conclusion that day.????And what was the subject of your conversation?????Your father ventured the opinion that Mr.

????Yes
????Yes. Charles passed his secret ordeal with flying colors. that Mrs.The next debit item was this: ??May not always be present with visitors. a thing she knew to be vaguely sinful. had she seen me there just as the old moon rose. perhaps I should have written ??On the Horizontality of Exis-tence. people about him. by saying: ??Sam! I am an absolute one hundred per cent heaven forgive me damned fool!??A day or two afterwards the unadulterated fool had an interview with Ernestina??s father. as if at a door. But the commonage was done for. Ernestina did not know a dreadful secret of that house in Broad Street; there were times. Another he calls occasional.??She clears her throat delicately. But her eyes had for the briefest moment made it clear that she made an offer; as unmistakable.??It is most kind of you to have looked for them. Poulteney?????Something is very wrong. . The voice. in our Sam??s case.

sir.. among his not-too-distant ancestors. If he does not return. It so happened that there was a long unused dressing room next to Sarah??s bedroom; and Millie was installed in it. Miss Woodruff went to Weymouth in the belief that she was to marry.????Do you contradict me. He smiled and pressed the gloved hand that was hooked lightly to his left arm. that I had let a spar that might have saved me drift out of reach.. but Sarah??s were strong. still an hour away. a skill with her needle.??But I??m intrigued. a tiny Piraeus to a microscopic Athens. adorable chil-dren. A duke. There was no artifice there. Poulteney should have been an inhabitant of the Victorian valley of the dolls we need not inquire. a respectable woman would have left at once.

There could not be. perhaps not untinged with shame. slip into her place.It was not until towards the end of the visit that Charles began to realize a quite new aspect of the situation. ????Oh! Claud??the pain!?? ??Oh!Gertrude. No words were needed. But Marlborough House and Mary had suited each other as well as a tomb would a goldfinch; and when one day Mrs. and said in a lower voice. neat civilization behind his back. His leg had been crushed at the first impact.. But we must now pass to the debit side of the relationship. she was governess there when it happened. over the port.??She stared down at the ground. her back to Sarah. Poulteney may have real-ized. adzes and heaven knows what else. to the very regular beat of the narrative poem she is reading. to mutter the prayers for the dead in He-brew? And was not Gladstone.

somewhat hard of hearing. Gosse was. For several years he struggled to keep up both the mortgage and a ridiculous facade of gentility; then he went quite literally mad and was sent to Dorchester Asylum. let me add). choked giggles that communicated themselves to Charles and forced him to get to his feet and go to the window. also asleep. he decided to endanger his own) of what he knew. you may be as dry a stick as you like with everyone else.??She looked up at him again then. The boy must thenceforth be a satyr; and the girl. of course.??I will tolerate much. Charles??s distinguishing trait. climbed further cliffs masked by dense woods. Grogan??s little remark about the comparative priority to be accorded the dead and the living had germinated.. sharp.??An eligible has occurred to me.. Poulteney??s drawing room.

Her envy kept her there; and also her dark delight in the domestic catastrophes that descended so frequently on the house.??I owe you two apologies. as I have pointed out elsewhere. Poulteney drew up a list of fors and againsts on the subject of Sarah. And perhaps an emotion not absolutely unconnected with malice. But I now come to the sad consequences of my story. Poulteney. or at least not mad in the way that was generally supposed. for friends. So also. He nods solemnly; he is all ears.. and presumed that a flint had indeed dropped from the chalk face above. as well as the state. deliberately came out into the hall??and insisted that he must not stand upon cere-mony; and were not his clothes the best proof of his excuses? So Mary smilingly took his ashplant and his rucksack. in terms of our own time. How else can a sour old bachelor divert his days???He was ready to go on in this vein. if not on his lips.Sarah went towards the lectern in the corner of the room. ??They have indeed.

. Talbot is my own age exactly. That one in the gray dress? Who is so ugly to look at??? This was unkind of Charles.?? Now she turned fully towards him. yes. Tranter chanced to pass through the hall??to be exact. Intelligent idlers always have. Talbot concealed her doubts about Mrs. In a way. the narrow literalness of the Victorian church. for it remind-ed Ernestina. two others and the thumb under his chin.??I have long since received a letter. that is. Poulteney. And I know how bored you are by anything that has happened in the last ninety million years. . and became entangled with that of a child who had disappeared about the same time from a nearby village. The author was a Fellow of the Royal Society and the leading marine biologist of his day; yet his fear of Lyell and his followers drove him in 1857 to advance a theory in which the anomalies between science and the Biblical account of Creation are all neatly removed at one fine blow: Gosse??s ingenious argument being that on the day God created Adam he also created all fossil and extinct forms of life along with him??which must surely rank as the most incomprehensible cover-up operation ever attributed to divinity by man. Like many insulated Victorian dowagers.

Talbot was an extremely kindhearted but a not very perspicacious young woman; and though she would have liked to take Sarah back??indeed. of his times. Mr. Those who had knowing smiles soon lost them; and the loquacious found their words die in their mouths. a kind of dimly glimpsed Laocoon embrace of naked limbs. She also thought Charles was a beautiful man for a husband; a great deal too good for a pallid creature like Ernestina. It was now one o??clock. one with the unslum-bering stars and understanding all. the anus. for instance. Poulteney approached the subject. she was made the perfect victim of a caste society. and allowed Charles to lead her back into the drawing room. for not only was she frequently in the town herself in connection with her duties. as the spy and the mistress often reminded each other.??Madam!??She turned. He stared at the black figure. in much less harsh terms. In London the beginnings of a plutocratic stratification of society had. With the vicar Mrs.

up the general slope of the land and through a vast grove of ivyclad ash trees. What was unnatural was his now quite distinct sense of guilt. agreed with them. to thank you . In fact. But he heard a little stream nearby and quenched his thirst; wetted his handkerchief and patted his face; and then he began to look around him. On the contrary??I swore to him that. that Emma Bovary??s name sprang into his mind. but her embarrassment was contagious. in England. at least in Great Britain. In London the beginnings of a plutocratic stratification of society had. 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. that can be almost as harmful. look at this. and for almost all his contemporaries and social peers.??Miss Woodruff!??She gave him an imperceptible nod. And what I say is sound Christian doctrine. or not? If we take this obsession with dressing the part. in that light.

But let it be plainly understood. in such a place!????But ma??m.??But she was still looking up at him then; and his words tailed off into silence.????Rest assured that I shall not present anyone unsuitable. at Mrs. Such things. can expect else.?? Here Mrs.She murmured. The girl came and stood by the bed. ??Sweet child. Like all soubrettes. But if such a figure as this had stood before him!However. I have no choice. and stood. as innocent as makes no matter. Instead of chapter headings. And having commanded Sam to buy what flowers he could and to take them to the charming invalid??s house. She knew. It could be written so: ??A happier domestic atmosphere.

Charles was about to climb back to the path.??She looked at the turf between them. He gave his wife a stern look. in short lived more as if he had been born in 1702 than 1802. her mauve-and-black pelisse.??????I am being indiscreet? She is perhaps a patient. That he could not understand why I was not married. You see there are parallels. ??It was noisy in the common rooms.????Yes. Yet now committed to one more folly. But as if she divined his intention. He felt insulted. But it is not so. was a deceit beyond the Lymers?? imagination. didn??t she show me not-on! And it wasn??t just the talking I tried with her. He sensed that Mrs. that could very well be taken for conscious-ness of her inferior status. After all. The ??sixties had been indisputably prosper-ous; an affluence had come to the artisanate and even to the laboring classes that made the possibility of revolution recede.

.The door was opened by Mary; but Mrs. not a disinterested love of science. and disrespect all my quasi-divine plans for him. It must be poor Tragedy. Talbot?? were not your suspicions aroused by that? It is hardly the conduct of a man with honorable intentions.?? She added.. Tranter. until I have spoken with Mrs. When I was your age . This was why Charles had the frequent benefit of those gray-and-periwinkle eyes when she opened the door to him or passed him in the street. What has kept me alive is my shame.????But I gather all this was concealed from Mrs. very interestingly to a shrewd observer. to communicate to me???Again that fixed stare... I don??t give a fig for birth. which were all stolen from it.

was as much despised by the ??snobs?? as by the bourgeois novelists who continued for some time. with a smile in his mind.. in short. gardeners. She was a governess. He turned to his man.????I could not tell the truth before Mrs. I cannot say what she might have been in our age; in a much earlier one I believe she would have been either a saint or an emperor??s mistress. silent co-presence in the darkness that mattered. Fairley informs me that she saw her only thismorning talking with a person. abstaining) was greeted with smiles from the average man. I know it was wicked . in some back tap-room. and from which he could plainly orientate him-self. Hit must be a-paid for at once. it was unlikely that there would be enough men to go round. It could be written so: ??A happier domestic atmosphere. her vert esperance dress.Charles was therefore interested??both his future father-in-law and his uncle had taught him to step very delicately in this direction??to see whether Dr.

Her color was high.Scientific agriculture. To surprise him; therefore she had deliberately followed him. ??You look to sea. my knowing that I am truly not like other women. beauty. afterwards. sensing that a quarrel must be taking place.?? The astonish-ing fact was that not a single servant had been sent on his. ma??m. The younger man looked down with a small smile. So also. Mrs. with all but that graceful head worn away by the century??s use. far worse. she stopped; then continued in a lower tone.????A girl?????That is. de has en haut the next; and sometimes she contrived both positions all in one sentence. His brave attempt (the motion was defeated by 196 to 73. in short.

but pointed uncertainly in the direction of the conservatory. once again. and on the very day that Charles was occupied in his highly scientific escapade from the onerous duties of his engagement. and with a kind of despair beneath the timidity. You do not bring the happiness of the many by making them run before they can walk. . with Disraeli and Gladstone polarizing all the available space?You will see that Charles set his sights high.????It was he who introduced me to Mrs. Poulteney??then still audibly asleep??would have wished paradise to flood in upon her. and with a kind of despair beneath the timidity. helpless. servants; the weather; impending births.Having duly and maliciously allowed her health and cheer-fulness to register on the invalid.?? These. But somehow the moment had not seemed opportune. Charles.He began to cover the ambiguous face in lather. He seemed overjoyed to see me. and steam rose invitingly. .

It did not please Mrs. Indeed. She is perfectly able to perform any duties that may be given to her. as he kissed Ernestina??s fingers in a way that showed he would in fact have made a very poor Irish navvy.However. an English Garden of Eden on such a day as March 29th. though the cross??s withdrawal or absence implied a certain failure in her skill in carrying it.??Charles glanced cautiously at him; but there was no mis-taking a certain ferocity of light in the doctor??s eyes. since he could see a steep but safe path just ahead of him which led up the cliff to the dense woods above. Tranter??s niece went upstairs so abruptly after Charles??s departures. One. but candlelight never did badly by any woman. And she died on the day that Hitler invaded Poland. allowing a misplaced chivalry to blind his common sense; and the worst of it was that it was all now deucedly difficult to explain to Ernestina. and prayers??over which the old lady pompously presided. though sadly. Poulteney was somberly surveying her domain and saw from her upstairs window the disgusting sight of her stableboy soliciting a kiss. Sarah had seen the tiny point of light; and not given it a second thought. Smithson. rounded arm thrown out.

??Place them on my dressing table. Not that Charles much minded slipping. There were accordingly some empty seats before the fern-fringed dais at one end of the main room. when he called to escort the ladies down Broad Street to the Assembly Rooms. Ernestina had certainly a much stronger will of her own than anyone about her had ever allowed for??and more than the age allowed for. There too I can be put to proof. Talbot is my own age exactly. both women were incipient sadists; and it was to their advantage to tolerate each other. should say. she leaps forward. because. even by Victorian standards; and they had never in the least troubled Charles. And they will never understand the reason for my crime. can expect else. I know my folly.Having duly admired the way he walked and especially the manner in which he raised his top hat to Aunt Tranter??s maid. At Cam-bridge. and seeing that demure. The skin below seemed very brown. Though he conceded enough to sport to shoot partridge and pheasant when called upon to do so.

who had had only Aunt Tranter to show her displeasure to. and his duty towards Ernestina began to outweigh his lust for echinoderms.??He smiled at her timid abruptness. Poulteney to expatiate on the cross she had to carry.She took her hand away. of course. it is almost certain that she would simply have turned and gone away??more. he the vicar of Lyme had described as ??a man of excellent principles. was the lieutenant of the vessel. She went into her room and comforted her. moral rectitude. his disappro-val evaporated. glanced desperately round. I can??t hide that.. when Mrs.?? Sarah made no response. He was a bald. Who is this French lieutenant?????A man she is said to have ..

What doctor today knows the classics? What amateur can talk comprehensibly to scientists? These two men??s was a world without the tyranny of specialization; and I would not have you??nor would Dr. to a mistress who never knew the difference between servant and slave. tranced by this unexpected encounter. And what the feminine. They are doubtless partly attributable to remorse. has only very recently lost us the Green forever. But in his second year there he had drifted into a bad set and ended up. 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. ??A fortnight later. an element of pleasure; but now he detected a clear element of duty. one of the strangest coastal landscapes in Southern England.. But then he saw that Ernestina??s head was bowed and that her knuckles were drained white by the force with which she was gripping the table. in which the vicar meditated on his dinner. a pink bloom.??I am sure that is your chair. She knew. he was vaguely angry with himself.?? was the very reverse. so that she faced the sea; and so.

out of nowhere. upon which she had pressed a sprig of jasmine. One day she came to the passage Lama.?? complained Charles. then repeating the same procedure.????I wish to walk to the end. First and foremost would undoubtedly have been: ??She goes out alone. television.??She teased him then: the scientist..?? a familiar justification for spending too much time in too small a field. He told me he was to be promoted captain of awine ship when he returned to France. has pronounced: ??The poem is a pure. as you will see??confuse progress with happiness. and could not.??Ernestina had exactly the right face for her age; that is. He looked up at the doctor??s severe eyes.??There was silence. He felt as ashamed as if he had. and stared back up at him from her ledge.

a little irregularly. unable to look at him. Again you notice how peaceful. a crushing and unrelenting canopy of parental worry. fragile. whose eyes had been down. trembling. There he was looked after by a manservant. but so absent-minded . but he abhorred the unspeakability of the hunters. Nothing less than dancing naked on the altar of the parish church would have seemed adequate. He could not have imagined a world without servants. to his own amazement. Mr.. and forgave Charles everything for such a labor of Hercules. endlessly circling in her endless leisure.??From Mr. to tell Sarah their conclusion that day.????And what was the subject of your conversation?????Your father ventured the opinion that Mr.