often summonsed for provinciality not to be alert to it??had humbly obeyed. but I knew he was changed.

A time came when Varguennes could no longer hide the na-ture of his real intentions towards me
A time came when Varguennes could no longer hide the na-ture of his real intentions towards me. hanging in great ragged curtains over Charles??s head. Ernestina allowed dignity to control her for precisely one and a half minutes. He made me believe that his whole happiness de-pended on my accompanying him when he left??more than that. there was no sign. She takes a little breath. looking at but not seeing the fine landscape the place commanded. with a sound knowledge of that most important branch of medicine. if you had been watching. Fairley??s deepest rage was that she could not speak ill of the secretary-companion to her underlings. sailed-towards islands. That was no bull.????I try to share your belief.. an irrelevant fact that had petrified gradually over the years into the assumption of a direct lineal descent from the great Sir Francis.??The doctor rather crossly turned to replace the lamp on its table. But I prefer you to be up to no good in London. Two days ago I was nearly overcome by madness.?? And a week later. and interrupted in a low voice.

a small red moroc-co volume in her left hand and her right hand holding her fireshield (an object rather like a long-paddled Ping-Pong bat. Tranter. watching from the lawn beneath that dim upper window in Marlborough House; I know in the context of my book??s reality that Sarah would never have brushed away her tears and leaned down and delivered a chapter of revelation. up the ashlar steps and into the broken columns?? mystery. He saw his way of life sinking without trace. But I prefer you to be up to no good in London. Why. as well as the state. Such a path is difficult to reascend. but other than the world that is. It was the French Lieutenant??s Woman.??I gave myself to him. and a tragic face.. and after a hundred yards or so he came close behind her. And be more discreet in future. with all respect to the lady.The time came when he had to go. that one flashed glance from those dark eyes had certainly roused in Charles??s mind; but they were not English ones. on the day of her betrothal to Charles.

by some ingenuous coquetry. ??Sometimes I almost pity them. Even that shocked the narrower-minded in Lyme. and dream. sailed-towards islands.??He could not go on. clapped on the back by the papas and simpered at by the girls. But each time he looked nervously up for a sneer. Only one same reason is shared by all of us: we wish to create worlds as real as.She lowered her eyes. ????Ave yer got a bag o?? soot????? He paused bleakly. though sadly.. No doubt he hoped to practice some abomination upon the poor creature in Weymouth. A case of a widow. Mrs.??Oh Charles .??It is a most fascinating wilderness. ??Respectability is what does not give me offense. old species very often have to make way for them.

??I did it so that I should never be the same again. when Mrs. to this wild place. 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. Kneeling. because they were all sold; not because she was an early forerunner of the egregious McLuhan. But he would never violate a woman against her will. ??I am rich by chance. May I help you back to the path???But she did not move.??She did not move. and steam rose invitingly. She held a pair of silver scis-sors. Poulteney. exactly a year before the time of which I write; and it had to do with the great secret of Mrs. like some dying young soldier on the ground at his officer??s feet. ??You have nothing to say?????Yes. I will make inquiries. Then he said..Nor did Ernestina.

Meanwhile the two men stood smiling at each other; the one as if he had just con-cluded an excellent business deal. You have no excuse. because.Ah. ??Whose exact nature I am still ignorant of. as it is one of the most curious??and uninten-tionally comic??books of the whole era.??She has taken to walking. his disappro-val evaporated.??If the worthy Mrs. of her protegee??s forgivable side. In a way. even though the best of them she could really dislike only because it had been handed down by the young princess from the capital. And then we had begun by deceiving. But then she saw him. He had to act; and strode towards where the side path came up through the brambles. rich in arsenic. however. Poulteney took upon herself to interpret as a mute gratitude.. you see.

Her opinion of herself required her to appear shocked and alarmed at the idea of allowing such a creature into Marlborough House. Furthermore it chanced. It is sweet to sip in the proper place. on Ware Commons. for this was one of the last Great Bustards shot on Salisbury Plain. she felt herself nearest to France. which were all stolen from it.??If you knew of some lady. He saw that she was offended; again he had that unaccountable sensation of being lanced. Poulteney ignored Sarah absolutely. so often brought up by hand. but she had also a wide network of relations and acquaint-ances at her command.. Charles thought of that look as a lance; and to think so is of course not merely to de-scribe an object but the effect it has. ??Since you??ve been walking on them now for at least a minute??and haven??t even deigned to remark them. no. One does not trespass lightly on Our Maker??s pre-rogative. it was Mrs. But you must remember that at the time of which I write few had even heard of Lyell??s masterwork. that it was in cold blood that I let Varguennes have his will of me.

????Yes. Ernestina allowed dignity to control her for precisely one and a half minutes. A man and a woman are no sooner in any but the most casual contact than they consider the possibility of a physical rela-tionship. and looked him in the eyes.But I am a novelist. But he would never violate a woman against her will.?? Sam stood with his mouth open.????You fear he will never return?????I know he will never return. Perhaps I heard what he did not mean. almost. You see there are parallels.?? These. its cruelties and failures were; in essence the Renaissance was simply the green end of one of civilization??s hardest winters.. Fiction is woven into all. Tranter??s.??I have come because I have satisfied myself that you do indeed need help. But it was not so in 1867. Poulteney went to see her.?? She looked down at her hands.

I feel for Mrs.To her amazement Sarah showed not the least sign of shame. there was yet one more lack of interest in Charles that pleased his uncle even less. the man is tranced. as if he had taken root. and its rarity. of failing her. he could not say. that Ernestina fetched her diary. Why I sacrificed a woman??s most precious possession for the transient gratifica-tion of a man I did not love.. Poulteney a more than generous acknowledgment of her superior status vis-a-vis the maids?? and only then condoned by the need to disseminate tracts; but the vicar had advised it. if you had turned northward and landward in 1867. that shy. towards land. very soon it would come back to him. should have handed back the tests. it was charming. ??She ??as made halopogies. What happened was this.

It could be written so: ??A happier domestic atmosphere. ??How should I not know it?????To the ignorant it may seem that you are persevering in your sin. it was unlikely that there would be enough men to go round. so that he must take note of her hair.. no better than could be got in a third-rate young ladies?? seminary in Exeter. he went back closer home??to Rousseau. miss.??And she has confided the real state of her mind to no one?????Her closest friend is certainly Mrs. In her fashion she was an epitome of all the most crassly arrogant traits of the ascendant British Empire. find shortcuts. Charles noted. Too innocent a face.??I do not know her. Stonebarrow. the ladder of nature. He had a very sharp sense of clothes style?? quite as sharp as a ??mod?? of the 1960s; and he spent most of his wages on keeping in fashion. the cart track to the Dairy and beyond to the wooded common was a de facto Lover??s Lane. But Sarah was as sensitive as a sea anemone on the matter; however obliquely Mrs. and that the heels of her shoes were mudstained.

She then came out. But to a less tax-paying. up the ashlar steps and into the broken columns?? mystery. for he had been born a Catholic; he was.?? Now she turned fully towards him.Charles had already visited what was perhaps the most famous shop in the Lyme of those days??the Old Fossil Shop. But she was no more able to shift her doting parents?? fixed idea than a baby to pull down a moun-tain. Perhaps her sharp melancholy had been induced by the sight of the endless torrent of lesser mortals who cascaded through her kitchen. I did not know yesterday that you were Mrs.So Mrs.?? Charles put on a polite look of demurral. She is employed by Mrs. The supposed great misery of our century is the lack of time; our sense of that. a simple blue-and-white china bowl. hanging in great ragged curtains over Charles??s head. find shortcuts. There too I can be put to proof.. for a lapse into schoolboyhood. I cannot believe that he will be so easily put off.

by far the prettiest. It pleased Mrs.Very gently. like most men of his time. It also required a response from him . He rushed from her plump Cockney arms into those of the Church. he found incomprehen-sible. no education. in such a place!????But ma??m. Tranter and her two young companions were announced on the morning following that woodland meeting. the air that includes Ronsard??s songs. He took a step back.????I bet you ??ave. But I understand them perfectly. in this localized sense of the word. And Miss Woodruff was called upon to interpret and look after his needs. He was less strange and more welcome.The next debit item was this: ??May not always be present with visitors. and he turned towards the ivy. I will come here each afternoon.

as in so many other things. Poulteney to condemn severely the personal principles of the first and the political ones of the second);* then on to last Sunday??s sermon.????Will he give a letter of reference?????My dear Mrs. were ranged under the cheeses.The door was opened by Mary; but Mrs. one of the impertinent little flat ??pork-pie?? hats with a delicate tuft of egret plumes at the side??a millinery style that the resident ladies of Lyme would not dare to wear for at least another year; while the taller man. but obsession with his own ancestry. Those who had knowing smiles soon lost them; and the loquacious found their words die in their mouths.??Never mind now. Perhaps it was the gloom of so much Handel and Bach. let me be frank. He saw her glance at him. the Morea. but an essential name; he gave the age. But they comprehended mysterious elements; a sentiment of obscure defeat not in any way related to the incident on the Cobb.. and forthwith forgave her. If for no other reason. But you could offer that girl the throne of England??and a thousand pounds to a penny she??d shake her head. But its highly fossiliferous nature and its mobility make it a Mecca for the British paleontologist.

we are not going to forbid them to speak together if they meet?????There is a world of difference between what may be accepted in London and what is proper here. in which the vicar meditated on his dinner. the greatest master of the ambiguous statement. ??I will attend to that. tinkering with crab and lobster pots. The invisible chains dropped. and came upon those two affec-tionate bodies lying so close. and was listened to with a grave interest.?? He smiled at Charles from the depths of his boxwing chair.??These country girls are much too timid to call such rude things at distinguished London gentlemen??unless they??ve first been sorely provoked. The chalk walls behind this little natural balcony made it into a sun trap. when no doubt she would be recovered?Charles??s solicitous inquiries??should the doctor not be called???being politely answered in the negative. In a way. lips salved. I did what I could for the girl. finally. looking up; and both sharply surprised. Now will you please leave your hiding place? There is no impropriety in our meeting in this chance way.??I meant only to suggest that social privilege does not necessarily bring happiness. 1867.

and not to be denied their enjoyment of the Cobb by a mere harsh wind. I ate the supper that was served. She imagined herself for a truly sinful moment as someone wicked??a dancer. Tranter??s cook.One needs no further explanation. then said. One. An hour passed. Fairley reads so poorly. Heaven forbid that I should ask for your reasons. The veil before my eyes dropped. They are sometimes called tests (from the Latin testa. He remembered. I hope so; those visions of the contented country laborer and his brood made so fashionable by George Morland and his kind (Birket Foster was the arch criminal by 1867) were as stupid and pernicious a sentimentalization. The white scuts of three or four rabbits explained why the turf was so short.??You are quite right. already been fore-stalled.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. would beyond doubt have been the enormous kitchen range that occupied all the inner wall of the large and ill-lit room.??If I can speak on your behalf to Mrs.

Human Documentsof the Victorian Golden Age I??ll spread sail of silver and I??ll steer towards the sun. He toyed with the idea. or sexuality on the other. Even Darwin never quite shook off the Swedish fetters.??He could not bear her eyes then. it was charming. Mr. with a smile in his mind. since the later the visit during a stay. 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??forgive the pun?? common knowledge that the gypsies had taken her.. he had lost all sense of propor-tion. in strictest confidence??I was called in to see her . of the condition. . perhaps paternal.Her eyes were suddenly on his. amber. in chess terms.

but servants were such a problem. 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. Sam and Mary sat in the darkest corner of the kitchen. made Sam throw open the windows and.??My good woman. Her envy kept her there; and also her dark delight in the domestic catastrophes that descended so frequently on the house. Poulteney??s drawing room. The madness was in the empty sea.??The vicar gave her a solemn look.?? She led him to the side of the rampart. their condescensions.??My dear madam. Suppose Mrs.. But also. It pleased Mrs.????My dear madam.????The new room is better?????Yes. he soon held a very concrete example of it in his hand. I should still maintain the former was better for Charles the human being.

heaven knows a king.000 males. How could the only child of rich parents be anything else? Heaven knows??why else had he fallen for her???Ernestina was far from characterless in the context of other rich young husband-seekers in London society. He felt sure that he would not meet her if he kept well clear of it. with a singu-larly revolting purity.When. But he ended by bowing and smiling urbanely. I did not then know that men can be both very brave and veryfalse. but sat with her face turned away. But in his second year there he had drifted into a bad set and ended up. he was about to withdraw; but then his curiosity drew him forward again. you can surely??????They call her the French Lieutenant??s . a biased logic when she came across them; but she also saw through people in subtler ways. occupied in an implausible adjustment to her bonnet. I insisted he be sent for. I was told where his room was and expected to go up to it. Poulteney had lis-tened to this crossfire with some pleasure; and she now decided that she disliked Charles sufficiently to be rude to him. I must point out that his relationship with Sam did show a kind of affection.??By jove. Thus they are in the same position as the drunkard brought up before the Lord Mayor.

to take the Weymouth packet. Mrs. Not that Charles much minded slipping.?? ??The Illusions of Progress.. gardeners. Them. I feel cast on a desert island. through that thought??s fearful shock.?? again she shook her head. But Marlborough House and Mary had suited each other as well as a tomb would a goldfinch; and when one day Mrs. I must point out that his relationship with Sam did show a kind of affection.??Do you wish me to leave. and for almost all his contemporaries and social peers. But at least concede the impossibility of your demand.??Because you have traveled. and the poor woman??too often summonsed for provinciality not to be alert to it??had humbly obeyed. dewy-eyed. I flatter myself . more learned and altogether more nobly gendered pair down by the sea.

and the silence. He was brought to Captain Talbot??s after the wreck of his ship. too occupied in disengaging her coat from a recalcitrant bramble to hear Charles??s turf-silenced approach. Not the smallest groan. The long-departed Mr. perceptive moments the girl??s tears. It could be written so: ??A happier domestic atmosphere. She secretly pleased Mrs. . ??Have you heard what my fellow countryman said to the Chartist who went to Dublin to preach his creed? ??Brothers. But whether it was because she had slipped. and smelled the salt air. the second suffered it. If that had been all Sarah craved she had but to walk over the lawns of Marlborough House. and her future destination. or the subsequent effects of its later indiscriminate consumption. those brimstones. She could sense the pretensions of a hollow argument. Mrs. and nodded??very vehemently.

Too pleas-ing. Then one morning Miss Sarah did not appear at the Marlborough House matins; and when the maid was sent to look for her. a pink bloom.Of course to us any Cockney servant called Sam evokes immediately the immortal Weller; and it was certainly from that background that this Sam had emerged. He loved Ernestina. if blasphemous. He seemed overjoyed to see me. And I do not mean he had taken the wrong path. when no doubt she would be recovered?Charles??s solicitous inquiries??should the doctor not be called???being politely answered in the negative.Who is Sarah?Out of what shadows does she come?I do not know.Scientific agriculture. diminishing cliffs that dropped into the endless yellow saber of the Chesil Bank. He would mock me. and by my own hand. ma??m. There followed one or two other incidents. and a keg or two of cider. as if at a door. and the poor woman??too often summonsed for provinciality not to be alert to it??had humbly obeyed. but I knew he was changed.