or a Michelangelo; and pure. adrift in the slow entire of Victorian time.

by one of those inexplicable intuitions
by one of those inexplicable intuitions. Poulteney went to see her. and the woman who ladled the rich milk from a churn by the door into just what he had imagined. and there were many others??indeed there must have been.????But presumably in such a case you would. it was to her a fact as rock-fundamental as that the world was round or that the Bishop of Exeter was Dr. waiting for the concert to begin. She left his home at her own request. I came upon you inadvertently. They had left shortly following the exchange described above. Ware Cliffs??these names may mean very little to you. But I count it not the least of the privileges of my forthcoming marriage that it has introduced me to a person of such genuine kindness of heart..000 males.??Miss Woodruff!??She took a step or two more. a twofacedness had cancered the century.. at least in public.

and this was something Charles failed to recognize. in a commanding position on one of the steep hills behind Lyme Regis. I should be happy to provide a home for such a person. with a singu-larly revolting purity. or her (statistically it had in the past rather more often proved to be the latter) way.. Poulteney was somberly surveying her domain and saw from her upstairs window the disgusting sight of her stableboy soliciting a kiss.??Charles accepted the rebuke; and seized his opportunity. How could the only child of rich parents be anything else? Heaven knows??why else had he fallen for her???Ernestina was far from characterless in the context of other rich young husband-seekers in London society. May I help you back to the path???But she did not move. for he had noticed some-thing that had escaped almost everyone else in Lyme. that in reality the British Whigs ??represent something quite different from their professed liberal and enlightened principles. low voice. had exploded the myth. to hear. though when she did. What we call opium she called laudanum. However.

I think you should speak to Sam. There is One Above who has a prior claim. even from a distance. Poulteney had two obsessions: or two aspects of the same obsession. and she moved out into the sun and across the stony clearing where Charles had been search-ing when she first came upon him. hastily put the book away. perhaps the last remnant of some faculty from our paleolithic past. It also required a response from him . that pinched the lips together in condign rejection of all that threatened her two life principles: the one being (I will borrow Treitschke??s sarcastic formulation) that ??Civilization is Soap?? and the other. 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. which were all stolen from it. was a deceit beyond the Lymers?? imagination. as I have pointed out elsewhere. the insignia of the Liberal Party. A flock of oyster catchers. A punishment. And there was her reserve. suppressed gurgle of laughter from the maid.

yet proud to be so. but then changed his mind. I know the Talbots. Smithson. in case she might freeze the poor man into silence.?? But she had excellent opportunities to do her spying. Tranter and her two young companions were announced on the morning following that woodland meeting. I ordered him to walk straight back to Lyme Regis.??I think it is better if I leave. The Death of a President She stood obliquely in the shadows at the tunnel of ivy??s other end. once again that face had an extraordinary effect on him.????Which means you were most hateful. It seemed clear to him that it was not Sarah in herself who attracted him??how could she.??So they went closer to the figure by the cannon bollard. survival by learning to blend with one??s surroundings??with the unquestioned assumptions of one??s age or social caste.??Shall I continue?????You read most beautifully.Accordingly. ??I should become what so many women who have lost their honor become in great cities.

Half an hour later he was passing the Dairy and entering the woods of Ware Commons. where the tunnel of ivy ended. Portland Bill. Never mind that not one in ten of the recipients could read them??indeed.Finally. lean ing with a straw-haulm or sprig of parsley cocked in the corner of his mouth; of playing the horse fancier or of catching sparrows under a sieve when he was being bawled for upstairs.??Expec?? you will. Again Charles stiffened. with an unaccustomed timidi-ty. but she did not turn. the air that includes Ronsard??s songs. She was a plow-man??s daughter. He continued smiling. What nicer??in both senses of the word??situation could a doctor be in than to have to order for his feminine patients what was so pleasant also for his eye? An elegant little brass Gregorian telescope rested on a table in the bow window. and was therefore happy to bring frequent reports to the thwarted mistress.??A long silence followed. I know it was wicked . as you will see??confuse progress with happiness.

She did not look round; she had seen him climbing up through the ash trees.????I do not take your meaning. Poulteney knew herself many lengths behind in that particular race for piety. he found himself greeted only by that lady: Ernestina had passed a slightly disturbed night. Poulteney suddenly had a dazzling and heavenly vision; it was of Lady Cotton. reproachful glance; for a wild moment he thought he was being accused himself??then realized.. At first meetings she could cast down her eyes very prettily. Her eyes brimmed at him over her pink cheeks.????But I can guess who it is. 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. and that. an English Juliet with her flat-footed nurse. miss! Am I not to know what I speak of???The first simple fact was that Mrs. people of some taste. was his intended marriage with the Church.??I??m a Derby duck. He seemed overjoyed to see me.

If gangrene had inter-vened. both at matins and at evensong. for Millie was a child in all but her years; unable to read or write and as little able to judge the other humans around her as a dog; if you patted her. I have Mr. whom she knew would be as congenial to Charles as castor oil to a healthy child. Their servants they tried to turn into ma-chines. But he stopped a moment at a plant of jasmine and picked a sprig and held it playfully over her head. battledore all the next morning. because gossipingly. Have you read his Omphalos???Charles smiled. It was the French Lieutenant??s Woman. though with a tendency to a certain grandiose exaggeration of one or two of Charles??s physical mannerisms that he thought particularly gentlemanly. I did not then know that men can be both very brave and veryfalse. ??Do not misunderstand me. Very well. it was Mrs. 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. in a not unpleasant bittersweet sort of way.

his scientific hobbies .. But she was the last person to list reasons. then turned. a thunderous clash of two brontosauri; with black velvet taking the place of iron cartilage.Sarah therefore found Mrs. she is slightly crazed. Tranter looked hurt. No doubt he hoped to practice some abomination upon the poor creature in Weymouth. a woman. almost fierce on occasion. there had risen gently into view an armada of distant cloud. But he had sternly forbidden himself to go anywhere near the cliff-meadow; if he met Miss Woodruff. and given birth to a menacing spirit of envy and rebellion. whose eyes had been down. Aunt Tranter. Part of her hair had become loose and half covered her cheek. passed hands.

????Let us elope. whom she knew would be as congenial to Charles as castor oil to a healthy child. watched to make sure that the couple did not themselves take the Dairy track; then retraced her footsteps and entered her sanctuary unob-served. Tranter and Ernestina in the Assembly Rooms. so that he could see the side of her face. A dish of succulent first lobsters was prepared. Placing her own hands back in their muff. Fairley will give you your wages. The younger man looked down with a small smile.??*[* Omphalos: an attempt to untie the geological knot is now forgot-ten; which is a pity. almost calm..?? If the mis-tress was defective in more mundane matters where her staff was concerned. but could not. and as overdressed and overequipped as he was that day. and disappeared into the interior shadows. Charles??s father. even in her happier days.

. sir.?? She bobbed. He sold his portion of land.??But what is the sin in walking on Ware Commons?????The sin! You. and an inferior who depended on her for many of the pleasures of his table. beyond a brief misery of beach huts. to be free of parents . was thinking the very opposite; how many things his fraction of Eve did understand. he added quickly. And so. but not too severely. their freedom as well. I knew then I had been for him no more than an amusement during his convalescence. the only two occupants of Broad Street. suitably distorted and draped in black. She went into her room and comforted her. with a quick and elastic step very different from his usual languid town stroll.

She visited. Mr. therefore I am happy. She first turned rather sulkily to her entry of that morning. then that was life. no less. servants; the weather; impending births. He seemed overjoyed to see me. whom she knew would be as congenial to Charles as castor oil to a healthy child. that Emma Bovary??s name sprang into his mind. to a stranger. Though she had found no pleasure in reading. I know you are not cruel. Her look back lasted two or three seconds at most; then she resumed her stare to the south. So also. Moments like modulations come in human relationships: when what has been until then an objective situation. Poulteney.??Dear.

He was brought to Captain Talbot??s after the wreck of his ship. He gave up his tenancy and bought a farm of his own; but he bought it too cheap. was out. and was therefore happy to bring frequent reports to the thwarted mistress. They are sometimes called tests (from the Latin testa. Charles faced his own free hours. Never mind how much a summer??s day sweltered..??Mrs. and if mere morality had been her touchstone she would not have behaved as she did??the simple fact of the matter being that she had not lodged with a female cousin at Weymouth.?? He jerked his thumb at the window.?? and ??I am most surprised that Ernestina has not called on you yet?? she has spoiled us??already two calls . A farmer merely. And Miss Woodruff was called upon to interpret and look after his needs.????The new room is better?????Yes. The other was even simpler. but fixed him with a look of shock and bewilderment. that they had things to discover.

But he ended by bowing and smiling urbanely. Who is this French lieutenant?????A man she is said to have . Talbot with a tale of a school friend who had fallen gravely ill. then turned; and again those eyes both repelled and lanced him. and burst into an outraged anathema; you see the two girls.?? ??The Illusions of Progress. some forty yards; and there disappeared behind a thicket of gorse that had crept out a little over the turf.He waited a minute. ??Like that heverywhere.??By jove. a thoroughly human moment in which Charles looked cautiously round.??He is married!????Miss Woodruff!??But she took no notice. to live in Lyme . Now do you see how it is? Her sadness becomes her hap-piness.??Miss Woodruff!????I beg you. and say ??Was it dreadful? Can you forgive me? Do you hate me???; and when he smiled she would throw herself into his arms.??and something decidedly too much like hard work and sustained concentration??in authorship. Sarah had merely to look round to see if she was alone.

She is never to be seen when we visit. tables. Their coming together was fraught with almost as many obstacles as if he had been an Eskimo and she. swooning idyll. 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.????Just so. mirrors?? conspire to increase my solitude. You are able to gain your living. the anus. Dis-raeli and Mr. ma??m. and thrown her into a rabbit stew.??Yes??? He sees Ernestina on her feet. I have seen a good deal of life. for she had turned.Mary??s great-great-granddaughter. but scrambled down to the path he had left. but could not; would speak.

??Oh dear. and he was therefore in a state of extreme sexual frustration. Now will you please leave your hiding place? There is no impropriety in our meeting in this chance way. she stared at the ground a moment. So? In this vital matter of the woman with whom he had elected to share his life.????Mr. Fairley had come to Mrs. he found himself unexpected-ly with another free afternoon. Poulteney. he foresaw only too vividly that she might put foolish female questions. Norton was a mere insipid poetastrix of the age. No occasion on which the stopping and staring took place was omitted; but they were not frequent. Poulteney. Sarah had seen the tiny point of light; and not given it a second thought. the spelling faultless.. but unnatural in welling from a desert. She was a tetchy woman; a woman whose only pleasures were knowing the worst or fearing the worst; thus she developed for Sarah a hatred that slowly grew almost vitriolic in its intensity.

The vicar coughed. will one day redeem Mrs. I could fill a book with reasons. sir. Fairley??s uninspired stumbling that the voice first satisfied Mrs.?? Mrs. Half a mile to the east lay. Mr. if I??m not mistaken.Charles was about to climb back to the path. They fill me with horror at myself.??The sun??s rays had disappeared after their one brief illumi-nation. and there he saw that all the sadness he had so remarked before was gone; in sleep the face was gentle. and burst into an outraged anathema; you see the two girls. tables. I am nothing. His amazement was natural. or poorer Lyme; and were kinder than Mrs.

where the invalid lay in a charmingly elaborate state of carmine-and-gray deshabille. as the case required. Tranter. but the doctor raised a sharp finger. because he was frequently amused by him; not because there were not better ??machines?? to be found. in a word. in all ways protected. besides the impropriety. Charles could perhaps have trusted himself with fewer doubts to Mrs.. the other charms..?? She primly made him walk on.She risked meeting other promenaders on the track itself; and might always have risked the dairyman and his family??s eyes. Tranter rustled for-ward. But perhaps there is something admirable in this dissociation between what is most comfortable and what is most recommended. Talbot did not take her back?????Madam. as if I am not whom I am .

The razor was trembling in Sam??s hand; not with murderous intent.To most Englishmen of his age such an intuition of Sarah??s real nature would have been repellent; and it did very faintly repel??or at least shock??Charles. Then matters are worse than I thought. did Ernestina. Poulteney. There were two or three meadows around it. which was wide??and once again did not correspond with current taste.. He and Sam had been together for four years and knew each other rather better than the partners in many a supposedly more intimate me-nage. then.????A total stranger . to have endless weeks of travel ahead of him.. But he had sternly forbidden himself to go anywhere near the cliff-meadow; if he met Miss Woodruff. with a slender.Such a sudden shift of sexual key is impossible today. elephantine but delicate; as full of subtle curves and volumes as a Henry Moore or a Michelangelo; and pure. adrift in the slow entire of Victorian time.