tamed gentlemen walking to fetch the arrows from the butts (where the myopic Ernestina??s seldom landed.The woman said nothing.

she stopped; then continued in a lower tone
she stopped; then continued in a lower tone. the cart track to the Dairy and beyond to the wooded common was a de facto Lover??s Lane. Talbot?? were not your suspicions aroused by that? It is hardly the conduct of a man with honorable intentions. neither. For the first time in her ungrateful little world Mrs. who de-clared that he represented the Temperance principle. Heaven for the Victorians was very largely heaven because the body was left behind??along with the Id. Yet though Charles??s attitude may seem to add insult to the already gross enough injury of economic exploitation. the despiser of novels. laid her hand a moment on his arm.????I trust you??re using the adjective in its literal sense. but fraternal. No one will see us.She knew he had lived in Paris. he now realized. could drive her. Mary was the niece of a cousin of Mrs. It lit her face.

. But we are not the ones who will finally judge. looking at but not seeing the fine landscape the place commanded. when he called dutifully at ten o??clock at Aunt Tranter??s house.??What am I to do???Miss Sarah had looked her in the eyes. Only very occasionally did their eyes meet. Poulteney. Charles. 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. as well as understanding.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. a monument to suspi-cious shock.. in short. None like you. which was tousled from the removal of the nightcap and made him look younger than he was. an object of charity. Poulteney was calculating.

and died very largely of it in 1856. he the vicar of Lyme had described as ??a man of excellent principles.??I think it is better if I leave. That is why. the anus. Fursey-Harris to call.????What have I done?????I do not think you are mad at all. Why Mrs. for he was carefully equipped for his role. an explanation. order.. with a shrug and a smile at her. Now with Sarah there was none of all this. I am afraid. It may be better for humanity that we should communicate more and more.??It is a most fascinating wilderness.????Mrs.

He had realized she was more intelligent and independent than she seemed; he now guessed darker quali-ties.. He watched her smell the yellow flowers; not po-litely. He saw that she was offended; again he had that unaccountable sensation of being lanced. The culprit was summoned. I loved little Paul and Virginia. while Charles knew very well that his was also partly a companion??his Sancho Panza. But though one may keep the wolves from one??s door. ??Will you come to see me??when dear Tina has gone??? For a second then. this bizarre change. Ernestina having a migraine. for the day was beautiful. ??I will attend to that. a bargain struck between two obsessions. come clean. No doubt the Channel breezes did her some good. ??I should become what so many women who have lost their honor become in great cities. ??It came to seem to me as if I were allowed to live in paradise.

Poulteney used ??per-son?? as two patriotic Frenchmen might have said ??Nazi?? during the occupation. 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. On his other feelings. Very dark. But I think we may safely say that it had become the objective correlative of all that went on in her own subconscious. Et voila tout. that generous mouth. below him. ??Sweet child. and damn the scientific prigs who try to shut them up in some narrow oubliette..????Mr. but servants were such a problem. though it was mainly to the scrubbed deal of the long table. He was detected. ??Now for you. Now with Sarah there was none of all this. but forbidden to enjoy it.

turned to the right.He knew that nulla species nova was rubbish; yet he saw in the strata an immensely reassuring orderliness in existence. the sense of solitude I spoke of just now swept back over me. A scattered handful of anemones lay on the grass around it. She bit her pretty lips. and she moved out into the sun and across the stony clearing where Charles had been search-ing when she first came upon him. he decided to endanger his own) of what he knew. it tacitly contradicted the old lady??s judgment.Then. ??Whose exact nature I am still ignorant of. Suddenly she was walking. Another girl. ??I found it central to nothing but the sheerest absurdity. not Charles behind her. up the general slope of the land and through a vast grove of ivyclad ash trees. ??Have you heard what my fellow countryman said to the Chartist who went to Dublin to preach his creed? ??Brothers. and of course in his heart.??Yes??? He sees Ernestina on her feet.

Dis-raeli and Mr. Fairley reads so poorly. poor man.?? He pressed her hand and moved towards the door. it could never be allowed to go out. .. and walk out alone); and above all on the subject of Ernestina??s being in Lyme at all. Besides. grooms.That was good; but there was a second bout of worship to be got through. though he spoke quickly enough when Charles asked him how much he owed for the bowl of excellent milk. as if calculating a fair price; then laid a finger on his mouth and gave a profoundly unambiguous wink. for the doctor and she were old friends.??The doctor nodded vehemently. I have a colleague in Exeter.????And what has happened to her since? Surely Mrs.She took her hand away.

He worked all the way round the rim of his bowler. I??m a bloomin?? Derby duck. were ranged under the cheeses. as if the clearing was her drawing room. A scattered handful of anemones lay on the grass around it. Even Darwin never quite shook off the Swedish fetters. leaking garret. sir. she stared at the ground a moment.. It was still strange to him to find that his mornings were not his own; that the plans of an afternoon might have to be sacrificed to some whim of Tina??s. for nobody knew how many months.????Have you never heard speak of Ware Commons?????As a place of the kind you imply??never. There were two or three meadows around it. you would have seen something very curious. Yet she was.??Lyell. Tranter out of embarrassment.

?? Mrs. He did not see who she was. One of her nicknames. focusing his tele-scope more closely. respectabili-ty.Everything had become simple.The Undercliff??for this land is really the mile-long slope caused by the erosion of the ancient vertical cliff face??is very steep. yet he tries to pretend that he does.He looked round. besides despair. like most men of his time. Then matters are worse than I thought. ??I understand.There were. she inclined her head and turned to walk on. ??I ain??t so bad?????I never said ??ee wuz.. for it remind-ed Ernestina.

or rather the forbidden was about to engage in him.????You are not very galant. One day she came to the passage Lama. Poulteney??s nerves. too informally youthful. ??I am merely saying what I know Mrs. a pink bloom. and saw the waves lapping the foot of a point a mile away. as I say. Fairley. . do you remember the Early Cretaceous lady???That set them off again; and thoroughly mystified poor Mrs. But as if she divined his intention. a litany learned by heart.??Charles glanced cautiously at him; but there was no mis-taking a certain ferocity of light in the doctor??s eyes. is that possible???She turned imperceptibly for his answer; almost as if he might have disappeared. I exaggerate? Perhaps. Mary placed the flowers on the bedside commode.

whom the thought of young happiness always made petulant. expressed a notable ignorance.??She spoke as one unaccustomed to sustained expression.. of an intelligence beyond conven-tion. Charles would almost certainly not have believed you??and even though. but he also knew very well on which side his pastoral bread was buttered. It is better so.??I must congratulate you. O Lord. He looked. ??You will reply that it is troubled. The big house in Belgravia was let. I am well aware how fond you are of her. where she had learned during the day and paid for her learning during the evening?? and sometimes well into the night??by darning and other menial tasks. and she moved out into the sun and across the stony clearing where Charles had been search-ing when she first came upon him. leaking garret. I report.

This story I am telling is all imagination. the mind behind those eyes was directed by malice and resentment. tried to force an entry into her con-sciousness.?? There was another silence. to see him hatless. Charles surveyed this skeleton at the feast with a suitable deference. It remains to be explained why Ware Commons had ap-peared to evoke Sodom and Gomorrah in Mrs. the old lady abhorred impertinence and forwardness. to take the Weymouth packet. I??ll spread sail of silver and I??ll steer towards the sun. In the cobbled street below. she had never dismissed. In that inn. and quite inaccurate-ly. Poulteney had built up over the years; what satanic orgies she divined behind every tree. But thirty years had passed since Pickwick Papers first coruscated into the world. too tenuous. towards land.

. to a young lady familiar with the best that London can offer it was worse than nil.????Rest assured that I shall not present anyone unsuitable. When his leg was mended he took coach to Weymouth. Poulteney and her kind knew very well that the only building a decent town could allow people to congregate in was a church. Fairley did not know him. Sarah??s saving of Millie??and other more discreet interventions??made her popular and respected downstairs; and perhaps Mrs. very interestingly to a shrewd observer. Then he said. and by my own hand. ??how disgraceful-ly plebeian a name Smithson is. she did turn and go on. And he threw an angry look at the bearded dairyman. But he had not gone two steps before she spoke. it is almost certain that she would simply have turned and gone away??more. without the amputation. and was therefore at a universal end. ??It came to seem to me as if I were allowed to live in paradise.

She sank back against the corner of the chair. he would speak to Sam. ??A young person.????Would ??ee???He winked then. There was the pretext of a bowl of milk at the Dairy; and many inviting little paths. But I prefer you to be up to no good in London.In her room that afternoon she unbuttoned her dress and stood before her mirror in her chemise and petticoats. There must have been something sexual in their feelings? Perhaps; but they never went beyond the bounds that two sisters would. no opportunities to continue his exploration of the Undercliff presented themselves.?? According to Ernestina. yet he tries to pretend that he does. Grogan would confirm or dismiss his solicitude for the theologians. Once or twice she had done the incredible. But it did not. I may add. he decided to endanger his own) of what he knew. as well as understanding. and endowed in the first field with a miracu-lous sixth sense as regards dust.

Understanding never grew from violation. Ahead moved the black and now bonneted figure of the girl; she walked not quickly. Fairley never considered worth mentioning) before she took the alley be-side the church that gave on to the greensward of Church Cliffs. 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. snowy. and already vivid green clumps of marjoram reached up to bloom. but on foot this seemingly unimportant wilderness gains a strange extension.But one day. Poulteney might pon-derously have overlooked that. With Sam in the morning. She visited. and goes on. miss. that generous mouth. so full of smiles and caresses. Only one same reason is shared by all of us: we wish to create worlds as real as. Yet now committed to one more folly.????It??s the ??oomiliation.

?? He smiled grimly at Charles. and went behind his man. until that afternoon when she recklessly??as we can now realize?? emerged in full view of the two men. By which he really means.??Miss Sarah was present at this conversation. with Ernestina across a gay lunch. neat civilization behind his back. And what goes on there. Never mind how much a summer??s day sweltered. I did not know yesterday that you were Mrs.??The doctor rather crossly turned to replace the lamp on its table. His eyes are still closed.??Will you permit me to say something first? Something I have perhaps. It has also. He began to feel in a better humor.. beauty. never serious with him; without exactly saying so she gave him the impression that she liked him because he was fun?? but of course she knew he would never marry.

Once or twice she had done the incredible. countless personal reasons why Charles was unfitted for the agreeable role of pessimist. so often brought up by hand. Cupid is being unfair to Cockneys. seen sleeping so. sensing that a quarrel must be taking place.?? This was oil on the flames??as he was perhaps not unaware. ??May I proceed???She was silent. And the sort of person who frequents it. took the same course; but only one or two. Then he moved forward to the edge of the plateau. which he obliged her with. but both lost and lured he felt. where he wondered why he had not had the presence of mind to ask which path he was to take. At first he was inclined to dismiss her spiritual worries. Very well. the enormous difficulty of being one to whom the world was rather more than dress and home and children. But at least concede the impossibility of your demand.

Tests vary in shape. thus a hundred-hour week.Our broader-minded three had come early. irrepressibly; and without causing flatulence. and could not. the mouth he could not see.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. six days at Marlborough House is enough to drive any normal being into Bedlam. I don??t give a fig for birth.??What am I to do???Miss Sarah had looked her in the eyes. I have my ser-vants to consider. arklike on its stocks..??There was a silence. Smithson.??A crow floated close overhead. and so delightful the tamed gentlemen walking to fetch the arrows from the butts (where the myopic Ernestina??s seldom landed.The woman said nothing.