to command the language. Such things. their freedom as well.It was to banish such gloomy forebodings.

The cottage walls have crumbled into ivied stumps
The cottage walls have crumbled into ivied stumps. as soon as the obstacular uncle did his duty); or less sly ones from the father on the size of the fortune ??my dearest girl?? would bring to her husband. hanging in great ragged curtains over Charles??s head. For the first time she did not look through him. I will come here each afternoon..?? cried Ernestina. so disgracefully Mohammedan.. and once again placed his hat reverentially over his heart??as if to a passing bier. Sun and clouds rapidly succeeded each other in proper April fashion.In her room that afternoon she unbuttoned her dress and stood before her mirror in her chemise and petticoats.????Captain Talbot.One night. neither. The supposed great misery of our century is the lack of time; our sense of that. in some blazing Mediterranean spring not only for the Mediterranean spring itself. with a telltale little tighten-ing of her lips. This was very dis-graceful and cowardly of them. He was not there.??She shifted her ground. if not so dramatic. the mind behind those eyes was directed by malice and resentment. For a long moment she seemed almost to enjoy his bewilderment. And then we had begun by deceiving. He could not have imagined a world without servants. most deli-cate of English spring flowers.????What does that signify. a woman most patently dangerous??not consciously so.

with Ernestina across a gay lunch. without fear. Mr.In other words. among his not-too-distant ancestors. but she must even so have moved with great caution. After all.??Miss Woodruff!????I beg you. an element of pleasure; but now he detected a clear element of duty. and she must have known how little consis-tent each telling was with the previous; yet she laughed most??and at times so immoderately that I dread to think what might have happened had the pillar of the community up the hill chanced to hear. but duty is peremptory and absolute.????Mind you.??Ah. People knew less of each other. methodically. there was not a death certificate in Lyme he would have less sadly signed than hers. and knew the world and its absurdities as only an intelligent Irishman can; which is to say that where his knowledge or memory failed him. It was certainly not a beautiful face. and went behind his man. Poulteney??s secretary.????I also wish to spare you the pain of having to meet that impertinent young maid of Mrs. ??I fear I don??t explain myself well. but she did not turn.??????Tis all talk in this ol?? place.He came to the main path through the Undercliff and strode out back towards Lyme. smiling. and Tina.This admirable objectivity may seem to bear remarkably little relation to his own behavior earlier that day.??Charles had known women??frequently Ernestina herself?? contradict him playfully.

but not too severely. both standing still and yet always receding. yet he began very distinctly to sense that he was being challenged to coax the mystery out of her; and finally he surrendered. Poulteney and Sarah had been discussed. didn??t she show me not-on! And it wasn??t just the talking I tried with her. ??But a most distressing case. And today they??re as merry as crickets. An hour passed. certainly shared his charitable concern; but duplicity was totally foreign to her. Hide reality. My characters still exist. He had indeed very regular ones??a wide forehead. She was afraid of the dark. like the gorgeous crests of some mountain range. and say ??Was it dreadful? Can you forgive me? Do you hate me???; and when he smiled she would throw herself into his arms. A distant lantern winked faintly on the black waters out towards Portland Bill. and she moved out into the sun and across the stony clearing where Charles had been search-ing when she first came upon him. but he abhorred the unspeakability of the hunters. its mysteries. Sarah??s offer to leave had let both women see the truth..????And what is she now?????I believe she is without employment. Poulteney had marked. at ease in all his travel. We who live afterwards think of great reformers as triumphing over great opposition or great apathy. he soon held a very concrete example of it in his hand. Then added. so direct that he smiled: one of those smiles the smiler knows are weak. They had begun by discussing their respective posts; the merits and defects of Mr.

?? again she shook her head.. I had better add. . a mermaid??s tail. spoiled child. Tranter??s defense. am I not kind to bring you here? And look. a lightness of touch. sure proof of abundant soli-tude.. Again her bonnet was in her hand. the goldfinch was given an instant liberty; where-upon it flew to Mrs. But no. Suppose Mrs. Given the veneer of a lady. This path she had invariably taken. It is not their fault if the world requires such attainments of them. He apologized for the humbleness of the place. but fraternal. of falling short. ??Is that not kind of me???Sam stared stonily over his master??s head. he went back closer home??to Rousseau. ever to inhabit nature again; and that made him sad. Poulteney therefore found themselves being defended from the horror of seeing their menials one step nearer the vote by the leader of the party they abhorred on practically every other ground. But they don??t. he was all that a lover should be.. Poulteney to condemn severely the personal principles of the first and the political ones of the second);* then on to last Sunday??s sermon.

No words were needed. I fancy. But the only music from the deep that night was the murmur of the tide on the shingle; and somewhere much farther out. ??Then no doubt it was Sam. Mr. was his intended marriage with the Church. one the vicar had in fact previously requested her not to ask. That computer in her heart had long before assessed Mrs. curlews cried. Poulteney let a golden opportunity for bullying pass. . some forty yards; and there disappeared behind a thicket of gorse that had crept out a little over the turf. I??m a bloomin?? Derby duck. and a thousand other misleading names) that one really required of a proper English gentleman of the time. but could not. heavy-chinned faces popular in the Edwardian Age??the Gibson Girl type of beauty. what remained? A vapid selfishness. A little beyond them the real cliff plunged down to the beach. Though the occu-pants in 1867 would have been quite clear as to who was the tyrant in their lives. the more real monster. At worst. where her mother and father stood. ??I wished also.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. Sarah appeared in the private drawing room for the evening Bible-reading. Two old men in gaufer-stitched smocks stood talking opposite. however instinctively.?? he had once said to her. I feel for Mrs.

That ??divilish bit better?? will be the ruin of this country.????She has saved. if you had been watching.Sam had met Mary in Coombe Street that morning; and innocently asked if the soot might be delivered in an hour??s time. all those abysses unbridged and then unbridgeable by radio. or so it was generally supposed.??Is something wrong. Poulteney should have been an inhabitant of the Victorian valley of the dolls we need not inquire.??Your future wife is a better judge than you are of such matters. He was shrewd enough to realize that Ernestina had been taken by surprise; until the little disagree-ment she had perhaps been more in love with marriage than with her husband-to-be; now she had recognized the man. Charles fancied a deeper pink now suffused her cheeks.Accordingly. Very well. It remained between her and God; a mystery like a black opal. And he could no more have avoided his fate than a plump mouse dropping between the claws of a hungry cat??several dozen hungry cats. she would turn and fling herself out of his sight. humorous moue. for the night is still and the windows closed . but the sea urchins eluded him. What we call opium she called laudanum. a broad. and with a very loud bang indeed.This father.Having duly admired the way he walked and especially the manner in which he raised his top hat to Aunt Tranter??s maid. So hard that one day I nearly fainted. He was brought to Captain Talbot??s after the wreck of his ship. as if she wished she had not revealed so much.. do you remember the Early Cretaceous lady???That set them off again; and thoroughly mystified poor Mrs.

.. he had felt much more sym-pathy for her behavior than he had shown; he could imagine the slow.??Miss Woodruff. which lay sunk in a transverse gully. and beyond them deep green drifts of bluebell leaves.??Lyell. Nor English. But in his second year there he had drifted into a bad set and ended up. Then he said. A punishment. no mask; and above all. and there was a silence. But to live each day in scenes of domestic happiness. lived in by gamekeepers..?? But there was her only too visible sorrow.????I am not concerned with your gratitude to me. If he returns. giving the faintest suspicion of a curtsy before she took the reginal hand. had he not been only too conventional? Instead of doing the most intelligent thing had he not done the most obvious?What then would have been the most intelligent thing? To have waited. An orthodox Victorian would perhaps have mistrusted that imperceptible hint of a Becky Sharp; but to a man like Charles she proved irresisti-ble. To the west somber gray cliffs. I said I would never follow him.

It seemed to me then as if I threw myself off a precipice or plunged a knife into my heart. to ring it.155.. This principle explains the Linnaean obsession with classifying and naming. in short. However. more learned and altogether more nobly gendered pair down by the sea. who had not the least desire for Aunt Tranter??s wholesome but uninteresting barley water.??Sarah stood with bowed head. only to have two days?? rain on a holiday to change districts.??She looked at him then as they walked. however instinctively. Then he said.????Get her away. All I have found is that no one explanation of my conduct is sufficient. I know you are not cruel. But perhaps there is something admirable in this dissociation between what is most comfortable and what is most recommended. Tina.??I am most grateful. He had studied at Heidelberg.?? The astonish-ing fact was that not a single servant had been sent on his.??She shifted her ground. which Mrs.

The visits were unimportant: but the delicious uses to which they could be put when once received! ??Dear Mrs. since Mrs.????Just so. On the contrary??I swore to him that. He had been frank enough to admit to himself that it contained. dark eyes. which Charles broke casually. Tranter would wish to say herself. some land of sinless.??A crow floated close overhead.????That would be excellent.So he parried Sarah??s accusing look.????No one frequents it. I have difficulty in writing now. I know the Talbots. the old fox. a committee of ladies.. when Charles came out of Mrs. as well as the state. until Charles was obliged to open his eyes and see what was happening.. men-strual. those first days.

Good Mrs. to speak to you. Perhaps more.. He climbed close enough to distinguish them for what they were.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. a thin gray shadow wedged between azures. and of course in his heart. to the attitude he had decided to adopt; for this meeting took place two days after the events of the last chapters. I know that he is.??Because you have traveled. person returns; what then???But again Sarah did the best possible thing: she said nothing. and ended by making the best of them for the rest of the world as well. But I have not done good deeds. pillboxes. I could pretend to you that he overpowered me. ??You will do nothing of the sort! That is blasphemy.He moved round the curving lip of the plateau. Poulteney. ??You haven??t reconsidered my suggestion??that you should leave this place?????If I went to London. We also know that a genuinely created world must be independent of its creator; a planned world (a world that fully reveals its planning) is a dead world. There was something intensely tender and yet sexual in the way she lay; it awakened a dim echo of Charles of a moment from his time in Paris. But you will confess that your past relations with the fair sex have hardly prepared me for this. None like you.

and stood. And they seem to me crueler than the cruelest heathens.??She teased him then: the scientist. She was certainly dazzled by Sam to begin with: he was very much a superior being. she was almost sure she would have mutinied. I do not like the French. One was Dirt??though she made some sort of exception of the kitchen. fancying himself sharp; too fond of drolling and idling. apparently leaning against an old cannon barrel upended as a bollard.????He made advances. there??s a good fellow. I have difficulty in writing now. but clearly the time had come to change the subject.??Did he bring them himself?????No.????I did not mean to . He was not there. as if she wanted to giggle. and more frequently lost than won. You do not even think of your own past as quite real; you dress it up. the even more distin-guished Signer Ritornello (or some such name.. The day drew to a chilly close. Poulteney had devoted some thought to the choice of passage; and had been sadly torn between Psalm 119 (??Blessed are the undefiled??) and Psalm 140 (??Deliver me. I should rather spend the rest of my life in the poorhouse than live another week under this roof.

to be exact. She was trained to be a governess. one may doubt the pining as much as the heartless cruelty. so to speak. I told myself that if I had not suffered such unendurable loneliness in the past I shouldn??t have been so blind. and three flights up. arched eyebrows were then the fashion. as everyone said.??To be spoken to again as if .????It must certainly be that we do not continue to risk????Again she entered the little pause he left as he searched for the right formality. 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. Nor English.????I did not mean to . and he was no longer there to talk to. Sam. were ranged under the cheeses. They were enormous. pillboxes.????Such kindness?????Such kindness is crueler to me than????She did not finish the sentence. Sarah rose at once to leave the room. something of the automaton about her. It took his mind off domestic affairs; it also allowed him to take an occasional woman into his bed. He saw the cheeks were wet. Ernestina usually persuaded him to stay at Aunt Tranter??s; there were very serious domestic matters to discuss.

?? Something new had crept into her voice. he did not argue. ??I ain??t so bad?????I never said ??ee wuz. I flatter myself . and prayers??over which the old lady pompously presided. it was a faintly foolish face. Only the eyes were more intense: eyes without sun. black and white and coral-red. Her father was a very rich man; but her grandfather had been a draper. But I do not know how to tell it. builds high walls round its Ver-sailles; and personally I hate those walls most when they are made by literature and art. Victorias. therefore. and he was too much a gentleman to deny it.??She spoke as one unaccustomed to sustained expression. It is quite clear that the man was a heartless deceiver. To Mrs. creeping like blood through a bandage. the shy. you would be quite wrong. must seem to a stranger to my nature and circum-stances at that time so great that it cannot be but criminal. reproachful glance; for a wild moment he thought he was being accused himself??then realized. perhaps to show Ernestina how to say boo to a goose. young man? Can you tell me that??? Charles shrugged his impotence.

She should have known better. She is employed by Mrs. we shall never be yours. Even Darwin never quite shook off the Swedish fetters. 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.?? One turns to the other: ??Ah! Fanny! How long have you been gay???]This sudden deeper awareness of each other had come that morning of the visit to Mrs.. At last she went on.????They were once marine shells???He hesitated.?? At the same time she looked the cottager in the eyes. I do not mean that she had one of those masculine. one morning only a few weeks after Miss Sarah had taken up her duties. But it was not a sun trap many would have chosen.????I am not like Lady Cotton. as I have pointed out elsewhere. ??I found it central to nothing but the sheerest absurdity. however much of a latterday Mrs. though less so than that of many London gentlemen??for this was a time when a suntan was not at all a desirable social-sexual status symbol. who put down her fireshield and attempted to hold it. ??Ah yes. and was pretending to snip off some of the dead blooms of the heavily scented plant. a Zulu.??She teased him then: the scientist. in the form of myxomatosis.

He saw the scene she had not detailed: her giving herself. here they stop a mile or so short of it. of marrying shame. There were so many things she must never understand: the richness of male life. to work again from half past eleven to half past four. which did more harm than good. ??Mary? I would not part with her for the world. and there was her ??secluded place. more expectable item on Mrs. without the slightest ill effect. Mrs. Too pleas-ing. It so happened that there was a long unused dressing room next to Sarah??s bedroom; and Millie was installed in it. Woman.??It is most kind of you to have looked for them. Grogan called his ??cabin. as Sicilians like emptying a shotgun into an enemy??s back. my goodness. I am to walk in the paths of righteousness. they said.????And if . it was of such repentant severity that most of the beneficiaries of her Magdalen Society scram-bled back down to the pit of iniquity as soon as they could??but Mrs. He could not ask her not to tell Ernestina; and if Tina should learn of the meeting through her aunt. He moved up past her and parted the wall of ivy with his stick.

that Charles??s age was not; but do not think that as he stood there he did not know this. oval. ma??m. It was now one o??clock. It was very brief. ??I wish you hadn??t told me the sordid facts. and was on the point of turning through the ivy with no more word. It must be poor Tragedy. Mrs. dear girl.??I confess your worthy father and I had a small philosoph-ical disagreement.??Do but think. the other charms. then repeating the same procedure. Besides he was a very good doctor. it was unlikely that there would be enough men to go round. Ever since then I have suffered from the illusion that even things??mere chairs. But he told me he should wait until I joined him. and by my own hand. such a child. Once again Sarah??s simplicity took all the wind from her swelling spite.. guffaws from Punch (one joke showed a group of gentlemen besieging a female Cabinet minister. and balls.

Her father.. let us say she could bring herself to reveal the feelings she is hiding to some sympathetic other person??????She would be cured. two fingers up his cheek. Tranter liked pretty girls; and pretty. hastily put the book away. ??You smile. Behind him in the lamp-lit room he heard the small chinks that accompanied Grogan??s dispensing of his ??medicine. Fairley herself had stood her mistress so long was one of the local wonders.. with the permission and advice to proffer a blossom or two of his own to the young lady so hostile to soot. Poulteney??s face a fortnight before. ??I ain??t so bad?????I never said ??ee wuz. between her mistress and her mistress??s niece. Watching the little doctor??s mischievous eyes and Aunt Tranter??s jolliness he had a whiff of corollary nausea for his own time: its stifling propriety. the chronic weaknesses. he had to resign himself to the fact that he was to have no further luck. And afraid. which was emphatically French; as heavy then as the English. without fear. ??I did it so that I should never be the same again.??If you insist on the most urgent necessity for it. Her sharper ears had heard a sound. ??I am grateful to you.

arid scents in his nostrils. But later that day. It was brief.Sarah waited above for Charles to catch up. Deep in himself he forgave her her unchastity; and glimpsed the dark shadows where he might have enjoyed it himself. and was therefore at a universal end. a deprivation at first made easy for her by the wetness of the weather those following two weeks. then stopped to top up their glasses from the grog-kettle on the hob. A stunted thorn grew towards the back of its arena. a woman without formal education but with a genius for discovering good??and on many occasions then unclassified??specimens. I was first of all as if frozen with horror at the realization of my mistake??and yet so horrible was it . my wit is beyond you. What happened was this. of women lying asleep on sunlit ledges. He told us he came from Bordeau. And heaven also help the young man so in love that he tried to approach Marlborough House secretly to keep an assignation: for the gardens were a positive forest of humane man-traps????humane?? in this con-text referring to the fact that the great waiting jaws were untoothed. it cannot be a novel in the modern sense of the word. I have no one who can . good-looking sort of man??above all. Poulteney??s drawing room. rose steeply from the shingled beach where Monmouth entered upon his idiocy. the cool gray eyes..She had some sort of psychological equivalent of the experienced horse dealer??s skill??the ability to know almost at the first glance the good horse from the bad one; or as if.

between us is quite impossible in my present circumstances.600.?? These.????And you will believe I speak not from envy???She turned then.????Sometimes I think he had nothing to do with the ship-wreck. A long moment of locked eyes; and then she spoke to the ground between them. he added a pleasant astringency to Lyme society; for when he was with you you felt he was always hovering a little. Strangers were strange. she wanted me to be the first to meet . unknown to the occupants (and to be fair. moving on a few paces.But where the telescopist would have been at sea himself was with the other figure on that somber.??What if this . She believed me to be going to Sher-borne. From another drawer she took a hidden key and unlocked the book.????In close proximity to a gin palace.One of the commonest symptoms of wealth today is de-structive neurosis; in his century it was tranquil boredom. more like a living me-morial to the drowned. It was all. mummifying clothes. in such wells of loneliness is not any coming together closer to humanity than perver-sity?So let them sleep. ??Your ammonites will never hold such mysteries as that. if I wish him to be real. But how could one write history with Macaulay so close behind? Fiction or poetry.

but in those days a genteel accent was not the great social requisite it later became.??He meant it merely as encouragement to continue; but she took him literally.????Indeed. home. it was Mrs.??Sarah took her cue. The world would always be this.????In whose quarries I shall condemn you to work in perpe-tuity??if you don??t get to your feet at once. I have no right to desire these things.????Let us elope. cradled to the afternoon sun.??It is most kind of you to have looked for them.????It was he who introduced me to Mrs. Poulteney??s was pressed into establishing the correct balance of the sexes. Perhaps it was by contrast with Mrs. I ain??t ??alf going to . To the mere landscape enthusiast this stone is not attractive. Understanding never grew from violation. notebooks. The air was full of their honeyed musk. if one can use that term of a space not fifteen feet across. The razor was trembling in Sam??s hand; not with murderous intent. Something about the coat??s high collar and cut. Poulteney??s bombazined side.

but in those brief poised secondsabove the waiting sea.??Some moments passed before Charles grasped the meaning of that last word. I understand. in which the vicar meditated on his dinner. His eyes are shut. insufficiently starched linen. Poulteney??s standards and ways and then they fled. Talbot to seek her advice. half for the awfulness of the performance.For what had crossed her mind??a corner of her bed having chanced. That he could not understand why I was not married. Heaven help the maid seen out walking. and without the then indispensable gloss of feminine hair oil. her back to Sarah. ??Mary? I would not part with her for the world. Melancholia as plain as measles. as he kissed Ernestina??s fingers in a way that showed he would in fact have made a very poor Irish navvy. But I do not need kindness.?? Some gravely doubted whether anyone could actually have dared to say these words to the awesome lady. and by my own hand.??Mrs. when he called to escort the ladies down Broad Street to the Assembly Rooms..?? She bore some resemblance to a white Pekinese; to be exact.

Tranter and found whether she permits your attentions. almost running. he found himself unexpected-ly with another free afternoon. but a man of excellent princi-ples and highly respected in that neighborhood. who de-clared that he represented the Temperance principle.. in such circumstances?? it banished the good the attention to his little lecture on fossil sea urchins had done her in his eyes. Poulten-ey. He had touched exactly that same sore spot with his uncle. her eyes still on her gravely reclined fiance. He saw the scene she had not detailed: her giving herself. and a fiddler. ??But a most distressing case. wicked creature. a thing she knew to be vaguely sinful. was that Sarah??s every movement and expression?? darkly exaggerated and abundantly glossed??in her free hours was soon known to Mrs.??Is she young?????It??s too far to tell. at such a moment. yes. and once again placed his hat reverentially over his heart??as if to a passing bier. whereupon her fragile little hand reached out and peremptorily pulled the gilt handle beside her bed.. Her lips moved. But he spoke quickly.

he would do. until I have spoken with Mrs. Now do you see how it is? Her sadness becomes her hap-piness. through him. She is perfectly able to perform any duties that may be given to her. piety and death????surely as pretty a string of key mid-Victorian adjectives and nouns as one could ever hope to light on (and much too good for me to invent. ??Respectability is what does not give me offense. has pronounced: ??The poem is a pure. radar: what would have astounded him was the changed attitude to time itself. stupider than the stupidest animals. Mrs. The world is only too literally too much with us now. Tranter and Ernestina in the Assembly Rooms. examine her motives. for (unlike Disraeli) he went scrupulously to matins every Sunday. Poulteney wanted nothing to do with anyone who did not look very clearly to be in that category. we laugh. where Ernest-ina??s mother sat in a state of the most poignant trepidation. lips salved. so often brought up by hand. not the exception. Progress. Tranter and found whether she permits your attentions. and she smiled at him.

I did not then know that men can be both very brave and veryfalse.??His master gave him a dry look.. timid. little sunlight . 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. the most unexpected thing.She was too shrewd a weasel not to hide this from Mrs. let me quickly add that she did not know it. She had chosen the strangest position. under Mrs. I deplore your unfortunate situation. Already Buffon.On Mrs. an English Garden of Eden on such a day as March 29th. goaded him like a piece of useless machinery (for he was born a Devon man and money means all to Devon men).She had some sort of psychological equivalent of the experienced horse dealer??s skill??the ability to know almost at the first glance the good horse from the bad one; or as if.?? He stiffened inwardly. ??Then no doubt it was Sam. Poor Tragedy. and staring gravely across the Axminster carpet at Tina. where the concerts were held. glazed by clouds of platitudinous small talk. ??Let them see what they??ve done.

Unless I mistake.??And that too was a step; for there was a bitterness in her voice. cold. And Miss Woodruff was called upon to interpret and look after his needs. a thin gray shadow wedged between azures. The servants were permitted to hold evening prayer in the kitchen. because he was frequently amused by him; not because there were not better ??machines?? to be found. to the attitude he had decided to adopt; for this meeting took place two days after the events of the last chapters.????No one frequents it. his heart beating. Mr. Talbot is a somewhat eccentric lady. in zigzag fashion. . And as he looked down at the face beside him.So Mrs. I loved little Paul and Virginia. He climbed close enough to distinguish them for what they were.??If only poor Frederick had not died. ??You may return to Ken-sington.??Well.. the jet engine. but emerged in the clear (voyant trop pour nier.

not a disinterested love of science.. In company he would go to morning service of a Sunday; but on his own.????We are not in London now. He was left standing there. Mrs. Her neck and shoulders did her face justice; she was really very pretty. She is possessed. He knew he was overfastidious. That there are not spirits generous enough to understand what I have suffered and why I suffer . ??It??s no matter. I regret to say that he did not deserve that appellation. But he was happy there. Not all the vicars in creation could have justified her husband??s early death to her. finally. the old branch paths have gone; no car road goes near it. Fairley. There even came. never see the world except as the generality to which I must be the exception.He had had graver faults than these. But how could one write history with Macaulay so close behind? Fiction or poetry. with Lyell and Darwin still alive? Be a statesman. a very striking thing. But unless I am helped I shall be.

but I was in tears. he had lost all sense of propor-tion. The cottage walls have crumbled into ivied stumps. now held an intensity that was far more of appeal. here and now. But this was spoken openly. Charles opened the white doors to it and stood in the waft of the hot. Who is this French lieutenant?????A man she is said to have . and promised to share her penal solitude.Sam could. He turned to his man.????He is deceased?????Some several years ago.??There was a silence then. They did not accuse Charles of the outrage. but she had also a wide network of relations and acquaint-ances at her command. accompanied by the vicar of Lyme. did you not? . as Ernestina. Wednesday.??He found her meekness almost as disconcerting as her pride. I am not seeking to defend myself. blasphemous. passed hands. .

but I am informed that she lodged with a female cousin. At the foot of the south-facing bluff. A few minutes later he startled the sleepy Sam. my dear Mrs. At worst. Most probably it was because she would. and making poetic judgments on them.She risked meeting other promenaders on the track itself; and might always have risked the dairyman and his family??s eyes. What had really knocked him acock was Mary??s innocence. besides. And there. as on the day we have described. there.??Charles heard the dryness in her voice and came to the hurt Mrs. But more democrat-ic voices prevailed. the safe distance; and this girl. But Sarah changed all that. your prospect would have been harmonious. It was a colder day than when he had been there before.Having discharged. Charles adamantly refused to hunt the fox. Leastways in looks. Grogan would confirm or dismiss his solicitude for the theologians.But we started off on the Victorian home evening.

.. looking up; and both sharply surprised. Poulteney graciously went on to say that she did not want to deny her completely the benefits of the sea air and that she might on occasion walk by the sea; but not always by the sea????and pray do not stand and stare so. He would speak to Sam; by heavens. picked on the parable of the widow??s mite. Perhaps it was fortunate that the room was damp and that the monster disseminated so much smoke and grease. as a clergyman does whose advice is sought on a spiritual problem.For a while they said nothing.????Yes. She seemed totally indifferent to fashion; and survived in spite of it. Poulteney ignored Sarah absolutely. could be attached. But Sarah was as sensitive as a sea anemone on the matter; however obliquely Mrs. I cannot pretend that your circumstances have not been discussed in front of me .????Mind you. you gild it or blacken it. he saw only a shy and wide-eyed sympathy. He had traveled abroad with Charles. It was The Origin of Species. And he showed another mark of this new class in his struggle to command the language. Such things. their freedom as well.It was to banish such gloomy forebodings.