She was a governess. some possibility she symbolized. does no one care for her?????She is a servant of some kind to old Mrs.

?? She bore some resemblance to a white Pekinese; to be exact
?? She bore some resemblance to a white Pekinese; to be exact. Perhaps I heard what he did not mean.?? ??But what is she doing there??? ??They say she waits for him to return. however. Listen. And what I say is sound Christian doctrine. It was The Origin of Species. invented by Archbishop Ussher in the seventeenth century and recorded solemnly in count-less editions of the official English Bible. but all that was not as he had expected; for theirs was an age when the favored feminine look was the demure. slip into her place. Opposition and apathy the real Lady of the Lamp had certainly had to contend with; but there is an element in sympathy.??She shook her head vehemently. Not all the vicars in creation could have justified her husband??s early death to her. . He moved. And that was her health. In any case. He murmured.????If you ??ad the clothes. person is expunged from your heart. We??re ??ooman beings. As if it has been ordained that I shall never form a friendship with an equal. He would mock me. and still facing down the clearing. Poulten-ey told her. And explain yourself. passed hands. All was supremely well.??You are quite right.

It is true that the wave of revolutions in 1848. Poulteney. and disrespect all my quasi-divine plans for him. no right to say. already been fore-stalled. dressed only in their piteous shifts.But at last the distinguished soprano from Bristol ap-peared. and besides. had fainted twice within the last week. as if it were some expiatory offering. Caroline Norton??s The Lady of La Garaye. To claim that love can only be Satyr-shaped if there is no immortality of the soul is clearly a panic flight from Freud. Poulteney??s standards and ways and then they fled. who is twenty-two years old this month I write in. But let it be plainly understood.????And the commons?????Very hacceptable. Poulteney was whitely the contrary. Console your-self. But it was better than nothing and thus encouraged. without warning her. so full of smiles and caresses. His discov-eries blew like a great wind. Charles faced his own free hours. the sinner guessed what was coming; and her answers to direct questions were always the same in content. Charles. .?? He felt himself in suspension between the two worlds. Perhaps it was out of a timid modesty. She moderated her tone.

. Miss Woodruff is not insane. Tranter??s. handsome. with a dry look of despair. a biased logic when she came across them; but she also saw through people in subtler ways. He mentioned her name. which came down to just above her ankles; a lady would have mounted behind. religion. But without success. duty. If I have pretended until now to know my characters?? minds and innermost thoughts. To these latter she hinted that Mrs. into a dark cascade of trees and undergrowth. without the amputation. to speak to you. Tranter??s com-mentary??places of residence. Surely the oddest of all the odd arguments in that celebrated anthology of after-life anxiety is stated in this poem (xxxv). I drank the wine he pressed on me. the lamb would come two or three times a week and look desolate. and dropped it.. The Creator is all-seeing and all-wise. Two chalky ribbons ran between the woods that mounted inland and a tall hedge that half hid the sea. Poulteney to know you come here. I did what I could for the girl. he had become blind: had not seen her for what she was. far worse. or her (statistically it had in the past rather more often proved to be the latter) way.

??that Lyell??s findings are fraught with a much more than intrinsic importance. She was a governess. She did not get on well with the other pupils. But somehow the moment had not seemed opportune.?? At that very same moment.?? The doctor took a fierce gulp of his toddy. of course. as everyone said. Her color deepened. They were called ??snobs?? by the swells themselves; Sam was a very fair example of a snob. Mr. but to establish a distance. He had never been able to pass such shops without stopping and staring in the windows; criticizing or admiring them. Her face was admirably suited to the latter sentiment; it had eyes that were not Tennyson??s ??homes of silent prayer?? at all. The long-departed Mr.Indeed. but it spoke worlds; two strangers had recognized they shared a common enemy. a kind of dimly glimpsed Laocoon embrace of naked limbs. not to say the impropriety. so dutiful-wifely that he complained he was beginning to feel like a Turkish pasha??and unoriginally begged her to contra-dict him about something lest he forget theirs was to be a Christian marriage.He would have made you smile.?? instead of what it so Victorianly was: ??I cannot possess this forever.?? At the same time she looked the cottager in the eyes. Indeed she made a pretense of being very sorry for ??poor Miss Woodruff?? and her reports were plentifully seasoned with ??I fear?? and ??I am afraid. but even they had vexed her at first. at times. Her gray eyes and the paleness of her skin only enhanced the delicacy of the rest. inclined almost to stop and wait for her.????It was a warning.

. When they??re a-married orf hupstairs. your romanced autobiography.When Charles departed from Aunt Tranter??s house in Broad Street to stroll a hundred paces or so down to his hotel. is the point from which we can date the beginning of feminine emancipation in England; and Ernestina. especially when the first beds of flint began to erupt from the dog??s mercury and arum that carpeted the ground. Why I sacrificed a woman??s most precious possession for the transient gratifica-tion of a man I did not love. Poulteney. and this was something Charles failed to recognize. and the vicar had been as frequent a visitor as the doctors who so repeatedly had to assure her that she was suffering from a trivial stomach upset and not the dreaded Oriental killer. Almost envies them. but I most certainly failed. understanding. All was supremely well. He did not force his presence on her.Forty minutes later. looking at but not seeing the fine landscape the place commanded. Being Irish.Sam. He did not look back. before her father??s social ambitions drove such peasant procedures from their way of life. Deep in himself he forgave her her unchastity; and glimpsed the dark shadows where he might have enjoyed it himself.??In twenty-four hours. And I do not mean he had taken the wrong path. Console your-self. than that it was the nearest place to Lyme where people could go and not be spied on. her fat arms shiny with suds. An orthodox Victorian would perhaps have mistrusted that imperceptible hint of a Becky Sharp; but to a man like Charles she proved irresisti-ble.??Madam!??She turned.

what remained? A vapid selfishness. There was even a remote relationship with the Drake family. Only the eyes were more intense: eyes without sun. I shall not do so again. a restless baa-ing and mewling. which was considered by Mrs. Poised in the sky. But I live in the age of Alain Robbe-Grillet and Roland Barthes; if this is a novel. Charles. The old woman sat facing the dark shadows at the far end of the room; like some pagan idol she looked. horror of horrors.. for the shy formality she betrayed. It came to law. I don??t know how to say it. Needless to say. He banned from his mind thoughts of the tests lying waiting to be discovered: and thoughts.Charles called himself a Darwinist. I fear. one foggy night in London..??Sarah rose then and went to the window. obscure ones like Charles. Its outer edge gave onto a sheer drop of some thirty or forty feet into an ugly tangle of brambles. the celebrated Madame Bovary. ????Ave yer got a bag o?? soot????? He paused bleakly. She knew. But Charles politely refused all attempts to get him to stand for Parliament. and as abruptly kneeled.

What she did not know was that she had touched an increasingly sensitive place in Charles??s innermost soul; his feeling that he was growing like his uncle at Winsyatt. In her increasingly favorable mood Mrs. refuse to enter into conversation with her. ??Of course not. I have searched my soul a thousand times since that evening. As I appreciate your delicacy in respect of my reputation. You will recall the French barque??I think she hailed from Saint Malo??that was driven ashore under Stonebarrow in the dreadful gale of last December? And you will no doubt recall that three of the crew were saved and were taken in by the people of Charmouth? Two were simple sailors.????A-ha. Though direct.????It was Mrs. Her coat had fallen open over her indigo dress. Tranter. smiling. but he found himself not in the mood.Well. et trop pen pour s??assurer) a healthy agnostic. which communicated itself to him. and prayers??over which the old lady pompously presided. to mutter the prayers for the dead in He-brew? And was not Gladstone. ??Lady Cotton is an example to us all. as Charles found when he took the better seat. whose name now he could not even remember. revealing the cruel heads of her persecutors above; but worst of all was the shrieking horror on the doomed creature??s pallid face and the way her cloak rippled upwards. hesitate to take the toy to task. directly over her face. along the half-mile path that runs round a gentle bay to the Cobb proper. After some days he returned to France. ??I meant to tell you.????Rest assured that I shall not present anyone unsuitable.

terms synony-mous in her experience with speaking before being spoken to and anticipating her demands. Poulteney. Lyell??s Principles of Geology. and in a reality no less.. They had only to smell damp in a basement to move house. must seem to a stranger to my nature and circum-stances at that time so great that it cannot be but criminal. Poulteney had ever heard of the word ??lesbian??; and if she had. was famous for her fanatically eleemosynary life. the time signature over existence was firmly adagio. I fear the clergy have a tremendous battle on their hands.. hysterical sort of tears that presage violent action; but those produced by a profound conditional. Poulteney went to see her. it was evident that she resorted always to the same place. he glimpsed the white-ribboned bottoms of her pantalettes. and three flights up.?? This was oil on the flames??as he was perhaps not unaware. the Georginas. with her pretty arms folded. His leg had been crushed at the first impact.??It cannot concern Miss Woodruff?????Would that it did not. Dulce est desipere. It was all. a lady of some thirty years of age.It was opened by a small barrel of a woman. to ask why Sarah.??Mrs. running down to the cliffs.

and was therefore happy to bring frequent reports to the thwarted mistress. and dreadful heresies drifted across the poor fellow??s brain?? would it not be more fun. not unlike someone who had been a Communist in the 1930s??accepted now. ma??m. There was the pretext of a bowl of milk at the Dairy; and many inviting little paths. cosseted. and be one in real earnest.. I apologize. and once round the bend. and had to sit a minute to recover.. After some days he returned to France. . Her color was high. then turned back to the old lady. to the top. and was much closer at hand. Charles. I felt I had to see you.??There was a silence. propped herself up in bed and once more turned to the page with the sprig of jasmine. it kindly always comes in the end.. It is sweet to sip in the proper place. I gravely suspect. not the best recommendation to a servant with only three dresses to her name??and not one of which she really liked. as a man with time to fill. Sam was some ten years his junior; too young to be a good manservant and besides.

??Once again they walked on. if I wish him to be real. or sexuality on the other. send him any interesting specimens of coal she came across in her scuttle; and later she told him she thought he was very lazy. such as archery. we all suffer from at times. and making poetic judgments on them. stared at the sunlight that poured into the room. Talbot??s a dove.. Their folly in that direction was no more than a symptom of their seriousness in a much more important one. The madness was in the empty sea. Duty. But as one day passed. he rarely did. not a man in a garden??I can follow her where I like? But possibility is not permissibility. Ernestine excused herself and went to her room. timid. turned again. I seem driven by despair to contemplate these dreadful things. her Balmoral boots. His future had always seemed to him of vast potential; and now suddenly it was a fixed voyage to a known place. But she tells me the girl keeps mum even with her. If for no other reason. as he craned sideways down. had a poor time of it for many months. then spoke. and he drew her to him.?? He paused cun-ningly.

Victorias. I have no right to desire these things. We may explain it biologically by Darwin??s phrase: cryptic color-ation. no better than could be got in a third-rate young ladies?? seminary in Exeter. there was inevitably some conflict. The farther he moved from her. Charles.000 females of the age of ten upwards in the British population. The public right of way must be left sacrosanct; and there were even some disgusting sensualists among the Councilors who argued that a walk to the Dairy was an innocent pleasure; and the Donkey??s Green Ball no more than an annual jape.He lifts her. for incumbents of not notably fat livings do not argue with rich parishioners. The big house in Belgravia was let. on her darker days. Those who had knowing smiles soon lost them; and the loquacious found their words die in their mouths. until he was certain they had gone. She turned to the Bible and read the passage Mrs. This walk she would do when the Cobb seemed crowded; but when weather or cir-cumstance made it deserted. whose per-fume she now inhaled. Varguennes had gone to sea in the wine commerce. he had picked up some foreign ideas in the haber-dashery field . Her hair. with no sound but the lowing of a calf from some distant field above and inland; the clapped wings and cooings of the wood pigeons; and the barely perceptible wash of the tranquil sea far through the trees below. what she had thus taught herself had been very largely vitiated by what she had been taught. that her face was half hidden from him??and yet again. and there he saw that all the sadness he had so remarked before was gone; in sleep the face was gentle. 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. spoiled child.Sam first fell for her because she was a summer??s day after the drab dollymops and gays* who had constituted his past sexual experience. down steep Pound Street into steep Broad Street and thence to the Cobb Gate.

and looked him in the eyes.To both young people it had promised to be just one more dull evening; and both. And that you have far more pressing ties. She was a governess. intel-lectual distance above the rest of their fellow creatures.?? He bowed and left the room.??Once again they walked on.?? cries back Paddy. but the custom itself lapsed in relation to the lapse in sexual mores.??The girl stopped. It was certain??would Mrs.??Madam!??She turned. demanded of a color was brilliance. the flood of mechanistic science??the ability to close one??s eyes to one??s own absurd stiffness was essential. He saw the cheeks were wet. ??I should become what so many women who have lost their honor become in great cities. But there was something in that face. Of the woman who stared.One of the commonest symptoms of wealth today is de-structive neurosis; in his century it was tranquil boredom. 1867. self-surprised face . to whom it had become familiar some three years previously. and presumed that a flint had indeed dropped from the chalk face above. for pride.. and therefore she did not jump. conscious that she had presumed too much. They had barely a common lan-guage. .

as one returned. Poulteney??s soul. of marrying shame.????But supposing He should ask me if my conscience is clear???The vicar smiled. she remained too banal. One day she set out with the intention of walking into the woods. piety and death????surely as pretty a string of key mid-Victorian adjectives and nouns as one could ever hope to light on (and much too good for me to invent. since Sarah. she was as ignorant as her mistress; but she did not share Mrs. as one returned. who is twenty-two years old this month I write in. or at least that part of it that concerned the itinerary of her walks. But was that the only context??the only market for brides? It was a fixed article of Charles??s creed that he was not like the great majority of his peers and contemporaries. She gazed for a moment out over that sea she was asked to deny herself. I talk to her. a shrewd sacrifice. her back to Sarah. effusive and kind. as if the clearing was her drawing room. was not wholly bad. it was agreeably warm; and an additional warmth soon came to Charles when he saw an excellent test. Royston Pike. To her Millie was like one of the sickly lambs she had once. He should have taken a firmer line. I don??t give a fig for birth. A girl of nineteen or so. climbed further cliffs masked by dense woods. nor had Darwin himself. had cried endlessly.

her vert esperance dress. staring out to sea. Her weeping she hid.She risked meeting other promenaders on the track itself; and might always have risked the dairyman and his family??s eyes. however kind-hearted. invented by Archbishop Ussher in the seventeenth century and recorded solemnly in count-less editions of the official English Bible. who had already smiled at Sarah.. and forthwith forgave her.?? But the doctor was brutally silent. So let us see how Charles and Ernestina are crossing one particular such desert.??She possessed none. 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. Mary had modestly listened; divined this other Sam and divined that she was honored to be given so quick a sight of it.. But even the great French naturalist had not dared to push the origin of the world back further than some 75.??Sam flashed an indignant look. Mary had modestly listened; divined this other Sam and divined that she was honored to be given so quick a sight of it. Tranter??s defense. not too young a person. Poulteney. and with fellow hobbyists he would say indignantly that the Echinodermia had been ??shamefully neglected. Charles winked at himself in the mirror. unable to look at him. worse than Sarah. She spoke quietly.????Mr. She could have??or could have if she had ever been allowed to??danced all night; and played. Charles rose and looked out of the window.

a respectable woman would have left at once. I do this for your own good. giving the faintest suspicion of a curtsy before she took the reginal hand. Her mother and father were convinced she was consumptive. He was more like some modern working-class man who thinks a keen knowledge of cars a sign of his social progress. I think it made me see more clearly . of inappropriateness.??He smiled at her timid abruptness. Charles could have be-lieved many things of that sleeping face; but never that its owner was a whore. Her father. who had been on hot coals outside. as if he had miraculously survived a riot or an avalanche. a lightness of touch. For the first time in her ungrateful little world Mrs. and disapproving frowns from a sad majority of educated women. Charles. I gravely suspect. And not only because it is. But this is what Hartmann says. obscurely wronged. Miss Woodruff..??What if this . The girl became a governess to Captain John Talbot??s family at Charmouth.All this (and incidentally. to a patch of turf known as Donkey??s Green in the heart of the woods and there celebrate the solstice with dancing. by which he means. but pointed uncertainly in the direction of the conservatory. But I saw there was only one cure.

but I knew he was changed. obscurely wronged.. splintering hesitantly in the breeze before it slipped away in sudden alarm. I can-not believe that the truth is so. though it still suggested some of the old universal reproach. omniscient and decreeing; but in the new theological image.?? And she went and pressed Sarah??s hand. There slipped into his mind an image: a deliciously cool bowl of milk. She had once or twice seen animals couple; the violence haunted her mind. 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. then came out with it. for curiosity.Indeed. But this was by no means always apparent in their relationship. casual thought. a community of information.. . a moustache as black as his hair. Tussocks of grass provided foothold; and she picked her way carefully. ??Ah yes. that sometimes shone as a solemn omen and sometimes stood as a kind of sum already paid off against the amount of penance she might still owe. Dahn out there. Charles felt a great desire to reach out and take her shoul-ders and shake her; tragedy is all very well on the stage. He stood. His flesh was torn from his hip to his knee. since he had a fine collection of all the wrong ones. it must be confessed.

. in spite of that. one with the unslum-bering stars and understanding all. one the vicar had in fact previously requested her not to ask. for not only was she frequently in the town herself in connection with her duties. I believe you simply to have too severely judged yourself for your past conduct. The ex-governess kissed little Paul and Virginia goodbye. and after a hundred yards or so he came close behind her. and Ernestina had been very silent on the walk downhill to Broad Street. a simple blue-and-white china bowl. though always shaded with sorrow and often intense in feeling; but above all. For the rest of my life I shall travel. what to do. He would speak to Sam; by heavens. and also looked down.. Her face was well modeled. but duty is peremptory and absolute. ??And if you??re not doubly fast with my breakfast I shall fasten my boot onto the posterior portion of your miserable anatomy.??She clears her throat delicately. and wished she had kept silent; and Mrs. and saw nothing. In neither field did anything untoward escape her eagle eye. but he is clearly too moved even to nod. It could be written so: ??A happier domestic atmosphere. a passionate Portuguese marquesa. as if she would answer no more questions; begged him to go. too informally youthful. excrete his characteristic and deplorable fondness for labored puns and innuendoes: a humor based.

He was the devil in the guise of a sailor.????Ah yes indeed. stains. She seemed so small to him.??I have come because I have satisfied myself that you do indeed need help. She offered to do so..??Mrs. the insignia of the Liberal Party. I do not like the French.????I am told you are constant in your attendance at divine service. Tran-ter . Before. We are all in flight from the real reality. It was as if. the worndown backs of her shoes; and also the red sheen in her dark hair. Above all. it was rather more because he had begun to feel that he had allowed himself to become far too deeply engaged in conversation with her??no. He stared at the black figure. a certainty of the innocence of this creature. He would speak to Sam; by heavens. Sam? In twenty-four hours???Sam began to rub the washstand with the towel that was intended for Charles??s cheeks.What she did not know was that she had touched an increasingly sensitive place in Charles??s innermost soul; his feeling that he was growing like his uncle at Winsyatt. and why Sam came to such differing conclusions about the female sex from his master??s; for he was in that kitchen again. a pigherd or two.?? The agonized look she flashed at him he pretended. now held an intensity that was far more of appeal. and then collapse sobbing back onto the worn carpet of her room.In that year (1851) there were some 8.

whatever may have been the case with Mrs. who maintained that their influence was best exerted from the home. But she was the last person to list reasons. sir. to speak to you. What had really knocked him acock was Mary??s innocence.??They are all I have to give.Fairley. which veered between pretty little almost lipless mouths and childish cupid??s bows. as confirmed an old bachelor as Aunt Tranter a spinster. ??Let them see what they??ve done. ??You may wonder how I had not seen it before. to thank you . ??You shall not have a drop of tea until you have accounted for every moment of your day. a better young woman. He saw that her eyelashes were wet. I wish only to say that they have been discussed with sympathy and charity.. what French abominations under every leaf. If she visualized God. the most meaningful space. a certainty of the innocence of this creature. ??Hon one condition. that lacked its go. then. since the land would not allow him to pass round for the proper angle. ??Doctor??s orders. Did not feel happy. the other as if he was not quite sure which planet he had just landed on.

????What have I done?????I do not think you are mad at all. ??plump?? is unkind. yes.Laziness was. you know. 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. as well as the state. to struggle not to touch her. If you so wish it. some land of sinless. 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. and never on foot. ma??m.????What does that signify. Two chalky ribbons ran between the woods that mounted inland and a tall hedge that half hid the sea. ??For the bootiful young lady hupstairs.????Such kindness?????Such kindness is crueler to me than????She did not finish the sentence. The beating of his heart like some huge clock;And then the strong pulse falter and stand still. He sensed that Mrs.??Charles smiled then. upstairs maids. I was reminded of some of the maritime sceneries of Northern Portugal. that her face was half hidden from him??and yet again. her face turned away. Her look back lasted two or three seconds at most; then she resumed her stare to the south.????It is too large for me. between Lyme Regis and Axmouth six miles to the west. But you must show it.????I wish to take a companion.

and anguishing; an outrage in them. and more than finer clothes might have done. It was very brief. She had once or twice seen animals couple; the violence haunted her mind. No doubt the Channel breezes did her some good. am I???Charles laughed. and realized Sarah??s face was streaming with tears. but also for any fatal sign that the words of the psalmist were not being taken very much to the reader??s heart. really a good deal more so than that in Mrs. that the world had been created at nine o??clock on October 26th. Tranter respectively gloomed and bubbled their way through the schedule of polite conversational subjects??short. examine her motives. it was evident that she resorted always to the same place. his profound admiration for Mr. A little beyond them the real cliff plunged down to the beach. Already it will be clear that if the accepted destiny of the Victorian girl was to become a wife and mother. It had been furnished for her and to her taste. but they felt more free of each other. . when she died. from which you might have shaken out an already heavy array of hammers. This was a long thatched cottage. ??Of course not. oh Charles . what was what . Perhaps it is only a game. in order to justify their idleness to their intelligence.?? She bent her head to kiss his hand..

??They walked on a few paces before he answered; for a moment Charles seemed inclined to be serious. who had wheedled Mrs. Progress.??And she has confided the real state of her mind to no one?????Her closest friend is certainly Mrs. as Sicilians like emptying a shotgun into an enemy??s back. Grogan reached out and poked his fire. The idea brought pleasures. yet respectfully; and for once Mrs.????But I gather all this was concealed from Mrs. But you must see I have . He declined to fritter his negative but comfortable English soul?? one part irony to one part convention??on incense and papal infallibility. I saw all this within five minutes of that meeting. the old branch paths have gone; no car road goes near it. she had indeed jumped; and was living in a kind of long fall. Tranter. the flood of mechanistic science??the ability to close one??s eyes to one??s own absurd stiffness was essential.????But I can guess who it is. Poulteney??s purse was as open to calls from him as it was throttled where her thirteen domestics?? wages were concerned. Sun and clouds rapidly succeeded each other in proper April fashion. moved ahead of him. ??I wished also.??I do not know her. Mrs.????Do you contradict me.??There was a longer silence. and endowed in the first field with a miracu-lous sixth sense as regards dust. Poulteney and Mrs. and dropped it. ??If you promise the grog to be better than the Latin.

bade her stay. We consider such frankness about the real drives of human behavior healthy. he rarely did. But general extinction was as absent a concept from his mind that day as the smallest cloud from the sky above him; and even though.??Oh Charles . giving the name of another inn. at least from the back. but I most certainly failed. However. and the door opened to reveal Mary bearing a vase with a positive fountain of spring flowers.????Does she come this way often?????Often enough. raised its stern head.?? and again she was silent. if you wish to change your situation. who had known each other sufficient decades to make a sort of token embrace necessary.??If you knew of some lady. Not all the vicars in creation could have justified her husband??s early death to her. but it will do.??You must admit. but the painter had drawn on imagination for the other qualities.To her amazement Sarah showed not the least sign of shame. ??Your ammonites will never hold such mysteries as that. but not through him. learning . but one from which certain inexplicable errors of taste in the Holy Writ (such as the Song of Solomon) had been piously excised??lay in its off-duty hours. There were accordingly some empty seats before the fern-fringed dais at one end of the main room. Charles. Like all soubrettes. She nervously smoothed it back into place.

his pipe lay beside his favorite chair. he most legibly had. ??Quisque suos patimur manes.She took her hand away. A dozen times or so a year the climate of the mild Dorset coast yields such days??not just agreeably mild out-of-season days. The cottage walls have crumbled into ivied stumps. and told her what he knew.?? She looked down at her hands. if one can use that term of a space not fifteen feet across.??She made a little movement of her head. oval.????And if . ??Has an Irishman a choice???Charles acknowledged with a gesture that he had not; then offered his own reason for being a Liberal. He knew that normally she would have guessed his tease at once; and he understood that her slowness now sprang from a deep emotion. though with very different expres-sions. Tran-ter .. But that??s neither here nor the other place. However. mocking those two static bipeds far below. That was why he had traveled so much; he found English society too hidebound.??Such an anticlimax! Yet Mrs. He watched her smell the yellow flowers; not po-litely. Suddenly she was walking. but spoke from some yards behind her back.??Your future wife is a better judge than you are of such matters.Sarah went towards the lectern in the corner of the room. That??s the trouble with provincial life. controlled and clear.

spoiled child. I do not know where to turn. since she was not unaware of Mrs. free as a god. and walked back to Lyme a condemned woman. ??How come you here?????I saw you pass. in order to justify their idleness to their intelligence. as Coleridge once discovered. countless personal reasons why Charles was unfitted for the agreeable role of pessimist.Again and again. With ??er complimums. Forsythe!??She drew herself up.The morning.The door was opened by Mary; but Mrs. strolling beside the still swelling but now mild sea. Very dark. He saw the scene she had not detailed: her giving herself. is what he then said. they fester. Furthermore I have omitted to tell you that the Frenchman had plighted his troth. But Sarah was as sensitive as a sea anemone on the matter; however obliquely Mrs. she saw through the follies. I too saw them talking together yesterday. so do most governesses. ??She ??as made halopogies. She wore the same black coat. at times. That reserve. Mrs.

??I agree??it was most foolish. and practiced in London.????Mind you. She left his home at her own request. clutching her collar.?? She laid the milkwort aside. Poulteney saw her servants with genuinely attentive and sometimes positively religious faces. was most patently a prostitute in the making.??And my sweet.????Ah yes indeed. inclined almost to stop and wait for her... of a passionate selfishness.Sam??s had not been the only dark face in Lyme that morn-ing. which veered between pretty little almost lipless mouths and childish cupid??s bows. I know in the manufacturing cities poverties and solitude exist in comparison to which I live in comfort and luxury. She believes you are not happy in your present situation. should have left earlier. with frequent turns towards the sea. This was a long thatched cottage.?? For one appalling moment Mrs.????And you will believe I speak not from envy???She turned then. blue flowers like microscopic cherubs?? genitals. but she had also a wide network of relations and acquaint-ances at her command.????You fear he will never return?????I know he will never return. Or indeed.??I confess your worthy father and I had a small philosoph-ical disagreement. ??Will you come to see me??when dear Tina has gone??? For a second then.

a false scholarship. And you forget that I??m a scientist. or at least unusually dark. She did not get on well with the other pupils.. There was a tight and absurdly long coat to match; a canvas wideawake hat of an indeterminate beige; a massive ash-plant. Now do you see how it is? Her sadness becomes her hap-piness. he spent a great deal of time traveling. only a year before. not talk-ing. ??You look to sea. you??d do. and there were many others??indeed there must have been.?? he had once said to her. the safe distance; and this girl. The beating of his heart like some huge clock;And then the strong pulse falter and stand still. Talbot with a tale of a school friend who had fallen gravely ill. in which inexorable laws (therefore beneficently divine. his imagination was always ready to fill the gap.??I have come to bid my adieux. of course. if you speak like this I shall have to reprimand you. Ernestina teased her aunt unmercifully about him. dumb. at the same time shaking her head and covering her face. Charles opened his mouth to bid them good day; but the faces disappeared with astonishing quickness. In company he would go to morning service of a Sunday; but on his own. and goes on. and I have never understood them.

and the tests less likely to be corroded and abraded. as it so happened. Breeding and self-knowledge. Crom-lechs and menhirs.Who is Sarah?Out of what shadows does she come?I do not know. the hour when the social life of London was just beginning; but here the town was well into its usual long sleep. that the lower sort of female apparently enjoyed a certain kind of male caress. even the abominable Mrs. Perhaps it is only a game..The Undercliff??for this land is really the mile-long slope caused by the erosion of the ancient vertical cliff face??is very steep. Yellow ribbons and daffodils. and Tina. such a child. but with suppressed indignation. But morality without mercy I detest rather more. ??Tis the way ??e speaks. Too pleas-ing. find shortcuts. the liassic fossils were plentiful and he soon found himself completely alone. And he had always asked life too many questions. though with very different expres-sions.????And what are the others?????The fishermen have a gross name for her. and given birth to a menacing spirit of envy and rebellion. then said. as you so frequently asseverate. though she could not look. since Sarah. Crom-lechs and menhirs.

She frowned and stared at her deep-piled carpet. and the test is not fair if you look back towards land. Black Ven. Charles was not pleased to note. He had to search for Ernestina.. since she was not unaware of Mrs. a biased logic when she came across them; but she also saw through people in subtler ways.. ??is not one man as good as another??? ??Faith. once engaged upon. ??Do not misunderstand me.??Kindly allow me to go on my way alone. Tranter??s niece went upstairs so abruptly after Charles??s departures. Thus he had gained a reputation for aloofness and coldness.??Sam. Poulteney. Without realizing it she judged people as much by the standards of Walter Scott and Jane Austen as by any empirically arrived at; seeing those around her as fictional characters. I do not mean that I knew what I did. Ernestina began to cry again; then dried her eyes. He called me cruel when I would not let him kiss my hand. as well as a gift. it was evident that she resorted always to the same place. with his top hat held in his free hand. and of course in his heart.. She was a governess. some possibility she symbolized. does no one care for her?????She is a servant of some kind to old Mrs.