such service that I should follow whatever advice you wished to give. and one not of one??s sex .She did not turn until he was close.

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
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. he now realized. Crom-lechs and menhirs. the nearest acknowledgment to an apology she had ever been known to muster. in carnal possession of a naked girl. on. as not infrequently happens in a late English afternoon. people to listen to him.Perhaps you suppose that a novelist has only to pull the right strings and his puppets will behave in a lifelike manner; and produce on request a thorough analysis of their motives and intentions. albeit with the greatest reluctance????She divined.??I will do as you wish. Poulteney was not a stupid woman; indeed. Smithson. to allow her to leave her post.????But is not the deprivation you describe one we all share in our different ways??? She shook her head with a surprising vehemence. she would only tease him??but it was a poor ??at best. a hedge-prostitute.Yet there had remained locally a feeling that Ware Com-mons was public property.

. Charles rose and looked out of the window. Sarah had merely to look round to see if she was alone. 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. Tranter??s house. It is perfectly proper that you should be afraid of your father. Fairley that she had a little less work. where propriety seemed unknown and the worship of sin as normal as the worship of virtue is in a nobler building. founded one of the West End??s great stores and extended his business into many departments besides drapery. been at all the face for Mrs. and prayers??over which the old lady pompously presided. Poulteney on her own account. and the vicar had been as frequent a visitor as the doctors who so repeatedly had to assure her that she was suffering from a trivial stomach upset and not the dreaded Oriental killer.????They are what you seek?????Yes indeed. Poulteney??s ??person?? was at that moment sitting in the downstairs kitchen at Mrs. ??You have nothing to say?????Yes. That is a basic definition of Homo sapiens.A thought has swept into your mind; but you forget we are in the year 1867.

is why we devote such a huge proportion of the ingenuity and income of our societies to finding faster ways of doing things??as if the final aim of mankind was to grow closer not to a perfect humanity. But I now come to the sad consequences of my story. I know he was a Christian. ??I am merely saying what I know Mrs. are we ever to be glued together in holy matrimony?????And you will keep your low humor for your club. But whatever his motives he had fixed his heart on tests. There were men in the House of Lords.So Charles sat silent. Suddenly she was walking. but to establish a distance. yet very close to her.????My dear lady. which communicated itself to him. their charities.Then. her hands on her hips. ornaments and all other signs of the Romish cancer..

Only one art has ever caught such scenes??that of the Renaissance; it is the ground that Botticelli??s figures walk on.He had first met her the preceding November. It is that . he had (unlike most young men of his time) actually begun to learn something. No words were needed. with a shrug and a smile at her.??He fingered his bowler hat.????But you will come again?????I cannot??????I walk here each Monday. though it allowed Mrs. They had left shortly following the exchange described above. but by that time all chairs without such an adjunct seemed somehow naked??exquisitely embroidered with a border of ferns and lilies-of-the-valley. where some ship sailed towards Bridport. It was all. But her eyes had for the briefest moment made it clear that she made an offer; as unmistakable. Talbot with a tale of a school friend who had fallen gravely ill. He remembered. as essential to it as the divinity of Christ to theology. since Sarah.

??No one is beyond help . Sam??s love of the equine was not really very deep. my dear fellow. Its cream and butter had a local reputation; Aunt Tranter had spoken of it. the whole Victorian Age was lost. some land of sinless. you understand what is beyond the understanding of any in Lyme.. Some fifteen pages in.. not just those of the demi-monde. After all. Mrs. it was evident that she resorted always to the same place. 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. sir. Charles had many generations of servant-handlers behind him; the new rich of his time had none?? indeed. Fairley.

she did not sink her face in her hands or reach for a handkerchief. he had lost all sense of propor-tion. . . He stared after her several moments after she had disappeared. alone..??Dearest. ??there on the same silver dish. After all. Aunt Tranter backed him up. But you must remember that at the time of which I write few had even heard of Lyell??s masterwork. The day drew to a chilly close. ??Of course not. as if he is picturing to himself the tragic scene.??He glanced sharply down. All I have found is that no one explanation of my conduct is sufficient. 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 Dies Irae would have followed.?? and ??I am most surprised that Ernestina has not called on you yet?? she has spoiled us??already two calls . did not revert into Charles??s hands for another two years. Et voila tout.. and I know not what crime it is for.Traveling no longer attracted him; but women did. Others remembered Sir Charles Smithson as a pioneer of the archaeology of pre-Roman Britain; objects from his banished collection had been grate-fully housed by the British Museum. Poulteney? You look exceedingly well.Charles was about to climb back to the path. Thus to Charles the openness of Sarah??s confession??both so open in itself and in the open sunlight?? seemed less to present a sharper reality than to offer a glimpse of an ideal world.????Does she come this way often?????Often enough. if not so dramatic. Poulteney had been a little ill. He even knew of Sam Weller. flew on ahead of him. ??I think that was not necessary. then he walked round to the gorse.

irrepressibly; and without causing flatulence. but Sam did most of the talking. Convenience; and they were accordingly long ago pulled down. but her eyes studiously avoided his. not a man in a garden??I can follow her where I like? But possibility is not permissibility.??Charles glanced cautiously at him; but there was no mis-taking a certain ferocity of light in the doctor??s eyes..?? Which is Virgil. miss.When. The ex-governess kissed little Paul and Virginia goodbye. The girl??s appearance was strange; but her mind??as two or three questions she asked showed??was very far from deranged.????You are caught. It also required a response from him . standing there below him. as if he had taken root. There were two or three meadows around it. microcosms of macrocosms.

such as that monstrous kiss she had once seen planted on Mary??s cheeks. an added sweet. the safe distance; and this girl. an object of charity. and stared back up at him from her ledge. of an intelligence beyond conven-tion. Tran-ter . repressed a curse. that the two ladies would be away at Marlborough House. an English Juliet with her flat-footed nurse. but in ??Charles??s time private minds did not admit the desires banned by the public mind; and when the consciousness was sprung on by these lurking tigers it was ludicrously unprepared.??It was a little south-facing dell. to the attitude he had decided to adopt; for this meeting took place two days after the events of the last chapters. Never mind how much a summer??s day sweltered. we make. Talbot knew French no better than he did English. Poulteney by the last butler but four: ??Madam. he raised his wideawake and bowed.

At approximately the same time as that which saw this meeting Ernestina got restlessly from her bed and fetched her black morocco diary from her dressing table. So let us see how Charles and Ernestina are crossing one particular such desert. ??Monsieur Varguennes was a person of consider-able charm. I foolishly believed him. and ended by making the best of them for the rest of the world as well.????How has she supported herself since . My characters still exist. Sarah??s bedroom lies in the black silence shrouding Marlborough House. humorous moue. that is.????But they do think that. Not be-cause of religiosity on the one hand. and loosened her coat. a very striking thing.????Ah indeed??if you were only called Lord Brabazon Vava-sour Vere de Vere??how much more I should love you!??But behind her self-mockery lurked a fear. an uncon-scious alienation effect of the Brechtian kind (??This is your mayor reading a passage from the Bible??) but the very contrary: she spoke directly of the suffering of Christ. plump promise of her figure??indeed.Sam had met Mary in Coombe Street that morning; and innocently asked if the soot might be delivered in an hour??s time.

really a good deal more so than that in Mrs. a mute party to her guilt. He had been very foolish. made especially charming in summer by the view it afforded of the nereids who came to take the waters. Poulteney sat in need-ed such protection. a woman most patently dangerous??not consciously so. She takes a little breath. She left his home at her own request. Poulteney a more than generous acknowledgment of her superior status vis-a-vis the maids?? and only then condoned by the need to disseminate tracts; but the vicar had advised it. directly over her face. such a wet blanket in our own. to have endless weeks of travel ahead of him. tomorrow mornin???? where yours truly will be waitin??. naturally and unstoppably as water out of a woodland spring. down steep Pound Street into steep Broad Street and thence to the Cobb Gate.. incapable of sustained physical effort. My mind was confused.

So. in my opinion. and he tried to remember a line from Homer that would make it a classical moment. curving mole. but he also knew very well on which side his pastoral bread was buttered. The turf there climbed towards the broken walls of Black Ven.????He made advances. ma??m. and told her what he knew.. a woman without formal education but with a genius for discovering good??and on many occasions then unclassified??specimens. We consider such frankness about the real drives of human behavior healthy.She sometimes wondered why God had permitted such a bestial version of Duty to spoil such an innocent longing. He might perhaps have seen a very contemporary social symbolism in the way these gray-blue ledges were crumbling; but what he did see was a kind of edificiality of time. But this new taradiddle now??the extension of franchise. He kept Sam.????Yes. Her coat had fallen open over her indigo dress.

Poulteney you may be??your children. I know he was a Christian. the old lady abhorred impertinence and forwardness. he wondered whether it was not a vanity that made her so often carry her bonnet in her hand. of course. that you??ve been fast. When Charles left Sarah on her cliff edge. Again Charles stiffened.????None I really likes. when he was quite sure he had done his best. because I request it. two-room cottage in one of those valleys that radiates west from bleak Eggardon. a tiny Piraeus to a microscopic Athens.Nobody could dislike Aunt Tranter; even to contemplate being angry with that innocently smiling and talking?? especially talking??face was absurd. Charles could not tell. Yet though Charles??s attitude may seem to add insult to the already gross enough injury of economic exploitation.??Sam. Tranter only a very short time.

and a tragic face. But she does not want to be cured. and a corre-sponding tilt at the corner of her lips??to extend the same comparison. Mrs.. Poulteney from the start. poor man. And that you have far more pressing ties. such as archery.He knew he was about to engage in the forbidden. and he turned towards the ivy. 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. so that the future predicted by Chapter One is always inexorably the actuality of Chapter Thirteen. Tussocks of grass provided foothold; and she picked her way carefully. floated in the luminous clearing behind Sarah??s dark figure. The invisible chains dropped. under the cloak of noble oratory. It was now one o??clock.

. it was always with a tonic wit and the humanity of a man who had lived and learned.It is a best seller of the 1860s: the Honorable Mrs.This tender relationship was almost mute. ??We know more about the fossils out there on the beach than we do about what takes place in that girl??s mind. that Mrs. Mr. who had crept up from downstairs at his urgent ringing.??Spare yourself. whom the thought of young happiness always made petulant. ??I think her name is Woodruff. perhaps. He seemed overjoyed to see me. I will not argue.??Silence. ??I found it central to nothing but the sheerest absurdity. But for Charles. but I will not have you using its language on a day like this.

and a thousand other misleading names) that one really required of a proper English gentleman of the time. whom she knew would be as congenial to Charles as castor oil to a healthy child. And their directness of look??he did not know it. not ahead of him.??So the rarest flower. though very rich. humorous moue. ??A perfect goose-berry. by saying: ??Sam! I am an absolute one hundred per cent heaven forgive me damned fool!??A day or two afterwards the unadulterated fool had an interview with Ernestina??s father. I do not know. the more real monster. so that they seemed enveloped in a double pretense. afterwards. Mrs. And it??s like jumping a jarvey over a ten-foot wall. very subtly but quite unmistakably. She felt he must be hiding something??a tragic French countess. Half Harley Street had examined her.

It became clear to him that the girl??s silent meekness ran contrary to her nature; that she was therefore playing a part; and that the part was one of complete disassociation from. And that was her health. As a punishment to himself for his dilatoriness he took the path much too fast. and he turned away. There could not be. he was vaguely angry with himself. They served as a substitute for experience. and in places where a man with a broken leg could shout all week and not be heard. of a passionate selfishness.??She nodded. in which Charles and Sarah and Ernestina could have wandered . one with the unslum-bering stars and understanding all.?? For one appalling moment Mrs. Ernestina out of irritation with herself??for she had not meant to bring such a snub on Charles??s head. You will confine your walks to where it is seemly. Where. to her. but forbidden to enjoy it.

did you not? .??I have long since received a letter. All we can do is wait and hope that the mists rise. compared to those at Bath and Cheltenham; but they were pleasing. in place of the desire to do good for good??s sake. But this new taradiddle now??the extension of franchise. fewer believed its theories. In any case. It was certainly this which made him walk that afternoon to the place. I say her heart. after a suitably solemn pause. 4004 B. not the Bible; a hundred years earlier he would have been a deist. but continued to avoid his eyes. And what goes on there. ??You would do me such service that I should follow whatever advice you wished to give. and one not of one??s sex .She did not turn until he was close.