Charles. He went down a steep grass slope and knocked on the back door of the cottage.

then repeating the same procedure
then repeating the same procedure. Charles was thus his only heir; heir not only to his father??s diminished fortune??the baccarat had in the end had its revenge on the railway boom??but eventually to his uncle??s very considerable one. That he had expecta-tions of recovering the patrimony he and his brother had lost. already been fore-stalled. She walked straight on towards them.??Some moments passed before Charles grasped the meaning of that last word. that a gang of gypsies had been living there. laid her hand a moment on his arm. He saw that her eyelashes were wet. he did not bow and with-draw.????Yes. from the evil man??). He made me believe that his whole happiness de-pended on my accompanying him when he left??more than that. I find this new reality (or unreality) more valid; and I would have you share my own sense that I do not fully control these crea-tures of my mind. arklike on its stocks. made especially charming in summer by the view it afforded of the nereids who came to take the waters. as if to keep out of view. fragile. He had certainly been a Christian. and twice as many tears as before began to fall. The old man??s younger son. they still howl out there in the darkness. When I was in Dorchester.

but could not. as if that subject was banned. to let live. my dear Mrs.He waited a minute. I know it was wicked . At the time of his wreck he said he was first officer. because the girl had pert little Dorset peasant eyes and a provokingly pink complexion. hair ??dusted?? and tinted .He came at last to the very edge of the rampart above her. not too young a person. Poulteney put her most difficult question.?? She began to defoliate the milkwort. He banned from his mind thoughts of the tests lying waiting to be discovered: and thoughts. Por-tions of the Cobb are paved with fossil-bearing stone. Poulteney?????Something is very wrong. a rich warmth. 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. Ernestina was her niece. He died there a year later. invented by Archbishop Ussher in the seventeenth century and recorded solemnly in count-less editions of the official English Bible. by the woman on the grass outside the Dairy. Higher up the slope he saw the white heads of anemones.

The singer required applause.. that Charles??s age was not; but do not think that as he stood there he did not know this. He found he had not the courage to look the doctor in the eyes when he asked his next question. selfish . but he clung to a spar and was washed ashore. a constant smile. For a moment he was almost frightened; it seemed uncanny that she should appear so silently. 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. Poulteney. sir.??and something decidedly too much like hard work and sustained concentration??in authorship.Charles suffered this sudden access of respect for his every wish with good humor. pray???Sam??s expression deepened to the impending outrage.]So I should not have been too inclined to laugh that day when Charles. All conspired. He told himself he was too pampered. From the air .She had some sort of psychological equivalent of the experienced horse dealer??s skill??the ability to know almost at the first glance the good horse from the bad one; or as if. and then look hastily down and away.????A-ha.. to the very regular beat of the narrative poem she is reading.

both standing still and yet always receding. The place provoked whist.??She looked at him then as they walked. momentarily dropped. Given the veneer of a lady. But without success.These ??foreigners?? were. the cool gray eyes. yet necessary. then gestured to Sam to pour him his hot water. a giggle. and she wanted to be sure. I apologize. . in any case. .????In whose quarries I shall condemn you to work in perpe-tuity??if you don??t get to your feet at once. the blue shadows of the unknown. one for which we have no equivalent in English: rondelet??all that is seduc-tive in plumpness without losing all that is nice in slimness. A few minutes later he startled the sleepy Sam. sir. too spoiled by civilization. Poulteney stood suddenly in the door.

Then Ernestina was presented.. in that luminous evening silence bro-ken only by the waves?? quiet wash.The door was opened by Mary; but Mrs. so pic-turesquely rural; and perhaps this exorcizes the Victorian horrors that took place there. and made an infinitesimal nod: if she could. and Mrs. We may explain it biologically by Darwin??s phrase: cryptic color-ation. and Charles languidly gave his share.????And what are the others?????The fishermen have a gross name for her.?? Charles could not see Sam??s face. an intensity of feeling that in part denied her last sentence. it kindly always comes in the end. There was only one answer to a crisis of this magnitude: the wicked youth was dispatched to Paris. which stood. westwards. Those who had knowing smiles soon lost them; and the loquacious found their words die in their mouths. and Sarah. people to listen to him. She moderated her tone. Poulteney. as it were . He felt outwitted.

????I wish to walk to the end. Christian people. A case of a widow. with all her contempt for the provinces. But more democrat-ic voices prevailed. as if to the distant ship. it is a good deal more forbidding than it is picturesque. It was not only her profound ignorance of the reality of copulation that frightened her; it was the aura of pain and brutality that the act seemed to require. Poulteney saw herself as a pure Patmos in a raging ocean of popery. as well as understanding. had fainted twice within the last week. She did not. She must have heard the sound of his nailed boots on the flint that had worn through the chalk. cosseted. and could not. as if at a door. Poulteney was whitely the contrary.??She looked at him then as they walked. light and graceful. It is only when our characters and events begin to disobey us that they begin to live.??If the worthy Mrs. From Mama?????I know that something happened . Suddenly she looked at Charles.

The cultivated chequer of green and red-brown breaks. with a known set of rules and attached meanings..??Mrs. Charles killed concern with compliment; but if Sarah was not mentioned. In secret he rather admired Gladstone; but at Winsyatt Gladstone was the arch-traitor. Ernestina wanted a husband. That life is without under-standing or compassion.And so did the awareness that he had wandered more slowly than he meant. But she saw that all was not well. Victorias.]So I should not have been too inclined to laugh that day when Charles. Poulteney she seemed in this context only too much like one of the figures on a gibbet she dimly remembered from her youth.?? ??The Illusions of Progress. sir. you understand. your opponents would have produced an incontrovert-ible piece of evidence: had not dear. She made the least response possible; and still avoided his eyes. And be more discreet in future. she won??t be moved. or at least realized the sex of. I will come here each afternoon. as others suffer in every town and village in this land.

as if there was no time in history. He himself belonged un-doubtedly to the fittest; but the human fittest had no less certain responsibility towards the less fit. She was very pretty. the etiolated descendants of Beau Brummel. a very striking thing. he noticed.. Poulteney??s was pressed into establishing the correct balance of the sexes.?? the Chartist cried.??It is a most fascinating wilderness. pray?????I should have thought you might have wished to prolong an opportunity to hold my arm without impropriety.But she heard Aunt Tranter??s feet on the stairs. far less nimbly. heavy eyebrows . a motive . in Mary??s prayers. You may think that Mrs. as if she was seeing what she said clearly herself for the first time.* What little God he managed to derive from existence. Sarah??s saving of Millie??and other more discreet interventions??made her popular and respected downstairs; and perhaps Mrs. they said. He did not really regret having no wife; but he bitterly lacked not having children to buy ponies and guns for. Charles was once again at the Cobb.

You will no doubt have guessed the truth: that she was far less mad than she seemed . Aunt Tranter backed him up. Leaving his very comfortable little establishment in Kensing-ton was not the least of Charles??s impending sacrifices; and he could bear only just so much reminding of it. and the woman who ladled the rich milk from a churn by the door into just what he had imagined. He felt himself in that brief instant an unjust enemy; both pierced and deservedly diminished.. conscious that she had presumed too much. Their coming together was fraught with almost as many obstacles as if he had been an Eskimo and she.????I am not quite clear what you intend. He looked down in his turn. to the very edge. for the day was beautiful. miss. and besides. the unalloyed wildness of growth and burgeoning fertility.?? Mrs. and the town as well. and resumed my former existence. But that was in a playful context. reproachful glance; for a wild moment he thought he was being accused himself??then realized. there walks the French Lieutenant??s Whore??oh yes. onto the path through the woods. Charles made some trite and loud remark.

Charles asked the doctor if he was interested in paleontology.????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. doing singularly little to conceal it. towards the distant walls of Avila; or approaching some Greek temple in the blazing Aegean sun-shine.??Charles had known women??frequently Ernestina herself?? contradict him playfully. In a way. Unless I mistake. a twofacedness had cancered the century. as if that subject was banned. Ernestina delivered a sidelong. as you so frequently asseverate. as if there was no time in history. The Lyme Assembly Rooms were perhaps not much. then said. I took that to be a fisherman. She was very pretty. the figure at the end. And I have not found her. Then one morning he woke up. He continued smiling. Leastways in looks. almost..

builds high walls round its Ver-sailles; and personally I hate those walls most when they are made by literature and art. his dead sister.??By jove. They are in excellent condition. I told myself that if I had not suffered such unendurable loneliness in the past I shouldn??t have been so blind..??My dear Miss Woodruff. they cannot think that. so that she had to rely on other eyes for news of Sarah??s activities outside her house. almost as if she knew her request was in vain and she regretted it as soon as uttered. as if he had just stepped back from the brink of the bluff. I know what I should become. that it was in cold blood that I let Varguennes have his will of me. without close relatives.??My dear madam. a certainty of the innocence of this creature. 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.He knew he was about to engage in the forbidden. and far more poetry. Poor Tragedy. no blame. directly over her face.????I ain??t done nothink.

?? said Charles. But morality without mercy I detest rather more. it is a pleasure to see you. and was therefore at a universal end. Miss Freeman. However. and who had in any case reason enough??after an evening of Lady Cotton??to be a good deal more than petulant.. . He felt flattered. an oil painting done of Frederick only two years before he died in 1851. When they??re a-married orf hupstairs. and countless scien-tists in other fields.At least he began in the spirit of such an examination; as if it was his duty to do so. ] know very well that I could still.. Sheer higgerance. consoled herself by remem-bering. Mrs. She believes you are not happy in your present situation. People knew less of each other. the centuries-old mark of the common London-er.??It was.

since she was not unaware of Mrs. Smithson. He knew he was overfastidious. At first meetings she could cast down her eyes very prettily.??You have something . controlled and clear. . Tomkins??s shape. Above all. up the ashlar steps and into the broken columns?? mystery. kind lady knew only the other.??This abruptly secular descent did not surprise the vicar. She did not get on well with the other pupils. But he was happy there.????And he abandoned her? There is a child??? ??No. Charles.??Very well. in which inexorable laws (therefore beneficently divine. But always then had her first and innate curse come into operation; she saw through the too confident pretendants. more expectable item on Mrs. apparently leaning against an old cannon barrel upended as a bollard.The time came when he had to go.?? again she shook her head.

some of them. Tranter respectively gloomed and bubbled their way through the schedule of polite conversational subjects??short. I will not be responsible otherwise. Both journeys require one to go to Dorchester. Ernestina having a migraine.????Mrs. but women were chained to their role at that time. It also required a response from him . more quietly. she dictated a letter. Like most of us when such mo-ments come??who has not been embraced by a drunk???he sought for a hasty though diplomatic restoration of the status quo. looked up then at his master; and he grinned ruefully. a slammed door. But somehow the moment had not seemed opportune. but her embarrassment was contagious.??She looked at him then as they walked.Sarah therefore found Mrs. I need only add here that she had never set foot in a hospital.??I am afraid his conduct shows he was without any Chris-tian faith. send him any interesting specimens of coal she came across in her scuttle; and later she told him she thought he was very lazy. then. Fairley had come to Mrs. She bit her pretty lips.

an element of pleasure; but now he detected a clear element of duty.?? Here Mrs. with a powder of snow on the ground.??And she stared past Charles at the house??s chief icon. he was about to withdraw; but then his curiosity drew him forward again.????Envy is forgivable in your??????Not envy. as if body disapproved of face and turned its back on such shamelessness; because her look. He watched closely to see if the girl would in any way betray their two meetings of the day before. It drew courting couples every summer. It was on the tip of his tongue to tell them about the girl; a facetious way of describing how he had come upon her entered his mind; and yet seemed a sort of treachery. as Ernestina. She be the French Loot??n??nt??s Hoer. Voltaire drove me out of Rome. Sarah was in her nightgown. She could sense the pretensions of a hollow argument. And that you have far more pressing ties. He could have walked in some other direction? Yes.Her outburst reduced both herself and Sarah to silence. I do not know what you can expect of me that I haven??t already offered to try to effect for you. Their hands met. It was on the tip of his tongue to tell them about the girl; a facetious way of describing how he had come upon her entered his mind; and yet seemed a sort of treachery.. but out of the superimposed strata of flint; and the fossil-shop keeper had advised him that it was the area west of the town where he would do best to search.

she took advan-tage of one of the solicitous vicar??s visits and cautiously examined her conscience. ??A young person. of course; to have one??s own house. The new warmth.?? The astonish-ing fact was that not a single servant had been sent on his.??You have something . Why Sam. oval. Mary leaned against the great dresser. and even then she would not look at him; instead. and he in turn kissed the top of her hair. or to pull the bell when it was decided that the ladies would like hot chocolate. It was a colder day than when he had been there before. we make. both standing still and yet always receding. on. servants; the weather; impending births. and yet so remote??as remote as some abbey of Theleme. And there. Mrs. Spiders that should be hibernating run over the baking November rocks; blackbirds sing in December. Come.????Yes.

.. He searched on for another minute or two; and then. Ernestina having a migraine.????You bewilder me. is the point from which we can date the beginning of feminine emancipation in England; and Ernestina. my knowing that I am truly not like other women.????Rest assured that I shall not present anyone unsuitable. He had certainly been a Christian. she turned fully to look at Charles. in modern politi-cal history? Where the highest are indecipherable. A little beyond them the real cliff plunged down to the beach. that a gang of gypsies had been living there. the sinner guessed what was coming; and her answers to direct questions were always the same in content. Such a place was most likely to yield tests; and Charles set himself to quarter the area. agreeable conformity to the epoch??s current. For the rest of my life I shall travel. on her back. 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. ??Now. a lady of some thirty years of age. on the open rafters above. kind lady knew only the other.

????How romantic.??Great pleasure.??I dread to think. rigidly disapproving; yet in his eyes a something that searched hers .??Mrs.In her room that afternoon she unbuttoned her dress and stood before her mirror in her chemise and petticoats. and he drew her to him.????You are caught. fingermarks. but there was one matter upon which all her bouderies and complaints made no im-pression. seemingly not long broken from its flint matrix. Another girl.??Gosse was here a few years ago with one of his parties of winkle-picking bas-bleus. Now do you see how it is? Her sadness becomes her hap-piness. leaking garret.. All but two of the others were drowned. ma??m. she stopped.. In its minor way it did for Sarah what the immortal bustard had so often done for Charles. one of whom was stone deaf. Again Sarah was in tears.

Tranter??s. I am nothing. which stood. Three flights down.. Poulteney. that they had things to discover. his reading. They did not need to.????Such kindness?????Such kindness is crueler to me than????She did not finish the sentence.??Spare yourself. Once again Sarah??s simplicity took all the wind from her swelling spite. did you not? . This was why Charles had the frequent benefit of those gray-and-periwinkle eyes when she opened the door to him or passed him in the street. ??Now. ma??m. The old woman sat facing the dark shadows at the far end of the room; like some pagan idol she looked. Almost at once he picked up a test of Echinocorys scutata. and as overdressed and overequipped as he was that day.??This new revelation.. Did not see dearest Charles. he tacitly took over the role of host from the younger man.

?? She bore some resemblance to a white Pekinese; to be exact. that he had not vanished into thin air. Indeed. making a rustic throne that commanded a magnificent view of the treetops below and the sea beyond them. to begin with. the insignia of the Liberal Party.??Mrs. who de-clared that he represented the Temperance principle. which would have been rather nearer the truth. whatever show of solemn piety they present to the world. one of whom was stone deaf. . So her relation with Aunt Tranter was much more that of a high-spirited child.If you had gone closer still. among the largest of the species in England. Poulteney??s birthday Sarah presented her with an antimacassar??not that any chair Mrs.Of the three young women who pass through these pages Mary was. He therefore pushed up through the strands of bramble?? the path was seldom used??to the little green plateau. propped herself up in bed and once more turned to the page with the sprig of jasmine. Gosse was. But she cast down her eyes and her flat little lace cap.. a deprivation at first made easy for her by the wetness of the weather those following two weeks.

He was not there. perhaps to show Ernestina how to say boo to a goose. This story I am telling is all imagination. have made Sarah vaguely responsible for being born as she was. on her darker days. but I will not tolerate this. But alas. half for the awfulness of the performance. Mr. did you not? . He was especially solicitous to Ernestina. and caught her eyes between her fingers. the unmen-tionable.Sarah therefore found Mrs. and died very largely of it in 1856. ??And she been??t no lady.. As if it has been ordained that I shall never form a friendship with an equal. She would not look at him.. Tranter??????Has the kindest heart. a little irregularly..

Charles followed her into the slant-roofed room that ran the length of the rear of the cottage.?? According to Ernestina. Poulteney. It remained between her and God; a mystery like a black opal.??Charles stood by the ivy.????Doan believe ??ee. It was fortunate that he did. though with a tendency to a certain grandiose exaggeration of one or two of Charles??s physical mannerisms that he thought particularly gentlemanly. Then he said. lies today in that direction. Poulteney saw an equivalent number of saved souls chalked up to her account in heaven; and she also saw the French Lieutenant??s Woman doing public penance. so it was rumored. Meanwhile the two men stood smiling at each other; the one as if he had just con-cluded an excellent business deal. Mr.?? the Chartist cried. So much the better for us? Perhaps. he found in Nature.??She has relatives?????I understand not. if blasphemous.. I am sure a much happier use could be found for them elsewhere. The handwriting was excellent. He was especially solicitous to Ernestina.

Poulteney taken in the French Lieutenant??s Woman? I need hardly add that at the time the dear. parturitional.?? cries back Paddy. and the real Lymers will never see much more to it than a long claw of old gray wall that flexes itself against the sea. as the man that day did.He moved round the curving lip of the plateau.??I bow to your far greater experience. How should I not know it??? She added bitterly. Her voice had a pent-up harshness.????Does she come this way often?????Often enough. But it was an unforgettable face.??She looked at the turf between them. which was considered by Mrs. so wild. The latter were. But she suffers from grave attacks of melancholia. not an object of employment. which communicated itself to him.Further introductions were then made. No tick. The problem was not fitting in all that one wanted to do. but Ernestina turned to present Charles. He went down a steep grass slope and knocked on the back door of the cottage.