with her accompanist. as if she wanted to giggle. I am not yet mad.

and interrupted in a low voice
and interrupted in a low voice. Her voice had a pent-up harshness. almost calm. then went on. eye it is quite simply the most beautiful sea rampart on the south coast of England. her vert esperance dress. an English Juliet with her flat-footed nurse.But I am a novelist. And explain yourself.. But I think on reflection he will recall that in my case it was a titled ape. ??Another dress??? he suggested diffidently. I foolishly believed him. Even Darwin never quite shook off the Swedish fetters. She gazed for a moment out over that sea she was asked to deny herself. which I am given to understand you took from force of circumstance rather than from a more congenial reason.The conversation in that kitchen was surprisingly serious.????In such brutal circumstance?????Worse. For a long moment she seemed almost to enjoy his bewilderment. Now with Sarah there was none of all this. beneath the demure knowingness. She could not bring herself to speak to Charles.

Sarah??s offer to leave had let both women see the truth. ??and a divilish bit better too!???? Charles smiled. Fairley will give you your wages. but he clung to a spar and was washed ashore. the least sign of mockery of his absurd pretensions.????I should certainly wish to hear it before proceeding. and this moment. But it is indifferent to the esteem of such as Mrs. The house was silent. with Lyell and Darwin still alive? Be a statesman. ??Then . I will not argue. Almost at once he picked up a test of Echinocorys scutata.??This phrase had become as familiar to Mrs. Sarah had seen the tiny point of light; and not given it a second thought. You are a cunning. Some said that after midnight more reeling than dancing took place; and the more draconian claimed that there was very little of either. What had really knocked him acock was Mary??s innocence.??You went to Weymouth?????I deceived Mrs. to trace to any source in his past; but it unsettled him and haunted him. heavy eyebrows . Poulteney.

their charities. pleasantly dwarfed as he made his way among them towards the almost vertical chalk faces he could see higher up the slope. six days at Marlborough House is enough to drive any normal being into Bedlam. to this wild place. Strangers were strange.??I never found the right woman. The cottage walls have crumbled into ivied stumps. and Sam uncovered. footmen. So her manner with him took often a bizarre and inconse-quential course.??This new revelation.??Ernestina had exactly the right face for her age; that is. She turned imme-diately to the back page. But heaven had punished this son. Jem!???? and the sound of racing footsteps. But he spoke quickly. woodmen. but he found himself not in the mood.??I will tolerate much.??Silence. I do not know. And then the color of those walls! They cried out for some light shade.

the ineffable . That ??divilish bit better?? will be the ruin of this country. of her being unfairly outcast. These young ladies had had the misfortune to be briefed by their parents before the evening began. and hand to his shoulder made him turn. ??I interrupted your story. and far more poetry.*[* The stanzas from In Metnoriam I have quoted at the beginning of this chapter are very relevant here. and could not. on the open rafters above. but other than the world that is.????I did not mean to . to have Charles. but he also knew very well on which side his pastoral bread was buttered.. to ring it. ??I think her name is Woodruff. But he contained his bile by reminding her that she slept every afternoon; and on his own strict orders. ??You will kindly remember that he comes from London. The girl became a governess to Captain John Talbot??s family at Charmouth. and this moment. 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.

But the most abominable thing of all was that even outside her house she acknowledged no bounds to her authority. the small but ancient eponym of the inbite. But I think we may safely say that it had become the objective correlative of all that went on in her own subconscious. But you will confess that your past relations with the fair sex have hardly prepared me for this. He watched closely to see if the girl would in any way betray their two meetings of the day before.??An eligible has occurred to me. The farther he moved from her. painfully out of place in the background; and Charles and Ernestina stood easily on the carpet behind the two elder ladies.??Mrs. not authority. if I under-stood our earlier conversation aright.. and countless scien-tists in other fields. What doctor today knows the classics? What amateur can talk comprehensibly to scientists? These two men??s was a world without the tyranny of specialization; and I would not have you??nor would Dr.?? But Sam had had enough. It is true that the more republican citizens of Lyme rose in arms??if an axe is an arm.????It was a warning.????Happen so. She. And then.?? He did not want to be teased on this subject. He had intended to write letters.

??I did not know you were here. He was especially solicitous to Ernestina. then moved forward and made her stand. Poulteney??s life. since his moral delicacy had not allowed him to try the simple expedient of a week in Ostend or Paris.????Then you should know better than to talk of a great man as ??this fellow. He will forgive us if we now turn our backs on him. raised its stern head. a little posy of crocuses. Very soon he marched firmly away up the steeper path. It was not the devil??s instrument. Poulteney began. Charles knew nothing of the beavered German Jew quietly working. The girl is too easily led. And the most innocent. agreed with them. There was only one answer to a crisis of this magnitude: the wicked youth was dispatched to Paris. ma??m. ??A very strange case. But to return to the French gentleman. in short.??Ah.

Given the veneer of a lady. that he had taken Miss Woodruff altogether too seriously??in his stumble. of course; to have one??s own house. then. he would speak to Sam.. at the least expected moment. so often brought up by hand. The name of the place? The Dairy. But in his second year there he had drifted into a bad set and ended up. ma??m. and worse. I think he was a little like the lizard that changes color with its surround-ings. if not in actual words.Then. the heart was torn out of the town; and no one has yet succeeded in putting it back.??Ernestina had exactly the right face for her age; that is. Charles followed her into the slant-roofed room that ran the length of the rear of the cottage. Thus they are in the same position as the drunkard brought up before the Lord Mayor. in which two sad-faced women stand in the rain ??not a hundred miles from the Haymarket.????Come come. Poulteney had never set eyes on Ware Commons.

Another girl. Ernestina began to cry again; then dried her eyes. freezing to the timid. than that it was the nearest place to Lyme where people could go and not be spied on. Darwinism.That evening Charles found himself seated between Mrs.?? Here Mrs. It had brought out swarms of spring butterflies. her responsibility for Mrs. He sensed that Mrs. the brave declaration qualified into cowardice. This. she sent for the doctor. such a wet blanket in our own. with something of the abruptness of a disin-clined bather who hovers at the brink. She saw their meannesses. ??She ??as made halopogies. oblivious of the blood sacrifice her pitiless stone face de-manded. as if at a door. in much less harsh terms. Poulteney. It was not a very great education.

yet he tries to pretend that he does. and was pretending to snip off some of the dead blooms of the heavily scented plant. who was a Methodist and therefore fond of calling a spade a spade. But she had a basic solidity of character. and the white stars of wild strawberry..????I do not take your meaning. and Sam uncovered. He watched closely to see if the girl would in any way betray their two meetings of the day before. Charles cautiously opened an eye. But the commonage was done for. And he had always asked life too many questions. Poulteney felt herself with two people. but her head was turned away. Talbot knew French no better than he did English. He told us he came from Bordeau. I do not know what you can expect of me that I haven??t already offered to try to effect for you.An easterly is the most disagreeable wind in Lyme Bay?? Lyme Bay being that largest bite from the underside of England??s outstretched southwestern leg??and a person of curiosity could at once have deduced several strong probabili-ties about the pair who began to walk down the quay at Lyme Regis. She had reminded him of that. or no more.000 years.?? the doctor pointed into the shadows behind Charles .

but fraternal. and was therefore at a universal end.????My dear lady. The hunting accident has just taken place: the Lord of La Garaye attends to his fallen lady. ma??m. out of its glass case in the drawing room at Winsyatt. But he couldn??t find the words. stepped massively inland. This stone must come from the oolite at Portland.So if you think all this unlucky (but it is Chapter Thir-teen) digression has nothing to do with your Time. But the way we go about it. Why Sam. Mr. for which light duty he might take the day as his reward (not all Victorian employers were directly responsible for communism). the shy. Mary was the niece of a cousin of Mrs. with his top hat held in his free hand. Cupid is being unfair to Cockneys. among his not-too-distant ancestors. There were so many things she must never understand: the richness of male life.. ??Now this girl??what is her name??? Mary???this charming Miss Mary may be great fun to tease and be teased by??let me finish??but I am told she is a gentle trusting creature at heart.

Her loosened hair fell over the page. Poulteney as a storm cone to a fisherman; but she observed convention. The wind moved them. his patients?? temperament. I said ??in wait??; but ??in state?? would have been a more appropriate term. Now I want the truth. very much down at him. She was certainly dazzled by Sam to begin with: he was very much a superior being. I have searched my soul a thousand times since that evening. what I beg you to understand is not that I did this shameful thing.And then too there was that strangely Egyptian quality among the Victorians; that claustrophilia we see so clearly evidenced in their enveloping. Strangely. guffaws from Punch (one joke showed a group of gentlemen besieging a female Cabinet minister. Not-on.?? The agonized look she flashed at him he pretended..Sarah??s voice was firm. that vivacious green. and left the room. She could have??or could have if she had ever been allowed to??danced all night; and played. it was agreeably warm; and an additional warmth soon came to Charles when he saw an excellent test. Charles asked the doctor if he was interested in paleontology.

he felt . a room his uncle seldom if ever used. There was first of all a very material dispute to arbitrate upon??Ernestina??s folly in wearing grenadine when it was still merino weather.. Now with Sarah there was none of all this. She slept badly. but women were chained to their role at that time. Too innocent a face. 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. then he would be in very hot water indeed. little better than a superior cart track itself. Did not see dearest Charles.??Charles smiled then. Certainly I intended at this stage (Chap.. my blindness to his real character. so together.?? the Chartist cried. seemingly not long broken from its flint matrix. duty. They did not speak. in which two sad-faced women stand in the rain ??not a hundred miles from the Haymarket.

wild-voiced beneath the air??s blue peace.The reason was simple. but Charles had also the advantage of having read??very much in private. but I will not tolerate this. Leaving his very comfortable little establishment in Kensing-ton was not the least of Charles??s impending sacrifices; and he could bear only just so much reminding of it. The old lady had detected with her usual flair a gross dereliction of duty: the upstairs maid whose duty it was unfailingly each Tuesday to water the ferns in the second drawing room??Mrs. of limitation.. He said finally he should wait one week. This principle explains the Linnaean obsession with classifying and naming. hesitated. for this was one of the last Great Bustards shot on Salisbury Plain.??Mrs. a paragon of mass. of course. But the only music from the deep that night was the murmur of the tide on the shingle; and somewhere much farther out.??The vicar felt snubbed; and wondered what would have happened had the Good Samaritan come upon Mrs.????I had nothing better to do. no better than could be got in a third-rate young ladies?? seminary in Exeter. very much down at him. And let me have a double dose of muffins. I don??t like to go near her.

and meet Sarah again. with a sound knowledge of that most important branch of medicine.????Let us elope. Poulteney and Sarah had been discussed.. Incomprehension. woodmen.????But it would most certainly matter. What we call opium she called laudanum. But she had no theology; as she saw through people.????That does not excuse her in my eyes.????And the commons?????Very hacceptable.Nobody in Lyme liked good food and wine better; and the repast that Charles and the White Lion offered meeting his approval. truly beautiful.????Most certainly I should hope to place a charitable con-struction upon your conduct. a Byron tamed; and his mind wandered back to Sarah. I think it made me see more clearly . it is almost certain that she would simply have turned and gone away??more. Now it had always vexed her that not even her most terrible stares could reduce her servants to that state of utter meekness and repentance which she con-sidered their God (let alone hers) must require. And it??s like jumping a jarvey over a ten-foot wall. in all ways protected. If that had been all Sarah craved she had but to walk over the lawns of Marlborough House.

I promise not to be too severe a judge. ??My life has been steeped in loneliness. I can??t hide that.. She had reminded him of that.?? He tried to expostulate. When the doctor dressed his wound he would clench my hand.His choice was easy; he would of course have gone wher-ever Ernestina??s health had required him to. We consider such frankness about the real drives of human behavior healthy. They bubbled as the best champagne bubbles. was a highly practical consideration. looking up; and both sharply surprised. whence she would return to Lyme. both women were incipient sadists; and it was to their advantage to tolerate each other. Poulteney. did give the appearance..There were. but I most certainly failed. Fairley that she had a little less work. but the figure stood mo-tionless. tinker with it .

of the condition.The grog was excellent.??There was a little silence. to have Charles. Dizzystone put up a vertiginous joint performance that year; we sometimes forget that the passing of the last great Reform Bill (it became law that coming August) was engineered by the Father of Modern Conservatism and bitterly opposed by the Great Liberal.??It cannot concern Miss Woodruff?????Would that it did not. understand why she behaves as she does. and was not deceived by the fact that it was pressed unnaturally tight.????And just now when I seemed . When one was skating over so much thin ice??ubiquitous economic oppression.To be sure. It was not in the least analytical or problem-solving. I do. It was not a very great education. I understand you have excellent qualifications.??I feel like an Irish navigator transported into a queen??s boudoir.????I am not concerned with your gratitude to me. because they were all sold; not because she was an early forerunner of the egregious McLuhan. 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. like all matters pertaining to her comfort.??The sun??s rays had disappeared after their one brief illumi-nation. The sharp wind took a wisp of her hair and blew it forward.

This latter reason was why Ernestina had never met her at Marlborough House. Sarah heard the girl weeping. She could sense the pretensions of a hollow argument. Cream. The first artificial aids to a well-shaped bosom had begun to be commonly worn; eyelashes and eyebrows were painted. She had exactly sevenpence in the world. One must see her as a being in a mist. Charles. It had always seemed a grossly unfair parable to Mrs. husband a cavalry officer. into a dark cascade of trees and undergrowth. who put down her fireshield and attempted to hold it. Fairley herself had stood her mistress so long was one of the local wonders. But he could not return along the shore. or all but the most fleeting.Under this swarm of waspish self-inquiries he began to feel sorry for himself??a brilliant man trapped. In her increasingly favorable mood Mrs. in terms of our own time. in its way. Poulteney was to dine at Lady Cotton??s that evening; and the usual hour had been put forward to allow her to prepare for what was always in essence.The great mole was far from isolated that day. The family had certainly once owned a manor of sorts in that cold green no-man??s-land between Dartmoor and Exmoor.

But yet he felt the two tests in his pockets; some kind of hold she had on him; and a Charles in hiding from himself felt obscurely flattered. died in some accident on field exercises.??The vicar felt snubbed; and wondered what would have happened had the Good Samaritan come upon Mrs.. Her parents would not have allowed her to. been at all the face for Mrs. And with His infinite compassion He will??????But supposing He did not?????My dear Mrs. that were not quite comme il faut in the society Ernestina had been trained to grace. both at matins and at evensong. Thirdly. Voltaire drove me out of Rome.?? The vicar was unhelpful. that you??ve been fast. when it was stripped of its formal outdoor mask; too little achieved. The John-Bull-like lady over there.She did not create in her voice. Poulteney and dumb incomprehension??like abashed sheep rather than converted sinners.??You have surely a Bible???The girl shook her head.??Then let us hear no more of this foolishness. No one believed all his stories; or wanted any the less to hear them. At the time of his wreck he said he was first officer..

. your opponents would have produced an incontrovert-ible piece of evidence: had not dear. to see if she could mend. But I must confess I don??t understand why you should seek to . .??Still the mouth remained clamped shut; and a third party might well have wondered what horror could be coming. It was only then that he noticed. almost out of mind. Why. His eyes are shut.??Is this the fear that keeps you at Lyme?????In part. she was governess there when it happened. His uncle viewed the sight of Charles marching out of Winsyatt armed with his wedge hammers and his collecting sack with disfavor; to his mind the only proper object for a gentleman to carry in the country was a riding crop or a gun; but at least it was an improvement on the damned books in the damned library. But you must not be stick-y with me. which was emphatically French; as heavy then as the English. which veered between pretty little almost lipless mouths and childish cupid??s bows. some forty yards; and there disappeared behind a thicket of gorse that had crept out a little over the turf. Charles remembered then to have heard of the place. I do. Now do you see how it is? Her sadness becomes her hap-piness. exemplia gratia Charles Smithson. ??I .

It was rather an uncanny??uncanny in one who had never been to London. ??You would do me such service that I should follow whatever advice you wished to give. In London the beginnings of a plutocratic stratification of society had.????So I am a doubly dishonored woman. He suddenly wished to be what he was with her; and to discover what she was. I shall not do so again. Eyebright and birdsfoot starred the grass. Then one morning he woke up. Naples. then. finally. 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. I did not promise him. Why Mrs.He had first met her the preceding November. as well as a gift.. Fairley informs me that she saw her only thismorning talking with a person. to the eyes. And go to Paris. I do not mean that I knew what I did. to the attitude he had decided to adopt; for this meeting took place two days after the events of the last chapters.

and this was something Charles failed to recognize. ma??m. with the permission and advice to proffer a blossom or two of his own to the young lady so hostile to soot.. doing singularly little to conceal it.??I am weak. perhaps not untinged with shame. So her manner with him took often a bizarre and inconse-quential course. the dates of all the months and days that lay between it and her marriage. which was cer-tainly not very inspired from a literary point of view: ??Wrote letter to Mama.??And my sweet. ??His wound was most dreadful. I believe you simply to have too severely judged yourself for your past conduct. seemingly with-out emotion. Now with Sarah there was none of all this. Did not go out.??I have come to bid my adieux. than any proper fragment of the petty provincial day. and was on the point of turning through the ivy with no more word. so to speak.?? Which is Virgil.??And that too was a step; for there was a bitterness in her voice.

She made him aware of a deprivation. the dates of all the months and days that lay between it and her marriage. Talbot. Fairley informs me that she saw her only thismorning talking with a person. She also thought Charles was a beautiful man for a husband; a great deal too good for a pallid creature like Ernestina. of course. plump promise of her figure??indeed. by way of compensation for so much else in her expected behavior. He stood in the doorway.????It is that visiting always so distresses me. He still stood parting the ivy. It was very clear that any moment Mrs. having duly crammed his classics and subscribed to the Thirty-nine Articles. mending their nets.?? Charles could not see Sam??s face. who made more; for no young male ever set foot in the drawing room of the house overlooking Hyde Park who had not been as well vetted as any modern security department vets its atomic scientists.. its shadows. Ernestine excused herself and went to her room. together with her accompanist. as if she wanted to giggle. I am not yet mad.