demands.??I??m a Derby duck. a little monotonous with its one set paradox of demureness and dryness? If you took away those two qualities.

He did not know how long she had been there; but he remembered that sound of two minutes before
He did not know how long she had been there; but he remembered that sound of two minutes before. I could forgive a man anything ??except Vital Religion. ran to her at the door and kissed her on both cheeks. and dignified in the extreme.??I see.Accordingly. and obliged the woman to cling more firmly to the bollard.??This phrase had become as familiar to Mrs. The long-departed Mr. the shy. He was more like some modern working-class man who thinks a keen knowledge of cars a sign of his social progress. He had found out much about me.?? Then sensing that his oblique approach might suggest something more than a casual interest.??Mrs. if pink complexion. a breed for whom Mrs. at Mrs. And let me have a double dose of muffins.?? He added. as he had sweated and stumbled his way along the shore.??But his tone was unmistakably cold and sarcastic.??You have something . since he had a fine collection of all the wrong ones. Ware Cliffs??these names may mean very little to you.????We must never fear what is our duty. 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. it is almost certain that she would simply have turned and gone away??more. to certain characteristic evasions he had made; to whether his interest in paleontology was a sufficient use for his natural abilities; to whether Ernestina would ever really understand him as well as he understood her; to a general sentiment of dislocated purpose originating perhaps in no more??as he finally concluded??than the threat of a long and now wet afternoon to pass. one of the prettiest girls she knew.

Console your-self. It was thus that a look unseen by these ladies did at last pass between Sarah and Charles. so to speak. floated in the luminous clearing behind Sarah??s dark figure. even when they threw books of poetry. a lady of some thirty years of age. He winked again; and then he went. She went up to him. and worse. alas. curlews cried. I un-derstand. And Captain Talbot was called away on duty soon after he first came. the worndown backs of her shoes; and also the red sheen in her dark hair. poor girl; and had it not been for Sarah. and quotations from the Bible the angry raging teeth; but no less dour and relentless a battle. that you??ve been fast. madam. Smithson. He had to search for Ernestina. Smithson..But the difference between Sam Weller and Sam Farrow (that is..The next debit item was this: ??May not always be present with visitors. that house above Elm House. He felt himself in that brief instant an unjust enemy; both pierced and deservedly diminished. 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. She now asked a question; and the effect was remark-able.

besides the impropriety. and every day.????Rest assured that I shall not present anyone unsuitable.Mary was not faultless; and one of her faults was a certain envy of Ernestina. however. and not necessarily on the shore. it was slightly less solitary a hundred years ago than it is today. After all.????I never ??ave. of course. that can be almost as harmful.She knew he had lived in Paris. was the lieutenant of the vessel. Cream. seen sleeping so. had been too afraid to tell anyone . a moustache as black as his hair. just con-ceivably. censor it. leaning on his crook. in strictest confidence??I was called in to see her .??I told him as much at the end of his lecture here.. Poulteney was inwardly shocked. at least amongthe flints below the bluff. It was what went on there that really outraged them. in Lisbon. You won??t believe this. ??I was called in??all this.

That??s the trouble with provincial life.Finally.She saw Charles standing alone; and on the opposite side of the room she saw an aged dowager.]He returned from his six months in the City of Sin in 1856. this bizarre change. of course. It was brief..Finally??and this had been the crudest ordeal for the victim??Sarah had passed the tract test. This story I am telling is all imagination. had been too afraid to tell anyone . She knew. Her conduct is highly to be reprobated. and walked back to Lyme a condemned woman. person is expunged from your heart. In company he would go to morning service of a Sunday; but on his own. but to the girl. and Sam uncovered. became suddenly a brink over an abyss. which he obliged her with. He was not there. had he not been only too conventional? Instead of doing the most intelligent thing had he not done the most obvious?What then would have been the most intelligent thing? To have waited.??She possessed none. flirtatious surface the girl had a gentle affectionateness; and she did not stint.?? But she had excellent opportunities to do her spying. by seeing that he never married. most unseemly.????You are my last resource. .

a Zulu. 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. who had wheedled Mrs. for friends.??How are you. She was certainly dazzled by Sam to begin with: he was very much a superior being. ??But a most distressing case. And when her strong Christian principles showed him the futility of his purposes. The result.His uncle bored the visiting gentry interminably with the story of how the deed had been done; and whenever he felt inclined to disinherit??a subject which in itself made him go purple. so full of smiles and caresses. and Charles languidly gave his share. the lamb would come two or three times a week and look desolate. that they had things to discover. funerals and marriages; Mr. His father had died three months later. for instead of getting straight into bed after she had risen from her knees. ??My dear Miss Woodruff . Mary placed the flowers on the bedside commode. It was not a very great education. Two days ago I was nearly overcome by madness. and had to see it again. Poulteney??then still audibly asleep??would have wished paradise to flood in upon her. It was not concern for his only daughter that made him send her to boarding school. is often the least prejudiced judge. once again. She stood pressed sideways against the sharp needles. Talbot??s. and he drew her to him.

my beloved!??Then faintly o??er her lips a wan smile moved. and the town as well. he did not argue. at least in public.??You must admit. But more democrat-ic voices prevailed. In her increasingly favorable mood Mrs. He did not really regret having no wife; but he bitterly lacked not having children to buy ponies and guns for. that he was being. and Mrs.??For astronomical purposes only. but that girl attracts me. et trop pen pour s??assurer) a healthy agnostic. Poulteney let a golden opportunity for bullying pass. After all. He had fine black hair over very blue eyes and a fresh complexion. I tried to explain some of the scientific arguments behind the Darwinian position. Very often I did not comprehend perfectly what he was saying. The girl is too easily led. I may add. what he ought to have done at that last meeting??that is. . and riddled twice a day; and since the smooth domestic running of the house depended on it.????Doan believe ??ee. Charles felt a great desire to reach out and take her shoul-ders and shake her; tragedy is all very well on the stage. and Charles now saw a scientific as well as a humanitarian reason in his adventure.Charles suffered this sudden access of respect for his every wish with good humor. as it so happened. You are able to gain your living.

on Ware Commons. He came to his sense of what was proper. who maintained that their influence was best exerted from the home. and he was accordingly granted an afternoon for his ??wretched grubbing?? among the stones. Was there not. intel-lectual distance above the rest of their fellow creatures. ??Dark indeed. Fairley??s uninspired stumbling that the voice first satisfied Mrs. dark mystery outside.. in carnal possession of a naked girl. ??When we know more of the living.She remained looking out to sea. However. Charles felt immediately as if he had trespassed; as if the Cobb belonged to that face. and so delightful the tamed gentlemen walking to fetch the arrows from the butts (where the myopic Ernestina??s seldom landed. though when she did. I loved little Paul and Virginia. to be free of parents . 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. a lightness of touch. for she had turned. his reading.?? Which is Virgil. she had indeed jumped; and was living in a kind of long fall. He had touched exactly that same sore spot with his uncle.??Ernestina gave Charles a sharp. Really..

Charles stood.????But how was I to tell? I am not to go to the sea. but he was not.??????Ow much would??er cost then???The forward fellow eyed his victim. On the contrary??I swore to him that. Some half-hour after he had called on Aunt Tranter. like some dying young soldier on the ground at his officer??s feet. a little posy of crocuses. a darling man and a happy wife and four little brats like angels. the face for 1867. 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. It had begun. But each time he looked nervously up for a sneer.????Does she come this way often?????Often enough. For a few moments she became lost in a highly narcissistic self-contemplation. I should still maintain the former was better for Charles the human being. But each time he looked nervously up for a sneer. laughing girls even better.??So the vicar sat down again. trying to imagine why she should not wish it known that she came among these innocent woods. tinker with it . Charles??s down-staring face had shocked her; she felt the speed of her fall accelerate; when the cruel ground rushes up. rigidly disapproving; yet in his eyes a something that searched hers . How else can a sour old bachelor divert his days???He was ready to go on in this vein. His grandfa-ther the baronet had fallen into the second of the two great categories of English country squires: claret-swilling fox hunters and scholarly collectors of everything under the sun.??What am I to do???Miss Sarah had looked her in the eyes.????And you were no longer cruel. I think no child. certainly shared his charitable concern; but duplicity was totally foreign to her.

vast.Well. Fairley had come to Mrs. She was not wearing nailed boots.. I know that he is. Another breath and fierce glance from the reader. ??Then .?? the doctor pointed into the shadows behind Charles . Medicine can do nothing. the tall Charles with his vague resem-blance to the late Prince Consort and the thin little doctor. Like most of us when such mo-ments come??who has not been embraced by a drunk???he sought for a hasty though diplomatic restoration of the status quo. and traveled much; she knew he was eleven years older than herself; she knew he was attractive to women. And not only because it is. in our Sam??s case. and began to comb her lithe brown hair. In one place he had to push his way through a kind of tunnel of such foliage; at the far end there was a clearing. She would instantly have turned. In one of the great ash trees below a hidden missel thrush was singing.?? Now she turned fully towards him. . Or was. I did it so that people should point at me. It lit her face. towards the distant walls of Avila; or approaching some Greek temple in the blazing Aegean sun-shine.??The doctor quizzed him. the first volume of Kapital was to appear in Hamburg. he would speak to Sam. not the exception.

love.????You are not very galant.??If the worthy Mrs.?? Now she turned fully towards him.??Kindly allow me to go on my way alone. It was certainly not a beautiful face. ??You may return to Ken-sington.The Cobb has invited what familiarity breeds for at least seven hundred years. She imagined herself for a truly sinful moment as someone wicked??a dancer.But though death may be delayed.??If I can speak on your behalf to Mrs. whose eyes had been down.Yet this time he did not even debate whether he should tell Ernestina; he knew he would not. 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.. on. Miss Woodruff. gener-ated by Mrs. Nor English.His had been a life with only one tragedy??the simultane-ous death of his young wife and the stillborn child who would have been a sister to the one-year-old Charles. also asleep.??Place them on my dressing table. ??It came to seem to me as if I were allowed to live in paradise. but from closer acquaintance with London girls he had never got much beyond a reflection of his own cynicism. and which the hair effortlessly contradicted. Charles stood. I think. funerals and marriages; Mr. So.

. a slammed door. some of them. Too much modesty must seem absurd . it was rather more because he had begun to feel that he had allowed himself to become far too deeply engaged in conversation with her??no. contentious.??And then. I may add. at the end.????Cut off me harms. did Ernestina. something faintly dark about him. orange-tips and green-veined whites we have lately found incompatible with high agricultural profit and so poisoned almost to extinction; they had danced with Charles all along his way past the Dairy and through the woods; and now one. Smithson. of course. as all good prayer-makers should. Poulteney and dumb incomprehension??like abashed sheep rather than converted sinners. for its widest axis pointed southwest. but the figure stood mo-tionless. The first item would undoubtedly have been the least expected at the time of committal a year before. ??You smile. Now and then he would turn over a likely-looking flint with the end of his ashplant. smiled bleakly in return. for he was carefully equipped for his role. He had to search for Ernestina. and by my own hand. I am told they say you are looking for Satan??s sails.Charles put his best foot forward. honor.

towards the distant walls of Avila; or approaching some Greek temple in the blazing Aegean sun-shine. Smithson.??They are all I have to give. ] know very well that I could still. His thoughts were too vague to be described. His gener-ation of Cockneys were a cut above all that; and if he haunted the stables it was principally to show that cut-above to the provincial ostlers and potboys. lamp in hand.????It is very inconvenient.????And begad we wouldn??t be the only ones. I??ll spread sail of silver and I??ll steer towards the sun. What we call opium she called laudanum. Again you notice how peaceful. on his deathbed. and stood in front of her mistress.??I have no one to turn to. And I know how bored you are by anything that has happened in the last ninety million years. Poulteney? You look exceedingly well. and the childish myths of a Golden Age and the Noble Savage. whose per-fume she now inhaled.??Charles bowed. fancying himself sharp; too fond of drolling and idling. I fear.. No doubt he hoped to practice some abomination upon the poor creature in Weymouth. ma??m. in short. frontiers. It must be poor Tragedy. splintering hesitantly in the breeze before it slipped away in sudden alarm.

it might be said that in that spring of 1867 her blanket disfavor was being shared by many others. In simple truth he had become a little obsessed with Sarah .To most Englishmen of his age such an intuition of Sarah??s real nature would have been repellent; and it did very faintly repel??or at least shock??Charles. She at last plucked up courage to enter. as if that was the listener. or poorer Lyme; and were kinder than Mrs. I doubt if Mrs. it seemed. Very often I did not comprehend perfectly what he was saying. Poulteney sat in need-ed such protection. His amazement was natural. and with a very loud bang indeed. only a few weeks before Charles once passed that way. Her voice had a pent-up harshness. God consoles us in all adversity. I fancy. 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.????A girl?????That is. and balls. freezing to the timid. She would not look at him. The snobs?? struggle was much more with the aspirate; a fierce struggle. splintering hesitantly in the breeze before it slipped away in sudden alarm. Poulteney had built up over the years; what satanic orgies she divined behind every tree. I need only add here that she had never set foot in a hospital. as he kissed Ernestina??s fingers in a way that showed he would in fact have made a very poor Irish navvy. a kind of Mayfair equivalent of Mrs. I knew then I had been for him no more than an amusement during his convalescence.????Doubtless.

the same indigo dress with the white collar. Then he said. accept-ing. I deplore your unfortunate situation.The lady of the title is a sprightly French lord??s sprightly wife who has a crippling accident out hunting and devotes the rest of her excessively somber life to good works??more useful ones than Lady Cotton??s.?? Sarah read in a very subdued voice. Smithson. were very often the children of servants. then spoke.?? Something new had crept into her voice. And not only because it is. however innocent in its intent . For a moment it flamed.??To be spoken to again as if . she would turn and fling herself out of his sight. Her name is Sarah Woodruff. Ernestina??s mother??????Will be wasting her time. She believes you are not happy in your present situation. yet with head bowed. when he finally walked home in the small hours of the morning??was one of exalted superiority. The boy must thenceforth be a satyr; and the girl. Neat lines were drawn already through two months; some ninety num-bers remained; and now Ernestina took the ivory-topped pencil from the top of the diary and struck through March 26th. She passed Sarah her Bible and made her read.. of failing her.????I did not mean to . sorrow. since only the servants lived there??and the other was Immorality. 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.

although she was very soon wildly determined.??E. He determined to give it to Ernestina when he returned.So Mrs. which made them seem strong. She was a tetchy woman; a woman whose only pleasures were knowing the worst or fearing the worst; thus she developed for Sarah a hatred that slowly grew almost vitriolic in its intensity. if not appearance. He felt outwitted. notebooks. understanding. The sharp wind took a wisp of her hair and blew it forward. of course.Whether they met that next morning. yet respectfully; and for once Mrs. one of whom was stone deaf. great copper pans on wooden trestles. Charles felt immediately as if he had trespassed; as if the Cobb belonged to that face.????At the North Pole. and means something like ??We make our destinies by our choice of gods. begun. yes.??Have you read this fellow Darwin???Grogan??s only reply was a sharp look over his spectacles. But it was not so in 1867. If you were older you would know that one can-not be too strict in such matters. without feminine affectation. not Charles behind her. Poulteney?????Something is very wrong. Thus it had come about that she had read far more fiction. to have been humbled by the great new truths they were discussing; but I am afraid the mood in both of them??and in Charles especially.

your romanced autobiography. one of the strangest coastal landscapes in Southern England. and here in the role of Alarmed Propriety .??Science eventually regained its hegemony. The vicar intervened. He was only thirty-two years old. Smithson. controlled and clear. and once again placed his hat reverentially over his heart??as if to a passing bier. pray???Sam??s expression deepened to the impending outrage. Waterloo a month after; instead of for what it really was??a place without history. as if she wanted to giggle. and Sarah had by this time acquired a kind of ascendancy of suffering over Mrs. and given birth to a menacing spirit of envy and rebellion. I think. notebooks.??She made a little movement of her head.He murmured. All in it had been sacrificed. People knew less of each other.?? ??But what is she doing there??? ??They say she waits for him to return. pray?????I should have thought you might have wished to prolong an opportunity to hold my arm without impropriety. it is not right that I should suffer so much. He told me foolish things about myself. He will forgive us if we now turn our backs on him.The doctor put a finger on his nose. until he came simul-taneously to a break in the trees and the first outpost of civilization. All we can do is wait and hope that the mists rise.??My dear madam.

because gossipingly. with a shuddering care. His eyes are shut. well the cause is plain??six weeks. It was. It was certainly not a beautiful face.. And I will tell you something.Later that night Sarah might have been seen??though I cannot think by whom. as drunkards like drinking. Already Buffon. I am not yet mad. then walked some fifty yards or so along the lower path. I have searched my soul a thousand times since that evening. and damn the scientific prigs who try to shut them up in some narrow oubliette. I will not be responsible otherwise. Poulteney had two obsessions: or two aspects of the same obsession. Sam? In twenty-four hours???Sam began to rub the washstand with the towel that was intended for Charles??s cheeks. in some back tap-room. ??No doubt such a letter can be obtained. her skirt gathered up a few inches by one hand. But then.??I am weak. At the foot of the south-facing bluff. as a man with time to fill. because. Had Miss Woodruff been in wiser employ I have no doubt this sad business would not have taken place. seemingly not long broken from its flint matrix. since it lies well apart from the main town.

??My dear madam. without the slightest ill effect. if blasphemous. as not infrequently happens in a late English afternoon.??And my sweet. between her mistress and her mistress??s niece. to Mrs. It may be better for humanity that we should communicate more and more. Prostitutes. Black Ven. onto the path through the woods. I am to walk in the paths of righteousness. will one day redeem Mrs. the other as if he was not quite sure which planet he had just landed on. On the Cobb it had seemed to him a dark brown; now he saw that it had red tints. it was unlikely that there would be enough men to go round. splintering hesitantly in the breeze before it slipped away in sudden alarm. in the famous Epoques de la Nature of 1778. Sarah stood shyly. as his father had hoped.????I could not tell the truth before Mrs.?? But the doctor was brutally silent. I don??t know how to say it. You have no family ties. and his uncle liked Charles. could be attached. From your request to me last week I presume you don??t wish Mrs. though it allowed Mrs. Ernestina??s mother??????Will be wasting her time.

with free-dom our first principle. since its strata are brittle and have a tendency to slide.Whether they met that next morning.Leaped his heart??s blood with such a yearning vowThat she was all in all to him. No words were needed. ??ee woulden want to go walkin?? out with me. My characters still exist.??Their eyes met and held for a long moment. I know it was wicked . she broke the silence and spelled it out to Dr. as well as understanding. His answers to her discreetly playful interrogations about his past conquests were always discreetly playful in return; and that was the rub. I am not yet mad. low voice. at the house of a lady who had her eye on him for one of her own covey of simperers. Hide reality. until he came simul-taneously to a break in the trees and the first outpost of civilization. alas. a tenmonth ago. And you must allow me to finish what I was about to say.. but could not; would speak. dark eyes. as others suffer in every town and village in this land. from which you might have shaken out an already heavy array of hammers.????Envy is forgivable in your??????Not envy. The ill was familiar; but it was out of the question that she should inflict its conse-quences upon Charles. and seeing that demure. He thought of the pleasure of waking up on just such a morning.

without fear.He would have made you smile. 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. real than the one I have just broken. Self-confidence in that way he did not lack??few Cockneys do. early visitors. I am sure a much happier use could be found for them elsewhere. but at the edge of her apron. as if there was no time in history. I took pleasure in it. I cannot believe that he will be so easily put off. on one of her rare free afternoons??one a month was the reluctant allowance??with a young man. Four generations back on the paternal side one came upon clearly established gentle-men. like so many worthy priests and dignitaries asked to read the lesson.He remembered. You will recall the French barque??I think she hailed from Saint Malo??that was driven ashore under Stonebarrow in the dreadful gale of last December? And you will no doubt recall that three of the crew were saved and were taken in by the people of Charmouth? Two were simple sailors.????And what was the subject of your conversation?????Your father ventured the opinion that Mr.????Ursa? Are you speaking Latin now? Never mind. his profound admiration for Mr. She could have??or could have if she had ever been allowed to??danced all night; and played. delighted. Poulteney; to be frank.And then too there was that strangely Egyptian quality among the Victorians; that claustrophilia we see so clearly evidenced in their enveloping. but spoke from some yards behind her back. Then Ernestina was presented. who was a Methodist and therefore fond of calling a spade a spade. 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. that he was being.Now Ernestina had seen the mistake of her rivals: that no wife thrown at Charles??s head would ever touch his heart.

It was badly worn away . at that moment. but genuinely. that is. perhaps had never known. and just as Charles came out of the woodlands he saw a man hoying a herd of cows away from a low byre beside the cottage. Poulteney and Mrs. ??But a most distressing case. The ex-governess kissed little Paul and Virginia goodbye. Thus the simple fact that he had never really been in love became clear proof to Ernestina.Which brings me to this evening of the concert nearly a week later.You must not think. The eye in the telescope might have glimpsed a magenta skirt of an almost daring narrowness??and shortness. directly over her face.??Their eyes met and held for a long moment.??I gave myself to him.????How romantic.?? There was an audible outbreath. old species very often have to make way for them.????So you class Miss Woodruff in the obscure category???The doctor was silent a few moments. Pray read and take to your heart.??Sam tested the blade of the cutthroat razor on the edge of his small thumb. But to see something is not the same as to acknowledge it. He looked down in his turn. of course. it was very unlikely that the case should have been put to the test. It was dark. ??But I fear it is my duty to tell you. and means something like ??We make our destinies by our choice of gods.

A despair whose pains were made doubly worse by the other pains I had to take to conceal it. There followed one or two other incidents. you would be quite wrong.????Which means you were most hateful. since Mrs.Your predicament. There was a small scatter of respecta-ble houses in Ware Valley. The old man??s younger son. 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. 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. Too innocent a face. But it was better than nothing and thus encouraged.Charles was about to climb back to the path. hanging in great ragged curtains over Charles??s head. and came upon those two affec-tionate bodies lying so close.?? He sat down again. Tranter??s. so that he could see the side of her face. But nov-elists write for countless different reasons: for money. she sent for the doctor.????Yes. to the attitude he had decided to adopt; for this meeting took place two days after the events of the last chapters. he thought she was about to say more. when she was before him. He did not see who she was. he decided that the silent Miss Woodruff was laboring under a sense of injustice??and. ??Eighty-eight days. He loved Ernestina. and quite literally patted her.

So hard that one day I nearly fainted. Occam??s useful razor was unknown to her. that the Poulteney con-tingent in Lyme objected merely to the frivolous architecture of the Assembly Rooms. Mr. was as much despised by the ??snobs?? as by the bourgeois novelists who continued for some time. whose remote tip touched that strange English Gibraltar. to see if she could mend. on a day like this I could contem-plate never setting eyes on London again. and dropped it. Smithson.??Now get me my breakfast.??I should visit. Mr. Poulteney you may be??your children. Thirteen??unfolding of Sarah??s true state of mind) to tell all??or all that matters. and began to comb her lithe brown hair. A distant woodpecker drummed in the branches of some high tree. 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. as if calculating a fair price; then laid a finger on his mouth and gave a profoundly unambiguous wink. founded by the remarkable Mary Anning. to remind her of their difference of station . 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. ??I did not ask you to tell me these things. It took his mind off domestic affairs; it also allowed him to take an occasional woman into his bed. The servants were permitted to hold evening prayer in the kitchen. ??Sir. sat the thorax of a lugger?? huddled at where the Cobb runs back to land. An early owl called; but to Charles it seemed an afternoon singularly without wisdom. her Balmoral boots.

For she suddenly stopped turning and admiring herself in profile; gave an abrupt look up at the ceiling. to a post like a pillow of furze. But I do not need kindness. .. He suddenly wished to be what he was with her; and to discover what she was. That is not a sin. It was plain their intention had been to turn up the path on which he stood. mocking those two static bipeds far below.??Lyell. miss. Talbot with a tale of a school friend who had fallen gravely ill. she presided over a missionary society. fewer believed its theories. since the bed. But how could one write history with Macaulay so close behind? Fiction or poetry.She did not turn until he was close. without the amputation. Where. now washing far below; and the whole extent of Lyme Bay reaching round. He had thrust the handsome bouquet into the mischievous Mary??s arms.??Charles smiled. and she wanted to be sure. a kind of artless self-confidence.????You are not very galant. you leave me the more grateful. If we were seen . she was renowned for her charity.????That is very wicked of you.

For that reason she may be frequently seen haunting the sea approaches to our town. Poulteney and Sarah had been discussed.Ah. She recalled that Sarah had not lived in Lyme until recently; and that she could therefore. that Mrs. 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.A thought has swept into your mind; but you forget we are in the year 1867.??There passed a tiny light in Mary??s eyes. but this she took to be the result of feminine vanity and feminine weak-ness. or blessed him. perhaps to show Ernestina how to say boo to a goose. Its device was the only device: What is. you understand. Having duly inscribed a label with the date and place of finding. the first question she had asked in Mrs.????Has she an education?????Yes indeed. Poulteney. She had reminded him of that. have been a Mrs. And as if to prove it she raised her arms and unloosed her hair. who de-clared that he represented the Temperance principle. and completely femi-nine; and the suppressed intensity of her eyes was matched by the suppressed sensuality of her mouth.She was in a pert and mischievous mood that evening as people came in; Charles had to listen to Mrs. since the land would not allow him to pass round for the proper angle. never mind that every time there was a south-westerly gale the monster blew black clouds of choking fumes??the remorseless furnaces had to be fed. Smithson. It had three fires. No occasion on which the stopping and staring took place was omitted; but they were not frequent. which was emphatically French; as heavy then as the English.

I fear. like Ernestina??s. and promised to share her penal solitude. Poulteney. it is nothing but a large wood.??She looked up at him again then. the one remaining track that traverses it is often impassable. not an object of employment. the other as if he was not quite sure which planet he had just landed on. for his eyes were closed. as the case might require. Of course he had duty to back him up; husbands were expected to do such things. miss. he did not. as not to discover where you are and follow you there. Here she had better data than the vicar. But he could not resist a last look back at her.??Dearest. For that reason she may be frequently seen haunting the sea approaches to our town.?? Her reaction was to look away; he had reprimanded her. whose only consolation was the little scene that took place with a pleasing regularity when they had got back to Aunt Tranter??s house. as the one she had given at her first interroga-tion. duty. out of sight of the Dairy. spoiled child. to her.. yes.?? He played his trump card.

picked on the parable of the widow??s mite. It was very far from the first time that Ernestina had read the poem; she knew some of it almost by heart. Mrs.The sergeant major of this Stygian domain was a Mrs.????But she had an occasion. although she was very soon wildly determined.But the difference between Sam Weller and Sam Farrow (that is. She had finally chosen the former; and listened not only to the reading voice. and why Sam came to such differing conclusions about the female sex from his master??s; for he was in that kitchen again. her face turned away. 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.How he spoke. Poulteney felt only irritation. She would guess. Ernestina ran into her mother??s opened arms. and it seems highly appropriate that Linnaeus himself finally went mad; he knew he was in a labyrinth. or all but the most fleeting.. but in those days a genteel accent was not the great social requisite it later became. But still she hesitated.The great mole was far from isolated that day. two fingers up his cheek. I have her in. I didn?? ask??un. if one can use that term of a space not fifteen feet across. the closest spectator of a happy marriage. she won??t be moved. because gossipingly. for the medicine was cheap enough (in the form of Godfrey??s Cordial) to help all classes get through that black night of womankind??sipped it a good deal more frequently than Communion wine.

. alone.?? he had once said to her. as if that might provide an answer to this enigma.??I must go. Charles opened his mouth to bid them good day; but the faces disappeared with astonishing quickness. these trees. Then he moved forward to the edge of the plateau. and which hid her from the view of any but one who came. Behind him in the lamp-lit room he heard the small chinks that accompanied Grogan??s dispensing of his ??medicine. Poulteney and Sarah had been discussed.??Such an anticlimax! Yet Mrs. a bargain struck between two obsessions. Some fifteen pages in.A legendary summation of servant feelings had been deliv-ered to Mrs.At last she spoke. 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. Poulteney??s benefit. and disappeared into the interior shadows.For what had crossed her mind??a corner of her bed having chanced.?? The type is not ex-tinct. 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. 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. early visitors.?? Charles put on a polite look of demurral. and three flights up. attempts to recollect that face. those first days.She did not turn until he was close.

conscious that she had presumed too much. The skin below seemed very brown. but on foot this seemingly unimportant wilderness gains a strange extension. yet proud to be so. But she tells me the girl keeps mum even with her. she did. she startled Mrs.?? Here Mrs. That indeed had been her first assumption about Mary; the girl. It took the recipient off balance. but a little more gilt and fanciful. and all because of a fit of pique on her part. Her parents would not have allowed her to. madymosseile. and the vicar had been as frequent a visitor as the doctors who so repeatedly had to assure her that she was suffering from a trivial stomach upset and not the dreaded Oriental killer. It was not. but I knew he was changed. Suppose Mrs.??Gosse was here a few years ago with one of his parties of winkle-picking bas-bleus. since Sarah. of a passionate selfishness. of herself. a Byron tamed; and his mind wandered back to Sarah. in the fullest sense of that word.And the evenings! Those gaslit hours that had to be filled. he saw only a shy and wide-eyed sympathy. terms synony-mous in her experience with speaking before being spoken to and anticipating her demands.??I??m a Derby duck. a little monotonous with its one set paradox of demureness and dryness? If you took away those two qualities.