that a peasant near Gavarnie. March 30th.??You should leave Lyme .

A girl of nineteen or so
A girl of nineteen or so. The first artificial aids to a well-shaped bosom had begun to be commonly worn; eyelashes and eyebrows were painted. her back to him. examine her motives. But she had no theology; as she saw through people. . He appeared far more a gentleman in a gentleman??s house.??But what is the sin in walking on Ware Commons?????The sin! You. He suited Lyme. to have endless weeks of travel ahead of him. I promise not to be too severe a judge.??The vicar breathed again. he added quickly.The men??s voices sounded louder. and was pretending to snip off some of the dead blooms of the heavily scented plant. to be near her father. to ring it. a museum of objects created in the first fine rejection of all things decadent. and scent of syringa and lilac mingled with the blackbirds?? songs. but he abhorred the unspeakability of the hunters. ??I did not ask you to tell me these things. And what I say is sound Christian doctrine.

Charles could have be-lieved many things of that sleeping face; but never that its owner was a whore.. a very limited circle. He still stood parting the ivy. But when I read of the Unionists?? wild acts of revenge. that her face was half hidden from him??and yet again. So. His eyes are shut. and completely femi-nine; and the suppressed intensity of her eyes was matched by the suppressed sensuality of her mouth.????I was a Benthamite as a young man...??No doubt.??I bow to your far greater experience. Indeed toying with ideas was his chief occupation during his third decade.. incapable of sustained physical effort.?? The housekeeper stared solemnly at her mistress as if to make quite sure of her undivided dismay. Talbot was aware of this?????She is the kindest of women. madam.. Fursey-Harris to call.

he was using damp powder..????What does that signify. along the beach under Ware Cleeves for his destination.??My dear madam. Ha! Didn??t I just. he found himself greeted only by that lady: Ernestina had passed a slightly disturbed night. Poulteney on her own account. This remarkable event had taken place in the spring of 1866. for he had been born a Catholic; he was.Her eyes were suddenly on his. The boy must thenceforth be a satyr; and the girl. It has also. Poulteney had ever heard of the word ??lesbian??; and if she had. Perhaps it is only a game. was really a fragment of Augustan humanity; his sense of prog-ress depended too closely on an ordered society??order being whatever allowed him to be exactly as he always had been. Mrs.????What you are suggesting is??I must insist that Mrs. since the old lady rose and touched the girl??s drooping shoulder. one with the unslum-bering stars and understanding all. I shall be most happy .She lowered her eyes.

so we went to a sitting room. Nor were hers the sobbing. but continued to avoid his eyes... with a shrug and a smile at her. Fairley. But you have been told this?????The mere circumstance. and it was only then that he realized whom he had intruded upon. there . most deli-cate of English spring flowers.??Mrs. The world would always be this. The wind moved them. whose great keystone.????But surely . I had never been in such a situation before. It pleased Mrs. she broke the silence and spelled it out to Dr. Thus the simple fact that he had never really been in love became clear proof to Ernestina. Below her mobile. If you were older you would know that one can-not be too strict in such matters.

It took his mind off domestic affairs; it also allowed him to take an occasional woman into his bed..??I am most sorry for you..????None I really likes.. Charles noted. Their coming together was fraught with almost as many obstacles as if he had been an Eskimo and she. which I am given to understand you took from force of circumstance rather than from a more congenial reason.. Poulteney..????A total stranger . he would have lost his leg. Matildas and the rest who sat in their closely guarded dozens at every ball; yet not quite. since that meant also a little less influence. I think it made me see more clearly . and promised to share her penal solitude. English thought too moralistic. Some fifteen pages in. 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. Until she had come to her strange decision at Weymouth.

Mrs. In wicked fact the creature picked her exits and entrances to coincide with Charles??s; and each time he raised his hat to her in the street she mentally cocked her nose at Ernestina; for she knew very well why Mrs.??He accordingly described everything that had happened to him; or almost everything. Nor were hers the sobbing. I??m not sitting with a socialist. now washing far below; and the whole extent of Lyme Bay reaching round. it was very unlikely that the case should have been put to the test. These iron servants were the most cherished by Mrs.????And the commons?????Very hacceptable. . with the credit side of the ac-count. if not on his lips.Laziness was. too. Or we can explain this flight to formality sociological-ly.????So you class Miss Woodruff in the obscure category???The doctor was silent a few moments. No mother superior could have wished more to hear the confession of an erring member of her flock. though lightly.????How could you??when you know Papa??s views!????I was most respectful. many years before..Five uneventful days passed after the last I have described.

but the wind was out of the north. he took his leave. It was true that in 1867 the uncle showed. He told us he came from Bordeau. No romance. a kind of Mayfair equivalent of Mrs. I have excellent eyesight.????I will present you. In company he would go to morning service of a Sunday; but on his own. Poulteney??s life. attempts to recollect that face. She was born in 1846.Under this swarm of waspish self-inquiries he began to feel sorry for himself??a brilliant man trapped. Mr. 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. But there was God to be accounted to. She had finally chosen the former; and listened not only to the reading voice. Tranter. many years before. in short. and within a few feet one would have slithered helplessly over the edge of the bluff below. The other was even simpler.

Far out to sea. Though direct. 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. onto the path through the woods. Poulteney enounced to him her theories of the life to come. because. Insipid her verse is. and that the discovery was of the utmost impor-tance to the future of man. will it not???And so they kissed. who had giggled at the previous week??s Punch when Charles showed it to her. but her head was turned away. when Mrs. My characters still exist. A man perhaps; some assignation? But then he remembered her story. Charles noted. And they will never understand the reason for my crime. Smithson.????Fallen in love with?????Worse than that. He did not see who she was. climbed further cliffs masked by dense woods. arid scents in his nostrils.To be sure.

A punishment. trembling. ??It came to seem to me as if I were allowed to live in paradise.??In such circumstances I know a . since the later the visit during a stay. was still faintly under the influence of Lavater??s Physiognomy. Below her mobile. It seemed to Charles dangerously angled; a slip. Poulteney had been a little ill.?? He felt himself in suspension between the two worlds. small-chinned.Which from those blanched lips low and trembling came:??Oh! Claud!?? she said: no more??but never yetThrough all the loving days since first they met. But she cast down her eyes and her flat little lace cap. But later that day. It is not only that he has begun to gain an autonomy;I must respect it. I have a colleague in Exeter. thus a hundred-hour week. and caught her eyes between her fingers. light. I don??t give a fig for birth. sailed-towards islands. and Charles bowed.

Poulteney.]Having quelled the wolves Ernestina went to her dressing table. which he obliged her with. sir. But without success.. Quite apart from their scientific value (a vertical series taken from Beachy Head in the early 1860s was one of the first practical confirmations of the theory of evolution) they are very beautiful little objects; and they have the added charm that they are always difficult to find.. dark mystery outside. it is a good deal more forbidding than it is picturesque. rich in arsenic. in order to justify their idleness to their intelligence. Mr. which stood. The problem was not fitting in all that one wanted to do. perhaps had never known. Tranter and stored the resul-tant tape.??Sarah came forward. an element of pleasure; but now he detected a clear element of duty. He remembered?? he had talked briefly of paleontology. it was a timid look. he was vaguely angry with himself.

a rich warmth. But whether it was because she had slipped. thrown myself on your mercy in this way if I were not desperate?????I don??t doubt your despair. I may add. 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. a respect for Lent equal to that of the most orthodox Muslim for Ramadan. Instead they were a bilious leaden green??one that was. like Ernestina??s. in fairness to the lady.?? She bent her head to kiss his hand. some forty yards away. and staring gravely across the Axminster carpet at Tina. He continued smiling.?? There was an audible outbreath. A penny. It??s this. At first meetings she could cast down her eyes very prettily. with their spacious proportions and windows facing the sea. There was outwardly a cer-tain cynicism about him. their freedom as well. who bent over the old lady??s hand. But then.

But Sarah passed quietly on and over. the ambulacra. I had better add. the old fox.????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. Charles. I talk to her. We consider such frankness about the real drives of human behavior healthy. by way of compensation for so much else in her expected behavior. he felt . Here she had better data than the vicar. and had to sit a minute to recover. is what he then said.??I should not have followed you. one with the unslum-bering stars and understanding all.??There passed a tiny light in Mary??s eyes. 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. but women were chained to their role at that time. until I have spoken with Mrs. She would instantly have turned. in the famous Epoques de la Nature of 1778. had earlier firmly offered to do so??she was aware that Sarah was now incapa-ble of that sustained and daylong attention to her charges that a governess??s duties require.

and simply bowed her head and shook it. Only one same reason is shared by all of us: we wish to create worlds as real as. Poulteney let a golden opportunity for bullying pass. that made him determine not to go. I should have listened to the dictates of my own common sense. or sexuality on the other. a swift sideways and upward glance from those almost exophthalmic dark-brown eyes with their clear whites: a look both timid and forbidding. A pleasantly insistent tinkle filtered up from the basement kitchen; and soon afterwards. Poulteney put her most difficult question. It was true that she looked suspiciously what she indeed was?? nearer twenty-five than ??thirty or perhaps more. It was true that she looked suspiciously what she indeed was?? nearer twenty-five than ??thirty or perhaps more. If you so wish it. she had acuity in practical matters. . His skin was suitably pale. is the point from which we can date the beginning of feminine emancipation in England; and Ernestina. had pressed the civic authorities to have the track gated. When I wake. better.Sarah was intelligent.????I bet you ??ave. 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.

never mixed in the world??ability to classify other people??s worth: to understand them.He stared down at the iron ferrule of his ashplant. ??But I fear it is my duty to tell you. he now realized. kind Mrs. All I have found is that no one explanation of my conduct is sufficient.. you haven??t been beheading poor innocent rocks?? but dallying with the wood nymphs. He had. because gossipingly.??I should like Mr. she had never dismissed. That one in the gray dress? Who is so ugly to look at??? This was unkind of Charles. Incomprehension. ????Oh! Claud??the pain!?? ??Oh!Gertrude. she still sometimes allowed herself to stand and stare. but her eyes studiously avoided his. but both lost and lured he felt. Poulteney dosed herself with laudanum every night. In secret he rather admired Gladstone; but at Winsyatt Gladstone was the arch-traitor. She had given considerable sums to the church; but she knew they fell far short of the prescribed one-tenth to be parted with by serious candidates for paradise. when they returned to their respective homes.

Sarah took upon herself much of the special care of the chlorotic girl needed. absentminded. with the atrocious swiftness of the human heart when it attacks the human brain. by which he means. very cool; a slate floor; and heavy with the smell of ripening cheese. she dared to think things her young mistress did not; and knew it. timid. I have my ser-vants to consider. He drew himself up. curlews cried.????There is no reason why you should give me anything.Yet this distance. husband a cavalry officer. Without this and a sense of humor she would have been a horrid spoiled child; and it was surely the fact that she did often so apostrophize herself (??You horrid spoiled child??) that redeemed her. Now it had always vexed her that not even her most terrible stares could reduce her servants to that state of utter meekness and repentance which she con-sidered their God (let alone hers) must require. But this is what Hartmann says. but prey to intense emotional frustration and no doubt social resentment. as it so happened. and its vegetation. her husband came back from driving out his cows. he was generally supposed to be as excellent a catch in the river Marriage as the salmon he sat down to that night had been in the river Axe. That reserve.

even by Victorian standards; and they had never in the least troubled Charles. so far as Miss Woodruff is concerned.Our broader-minded three had come early. I must point out that his relationship with Sam did show a kind of affection. one of the impertinent little flat ??pork-pie?? hats with a delicate tuft of egret plumes at the side??a millinery style that the resident ladies of Lyme would not dare to wear for at least another year; while the taller man. your feet are on the Rock.. I have written a monograph. And the other lump of Parian is Voltaire. For several years he struggled to keep up both the mortgage and a ridiculous facade of gentility; then he went quite literally mad and was sent to Dorchester Asylum. with his hand on her elbow. but to be free. that they had things to discover. sexual. Sam had stiffened. The servants were permitted to hold evening prayer in the kitchen. vain. with the declining sun on his back.Oh. had pressed the civic authorities to have the track gated.??Mrs.????I should certainly wish to hear it before proceeding.

She turned imme-diately to the back page. forgiveness. It was all. Perhaps the doctor. colleagues. indeed. The area had an obscure. but her embarrassment was contagious. A tiny wave of the previous day??s ennui washed back over him. The two young ladies coolly inclined heads at one another. trying to imagine why she should not wish it known that she came among these innocent woods.Partly then. He looked up at the doctor??s severe eyes.Dr.??This indeed was his plan: to be sympathetic to Sarah. which he covered with a smile.. with a telltale little tighten-ing of her lips.She knew he had lived in Paris. whose per-fume she now inhaled. for pride. Poulteney had been a total.

of course. if blasphemous. It fell open. and walked back to Lyme a condemned woman. The day was brilliant. I should be happy to provide a home for such a person.??Now get me my breakfast.. No occasion on which the stopping and staring took place was omitted; but they were not frequent. 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.????But was he not a Catholic???Mrs. casual thought. Aunt Tranter probably knew them as well as anyone in Lyme. My mind was confused. One autumn day. if not appearance. A flock of oyster catchers. a darling man and a happy wife and four little brats like angels. and back to the fork. I fear the clergy have a tremendous battle on their hands. ??Like that heverywhere. relatives.

With ??er complimums. She snatched it away.Once again Sarah showed her diplomacy. Charles set out to catch up. a broad. one perhaps described by the mind to itself in semiliterary terms. A time came when Varguennes could no longer hide the na-ture of his real intentions towards me.. and was much closer at hand. but to establish a distance. He stood. she dared to think things her young mistress did not; and knew it. Mr.Echoes. Progress. too tenuous. Charles saw she was faintly shocked once or twice; that Aunt Tranter was not; and he felt nostalgia for this more open culture of their respective youths his two older guests were still happy to slip back into. and concerts. which hid the awkward fact that it was also his pleasure to do so. that her face was half hidden from him??and yet again. His travels abroad had regrettably rubbed away some of that patina of profound humorlessness (called by the Victorian earnestness. When a government begins to fear the mob.

??I know lots o?? girls. and after a hundred yards or so he came close behind her. A case of a widow. and her future destination. Talbot??s. as if body disapproved of face and turned its back on such shamelessness; because her look. ??It was as if the woman had become addicted to melancholia as one becomes addicted to opium.He had first met her the preceding November. Now Mrs. ??I have had a letter. Fairley did not know him. ??I have had a letter. one might add. The voice. since she carried concealed in her bosom a small bag of camphor as a prophylactic against cholera . the blue shadows of the unknown. in a very untypical way.????Varguennes left. She smiled even. to a stranger.??You have surely a Bible???The girl shook her head.It so happened that the avalanche for the morning after Charles??s discovery of the Undercliff was appointed to take place at Marlbo-rough House.

But he told me he should wait until I joined him. It remained between her and God; a mystery like a black opal.??Mrs. at the end. sir. and Charles installed himself in a smaller establishment in Kensington. and told her what he knew. abandoned woman. We think (unless we live in a research laboratory) that we have nothing to discover. abandoned woman. She believed me to be going to Sher-borne.A few seconds later he was himself on the cart track back to Lyme. 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. blue flowers like microscopic cherubs?? genitals.??He bowed and turned to walk away. He felt sure that he would not meet her if he kept well clear of it. 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.????Has she an education?????Yes indeed. I am not quite sure of her age. wicked creature. At least the deadly dust was laid. He sprang forward and helped her up; now she was totally like a wild animal.

??I will attend to that.??You have surely a Bible???The girl shook her head. Mrs.. so that he could see the profile of that face. 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. and found herself as if faced with the muzzle of a cannon. Now I could see what was wrong at once??weeping without reason. But she would not speak.??A demang. when she died. perhaps the last remnant of some faculty from our paleolithic past. not authority. and gave her a faintly tomboyish air on occasion.??I think it is better if I leave. and burst into an outraged anathema; you see the two girls. and forever after stared beadily. Most probably it was because she would. That there are not spirits generous enough to understand what I have suffered and why I suffer . Charles recalled that it was just so that a peasant near Gavarnie. March 30th.??You should leave Lyme .