Poulteney??s turn to ask an astounding question. They could not.??Ernestina looked down at that.So Mrs.

But then she looked Mrs
But then she looked Mrs. and thrown her into a rabbit stew.. Grogan reached out and poked his fire. I have written a monograph. you gild it or blacken it. And I must conform to that definition.??Charles smiled back.????Indeed. Poulteney went to see her. It made him drop her arm.??I know lots o?? girls. Aunt Tranter did her best to draw the girl into the conversation; but she sat slightly apart. should wish to enter her house. as if she would answer no more questions; begged him to go. incapable of sustained physical effort. but with suppressed indignation. I did not wish to spoil that delightful dinner. Poulteney??s birthday Sarah presented her with an antimacassar??not that any chair Mrs..

agreeable conformity to the epoch??s current. It was a kind of suicide.So Mrs.But I am a novelist. ??Right across the street she calls. but why I did it. I feared you might. We are not to dispute His under-standing. with exotic-looking colonies of polypody in their massive forks. he had become blind: had not seen her for what she was. I will not be called a sinner for that. out of the copper jug he had brought with him.??I??m a Derby duck. did she not?????Oh now come. These young ladies had had the misfortune to be briefed by their parents before the evening began. flint implements and neolithic graves. and all because of a fit of pique on her part. that the two ladies would be away at Marlborough House. He wore stout nailed boots and canvas gaiters that rose to encase Norfolk breeches of heavy flannel. he saw Sam wait-ing.

So Mrs. to avoid a roughly applied brushful of lather.Which brings me to this evening of the concert nearly a week later.Half an hour later he was passing the Dairy and entering the woods of Ware Commons. the country was charming.. that house above Elm House.????The new room is better?????Yes. But she tells me the girl keeps mum even with her.?? But Sam had had enough. He walked for a mile or more.?? He tried to expostulate. and similar mouthwatering op-portunities for twists of the social dagger depended on a sup-ply of ??important?? visitors like Charles. I know where you stay. and yet he had not really understood Darwin. Now and then she asked questions. he raised his wideawake and bowed. it was charming. Strangers were strange. and who had in any case reason enough??after an evening of Lady Cotton??to be a good deal more than petulant.

the most unexpected thing. into which they would eventually move. But whatever his motives he had fixed his heart on tests. such a child. the least sign of mockery of his absurd pretensions. Each time she read it (she was overtly reading it again now because it was Lent) she felt elevated and purified. until that afternoon when she recklessly??as we can now realize?? emerged in full view of the two men. .????I also wish to spare you the pain of having to meet that impertinent young maid of Mrs. what wickedness!??She raised her head. I do this for your own good. But by then she had already acted; gathering up her skirt she walked swiftly over the grass to the east. But it is sufficient to say that among the more respectable townsfolk one had only to speak of a boy or a girl as ??one of the Ware Commons kind?? to tar them for life. But Sarah was as sensitive as a sea anemone on the matter; however obliquely Mrs. English religion too bigoted. It is true that to explain his obscure feeling of malaise. Burkley. though with very different expres-sions. which Mrs. all those abysses unbridged and then unbridgeable by radio.

of course. let me be frank. up a steep small slope crowned with grass. the problem of what to do after your supper is easily solved. her figure standing before the entombing greenery behind her; and her face was suddenly very beautiful. her eyes still on her gravely reclined fiance. Half Harley Street had examined her. Poulteney??s in-terest in Charles was probably no greater than Charles??s in her; but she would have been mortally offended if he had not been dragged in chains for her to place her fat little foot on??and pretty soon after his arrival. The blame is not all his. Ergo. Indeed she made a pretense of being very sorry for ??poor Miss Woodruff?? and her reports were plentifully seasoned with ??I fear?? and ??I am afraid.??You are quite right. invented by Archbishop Ussher in the seventeenth century and recorded solemnly in count-less editions of the official English Bible. He stared into his fire and murmured. And then the color of those walls! They cried out for some light shade. but a little more gilt and fanciful. dark mystery outside.????No. You see there are parallels. overfastidious.

Tina. vast. This was very dis-graceful and cowardly of them. And perhaps an emotion not absolutely unconnected with malice. and a thousand other misleading names) that one really required of a proper English gentleman of the time. By that time Sarah had been earning her own living for a year??at first with a family in Dorchester. Since then she has waited. It irked him strangely that he had to see her upside down. as if she might faint should any gentleman dare to address her. ??These are the very steps that Jane Austen made Louisa Musgrove fall down in Persua-sion. you know. but fixed him with a look of shock and bewilderment.However. His leg had been crushed at the first impact. until Charles was obliged to open his eyes and see what was happening. the blue shadows of the unknown. by a mere cuteness. or the frequency of the discords between the prima donna and her aide.However. The dead man??s clothes still hung in his wardrobe.

Tranter. this proof.Scientific agriculture.?? She paused again. I did not then know that men can be both very brave and veryfalse. a lightness of touch. But he contained his bile by reminding her that she slept every afternoon; and on his own strict orders. I keep it on for my dear husband??s sake. and Sarah had by this time acquired a kind of ascendancy of suffering over Mrs. . that afternoon when the vicar made his return and announcement. .?? And all the more peremptory. She most certainly wanted her charity to be seen. the figure at the end.??He glanced sharply down. a litany learned by heart. should have left earlier. Poulteney let a golden opportunity for bullying pass. Or indeed.

perhaps even a pantheist. Ernestina was her niece. But you could offer that girl the throne of England??and a thousand pounds to a penny she??d shake her head.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.??Mrs. But no. and dreadful heresies drifted across the poor fellow??s brain?? would it not be more fun. elephantine but delicate; as full of subtle curves and volumes as a Henry Moore or a Michelangelo; and pure. It at least allowed Mrs. miss.??Mrs. if you had been watching. Mary could not resist trying the green dress on one last time. Ernestina allowed dignity to control her for precisely one and a half minutes. I was ashamed to tell her in the beginning. He stared into his fire and murmured. beauty. then that was life. Poulteney turned to look at her. of Mrs.

Jem!???? and the sound of racing footsteps. a lightness of touch. In her increasingly favorable mood Mrs. The last five years had seen a great emancipation in women??s fashions. a giggle. He hesitated a while; but the events that passed before his eyes as he stood at the bay window of his room were so few. at any rate an impulse made him turn and go back to her drawing room. a thunderous clash of two brontosauri; with black velvet taking the place of iron cartilage. I have a colleague in Exeter. with a kind of blankness of face. it was evident that she resorted always to the same place. Poulteney.[* A ??dollymop?? was a maidservant who went in for spare-time prosti-tution. seemingly across a plain. she had acuity in practical matters. he most legibly had.??We??re not ??orses. . One day she came to the passage Lama.??She began then??as if the question had been expected??to speak rapidly; almost repeating a speech.

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. I was unsuccessful. Thus the simple fact that he had never really been in love became clear proof to Ernestina. ??They have indeed. Poulteney by sinking to her knees.????Come come.??Still the mouth remained clamped shut; and a third party might well have wondered what horror could be coming. and where Millie had now been put to bed. But she has been living principally on her savings from her previous situation. in short.The grog was excellent. It had been their size that had decided the encroaching gentleman to found his arboretum in the Undercliff; and Charles felt dwarfed.??I know lots o?? girls. poor girl; and had it not been for Sarah. stepped massively inland. there were far more goose-berries than humans patiently. Because . I think. If he does not return. who sat as implacably in her armchair as the Queen on her throne.

made Sam throw open the windows and. And with ladies of her kind. But he told me he should wait until I joined him. Many younger men.??I was blind. 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..????I hoped I had made it clear that Mrs. as if that was the listener. Tranter only a very short time. Poulteney thought she had been the subject of a sarcasm; but Sarah??s eyes were solemnly down. Poulteney??s. They bubbled as the best champagne bubbles. stepped off the Cobb and set sail for China. 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. the sinner guessed what was coming; and her answers to direct questions were always the same in content. Certainly some deep flaw in my soul wished my better self to be blinded. lying at his feet. 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. Sam felt he was talking too much.

not a man in a garden??I can follow her where I like? But possibility is not permissibility. the lack of reason for such sorrow; as if the spring was natural in itself. I could still have left. Poulteney dosed herself with laudanum every night.????Has she an education?????Yes indeed.??And she stared past Charles at the house??s chief icon. 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. and gave her a faintly tomboyish air on occasion.??It was outrageous. At the time of his wreck he said he was first officer. He began to feel in a better humor.??I am told. in a word. I am told they say you are looking for Satan??s sails. ??I know. . But its highly fossiliferous nature and its mobility make it a Mecca for the British paleontologist. The first artificial aids to a well-shaped bosom had begun to be commonly worn; eyelashes and eyebrows were painted. as drunkards like drinking. 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.

I came upon you inadvertently. but with an even pace. in spite of that. you would have seen something very curious. he foresaw only too vividly that she might put foolish female questions.????So I am a doubly dishonored woman.. had life so fallen out.?? But sufficient excuses or penance Charles must have made. the celebrated Madame Bovary. it must be confessed. I may add. and Captain Talbot wishes me to suggest to you that a sailor??s life is not the best school of morals. you understand. This was very dis-graceful and cowardly of them. then. She had only a candle??s light to see by. and quite literally patted her. flew on ahead of him. A stronger squall????She turned to look at him??or as it seemed to Charles.

The girl lay in the complete abandonment of deep sleep. He did not look back. then gestured to Sam to pour him his hot water.??My dear madam. ??Eighty-eight days. Poulteney on her own account. that there was something shallow in her??that her acuteness was largely constituted. This latter reason was why Ernestina had never met her at Marlborough House. These outcasts were promptly cast out; but the memory of their presence remained. They did not need to. while Charles knew very well that his was also partly a companion??his Sancho Panza.????William Manchester. in everything but looks and history. . ????Ow about London then? Fancy seein?? London???She grinned then. like an octoroon turkey. and if they did. but he found himself not in the mood. Something about the coat??s high collar and cut. to the edge of the cliff meadow; and stared out to sea a long moment; then turned to look at him still standing by the gorse: a strange.

onto the path through the woods.. since that meant also a little less influence. He had never been able to pass such shops without stopping and staring in the windows; criticizing or admiring them. I am??????I know who you are. and at last their eyes met. their condescensions. It was as if. I fancy. among his not-too-distant ancestors. The husband was evidently a taciturn man. many years before. It was as if he had shown a callous lack of sympathy.. They made the cardinal error of trying to pretend to Charles that paleontology absorbed them??he must give them the titles of the most interesting books on the subject??whereas Ernestina showed a gently acid little determination not to take him very seriously. lived very largely for pleasure . like an octoroon turkey. as the poet says. She should have known better. force the pace.

I can only smile. a rider clopped peacefully down towards the sea. The roedeer. A chance meeting with someone who knew of his grandfather??s mania made him realize that it was only in the family that the old man??s endless days of supervising bewildered gangs of digging rus-tics were regarded as a joke. on one of her rare free afternoons??one a month was the reluctant allowance??with a young man. but Charles had also the advantage of having read??very much in private. Mrs. Or indeed. but duty is peremptory and absolute. and within a few feet one would have slithered helplessly over the edge of the bluff below. but her skin had a vigor..He had had graver faults than these. he was not worthy of you.??Miss Woodruff!????I beg you. then walked some fifty yards or so along the lower path. Mrs. had that been the chief place of worship. People have been lost in it for hours. to begin with.

Their nor-mal face was a mixture of fear at Mrs. But before he could ask her what was wrong. 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.??I have given. ??Ah! happy they who in their grief or painYearn not for some familiar face in vain??CHARLES!?? The poem suddenly becomes a missile. bending. and making poetic judgments on them. The author was a Fellow of the Royal Society and the leading marine biologist of his day; yet his fear of Lyell and his followers drove him in 1857 to advance a theory in which the anomalies between science and the Biblical account of Creation are all neatly removed at one fine blow: Gosse??s ingenious argument being that on the day God created Adam he also created all fossil and extinct forms of life along with him??which must surely rank as the most incomprehensible cover-up operation ever attributed to divinity by man. arched eyebrows were then the fashion. I have known Mrs.??Silence. Charles surveyed this skeleton at the feast with a suitable deference. . Freeman) he had got out somewhat incoherently??and the great obstacles: no money. But this cruel thought no sooner entered Charles??s head than he dismissed it. has pronounced: ??The poem is a pure.??There was a silence. and glanced down with the faintest nod of the head. I??ll be damned if I wouldn??t dance a jig on the ashes. ancestry??with one ear.

what he ought to have done at that last meeting??that is. I think Mrs. Very wicked. ??How come you here?????I saw you pass. Perhaps her sharp melancholy had been induced by the sight of the endless torrent of lesser mortals who cascaded through her kitchen. Ernestina plucked Charles??s sleeve. when she was before him. oblivious of the blood sacrifice her pitiless stone face de-manded.. The other was even simpler. Charles stood dumbfounded. the despiser of novels. whom on the whole he liked only slightly less than himself. builds high walls round its Ver-sailles; and personally I hate those walls most when they are made by literature and art. ??How should I not know it?????To the ignorant it may seem that you are persevering in your sin. He could have walked in some other direction? Yes.However. He continued smiling. I took the omnibus to Weymouth. ??I know Miss Freeman and her mother would be most happy to make inquiries in London.

Poulteney was whitely the contrary. This remarkable event had taken place in the spring of 1866. She too was a stranger to the crinoline; but it was equally plain that that was out of oblivion. whose purpose is to prevent the heat from the crackling coals daring to redden that chastely pale complex-ion). she goes to a house she must know is a living misery. Smithson. that their sense of isolation??and if the weather be bad. But you must show it. The relations of one??s dependents can become so very tiresome.Once again Sarah showed her diplomacy. as he craned sideways down.How he spoke. you know. a skill with her needle. and pressed it playfully. kind Mrs. yet proud to be so. And yet she still wanted very much to help her. and to which the memory or morals of the odious Prinny. He hesitated a while; but the events that passed before his eyes as he stood at the bay window of his room were so few.

Ernestina did not know a dreadful secret of that house in Broad Street; there were times. Poulteney on her own account.????I could not tell the truth before Mrs.??I hasten to add that no misconduct took place at Captain Talbot??s. But to return to the French gentleman. that soon she would have to stop playing at mistress. Charles said nothing. He felt sure that he would not meet her if he kept well clear of it..????Oh. . especially when the spade was somebody else??s sin.????He asked you to marry him???She found difficulty in answering. Charles could perhaps have trusted himself with fewer doubts to Mrs. they are spared. But she had no theology; as she saw through people. Poulteney??s turn to ask an astounding question. They could not.??Ernestina looked down at that.So Mrs.