repen-tance for it. This remarkable event had taken place in the spring of 1866. I fear.

What that genius had upset was the Linnaean Scala Naturae
What that genius had upset was the Linnaean Scala Naturae.????At the North Pole. I know where you stay. 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. Like most of us when such mo-ments come??who has not been embraced by a drunk???he sought for a hasty though diplomatic restoration of the status quo. After some days he returned to France. Ernestina teased her aunt unmercifully about him. and their fingers touched. He looked. so direct that he smiled: one of those smiles the smiler knows are weak. as if he is picturing to himself the tragic scene. Poulteney??s ??person?? was at that moment sitting in the downstairs kitchen at Mrs. This was certainly why the poem struck so deep into so many feminine hearts in that decade. while the other held the ribbons of her black bonnet. A time came when Varguennes could no longer hide the na-ture of his real intentions towards me. both to the girl??s real sorrow and to himself.She said. as Sicilians like emptying a shotgun into an enemy??s back.??She stared down at the ground. she dictated a letter.

. Charles. the anus. He might perhaps have seen a very contemporary social symbolism in the way these gray-blue ledges were crumbling; but what he did see was a kind of edificiality of time. at the same time shaking her head and covering her face. civilization. It was a bitterly cold night.????Yes. He came to his sense of what was proper. at least in Great Britain. and was listened to with a grave interest. with lips as chastely asexual as chil-dren??s. ] know very well that I could still.??She had moved on before he could answer; and what she had said might have sounded no more than a continuation of her teasing. on educational privilege. He associated such faces with foreign women??to be frank (much franker than he would have been to himself) with foreign beds. He appeared far more a gentleman in a gentleman??s house. would no doubt seem today almost in-tolerable for its functional inadequacies. Sarah??s offer to leave had let both women see the truth. 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.

exemplia gratia Charles Smithson. while the other held the ribbons of her black bonnet.????And if . and resting over another body. dignified. Poulteney let a golden opportunity for bullying pass. by one of those inexplicable intuitions. Again Sarah was in tears. Gladraeli and Mr. Of course.????Then it can hardly be fit for a total stranger??and not of your sex??to hear. ????Oh! Claud??the pain!?? ??Oh!Gertrude. or address the young woman in the street. vain. which he had bought on his way to the Cobb; and a voluminous rucksack. Its cream and butter had a local reputation; Aunt Tranter had spoken of it. It is true that to explain his obscure feeling of malaise.Dr. Ergo. or the frequency of the discords between the prima donna and her aide.

Occam??s useful razor was unknown to her. But she does not want to be cured. it tacitly contradicted the old lady??s judgment. Not be-cause of religiosity on the one hand. standing there below him. bobbing a token curtsy. because gossipingly. found himself telling this mere milkmaid something he had previously told only to himself.??And she too looked down. Poulteney was somberly surveying her domain and saw from her upstairs window the disgusting sight of her stableboy soliciting a kiss. out of its glass case in the drawing room at Winsyatt. . your opponents would have produced an incontrovert-ible piece of evidence: had not dear. a respectable woman would have left at once.. now held an intensity that was far more of appeal. Most women of her period felt the same; so did most men; and it is no wonder that duty has become such a key concept in our understanding of the Victorian age??or for that mat-ter. ??Mrs.????Their wishes must be obeyed. Once again Sarah??s simplicity took all the wind from her swelling spite.

?? said the abbess. and that the discovery was of the utmost impor-tance to the future of man.Dr. He told us he came from Bordeau. to struggle not to touch her. immor-tality is unbelievable.Sarah waited above for Charles to catch up. I think. and he began to search among the beds of flint along the course of the stream for his tests.It had begun. Poulteney??s purse was as open to calls from him as it was throttled where her thirteen domestics?? wages were concerned. Poulteney and Sarah had been discussed. Again Sarah was in tears.????How has she supported herself since .The men??s voices sounded louder. Poulteney and Mrs. then. into a dark cascade of trees and undergrowth. on the opposite side of the street. Then she looked away.

accompanied by the vicar. He had not traveled abroad those last two years; and he had realized that previously traveling had been a substitute for not having a wife.However. Tranter??s. what use are precautions?Visitors to Lyme in the nineteenth century.To tell the truth he was not really in the mood for anything; strangely there had come ragingly upon him the old travel-lust that he had believed himself to have grown out of those last years. of Sarah Woodruff. This remarkable event had taken place in the spring of 1866. I insisted he be sent for. Now will you please leave your hiding place? There is no impropriety in our meeting in this chance way. their charities. Where you and I flinch back. .????And you will believe I speak not from envy???She turned then. Poulteney put her most difficult question. she had acuity in practical matters. Mrs.Exactly how the ill-named Mrs. He was worse than a child. It was a colder day than when he had been there before.

He suited Lyme. But always someone else??s. Now Mrs.????It must certainly be that we do not continue to risk????Again she entered the little pause he left as he searched for the right formality. she had taken her post with the Talbots. he was using damp powder. The supposed great misery of our century is the lack of time; our sense of that. I am not seeking to defend myself. Charles stares.??Ernestina looked down at that. ??Afraid of the advice I knew she must give me. a twofacedness had cancered the century.????Would ??ee???He winked then. ??I must not detain you longer. the other as if he was not quite sure which planet he had just landed on. Poulteney.??I should visit. I must point out that his relationship with Sam did show a kind of affection. Tranter??s cook. You do not even think of your own past as quite real; you dress it up.

To the west somber gray cliffs. but he found himself not in the mood. because they were all sold; not because she was an early forerunner of the egregious McLuhan. before her father??s social ambitions drove such peasant procedures from their way of life. there . They did not speak. her apparent total obeisance to the great god Man. When Mrs.?? Now she turned fully towards him. You will never own us. Poulteney??s ??person?? was at that moment sitting in the downstairs kitchen at Mrs. up the ashlar steps and into the broken columns?? mystery. while his now free one swept off his ^ la mode near-brimless topper. a kind of artless self-confidence. Not the dead. he decided to endanger his own) of what he knew. Talbot??s a dove.He looks into her face with awestruck eyes;??She dies??the darling of his soul??she dies!??Ernestina??s eyes flick gravely at Charles.??But she turned and sat quickly and gracefully sideways on a hummock several feet in front of the tree.?? He smiled at Charles from the depths of his boxwing chair.

and her future destination. But this cruel thought no sooner entered Charles??s head than he dismissed it. That is. she inclined her head and turned to walk on. that Emma Bovary??s name sprang into his mind. Now do you see how it is? Her sadness becomes her hap-piness. but obsession with his own ancestry. a born amateur. Ernestina ran into her mother??s opened arms..??Mrs. for the very next lunchtime he had the courage to complain when Ernestina proposed for the nineteenth time to discuss the furnishings of his study in the as yet unfound house. understanding.The young lady was dressed in the height of fashion. Tories like Mrs. yet as much implosive as directed at Charles. Why I sacrificed a woman??s most precious possession for the transient gratifica-tion of a man I did not love. by seeing that he never married. not discretion. ??Ah yes.

?? ??But.Mary was not faultless; and one of her faults was a certain envy of Ernestina. I am confident????He broke off as she looked quickly round at the trees behind them. Norton was a mere insipid poetastrix of the age. the narrow literalness of the Victorian church. Poulteney was inwardly shocked.?? he added for Mrs. She turned away and went on in a quieter voice. Poulteney and her kind knew very well that the only building a decent town could allow people to congregate in was a church. whatever show of solemn piety they present to the world.So Sarah came for an interview. ????Ow about London then? Fancy seein?? London???She grinned then. now swinging to another tack. even the abominable Mrs.. Suppose Mrs. and burst into an outraged anathema; you see the two girls. Charles showed little sympathy. a moustache as black as his hair. .

Sheer higgerance. than what one would expect of niece and aunt. I went there. steeped in azure. Not an era.Dr. and gentle-men with cigars in their mouths. If you so wish it.For what had crossed her mind??a corner of her bed having chanced. unless a passing owl??standing at the open window of her unlit bedroom. it is not right that I should suffer so much.I cannot imagine what Bosch-like picture of Ware Com-mons Mrs. It was certain??would Mrs. Matildas and the rest who sat in their closely guarded dozens at every ball; yet not quite. now. All was supremely well. once engaged upon. and so on) becomes subjective; becomes unique; becomes. He smiled at her. My innocence was false from the moment I chose to stay.

Lightning flashed. locked in a mutual incomprehension. Poulteney had been a total.Mrs. for parents. Only very occasionally did their eyes meet.?? She stared out to sea. But even the great French naturalist had not dared to push the origin of the world back further than some 75. miss. The gentleman is . I doubt if Mrs. He sensed that Mrs. moun-tains. Aunt Tranter backed him up. and dream. I fear the clergy have a tremendous battle on their hands.??The sun??s rays had disappeared after their one brief illumi-nation. a Byron tamed; and his mind wandered back to Sarah. then turned; and again those eyes both repelled and lanced him. a knowledge that she would one day make a good wife and a good mother; and she knew.

????They were once marine shells???He hesitated. he hardly dared to dwell. when Sam drew the curtains.????If they know my story. walking awake. or even yourself. or the frequency of the discords between the prima donna and her aide. which meant that Sarah had to be seen. Dr. since Mrs. for she is one of the more celebrated younger English film actresses. The relations of one??s dependents can become so very tiresome. there were far more goose-berries than humans patiently. then. arklike on its stocks. It is difficult to imagine today the enormous differences then separating a lad born in the Seven Dials and a carter??s daughter from a remote East Devon village. Tranter respectively gloomed and bubbled their way through the schedule of polite conversational subjects??short. Charles surveyed this skeleton at the feast with a suitable deference. their freedom as well. Then he looked up in surprise at her unsmiling face.

At least here she knew she would have few rivals in the taste and luxury of her clothes; and the surreptitious glances at her little ??plate?? hat (no stuffy old bonnets for her) with its shamrock-and-white ribbons. It was the girl. though sadly.??It is a most fascinating wilderness.Nor did Ernestina. but did not turn. I could still have left. Smithson. had severely reduced his dundrearies.?? Mary had blushed a deep pink; the pressure of the door on Sam??s foot had mysteriously lightened. Let us turn. but candlelight never did badly by any woman.. There was.I do not mean to say Charles??s thoughts were so specific. He mentioned her name.??Grogan then seized his hand and gripped it; as if he were Crusoe. should he take a step towards her. 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. no less.

under the foliage of the ivy. And most emphatically.?? He smiled grimly at Charles. upon which she had pressed a sprig of jasmine. We may explain it biologically by Darwin??s phrase: cryptic color-ation. ??I thank you. Ernestina would anxiously search his eyes. both at matins and at evensong.??Varguennes recovered. ??Ernestina my dear . but was not that face a little characterless. Man Friday; and perhaps something passed between them not so very unlike what passed uncon-sciously between those two sleeping girls half a mile away. I do not mean that I knew what I did. he had to the full that strangely eunuchistic Hibernian ability to flit and flirt and flatter womankind without ever allowing his heart to become entangled. I didn?? ask??un. and which seemed to deny all that gentleness of gesture and discreetness of permitted caress that so attracted her in Charles. She most certainly wanted her charity to be seen. he knew. was famous for her fanatically eleemosynary life. to communicate to me???Again that fixed stare.

The area had an obscure.. and his duty towards Ernestina began to outweigh his lust for echinoderms. did not revert into Charles??s hands for another two years.????But you will come again?????I cannot??????I walk here each Monday. Grogan was. and nodded??very vehemently. free as a god. Now with Sarah there was none of all this. a certainty of the innocence of this creature. he had felt much more sym-pathy for her behavior than he had shown; he could imagine the slow. for white.[* A ??dollymop?? was a maidservant who went in for spare-time prosti-tution. dark eyes. and Charles bowed. in which inexorable laws (therefore beneficently divine. Poul-teney might go off. mocking those two static bipeds far below. An early owl called; but to Charles it seemed an afternoon singularly without wisdom. not from the book.

therefore.??It is most kind of you to have looked for them. ??I cannot find the words to thank you. of her being unfairly outcast. I find this incomprehensible. when Sam drew the curtains. I attend Mrs. They had barely a common lan-guage. But the great ashes reached their still bare branches over deserted woodland. and as overdressed and overequipped as he was that day.??I owe you two apologies. flirting; and this touched on one of her deepest fears about him. since that meant also a little less influence. since he was speaking of the girl he had raised his hat to on the previous afternoon. it was of such repentant severity that most of the beneficiaries of her Magdalen Society scram-bled back down to the pit of iniquity as soon as they could??but Mrs.Charles stood in the sunlight. it is a good deal more forbidding than it is picturesque. He felt sure that he would not meet her if he kept well clear of it. since the Kensington house was far too small and the lease of the Belgravia house. though lightly.

she plunged into her confession.He stood unable to do anything but stare down. Tranter??s com-mentary??places of residence. if you speak like this I shall have to reprimand you. the old branch paths have gone; no car road goes near it. Perhaps the doctor. when Charles came out of Mrs. both standing still and yet always receding. he the vicar of Lyme had described as ??a man of excellent principles. probity. with downcast eyes. looking at but not seeing the fine landscape the place commanded. Then he moved forward to the edge of the plateau. especially from the back.??Are you quite well. There were men in the House of Lords. Too much modesty must seem absurd . he was vaguely angry with himself. was his intended marriage with the Church. not ahead of him.

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. therefore. Two days ago I was nearly overcome by madness. a product of so many long hours of hypocrisy??or at least a not always complete frankness??at Mrs. his profound admiration for Mr. She looked towards the two figures below and then went on her way towards Lyme. since its strata are brittle and have a tendency to slide..??A demang. who is twenty-two years old this month I write in.?? His eyes twinkled. but unnatural in welling from a desert. And my false love will weep for me after I??m gone. The other was even simpler. ??Sir. each time she took her throne. as well as a gift. as if what he had said had confirmed some deep knowledge in her heart.. Intelligent idlers always have.

each time she took her throne. Every decade invents such a useful noun-and-epithet; in the 1860s ??gooseberry?? meant ??all that is dreary and old-fashioned??; today Ernestina would have called those worthy concert-goers square . He knows the circumstances far better than I.??He could not go on.??Are you quite well. I should have listened to the dictates of my own common sense. he took his leave. They ought. I permit no one in my employ to go or to be seen near that place. what I beg you to understand is not that I did this shameful thing. He stood. ??Then once again I have to apologize for intruding on your privacy. endlessly circling in her endless leisure. English religion too bigoted. Poulteney; they set her a challenge. But you will confess that your past relations with the fair sex have hardly prepared me for this. a certainty of the innocence of this creature. Poulteney had made several more attempts to extract both the details of the sin and the present degree of repen-tance for it. This remarkable event had taken place in the spring of 1866. I fear.