coat??s high collar and cut.?? And the doctor permitted his Irish nostrils two little snorts of triumphant air. and could not.

but could not; would speak
but could not; would speak. Charles made some trite and loud remark. Poulteney into taking the novice into the unkind kitchen. That computer in her heart had long before assessed Mrs. You see there are parallels. than that it was the nearest place to Lyme where people could go and not be spied on. If you were older you would know that one can-not be too strict in such matters. agreed with them.It was an evening that Charles would normally have en-joyed; not least perhaps because the doctor permitted himself little freedoms of language and fact in some of his tales. Charles felt immediately as if he had trespassed; as if the Cobb belonged to that face.She was in a pert and mischievous mood that evening as people came in; Charles had to listen to Mrs. and moved her head in a curious sliding sideways turn away; a characteristic gesture when she wanted to show concern??in this case. which he had bought on his way to the Cobb; and a voluminous rucksack. We got by very well without the Iron Civilizer?? (by which he meant the railway) ??when I was a young man.????I was about to return. Of course Ernestina uttered her autocratic ??I must not?? just as soon as any such sinful speculation crossed her mind; but it was really Charles??s heart of which she was jealous. I may add.????Very well.??We??re not ??orses. There was a tight and absurdly long coat to match; a canvas wideawake hat of an indeterminate beige; a massive ash-plant. He felt flattered.??The girl stopped. The cultivated chequer of green and red-brown breaks.

a false scholarship. I??ll spread sail of silver and I??ll steer towards the sun. and yet so remote??as remote as some abbey of Theleme. We know she was alive a fortnight after this incident.??My good woman. It took the recipient off balance.?? Something new had crept into her voice.An indispensable part of her quite unnecessary regimen was thus her annual stay with her mother??s sister in Lyme. They had barely a common lan-guage. Poulteney looked somewhat abashed then before the girl??s indignation. but was not that face a little characterless. must seem to a stranger to my nature and circum-stances at that time so great that it cannot be but criminal. did not revert into Charles??s hands for another two years. but she was not to be stopped. so we went to a sitting room.?? ??But. her eyes still on her gravely reclined fiance.?? She raised her hands to her cheeks. whatever show of solemn piety they present to the world. She could not bring herself to speak to Charles.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. Given the veneer of a lady. Smithson.

Ha! Didn??t I just.??I owe you two apologies. beneath the demure knowingness. but women were chained to their role at that time.Not a man. adrift in the slow entire of Victorian time. Fairley??s deepest rage was that she could not speak ill of the secretary-companion to her underlings.??Mr. I am afraid) and returning with pretty jokes about Cupid and hearts and Maid Marian. He would have advised me. He banned from his mind thoughts of the tests lying waiting to be discovered: and thoughts. which he had bought on his way to the Cobb; and a voluminous rucksack..??Gosse was here a few years ago with one of his parties of winkle-picking bas-bleus.??There was a longer silence. Freeman) he had got out somewhat incoherently??and the great obstacles: no money. and an inferior who depended on her for many of the pleasures of his table. ??We know more about the fossils out there on the beach than we do about what takes place in that girl??s mind. The cottage walls have crumbled into ivied stumps. Sarah had twigged Mrs. you??re right.?? cried Ernestina. two-room cottage in one of those valleys that radiates west from bleak Eggardon.

Life was the correct apparatus; it was heresy to think otherwise; but meanwhile the cross had to be borne. I??m as gentle to her as if she??s my favorite niece. He hesitated a moment. Charles did not put it so crudely to himself; but he was not quite blind to his inconsistency.????Is that what made you laugh?????Yes. if I under-stood our earlier conversation aright. I was afraid lest you had been taken ill.????How has she supported herself since . 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. 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. as in so many other things. Perhaps it is only a game. If one flies low enough one can see that the terrain is very abrupt. As if it has been ordained that I shall never form a friendship with an equal. blush-ing. Because you are not a wom-an. Before. And what I say is sound Christian doctrine. Almost envies them.It opened out very agreeably.??Charles showed here an unaccountable moment of embarrass-ment. gathering her coat about her. ??how disgraceful-ly plebeian a name Smithson is.

between her mistress and her mistress??s niece.. my knowledge of the spoken tongue is not good. The long-departed Mr. ma??m.??Sam. Society. Poulteney??s inspection. he gave her a brief lecture on melancholia??he was an advanced man for his time and place??and ordered her to allow her sinner more fresh air and freedom. worse than Sarah. It was a very simple secret. some of them. Not all is lost to expedience. relatives. He himself once or twice turned politely to her for the confirmation of an opinion??but it was without success. Charles fancied a deeper pink now suffused her cheeks. But nov-elists write for countless different reasons: for money. Almost envies them. in spite of Charles??s express prohibition. of herself. I cannot pretend that your circumstances have not been discussed in front of me . and pretend to be dignified??but he could not help looking back.The three ladies all sat with averted eyes: Mrs.

. Without this and a sense of humor she would have been a horrid spoiled child; and it was surely the fact that she did often so apostrophize herself (??You horrid spoiled child??) that redeemed her. Poulteney should have been an inhabitant of the Victorian valley of the dolls we need not inquire. Fairley never considered worth mentioning) before she took the alley be-side the church that gave on to the greensward of Church Cliffs. ??Whose exact nature I am still ignorant of. Everyone knows everyone and there is no mystery. Now I want the truth. Grogan would confirm or dismiss his solicitude for the theologians.????My dear Tina. now long eroded into the Ven. if you had been watching. in my opinion. an object of charity. a respect for Lent equal to that of the most orthodox Muslim for Ramadan.For what had crossed her mind??a corner of her bed having chanced.????But presumably in such a case you would. which was certainly Mrs. let me be frank. It drew courting couples every summer. One must see her as a being in a mist. Her humor did not exactly irritate him. Above them and beyond. Mrs.

a faint opacity in his suitably solemn eyes.??I am sure that is your chair. that made him determine not to go. But whether it was because she had slipped. . I??m a bloomin?? Derby duck. But then she realized he was standing to one side for her and made hurriedly to pass him. dumb. the empty horizon. as he craned sideways down. with odd small pauses between each clipped. seemingly across a plain. He regained the turf above and walked towards the path that led back into the woods. and concerts. perhaps remembering the black night of the soul his first essay in that field had caused. Its device was the only device: What is. a guilt.??Her only answer was to shake her head. it is a pleasure to see you. finally. This. English religion too bigoted.??The Sam who had presented himself at the door had in fact borne very little resemblance to the mournful and indig-nant young man who had stropped the razor.

stood like a mountainous shadow behind the period; but to many??and to Charles??the most significant thing about those distant rumblings had been their failure to erupt. was left well provided for. ??Right across the street she calls. ??And for the heven more lovely one down. I knew then I had been for him no more than an amusement during his convalescence. she wanted me to be the first to meet . He was less strange and more welcome. took her as an opportunity to break in upon this sepulchral Introit. One was a shepherd. He could not be angry with her.??Such an anticlimax! Yet Mrs. He suited Lyme. He heard a hissed voice????Run for ??un. dumb.?? The person referred to was the vicar of Charmouth. Her exhibition of her shame had a kind of purpose; and people with purposes know when they have been sufficiently attained and can be allowed to rest in abeyance for a while. and it was therefore a seemly place to walk. He was slim. sir. that Charles had entered when he had climbed the path from the shore at Pinhay Bay; and it was this same place whose eastern half was called Ware Commons.But she heard Aunt Tranter??s feet on the stairs.The Cobb has invited what familiarity breeds for at least seven hundred years. Her eyes were anguished .

could see us now???She covered her face with her hands. and a keg or two of cider.. Most women of her period felt the same; so did most men; and it is no wonder that duty has become such a key concept in our understanding of the Victorian age??or for that mat-ter. the more clearly he saw the folly of his behavior.????In close proximity to a gin palace. I apologize. Fortunately none of these houses overlooked the junction of cart track and lane. these trees.?? His smile faltered. It was the first disagreement that had ever darkened their love. When they??re a-married orf hupstairs.?? She led him to the side of the rampart. They had only to smell damp in a basement to move house. Charles stood close behind her; coughed. but her eyes studiously avoided his. He himself once or twice turned politely to her for the confirmation of an opinion??but it was without success. He seemed a gentleman. but did not kill herself; that she continued. Finally he put the two tests carefully in his own pocket. either historically or presently.At last she spoke. She added.

I am well aware how fond you are of her. Mrs. I cannot tell you how. no longer souffrante.. moved ahead of him.????He did say that he would not let his daughter marry a man who considered his grandfather to be an ape. I fear the clergy have a tremendous battle on their hands. sure proof of abundant soli-tude. black and white and coral-red.??Charles murmured a polite agreement. and teach Ernestina an evidently needed lesson in common humanity. servants; the weather; impending births. It was badly worn away . but generally not for long??no longer than the careful ap-praisal a ship??s captain gives when he comes out on the bridge??before turning either down Cockmoil or going in the other direction. and the test is not fair if you look back towards land. to ring it. Indeed. A slightly bolder breeze moved the shabby red velvet curtains at the window; but in that light even they looked beautiful. So did the rest of Lyme. your prospect would have been harmonious. sorrow.??She looked up at him again then.

She was a governess. I apologize. so far as Miss Woodruff is concerned. 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. one it is sufficient merely to classify under some general heading (man with alcoholic problems. con.????Indeed I did. Part of her hair had become loose and half covered her cheek. You??d do very nice.??Charles bowed. between us is quite impossible in my present circumstances. She believed me to be going to Sher-borne. He did not care that the prey was uneatable. reproachful glance; for a wild moment he thought he was being accused himself??then realized. Bigotry was only too prevalent in the country; and he would not tolerate it in the girl he was to marry.000 females of the age of ten upwards in the British population. Poulteney would have liked to pursue this interesting subject. sir. could see us now???She covered her face with her hands. She would guess.????So you class Miss Woodruff in the obscure category???The doctor was silent a few moments. That reserve. I know Mrs.

??and something decidedly too much like hard work and sustained concentration??in authorship. but also for any fatal sign that the words of the psalmist were not being taken very much to the reader??s heart. Charles reached out and took it away from him; pointed it at him. She spoke quietly. matched by an Odysseus with a face acceptable in the best clubs. sailed-towards islands. He wore stout nailed boots and canvas gaiters that rose to encase Norfolk breeches of heavy flannel. as well as understanding. In its minor way it did for Sarah what the immortal bustard had so often done for Charles. and after a hundred yards or so he came close behind her. and Charles installed himself in a smaller establishment in Kensington. even the abominable Mrs. looking up; and both sharply surprised. since the Kensington house was far too small and the lease of the Belgravia house. her mauve-and-black pelisse. Human Documentsof the Victorian Golden Age I??ll spread sail of silver and I??ll steer towards the sun. and their ambitious parents. hidden from the waist down. Society. not just those of the demi-monde. in the form of myxomatosis. was not wholly bad.But then some instinct made him stand and take a silent two steps over the turf.

He looked.?? The astonish-ing fact was that not a single servant had been sent on his. radar: what would have astounded him was the changed attitude to time itself. however. so to speak. It did not please Mrs. who put down her fireshield and attempted to hold it. But the far clouds reminded him of his own dissatisfaction; of how he would have liked to be sailing once again through the Tyrrhenian; or riding.The girl lay in the complete abandonment of deep sleep.??She spoke in a rapid.Now tests do not come out of the blue lias. First and foremost would undoubtedly have been: ??She goes out alone. as if he is picturing to himself the tragic scene. She confessed that she had forgotten; Mrs. But you must surely realize that any greater intimacy . Charles took it. All seemed well for two months. and why Sam came to such differing conclusions about the female sex from his master??s; for he was in that kitchen again.?? If the mis-tress was defective in more mundane matters where her staff was concerned. A stronger squall????She turned to look at him??or as it seemed to Charles. She made sure other attractive young men were always present; and did not single the real prey out for any special favors or attention. for amusement: as skilled furniture makers enjoy making furniture. She stood pressed sideways against the sharp needles.

at the vicar??s suggestion. she turned fully to look at Charles. at the house of a lady who had her eye on him for one of her own covey of simperers. let me quickly add that she did not know it. already remarked on by Charles. 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. Her mother and father were convinced she was consumptive. of herself. and dream. and quotations from the Bible the angry raging teeth; but no less dour and relentless a battle. So when he began to frequent her mother??s at homes and soirees he had the unusual experience of finding that there was no sign of the usual matrimonial trap; no sly hints from the mother of how much the sweet darling loved children or ??secretly longed for the end of the season?? (it was supposed that Charles would live permanently at Winsyatt. The ex-governess kissed little Paul and Virginia goodbye. There too I can be put to proof. Melbourne??s mistress??her husband had certainly believed the rumor strongly enough to bring an unsuccessful crim. that shy.But where the telescopist would have been at sea himself was with the other figure on that somber. His answers to her discreetly playful interrogations about his past conquests were always discreetly playful in return; and that was the rub. And that was her health. as all good prayer-makers should. those naked eyes. Us izzen ??lowed to look at a man an?? we??m courtin??. Tranter would wish to say herself.?? He did not want to be teased on this subject.

made Sam throw open the windows and. he pursued them ruthlessly; and his elder son pursued the portable trophies just as ruthlessly out of the house when he came into his inheritance. and it is no doubt symptomatic that the one subject that had cost her agonies to master was mathematics. Not all is lost to expedience. the vulgar stained glass. But you must show it. and overcome by an equally strange feeling??not sexual. You are not too fond.????A-ha. a lady of some thirty years of age. Lyell??s Principles of Geology. He could not say what had lured him on. he glimpsed the white-ribboned bottoms of her pantalettes. a moustache as black as his hair. Perhaps. swooning idyll. 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. she had never dismissed.. And slowly Charles realized that he was in temperament nearer to his grandfather than to either of his grandfather??s sons. was left well provided for. sinking back gratefully into that masculine.But the most serious accusation against Ware Commons had to do with far worse infamy: though it never bore that familiar rural name.

Accordingly. at ease in all his travel. To this distin-guished local memory Charles had paid his homage??and his cash.??Still without looking at him.??I know a secluded place nearby. a weakness abominably raped.??I do not know her. by the mid-century.?? But Sam had had enough.Her outburst reduced both herself and Sarah to silence. What nicer??in both senses of the word??situation could a doctor be in than to have to order for his feminine patients what was so pleasant also for his eye? An elegant little brass Gregorian telescope rested on a table in the bow window. but all that was not as he had expected; for theirs was an age when the favored feminine look was the demure. In London the beginnings of a plutocratic stratification of society had.????No. It was a bitterly cold night.????Control yourself. it encouraged pleasure; and Mrs. but also artificially. You will always be that to me. as if she would answer no more questions; begged him to go. So hard that one day I nearly fainted. I can-not believe that the truth is so. flirtatious surface the girl had a gentle affectionateness; and she did not stint.

When one was skating over so much thin ice??ubiquitous economic oppression. the air that includes Ronsard??s songs.. He looked up at the doctor??s severe eyes.. . one of the prettiest girls she knew. If he returns. He stood at a loss. Almost envies them.. Please. The beating of his heart like some huge clock;And then the strong pulse falter and stand still.????Ursa? Are you speaking Latin now? Never mind. only to wake in the dawn to find the girl beside her??so meekly-gently did Millie. People knew less of each other. Poulteney. and a corre-sponding tilt at the corner of her lips??to extend the same comparison. But the way we go about it. and died very largely of it in 1856. 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. His is a largely unremembered. They are in excellent condition.

gaiters and stockings. by some ingenuous coquetry. which was not too diffi-cult. so that she had to rely on other eyes for news of Sarah??s activities outside her house. Nor could I pretend to surprise.?? Mary had blushed a deep pink; the pressure of the door on Sam??s foot had mysteriously lightened.She looked up at once. their charities.He would have made you smile. not altogether of sound mind. Her mind did not allow itself to run to a Parisian grisette or an almond-eyed inn-girl at Cintra. by drawing from those pouched. stupider than the stupidest animals. which made them seem strong.And the evenings! Those gaslit hours that had to be filled.??But I heard you speak with the man. I should like to see that palace of piety burned to the ground and its owner with it.????Let it remain so.????I do not take your meaning. the tall Charles with his vague resem-blance to the late Prince Consort and the thin little doctor. Poulteney found herself in a really intolerable dilemma. And after all. She believed in hell.

a brilliant fleck of sulphur. All conspired. a very near equivalent of our own age??s sedative pills. a pleasure he strictly forbade himself. He guessed it was beautiful hair when fully loose; rich and luxuriant; and though it was drawn tightly back inside the collar of her coat. There was a small scatter of respecta-ble houses in Ware Valley. and balls. perceptive moments the girl??s tears. and with a verbal vengeance. But though one may keep the wolves from one??s door. Poulteney??then still audibly asleep??would have wished paradise to flood in upon her. stains. Poulteney was as ignorant of that as she was of Tragedy??s more vulgar nickname. the blue shadows of the unknown. in his other hand. She is asleep. for loved ones; for vanity. It must be so.??They walked on a few paces before he answered; for a moment Charles seemed inclined to be serious. blindness to the empirical. but a little lacking in her usual vivacity.????How do you force the soul. People have been lost in it for hours.

She had chosen the strangest position. And I would not allow a bad word to be said about her. 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.Back in his rooms at the White Lion after lunch Charles stared at his face in the mirror. Deli-cate. Though he conceded enough to sport to shoot partridge and pheasant when called upon to do so. she stopped. as Charles had. Yes. but she did not turn. upon examination. you??d do. Yet now committed to one more folly. in short.????I have ties. On the other hand he might. By then he had declared his attachment to me. His thoughts were too vague to be described.Which dumbly spoke of comfort from his tone??You??ve gone to sleep. that is. which Charles examined closely in profile.??They walked on a few paces before he answered; for a moment Charles seemed inclined to be serious. She is asleep.

to see him hatless. Charles??s face is like that of a man at a funeral. He had certainly been a Christian. Poulteney had built up over the years; what satanic orgies she divined behind every tree. which she beats. sloping ledge of grass some five feet beneath the level of the plateau. one dawn. Grogan??s little remark about the comparative priority to be accorded the dead and the living had germinated. doctor of the time called it Our-Lordanum. Nor English. It seemed to both envelop and reject him; as if he was a figure in a dream. that the world had been created at nine o??clock on October 26th.. giving the name of another inn.????The first thing I admired in him was his courage. but so absent-minded . And not only because it is. Surely the oddest of all the odd arguments in that celebrated anthology of after-life anxiety is stated in this poem (xxxv). It was what went on there that really outraged them. de has en haut the next; and sometimes she contrived both positions all in one sentence. Poulteney went to see her. in the presence of such a terrible dual lapse of faith. And I will tell you something.

I think our ancestors?? isolation was like the greater space they enjoyed: it can only be envied. or the subsequent effects of its later indiscriminate consumption. and then to a compro-mise: a right of way was granted.????And begad we wouldn??t be the only ones. but it was the tract-delivery look he had received??contained a most peculiar element of rebuffal. and back to the fork. Mrs. as the poet says. What that genius had upset was the Linnaean Scala Naturae.There was a patter of small hooves. Sun and clouds rapidly succeeded each other in proper April fashion. It is true that to explain his obscure feeling of malaise. Not what he was like.??I know the girl. in order to justify their idleness to their intelligence. Blind. Sam.????Fallen in love with?????Worse than that. cold. like some dying young soldier on the ground at his officer??s feet. Charles. 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.Which dumbly spoke of comfort from his tone??You??ve gone to sleep.

its cruelties and failures were; in essence the Renaissance was simply the green end of one of civilization??s hardest winters. 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. He saw that she was offended; again he had that unaccountable sensation of being lanced. I saw marriage with him would have been marriage to a worthless adventurer. born in a gin palace??????Next door to one. was not wholly bad. But this cruel thought no sooner entered Charles??s head than he dismissed it. pious.. convention demanded that then they must be bored in company. But that??s neither here nor the other place. that life was passing him by. the anus. She could not bring herself to speak to Charles. You may have been. perhaps paternal. All conspired.??No more was said. But I must point out that if you were in some way disabled I am the only person in Lyme who could lead your rescuers to you. who sat as implacably in her armchair as the Queen on her throne. Something about the coat??s high collar and cut.?? And the doctor permitted his Irish nostrils two little snorts of triumphant air. and could not.