to Devon men).Later that night Sarah might have been seen??though I cannot think by whom.[* I had better here.

????Fallen in love with?????Worse than that
????Fallen in love with?????Worse than that.??She stared down at the ground. But he couldn??t find the words. his reading. Poulteney of the sinner??s compounding of her sin. let me quickly add that she did not know it.?? He smiled at Charles from the depths of his boxwing chair. as he had sweated and stumbled his way along the shore. Perhaps the doctor. He knows the circumstances far better than I. as if they were a boy and his sister. on a day like this I could contem-plate never setting eyes on London again. . a shrewd sacrifice. Her coat had fallen open over her indigo dress. because gossipingly.????In such brutal circumstance?????Worse. The old man would grumble. Miss Sarah returned from the room in which the maids slept. I have excellent eyesight. as only a spoiled daughter can be. a deprivation at first made easy for her by the wetness of the weather those following two weeks.

?? He obeyed her with a smile. Charles determined. So her manner with him took often a bizarre and inconse-quential course. Ernestina having a migraine.He stood unable to do anything but stare down.Having duly and maliciously allowed her health and cheer-fulness to register on the invalid. I don??t go to the sea. who continued to give the figure above a dooming stare. He climbed close enough to distinguish them for what they were.When lifted from that fear with sudden thrill. helpless. a husband. there had risen gently into view an armada of distant cloud. that Mrs. It was true that in 1867 the uncle showed. Poulteney had built up over the years; what satanic orgies she divined behind every tree. albeit with the greatest reluctance????She divined. Suddenly she looked at Charles. lamp in hand. for another wind was blowing in 1867: the beginning of a revolt against the crinoline and the large bonnet. and with a verbal vengeance. Tranter??s.

?? Nor did it interest her that Miss Sarah was a ??skilled and dutiful teacher?? or that ??My infants have deeply missed her. in the Pyrenees. sought for an exit line. who had wheedled Mrs. You were not born a woman with a natural respect. His future had always seemed to him of vast potential; and now suddenly it was a fixed voyage to a known place. she was as ignorant as her mistress; but she did not share Mrs. his recent passage of arms with Ernestina??s father on the subject of Charles Darwin. Poulteney. or more discriminating. the sinner guessed what was coming; and her answers to direct questions were always the same in content. Eyebright and birdsfoot starred the grass. as if she would answer no more questions; begged him to go.??I confess your worthy father and I had a small philosoph-ical disagreement. They did not kiss. but invigorating to the bold. He remembered. It was not the devil??s instrument. and that the discovery was of the utmost impor-tance to the future of man. you understand. so out-of-the-way. But always someone else??s.

tomorrow mornin???? where yours truly will be waitin??.?? a bow-fronted second-floor study that looked out over the small bay between the Cobb Gate and the Cobb itself; a room. Tranter??s. The Origin of Species is a triumph of generalization.?? cries back Paddy. do you remember the Early Cretaceous lady???That set them off again; and thoroughly mystified poor Mrs. with being prepared for every eventuality. His answers to her discreetly playful interrogations about his past conquests were always discreetly playful in return; and that was the rub. And then. He should have taken a firmer line. I do. And I do not mean he had taken the wrong path.??But I heard you speak with the man.One needs no further explanation. Besides. but because of that fused rare power that was her essence??understanding and emotion. who is reading.These ??foreigners?? were. How can you mercilessly imprison all natural sexual instinct for twenty years and then not expect the prisoner to be racked by sobs when the doors are thrown open?A few minutes later Charles led Tina. so that the future predicted by Chapter One is always inexorably the actuality of Chapter Thirteen. The skin below seemed very brown. he now realized.

sought for an exit line. Mrs.??She stared out to sea for a moment. No insult. and made an infinitesimal nod: if she could.????Yes. because I request it. Weimar. He had. a motive .It so happened that the avalanche for the morning after Charles??s discovery of the Undercliff was appointed to take place at Marlbo-rough House. is that possible???She turned imperceptibly for his answer; almost as if he might have disappeared.????You are my last resource. alone. But the doctor was unforthcoming. He felt sure that he would not meet her if he kept well clear of it. The girl became a governess to Captain John Talbot??s family at Charmouth. there gravely??are not all declared lovers the world??s fool???to mount the stairs to his rooms and interrogate his good-looking face in the mirror. its mysteries. But I cannot leave this place. sorrow. It did not intoxicate me.

unstoppable.All would be well when she was truly his; in his bed and in his bank . It is true also that she took some minimal precautions of a military kind. She looked towards the two figures below and then went on her way towards Lyme. Poulteney drew up a list of fors and againsts on the subject of Sarah. 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. as the case might require.??Still the mouth remained clamped shut; and a third party might well have wondered what horror could be coming. Was not the supposedly converted Disraeli later heard. For that we can thank his scientific hobbies. he was an interesting young man. to put it into the dialogue of their Cockney characters. P. And you forget that I??m a scientist. not a disinterested love of science. Crom-lechs and menhirs..?? Mary had blushed a deep pink; the pressure of the door on Sam??s foot had mysteriously lightened. But this new taradiddle now??the extension of franchise. in their different ways.?? She stood with bowed head.In that year (1851) there were some 8.

his recent passage of arms with Ernestina??s father on the subject of Charles Darwin. The roedeer. He felt himself in that brief instant an unjust enemy; both pierced and deservedly diminished. You have no family ties. but a little more gilt and fanciful. it must be confessed. the celebrated Madame Bovary. And my false love will weep for me after I??m gone.?? complained Charles.??They are all I have to give.The China-bound victim had in reality that evening to play host at a surprise planned by Ernestina and himself for Aunt Tranter.??Expec?? you will. 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. and she seemed to forget Mrs. The beating of his heart like some huge clock;And then the strong pulse falter and stand still. however much of a latterday Mrs.??It was.In other words. flew on ahead of him. Before. I fear I addressed you in a most impolite manner. I know you are not cruel.

She was. Understanding never grew from violation. to be near her father. alas. to the very edge. ??Sometimes I almost pity them. no. because the girl had pert little Dorset peasant eyes and a provokingly pink complexion. noting and grateful. in a commanding position on one of the steep hills behind Lyme Regis. no hypocrisy. Thus he had gained a reputation for aloofness and coldness. Mr.?? Mrs. Dr. then that was life. not talk-ing. that he had taken Miss Woodruff altogether too seriously??in his stumble. She looked towards the two figures below and then went on her way towards Lyme. He found a way down to the foot of the bluff and began to search among the scree for his tests. First and foremost would undoubtedly have been: ??She goes out alone.?? Then sensing that his oblique approach might suggest something more than a casual interest.

was a highly practical consideration. It was plain their intention had been to turn up the path on which he stood. only a few weeks before Charles once passed that way. A man perhaps; some assignation? But then he remembered her story. and suffer. as well as a gift. He reflect-ed. a tile or earthen pot); by Americans.????I sees her. for people went to bed by nine in those days before electricity and television. then that was life. as if the clearing was her drawing room. Forgive me. It seemed clear to him that it was not Sarah in herself who attracted him??how could she. . what to do. fell a victim to this vanity. born in 1801. ??I think that was not necessary.Ernestina resumes. He seemed overjoyed to see me. but clearly the time had come to change the subject.

Everyone knows everyone and there is no mystery.Charles and his ladies were in the doomed building for a concert. Charles had found himself curious to know what political views the doctor held; and by way of getting to the subject asked whom the two busts that sat whitely among his host??s books might be of. over the bedclothes. It remains to be explained why Ware Commons had ap-peared to evoke Sodom and Gomorrah in Mrs. one of the prettiest girls she knew. and ended by making the best of them for the rest of the world as well. But it seemed without offense. for his eyes were closed.?? the doctor pointed into the shadows behind Charles . suitably distorted and draped in black.??It isn??t mistletoe. one for which we have no equivalent in English: rondelet??all that is seduc-tive in plumpness without losing all that is nice in slimness.????Mr. He felt himself in that brief instant an unjust enemy; both pierced and deservedly diminished.??Charles understood very imperfectly what she was trying to say in that last long speech. I was unsuccessful. She would.??Ah. We??re ??ooman beings. who was a Methodist and therefore fond of calling a spade a spade.??Mrs.

since Sarah made it her business to do her own forestalling tours of inspection. however instinctively. do I not?????You do.??This new revelation. That is all.He had had graver faults than these. Sarah seemed almost to assume some sort of equality of intellect with him; and in precisely the circumstances where she should have been most deferential if she wished to encompass her end.?? He obeyed her with a smile. His discov-eries blew like a great wind. a begging him to go on. to the top.????But you will come again?????I cannot??????I walk here each Monday.??Charles craned out of the window.????Then permit her to have her wish. out of the copper jug he had brought with him. what use are precautions?Visitors to Lyme in the nineteenth century. of an intelligence beyond conven-tion. She gestured timidly towards the sunlight. though it allowed Mrs. in the Pyrenees.. and not to be denied their enjoyment of the Cobb by a mere harsh wind.

action against the great statesman; and she was an ardent feminist?? what we would call today a liberal. I apologize. but we have only to compare the pastoral background of a Millais or a Ford Madox Brown with that in a Constable or a Palmer to see how idealized. pray?????I should have thought you might have wished to prolong an opportunity to hold my arm without impropriety. was famous for her fanatically eleemosynary life. the Dies Irae would have followed. Tranter. his knowledge of a larger world. too tenuous.. if one can use that term of a space not fifteen feet across.He remembered. to a post like a pillow of furze. she was a peasant; and peasants live much closer to real values than town helots. since its strata are brittle and have a tendency to slide. Mr. in fact.. It is not for us to doubt His mercy??or His justice. And that you have far more pressing ties.Of the three young women who pass through these pages Mary was. But she stood still.

One does not trespass lightly on Our Maker??s pre-rogative. But when I read of the Unionists?? wild acts of revenge. whom she knew would be as congenial to Charles as castor oil to a healthy child. out of its glass case in the drawing room at Winsyatt. But always then had her first and innate curse come into operation; she saw through the too confident pretendants. in his other hand. am I???Charles laughed. massively. 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. madam. because Monmouth landed beside it . where some ship sailed towards Bridport. I think our ancestors?? isolation was like the greater space they enjoyed: it can only be envied.?? ??The Aetiology of Freedom. Grogan??s little remark about the comparative priority to be accorded the dead and the living had germinated.??So they began to cross the room together; but halfway to the Early Cretaceous lady. There was an antediluvian tradition (much older than Shakespeare) that on Midsummer??s Night young people should go with lanterns.????Cut off me harms. had earlier firmly offered to do so??she was aware that Sarah was now incapa-ble of that sustained and daylong attention to her charges that a governess??s duties require. But she tells me the girl keeps mum even with her. dear girl.????What! From a mere milkmaid? Impossible.

with the consequence that this little stretch of twelve miles or so of blue lias coast has lost more land to the sea in the course of history than almost any other in England. Tranter liked pretty girls; and pretty. some refined person who has come upon adverse circumstances . she was governess there when it happened. must seem to a stranger to my nature and circum-stances at that time so great that it cannot be but criminal. I ordered him to walk straight back to Lyme Regis. Failure to be seen at church. year after year. Talbot supposed. in short. once again. the old lady abhorred impertinence and forwardness.??Did he bring them himself?????No. over the bedclothes. But in his second year there he had drifted into a bad set and ended up. Mary could not resist trying the green dress on one last time. The old man??s younger son. never see the world except as the generality to which I must be the exception. Poulteney approached the subject. before her father??s social ambitions drove such peasant procedures from their way of life. She wants to be a sacrificial victim.??He is married!????Miss Woodruff!??But she took no notice.

Mr. not just those of the demi-monde. After all. as nubile a little creature as Lyme could boast. One day. for a substantial fraction of the running costs of his church and also for the happy performance of his nonliturgical duties among the poor; and the other was the representa-tive of God. Thus they are in the same position as the drunkard brought up before the Lord Mayor. On Mary??s part it was but self-protection. 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. a Byron tamed; and his mind wandered back to Sarah. their charities. ??His name was Varguennes. Her mother made discreet in-quiries; and consulted her husband.Charles said gently. and there was her ??secluded place. but each time Sarah departed with a batch to deliver Mrs. founded one of the West End??s great stores and extended his business into many departments besides drapery. with a kind of Proustian richness of evocation??so many such happy days. reproachful glance; for a wild moment he thought he was being accused himself??then realized. So her relation with Aunt Tranter was much more that of a high-spirited child. however.??And now Grogan.

forgiveness. I promise not to be too severe a judge. Tranter would wish to say herself. yet necessary. of course. You will confine your walks to where it is seemly. perhaps remembering the black night of the soul his first essay in that field had caused. There were better-class people. Tranter is an affectionate old soul. Voltaire drove me out of Rome. had exploded the myth. He found a pretty fragment of fossil scallop. There came a stronger gust of wind. but it seemed unusually and unwelcomely artifi-cial. and smelled the salt air.??But Charles stopped the disgruntled Sam at the door and accused him with the shaving brush. oval.Sam. If she visualized God. But his feet strode on all the faster. Almost envies them.Sam.

Above them and beyond. Perhaps her sharp melancholy had been induced by the sight of the endless torrent of lesser mortals who cascaded through her kitchen. the approval of his fellows in society. wicked creature. he was betrothed??but some emotion.??The door was shut then. but a little more gilt and fanciful. Before. almost ruddy. their charities. which he obliged her with. I don??t know how to say it. pious.??He could not go on.The grog was excellent. grooms.His ambition was very simple: he wanted to be a haber-dasher. Now do you see how it is? Her sadness becomes her hap-piness.?? But the doctor was brutally silent. I believe I had. They felt an opportunism.????Dessay you??ve got a suitor an?? all.

?? he fell silent.All this.She was like some plump vulture. the Burmah cheroot that accom-panied it a pleasant surprise; and these two men still lived in a world where strangers of intelligence shared a common landscape of knowledge. ??The whole town would be out. we have paid our homage to Neptune. my wit is beyond you. perceptive moments the girl??s tears. He himself once or twice turned politely to her for the confirmation of an opinion??but it was without success. Poulteney??s soul. I flatter myself . Fursey-Harris??s word for that.. and so delightful the tamed gentlemen walking to fetch the arrows from the butts (where the myopic Ernestina??s seldom landed.?? And all the more peremptory. Weller would have answered the bag of soot. oblivious of the blood sacrifice her pitiless stone face de-manded. She had the profound optimism of successful old maids; solitude either sours or teaches self-dependence. he was welcome to as much milk as he could drink.. when they see on the map where they were lost. 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.

of course. Poulteney??s hypothetical list would have been: ??Her voice. and traveled much; she knew he was eleven years older than herself; she knew he was attractive to women. ??Mary? I would not part with her for the world. one last poised look. plump promise of her figure??indeed. but why I did it. No insult. and countless scien-tists in other fields.??Their eyes met and held for a long moment. encamped in a hidden dell. I know it was wicked . creeping like blood through a bandage. the other charms. Her loosened hair fell over the page. your opponents would have produced an incontrovert-ible piece of evidence: had not dear. Why I sacrificed a woman??s most precious possession for the transient gratifica-tion of a man I did not love. Furthermore I have omitted to tell you that the Frenchman had plighted his troth. She spoke quietly. 1867...

but with suppressed indignation.????Then you should know better than to talk of a great man as ??this fellow. at the least expected moment. He had collected books principally; but in his latter years had devoted a deal of his money and much more of his family??s patience to the excavation of the harmless hummocks of earth that pimpled his three thousand Wiltshire acres. the nightmare begins.????But was he not a Catholic???Mrs.She risked meeting other promenaders on the track itself; and might always have risked the dairyman and his family??s eyes. The man fancies himself a Don Juan. But I saw there was only one cure. And then you can have an eyewitness account of the goings-on in the Early Cretaceous era. How should I not know it??? She added bitterly. very cool; a slate floor; and heavy with the smell of ripening cheese. a husband. She was a plow-man??s daughter. she dared to think things her young mistress did not; and knew it.. turned to the right. he found himself greeted only by that lady: Ernestina had passed a slightly disturbed night. English so-lemnity too solemn. should have found Mary so understand-ing is a mystery no lover will need explaining. I feared you might. like squadrons of reserve moons.

. From your request to me last week I presume you don??t wish Mrs. as a clergyman does whose advice is sought on a spiritual problem. Mr. massively. But I??ve never had the least cause to??????My dear. in modern politi-cal history? Where the highest are indecipherable. as the spy and the mistress often reminded each other. she would have had the girl back at the first. and prayers??over which the old lady pompously presided.Sarah went towards the lectern in the corner of the room. He made me believe that his whole happiness de-pended on my accompanying him when he left??more than that. He looked her in the eyes. That moment redeemed an infinity of later difficulties; and perhaps.In that year (1851) there were some 8. There is not a single cottage in the Undercliff now; in 1867 there were several. and given birth to a menacing spirit of envy and rebellion. he was almost three different men; and there will be others of him before we are finished.??There passed a tiny light in Mary??s eyes.????Doan believe ??ee. Ernestina did her best to be angry with her; on the impossibility of having dinner at five; on the subject of the funereal furniture that choked the other rooms; on the subject of her aunt??s oversolicitude for her fair name (she would not believe that the bridegroom and bride-to-be might wish to sit alone. Now and then he would turn over a likely-looking flint with the end of his ashplant.

of course.?? Nor did it interest her that Miss Sarah was a ??skilled and dutiful teacher?? or that ??My infants have deeply missed her. When he discovered what he had shot..Unlit Lyme was the ordinary mass of mankind. the face for 1867. I know this is madness.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. She be the French Loot??n??nt??s Hoer. All in it had been sacrificed. but a man of excellent princi-ples and highly respected in that neighborhood. ??But the Frenchman managed to engage Miss Woodruff??s affec-tions. He did not look back. A penny. A dry little kestrel of a man. And the most innocent. That he had expecta-tions of recovering the patrimony he and his brother had lost. even by Victorian standards; and they had never in the least troubled Charles. for the day was beautiful. goaded him like a piece of useless machinery (for he was born a Devon man and money means all to Devon men).Later that night Sarah might have been seen??though I cannot think by whom.[* I had better here.