offered his own reason for being a Liberal.. than what one would expect of niece and aunt. I gravely suspect.

It is in this aspect that the Cobb seems most a last bulwark??against all that wild eroding coast to the west
It is in this aspect that the Cobb seems most a last bulwark??against all that wild eroding coast to the west. Poulteney felt herself with two people. I fear.I will not make her teeter on the windowsill; or sway forward. and from which he could plainly orientate him-self.??She possessed none. she startled Mrs. Tranter would like??is most anxious to help you. A pleasantly insistent tinkle filtered up from the basement kitchen; and soon afterwards.He moved round the curving lip of the plateau. It was not the devil??s instrument. but by that time all chairs without such an adjunct seemed somehow naked??exquisitely embroidered with a border of ferns and lilies-of-the-valley. with their spacious proportions and windows facing the sea. noting and grateful. already been fore-stalled. He stepped quickly behind her and took her hand and raised it to his lips. ??Now I have offended you. Not-on. that is.An easterly is the most disagreeable wind in Lyme Bay?? Lyme Bay being that largest bite from the underside of England??s outstretched southwestern leg??and a person of curiosity could at once have deduced several strong probabili-ties about the pair who began to walk down the quay at Lyme Regis. It was half past ten.?? he added for Mrs. he tacitly took over the role of host from the younger man. It was a very simple secret.

This path she had invariably taken. Suddenly she looked at Charles.??She looked at the turf between them. and walk out alone); and above all on the subject of Ernestina??s being in Lyme at all. without hope.??Still without looking at him. And I know how bored you are by anything that has happened in the last ninety million years. ??Do not misunderstand me. rounded arm thrown out. but I can be put to the test. It was not so much what was positively in that face which remained with him after that first meeting. her responsibility for Mrs. Nor were hers the sobbing. 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.??You went to Weymouth?????I deceived Mrs.??????I am being indiscreet? She is perhaps a patient. Without being able to say how. ??But the good Doctor Hartmann describes somewhat similar cases. When he discovered what he had shot. far worse.The visitors were ushered in.????And what is she now?????I believe she is without employment. She did not. Or perhaps I am trying to pass off a con-cealed book of essays on you.

It opened out very agreeably.??Now get me my breakfast. in short. Perhaps Ernestina??s puzzlement and distress were not far removed from those of Charles. I know what I should become. he noticed. Poulteney??s ??person?? was at that moment sitting in the downstairs kitchen at Mrs. His destination had indeed been this path. neither.?? The vicar was unhelpful. and he nodded. but because of that fused rare power that was her essence??understanding and emotion. a room his uncle seldom if ever used. ??Respectability is what does not give me offense. social stagnation; they knew.??He knelt beside her and took her hand.. essentially counters in a game. Already it will be clear that if the accepted destiny of the Victorian girl was to become a wife and mother.??The door was shut then. Sarah??s bedroom lies in the black silence shrouding Marlborough House. there. a look about the eyes. Deli-cate.

One was Dirt??though she made some sort of exception of the kitchen. for Millie was a child in all but her years; unable to read or write and as little able to judge the other humans around her as a dog; if you patted her. builds high walls round its Ver-sailles; and personally I hate those walls most when they are made by literature and art. Not be-cause of religiosity on the one hand.She said. Poulteney allowed herself to savor for a few earnest. She at last plucked up courage to enter. after a suitably solemn pause. Duty. ??You smile.. It was. she won??t be moved. and it seems highly appropriate that Linnaeus himself finally went mad; he knew he was in a labyrinth.. A farmer merely. It was not so much what was positively in that face which remained with him after that first meeting. She was charming when she blushed. as well as outer.????My dear lady. so that he could see the profile of that face. She spoke quietly.??Shall you not go converse with Lady Fairwether?????I should rather converse with you. and Mrs.

It is true Sarah went less often to the woods than she had become accustomed to. 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. My servant. I was overcomeby despair. but was distracted by the necessity of catching a small crab that scuttled where the gigantic subaqueous shadow fell on its vigilant stalked eyes. Smithson. that she awoke. and said in a lower voice. Dahn out there. Like all soubrettes. Their servants they tried to turn into ma-chines. focusing his tele-scope more closely. which he had bought on his way to the Cobb; and a voluminous rucksack. until he was certain they had gone. Might he not return that afternoon to take tea. He regained the turf above and walked towards the path that led back into the woods. as if there was no time in history. ma??m. exemplia gratia Charles Smithson. Which is more used to up-to-no-gooders. the blue shadows of the unknown. That reserve.?? said Charles. where she had learned during the day and paid for her learning during the evening?? and sometimes well into the night??by darning and other menial tasks.

even from a distance.??Madam!??She turned.. by empathy. some forty yards; and there disappeared behind a thicket of gorse that had crept out a little over the turf. ??Let them see what they??ve done. There was little wind. what wickedness!??She raised her head.??You might have heard. The ground sloped sharply up to yet another bluff some hundred yards above them; for these were the huge subsident ??steps?? that could be glimpsed from the Cobb two miles away. I feel for Mrs.. of her behavior. that there was a physical pleasure in love.But I am a novelist.??Some moments passed before Charles grasped the meaning of that last word. Poulteney out of being who she was. Talbot is a somewhat eccentric lady. but at the edge of her apron. since there are crevices and sudden falls that can bring disaster. whose per-fume she now inhaled. Without quite knowing why.??There was silence. He saw the scene she had not detailed: her giving herself.

The China-bound victim had in reality that evening to play host at a surprise planned by Ernestina and himself for Aunt Tranter. So let us see how Charles and Ernestina are crossing one particular such desert. She visited. Albertinas. They ought. Thus the simple fact that he had never really been in love became clear proof to Ernestina. I feel for Mrs. fenced and closed. a monument to suspi-cious shock.He knew that nulla species nova was rubbish; yet he saw in the strata an immensely reassuring orderliness in existence. No doubt you know more of it than I do. Speaker. since the later the visit during a stay. But his feet strode on all the faster. When he had dutifully patted her back and dried her eyes. That he had expecta-tions of recovering the patrimony he and his brother had lost. even when they threw books of poetry. But her eyes had for the briefest moment made it clear that she made an offer; as unmistakable. because I request it. Then Ernestina was presented. two-room cottage in one of those valleys that radiates west from bleak Eggardon. but I was in tears. Ha! Didn??t I just. we all suffer from at times.

. for friends.So she entered upon her good deed. and seemed to hesi-tate. A gardener would be dismissed for being seen to come into the house with earth on his hands; a butler for having a spot of wine on his stock; a maid for having slut??s wool under her bed. desolation??could have seemed so great. that generous mouth.????Why. Both journeys require one to go to Dorchester.????I think I might well join you. that could very well be taken for conscious-ness of her inferior status. It might perhaps have been better had he shut his eyes to all but the fossil sea urchins or devoted his life to the distribu-tion of algae. But remember the date of this evening: April 6th. But when you are expected to rise at six.????I ain??t done nothink. Then one morning he woke up. a paragon of mass. exactly a year before the time of which I write; and it had to do with the great secret of Mrs.????No. She snatched it away. her eyes full of tears. sir.??It was. George IV.

Women??s eyes seldom left him at the first glance. but at him; and Charles resolved that he would have his revenge on Mrs. Some half-hour after he had called on Aunt Tranter. Then matters are worse than I thought. ??I come to the event I must tell. It was The Origin of Species. Even Darwin never quite shook off the Swedish fetters. Poulteney found herself in a really intolerable dilemma. Without quite knowing why. as the door closed in their smiling faces. in everything but looks and history. A gentleman in one of the great houses that lie behind the Undercliff performed a quiet Anschluss??with. flirting; and this touched on one of her deepest fears about him.????He made advances.??I feel like an Irish navigator transported into a queen??s boudoir. directly over her face. and Charles can hardly be blamed for the thoughts that went through his mind as he gazed up at the lias strata in the cliffs above him. But when he crossed the grass and looked down at her ledge. But it went on and on. Here there came seductive rock pools.It was not until towards the end of the visit that Charles began to realize a quite new aspect of the situation. Now do you see how it is? Her sadness becomes her hap-piness. 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. long before he came there he turned north-ward.

died in some accident on field exercises. died in some accident on field exercises. as the case might require.She was too shrewd a weasel not to hide this from Mrs. two excellent Micraster tests. The snobs?? struggle was much more with the aspirate; a fierce struggle. This was why Charles had the frequent benefit of those gray-and-periwinkle eyes when she opened the door to him or passed him in the street. He apologized for the humbleness of the place. lama.??Thus ten minutes later Charles found himself comfortably ensconced in what Dr. ??And if you??re not doubly fast with my breakfast I shall fasten my boot onto the posterior portion of your miserable anatomy.??Mrs.So perhaps I am writing a transposed autobiography; per-haps I now live in one of the houses I have brought into the fiction; perhaps Charles is myself disguised.His uncle often took him to task on the matter; but as Charles was quick to point out. But morality without mercy I detest rather more. its black feathers gleaming. Poulteney was inwardly shocked.The reason was simple.?? Mrs. I know it was wicked . supporting himself on his hands. yes. But whether it was because she had slipped. a woman without formal education but with a genius for discovering good??and on many occasions then unclassified??specimens.

Sarah evolved a little formula: ??From Mrs. as a Greek observed some two and a half thousand years ago. behind his square-rimmed spectacles. Deep in himself he forgave her her unchastity; and glimpsed the dark shadows where he might have enjoyed it himself. husband a cavalry officer.????No one frequents it. but also artificially. I know in the manufacturing cities poverties and solitude exist in comparison to which I live in comfort and luxury. She seemed totally indifferent to fashion; and survived in spite of it. since two white ankles could be seen beneath the rich green coat and above the black boots that delicately trod the revetment; and perched over the netted chignon.?? instead of what it so Victorianly was: ??I cannot possess this forever.. Insipid her verse is. dear aunt. Since we know Mrs. eye it is quite simply the most beautiful sea rampart on the south coast of England. It did not intoxicate me. an added sweet.????And are scientific now? Shall we make the perilous de-scent?????On the way back. She turned imme-diately to the back page. still laugh-ing. such as archery. however instinctively. It gave her a kind of wildness.

in short. She was staring back over her shoulder at him. I am most grateful. Smithson. Kneeling.?? She left an artful pause. You must not think I speak of mere envy. the second suffered it. There was outwardly a cer-tain cynicism about him. very slightly built; and all his movements were neat and trim. the man is tranced.When. You may rest assured of that.He moved round the curving lip of the plateau. mostly to bishops or at least in the tone of voice with which one addresses bishops. At the foot of the south-facing bluff. Smithson?? an agreeable change from the dull crop of partners hitherto presented for her examination that season. the greatest master of the ambiguous statement. 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. Prostitutes.Exactly how the ill-named Mrs. it is a good deal more forbidding than it is picturesque. They could not. Mrs.

Ernestina??s mother??????Will be wasting her time. Far from it. moun-tains.Our two carbonari of the mind??has not the boy in man always adored playing at secret societies???now entered on a new round of grog; new cheroots were lit; and a lengthy celebration of Darwin followed. your reserves of grace and courage may not be very large.??I did not know you were here. who lived some miles behind Lyme. But by then she had already acted; gathering up her skirt she walked swiftly over the grass to the east. grooms. and said in a lower voice. ??Monsieur Varguennes was a person of consider-able charm.To both young people it had promised to be just one more dull evening; and both. on a day like this I could contem-plate never setting eyes on London again.??The old fellow would stare gloomily at his claret.. and infinitely the least selfishness; and physical charms to match .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. Forsythe!??She drew herself up. a weak pope; though for nobler ends. but could not; would speak.??I feel like an Irish navigator transported into a queen??s boudoir. Though she had found no pleasure in reading. and loves it. and at last their eyes met.

??I understand. A stronger squall????She turned to look at him??or as it seemed to Charles. But you could offer that girl the throne of England??and a thousand pounds to a penny she??d shake her head.. And most emphatically. Besides he was a very good doctor.??Charles! Now Charles. The blame is not all his. but each time Sarah departed with a batch to deliver Mrs. out of its glass case in the drawing room at Winsyatt. ??You shall not have a drop of tea until you have accounted for every moment of your day. By circumstances. And that. She is employed by Mrs.... and as overdressed and overequipped as he was that day. It is true Sarah went less often to the woods than she had become accustomed to..??Charles craned out of the window. in much less harsh terms.????Envy is forgivable in your??????Not envy. and if mere morality had been her touchstone she would not have behaved as she did??the simple fact of the matter being that she had not lodged with a female cousin at Weymouth.

person returns; what then???But again Sarah did the best possible thing: she said nothing. wicked creature.?? As if she heard a self-recriminatory bitterness creep into her voice again.?? The arrangement had initially been that Miss Sarah should have one afternoon a week free. He hesitated. I talk to her. Poulteney kept one for herself and one for company??had omitted to do so. indeed.The conversation in that kitchen was surprisingly serious. do I not?????You do. he stepped forward as soon as the wind allowed.????Your aunt has already extracted every detail of that pleasant evening from me. if they did not quite have to undergo the ordeal facing travelers to the ancient Greek colonies??Charles did not actually have to deliver a Periclean oration plus comprehensive world news summary from the steps of the Town Hall??were certainly expected to allow themselves to be examined and spoken to. But it was better than nothing and thus encouraged. but the reverse: an indication of low rank. the Georginas. That is a basic definition of Homo sapiens. Leaving his very comfortable little establishment in Kensing-ton was not the least of Charles??s impending sacrifices; and he could bear only just so much reminding of it. ??I did not ask you to tell me these things. Those who had knowing smiles soon lost them; and the loquacious found their words die in their mouths.. Not the dead. do you remember the Early Cretaceous lady???That set them off again; and thoroughly mystified poor Mrs. It is in this aspect that the Cobb seems most a last bulwark??against all that wild eroding coast to the west.

panting slightly in his flannel suit and more than slightly perspiring. the cellars of the inn ransacked; and that doctor we met briefly one day at Mrs..But though death may be delayed.????Indeed I did. though it was mainly to the scrubbed deal of the long table. To claim that love can only be Satyr-shaped if there is no immortality of the soul is clearly a panic flight from Freud. then with the greatest pleasure. blasphemous. sharp. who sometimes went solitary to sleep.????That is what I meant to convey. some time later. I have no choice. who had had only Aunt Tranter to show her displeasure to. unknown to the occupants (and to be fair. In short. in spite of the express prohibition. Miss Woodruff is not insane. on his deathbed.??There was a silence then. little sunlight . Though direct. then moved forward and made her stand.

You won??t believe this.. I could fill a book with reasons. which was tousled from the removal of the nightcap and made him look younger than he was. The new warmth. and Mary she saw every day. Given the veneer of a lady. that Mrs. have suspected that a mutual solitude interested them rather more than maritime architecture; and he would most certainly have remarked that they were peo-ple of a very superior taste as regards their outward appear-ance. She moderated her tone. I could still have left. So.????How am I to show it?????By walking elsewhere. and an inferior who depended on her for many of the pleasures of his table. . ??I thank you. Now the Undercliff has reverted to a state of total wildness. His listener felt needed. without hope. Smithson. since ??Thou shall not wear grenadine till May?? was one of the nine hundred and ninety-nine com-mandments her parents had tacked on to the statutory ten. and saw the waves lapping the foot of a point a mile away.. He realized he had touched some deep emotion in her.

in people.??Sarah murmured. seen sleeping so. make me your confidant. a committee of ladies. Charles thought of that look as a lance; and to think so is of course not merely to de-scribe an object but the effect it has. they fester. of course. near Beaminster. Undoubtedly it awoke some memory in him. not specialization; and even if you could prove to me that the latter would have been better for Charles the ungifted scien-tist. vast. Mrs. have suspected that a mutual solitude interested them rather more than maritime architecture; and he would most certainly have remarked that they were peo-ple of a very superior taste as regards their outward appear-ance. And Captain Talbot was called away on duty soon after he first came. their freedom as well. We who live afterwards think of great reformers as triumphing over great opposition or great apathy.. I am afraid. I have difficulty in writing now.??I have no one to turn to. neither.Charles had already visited what was perhaps the most famous shop in the Lyme of those days??the Old Fossil Shop. a falling raven??s wing of terrible death.

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. The real reason for her silence did not dawn on Charles at first. I told her so. He most wisely provided the girl with a better education than one would expect. the sinner guessed what was coming; and her answers to direct questions were always the same in content. 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. for instead of getting straight into bed after she had risen from her knees. so disgracefully Mohammedan.??Your future wife is a better judge than you are of such matters. In any case. I deplore your unfortunate situation. came back to Mrs. But heaven had punished this son. it cannot be a novel in the modern sense of the word.[* Though he would not have termed himself so. He sprang forward and helped her up; now she was totally like a wild animal. Where you and I flinch back.??We??re not ??orses. when she was convalescent. I un-derstand. in short. if I wish him to be real. With ??er complimums.??Mrs.

He began to cover the ambiguous face in lather. Now do you see how it is? Her sadness becomes her hap-piness. Leastways in looks. Really.????What??s that then?????It??s French for Coombe Street. It seemed to him that he had hardly arrived. you gild it or blacken it. until that afternoon when she recklessly??as we can now realize?? emerged in full view of the two men. in spite of the express prohibition. The veil before my eyes dropped. casual thought. that a gang of gypsies had been living there..????What does that signify. such a child. He declared himself without political conviction.????I had nothing better to do. Charles was thus his only heir; heir not only to his father??s diminished fortune??the baccarat had in the end had its revenge on the railway boom??but eventually to his uncle??s very considerable one.????If they know my story. But morality without mercy I detest rather more. Poulteney.?? But her mouth was pressed too tightly together. I need only add here that she had never set foot in a hospital. But then she realized he was standing to one side for her and made hurriedly to pass him.

This stone must come from the oolite at Portland. Since then she has waited. It could be written so: ??A happier domestic atmosphere. I ??eard you ??ave.??He stood over Charles.??He moved a little closer up the scree towards her. He had rather the face of the Duke of Wellington; but His character was more that of a shrewd lawyer. no better than could be got in a third-rate young ladies?? seminary in Exeter. there. or so it was generally supposed. She had given considerable sums to the church; but she knew they fell far short of the prescribed one-tenth to be parted with by serious candidates for paradise. There was a tight and absurdly long coat to match; a canvas wideawake hat of an indeterminate beige; a massive ash-plant. Smithson. By which he really means. whatever may have been the case with Mrs. in spite of the lack of a dowry of any kind. The inn sign??a white lion with the face of an unfed Pekinese and a distinct resemblance. One phrase in particular angered Mrs. and its rarity. But fortunately she had a very proper respect for convention; and she shared withCharles??it had not been the least part of the first attraction between them??a sense of self-irony. He found a way down to the foot of the bluff and began to search among the scree for his tests. born in a gin palace??????Next door to one. Tranter wishes to be kind. But she would not speak.

then went on. This path she had invariably taken. of course. Society. Mrs. however. ??How come you here?????I saw you pass. Ernestina allowed dignity to control her for precisely one and a half minutes. a better young woman. but not through him. she said as much. .??But Sarah fell silent then and her head bowed. but sincerely hoped the natives were friendly. ma??m.????How romantic. at the vicar??s suggestion. I know my folly. It seemed to him that he had hardly arrived. towards philosophies that reduce morality to a hypocrisy and duty to a straw hut in a hurricane. Then she turned to the front of the book. as if that was the listener. Or indeed.Echoes.

for it remind-ed Ernestina. ma??m. . she was born with a computer in her heart.????Doan believe ??ee. when they see on the map where they were lost. . bounded on all sides by dense bramble thickets. He seemed overjoyed to see me.????I ain??t done nothink. where the tunnel of ivy ended. She walked lightly and surely. Mr. But it charmed her; and so did the demeanor of the girl as she read ??O that my ways were directed to keep Thy statutes!??There remained a brief interrogation. they said. I think you should speak to Sam.I will not make her teeter on the windowsill; or sway forward. but from some accident or other always got drunk on Sundays. Mrs. Poulteney??s bombazined side.????Such kindness?????Such kindness is crueler to me than????She did not finish the sentence. There too I can be put to proof. The world would always be this. her face turned away.

She was so very nearly one of the prim little moppets. a branch broken underfoot. His future had always seemed to him of vast potential; and now suddenly it was a fixed voyage to a known place. glazed by clouds of platitudinous small talk. Higher up the slope he saw the white heads of anemones.Well. Poulteney. 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. Let us imagine the impossible. Poulteney. 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 which hid her from the view of any but one who came.??We??re not ??orses. Dahn out there. as a Greek observed some two and a half thousand years ago. Sam.?? He smiled grimly at Charles. It stood right at the seawardmost end. But heaven had punished this son. by drawing from those pouched. ??Has an Irishman a choice???Charles acknowledged with a gesture that he had not; then offered his own reason for being a Liberal.. than what one would expect of niece and aunt. I gravely suspect.