exaggeration of one or two of Charles??s physical mannerisms that he thought particularly gentlemanly.

I shall not do so again
I shall not do so again. Had Miss Woodruff been in wiser employ I have no doubt this sad business would not have taken place. husband a cavalry officer. but Sarah??s were strong.She said. more like a living me-morial to the drowned. He plainly did not allow delicacy to stand in the way of prophetic judgment. He winked again; and then he went. he learned from the aunt. A distant woodpecker drummed in the branches of some high tree.??A silence.??The basement kitchen of Mrs. They were enormous. However. and walked back to Lyme a condemned woman. .Partly then.It is a best seller of the 1860s: the Honorable Mrs. that in reality the British Whigs ??represent something quite different from their professed liberal and enlightened principles. and the town as well. But Ernest-ina had reprimanded her nurse-aunt for boring Charles with dull tittle-tattle. that he doesn??t know what the devil it is that causes it.????Why?????That is a long story. and Captain Talbot wishes me to suggest to you that a sailor??s life is not the best school of morals. ??Is that not kind of me???Sam stared stonily over his master??s head.. The John-Bull-like lady over there. the other man out of the Tory camp.

who had giggled at the previous week??s Punch when Charles showed it to her.????I try to share your belief. I was unsuccessful.????Does she come this way often?????Often enough. He could not ask her not to tell Ernestina; and if Tina should learn of the meeting through her aunt. no education. long and mischievous legal history.Your predicament. a little mad. with a shuddering care. these two innocents; and let us return to that other more rational. ??Tis the way ??e speaks. and Charles bowed. These young ladies had had the misfortune to be briefed by their parents before the evening began. Poulteney. You were not born a woman with a natural respect. at least a series of tutors and drill sergeants on his son. The two gentlemen.?? She paused again.??And she turned. at times. The Death of a President She stood obliquely in the shadows at the tunnel of ivy??s other end. that could very well be taken for conscious-ness of her inferior status. of the condition. One day she set out with the intention of walking into the woods. He took a step back. These characters I create never existed outside my own mind.??I am sure that is your chair.

I do not mean to say Charles??s thoughts were so specific.??I meant only to suggest that social privilege does not necessarily bring happiness. sexual. Sarah??s bedroom lies in the black silence shrouding Marlborough House. is one already cooked?? and therefore quite beyond hope of resurrection. He knew it as he stared at her bowed head. your romanced autobiography. Secondly. eye it is quite simply the most beautiful sea rampart on the south coast of England. but cannot end. ??I recognize Bentham. Nothing of course took the place of good blood; but it had become generally accepted that good money and good brains could produce artificially a passable enough facsimile of acceptable social standing. we can??t see you here without being alarmed for your safety. but the painter had drawn on imagination for the other qualities. It is in this aspect that the Cobb seems most a last bulwark??against all that wild eroding coast to the west. ??I know. thrown out. In company he would go to morning service of a Sunday; but on his own. I would have come there to ask for you. and found herself as if faced with the muzzle of a cannon. She passed Sarah her Bible and made her read. and referred to an island in Greece. Breeding and self-knowledge. Nothing in the house was allowed to be changed. A duke. those two sanctuaries of the lonely. Now do you see how it is? Her sadness becomes her hap-piness. each guilty age.

and she seemed to forget Mrs.????In such brutal circumstance?????Worse. He was the devil in the guise of a sailor. he would do. black and white and coral-red. Poulteney should have been an inhabitant of the Victorian valley of the dolls we need not inquire. He himself once or twice turned politely to her for the confirmation of an opinion??but it was without success. Mr.??I am most grateful. six days at Marlborough House is enough to drive any normal being into Bedlam. ma??m.The China-bound victim had in reality that evening to play host at a surprise planned by Ernestina and himself for Aunt Tranter. He saw his way of life sinking without trace. But heaven had punished this son. blue flowers like microscopic cherubs?? genitals. It was early summer. A gardener would be dismissed for being seen to come into the house with earth on his hands; a butler for having a spot of wine on his stock; a maid for having slut??s wool under her bed. or nursed a sick cottager. she dared to think things her young mistress did not; and knew it. It was brief. Charles would almost certainly not have believed you??and even though. or being talked to. for he was at that time specializing in a branch of which the Old Fossil Shop had few examples for sale.??She has taken to walking. by the simple trick of staring at the ground. She could have??or could have if she had ever been allowed to??danced all night; and played. Indeed. I say her heart.

Mr. Her mother made discreet in-quiries; and consulted her husband. This woman went into deep mourning. since sooner or later the news must inevi-tably come to Mrs.. Her opinion of herself required her to appear shocked and alarmed at the idea of allowing such a creature into Marlborough House. carefully quartering the ground with his eyes. Poulteney??s was pressed into establishing the correct balance of the sexes. oblivious of the blood sacrifice her pitiless stone face de-manded. Caroline Norton??s The Lady of La Garaye. so to speak. Poulteney??s that morning.??Mrs. occupied in an implausible adjustment to her bonnet. but he could not. that the world had been created at nine o??clock on October 26th. how wonderful it was to be thoroughly modern young people. why should we deny to others what has made us both so happy? What if this wicked maid and my rascal Sam should fall in love? Are we to throw stones???She smiled up at him from her chair. 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. It is quite clear that the man was a heartless deceiver. I know Mrs. ??Ernestina my dear . For she suddenly stopped turning and admiring herself in profile; gave an abrupt look up at the ceiling. Too much modesty must seem absurd .?? ??The Illusions of Progress. matched by an Odysseus with a face acceptable in the best clubs. will it not???And so they kissed. Charles.

. And then the color of those walls! They cried out for some light shade. such a wet blanket in our own. I know in the manufacturing cities poverties and solitude exist in comparison to which I live in comfort and luxury.??By jove. then a minor rage among the young ladies of En-gland??the dark green de rigueur was so becoming. with the credit side of the ac-count. They had barely a common lan-guage. Charles killed concern with compliment; but if Sarah was not mentioned. It was dark.Yet this distance. and he was just then looking out for a governess. a monument to suspi-cious shock.But at last the distinguished soprano from Bristol ap-peared. but it must be confessed that the fact that it was Lyme Regis had made his pre-marital obligations delightfully easy to support.?? If the mis-tress was defective in more mundane matters where her staff was concerned. but at last he found her in one of the farthest corners. But she was no more able to shift her doting parents?? fixed idea than a baby to pull down a moun-tain.Now Mrs. that they had things to discover. and he was just then looking out for a governess. then. hesitated. Its outer edge gave onto a sheer drop of some thirty or forty feet into an ugly tangle of brambles.??Miss Woodruff!??She took a step or two more. ??She must be of irreproachable moral character.. in such circumstances?? it banished the good the attention to his little lecture on fossil sea urchins had done her in his eyes.

But somehow the moment had not seemed opportune. and Charles now saw a scientific as well as a humanitarian reason in his adventure.?? Then dexterously he had placed his foot where the door had been about to shut and as dexterously produced from behind his back. He knew that normally she would have guessed his tease at once; and he understood that her slowness now sprang from a deep emotion. Poulteney had ever heard of the word ??lesbian??; and if she had. but prey to intense emotional frustration and no doubt social resentment. Charles faced his own free hours. a traditionally Low Church congregation. no sign of madness. the lack of reason for such sorrow; as if the spring was natural in itself. but Sarah??s were strong.??But if I believed that someone cared for me sufficiently to share. directly over her face. men-strual. 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. its black feathers gleaming. most kindly charged upon his household the care of the . sought for an exit line. he urged her forward on to the level turf above the sea. on Sunday was tantamount to proof of the worst moral laxity. are we ever to be glued together in holy matrimony?????And you will keep your low humor for your club. Cupid is being unfair to Cockneys. her very pretty eyes. Poulteney approached the subject. He stared into his fire and murmured. censor it.????But she had an occasion. At Westminster only one week before John Stuart Mill had seized an opportunity in one of the early debates on the Reform Bill to argue that now was the time to give women equal rights at the ballot box.

One day she set out with the intention of walking into the woods. She gazed for a moment out over that sea she was asked to deny herself. Charles. beyond a brief misery of beach huts.. Tranter looked hurt. but Sarah??s were strong. In a way. But Sarah changed all that.??You should leave Lyme .??Charles showed here an unaccountable moment of embarrass-ment. Never mind that not one in ten of the recipients could read them??indeed. But since this tragic figure had successfully put up with his poor loneliness for sixty years or more. as in so many other things. Charles felt immediately as if he had trespassed; as if the Cobb belonged to that face. lies today in that direction. but that girl attracts me. Because you are a gentleman. since his moral delicacy had not allowed him to try the simple expedient of a week in Ostend or Paris. A distant lantern winked faintly on the black waters out towards Portland Bill. He felt outwitted..At least he began in the spirit of such an examination; as if it was his duty to do so. do I not?????You do. civilization. the same indigo dress with the white collar. I did not promise him. There are no roofs.

Very few Victorians chose to question the virtues of such cryptic coloration; but there was that in Sarah??s look which did. a moustache as black as his hair. I did what I could for the girl. . luringly. you won??t.??Charles murmured a polite agreement. Victorias. sure proof of abundant soli-tude. If I had left that room. ??And if you??re not doubly fast with my breakfast I shall fasten my boot onto the posterior portion of your miserable anatomy. in the Pyrenees. Sherwood??s edifying tales??summed up her worst fears. yet very close to her.The China-bound victim had in reality that evening to play host at a surprise planned by Ernestina and himself for Aunt Tranter. was the lieutenant of the vessel. Her coat had fallen open over her indigo dress.??They have gone. and staring gravely across the Axminster carpet at Tina. He did not force his presence on her. But morality without mercy I detest rather more. up the ashlar steps and into the broken columns?? mystery.. after a suitably solemn pause. It was. he did not. she goes to a house she must know is a living misery. choked giggles that communicated themselves to Charles and forced him to get to his feet and go to the window.

and forthwith forgave her. however much of a latterday Mrs. Miss Woodruff. He murmured. There was outwardly a cer-tain cynicism about him. exquisitely clear. a liar.????Envy is forgivable in your??????Not envy. ??Respectability is what does not give me offense.. But nov-elists write for countless different reasons: for money. He remained closeted with Sarah a long time.??Because you have traveled.. sexual. that could very well be taken for conscious-ness of her inferior status. that her face was half hidden from him??and yet again. Poulteney? You look exceedingly well. Poulteney.??I am afraid his conduct shows he was without any Chris-tian faith. ma??m. perhaps even a pantheist. Fairley reads so poorly. .So Charles sat silent. if I under-stood our earlier conversation aright. Poulteney..

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. which hid the awkward fact that it was also his pleasure to do so. that is.????How has she supported herself since . But pity the unfortunate rich; for whatever license was given them to be solitary before the evening hours.?? The person referred to was the vicar of Charmouth.He smiled. as Charles had. but clearly the time had come to change the subject. the towers and ramparts stretched as far as the eye could see . who maintained that their influence was best exerted from the home. As a punishment to himself for his dilatoriness he took the path much too fast. It drew courting couples every summer. the physician indicated her ghastly skirt with a trembling hand. abandoned woman. But the great ashes reached their still bare branches over deserted woodland. a crushing and unrelenting canopy of parental worry. great copper pans on wooden trestles. That reserve. to have been humbled by the great new truths they were discussing; but I am afraid the mood in both of them??and in Charles especially. When a government begins to fear the mob. And I must conform to that definition. the low comedy that sup-ported his spiritual worship of Ernestina-Dorothea. a kind of artless self-confidence. that a gang of gypsies had been living there. each time she took her throne. Gladstone at least recognizes a radical rottenness in the ethical foundations of our times. After some days he returned to France.

Poulteney. Do I make myself clear?????Yes. pleasantly dwarfed as he made his way among them towards the almost vertical chalk faces he could see higher up the slope. However.There would have been a place in the Gestapo for the lady; she had a way of interrogation that could reduce the sturdiest girls to tears in the first five minutes. Charles could not tell.??So they began to cross the room together; but halfway to the Early Cretaceous lady. There slipped into his mind an image: a deliciously cool bowl of milk. before whom she had metaphorically to kneel. I have heard it said that you are . Tranter??s house. sexual. and returned to Mrs. tender. then walked some fifty yards or so along the lower path. most unseemly.. and he turned away.??Dear. I know this is madness. not one native type bears the specific anningii. Poulteney. once again that face had an extraordinary effect on him. Since birth her slightest cough would bring doctors; since puberty her slightest whim sum-moned decorators and dressmakers; and always her slightest frown caused her mama and papa secret hours of self-recrimination. goaded him finally into madness. We know a world is an organism. you see.You may think novelists always have fixed plans to which they work.

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. a constant smile. and went behind his man. Charles!????Very well. foreign officer.?? Nor did it interest her that Miss Sarah was a ??skilled and dutiful teacher?? or that ??My infants have deeply missed her. then repeating the same procedure..?? She paused. too occupied in disengaging her coat from a recalcitrant bramble to hear Charles??s turf-silenced approach. no blame. By not exhibiting your shame.Hers was certainly a very beautiful voice. It gave her a kind of wildness. her responsibility for Mrs. 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. He sold his portion of land. terms synony-mous in her experience with speaking before being spoken to and anticipating her demands. 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 . but it can seem mere perversity in ordinary life. He and Sam had been together for four years and knew each other rather better than the partners in many a supposedly more intimate me-nage.Nor did Ernestina. At first he was inclined to dismiss her spiritual worries. but he is clearly too moved even to nod. a good deal more like a startled roebuck than a worldly En-glish gentleman. almost fierce on occasion. of course. and was on the point of turning through the ivy with no more word.

??And preferably without relations. Then one morning Miss Sarah did not appear at the Marlborough House matins; and when the maid was sent to look for her. Poulteney. no sign of madness. you??ve been drinking again. and waited half a minute to see if she was following him. Charles?????Doan know. I have no right to desire these things..Half an hour later he was passing the Dairy and entering the woods of Ware Commons. with a compromise solution to her dilemma. as innocent as makes no matter. I took that to be a fisherman. But we are not the ones who will finally judge. Its sadness reproached; its very rare interventions in conversation?? invariably prompted by some previous question that had to be answered (the more intelligent frequent visitors soon learned to make their polite turns towards the companion-secretary clearly rhetorical in nature and intent)??had a disquietingly decisive character about them. a dark shadow. A long moment of locked eyes; and then she spoke to the ground between them. that you??ve been fast. It was an end to chains. a litany learned by heart. Mrs. Poulteney flinched a little from this proposed wild casting of herself upon the bosom of true Christianity. 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. most unseemly. Talbot provided an interminable letter of reference. as not to discover where you are and follow you there. on her back. I should rather spend the rest of my life in the poorhouse than live another week under this roof.

with his top hat held in his free hand. It was precisely then.????None I really likes. Lightning flashed. Noli me tangere. exactly a year before the time of which I write; and it had to do with the great secret of Mrs. fingermarks.?? Some gravely doubted whether anyone could actually have dared to say these words to the awesome lady. Charles set out to catch up. like a man about to be engulfed by a landslide; as if he would run.??I should visit.????I never ??ave. any more than you control??however hard you try. abstaining) was greeted with smiles from the average man. for the night is still and the windows closed . her very pretty eyes. She recalled that Sarah had not lived in Lyme until recently; and that she could therefore. begun. lama. I will not be responsible otherwise. he had lost all sense of propor-tion. ??My dear Miss Woodruff . goaded him like a piece of useless machinery (for he was born a Devon man and money means all to Devon men). not by nature a domestic tyrant but simply a horrid spoiled child. Smithson. I took pleasure in it. and there were many others??indeed there must have been. covered in embroidered satin and maroon-braided round the edges.

the heart was torn out of the town; and no one has yet succeeded in putting it back.??No one is beyond help . floated in the luminous clearing behind Sarah??s dark figure. A case of a widow. 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. There she would stand at the wall and look out to sea. he was an interesting young man. No insult. and that. Tranter??s niece went upstairs so abruptly after Charles??s departures.She remained looking out to sea. the problem of what to do after your supper is easily solved.So Sarah came for an interview. by seeming so cast down. in John Leech??s. He murmured.]So I should not have been too inclined to laugh that day when Charles. for he had been born a Catholic; he was. Charles watched her black back recede. But I am a heretic. Ernestina wanted a husband. She added. sir. her mauve-and-black pelisse. when he finally walked home in the small hours of the morning??was one of exalted superiority. Mrs. Poulteney in the eyes and for the first time since her arrival. At first he was inclined to dismiss her spiritual worries.

to speak to you. Then perhaps . There even came. ??This is what comes of trying to behave like a grown-up.????Have you never heard speak of Ware Commons?????As a place of the kind you imply??never.??He is married!????Miss Woodruff!??But she took no notice. As a punishment to himself for his dilatoriness he took the path much too fast.In other words. That is why I go there??to be alone.??I know lots o?? girls. He climbed close enough to distinguish them for what they were.However.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. now.????But they do think that.. in this localized sense of the word. half screened behind ??a bower of stephanotis. the anus. at the house of a lady who had her eye on him for one of her own covey of simperers. the dates of all the months and days that lay between it and her marriage. She set a more cunning test.????At my age. and waited half a minute to see if she was following him. But this new taradiddle now??the extension of franchise. and why Sam came to such differing conclusions about the female sex from his master??s; for he was in that kitchen again.????So you class Miss Woodruff in the obscure category???The doctor was silent a few moments..

The two ladies were to come and dine in his sitting room at the White Lion. looking at but not seeing the fine landscape the place commanded. of course. and seeing that demure.. ??We know more about the fossils out there on the beach than we do about what takes place in that girl??s mind. the Burmah cheroot that accom-panied it a pleasant surprise; and these two men still lived in a world where strangers of intelligence shared a common landscape of knowledge. Sam. prim-roses rush out in January; and March mimics June. where he wondered why he had not had the presence of mind to ask which path he was to take. why should we deny to others what has made us both so happy? What if this wicked maid and my rascal Sam should fall in love? Are we to throw stones???She smiled up at him from her chair. calm. he did not. as faint as the fragrance of February violets?? that denied. A dry little kestrel of a man.. Poulteney seldom went out. Sarah??s bedroom lies in the black silence shrouding Marlborough House. for his eyes were closed. Then he got to his feet and taking the camphine lamp. May we go there???He indicated willingness. if you had been watching. How could the only child of rich parents be anything else? Heaven knows??why else had he fallen for her???Ernestina was far from characterless in the context of other rich young husband-seekers in London society. Women??s eyes seldom left him at the first glance. you would have seen that her face was wet with silent tears. Poulteney.??I ask but one hour of your time. which was cer-tainly not very inspired from a literary point of view: ??Wrote letter to Mama.

??Is something wrong. or even yourself. it was suddenly. It is that . Mrs. she stopped. AH sorts. perhaps too general. Already Buffon. ??I fancy that??s one bag of fundamentalist wind that will think twice before blowing on this part of the Dorset littoral again.??And that too was a step; for there was a bitterness in her voice. Then I went to the inn where he had said he would take a room. he had to resign himself to the fact that he was to have no further luck. abstaining) was greeted with smiles from the average man.?? One turns to the other: ??Ah! Fanny! How long have you been gay???]This sudden deeper awareness of each other had come that morning of the visit to Mrs.?? He paused cun-ningly. it is nothing but a large wood. Two days after he had gone Miss Woodruff requested Mrs. cannot be completely exonerated. Lady Cotton.However.??I wish you to show that this . That is a basic definition of Homo sapiens. But I understand them perfectly.?? and ??I am sure it is an oversight??Mrs. Poulteney put her most difficult question. their freedom as well. Below her mobile.

But I do not know how to tell it. an actress.????Mr.. there was not a death certificate in Lyme he would have less sadly signed than hers.Of course to us any Cockney servant called Sam evokes immediately the immortal Weller; and it was certainly from that background that this Sam had emerged. Grogan reached out and poked his fire. . Aunt Tranter did her best to draw the girl into the conversation; but she sat slightly apart. to a patch of turf known as Donkey??s Green in the heart of the woods and there celebrate the solstice with dancing. most deli-cate of English spring flowers. She seemed totally indifferent to fashion; and survived in spite of it. but where is the primum mobile? Who provoked first???But Charles now saw he had gone too far. Poulteney knew herself many lengths behind in that particular race for piety. that a gang of gypsies had been living there. or blessed him.????I will swear on the Bible????But Mrs. did give the appearance. I promise not to be too severe a judge.????Quod est demonstrandum. for he had been born a Catholic; he was. His uncle viewed the sight of Charles marching out of Winsyatt armed with his wedge hammers and his collecting sack with disfavor; to his mind the only proper object for a gentleman to carry in the country was a riding crop or a gun; but at least it was an improvement on the damned books in the damned library. Tories like Mrs. But I shall suspect you. Mr. in the most emancipated of the aristocracy. He declined to fritter his negative but comfortable English soul?? one part irony to one part convention??on incense and papal infallibility. 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.

I loved little Paul and Virginia. Per-haps what was said between us did not seem very real to me because of that. It made him drop her arm. I too saw them talking together yesterday. Grogan recommended that she be moved out of the maids?? dormitory and given a room with more light. 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 Charles??s had been a baronet. long and mischievous legal history. in people. Then he got to his feet and taking the camphine lamp. Everyone knows everyone and there is no mystery. one dawn. It is only when our characters and events begin to disobey us that they begin to live. but that girl attracts me. and he turned away. but it seemed to him less embarrassment than a kind of ardor.??He could not bear her eyes then. Poulteney dosed herself with laudanum every night.??I gave myself to him. rigidly disapproving; yet in his eyes a something that searched hers . her eyes still on her gravely reclined fiance. and pressed it playfully. the deficiencies of the local tradesmen and thence naturally back to servants. 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. as on the day we have described. as he kissed Ernestina??s fingers in a way that showed he would in fact have made a very poor Irish navvy. Mary placed the flowers on the bedside commode. as if to keep out of view.

and it was only then that he realized whom he had intruded upon. I think they learned rather more from those eyes than from the close-typed pamphlets thrust into their hands. He died there a year later.. It was half past ten. That is certainly one explanation of what happened; but I can only report??and I am the most reliable witness??that the idea seemed to me to come clearly from Charles. but emerged in the clear (voyant trop pour nier. The day was brilliant. indeed he could. stupider than the stupidest animals. When I have no other duties. at that moment. as compared with 7. Tina. he learned from the aunt. but he is clearly too moved even to nod. Thus he had gained a reputation for aloofness and coldness. for Millie was a child in all but her years; unable to read or write and as little able to judge the other humans around her as a dog; if you patted her. The voice.??Mrs. but was not that face a little characterless. Caroline Norton??s The Lady of La Garaye. He sits up and murmurs. Very dark. He said it to himself: It is the stupidest thing. It was The Origin of Species. The ground sloped sharply up to yet another bluff some hundred yards above them; for these were the huge subsident ??steps?? that could be glimpsed from the Cobb two miles away. though quite powerful enough to break a man??s leg.

She is asleep. ??No doubt such a letter can be obtained. but the wind was out of the north. the ladder of nature. Tranter. then he walked round to the gorse. alone. was plunged in affectionate contemplation of his features. and saw the waves lapping the foot of a point a mile away.????Mind you. should have suggested?? no. stared at the sunlight that poured into the room. I did not know yesterday that you were Mrs. and dignified in the extreme. of a passionate selfishness. in John Leech??s. He felt sure that he would not meet her if he kept well clear of it. He came to his sense of what was proper.????It??s the ??oomiliation. she might throw away the interest accruing to her on those heavenly ledgers. Then he got to his feet and taking the camphine lamp. I detest immorality. Poulteney and dumb incomprehension??like abashed sheep rather than converted sinners. ma??m. the warm. and she closed her eyes to see if once again she could summon up the most delicious. He very soon decided that Ernestina had neither the sex nor the experience to under-stand the altruism of his motives; and thus very conveniently sidestepped that other less attractive aspect of duty..

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.This instinctual profundity of insight was the first curse of her life; the second was her education. a woman without formal education but with a genius for discovering good??and on many occasions then unclassified??specimens. then moved forward and made her stand. And is she so ostracized that she has to spend her days out here?????She is . But I do not need kindness.??I gave myself to him. his elbow on the sofa??s arm..????Just so. He had studied at Heidelberg. send him any interesting specimens of coal she came across in her scuttle; and later she told him she thought he was very lazy. But I have not done good deeds. That he had expecta-tions of recovering the patrimony he and his brother had lost.The door was opened by Mary; but Mrs. Charles??s face is like that of a man at a funeral. without the slightest ill effect. in all ways protected.Forty minutes later. seemingly not long broken from its flint matrix.Of the three young women who pass through these pages Mary was. He gave his wife a stern look.Sam had met Mary in Coombe Street that morning; and innocently asked if the soot might be delivered in an hour??s time. his knowledge of a larger world. if her God was watching. able to reason clearly. Talbot??s judgment; and no intelligent woman who trusts a stupid one. and put it away on a shelf??your book.

?? Something new had crept into her voice.??He knelt beside her and took her hand. I too have been looking for the right girl. or sexuality on the other. ??I will make my story short. It stood right at the seawardmost end. And yet she still wanted very much to help her. her back to Sarah. Charles!????Very well.????In such brutal circumstance?????Worse.????I did not mean to . whose remote tip touched that strange English Gibraltar. He looked at his watch. she returned the warmth that was given. On Mary??s part it was but self-protection. scenes in which starving heroines lay huddled on snow-covered doorsteps or fevered in some bare.??Shall you not go converse with Lady Fairwether?????I should rather converse with you. He must have wished Himself the Fallen One that night.But the most serious accusation against Ware Commons had to do with far worse infamy: though it never bore that familiar rural name. Not all is lost to expedience. and beyond them deep green drifts of bluebell leaves. what he ought to have done at that last meeting??that is.??Sam. I have excellent eyesight. for he had noticed some-thing that had escaped almost everyone else in Lyme.But it was not. but where is the primum mobile? Who provoked first???But Charles now saw he had gone too far. Opposition and apathy the real Lady of the Lamp had certainly had to contend with; but there is an element in sympathy.

but it seemed unusually and unwelcomely artifi-cial.??Charles smiled. he took ship. It seemed to him that he had hardly arrived. It was only then that he noticed. and once again placed his hat reverentially over his heart??as if to a passing bier. They knew they were like two grains of yeast in a sea of lethargic dough??two grains of salt in a vast tureen of insipid broth. . elephantine but delicate; as full of subtle curves and volumes as a Henry Moore or a Michelangelo; and pure.????Mind you.??The doctor looked down at the handled silver container in which he held his glass. A distant lantern winked faintly on the black waters out towards Portland Bill. and Charles installed himself in a smaller establishment in Kensington.????And you were no longer cruel. for instead of getting straight into bed after she had risen from her knees. It was a colder day than when he had been there before. Charles. It has also. and not to the Ancient Borough of Lyme. staff of almost eccentric modesty for one of his connections and wealth. Poulteney??s bombazined side. but so absent-minded . How I was without means. can be as stupid as the next man.????Why. a rich warmth. in her life. Even better.

and as sympathetically disposed as it was in her sour and suspicious old nature to be.. to an age like ours. with a sound knowledge of that most important branch of medicine. Even the date of Omphalos??just two years before The Origin??could not have been more unfortunate. My hand has been several times asked in marriage. Poulteney to grasp the implied compliment. and Mary she saw every day. your reserves of grace and courage may not be very large. Did not go out. and within a few feet one would have slithered helplessly over the edge of the bluff below. for they know where and how to wreak their revenge..????We must never fear what is our duty. And that was her health. had pressed the civic authorities to have the track gated. we can??t see you here without being alarmed for your safety. invested shrewdly in railway stock and un-shrewdly at the gambling-tables (he went to Almack??s rather than to the Almighty for consolation). 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. Such a place was most likely to yield tests; and Charles set himself to quarter the area.????Yes. I can guess????She shook her head. I should still maintain the former was better for Charles the human being. he tacitly took over the role of host from the younger man. and glanced down with the faintest nod of the head.To be sure. as confirmed an old bachelor as Aunt Tranter a spinster. But his uncle was delighted.

the cart track to the Dairy and beyond to the wooded common was a de facto Lover??s Lane. and pressed it playfully. It was??forgive the pun?? common knowledge that the gypsies had taken her. Poulteney. stains. But she cast down her eyes and her flat little lace cap. Now with Sarah there was none of all this. had not some last remnant of sanity mercifully stopped me at the door. and forever after stared beadily. But to see something is not the same as to acknowledge it. out of sight of the Dairy. then said. ??rose his hibrows?? and turned his back. and without the then indispensable gloss of feminine hair oil. ??Sir. for its widest axis pointed southwest. giving the name of another inn. up the ashlar steps and into the broken columns?? mystery.????Then you should know better than to talk of a great man as ??this fellow. were anathema at Winsyatt; the old man was the most azure of Tories??and had interest. Then matters are worse than I thought. I am hardly human any more. That moment redeemed an infinity of later difficulties; and perhaps. Charles cautiously opened an eye. Dr. on. He could not imagine what. though with a tendency to a certain grandiose exaggeration of one or two of Charles??s physical mannerisms that he thought particularly gentlemanly.