scramble up through the brambles she certainly did come sharply to mind again; he recalled very vividly how she had lain that day.

He noted that mouth
He noted that mouth. Poulteney began. Poulteney. as in so many other things.. 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. One. as those made by the women who in the London of the time haunted the doorways round the Haymarket.??Gosse was here a few years ago with one of his parties of winkle-picking bas-bleus.Charles had already visited what was perhaps the most famous shop in the Lyme of those days??the Old Fossil Shop. He remembered?? he had talked briefly of paleontology. She had only a candle??s light to see by. though the cross??s withdrawal or absence implied a certain failure in her skill in carrying it. pray???Sam??s expression deepened to the impending outrage. It was very clear that any moment Mrs. The two young ladies coolly inclined heads at one another. Thus he had gained a reputation for aloofness and coldness.. of course. I did not promise him.?? She paused again. she might throw away the interest accruing to her on those heavenly ledgers.

I need only add here that she had never set foot in a hospital. Why Sam.Ernestina??s elbow reminded him gently of the present. but spoke from some yards behind her back.Very gently. Poulteney approached the subject. Disraeli. he had one disappointment. In that inn.?? Then dexterously he had placed his foot where the door had been about to shut and as dexterously produced from behind his back. the goldfinch was given an instant liberty; where-upon it flew to Mrs. of failing her.But the difference between Sam Weller and Sam Farrow (that is.?? She hesitated. and was not deceived by the fact that it was pressed unnaturally tight. a young woman. Poulteney used ??per-son?? as two patriotic Frenchmen might have said ??Nazi?? during the occupation. I think that is very far from true. a dryness that pleased. but in those days a genteel accent was not the great social requisite it later became.????And what are the others?????The fishermen have a gross name for her. At last she went on.

to hear. his scientific hobbies . trembling. The first artificial aids to a well-shaped bosom had begun to be commonly worn; eyelashes and eyebrows were painted.????If they know my story. she turned fully to look at Charles... in England. the spelling faultless. it was unlikely that there would be enough men to go round. The real reason for her silence did not dawn on Charles at first. Never in such an inn. and Mrs. And he could no more have avoided his fate than a plump mouse dropping between the claws of a hungry cat??several dozen hungry cats.Now Mrs.?? was the very reverse. a deprivation at first made easy for her by the wetness of the weather those following two weeks. which hid the awkward fact that it was also his pleasure to do so. a traditionally Low Church congregation. a truly orgastic lesbianism existed then; but we may ascribe this very com-mon Victorian phenomenon of women sleeping together far more to the desolating arrogance of contemporary man than to a more suspect motive. he found incomprehen-sible.

and the tests less likely to be corroded and abraded. so that the future predicted by Chapter One is always inexorably the actuality of Chapter Thirteen.????Just so.??Madam!??She turned. then turned and resumed his seat. with a powder of snow on the ground. down-stairs maids??they took just so much of Mrs.. not the best recommendation to a servant with only three dresses to her name??and not one of which she really liked.. When I was in Dorchester.????How do you force the soul. 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. he took his leave.. when he finally resumed his stockings and gaiters and boots. trying to imagine why she should not wish it known that she came among these innocent woods.. both in land and money. sweetly dry little face asleep beside him??and by heavens (this fact struck Charles with a sort of amaze-ment) legitimately in the eyes of both God and man beside him. for fame. Poulteney may have real-ized.

as the spy and the mistress often reminded each other. I think. the dates of all the months and days that lay between it and her marriage. with all her contempt for the provinces. quote George Eliot??s famous epigram: ??God is inconceivable. He had been at this task perhaps ten minutes. A gentleman in one of the great houses that lie behind the Undercliff performed a quiet Anschluss??with. to mutter the prayers for the dead in He-brew? And was not Gladstone. and sincerely. whom the thought of young happiness always made petulant. He did not look back. since the values she computed belong more there than in the mind. as Ernestina. both standing still and yet always receding. to be free of parents . to be exact. Weimar. I have heard it said that you are . propped herself up in bed and once more turned to the page with the sprig of jasmine. with a shrug and a smile at her. it is a pleasure to see you. Marx remarked.

but then changed his mind. He loved Ernestina. When he came down to the impatient Mrs. too tenuous. He suddenly wished to be what he was with her; and to discover what she was. Smithson. she was born with a computer in her heart.????I was about to return. as innocent as makes no matter. at the end. or the girl??s condition. but he found himself not in the mood. But let it be plainly understood. but he abhorred the unspeakability of the hunters. and by most fashionable women. sir. television. He said finally he should wait one week. she was renowned for her charity..??It cannot concern Miss Woodruff?????Would that it did not. It was a kind of suicide.

She had chosen the strangest position. Never mind that not one in ten of the recipients could read them??indeed. I drank the wine he pressed on me. adzes and heaven knows what else. I do not know. and the woman who ladled the rich milk from a churn by the door into just what he had imagined. We could not expect him to see what we are only just beginning??and with so much more knowledge and the lessons of existentialist philosophy at our disposal??to realize ourselves: that the desire to hold and the desire to enjoy are mutually destructive. It was an end to chains. Opposition and apathy the real Lady of the Lamp had certainly had to contend with; but there is an element in sympathy.????Sometimes I think he had nothing to do with the ship-wreck. during which Charles could.?? Here Mrs.??He glanced sharply down. and looked at it as if his lips might have left a sooty mark. because. strolling beside the still swelling but now mild sea. Thus it was that Sarah achieved a daily demi-liberty. har-bingers of his passage. 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. Smithson.. when the fall is from such a height.

since he creates (and not even the most aleatory avant-garde modern novel has managed to extirpate its author completely); what has changed is that we are no longer the gods of the Victorian image. and what he thought was a cunning good bargain turned out to be a shocking bad one. a monument to suspi-cious shock. glanced at him with a smile. She was born in 1846. For a moment he was almost frightened; it seemed uncanny that she should appear so silently. delicate as a violet. However. There was something intensely tender and yet sexual in the way she lay; it awakened a dim echo of Charles of a moment from his time in Paris.She lowered her eyes. But I understand them perfectly. Tranter??s on his way to the White Lion to explain that as soon as he had bathed and changed into decent clothes he would . and which was in turn a factor of his intuition of her appalling loneliness. of course. were very often the children of servants. a look about the eyes..????It is that visiting always so distresses me. the enormous difficulty of being one to whom the world was rather more than dress and home and children. The big house in Belgravia was let. No man had ever paid me the kind of attentions that he did??I speak of when he was mending. Poulteney of the sinner??s compounding of her sin.

nickname.??Ernestina had exactly the right face for her age; that is. I am the French Lieutenant??s Whore.????Do you contradict me. touching tale of pain. a constant smile. He walked for a mile or more. I felt I had to see you. the man is tranced. and dropped it. What happened was this. with a quick and elastic step very different from his usual languid town stroll. Poulteney instead of the poor traveler. and it horrified her: that her sweet gentle Charles should be snubbed by a horrid old woman. in spite of that. ??Like that heverywhere. had given her only what he had himself received: the best education that money could buy. I brought up Ronsard??s name just now; and her figure required a word from his vocabulary.????Varguennes left.. his mood toward Ernestina that evening. Almost at once he picked up a test of Echinocorys scutata.

fenced and closed.. To both came the same insight: the wonderful new freedoms their age brought. He felt insulted. Not the smallest groan. that he had taken Miss Woodruff altogether too seriously??in his stumble. even after the door closed on the maid who cleared away our supper. Poulteney enounced to him her theories of the life to come. He climbed close enough to distinguish them for what they were. A dish of succulent first lobsters was prepared. Her exhibition of her shame had a kind of purpose; and people with purposes know when they have been sufficiently attained and can be allowed to rest in abeyance for a while. until Charles was obliged to open his eyes and see what was happening. noting and grateful. ??Tis the way ??e speaks. now long eroded into the Ven.So Mrs. Sherwood??s edifying tales??summed up her worst fears. and she was soon as adept at handling her as a skilled cardinal. He still stood parting the ivy.The local spy??and there was one??might thus have deduced that these two were strangers. irrepressibly; and without causing flatulence.??Shall I continue?????You read most beautifully.

assured his complete solitude and then carefully removed his stout boots. Mr. below him. Poulteney was concerned??of course for the best and most Christian of reasons??to be informed of Miss Woodruff??s behavior outside the tall stone walls of the gardens of Marlborough House. to take up marine biology? Perhaps to give up London. of course; but she had never even thought of doing such a thing. When Mrs. She was charming when she blushed. He had the knack of a certain fervid eloquence in his sermons; and he kept his church free of crucifixes. He could have walked in some other direction? Yes. Melancholia as plain as measles. among the largest of the species in England. you have been drinking..?? He pressed her hand and moved towards the door. Really. ??But I fear it is my duty to tell you. He looked her in the eyes. There were two very simple reasons. somewhat hard of hearing. and pressed it playfully. What has kept me alive is my shame.

better. Sarah was in her nightgown. and she worried for her more; but Ernestina she saw only once or twice a year. as if he is picturing to himself the tragic scene.Yet there had remained locally a feeling that Ware Com-mons was public property. They ought. Convenience; and they were accordingly long ago pulled down. like all matters pertaining to her comfort.I have disgracefully broken the illusion? No. And afraid. The girl came and stood by the bed. Poulteney.??From Mr. was as much despised by the ??snobs?? as by the bourgeois novelists who continued for some time. and Charles languidly gave his share.??I don??t wish to seem indifferent to your troubles. of a man born in Nazareth. Twelve ewes and rather more lambs stood nervously in mid-street. His leg had been crushed at the first impact. He wore stout nailed boots and canvas gaiters that rose to encase Norfolk breeches of heavy flannel.?? Mary spoke in a dialect notorious for its contempt of pro-nouns and suffixes. I should be happy to provide a home for such a person.

.. but she was not to be stopped. a lightness of touch. breakages and all the ills that houses are heir to. of a passionate selfishness.????So I am a doubly dishonored woman. he decided to endanger his own) of what he knew. It is many years since anything but fox or badger cubs tumbled over Donkey??s Green on Midsummer??s Night. To the west somber gray cliffs. Poulteney allowed this to be an indication of speechless repentance. a respectable place.??She possessed none. she was governess there when it happened. and which the hair effortlessly contradicted. Darwin should be exhibited in a cage in the zoological gardens. It made him drop her arm. and as sympathetically disposed as it was in her sour and suspicious old nature to be. at such a moment. You must not think she is like us men. they seem almost to turn their backs on it. There slipped into his mind an image: a deliciously cool bowl of milk.

I??ave haccepted them.It had begun. there was inevitably some conflict. 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. which strikes Charles a glancing blow on the shoulder and lands on the floor behind the sofa. . In one of the great ash trees below a hidden missel thrush was singing. moun-tains.??The door was shut then. was given a precarious footing in Marlborough House; and when the doctor came to look at the maid.. Charles made the Roman sign of mercy. and who had in any case reason enough??after an evening of Lady Cotton??to be a good deal more than petulant. a man of caprice.????But are your two household gods quite free of blame? Who was it preached the happiness of the greatest number?????I do not dispute the maxim. mum.????If you ??ad the clothes. Having duly inscribed a label with the date and place of finding. At the time of his wreck he said he was first officer. now washing far below; and the whole extent of Lyme Bay reaching round. Poulteney. but this she took to be the result of feminine vanity and feminine weak-ness.

The great mole was far from isolated that day. fictionalize it. not a man in a garden??I can follow her where I like? But possibility is not permissibility. any more than a computer can explain its own processes. no blame. However. The chalk walls behind this little natural balcony made it into a sun trap. But then.????Ah. as the case might require. Mr.Yet this distance. She was not wearing nailed boots. now washing far below; and the whole extent of Lyme Bay reaching round.But this is preposterous? A character is either ??real?? or ??imaginary??? If you think that. Varguennes had gone to sea in the wine commerce. Part of her hair had become loose and half covered her cheek. Until she had come to her strange decision at Weymouth. Charles determined. but fraternal.??Your future wife is a better judge than you are of such matters.But what of Sarah??s motives? As regards lesbianism.

?? He tried to expostulate. Poulteney??s that morning. People have been lost in it for hours.??I am weak. My characters still exist. and completely femi-nine; and the suppressed intensity of her eyes was matched by the suppressed sensuality of her mouth. the main carriage road to Sidmouth and Exeter.??Miss Woodruff. On one day there was a long excursion to Sidmouth; the mornings of the others were taken up by visits or other more agreeable diversions. a motive . I had to dismiss her. I came upon you inadvertently. to warn her that she was no longer alone. She seemed totally indifferent to fashion; and survived in spite of it. but I was in tears. I??ave haccepted them. bent in a childlike way. apparently leaning against an old cannon barrel upended as a bollard. He unbuttoned his coat and took out his silver half hunter. You must not think I speak of mere envy. Weimar. the solemn young paterfamili-as; then smiled indulgently at his own faces and euphoria; poised.

He came to the main path through the Undercliff and strode out back towards Lyme. But when I read of the Unionists?? wild acts of revenge.?? Charles could not see Sam??s face. the even more distin-guished Signer Ritornello (or some such name. now associated with them. not one native type bears the specific anningii. am I???Charles laughed. Evolution and all those other capitalized ghosts in the night that are rattling their chains behind the scenes of this book . cosseted. the enormous difficulty of being one to whom the world was rather more than dress and home and children. Again her bonnet was in her hand.?? She paused again. ] know very well that I could still. has only very recently lost us the Green forever. very slightly built; and all his movements were neat and trim. Another he calls occasional. allowing a misplaced chivalry to blind his common sense; and the worst of it was that it was all now deucedly difficult to explain to Ernestina.Which brings me to this evening of the concert nearly a week later. You won??t believe this. Miss Woodruff. It had always seemed a grossly unfair parable to Mrs. Poulteney felt only irritation.

Grogan??s little remark about the comparative priority to be accorded the dead and the living had germinated. It is true also that she took some minimal precautions of a military kind.??There was a silence then. of course.??I am weak.The girl lay in the complete abandonment of deep sleep.At least he began in the spirit of such an examination; as if it was his duty to do so. in the Pyrenees. I think you should speak to Sam. I know the Talbots. to Mrs. amber.??This indeed was his plan: to be sympathetic to Sarah.??You are quite right. Thus family respect and social laziness conveniently closed what would have been a natural career for him. But fortunately she had a very proper respect for convention; and she shared withCharles??it had not been the least part of the first attraction between them??a sense of self-irony. make me your confidant. The idea brought pleasures. she might even have closed the door quietly enough not to wake the sleepers.To both young people it had promised to be just one more dull evening; and both. Poulteney had ever heard of the word ??lesbian??; and if she had.?? She hesitated.

In secret he rather admired Gladstone; but at Winsyatt Gladstone was the arch-traitor. they say. ??I would rather die than you should think that of me.. in Lisbon. ??rose his hibrows?? and turned his back. You may search for days and not come on one; and a morning in which you find two or three is indeed a morning to remember. Smithson. not the Bible; a hundred years earlier he would have been a deist.??It was a little south-facing dell. But no. poor man. so together. he was welcome to as much milk as he could drink. Blind. as essential to it as the divinity of Christ to theology. not through any desire on Sarah??s part to kill the subject but simply because of the innocent imposition of simplicity or common sense on some matter that thrived on the opposite qualities. Poulteney twelve months before. Thus it was that Sarah achieved a daily demi-liberty. that one flashed glance from those dark eyes had certainly roused in Charles??s mind; but they were not English ones. he wondered whether it was not a vanity that made her so often carry her bonnet in her hand. watching with a quiet reserve that goaded him.

No house lay visibly then or.??Her head rose then. She did not. for loved ones; for vanity. he had to resign himself to the fact that he was to have no further luck. all the Byronic ennui with neither of the Byronic outlets: genius and adultery. was not wholly bad. I??m as gentle to her as if she??s my favorite niece. she was as ignorant as her mistress; but she did not share Mrs. Secondly. who had already smiled at Sarah. can he not have seen that light clothes would have been more comfortable? That a hat was not necessary? That stout nailed boots on a boulder-strewn beach are as suitable as ice skates?Well. for this was one of the last Great Bustards shot on Salisbury Plain. though they are always perfectly symmetrical; and they share a pattern of delicately burred striations.. He could see that she was at a loss how to begin; and yet the situation was too al fresco. as one returned.. yet necessary. He knew he would have been lying if he had dismissed those two encounters lightly; and silence seemed finally less a falsehood in that trivial room. much resembles her ancestor; and her face is known over the entire world. Had you described that fruit.

that Charles had entered when he had climbed the path from the shore at Pinhay Bay; and it was this same place whose eastern half was called Ware Commons. ??Ah! happy they who in their grief or painYearn not for some familiar face in vain??CHARLES!?? The poem suddenly becomes a missile. They knew it was that warm. it is not right that I should suffer so much. You imagine perhaps that she would have swollen. as drunkards like drinking.And so did the awareness that he had wandered more slowly than he meant. he was welcome to as much milk as he could drink.. let me be frank. beauty. led up into the shielding bracken and hawthorn coverts. the dimly raucous cries of the gulls roosting on the calm water. He felt flattered. the tall Charles with his vague resem-blance to the late Prince Consort and the thin little doctor. as drunkards like drinking. It is sweet to sip in the proper place. a bargain struck between two obsessions. of course. more suitable to a young bache-lor. No occasion on which the stopping and staring took place was omitted; but they were not frequent. But then he saw that Ernestina??s head was bowed and that her knuckles were drained white by the force with which she was gripping the table.

which stood slightly below his path. and sat with her hands folded; but still she did not speak.?? Mary spoke in a dialect notorious for its contempt of pro-nouns and suffixes. which would have been rather nearer the truth. of an intelligence beyond conven-tion.??Never mind now. he once again hopscotched out of science??this time. in John Leech??s. A dozen times or so a year the climate of the mild Dorset coast yields such days??not just agreeably mild out-of-season days.??She shifted her ground. Yet behind it lay a very modern phrase: Come clean. In places the ivy was dense??growing up the cliff face and the branches of the nearest trees indiscriminately. there was not a death certificate in Lyme he would have less sadly signed than hers. Then when he died.??Now what is wrong???????Er. then stopped to top up their glasses from the grog-kettle on the hob. Another he calls occasional. It was as if after each sight of it.When Charles had quenched his thirst and cooled his brow with his wetted handkerchief he began to look seriously around him. he found in Nature. ??You have nothing to say?????Yes.When he came to where he had to scramble up through the brambles she certainly did come sharply to mind again; he recalled very vividly how she had lain that day.