accompany you? Since we walk in the same direction???She stopped. He felt as ashamed as if he had.

Charles was horrified; he imagined what anyone who was secretly watching might think
Charles was horrified; he imagined what anyone who was secretly watching might think. Poulteney from the start. Poulteney enounced to him her theories of the life to come. he hardly dared to dwell. He looked up at the doctor??s severe eyes. as a man with time to fill. If she went down Cockmoil she would most often turn into the parish church. in short. who had had only Aunt Tranter to show her displeasure to. But the great ashes reached their still bare branches over deserted woodland. he found himself greeted only by that lady: Ernestina had passed a slightly disturbed night. your reserves of grace and courage may not be very large. so pic-turesquely rural; and perhaps this exorcizes the Victorian horrors that took place there. Poulteney??s horror of the carnal. then stopped to top up their glasses from the grog-kettle on the hob. We think (unless we live in a research laboratory) that we have nothing to discover.Sarah went towards the lectern in the corner of the room. The couple moved to where they could see her face in profile; and how her stare was aimed like a rifle at the farthest horizon. Ernestine excused herself and went to her room.

. each time she took her throne. upon which she had pressed a sprig of jasmine. too. in the most brutish of the urban poor. Poulteney; to be frank.?? She stared out to sea. They could not. of course. in much less harsh terms.??Still the mouth remained clamped shut; and a third party might well have wondered what horror could be coming.????But is not the deprivation you describe one we all share in our different ways??? She shook her head with a surprising vehemence.?? She laid the milkwort aside. as on the day we have described.??Your future wife is a better judge than you are of such matters. Poulteney??s alarm at this appall-ing disclosure was nearly enough to sink the vicar. I am afraid.????Then you should know better than to talk of a great man as ??this fellow. and practiced in London.

or even yourself. something singu-larly like a flash of defiance. At least here she knew she would have few rivals in the taste and luxury of her clothes; and the surreptitious glances at her little ??plate?? hat (no stuffy old bonnets for her) with its shamrock-and-white ribbons. so pic-turesquely rural; and perhaps this exorcizes the Victorian horrors that took place there. ??Then no doubt it was Sam. for the very simple reason that the word was not coined (by Huxley) until 1870; by which time it had become much needed. and therefore am sad. Her humor did not exactly irritate him. Poulteney??s bombazined side. 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. images. Per-haps what was said between us did not seem very real to me because of that.. or at least realized the sex of. Tranter looked hurt. never inhabit my own home. the goldfinch was given an instant liberty; where-upon it flew to Mrs. ??I must insist on knowing of what I am accused. and to Tina??s sotto voce wickednesses with the other.

He passed a very thoughtful week.??This new revelation. with the memory of so many departed domestics behind her. It seemed to both envelop and reject him; as if he was a figure in a dream. and sincerely.??You might have heard. I will come here each afternoon. Having duly inscribed a label with the date and place of finding. the despiser of novels. He had traveled abroad with Charles. It is not only that he has begun to gain an autonomy;I must respect it.??Is something wrong. He was the devil in the guise of a sailor. an actress.????By heavens. Fairley herself had stood her mistress so long was one of the local wonders. What was unnatural was his now quite distinct sense of guilt. I do not know what you can expect of me that I haven??t already offered to try to effect for you. but one from which certain inexplicable errors of taste in the Holy Writ (such as the Song of Solomon) had been piously excised??lay in its off-duty hours.

Very often I did not comprehend perfectly what he was saying. with a forestalling abruptness. with a kind of Proustian richness of evocation??so many such happy days. Undoubtedly it awoke some memory in him.. that one flashed glance from those dark eyes had certainly roused in Charles??s mind; but they were not English ones. ma??m. had not . Smithson?? an agreeable change from the dull crop of partners hitherto presented for her examination that season.????But I can guess who it is. but all that was not as he had expected; for theirs was an age when the favored feminine look was the demure. I could forgive a man anything ??except Vital Religion. 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. then came out with it.Charles was therefore interested??both his future father-in-law and his uncle had taught him to step very delicately in this direction??to see whether Dr.??If you are determined to be a sour old bachelor. a crushing and unrelenting canopy of parental worry. Dessay we??ll meet tomorrow mornin??. and walk out alone); and above all on the subject of Ernestina??s being in Lyme at all.

Now will you please leave your hiding place? There is no impropriety in our meeting in this chance way.. ??My life has been steeped in loneliness. Charles watched her black back recede. Talbot is my own age exactly. The Origin of Species is a triumph of generalization. So hard that one day I nearly fainted.??She walked away from him then. Indeed I cannot believe that you should be anything else in your present circumstances. But it did not. a paragon of mass. that Mrs.????Kindly put that instrument down.That running sore was bad enough; a deeper darkness still existed. But you must show it. Each age. It took the recipient off balance. Tranter and her two young companions were announced on the morning following that woodland meeting. as if I am not whom I am .

while Charles knew very well that his was also partly a companion??his Sancho Panza.All this (and incidentally. He was a bald.??He knelt beside her and took her hand.There would have been a place in the Gestapo for the lady; she had a way of interrogation that could reduce the sturdiest girls to tears in the first five minutes. I had better add. elephantine but delicate; as full of subtle curves and volumes as a Henry Moore or a Michelangelo; and pure. Poulteney allowed herself to savor for a few earnest.????No gentleman who cares for his good name can be seen with the scarlet woman of Lyme. Aunt Tranter backed him up. He spoke no English...????What about???????Twas just the time o?? day.????What??s that then?????It??s French for Coombe Street. its worship not only of the literal machine in transport and manufacturing but of the far more terrible machine now erecting in social convention. since sooner or later the news must inevi-tably come to Mrs.????William Manchester. the Morea.

and where Millie had now been put to bed. you won??t. of failing her. sir. but forbidden to enjoy it. my knowing that I am truly not like other women. Tranter. one may think. A day came when I thought myself cruel as well.. a knock.. His leg had been crushed at the first impact. Besides. He realized he had touched some deep emotion in her. At the time of his wreck he said he was first officer. And it??s like jumping a jarvey over a ten-foot wall. the small but ancient eponym of the inbite. something faintly dark about him.

But when you are expected to rise at six. He reflect-ed. but her skin had a vigor. and staring gravely across the Axminster carpet at Tina. I am not seeking to defend myself.????But are your two household gods quite free of blame? Who was it preached the happiness of the greatest number?????I do not dispute the maxim. occupied in an implausible adjustment to her bonnet. Now Mrs. Poulteney of the sinner??s compounding of her sin. and pronounced green sickness. Talbot is a somewhat eccentric lady. She smiled even. Thus I blamed circumstances for my situation. or to pull the bell when it was decided that the ladies would like hot chocolate.?? But Sam had had enough.However. Its outer edge gave onto a sheer drop of some thirty or forty feet into an ugly tangle of brambles.In Broad Street Mary was happy. It is true also that she took some minimal precautions of a military kind.

Naples.?? ??The Aetiology of Freedom. Darwinism. yet he tries to pretend that he does. Poulteney.. If that had been all Sarah craved she had but to walk over the lawns of Marlborough House. before whom she had metaphorically to kneel. was that Sarah??s every movement and expression?? darkly exaggerated and abundantly glossed??in her free hours was soon known to Mrs. the old branch paths have gone; no car road goes near it. he tacitly took over the role of host from the younger man.??How are you. I feel for Mrs. Sarah had twigged Mrs. A time came when Varguennes could no longer hide the na-ture of his real intentions towards me. that soon she would have to stop playing at mistress.She saw Charles standing alone; and on the opposite side of the room she saw an aged dowager. and to which the memory or morals of the odious Prinny. adorable chil-dren.

he foresaw only too vividly that she might put foolish female questions. ??I must insist on knowing of what I am accused. The girl??s appearance was strange; but her mind??as two or three questions she asked showed??was very far from deranged. His thoughts were too vague to be described. redolent of seven hundred years of English history. Tranter only a very short time. as if it might be his last. refuse to enter into conversation with her. since she giggled after she was so grossly abused by the stableboy. ??You will reply that it is troubled. Grogan was.?? He paused and smiled at Charles.??I should like Mr.??He smiled at her timid abruptness. because the book had been a Christmas present. .??The basement kitchen of Mrs. Tranter.He came at last to the very edge of the rampart above her.

of course. the towers and ramparts stretched as far as the eye could see . But she tells me the girl keeps mum even with her. Poulteney; it now lay in her heart far longer than the enteritis bacilli in her intes-tines. When I was your age . and Sarah had simply slipped into the bed and taken the girl in her arms. I said I would never follow him. When Mrs. He might perhaps have seen a very contemporary social symbolism in the way these gray-blue ledges were crumbling; but what he did see was a kind of edificiality of time. and was on the point of turning through the ivy with no more word. an oil painting done of Frederick only two years before he died in 1851. It was rather an uncanny??uncanny in one who had never been to London.He had had graver faults than these. the more real monster.I will not make her teeter on the windowsill; or sway forward. A gentleman in one of the great houses that lie behind the Undercliff performed a quiet Anschluss??with. and who had in any case reason enough??after an evening of Lady Cotton??to be a good deal more than petulant. Poulteney saw her servants with genuinely attentive and sometimes positively religious faces.??I am sure that is your chair.

But then he came to a solution to his problem??not knowing exactly how the land lay??for yet another path suddenly branched to his right. duty. Poulteney in the eyes and for the first time since her arrival. adzes and heaven knows what else. And heaven knows the simile was true also for the plowman??s daughter. or at least realized the sex of. Sam had stiffened. on a day like this I could contem-plate never setting eyes on London again.??Lyell. sir. if you had turned northward and landward in 1867. They served as a substitute for experience. kind Mrs.. if I wish him to be real. and without the then indispensable gloss of feminine hair oil.??Sam. Indeed her mouth did something extraordinary. ??Ernestina my dear .

that confine you to Dorset. Strangers were strange. prim-roses rush out in January; and March mimics June. A tiny wave of the previous day??s ennui washed back over him. 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. radar: what would have astounded him was the changed attitude to time itself. I do not like the French. that the world had been created at nine o??clock on October 26th. Poulteney. They did not accuse Charles of the outrage. It had begun.Under this swarm of waspish self-inquiries he began to feel sorry for himself??a brilliant man trapped. there was no sign. and take her away with him.?? But Mrs. If I had left that room. arid scents in his nostrils. But even the great French naturalist had not dared to push the origin of the world back further than some 75. they say.

hypocrite lecteur. Ernestina allowed dignity to control her for precisely one and a half minutes. We who live afterwards think of great reformers as triumphing over great opposition or great apathy. because I request it. laughing girls even better. the centuries-old mark of the common London-er.??I am told the vicar is an excellently sensible man. Mrs. That reserve. She turned away and went on in a quieter voice. almost fierce on occasion. action against the great statesman; and she was an ardent feminist?? what we would call today a liberal. She was not standing at her window as part of her mysterious vigil for Satan??s sails; but as a preliminary to jumping from it. my dear Mrs. Undoubtedly it awoke some memory in him. ??Since you??ve been walking on them now for at least a minute??and haven??t even deigned to remark them. censor it. so also did two faces. Mrs.

as others suffer in every town and village in this land. slip into her place.Exactly how the ill-named Mrs. watching from the lawn beneath that dim upper window in Marlborough House; I know in the context of my book??s reality that Sarah would never have brushed away her tears and leaned down and delivered a chapter of revelation. under the cloak of noble oratory. he most legibly had. The beating of his heart like some huge clock;And then the strong pulse falter and stand still. I feel for Mrs. that he had drugged me . with frequent turns towards the sea. or at any rate with the enigma she presented. But Sarah changed all that. And their directness of look??he did not know it. such a child. She is employed by Mrs. a little posy of crocuses. a weakness abominably raped. Poulteney??s. must seem to a stranger to my nature and circum-stances at that time so great that it cannot be but criminal.

flint implements and neolithic graves. ??I interrupted your story. He saw the scene she had not detailed: her giving herself.??She spoke in a rapid. an actress. even from a distance.??That girl I dismissed??she has given you no further trou-ble???Mrs.. wrappings.????I did not mean to . he had one disappointment. he rarely did. Talbot. methodically. Is anyone else apprised of it?????If they knew. But if she had after all stood there. Poulteney on her wickedness. one that obliged Charles to put his arm round Ernestina??s waist to support her. I know Mrs.

?? Now she turned fully towards him. He would speak to Sam; by heavens. floated in the luminous clearing behind Sarah??s dark figure. . They felt an opportunism. you would have seen that her face was wet with silent tears. But Mrs.?? complained Charles. it might be said that in that spring of 1867 her blanket disfavor was being shared by many others. had severely reduced his dundrearies. She had exactly sevenpence in the world.. One look at Millie and her ten miserable siblings should have scorched the myth of the Happy Swain into ashes; but so few gave that look.??It is a most fascinating wilderness.He knew at once where he wished to go. When they??re a-married orf hupstairs.It was not until towards the end of the visit that Charles began to realize a quite new aspect of the situation.????And he abandoned her? There is a child??? ??No. Tranter.

Perhaps. handsome. a kind of artless self-confidence. ??For the bootiful young lady hupstairs. black and white and coral-red. had a poor time of it for many months. very soon it would come back to him. as its shrewder opponents realized.?? There was an audible outbreath. He had realized she was more intelligent and independent than she seemed; he now guessed darker quali-ties. and stared back up at him from her ledge.By 1870 Sam Weller??s famous inability to pronounce v except as w. 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. This was certainly why the poem struck so deep into so many feminine hearts in that decade. And I know how bored you are by anything that has happened in the last ninety million years. make me your confidant. very cool; a slate floor; and heavy with the smell of ripening cheese.??May I not accompany you? Since we walk in the same direction???She stopped. He felt as ashamed as if he had.