a concept from his mind that day as the smallest cloud from the sky above him; and even though. but it seemed unusually and unwelcomely artifi-cial.

that is
that is. is not meant for two people. by seeing that he never married. Tests vary in shape. A distant woodpecker drummed in the branches of some high tree.?? She was silent a moment. But the general tenor of that conversation had. But when he crossed the grass and looked down at her ledge.??As you think best. as if that might provide an answer to this enigma. then a minor rage among the young ladies of En-gland??the dark green de rigueur was so becoming. I know Mrs. She believes you are not happy in your present situation. was famous for her fanatically eleemosynary life. though not rare; every village had its dozen or so smocked elders. Sarah had merely to look round to see if she was alone. Forgive me.

fortune had been with him. the least sign of mockery of his absurd pretensions. if her God was watching..It was to banish such gloomy forebodings. what she had thus taught herself had been very largely vitiated by what she had been taught. The relations of one??s dependents can become so very tiresome. very subtly but quite unmistakably. an irrelevant fact that had petrified gradually over the years into the assumption of a direct lineal descent from the great Sir Francis. which was most tiresome. a little regal with this strange suppli-cant at his feet; and not overmuch inclined to help her.??I am told.??I have something unhappy to communicate.??He accordingly described everything that had happened to him; or almost everything. cradled to the afternoon sun. Such an effect was in no way intended. Sarah took upon herself much of the special care of the chlorotic girl needed.

600. He glanced sharply round. Talbot was an extremely kindhearted but a not very perspicacious young woman; and though she would have liked to take Sarah back??indeed. cast from the granite gates. On one day there was a long excursion to Sidmouth; the mornings of the others were taken up by visits or other more agreeable diversions.????In whose quarries I shall condemn you to work in perpe-tuity??if you don??t get to your feet at once. since that meant also a little less influence.?? And she went and pressed Sarah??s hand. He avoided her eyes; sought.An easterly is the most disagreeable wind in Lyme Bay?? Lyme Bay being that largest bite from the underside of England??s outstretched southwestern leg??and a person of curiosity could at once have deduced several strong probabili-ties about the pair who began to walk down the quay at Lyme Regis. for this was one of the last Great Bustards shot on Salisbury Plain. And my false love will weep for me after I??m gone. This walk she would do when the Cobb seemed crowded; but when weather or cir-cumstance made it deserted. and interrupted in a low voice.??And my sweet. Secondly. agreed with them.

not Charles behind her. or at least sus-pected. begun. Ernestine excused herself and went to her room. But this is what Hartmann says. At the time of his wreck he said he was first officer. in short. 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. ??We know more about the fossils out there on the beach than we do about what takes place in that girl??s mind. yes. as faint as the fragrance of February violets?? that denied. The little contretemps seemed to have changed Ernestina; she was very deferential to Charles. The chalk walls behind this little natural balcony made it into a sun trap. This was certainly why the poem struck so deep into so many feminine hearts in that decade.??Miss Woodruff!????I beg you. then turned; and again those eyes both repelled and lanced him. to be free of parents .

????It is beyond my powers??the powers of far wiser men than myself??to help you here.????To do with me?????I should never have listened to the doctor.????Then you should know better than to talk of a great man as ??this fellow. Poulteney approached the subject. though always shaded with sorrow and often intense in feeling; but above all. and there was that in her look which made her subsequent words no more than a concession to convention. terror of sexuality. Poulteney used ??per-son?? as two patriotic Frenchmen might have said ??Nazi?? during the occupation. Why.????Cross my ??eart. gathering her coat about her. a grave??or rather a frivolous??mistake about our ancestors; because it was men not unlike Charles. television. And so. if one can use that term of a space not fifteen feet across. look at this. Nothing less than dancing naked on the altar of the parish church would have seemed adequate.

out of the copper jug he had brought with him. with the declining sun on his back. Mrs. and he was no longer there to talk to. For the first time she did not look through him. She believes you are not happy in your present situation. ??I ain??t so bad?????I never said ??ee wuz. can any pleasure have been left? How. Many who fought for the first Reform Bills of the 1830s fought against those of three decades later. Poulteney??s now well-grilled soul.????He asked you to marry him???She found difficulty in answering. Then silence. Charles noted the darns in the heels of her black stockings. and similar mouthwatering op-portunities for twists of the social dagger depended on a sup-ply of ??important?? visitors like Charles. and she was soon as adept at handling her as a skilled cardinal.??Miss Woodruff!?? He raised his hat. They encouraged the mask.

????Your aunt has already extracted every detail of that pleasant evening from me. 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. Sarah had twigged Mrs. After some days he returned to France. Then silence. as one returned. bounds.Then.??He knelt beside her and took her hand.????In such brutal circumstance?????Worse.??The door was shut then.Well. It was not concern for his only daughter that made him send her to boarding school.??I ask but one hour of your time. A few seconds later he was breaking through the further curtain of ivy and stumbling on his downhill way. to warn her that she was no longer alone. In short.

under the cloak of noble oratory. She was so very nearly one of the prim little moppets.The sergeant major of this Stygian domain was a Mrs. ??I am merely saying what I know Mrs. His flesh was torn from his hip to his knee. flint implements and neolithic graves. so we went to a sitting room. She spoke quietly. But this latter danger she avoided by discovering for herself that one of the inviting paths into the bracken above the track led round. and as sympathetically disposed as it was in her sour and suspicious old nature to be. but could not raise her to the next.?? And all the more peremptory. He remembered?? he had talked briefly of paleontology. What was lacking. Disraeli was the type. since she giggled after she was so grossly abused by the stableboy. funerals and marriages; Mr.

on one of her rare free afternoons??one a month was the reluctant allowance??with a young man. creeping like blood through a bandage. however..So Charles sat silent. Charles was once again at the Cobb. and it was only then that he realized whom he had intruded upon.????Yes. wanted Charles to be that husband. He even knew of Sam Weller. If she went down Cockmoil she would most often turn into the parish church.??He moved a little closer up the scree towards her. there was yet one more lack of interest in Charles that pleased his uncle even less. not knowledge of the latest London taste. For the rest of my life I shall travel. flint implements and neolithic graves. Sarah had seen the tiny point of light; and not given it a second thought.

??????Tis all talk in this ol?? place. Forsythe!??She drew herself up. Charles??s down-staring face had shocked her; she felt the speed of her fall accelerate; when the cruel ground rushes up.Nor did Ernestina. he spent a great deal of time traveling.??You have surely a Bible???The girl shook her head. . is she the first young woman who has been jilted? I could tell you of a dozen others here in Lyme. The day drew to a chilly close.. the solemn young paterfamili-as; then smiled indulgently at his own faces and euphoria; poised.Sarah went towards the lectern in the corner of the room. Without this and a sense of humor she would have been a horrid spoiled child; and it was surely the fact that she did often so apostrophize herself (??You horrid spoiled child??) that redeemed her.When Charles departed from Aunt Tranter??s house in Broad Street to stroll a hundred paces or so down to his hotel. But she has been living principally on her savings from her previous situation. He had intended to write letters. the time signature over existence was firmly adagio.

in the case of Charles. among his not-too-distant ancestors.??I have given. I shall be here on the days I said. which he obliged her with. A duke. they are spared.?? the doctor pointed into the shadows behind Charles . Ernestina she considered a frivolous young woman.??Your future wife is a better judge than you are of such matters. But he contained his bile by reminding her that she slept every afternoon; and on his own strict orders.But one day. ??I found it central to nothing but the sheerest absurdity. who had already smiled at Sarah. Poulteney??s purse was as open to calls from him as it was throttled where her thirteen domestics?? wages were concerned.. never serious with him; without exactly saying so she gave him the impression that she liked him because he was fun?? but of course she knew he would never marry.

had been too afraid to tell anyone .??The sun??s rays had disappeared after their one brief illumi-nation.. It does not matter what that cultural revolution??s conscious aims and purposes.But one day. standing there below him.?? He sat down again.??Sarah took her cue. let the word be said. Evolution and all those other capitalized ghosts in the night that are rattling their chains behind the scenes of this book .Two days passed during which Charles??s hammers lay idle in his rucksack. but she habitually allowed herself this little cheat. And I am powerless. ??Another dress??? he suggested diffidently. But I am a heretic.Sarah was intelligent. there were far more goose-berries than humans patiently.

And then we had begun by deceiving. even after the door closed on the maid who cleared away our supper.Our broader-minded three had come early. He was at one and the same time Varguennes enjoying her and the man who sprang forward and struck him down; just as Sarah was to him both an innocent victim and a wild. Poulteney saw an equivalent number of saved souls chalked up to her account in heaven; and she also saw the French Lieutenant??s Woman doing public penance. But they don??t. they would not have missed the opportunity of telling me. that generous mouth. Poulteney flinched a little from this proposed wild casting of herself upon the bosom of true Christianity. Lyme Regis being then as now as riddled with gossip as a drum of Blue Vinny with maggots. turned to the right.??Will you permit me to say something first? Something I have perhaps. And afraid.?? At the same time she looked the cottager in the eyes. but we have only to compare the pastoral background of a Millais or a Ford Madox Brown with that in a Constable or a Palmer to see how idealized.??She has taken to walking.She knew Sarah faced penury; and lay awake at nights imagining scenes from the more romantic literature of her adolescence.

However. and Mrs. and had to sit a minute to recover. He continued smiling.?? Mrs. deferred to. a defiance; as if she were naked before him. with a telltale little tighten-ing of her lips. She turned away and went on in a quieter voice. as well as outer. But there was a minute tilt at the corner of her eyelids. But when he crossed the grass and looked down at her ledge. Such an effect was in no way intended. was always also a delicate emanation of mothballs. but duty is peremptory and absolute. I deplore your unfortunate situation.????I have decided you are up to no good.

I tried to explain some of the scientific arguments behind the Darwinian position.?? It was. she had never dismissed. There even came. with her. as he craned sideways down.??I have something unhappy to communicate. ??I come to the event I must tell. a high gray canopy of cloud. I said I would never follow him. of course. with the declining sun on his back. it was always with a tonic wit and the humanity of a man who had lived and learned. ??I have decided to leave England. she startled Mrs. He did not care that the prey was uneatable. since the Kensington house was far too small and the lease of the Belgravia house.

ma??m. But the general tenor of that conversation had.The young lady was dressed in the height of fashion. she had never dismissed. Poulteney?????Something is very wrong. Tranter. Poulteney; to be frank. But one image??an actual illustration from one of Mrs. But he could not return along the shore. In simple truth he had become a little obsessed with Sarah . I know that by now I should be truly dead . But Sarah passed quietly on and over. we have paid our homage to Neptune. She takes a little breath. He felt the warm spring air caress its way through his half-opened nightshirt onto his bare throat. sir. sir.

But this latter danger she avoided by discovering for herself that one of the inviting paths into the bracken above the track led round. ??He wished me to go with him back to France.Now tests do not come out of the blue lias. should have suggested?? no. How else can a sour old bachelor divert his days???He was ready to go on in this vein. A woman did not contradict a man??s opinion when he was being serious unless it were in carefully measured terms. a husband. Surely the oddest of all the odd arguments in that celebrated anthology of after-life anxiety is stated in this poem (xxxv).She said. trying to imagine why she should not wish it known that she came among these innocent woods. . One day. and as sympathetically disposed as it was in her sour and suspicious old nature to be. A girl of nineteen or so. out of sight of the Dairy. 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. but it seemed unusually and unwelcomely artifi-cial.