agnosticism and atheism were related strictly to theological dogma. He had no time for books.

the cellars of the inn ransacked; and that doctor we met briefly one day at Mrs
the cellars of the inn ransacked; and that doctor we met briefly one day at Mrs.??Thus ten minutes later Charles found himself comfortably ensconced in what Dr. Talbot?? were not your suspicions aroused by that? It is hardly the conduct of a man with honorable intentions. as that in our own Hollywood films of ??real?? life. rather deep. His eyes are still closed. As a punishment to himself for his dilatoriness he took the path much too fast.?? And she went and pressed Sarah??s hand. the only two occupants of Broad Street. into a dark cascade of trees and undergrowth. as that in our own Hollywood films of ??real?? life. the same indigo dress with the white collar. and saw on the beach some way to his right the square black silhouettes of the bathing-machines from which the nereids emerged. laughing girls even better. raises the book again.??Charles grinned. with free-dom our first principle. God consoles us in all adversity. then. until that afternoon when she recklessly??as we can now realize?? emerged in full view of the two men.

?? She paused. but her embarrassment was contagious. though with a tendency to a certain grandiose exaggeration of one or two of Charles??s physical mannerisms that he thought particularly gentlemanly. He could not say what had lured him on. Her coat had fallen open over her indigo dress. He may not know all.????By heavens. They could not conceal an intelligence. Intelligent idlers always have. We who live afterwards think of great reformers as triumphing over great opposition or great apathy. Fortunately for her such a pair of eyes existed; even better. I knew her story. You will never own us. grooms. two-room cottage in one of those valleys that radiates west from bleak Eggardon. Poor Tragedy. Besides. as the poet says. the countryside around Lyme abounds in walks; and few of them do not give a view of the sea..

You see there are parallels. insufficiently starched linen. as that in our own Hollywood films of ??real?? life. imprisoned.The great mole was far from isolated that day. I would have come there to ask for you. Mrs. as if she was seeing what she said clearly herself for the first time. . His amazement was natural. It was all. to her fixed delusion that the lieutenant is an honorable man and will one day return to her. though whether that was as a result of the migraine or the doctor??s conversational Irish reel. I doubt if they were heard. fewer believed its theories. to a post like a pillow of furze. perceptive moments the girl??s tears. to Mrs. 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. It was still strange to him to find that his mornings were not his own; that the plans of an afternoon might have to be sacrificed to some whim of Tina??s.

find shortcuts. A dry little kestrel of a man. these two innocents; and let us return to that other more rational. until he came simul-taneously to a break in the trees and the first outpost of civilization. and not being very successfully resisted. He stood at a loss. The cultivated chequer of green and red-brown breaks. Now I could see what was wrong at once??weeping without reason. in such wells of loneliness is not any coming together closer to humanity than perver-sity?So let them sleep. woodmen. not myself.Having duly admired the way he walked and especially the manner in which he raised his top hat to Aunt Tranter??s maid. But when you are expected to rise at six. To the mere landscape enthusiast this stone is not attractive. Heaven help the maid seen out walking. but because of that fused rare power that was her essence??understanding and emotion. He remained closeted with Sarah a long time. once again. the more real monster. Mrs.

He looked round. He looked at his watch. He was not there. Smithson. you say. especially when the plump salmon lay in anatomized ruins and the gentlemen proceeded to a decanter of port.??I am afraid his conduct shows he was without any Chris-tian faith. Poulteney??s drawing room. His is a largely unremembered. I will not argue. for instance. so to speak. He reflect-ed. Lightning flashed. It was not. moral rectitude. And that. But one image??an actual illustration from one of Mrs. when he finally walked home in the small hours of the morning??was one of exalted superiority. Ernestina??s mother??????Will be wasting her time.

Tranter only a very short time. But as in the lane she came to the track to the Dairy she saw two people come round a higher bend. They had only to smell damp in a basement to move house. I could pretend to you that he overpowered me.She risked meeting other promenaders on the track itself; and might always have risked the dairyman and his family??s eyes. Before. and Sarah had simply slipped into the bed and taken the girl in her arms. Smithson. He took a step back. an English Juliet with her flat-footed nurse. But Sarah passed quietly on and over. with a singu-larly revolting purity.. more quietly.. I think I have a freedom they cannot understand.Oh. He had realized she was more intelligent and independent than she seemed; he now guessed darker quali-ties. who read to her from the Bible in the evenings. Talbot nothing but gratitude and affection??I would die for her or her children.

When the next morning came and Charles took up his un-gentle probing of Sam??s Cockney heart. ??I would rather die than you should think that of me. and his duty towards Ernestina began to outweigh his lust for echinoderms. Tranter and stored the resul-tant tape. this district. on the open rafters above. Or perhaps I am trying to pass off a con-cealed book of essays on you. His statement to himself should have been. But I now come to the sad consequences of my story. but sprang from a profound difference between the two women.?? She paused. Sam stood stropping his razor. Marx remarked. It does not matter what that cultural revolution??s conscious aims and purposes. Charles quite liked pretty girls and he was not averse to leading them. It was not.????It was Mrs. It must be poor Tragedy. but you say. one perhaps described by the mind to itself in semiliterary terms. Since birth her slightest cough would bring doctors; since puberty her slightest whim sum-moned decorators and dressmakers; and always her slightest frown caused her mama and papa secret hours of self-recrimination. Then he said.

two fingers up his cheek. I saw he was insincere . relatives.Charles said gently.A legendary summation of servant feelings had been deliv-ered to Mrs. that Mrs. she was renowned for her charity. but unnatural in welling from a desert. This was a long thatched cottage. but at last he found her in one of the farthest corners. I??m an old heathen.The doctor smiled. Mr. to work again from half past eleven to half past four.The mid-century had seen a quite new form of dandy appear on the English scene; the old upper-class variety. Sam.??He fingered his bowler hat. But thirty years had passed since Pickwick Papers first coruscated into the world. His amazement was natural. . what I beg you to understand is not that I did this shameful thing.?? said the abbess.

respectabili-ty. No insult. Forgive me. This principle explains the Linnaean obsession with classifying and naming. It is better so. and in his fashion was also a horrid. she felt herself nearest to France.????Come come.Nobody in Lyme liked good food and wine better; and the repast that Charles and the White Lion offered meeting his approval.??It isn??t mistletoe. Poulteney had been dictating letters. The banks of the dell were carpeted with primroses and violets. which was certainly Mrs. Because you are educated. Her conduct is highly to be reprobated. not the best recommendation to a servant with only three dresses to her name??and not one of which she really liked.????I could not tell the truth before Mrs. of course; but she had never even thought of doing such a thing. all the Byronic ennui with neither of the Byronic outlets: genius and adultery. Smithson has already spoken to me of him.??*[* Omphalos: an attempt to untie the geological knot is now forgot-ten; which is a pity. It was very far from the first time that Ernestina had read the poem; she knew some of it almost by heart.

??She began then??as if the question had been expected??to speak rapidly; almost repeating a speech. at the least expected moment. Perhaps it was fortunate that the room was damp and that the monster disseminated so much smoke and grease. They knew it was that warm. the towers and ramparts stretched as far as the eye could see . One was her social inferior. Fairley that she had a little less work. But to see something is not the same as to acknowledge it. All he was left with was the after-image of those eyes??they were abnormal-ly large. and led her. which he obliged her with. to catch her eye in the mirror??was a sexual thought: an imagining. took her as an opportunity to break in upon this sepulchral Introit. dukes even. I knew then I had been for him no more than an amusement during his convalescence. and damn the scientific prigs who try to shut them up in some narrow oubliette. Now is that not common sense???There was a long silence. and waited half a minute to see if she was following him. You must not think she is like us men.??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.??No. and directed the words into him with pointed finger.

each with its golden crust of cream.She knew he had lived in Paris. in the form of myxomatosis. a bargain struck between two obsessions. It is true also that she took some minimal precautions of a military kind. Her exhibition of her shame had a kind of purpose; and people with purposes know when they have been sufficiently attained and can be allowed to rest in abeyance for a while. light. Caroline Norton??s The Lady of La Garaye. sloping ledge of grass some five feet beneath the level of the plateau. Norton was a mere insipid poetastrix of the age.. I saw marriage with him would have been marriage to a worthless adventurer. civilization. they are spared. Varguennes had gone to sea in the wine commerce. my beloved!??Then faintly o??er her lips a wan smile moved. He did not see who she was.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. ??You will reply that it is troubled. Tranter respectively gloomed and bubbled their way through the schedule of polite conversational subjects??short.??Charles heard the dryness in her voice and came to the hurt Mrs. bathed in an eternal moonlight.

in one of his New York Daily Tribune articles. He guessed it was beautiful hair when fully loose; rich and luxuriant; and though it was drawn tightly back inside the collar of her coat. I loved little Paul and Virginia.?? But Mrs. But nov-elists write for countless different reasons: for money. There could not be.*[* The stanzas from In Metnoriam I have quoted at the beginning of this chapter are very relevant here. Smithson. Now he stared again at the two small objects in her hands. Voltaire drove me out of Rome.?? She bobbed. to where he could see the sleeper??s face better. He did not look back. She. Mr. the other charms. Tranter. He was a man without scruples. But she was the last person to list reasons. It was the girl. and she clapped her hand over her mouth. so that he could see the side of her face.

He exam-ined the two tests; but he thought only of the touch of those cold fingers. so far as Miss Woodruff is concerned.. and had to sit a minute to recover. Her eyes were anguished . Mr. from the evil man??). ??Sometimes I almost pity them.????She speaks French??? Mrs. and used often by French seamen and merchants. The voice. Two days after he had gone Miss Woodruff requested Mrs. bending. where there had been a recent fall of flints. the other as if he was not quite sure which planet he had just landed on. Opposition and apathy the real Lady of the Lamp had certainly had to contend with; but there is an element in sympathy. But I must repeat that I find myself amazed that you should . Talbot. These characters I create never existed outside my own mind.??We??re not ??orses. and then up to the levels where the flint strata emerged. But it was better than nothing and thus encouraged.

at the end. It could be written so: ??A happier domestic atmosphere.?? Then. having duly crammed his classics and subscribed to the Thirty-nine Articles..Nobody in Lyme liked good food and wine better; and the repast that Charles and the White Lion offered meeting his approval. Like many insulated Victorian dowagers. But this was by no means always apparent in their relationship. without warning her. but generally not for long??no longer than the careful ap-praisal a ship??s captain gives when he comes out on the bridge??before turning either down Cockmoil or going in the other direction. Poulteney felt herself with two people.??Then let us hear no more of this foolishness. 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. I apologize. Mrs. The singer required applause. without fear. That ??divilish bit better?? will be the ruin of this country. It was an end to chains. He had found out much about me. a thin gray shadow wedged between azures.????Does she come this way often?????Often enough.

????What about???????Twas just the time o?? day. a respect for Lent equal to that of the most orthodox Muslim for Ramadan. It was very clear that any moment Mrs.????To this French gentleman??? She turned away. But I have not done good deeds. who put down her fireshield and attempted to hold it. He had had no thought except for the French Lieutenant??s Woman when he found her on that wild cliff meadow; but he had just had enough time to notice. He began to frequent the conversazioni of the Geological Society. and could not. But fortunately she had a very proper respect for convention; and she shared withCharles??it had not been the least part of the first attraction between them??a sense of self-irony.She risked meeting other promenaders on the track itself; and might always have risked the dairyman and his family??s eyes.?? Some gravely doubted whether anyone could actually have dared to say these words to the awesome lady. smells. the cadmium-yellow flowers so dense they almost hid the green.??I. a woman most patently dangerous??not consciously so. Charles.?? She led him to the side of the rampart. ??I found it central to nothing but the sheerest absurdity. The problem was not fitting in all that one wanted to do. Above all. He stood in the doorway.

he went back closer home??to Rousseau.How he spoke. fragrant air. or at any rate with the enigma she presented. He suited Lyme. and means something like ??We make our destinies by our choice of gods. looking at but not seeing the fine landscape the place commanded. The latter were. in fairness to the lady.??Then let us hear no more of this foolishness.??The doctor looked down at the handled silver container in which he held his glass. We are all in flight from the real reality. He appeared far more a gentleman in a gentleman??s house. and gave her a faintly tomboyish air on occasion. but obsession with his own ancestry. long before he came there he turned north-ward. Sarah was in her nightgown. as if that subject was banned. He watched her smell the yellow flowers; not po-litely. had cried endlessly. That??s the trouble with provincial life. to have endless weeks of travel ahead of him.

it was Mrs. Poulteney. He says of one. She was certainly dazzled by Sam to begin with: he was very much a superior being. The house was silent.????That fact you told me the other day as you left. He had eaten nothing since the double dose of muffins. flirtatious surface the girl had a gentle affectionateness; and she did not stint. Far out to sea. He had intended to write letters. One was Dirt??though she made some sort of exception of the kitchen. Tranter chanced to pass through the hall??to be exact. Am I not?????She knows. Once there. . It was the French Lieutenant??s Woman. Plucking a little spray of milkwort from the bank beside her. ??I should become what so many women who have lost their honor become in great cities. exactly a year before the time of which I write; and it had to do with the great secret of Mrs. it was hard to say. since he had moved commercially into central London. looking at but not seeing the fine landscape the place commanded.

??I am weak. Given the veneer of a lady. But her eyes had for the briefest moment made it clear that she made an offer; as unmistakable.He remembered. of inappropriateness.????No one frequents it.????Most certainly I should hope to place a charitable con-struction upon your conduct. a shrewd sacrifice. the old branch paths have gone; no car road goes near it. It was this that had provoked that smoth-ered laugh; and the slammed door. and quite inaccurate-ly.??*[* Omphalos: an attempt to untie the geological knot is now forgot-ten; which is a pity. that vivacious green. It had brought out swarms of spring butterflies.. It had been furnished for her and to her taste. Pray read and take to your heart. The John-Bull-like lady over there.??He meant it merely as encouragement to continue; but she took him literally. though she could not look. and Charles??s had been a baronet. now washing far below; and the whole extent of Lyme Bay reaching round.

say. to have Charles. This. At the foot of the south-facing bluff. A distant woodpecker drummed in the branches of some high tree.????How romantic. He climbed close enough to distinguish them for what they were.??I know a secluded place nearby. madam.Leaped his heart??s blood with such a yearning vowThat she was all in all to him. he decided that the silent Miss Woodruff was laboring under a sense of injustice??and. Not even the sad Victorian clothes she had so often to wear could hide the trim. 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. and then again from five to ten. to avoid a roughly applied brushful of lather. No words were needed.When the front door closed. She sank to her knees. People knew less of each other. a truly orgastic lesbianism existed then; but we may ascribe this very com-mon Victorian phenomenon of women sleeping together far more to the desolating arrogance of contemporary man than to a more suspect motive. but he caught himself stealing glances at the girl beside him??looking at her as if he saw her for the first time.The conversation in that kitchen was surprisingly serious.

who had already smiled at Sarah.And let us start happily.Ernestina avoided his eyes. It has also. and all she could see was a dark shape. who had not the least desire for Aunt Tranter??s wholesome but uninteresting barley water. The chalk walls behind this little natural balcony made it into a sun trap. silent co-presence in the darkness that mattered. Gladstone at least recognizes a radical rottenness in the ethical foundations of our times. begun.One of the great characters of Lyme. The problem was not fitting in all that one wanted to do. Perhaps I believed I owed it to myself to appear mistress of my destiny. She is perfectly able to perform any duties that may be given to her. He might perhaps have seen a very contemporary social symbolism in the way these gray-blue ledges were crumbling; but what he did see was a kind of edificiality of time. But unless I am helped I shall be. the ineffable . He most wisely provided the girl with a better education than one would expect. ma??m???Mrs. Above them and beyond. as a reminder that mid-Victorian (unlike mod-ern) agnosticism and atheism were related strictly to theological dogma. He had no time for books.