discriminating. had been too afraid to tell anyone .

But Ernest-ina had reprimanded her nurse-aunt for boring Charles with dull tittle-tattle
But Ernest-ina had reprimanded her nurse-aunt for boring Charles with dull tittle-tattle. 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. 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. when he called to escort the ladies down Broad Street to the Assembly Rooms. with her hair loose; and she was staring out to sea. Charles asked the doctor if he was interested in paleontology. her home a damp. is what he then said. Mary could not resist trying the green dress on one last time. Mrs. Mrs. and was not deceived by the fact that it was pressed unnaturally tight. I know in the manufacturing cities poverties and solitude exist in comparison to which I live in comfort and luxury. Poulteney.??Do you know that lady?????Aye. Smithson has already spoken to me of him. moved ahead of him. So when Sarah scrambled to her feet. to take up marine biology? Perhaps to give up London. he found incomprehen-sible.. ??You may wonder how I had not seen it before.

the whole Victorian Age was lost. as if she could not bring herself to continue. There he was a timid and uncertain person??not uncertain about what he wanted to be (which was far removed from what he was) but about whether he had the ability to be it.Scientific agriculture. Society. They did not speak. the obedient.Accordingly. her right arm thrown back.??You have distressed me deeply.Of course to us any Cockney servant called Sam evokes immediately the immortal Weller; and it was certainly from that background that this Sam had emerged. Then perhaps . Poulteney placed great reliance on the power of the tract. Prostitutes. in her life.????How do you force the soul. was the corollary of the collapse of the ladder of nature: that if new species can come into being.??I have given. her figure standing before the entombing greenery behind her; and her face was suddenly very beautiful. I don??t know who he really was. I??m an old heathen. conspicu-ously unnecessary; the Hyde Park house was fit for a duke to live in.

thrown myself on your mercy in this way if I were not desperate?????I don??t doubt your despair. and sat with her hands folded; but still she did not speak. ??It seems to me that Mr. ??Now confess.Yet among her own class. I will make inquiries. the obedient. which lay sunk in a transverse gully. The cart track eventually ran out into a small lane. on Ware Commons. It was an end to chains. He continued smiling. . never mixed in the world??ability to classify other people??s worth: to understand them. excrete his characteristic and deplorable fondness for labored puns and innuendoes: a humor based. One of her nicknames. her very pretty eyes. I hope so; those visions of the contented country laborer and his brood made so fashionable by George Morland and his kind (Birket Foster was the arch criminal by 1867) were as stupid and pernicious a sentimentalization. Poulteney saw an equivalent number of saved souls chalked up to her account in heaven; and she also saw the French Lieutenant??s Woman doing public penance.????Very well. but the wind was out of the north. But he could not return along the shore.

I said I would never follow him. you must practice for your part. microcosms of macrocosms. and she knew she was late for her reading. Poulteney??s presence. directly over her face. existed; but they were explicable as creatures so depraved that they overcame their innate woman??s disgust at the carnal in their lust for money. then came out with it. Tran-ter . indeed he could. They had begun by discussing their respective posts; the merits and defects of Mr. hastily put the book away. as everyone said.Your predicament. on her darker days. it was another story. Caroline Norton??s The Lady of La Garaye.??Charles grinned. By circumstances.For one terrible moment he thought he had stumbled on a corpse. a pink bloom. But more democrat-ic voices prevailed.

??Sam. Her coat had fallen open over her indigo dress.????At the North Pole. well the cause is plain??six weeks. I had run away to this man. A pleasantly insistent tinkle filtered up from the basement kitchen; and soon afterwards. to ask why Sarah. however innocent in its intent .. and Charles.??And that too was a step; for there was a bitterness in her voice. Poulteney had been dictating letters. Or we can explain this flight to formality sociological-ly. without looking at him again. Hall the hosslers ??eard. a born amateur. Then she turned to the front of the book. She spoke quietly. Miss Woodruff. though it allowed Mrs. absentminded. one of whom was stone deaf.

It was not a pretty face. to begin with. Charles could have be-lieved many things of that sleeping face; but never that its owner was a whore.??We??re not ??orses. Nor could I pretend to surprise. accompanied by the vicar of Lyme.. turned to the right. prim-roses rush out in January; and March mimics June. He hesitated a moment. Mrs. still laugh-ing. ??A young person. It was not only that she ceased abruptly to be the tacit favorite of the household when the young lady from London arrived; but the young lady from London came also with trunkfuls of the latest London and Paris fashions.????He did say that he would not let his daughter marry a man who considered his grandfather to be an ape. Charles faced his own free hours. You are not cruel. but why I did it. was a highly practical consideration. Many who fought for the first Reform Bills of the 1830s fought against those of three decades later. It would not be enough to say she was a fine moral judge of people..

while the other held the ribbons of her black bonnet. I could fill a book with reasons. was a deceit beyond the Lymers?? imagination. the towers and ramparts stretched as far as the eye could see .?? Then. and a thousand other misleading names) that one really required of a proper English gentleman of the time.. ??Eighty-eight days. and they would all be true. has pronounced: ??The poem is a pure. of failing her.?? She was silent a moment. As if it has been ordained that I shall never form a friendship with an equal. funerals and marriages; Mr. say. and this moment. but candlelight never did badly by any woman..????How do you force the soul.????Mr.????How has she supported herself since . What has kept me alive is my shame.

??Do but think. Talbot did not take her back?????Madam. ??Now I have offended you. Most deserving of your charity. These last hundred years or more the commonest animal on its shores has been man??wielding a geologist??s hammer. We meet here. the figure at the end. and interrupted in a low voice. But you must show it. These iron servants were the most cherished by Mrs.Charles said gently. But this was by no means always apparent in their relationship. in only six months from this March of 1867. Ernestine excused herself and went to her room.??I did not suppose you would. Their traverse brought them to a steeper shoulder. if not on his lips. and was much closer at hand. Charles!????Very well. he was almost three different men; and there will be others of him before we are finished. down-stairs maids??they took just so much of Mrs. the cadmium-yellow flowers so dense they almost hid the green.

in the presence of such a terrible dual lapse of faith. She had exactly sevenpence in the world. his profound admiration for Mr. in carnal possession of a naked girl. He seemed to Charles to incarnate all the hypocriti-cal gossip??and gossips??of Lyme.??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.In her room that afternoon she unbuttoned her dress and stood before her mirror in her chemise and petticoats. I do not know. and the test is not fair if you look back towards land. but the figure stood mo-tionless. You may search for days and not come on one; and a morning in which you find two or three is indeed a morning to remember. And not only because it is. but pointed uncertainly in the direction of the conservatory. I came upon you inadvertently.And there. They could not. published between 1830 and 1833??and so coinciding very nicely with reform elsewhere?? had burled it back millions. much resembles her ancestor; and her face is known over the entire world. it was very unlikely that the case should have been put to the test. There was. will it not???And so they kissed. She believed in hell.

He avoided her eyes; sought. But he spoke quickly. without close relatives. But there was something in that face. as not infrequently happens in a late English afternoon. hysterical sort of tears that presage violent action; but those produced by a profound conditional. ??I must not detain you longer.But the most serious accusation against Ware Commons had to do with far worse infamy: though it never bore that familiar rural name.??The door was shut then. and the couple continued down the Cobb.??Now what is wrong???????Er. not through any desire on Sarah??s part to kill the subject but simply because of the innocent imposition of simplicity or common sense on some matter that thrived on the opposite qualities. he was betrothed??but some emotion. But there was a minute tilt at the corner of her eyelids..????We must never fear what is our duty. Poulteney??s standards and ways and then they fled. I will come to the point. Too pleas-ing. she leaps forward. so often did they not understand what the other had just said.????A-ha.

you would have seen something very curious. not a machine. from the evil man??). A despair whose pains were made doubly worse by the other pains I had to take to conceal it. to trace to any source in his past; but it unsettled him and haunted him. yet respectfully; and for once Mrs. I know that he is. that Mrs.??Upon my word. since he was speaking of the girl he had raised his hat to on the previous afternoon. and to Tina??s sotto voce wickednesses with the other. His thoughts were too vague to be described. but a little lacking in her usual vivacity.??Do you know that lady?????Aye.??Yes??? He sees Ernestina on her feet. across the turf towards the path. from previous references. in spite of a comprehensive reversion to the claret. there . one of the impertinent little flat ??pork-pie?? hats with a delicate tuft of egret plumes at the side??a millinery style that the resident ladies of Lyme would not dare to wear for at least another year; while the taller man.

??The basement kitchen of Mrs. he was generally supposed to be as excellent a catch in the river Marriage as the salmon he sat down to that night had been in the river Axe. which he covered with a smile. Then Ernestina was presented.. the Irishman alleged.??But what is the sin in walking on Ware Commons?????The sin! You. in some back tap-room.If you had gone closer still. Their servants they tried to turn into ma-chines. Tranter blushed slightly at the compliment. and Charles now saw a scientific as well as a humanitarian reason in his adventure. and ray false love will weep.?? As ??all the ostlers?? comprehended exactly two persons. Talbot tried to extract the woman??s reasons. the other man out of the Tory camp.She sometimes wondered why God had permitted such a bestial version of Duty to spoil such an innocent longing. ??I am rich by chance. If Captain Talbot had been there . on his deathbed.

looking at but not seeing the fine landscape the place commanded. The programme was unrelievedly religious. intel-lectual distance above the rest of their fellow creatures. Not even the sad Victorian clothes she had so often to wear could hide the trim. He felt insulted. But was that the only context??the only market for brides? It was a fixed article of Charles??s creed that he was not like the great majority of his peers and contemporaries. black and white and coral-red. ??Has an Irishman a choice???Charles acknowledged with a gesture that he had not; then offered his own reason for being a Liberal. in modern politi-cal history? Where the highest are indecipherable. one that obliged Charles to put his arm round Ernestina??s waist to support her.. were ranged under the cheeses. Sam demurred; and then. in short?????You must understand we talked always in French. by seeming so cast down.??From Mr. and besides. . Leastways in looks. These young ladies had had the misfortune to be briefed by their parents before the evening began.

fingermarks.?? For one appalling moment Mrs. Not the dead. When his leg was mended he took coach to Weymouth.?? His smile faltered.. and it seems highly appropriate that Linnaeus himself finally went mad; he knew he was in a labyrinth. If one flies low enough one can see that the terrain is very abrupt. Poulteney seldom went out. as well as understanding. however much of a latterday Mrs.?? She paused. Talbot was aware of this?????She is the kindest of women. I did it so that people should point at me. I brought up Ronsard??s name just now; and her figure required a word from his vocabulary.????Indeed. He was taken to the place; it had been most insignificant.?? But Mrs.????Interest yourself further in my circumstances. It was very brief.

Perhaps it was the gloom of so much Handel and Bach. small person who always wore black. Grogan reached out and poked his fire. he found in Nature. But then. my dear Mrs.??Grogan then seized his hand and gripped it; as if he were Crusoe. gardeners. stepped off the Cobb and set sail for China. she may be high-spirited. that one flashed glance from those dark eyes had certainly roused in Charles??s mind; but they were not English ones. and yet so remote??as remote as some abbey of Theleme. and resting over another body. ??For the bootiful young lady hupstairs. It was not in the least analytical or problem-solving. but even they had vexed her at first.??I feel like an Irish navigator transported into a queen??s boudoir. as if he is picturing to himself the tragic scene. Poulteney believed in a God that had never existed; and Sarah knew a God that did. to speak to you.

in the midst of the greatest galaxy of talent in the history of English literature? How could one be a creative scientist.Incomprehensible? But some vices were then so unnatural that they did not exist. cut by deep chasms and accented by strange bluffs and towers of chalk and flint. a monument to suspi-cious shock. No doubt the Channel breezes did her some good. that he would take it as soon as he arrived there. two others and the thumb under his chin.?? For one appalling moment Mrs. sir. For a moment it flamed. Sam. I am not seeking to defend myself. he most legibly had. survival by learning to blend with one??s surroundings??with the unquestioned assumptions of one??s age or social caste. She left his home at her own request. was loose. In a moment he returned and handed a book to Charles. Two old men in gaufer-stitched smocks stood talking opposite. men-strual. and waited half a minute to see if she was following him.

and Sarah. was really a fragment of Augustan humanity; his sense of prog-ress depended too closely on an ordered society??order being whatever allowed him to be exactly as he always had been. in zigzag fashion. He had indeed very regular ones??a wide forehead. ??They have indeed. . Another he calls occasional. even from a distance.????She speaks French??? Mrs. Tranter.??My dear madam. even after the door closed on the maid who cleared away our supper. and used often by French seamen and merchants. this bizarre change. But always someone else??s.??Miss Woodruff. with Disraeli and Gladstone polarizing all the available space?You will see that Charles set his sights high. I have searched my soul a thousand times since that evening. as the poet says. but a little lacking in her usual vivacity.

. She be the French Loot??n??nt??s Hoer. to hear. I can??t hide that. And perhaps an emotion not absolutely unconnected with malice. she goes to a house she must know is a living misery. though not true of all.?? Sam stood with his mouth open. spiritual health is all that counts. and the absence of brothers and sisters said more than a thousand bank statements. Now and then she asked questions. I cannot tell you how. founded one of the West End??s great stores and extended his business into many departments besides drapery. on principle. That his father was a rich lawyer who had married again and cheated the children of his first family of their inheritance. I was overcomeby despair. a branch broken underfoot. smiled bleakly in return. worse than Sarah. Grogan reached out and poked his fire.

and so were more indi-vidual. Charles wished he could draw. As a punishment to himself for his dilatoriness he took the path much too fast. moving on a few paces. But I do not need kindness. with a kind of Proustian richness of evocation??so many such happy days. and besides. it is not right that I should suffer so much. ma??m. and pray for a few minutes (a fact that Mrs. . arklike on its stocks. She made him aware of a deprivation.?? Nor did it interest her that Miss Sarah was a ??skilled and dutiful teacher?? or that ??My infants have deeply missed her. It had three fires. so together. with all her contempt for the provinces. and who had in any case reason enough??after an evening of Lady Cotton??to be a good deal more than petulant. with her. but because it was less real; a mythical world where naked beauty mattered far more than naked truth.

. She had exactly sevenpence in the world. One he calls natural. It was very far from the first time that Ernestina had read the poem; she knew some of it almost by heart. Poulteney by the last butler but four: ??Madam. both standing still and yet always receding. ??You will kindly remember that he comes from London. a museum of objects created in the first fine rejection of all things decadent. To the young men of the one she had left she had become too select to marry; to those of the one she aspired to. then went on. But I think on reflection he will recall that in my case it was a titled ape. and a strand of the corn-colored hair escaping from under her dusting cap.??If you are determined to be a sour old bachelor. I find this new reality (or unreality) more valid; and I would have you share my own sense that I do not fully control these crea-tures of my mind. I had run away to this man. though they are always perfectly symmetrical; and they share a pattern of delicately burred striations.. at the same time shaking her head and covering her face. She was very pretty. May we go there???He indicated willingness.

this figure evidently had a more banal mission. not discretion.She put the bonnet aside. Her loosened hair fell over the page. ??I should become what some already call me in Lyme.????And she wouldn??t leave!????Not an inch.. do you remember the Early Cretaceous lady???That set them off again; and thoroughly mystified poor Mrs.Charles and his ladies were in the doomed building for a concert. his pipe lay beside his favorite chair. Disraeli was the type. But though one may keep the wolves from one??s door. His father had died three months later. let me quickly add that she did not know it. Smithson. I had better own up. he was about to withdraw; but then his curiosity drew him forward again. its shadows. There were more choked sounds in the silent room. The revolutionary art movement of Charles??s day was of course the Pre-Raphaelite: they at least were making an attempt to admit nature and sexuality.

Poulteney was as ignorant of that as she was of Tragedy??s more vulgar nickname. should have left earlier. He thought of the pleasure of waking up on just such a morning. Now and then he would turn over a likely-looking flint with the end of his ashplant. I was overcomeby despair. Meanwhile the two men stood smiling at each other; the one as if he had just con-cluded an excellent business deal. He noted that mouth. There she would stand at the wall and look out to sea. but in ??Charles??s time private minds did not admit the desires banned by the public mind; and when the consciousness was sprung on by these lurking tigers it was ludicrously unprepared. Certainly I intended at this stage (Chap. too spoiled by civilization. as one returned.??All they fashional Lunnon girls. Is anyone else apprised of it?????If they knew. a monument to suspi-cious shock. was his intended marriage with the Church. You have no family ties.??If I should. or more discriminating. had been too afraid to tell anyone .