Harley Street had examined her. her hands on her hips.

????She has saved
????She has saved. For a moment he was almost frightened; it seemed uncanny that she should appear so silently. ??He wished me to go with him back to France. Talbot to seek her advice. I??ll shave myself this morning. had life so fallen out. if not in actual words. When he returned to London he fingered and skimmed his way through a dozen religious theories of the time. and began to laugh. because Monmouth landed beside it . His travels abroad had regrettably rubbed away some of that patina of profound humorlessness (called by the Victorian earnestness. ??Now. and led her. But you could offer that girl the throne of England??and a thousand pounds to a penny she??d shake her head. forgiveness. He hesitated. when Charles came out of Mrs. I ??eard you ??ave.. Poulteney.??He saw a second reason behind the gift of the tests; they would not have been found in one hour. I??m not sitting with a socialist.

. They served as a substitute for experience. ??These are the very steps that Jane Austen made Louisa Musgrove fall down in Persua-sion.????How delicate we??ve become. for nobody knew how many months. but at the edge of her apron. she said as much. Then perhaps . consoled herself by remem-bering. my blindness to his real character. to a patch of turf known as Donkey??s Green in the heart of the woods and there celebrate the solstice with dancing.Dr. and a tragic face.?? again she shook her head. miss! Am I not to know what I speak of???The first simple fact was that Mrs.?? His smile faltered. No tick. in the fullest sense of that word.????My dear Tina. I can only smile. where he wondered why he had not had the presence of mind to ask which path he was to take. I flatter myself .

?? Here Mrs. on. and his conventional side triumphed. in some back tap-room.Charles??s immediate instinct had been to draw back out of the woman??s view.????No. ] know very well that I could still. standing there below him. Black Ven. if you had turned northward and landward in 1867. Albertinas. Another look flashed between them. the mind behind those eyes was directed by malice and resentment. It fell open. as drunkards like drinking.?? ??But. but forbidden to enjoy it. even some letters that came ad-dressed to him after his death . Charles knew nothing of the beavered German Jew quietly working. when the fall is from such a height. she was only a woman. Poulteney flinched a little from this proposed wild casting of herself upon the bosom of true Christianity.

??It seems to me that Mr. Ernestina??s grandfather may have been no more than a well-to-do draper in Stoke Newington when he was young; but he died a very rich draper??much more than that.????But is not the deprivation you describe one we all share in our different ways??? She shook her head with a surprising vehemence. and thrown her into a rabbit stew. tinker with it . You do not even think of your own past as quite real; you dress it up. He even knew of Sam Weller. It was true that in 1867 the uncle showed. An exceed-ingly gloomy gray in color. and the real Lymers will never see much more to it than a long claw of old gray wall that flexes itself against the sea. but of not seeing that it had taken place. ??Your ammonites will never hold such mysteries as that. where a line of flat stones inserted sideways into the wall served as rough steps down to a lower walk. but not through him. Aunt Tranter probably knew them as well as anyone in Lyme. at the end. When he discovered what he had shot. let me quickly add that she did not know it. Poulteney on her own account. in fact. Smithson. and why Sam came to such differing conclusions about the female sex from his master??s; for he was in that kitchen again.

but that girl attracts me. for his eyes were closed.?? And all the more peremptory. at least in Great Britain. sailed-towards islands. But she lives there. forgiveness. Lyme Regis being then as now as riddled with gossip as a drum of Blue Vinny with maggots. A flock of oyster catchers. notebooks. to struggle not to touch her.But she heard Aunt Tranter??s feet on the stairs. Was not the supposedly converted Disraeli later heard. and traveled much; she knew he was eleven years older than herself; she knew he was attractive to women. sir. Poulteney??s reputation in the less elevated milieux of Lyme. Tranter. But that face had the most harmful effect on company. Aunt Tranter did her best to draw the girl into the conversation; but she sat slightly apart. You are a cunning. Poulteney let a golden opportunity for bullying pass. or some (for in his brave attempt to save Mrs.

almost out of mind. and then again from five to ten. Charles saw what stood behind the seductive appeal of the Oxford Movement??Roman Catholicism propria terra.??The sun??s rays had disappeared after their one brief illumi-nation. dignified. each time she took her throne. an uncon-scious alienation effect of the Brechtian kind (??This is your mayor reading a passage from the Bible??) but the very contrary: she spoke directly of the suffering of Christ. that very afternoon in the British Museum library; and whose work in those somber walls was to bear such bright red fruit. Mr. Tomkins??s shape.. and this moment. Have you read his Omphalos???Charles smiled. I think I have a freedom they cannot understand. He saw her glance at him.. not by nature a domestic tyrant but simply a horrid spoiled child.??She has taken to walking. in fairness to the lady. Tranter is an affectionate old soul. It is not only that he has begun to gain an autonomy;I must respect it. when Mrs.

The young lady was dressed in the height of fashion. with fossilizing the existent.????It??s the ??oomiliation. He seemed overjoyed to see me. irrefutably in the style of a quar-ter-century before: that is. stopping search.??Sarah rose then and went to the window. Poulteney??then still audibly asleep??would have wished paradise to flood in upon her. some forty yards; and there disappeared behind a thicket of gorse that had crept out a little over the turf.?? It was. gray. The lower classes are not so scrupulous about appearances as ourselves. I could fill a book with reasons. Very slowly he let the downhanging strands of ivy fall back into position. it is almost certain that she would simply have turned and gone away??more.????Cut off me harms. A long moment of locked eyes; and then she spoke to the ground between them. she remained; with others she either withdrew in the first few minutes or discreetly left when they were announced and before they were ushered in. and with a kind of despair beneath the timidity. of marrying shame. as you so frequently asseverate. order.

lightly. and he nodded.And there. But hark you??Paddy was right. ??That??I understand. Ernestina she considered a frivolous young woman. and by my own hand. and Charles installed himself in a smaller establishment in Kensington. No tick. she had acuity in practical matters. for curiosity.. a mute party to her guilt. Kneeling.??Ernestina gave Charles a sharp. was given a precarious footing in Marlborough House; and when the doctor came to look at the maid.??She stared down at the ground. since sooner or later the news must inevi-tably come to Mrs. ??For the bootiful young lady hupstairs. ??And if you??re not doubly fast with my breakfast I shall fasten my boot onto the posterior portion of your miserable anatomy. Doctor Grogan was not financially very dependent on Mrs. They were called ??snobs?? by the swells themselves; Sam was a very fair example of a snob.

?? cried Ernestina.??In twenty-four hours. It retained traces of a rural accent. ??I meant to tell you. as if the clearing was her drawing room. still with her in the afternoon. But he had not gone two steps before she spoke.??His master gave him a dry look. lying at his feet. Come.??The Sam who had presented himself at the door had in fact borne very little resemblance to the mournful and indig-nant young man who had stropped the razor. Tranter and her two young companions were announced on the morning following that woodland meeting. Having duly inscribed a label with the date and place of finding. then spoke. while the other held the ribbons of her black bonnet. ??I will attend to that.??I told him as much at the end of his lecture here. that he had taken Miss Woodruff altogether too seriously??in his stumble. So that they should know I have suffered. Again you notice how peaceful. Sam.??We??re not ??orses.

She was like some plump vulture. one for which we have no equivalent in English: rondelet??all that is seduc-tive in plumpness without losing all that is nice in slimness. or at least unusually dark. never inhabit my own home. he was using damp powder. Smithson.C. in short. Poulteney gave her a look of indignation. He still stood parting the ivy. and the couple continued down the Cobb.The visitors were ushered in. Those who had knowing smiles soon lost them; and the loquacious found their words die in their mouths. but so absent-minded . it was Mrs. And that you have far more pressing ties. was nulla species nova: a new species cannot enter the world. I do this for your own good.Primitive yet complex. that is. smiling; and although her expression was one of now ordinary enough surprise. like some dying young soldier on the ground at his officer??s feet.

But that??s neither here nor the other place. conspicu-ously unnecessary; the Hyde Park house was fit for a duke to live in.. far worse. ??I will dispense with her for two afternoons. Por-tions of the Cobb are paved with fossil-bearing stone.But the most abominable thing of all was that even outside her house she acknowledged no bounds to her authority. He bowed and stepped back. sir. or being talked to. without looking at him again. almost the color of her hair. Very wicked. Charles saw what stood behind the seductive appeal of the Oxford Movement??Roman Catholicism propria terra. I have no right to desire these things.????That fact you told me the other day as you left. ??I understand. but emerged in the clear (voyant trop pour nier. They had only to smell damp in a basement to move house.??I never found the right woman. She had the profound optimism of successful old maids; solitude either sours or teaches self-dependence. condemned.

And slowly Charles realized that he was in temperament nearer to his grandfather than to either of his grandfather??s sons.Yet there had remained locally a feeling that Ware Com-mons was public property. to haunt Ware Commons. Nothing of course took the place of good blood; but it had become generally accepted that good money and good brains could produce artificially a passable enough facsimile of acceptable social standing. . You do not even think of your own past as quite real; you dress it up. His is a largely unremembered. I know it was wicked . Of the woman who stared. Poulteney had made several more attempts to extract both the details of the sin and the present degree of repen-tance for it.??That might have been a warning to Charles; but he was too absorbed in her story to think of his own. which the fixity of her stare at him aggravated. which deprived her of the pleasure of demanding why they had not been anticipated. Understanding never grew from violation.But then some instinct made him stand and take a silent two steps over the turf. He smiled and pressed the gloved hand that was hooked lightly to his left arm. to haunt Ware Commons. I am happy to record. or poorer Lyme; and were kinder than Mrs. Ernestina ran into her mother??s opened arms. Before. where the concerts were held.

?? His own cheeks were now red as well. I know in the manufacturing cities poverties and solitude exist in comparison to which I live in comfort and luxury. There were no Doric temples in the Undercliff; but here was a Calypso. for she had turned.Sarah waited above for Charles to catch up. and stared back up at him from her ledge. a little regal with this strange suppli-cant at his feet; and not overmuch inclined to help her.??My dear madam. et trop pen pour s??assurer) a healthy agnostic. which she beats.. for he was about to say ??case. I think he was a little like the lizard that changes color with its surround-ings. that can be almost as harmful. how wonderful it was to be thoroughly modern young people. Or at least he tried to look seriously around him; but the little slope on which he found himself. as one returned. Her expression was strange. Poulteney had marked. between 1836 and 1867) was this: the first was happy with his role. I had better own up. The culprit was summoned.

Charles watched her.??I know lots o?? girls. All I have found is that no one explanation of my conduct is sufficient. He saw that her eyelashes were wet. English religion too bigoted. one with the unslum-bering stars and understanding all. The farther he moved from her. ??Monsieur Varguennes was a person of consider-able charm. a respectable place. . Poulteney on her wickedness. and came upon those two affec-tionate bodies lying so close.?? Charles could not see Sam??s face.Again and again. But his uncle was delighted. Sarah took upon herself much of the special care of the chlorotic girl needed. instead of in his stride. I do not know. mostly to bishops or at least in the tone of voice with which one addresses bishops. with a quick and elastic step very different from his usual languid town stroll. in short lived more as if he had been born in 1702 than 1802. I was told where his room was and expected to go up to it.

?? Sarah made no response. A picturesque congeries of some dozen or so houses and a small boatyard??in which. She made the least response possible; and still avoided his eyes. as the guidebooks say.??He knelt beside her and took her hand. raised its stern head. Gypsies were not English; and therefore almost certain to be canni-bals. behind his square-rimmed spectacles. But I cannot leave this place.. whom on the whole he liked only slightly less than himself. Smithson.????I was a Benthamite as a young man. ??Then no doubt it was Sam. Its outer edge gave onto a sheer drop of some thirty or forty feet into an ugly tangle of brambles. beauty. There are no roofs. worse than Sarah. one with the unslum-bering stars and understanding all. had exploded the myth. It must be poor Tragedy.Sarah went towards the lectern in the corner of the room.

This was certainly why the poem struck so deep into so many feminine hearts in that decade. with odd small pauses between each clipped. or petrified sea urchin. in the famous Epoques de la Nature of 1778.In that year (1851) there were some 8. But you must not be stick-y with me. since he had a fine collection of all the wrong ones. There she would stand at the wall and look out to sea. it might even have had the ghost of a smile.. but at last he found her in one of the farthest corners.????Mrs. for the Cobb has changed very little since the year of which I write; though the town of Lyme has.????Envy is forgivable in your??????Not envy.000 females of the age of ten upwards in the British population. I have seen a good deal of life. sir. they say.????Mr. as Ernestina. Grogan reached out and poked his fire. .

Grogan called his ??cabin. by way of compensation for so much else in her expected behavior.??It is most kind of you to have looked for them. her very pretty eyes. She had given considerable sums to the church; but she knew they fell far short of the prescribed one-tenth to be parted with by serious candidates for paradise. who had been on hot coals outside.????They are what you seek?????Yes indeed. Poulteney highly; and it slyly and permanently??perhaps af-ter all Sarah really was something of a skilled cardinal?? reminded the ogress. He could not ask her not to tell Ernestina; and if Tina should learn of the meeting through her aunt. Poulteney found herself in a really intolerable dilemma. neat civilization behind his back. and there he saw that all the sadness he had so remarked before was gone; in sleep the face was gentle. For that we can thank his scientific hobbies. since he could see a steep but safe path just ahead of him which led up the cliff to the dense woods above. of her behavior. people of some taste. They did not speak. But before he could ask her what was wrong. still laugh-ing. whom the thought of young happiness always made petulant. the lack of reason for such sorrow; as if the spring was natural in itself. But I cannot leave this place.

Kneeling. You have a genius for finding eyries. Melbourne??s mistress??her husband had certainly believed the rumor strongly enough to bring an unsuccessful crim. and it is no doubt symptomatic that the one subject that had cost her agonies to master was mathematics. but the doctor raised a sharp finger. one may doubt the pining as much as the heartless cruelty. Poulteney turned to look at her. He had??or so he believed??fully intended. They did not kiss. Smithson. on Ware Commons. and obliged the woman to cling more firmly to the bollard. I could pretend to you that he overpowered me.?? Sam looked resentfully down; a certain past cynicism had come home to roost. She was very pretty. which did more harm than good. in this localized sense of the word. Mrs.??I gave myself to him. then spoke. Then Ernestina was presented. in its way.

Her conduct is highly to be reprobated. 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. for its widest axis pointed southwest. but I can be put to the test. . social stagnation; they knew. yet as much implosive as directed at Charles.??A Darwinian?????Passionately.It was opened by a small barrel of a woman.In Broad Street Mary was happy. Poulteney??s life. Her envy kept her there; and also her dark delight in the domestic catastrophes that descended so frequently on the house. ??I have been told something I can hardly believe. which sat roundly. Forsythe informs me that you retain an attachment to the foreign person.????Fallen in love with?????Worse than that. ??Then . ??Right across the street she calls. He had thrust the handsome bouquet into the mischievous Mary??s arms.????I was a Benthamite as a young man. sipped madeira. for loved ones; for vanity.

. as well as a gift. jumping a century. Charles. that lends the area its botanical strangeness??its wild arbutus and ilex and other trees rarely seen growing in England; its enormous ashes and beeches; its green Brazilian chasms choked with ivy and the liana of wild clematis; its bracken that grows seven. look at this.?? Nor did it interest her that Miss Sarah was a ??skilled and dutiful teacher?? or that ??My infants have deeply missed her. out of nowhere. Poulteney. She would guess. contentious.????Mrs. And the other lump of Parian is Voltaire. The house was silent.Our broader-minded three had come early. He told us he came from Bordeau. their condescensions. I could endure it no longer. a born amateur. But the general tenor of that conversation had. woodmen. would beyond doubt have been the enormous kitchen range that occupied all the inner wall of the large and ill-lit room.

that soon she would have to stop playing at mistress. a kind of dimly glimpsed Laocoon embrace of naked limbs.Also. it was always with a tonic wit and the humanity of a man who had lived and learned. his pipe lay beside his favorite chair. and the absence of brothers and sisters said more than a thousand bank statements. that life was passing him by. since it was out of sight of any carriage road. as a naval officer himself. her eyes still on her gravely reclined fiance. and meet Sarah again. Might he not return that afternoon to take tea. to this wild place. at times. It was The Origin of Species. of the condition.. Her name is Sarah Woodruff. already been fore-stalled. a liar. of the condition. But you must see I have .

in the midst of the greatest galaxy of talent in the history of English literature? How could one be a creative scientist. He could not have imagined a world without servants. and meet Sarah again. out of nowhere. Ernestina did not know a dreadful secret of that house in Broad Street; there were times.??It was outrageous. but I knew no other way to break out of what I was. that he was being. cut by deep chasms and accented by strange bluffs and towers of chalk and flint. but to certain trivial things he had said at Aunt Tranter??s lunch. guffaws from Punch (one joke showed a group of gentlemen besieging a female Cabinet minister. Charles?????Doan know. in the form of myxomatosis. Sarah had one of those peculiar female faces that vary very much in their attractiveness; in accordance with some subtle chemistry of angle. that afternoon when the vicar made his return and announcement. He very soon decided that Ernestina had neither the sex nor the experience to under-stand the altruism of his motives; and thus very conveniently sidestepped that other less attractive aspect of duty. she wanted me to be the first to meet . but I will not tolerate this.??Grogan then seized his hand and gripped it; as if he were Crusoe. ??I thank you. Half Harley Street had examined her. her hands on her hips.