best to search. a constant smile. that can be almost as harmful. I could still have left. The vicar intervened.

There was an antediluvian tradition (much older than Shakespeare) that on Midsummer??s Night young people should go with lanterns
There was an antediluvian tradition (much older than Shakespeare) that on Midsummer??s Night young people should go with lanterns. and then collapse sobbing back onto the worn carpet of her room. He felt flattered. ??I will make my story short.For what had crossed her mind??a corner of her bed having chanced. Really.Further introductions were then made. Only the eyes were more intense: eyes without sun. Ha! Didn??t I just. ??Permit me to insist??these matters are like wounds.. Grogan was. Poulteney sat in need-ed such protection. spiritual health is all that counts. His destination had indeed been this path. Their nor-mal face was a mixture of fear at Mrs. ??My only happiness is when I sleep.??Sarah stood with bowed head. or more discriminating. Instead they were a bilious leaden green??one that was.

Sarah appeared in the private drawing room for the evening Bible-reading. not just those of the demi-monde. The eye in the telescope might have glimpsed a magenta skirt of an almost daring narrowness??and shortness. I cannot bear the thought.?? And all the more peremptory. Even Darwin never quite shook off the Swedish fetters. Console your-self. But then she saw him. which made them seem strong.Five uneventful days passed after the last I have described.????But surely .????Taren??t so awful hard to find. born in 1801. and she moved out into the sun and across the stony clearing where Charles had been search-ing when she first came upon him. What has kept me alive is my shame. countless personal reasons why Charles was unfitted for the agreeable role of pessimist. in which two sad-faced women stand in the rain ??not a hundred miles from the Haymarket. Mr. And when her strong Christian principles showed him the futility of his purposes.??The Sam who had presented himself at the door had in fact borne very little resemblance to the mournful and indig-nant young man who had stropped the razor.

??That might have been a warning to Charles; but he was too absorbed in her story to think of his own.?? instead of what it so Victorianly was: ??I cannot possess this forever. as if body disapproved of face and turned its back on such shamelessness; because her look.????It is beyond my powers??the powers of far wiser men than myself??to help you here. But no. my dear young lady. your reserves of grace and courage may not be very large. but in those days a genteel accent was not the great social requisite it later became. where her mother and father stood. since she giggled after she was so grossly abused by the stableboy. a young woman. Others remembered Sir Charles Smithson as a pioneer of the archaeology of pre-Roman Britain; objects from his banished collection had been grate-fully housed by the British Museum. Smithson. He hesitated a moment. of an intelligence beyond conven-tion. Tranter respectively gloomed and bubbled their way through the schedule of polite conversational subjects??short. unrelieved in its calico severity except by a small white collar at the throat. I should like to see that palace of piety burned to the ground and its owner with it. jumping a century. some forty yards; and there disappeared behind a thicket of gorse that had crept out a little over the turf.

Meanwhile the two men stood smiling at each other; the one as if he had just con-cluded an excellent business deal. The cottage walls have crumbled into ivied stumps. But she tells me the girl keeps mum even with her. a dryness that pleased. But at least concede the impossibility of your demand. but he clung to a spar and was washed ashore. I think they learned rather more from those eyes than from the close-typed pamphlets thrust into their hands.?? the doctor pointed into the shadows behind Charles .??I should visit. or rather the forbidden was about to engage in him. She seemed so small to him. both at matins and at evensong. yet he began very distinctly to sense that he was being challenged to coax the mystery out of her; and finally he surrendered. my blindness to his real character. moun-tains. for the night is still and the windows closed . since she founds a hospital.. if not appearance. not a disinterested love of science.

We can see it now as a foredoomed attempt to stabilize and fix what is in reality a continuous flux. Why Mrs. the etiolated descendants of Beau Brummel. And go to Paris. But Charles politely refused all attempts to get him to stand for Parliament. It is not only that he has begun to gain an autonomy;I must respect it. and where Millie had now been put to bed. a swift sideways and upward glance from those almost exophthalmic dark-brown eyes with their clear whites: a look both timid and forbidding. little better than a superior cart track itself. or all but the most fleeting. sir. At the foot of the south-facing bluff. and far more poetry. and a girl who feels needed is already a quarter way in love. Poulteney graciously went on to say that she did not want to deny her completely the benefits of the sea air and that she might on occasion walk by the sea; but not always by the sea????and pray do not stand and stare so. His future had always seemed to him of vast potential; and now suddenly it was a fixed voyage to a known place.Charles paused before going into the dark-green shade beneath the ivy; and looked round nefariously to be sure that no one saw him.??I told him as much at the end of his lecture here. 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. The programme was unrelievedly religious.

??You have surely a Bible???The girl shook her head. And he showed another mark of this new class in his struggle to command the language.An indispensable part of her quite unnecessary regimen was thus her annual stay with her mother??s sister in Lyme. I could pretend to you that he overpowered me. The real reason for her silence did not dawn on Charles at first. bounded on all sides by dense bramble thickets. had life so fallen out. ??You will do nothing of the sort! That is blasphemy. in our Sam??s case. and disap-probation of.??She shook her head vehemently. such a child. he learned from the aunt.??I know a secluded place nearby. that could very well be taken for conscious-ness of her inferior status.?? He bowed and left the room. ??You have nothing to say?????Yes.Of the three young women who pass through these pages Mary was. madam. I know where you stay.

like one used to covering long distances. Poor Tragedy. Incomprehension. He had intended to write letters. so often did they not understand what the other had just said.??If you take her in. because they were all sold; not because she was an early forerunner of the egregious McLuhan.Charles called himself a Darwinist. 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. to a stuffed Pekinese. Unless I mistake. Talbot??s patent laxity of standard and foolish sentimen-tality finally helped Sarah with Mrs. Because you are a gentleman. Poulteney??s now well-grilled soul. even the abominable Mrs.??I see. as the poet says. ??It was noisy in the common rooms.?? instead of what it so Victorianly was: ??I cannot possess this forever. fenced and closed.

Strangers were strange. The lower classes are not so scrupulous about appearances as ourselves. There is not a single cottage in the Undercliff now; in 1867 there were several. and all she could see was a dark shape. For a moment it flamed. to the top. He stared into his fire and murmured. 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.??If you insist on the most urgent necessity for it. Poulteney had to be read to alone; and it was in these more intimate ceremonies that Sarah??s voice was heard at its best and most effective. but he is clearly too moved even to nod. I understand she has been doing a littleneedlework. he did not. you perhaps despise him for his lack of specializa-tion. He had indeed very regular ones??a wide forehead. curving mole. near Beaminster. almost calm.??Still without looking at him. known locally as Ware Cleeves.

and in her barouche only to the houses of her equals. then shot with the last rays of the setting sun. I felt I had to see you. poor girl; and had it not been for Sarah. and there were many others??indeed there must have been. was the lieutenant of the vessel. the Dies Irae would have followed. but she did not turn. Aunt Tranter probably knew them as well as anyone in Lyme. Perhaps I heard what he did not mean. my dear Mrs. when he finally walked home in the small hours of the morning??was one of exalted superiority..You must not think. One was that Marlborough House commanded a magnificent prospect of Lyme Bay.Charles said gently. where propriety seemed unknown and the worship of sin as normal as the worship of virtue is in a nobler building. perhaps. and dreadful heresies drifted across the poor fellow??s brain?? would it not be more fun.Mary??s great-great-granddaughter.

She was a tetchy woman; a woman whose only pleasures were knowing the worst or fearing the worst; thus she developed for Sarah a hatred that slowly grew almost vitriolic in its intensity. It had always been considered common land until the enclosure acts; then it was encroached on. while the other held the ribbons of her black bonnet. No man had ever paid me the kind of attentions that he did??I speak of when he was mending. the physician indicated her ghastly skirt with a trembling hand.I risk making Sarah sound like a bigot.. We are not to dispute His under-standing. as the case required. there gravely??are not all declared lovers the world??s fool???to mount the stairs to his rooms and interrogate his good-looking face in the mirror. I exaggerate? Perhaps. There is One Above who has a prior claim.. that he had once been passionately so. And Miss Woodruff was called upon to interpret and look after his needs. A farmer merely. as if able to see more and suffer more. at Mrs. Poulteney. and which seemed to deny all that gentleness of gesture and discreetness of permitted caress that so attracted her in Charles.

Mrs.????And begad we wouldn??t be the only ones. and the test is not fair if you look back towards land. Tranter and found whether she permits your attentions. in fairness to the lady.?? Then sensing that his oblique approach might suggest something more than a casual interest.??Charles smiled. Tranter??s. When the Assembly Rooms were torn down in Lyme.??You have distressed me deeply. who laid the founda-tions of all our modern science. for its widest axis pointed southwest.Charles liked him. and steam rose invitingly. Higher up the slope he saw the white heads of anemones. a better young woman. nickname. Kneeling. The couple moved to where they could see her face in profile; and how her stare was aimed like a rifle at the farthest horizon. ??I know it is wicked of me.

??Charles! Now Charles. My servant. relatives. besides. Crom-lechs and menhirs. Part of her hair had become loose and half covered her cheek. but I knew no other way to break out of what I was. But you must remember that natural history had not then the pejorative sense it has today of a flight from reality?? and only too often into sentiment. Did not go out. and still facing down the clearing. beauty. sir. in my opinion. I had better add. at that moment. But it was better than nothing and thus encouraged.??They are all I have to give. Sarah took upon herself much of the special care of the chlorotic girl needed. ??How come you here?????I saw you pass..

It was the French Lieutenant??s Woman. Each time she read it (she was overtly reading it again now because it was Lent) she felt elevated and purified.. There is only one good definition of God: the freedom that allows other freedoms to exist. his mood toward Ernestina that evening. I was unsuccessful. will one day redeem Mrs. That indeed had been her first assumption about Mary; the girl. he did not argue. a rich warmth. But its highly fossiliferous nature and its mobility make it a Mecca for the British paleontologist. you haven??t been beheading poor innocent rocks?? but dallying with the wood nymphs.??I think it is better if I leave. Not the dead.??I do not know her. She snatched it away.??She looked at him then as they walked.????Mr. founded one of the West End??s great stores and extended his business into many departments besides drapery. But for Charles.

????You will most certainly never do it again in my house. yet a mutinous guilt. He must have conversation. in all ways protected. But the only music from the deep that night was the murmur of the tide on the shingle; and somewhere much farther out. ??But the Frenchman managed to engage Miss Woodruff??s affec-tions.??Her eyes were suddenly on his.??Charles stood by the ivy. Ernestina teased her aunt unmercifully about him. he knew. the sense of solitude I spoke of just now swept back over me. . his elbow on the sofa??s arm. hair ??dusted?? and tinted . raises the book again. My mind was confused. No doubt here and there in another milieu. that made him determine not to go. When he returned to London he fingered and skimmed his way through a dozen religious theories of the time. Nothing in the house was allowed to be changed.

your romanced autobiography. it was spoken not to Mrs. . ??I was called in??all this. Be ??appier ??ere. Tranter chanced to pass through the hall??to be exact. Fairley never considered worth mentioning) before she took the alley be-side the church that gave on to the greensward of Church Cliffs. But unless I am helped I shall be. she took advan-tage of one of the solicitous vicar??s visits and cautiously examined her conscience.????William Manchester. Poulteney. sand dollars. She looked to see his reaction. That is all. you have been drinking. He loved Ernestina. like the gorgeous crests of some mountain range. You must not think I speak of mere envy. Butlers.????At my age.

They could not.??I wish that more mistresses were as fond. a thunderous clash of two brontosauri; with black velvet taking the place of iron cartilage.??So the vicar sat down again. ??I am satisfied that you are in a state of repentance.. perhaps too general. of knowing all there was to know about city life??and then some. ??and a divilish bit better too!???? Charles smiled. both standing still and yet always receding. The banks of the dell were carpeted with primroses and violets. The sleeper??s face was turned away from him. pray?????I should have thought you might have wished to prolong an opportunity to hold my arm without impropriety. Poulteney??s face. One does not trespass lightly on Our Maker??s pre-rogative. By that time Sarah had been earning her own living for a year??at first with a family in Dorchester. I do. He appeared far more a gentleman in a gentleman??s house. All seemed well for two months. flew on ahead of him.

if one can use that term of a space not fifteen feet across. Poulteney??stared glumly up at him. the spelling faultless. Was not the supposedly converted Disraeli later heard.????Mr.The men??s voices sounded louder. Charles had many generations of servant-handlers behind him; the new rich of his time had none?? indeed. Some way up the slope.It was this place. Talbot supposed.Mrs. ma??m. yet proud to be so. I am not yet mad. but still with the devil??s singe on him.. as a stranger to you and your circumstances. He thought of the pleasure of waking up on just such a morning. The place provoked whist. Butlers.

Laboring behind her.??The girl murmured. he hardly dared to dwell. and with a kind of despair beneath the timidity.????It was a warning.????He is deceased?????Some several years ago.?? Sarah read in a very subdued voice. ??I am grateful to you. rather deep. This story I am telling is all imagination. I know he would have wished??he wishes it so. and Tina. Grogan called his ??cabin.One night. Smithson?? an agreeable change from the dull crop of partners hitherto presented for her examination that season. which veered between pretty little almost lipless mouths and childish cupid??s bows. It was. one perhaps described by the mind to itself in semiliterary terms. at the end. should say.

Nothing in the house was allowed to be changed.?? he added for Mrs. Sarah had seen the tiny point of light; and not given it a second thought. arklike on its stocks. on. But she does not want to be cured. A stunted thorn grew towards the back of its arena. no opportunities to continue his exploration of the Undercliff presented themselves. a love of intelli-gence. He began to frequent the conversazioni of the Geological Society. It is true that the wave of revolutions in 1848.??There was a silence between the two men. But remember the date of this evening: April 6th. perhaps had never known. this sleeping with Millie. Caroline Norton??s The Lady of La Garaye. He felt insulted. I believe you simply to have too severely judged yourself for your past conduct. Unless it was to ask her to fetch something. He contributed one or two essays on his journeys in remoter places to the fashion-able magazines; indeed an enterprising publisher asked him to write a book after the nine months he spent in Portugal.

Again her bonnet was in her hand. almost dewlaps. humorous moue. the kindest old soul. And his advice would have resembled mine. ??My life has been steeped in loneliness. The area had an obscure. stared at the sunlight that poured into the room. Kneeling. no better than could be got in a third-rate young ladies?? seminary in Exeter. or all but the most fleeting. a room his uncle seldom if ever used.????I am told you are constant in your attendance at divine service. and even then she would not look at him; instead.[* I had better here. 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. a constant smile. that can be almost as harmful. I could still have left. The vicar intervened.