bear such bright red fruit. both standing still and yet always receding.

. Instead of chapter headings. looking at but not seeing the fine landscape the place commanded.The second. had been too afraid to tell anyone . To the west somber gray cliffs..Charles suffered this sudden access of respect for his every wish with good humor. cannot be completely exonerated. some forty yards away. and she had heard Sam knock on the front door downstairs; she had heard the wicked and irreverent Mary open it??a murmur of voices and then a distinct.????If you ??ad the clothes. up a steep small slope crowned with grass. The ground about him was studded gold and pale yellow with celandines and primroses and banked by the bridal white of densely blossoming sloe; where jubilantly green-tipped elders shaded the mossy banks of the little brook he had drunk from were clusters of moschatel and woodsorrel. Let me finish. silent co-presence in the darkness that mattered. he learned from the aunt. it was Mrs.??Charles glanced cautiously at him; but there was no mis-taking a certain ferocity of light in the doctor??s eyes. He would speak to Sam; by heavens.

cheap travel and the rest. servants; the weather; impending births. Poulteney suddenly had a dazzling and heavenly vision; it was of Lady Cotton. sir. I had run away to this man. There was the pretext of a bowl of milk at the Dairy; and many inviting little paths. Deli-cate. though still several feet away.????My dear madam. sir. in his other hand.Charles liked him. Without quite knowing why. too. as a reminder that mid-Victorian (unlike mod-ern) agnosticism and atheism were related strictly to theological dogma. But to a less tax-paying. Poulteney suddenly had a dazzling and heavenly vision; it was of Lady Cotton.??That there bag o?? soot will be delivered as bordered. Charles cautiously opened an eye. She had once or twice seen animals couple; the violence haunted her mind.

????It??s the ??oomiliation. Poulteney by sinking to her knees. no. and why Sam came to such differing conclusions about the female sex from his master??s; for he was in that kitchen again.?? ??The Aetiology of Freedom. and the tests less likely to be corroded and abraded. and the rare trees stayed unmolested. staring out to sea. and endowed in the first field with a miracu-lous sixth sense as regards dust. and its rarity. good-looking sort of man??above all. she saw them as they were and not as they tried to seem. then gestured to Sam to pour him his hot water. Again she glanced up at Charles. he went back closer home??to Rousseau. His eyes are still closed.?? And a week later.??The old fellow would stare gloomily at his claret. if cook had a day off. was loose.

. that it was in cold blood that I let Varguennes have his will of me. the increased weight on his back made it a labor.??A long silence followed. with the consequence that this little stretch of twelve miles or so of blue lias coast has lost more land to the sea in the course of history than almost any other in England. light. Lady Cotton. He smiled at her averted face. to be near her father.??In such circumstances I know a . and he in turn kissed the top of her hair. Grogan was.????But is not the deprivation you describe one we all share in our different ways??? She shook her head with a surprising vehemence. in case she might freeze the poor man into silence.??Charles looked at her back in dismay.. in the fullest sense of that word. Charles!????Very well.??An eligible has occurred to me.??And she stared past Charles at the house??s chief icon.

he had become blind: had not seen her for what she was. The ex-governess kissed little Paul and Virginia goodbye.??Now if any maid had dared to say such a thing to Mrs. No one believed all his stories; or wanted any the less to hear them. and Charles had been strictly forbidden ever to look again at any woman under the age of sixty??a condition Aunt Tranter mercifully escaped by just one year??Ernestina turned back into her room. He realized he had touched some deep emotion in her. and looked him in the eyes. something faintly dark about him. . her eyes still on her gravely reclined fiance. both in land and money. Charles quite liked pretty girls and he was not averse to leading them. Tomkins. It was not a very great education.. no less. for which light duty he might take the day as his reward (not all Victorian employers were directly responsible for communism). people to listen to him. Ernestina having a migraine. too occupied in disengaging her coat from a recalcitrant bramble to hear Charles??s turf-silenced approach.

But I now come to the sad consequences of my story. But you have been told this?????The mere circumstance. Yet she was. waiting to pounce on any foolishness??and yet. but I knew he was changed. notebooks. After all. so that he could see the side of her face. And having commanded Sam to buy what flowers he could and to take them to the charming invalid??s house. You may rest assured of that. a litany learned by heart. It took his mind off domestic affairs; it also allowed him to take an occasional woman into his bed.??There was a silence between the two men. she murmured.?? Sarah made no response. Smithson. that house above Elm House. Sarah was in her nightgown. then that was life..

she did not sink her face in her hands or reach for a handkerchief.. those first days.. by some ingenuous coquetry. Poulteney. And as he looked down at the face beside him. the country was charming. waiting for the concert to begin. A farmer merely. It was??forgive the pun?? common knowledge that the gypsies had taken her. but her skin had a vigor. In places the ivy was dense??growing up the cliff face and the branches of the nearest trees indiscriminately. her eyes full of tears. There followed one or two other incidents. He must have wished Himself the Fallen One that night. except that his face bore a wide grin. who laid the founda-tions of all our modern science.????What you are suggesting is??I must insist that Mrs. I tried to see worth in him.

that lacked its go. and their fingers touched. and without the then indispensable gloss of feminine hair oil. too spoiled by civilization. And what I say is sound Christian doctrine. too tenuous. Tranter who made me aware of my error.The grog was excellent. From the air it is not very striking; one notes merely that whereas elsewhere on the coast the fields run to the cliff edge.??It was a little south-facing dell.. I tried to explain some of the scientific arguments behind the Darwinian position.Yet this distance. I did not then know that men can be both very brave and veryfalse. and saw on the beach some way to his right the square black silhouettes of the bathing-machines from which the nereids emerged.. She knew. I did not then know that men can be both very brave and veryfalse. should have suggested?? no. Poulten-ey.

I have a colleague in Exeter.. He was taken to the place; it had been most insignificant. I think no child. like some dying young soldier on the ground at his officer??s feet. 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. She made him aware of a deprivation. what he ought to have done at that last meeting??that is. and was therefore at a universal end. but she habitually allowed herself this little cheat.It was not until towards the end of the visit that Charles began to realize a quite new aspect of the situation. as if to the distant ship. as if unaware of the danger. no better than could be got in a third-rate young ladies?? seminary in Exeter. It was not strange because it was more real. Poulteney to know you come here. ??His name was Varguennes. Tomkins. while his now free one swept off his ^ la mode near-brimless topper. If he does not return.

but he abhorred the unspeakability of the hunters. so quickly that his step back was in vain. an elegantly clear simile of her social status. sir. Voltaire drove me out of Rome. quote George Eliot??s famous epigram: ??God is inconceivable. And go to Paris. Aunt Tranter backed him up. ??I should become what so many women who have lost their honor become in great cities. Kneeling. A picturesque congeries of some dozen or so houses and a small boatyard??in which. Fairley??s indifferent eye and briskly wooden voice. Poised in the sky.??????Tis all talk in this ol?? place. a young widow.????I??ll never do it again. to a patch of turf known as Donkey??s Green in the heart of the woods and there celebrate the solstice with dancing. already deeply shadowed.?? She paused.??She had moved on before he could answer; and what she had said might have sounded no more than a continuation of her teasing.

?? These.??There was a little silence. for Sarah had begun to weep towards the end of her justification. ??Why am I born what I am? Why am I not born Miss Freeman??? But the name no sooner passed her lips than she turned away. his elbow on the sofa??s arm. And I would not allow a bad word to be said about her.However. obscurely wronged.??There was a silence; a woodpecker laughed in some green recess. better.000 females of the age of ten upwards in the British population. The first artificial aids to a well-shaped bosom had begun to be commonly worn; eyelashes and eyebrows were painted. or to pull the bell when it was decided that the ladies would like hot chocolate. neat civilization behind his back. But you will confess that your past relations with the fair sex have hardly prepared me for this. especially from the back. my knowledge of the spoken tongue is not good. glanced desperately round.Sam??s had not been the only dark face in Lyme that morn-ing..

Charles knew nothing of the beavered German Jew quietly working. she was as ignorant as her mistress; but she did not share Mrs. a respectable woman would have left at once. But still she hesitated. woman with unfortunate past. who had been on hot coals outside.. whereupon her fragile little hand reached out and peremptorily pulled the gilt handle beside her bed. I will come to the point. The wind had blown her hair a little loose; and she had a faint touch of a boy caught stealing apples from an orchard . with a kind of Proustian richness of evocation??so many such happy days. than most of her kind. and therefore she did not jump.?? And a week later.??Unlike the vicar.??They are all I have to give. which Mrs. Suddenly she looked at Charles. Poulteney. ??I must not detain you longer.

A few minutes later he startled the sleepy Sam. Moments like modulations come in human relationships: when what has been until then an objective situation. She delved into the pockets of her coat and presented to him. as Sicilians like emptying a shotgun into an enemy??s back. as if that subject was banned. and loves it. de has en haut the next; and sometimes she contrived both positions all in one sentence. some time later. he was vaguely angry with himself. she took advan-tage of one of the solicitous vicar??s visits and cautiously examined her conscience. The snobs?? struggle was much more with the aspirate; a fierce struggle. Eyebright and birdsfoot starred the grass. and if mere morality had been her touchstone she would not have behaved as she did??the simple fact of the matter being that she had not lodged with a female cousin at Weymouth. She walked lightly and surely.?? There was an audible outbreath. out of the copper jug he had brought with him. Mrs. He did not always write once a week; and he had a sinister fondness for spending the afternoons at Winsyatt in the library. make me your confidant. Then Ernestina was presented.

and allowed Charles to lead her back into the drawing room. therefore.And let us start happily. survival by learning to blend with one??s surroundings??with the unquestioned assumptions of one??s age or social caste.. But Sarah changed all that. It was the French Lieutenant??s Woman.??E. The first artificial aids to a well-shaped bosom had begun to be commonly worn; eyelashes and eyebrows were painted. What man is not? But he had had years of very free bachelorhood. By then he had declared his attachment to me. This woman went into deep mourning. The servants were permitted to hold evening prayer in the kitchen. a woman without formal education but with a genius for discovering good??and on many occasions then unclassified??specimens.?? A silence.??The basement kitchen of Mrs. And if you smile like that. as confirmed an old bachelor as Aunt Tranter a spinster. har-bingers of his passage. and without the then indispensable gloss of feminine hair oil.

The place provoked whist. Fairley had so nobly forced herself to do her duty. I have seen a good deal of life.?? Her reaction was to look away; he had reprimanded her.??They are all I have to give. I was told where his room was and expected to go up to it.????Yes. worse than Sarah. her apparent total obeisance to the great god Man. like Ernestina??s. very well. in terms of our own time. Poulteney stood suddenly in the door.????Get her away. that independence so perilously close to defiance which had become her mask in Mrs.. however kind-hearted. I am to walk in the paths of righteousness. and then was mock-angry with him for endangering life and limb.??The door was shut then.

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. ??I think that was not necessary. I feel for Mrs. He perceived that the coat was a little too large for her. It had begun. she was a peasant; and peasants live much closer to real values than town helots. this fine spring day. his heart beating. choked giggles that communicated themselves to Charles and forced him to get to his feet and go to the window. when she was convalescent. behind her facade of humility forbade it. Poulteney thought she had been the subject of a sarcasm; but Sarah??s eyes were solemnly down. But I must point out that if you were in some way disabled I am the only person in Lyme who could lead your rescuers to you.??She stared down at the ground. He said it was less expensive than the other. He murmured. to make way for what can very fairly claim to be the worst-sited and ugliest public lavatory in the British Isles. Charles was a quite competent ornithologist and botanist into the bargain. But then she saw him. painfully out of place in the background; and Charles and Ernestina stood easily on the carpet behind the two elder ladies.

sipped madeira. in this localized sense of the word.?? The astonish-ing fact was that not a single servant had been sent on his. If you so wish it. his mood toward Ernestina that evening. Fursey-Harris to call. still attest. to trace to any source in his past; but it unsettled him and haunted him. light. but she had also a wide network of relations and acquaint-ances at her command.??????Ow much would??er cost then???The forward fellow eyed his victim. diminishing cliffs that dropped into the endless yellow saber of the Chesil Bank. I will not argue. He wished he might be in Cadiz. out of its glass case in the drawing room at Winsyatt. How for many years I had felt myself in some mysterious way condemned??and I knew not why??to solitude. understanding. But that face had the most harmful effect on company. Matildas and the rest who sat in their closely guarded dozens at every ball; yet not quite. By not exhibiting your shame.

??Great pleasure. something faintly dark about him.??Very well. notebooks.Just as you may despise Charles for his overburden of apparatus. But you could offer that girl the throne of England??and a thousand pounds to a penny she??d shake her head. Since we know Mrs. that afternoon when the vicar made his return and announcement. It could be written so: ??A happier domestic atmosphere. as if at a door. at least in public. Ernestina having a migraine. Some half-hour after he had called on Aunt Tranter. salt. and pronounced green sickness. Not even the sad Victorian clothes she had so often to wear could hide the trim.??A Derby duck. I had to dismiss her.????It was he who introduced me to Mrs. But his feet strode on all the faster.

The ??sixties had been indisputably prosper-ous; an affluence had come to the artisanate and even to the laboring classes that made the possibility of revolution recede. to ring it. But I have not done good deeds. in her life.??Charles stood by the ivy. in such wells of loneliness is not any coming together closer to humanity than perver-sity?So let them sleep. as if they were a boy and his sister. is good. and disapproving frowns from a sad majority of educated women. But his uncle was delighted. even when they threw books of poetry.????Indeed I did. The latter were. They bubbled as the best champagne bubbles. Ernestina allowed dignity to control her for precisely one and a half minutes. But I must point out that if you were in some way disabled I am the only person in Lyme who could lead your rescuers to you.If you had gone closer still. ma??m. Some said that after midnight more reeling than dancing took place; and the more draconian claimed that there was very little of either. after his fashion.

here they stop a mile or so short of it. She set a more cunning test. Mary placed the flowers on the bedside commode. then with the greatest pleasure. If gangrene had inter-vened. so together. ??I will dispense with her for two afternoons. Fairley.????Very probably. 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. Thus they are in the same position as the drunkard brought up before the Lord Mayor. There were accordingly some empty seats before the fern-fringed dais at one end of the main room. without feminine affectation. She now asked a question; and the effect was remark-able. and he began to search among the beds of flint along the course of the stream for his tests. did Ernestina.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. He did not really regret having no wife; but he bitterly lacked not having children to buy ponies and guns for. that very afternoon in the British Museum library; and whose work in those somber walls was to bear such bright red fruit. both standing still and yet always receding.