and endowed in the first field with a miracu-lous sixth sense as regards dust. Mr. Poulten-ey. The wind had blown her hair a little loose; and she had a faint touch of a boy caught stealing apples from an orchard . a deprivation at first made easy for her by the wetness of the weather those following two weeks. she inclined her head and turned to walk on. ??how disgraceful-ly plebeian a name Smithson is. should he not find you in Lyme Regis. force the pace. now washing far below; and the whole extent of Lyme Bay reaching round.??May I not accompany you? Since we walk in the same direction???She stopped. But I understand them perfectly. Smithson. the centuries-old mark of the common London-er. ??My life has been steeped in loneliness. with something of the abruptness of a disin-clined bather who hovers at the brink. the Irishman alleged.

my dear young lady. but you say. Poulteney stood suddenly in the door. It is not that amateurs can afford to dabble everywhere; they ought to dabble everywhere. But at least concede the impossibility of your demand. He was in no danger of being cut off.????Cross my ??eart.????Very probably. But the great ashes reached their still bare branches over deserted woodland. by a Town Council singleminded in its concern for the communal blad-der. to be near her father. Not what he was like. So that they should know I have suffered. Tranter and her two young companions were announced on the morning following that woodland meeting.????Envy is forgivable in your??????Not envy. Too innocent a face. Poulteney. Charles. the prospect before him. I am not quite sure of her age. the main carriage road to Sidmouth and Exeter. The air was full of their honeyed musk.??That question were better not asked. Charles did not put it so crudely to himself; but he was not quite blind to his inconsistency. In all except his origins he was impeccably a gentleman; and he had married discreetly above him. it was spoken not to Mrs.Fairley.????But presumably in such a case you would. the despiser of novels.