another bluff some hundred yards above them; for these were the huge subsident ??steps?? that could be glimpsed from the Cobb two miles away.

and certainly not wisdom
and certainly not wisdom. He continued smiling.. She gazed for a moment out over that sea she was asked to deny herself. most unseemly. when he was quite sure he had done his best. But Marlborough House and Mary had suited each other as well as a tomb would a goldfinch; and when one day Mrs. the dates of all the months and days that lay between it and her marriage. .??Charles craned out of the window. the tall Charles with his vague resem-blance to the late Prince Consort and the thin little doctor. No doubt you know more of it than I do. tore off his nightcap. as I say. I am not seeking to defend myself. glanced at him with a smile. But if such a figure as this had stood before him!However. But it is indifferent to the esteem of such as Mrs. The veil before my eyes dropped. a very near equivalent of our own age??s sedative pills.. It was brief. in the fullest sense of that word. Poulteney; it now lay in her heart far longer than the enteritis bacilli in her intes-tines.000 years. she said as much.

The vicar coughed. She seemed totally indifferent to fashion; and survived in spite of it.????And just now when I seemed .Now Ernestina had seen the mistake of her rivals: that no wife thrown at Charles??s head would ever touch his heart. He suddenly wished to be what he was with her; and to discover what she was.????Fallen in love with?????Worse than that. who lived some miles behind Lyme.??There was a silence between the two men. Ernestine excused herself and went to her room. which was emphatically French; as heavy then as the English. at the vicar??s suggestion.He moved round the curving lip of the plateau. I can-not believe that the truth is so.??Unlike the vicar. Poulteney thought she had been the subject of a sarcasm; but Sarah??s eyes were solemnly down. in its way. Forsythe. Her eyes brimmed at him over her pink cheeks. which Charles broke casually. from previous references. 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. Poulteney??s turn to ask an astounding question.??Thus ten minutes later Charles found himself comfortably ensconced in what Dr.That evening Charles found himself seated between Mrs. superior to most. Mrs.

and here in the role of Alarmed Propriety . as if she might faint should any gentleman dare to address her.He knew that nulla species nova was rubbish; yet he saw in the strata an immensely reassuring orderliness in existence. Once there she had seen to it that she was left alone with Charles; and no sooner had the door shut on her aunt??s back than she burst into tears (without the usual preliminary self-accusations) and threw herself into his arms. then gestured to Sam to pour him his hot water. His calm exterior she took for the terrible silence of a recent battlefield. Once or twice she had done the incredible. 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. And my false love will weep. he raised his wideawake and bowed. ??You will kindly remember that he comes from London. Her weeping she hid. Self-confidence in that way he did not lack??few Cockneys do. He was brought to Captain Talbot??s after the wreck of his ship. he foresaw only too vividly that she might put foolish female questions. . But all he said was false. ??I think her name is Woodruff.. his knowledge of a larger world. his knowledge of a larger world. He contributed one or two essays on his journeys in remoter places to the fashion-able magazines; indeed an enterprising publisher asked him to write a book after the nine months he spent in Portugal. He rushed from her plump Cockney arms into those of the Church. But I??ve never had the least cause to??????My dear. Mary placed the flowers on the bedside commode. it was unlikely that there would be enough men to go round.

I??ll be damned if I wouldn??t dance a jig on the ashes. He sensed that Mrs.. Never mind how much a summer??s day sweltered.So if you think all this unlucky (but it is Chapter Thir-teen) digression has nothing to do with your Time. though very rich. It was??forgive the pun?? common knowledge that the gypsies had taken her. if blasphemous. Ware Cliffs??these names may mean very little to you.??She did not move. one foggy night in London. a female soldier??a touch only. sat the thorax of a lugger?? huddled at where the Cobb runs back to land. a Zulu. She passed Sarah her Bible and made her read. intellectually as alphabetically.He lifts her. as usual in history. Tranter only a very short time... Talbot?? were not your suspicions aroused by that? It is hardly the conduct of a man with honorable intentions. on the day of her betrothal to Charles. he decided to call at Mrs...

Mrs. one perhaps described by the mind to itself in semiliterary terms. Ernestina let it be known that she had found ??that Mr.. But I have not done good deeds.That evening Charles found himself seated between Mrs. Sarah took upon herself much of the special care of the chlorotic girl needed.?? Sam looked resentfully down; a certain past cynicism had come home to roost. whose great keystone. but she had also a wide network of relations and acquaint-ances at her command. I am not quite sure of her age. It was not a very great education. Instead they were a bilious leaden green??one that was. and infinitely the least selfishness; and physical charms to match . the chronic weaknesses. In simple truth he had become a little obsessed with Sarah . since she had found that it was only thus that she could stop the hand trying to feel its way round her waist. ??Now this girl??what is her name??? Mary???this charming Miss Mary may be great fun to tease and be teased by??let me finish??but I am told she is a gentle trusting creature at heart. Poul-teney might go off. And there she is. The handwriting was excellent. But he ended by bowing and smiling urbanely. the towers and ramparts stretched as far as the eye could see . that their sense of isolation??and if the weather be bad.????It is that visiting always so distresses me. Thus they are in the same position as the drunkard brought up before the Lord Mayor.

The vicar coughed. Charles noted. But this was spoken openly. The sharp wind took a wisp of her hair and blew it forward. husband a cavalry officer.?? She was silent a moment. yellowing. with the grim sense of duty of a bulldog about to sink its teeth into a burglar??s ankles. Ernestina she considered a frivolous young woman. Kneeling. I have no right to desire these things. strolling beside the still swelling but now mild sea. Neat lines were drawn already through two months; some ninety num-bers remained; and now Ernestina took the ivory-topped pencil from the top of the diary and struck through March 26th. and found herself as if faced with the muzzle of a cannon. but the painter had drawn on imagination for the other qualities. he was not in fact betraying Ernestina.. Poulteney highly; and it slyly and permanently??perhaps af-ter all Sarah really was something of a skilled cardinal?? reminded the ogress.?? Then.??I gave myself to him.[* Though he would not have termed himself so. I have Mr. I shall be most happy . if not on his lips. can be as stupid as the next man. It retained traces of a rural accent.

A distant woodpecker drummed in the branches of some high tree. But hark you??Paddy was right. should have handed back the tests. her responsibility for Mrs. trying to imagine why she should not wish it known that she came among these innocent woods.??Charles murmured a polite agreement. Charles was once again at the Cobb. and he was ushered into the little back drawing room. I think. ??Now. But I count it not the least of the privileges of my forthcoming marriage that it has introduced me to a person of such genuine kindness of heart. Gladraeli and Mr. ??Let them see what they??ve done. But I thank Mother Nature I shall not be alive in fifty years?? time. that there was something shallow in her??that her acuteness was largely constituted.. when he called to escort the ladies down Broad Street to the Assembly Rooms. with a forestalling abruptness. Come. When he had dutifully patted her back and dried her eyes. where the tunnel of ivy ended. Poulteney placed great reliance on the power of the tract. Tranter chanced to pass through the hall??to be exact. of her behavior. as essential to it as the divinity of Christ to theology. and I know not what crime it is for.

.????But how was I to tell? I am not to go to the sea. assured his complete solitude and then carefully removed his stout boots. those brimstones. and he turned away.?? He did not want to be teased on this subject. shadowy. It was brief. and on the very day that Charles was occupied in his highly scientific escapade from the onerous duties of his engagement. in England. of course. for fame. But I think we may safely say that it had become the objective correlative of all that went on in her own subconscious. to allow her to leave her post.??It is a most fascinating wilderness.He knew at once where he wished to go.????Is that what made you laugh?????Yes. and the childish myths of a Golden Age and the Noble Savage.. Charles noted. But then she realized he was standing to one side for her and made hurriedly to pass him. as well as the state. as a man with time to fill. He had been frank enough to admit to himself that it contained. but I knew he was changed. as that in our own Hollywood films of ??real?? life.

Poulteney ignored Sarah absolutely. Poulteney to grasp the implied compliment..I do not mean to say Charles??s thoughts were so specific. His skin was suitably pale. He began to frequent the conversazioni of the Geological Society. We are not to dispute His under-standing. He winked again; and then he went. There were fishermen tarring.??Very well. We think (unless we live in a research laboratory) that we have nothing to discover.I have disgracefully broken the illusion? No.??You have surely a Bible???The girl shook her head. Gypsies were not English; and therefore almost certain to be canni-bals. And yet she still wanted very much to help her.??West-country folksong: ??As Sylvie Was Walking?? ??My dear Tina. And there was her reserve.. It had always seemed a grossly unfair parable to Mrs. a grave??or rather a frivolous??mistake about our ancestors; because it was men not unlike Charles. It had been their size that had decided the encroaching gentleman to found his arboretum in the Undercliff; and Charles felt dwarfed. clean.?? ??Some Forgotten As-pects of the Victorian Age?? .??I was blind. in that light.????It was he who introduced me to Mrs.

a giggle. then a minor rage among the young ladies of En-gland??the dark green de rigueur was so becoming.????Doan believe ??ee. They could not. For Charles had faults.????Yes. She gestured timidly towards the sunlight. It was thus that a look unseen by these ladies did at last pass between Sarah and Charles. a monument to suspi-cious shock. but an essential name; he gave the age. But it did not. The girl came and stood by the bed. in the most urgent terms. to make way for what can very fairly claim to be the worst-sited and ugliest public lavatory in the British Isles. a kind of artless self-confidence.??Still without looking at him.However. And then we had begun by deceiving. he would do. and all she could see was a dark shape. It was the same one as she had chosen for that first interview??Psalm 119: ??Blessed are the undefiled in the way. I report. one last poised look. his patients?? temperament. Poulteney felt only irritation. but other than the world that is.

??May I proceed???She was silent. of only the most trivial domestic things. There must have been something sexual in their feelings? Perhaps; but they never went beyond the bounds that two sisters would. an object of charity. It was not a pretty face. I have Mr.??The vicar felt snubbed; and wondered what would have happened had the Good Samaritan come upon Mrs. She had reminded him of that... impossible for a man to have been angry with??and therefore quite the reverse to Ernestina.??I wish you to show that this . Self-confidence in that way he did not lack??few Cockneys do. I fear the clergy have a tremendous battle on their hands.????Let it remain so. with a telltale little tighten-ing of her lips. Poulteney she seemed in this context only too much like one of the figures on a gibbet she dimly remembered from her youth. I??m as gentle to her as if she??s my favorite niece. It lit her face. He nods solemnly; he is all ears. May we go there???He indicated willingness. he found himself greeted only by that lady: Ernestina had passed a slightly disturbed night. She had overslept. ??I fancy that??s one bag of fundamentalist wind that will think twice before blowing on this part of the Dorset littoral again. Leaving his very comfortable little establishment in Kensing-ton was not the least of Charles??s impending sacrifices; and he could bear only just so much reminding of it. and what he thought was a cunning good bargain turned out to be a shocking bad one.

It was thus that a look unseen by these ladies did at last pass between Sarah and Charles. . Once there. Tranter rustled for-ward. a dryness that pleased. one incisively sharp and blustery morning in the late March of 1867. I think no child. I am sure it is sufficiently old.. what you will. sure proof of abundant soli-tude. The lower classes are not so scrupulous about appearances as ourselves. it was always with a tonic wit and the humanity of a man who had lived and learned.Charles said gently. The veil before my eyes dropped. I would have come there to ask for you. And I have not found her. Tussocks of grass provided foothold; and she picked her way carefully. had given her only what he had himself received: the best education that money could buy. Poulteney. she understood??if you kicked her. and the town as well. But Sarah passed quietly on and over.??He left a silence. Very slowly he let the downhanging strands of ivy fall back into position.His ambition was very simple: he wanted to be a haber-dasher.

Heaven forbid that I should ask for your reasons.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. a shrewd sacrifice. we all suffer from at times.??Do you wish me to leave. he saw only a shy and wide-eyed sympathy.????Come come. of herself. in the famous Epoques de la Nature of 1778. He suddenly wished to be what he was with her; and to discover what she was. You will never own us. that he had taken Miss Woodruff altogether too seriously??in his stumble. then turned; and again those eyes both repelled and lanced him. The Origin of Species is a triumph of generalization. He nods solemnly; he is all ears. but her eyes studiously avoided his.??Charles had known women??frequently Ernestina herself?? contradict him playfully. It might perhaps have been better had he shut his eyes to all but the fossil sea urchins or devoted his life to the distribu-tion of algae. of one of those ingenious girl-machines from Hoffmann??s Tales?But then he thought: she is a child among three adults?? and pressed her hand gently beneath the mahogany table.??I have given. silly Tina. as she pirouetted.?? He obeyed her with a smile. and dropped it.??There was a silence.He moved round the curving lip of the plateau.

but Sarah??s were strong. But for Charles.?? The astonish-ing fact was that not a single servant had been sent on his. intellectually as alphabetically. Charles watched her black back recede. had not his hostess delivered herself of a characteristic Poulteneyism.. he knew. The cottage walls have crumbled into ivied stumps. or the girl??s condition. . that suited admirably the wild shyness of her demeanor. It made him drop her arm. As soon as he saw her he stopped. wild-voiced beneath the air??s blue peace. If for no other reason. each guilty age. ran to her at the door and kissed her on both cheeks. a crushing and unrelenting canopy of parental worry. in the Pyrenees. There was even a remote relationship with the Drake family.????I think I might well join you.??Would I have .?? She bit her lips.?? According to Ernestina. Poulteney; it now lay in her heart far longer than the enteritis bacilli in her intes-tines.

mocking those two static bipeds far below. AH sorts.????But this is unforgivable. exemplia gratia Charles Smithson.????At the North Pole. did not revert into Charles??s hands for another two years. and dreadful heresies drifted across the poor fellow??s brain?? would it not be more fun.?? He stiffened inwardly. Poulteney had been a little ill. a mermaid??s tail. But its highly fossiliferous nature and its mobility make it a Mecca for the British paleontologist. dear girl. he did not bow and with-draw. he had to resign himself to the fact that he was to have no further luck. He felt baffled. In short. Even that shocked the narrower-minded in Lyme. a rich warmth.She risked meeting other promenaders on the track itself; and might always have risked the dairyman and his family??s eyes. a false scholarship. Not be-cause of religiosity on the one hand. But the commonage was done for. ??My dear Miss Woodruff . at ease in all his travel. ornaments and all other signs of the Romish cancer. there walks the French Lieutenant??s Whore??oh yes.

a female soldier??a touch only. my beloved!??Then faintly o??er her lips a wan smile moved. your romanced autobiography. ??It came to seem to me as if I were allowed to live in paradise.????I meant it to be very honest of me. You??d do very nice. Grogan was. unable to look at him.?? instead of what it so Victorianly was: ??I cannot possess this forever. But at least concede the impossibility of your demand..They stood thus for several seconds. then that was life.The lady of the title is a sprightly French lord??s sprightly wife who has a crippling accident out hunting and devotes the rest of her excessively somber life to good works??more useful ones than Lady Cotton??s. Of the woman who stared. Perhaps her sharp melancholy had been induced by the sight of the endless torrent of lesser mortals who cascaded through her kitchen. doing singularly little to conceal it. Tranter chanced to pass through the hall??to be exact.????And just now when I seemed . was the lieutenant of the vessel.All this. the centuries-old mark of the common London-er. bobbing a token curtsy. It had not. as Ernestina. I tried to explain some of the scientific arguments behind the Darwinian position.

and not necessarily on the shore.. Strangely. but in ??Charles??s time private minds did not admit the desires banned by the public mind; and when the consciousness was sprung on by these lurking tigers it was ludicrously unprepared. They encouraged the mask.. when he called to escort the ladies down Broad Street to the Assembly Rooms. She too was a stranger to the crinoline; but it was equally plain that that was out of oblivion. Poulteney.????I should certainly wish to hear it before proceeding. I am expected in Broad Street. Poulteney.The doctor put a finger on his nose. There is not a single cottage in the Undercliff now; in 1867 there were several. as if she was seeing what she said clearly herself for the first time. With the vicar Mrs. and countless scien-tists in other fields.??She has taken to walking. of her behavior. Perhaps it was fortunate that the room was damp and that the monster disseminated so much smoke and grease.??My dear madam. standing there below him. questions he could not truthfully answer without moving into dangerous waters. that Mrs. a branch broken underfoot. Ernestina wanted a husband.

Perhaps it was out of a timid modesty. But he did not give her??or the Cobb??a second thought and set out.. Gosse was. I believe.??Yes??? He sees Ernestina on her feet.??I am told.. as not to discover where you are and follow you there. But I cannot leave this place. which showed she was a sinner. of which The Edinburgh Review. their nar-row-windowed and -corridored architecture. The ferns looked greenly forgiving; but Mrs. in Mary??s prayers. she was only a woman. would no doubt seem today almost in-tolerable for its functional inadequacies.I risk making Sarah sound like a bigot. which made them seem strong. in the presence of such a terrible dual lapse of faith. This. . Poulteney. what you will. The madness was in the empty sea. black and white and coral-red.

the even more distin-guished Signer Ritornello (or some such name. under the foliage of the ivy. haw haw haw). where there had been a recent fall of flints. little better than a superior cart track itself.????Well. her mauve-and-black pelisse. Talbot concealed her doubts about Mrs. forced him into anti-science.She lowered her eyes. I know where you stay.. and his uncle liked Charles. His future had always seemed to him of vast potential; and now suddenly it was a fixed voyage to a known place.????It is beyond my powers??the powers of far wiser men than myself??to help you here. Charles followed her into the slant-roofed room that ran the length of the rear of the cottage. however. But remember the date of this evening: April 6th.??And now Grogan. Her comprehension was broader than that. too. exquisitely clear.??Charles! Now Charles. slip into her place.Yet he was not. as if that might provide an answer to this enigma.

one in each hand.?? She bore some resemblance to a white Pekinese; to be exact. It is true Sarah went less often to the woods than she had become accustomed to. since he had moved commercially into central London. as mothers with marriageable daughters have been known to foresee. in the Pyrenees. a slammed door. Poulteney and her kind knew very well that the only building a decent town could allow people to congregate in was a church. an independence of spirit; there was also a silent contradiction of any sympathy; a determination to be what she was.A legendary summation of servant feelings had been deliv-ered to Mrs. was plunged in affectionate contemplation of his features. Mr. but she was not to be stopped. Of course Ernestina uttered her autocratic ??I must not?? just as soon as any such sinful speculation crossed her mind; but it was really Charles??s heart of which she was jealous. of Mrs. out of its glass case in the drawing room at Winsyatt. Mrs.??She clears her throat delicately. then turned back to the old lady. I doubt if they were heard.Having discharged. that mouth. The husband was evidently a taciturn man. He had indeed very regular ones??a wide forehead.?? But she had excellent opportunities to do her spying. like a hot bath or a warm bed on a winter??s night.

??I feel like an Irish navigator transported into a queen??s boudoir.??It is a most fascinating wilderness.She took her hand away. and made an infinitesimal nod: if she could. Lyme Regis being then as now as riddled with gossip as a drum of Blue Vinny with maggots. There he was looked after by a manservant. She trusted Mrs.??There was a little pause. After all.??It??s that there kitchen-girl??s at Mrs. Poulteney??s secretary from his conscious mind.. People knew less of each other. She left his home at her own request. and obliged the woman to cling more firmly to the bollard. people of some taste.He began to cover the ambiguous face in lather. One phrase in particular angered Mrs. I may add.??She has taken to walking. and one not of one??s sex . I??m as gentle to her as if she??s my favorite niece. but still with the devil??s singe on him. or even yourself. It had begun. .

But this time it brought him to his senses. found himself telling this mere milkmaid something he had previously told only to himself. It was a very simple secret. for people went to bed by nine in those days before electricity and television. who sat as implacably in her armchair as the Queen on her throne. jumping a century. a constant smile. nor had Darwin himself. Poulteney. but I knew no other way to break out of what I was. Again she glanced up at Charles. wanted Charles to be that husband. you may be as dry a stick as you like with everyone else. alone. They did not need to. that he had taken Miss Woodruff altogether too seriously??in his stumble. when it was stripped of its formal outdoor mask; too little achieved. He was not there. silly Tina.. which would have been rather nearer the truth. was loose.????He did say that he would not let his daughter marry a man who considered his grandfather to be an ape. for she is one of the more celebrated younger English film actresses. It seemed to me then as if I threw myself off a precipice or plunged a knife into my heart. these two innocents; and let us return to that other more rational.

Darwinism. Ernestine excused herself and went to her room. 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. I was told where his room was and expected to go up to it. She did not get on well with the other pupils. where Ernest-ina??s mother sat in a state of the most poignant trepidation. but fixed him with a look of shock and bewilderment. and beyond them deep green drifts of bluebell leaves. Fairley??s deepest rage was that she could not speak ill of the secretary-companion to her underlings. a begging him to go on. in one of his New York Daily Tribune articles.??I never found the right woman.??A Darwinian?????Passionately. great copper pans on wooden trestles. Charles winked at himself in the mirror. It was pretty enough for her to like; and after all.????Charles . the more clearly he saw the folly of his behavior. Tomkins..The girl lay in the complete abandonment of deep sleep. . Perhaps it is only a game. seemingly across a plain. not just those of the demi-monde. controlled and clear.

forced him into anti-science. a weakness abominably raped.????To do with me?????I should never have listened to the doctor. ??These are the very steps that Jane Austen made Louisa Musgrove fall down in Persua-sion. But alas. deferred to. ??I am satisfied that you are in a state of repentance. You will recall the French barque??I think she hailed from Saint Malo??that was driven ashore under Stonebarrow in the dreadful gale of last December? And you will no doubt recall that three of the crew were saved and were taken in by the people of Charmouth? Two were simple sailors.. Sam. and seeing that demure. was the father of modern geology. and found nothing; she had never had a serious illness in her life; she had none of the lethargy. He could not ask her not to tell Ernestina; and if Tina should learn of the meeting through her aunt. But if such a figure as this had stood before him!However. And go to Paris. All conspired.??To be spoken to again as if . a mute party to her guilt.??Sarah rose then and went to the window. a moustache as black as his hair... for if a man was a pianist he must be Italian) and Charles was free to examine his conscience. the most meaningful space.He murmured.

600. and he was ushered into the little back drawing room. like squadrons of reserve moons.??I think it is better if I leave. An orthodox Victorian would perhaps have mistrusted that imperceptible hint of a Becky Sharp; but to a man like Charles she proved irresisti-ble. Once again Sarah??s simplicity took all the wind from her swelling spite. as if that was the listener.??She looked at him then as they walked.?? She left an artful pause. assured his complete solitude and then carefully removed his stout boots. near Beaminster. Again you notice how peaceful. as if at a door. This is why we cannot plan. though he spoke quickly enough when Charles asked him how much he owed for the bowl of excellent milk. while his now free one swept off his ^ la mode near-brimless topper. or at any rate with the enigma she presented. thrown myself on your mercy in this way if I were not desperate?????I don??t doubt your despair.??There was a silence.. There could not be. into a dark cascade of trees and undergrowth. better. Fairley. or address the young woman in the street.????No gentleman who cares for his good name can be seen with the scarlet woman of Lyme.

but could not raise her to the next. I would have come there to ask for you.??There passed a tiny light in Mary??s eyes. he was betrothed??but some emotion.????I ain??t done nothink. who had had only Aunt Tranter to show her displeasure to. black. I fear.????What! From a mere milkmaid? Impossible.The lady of the title is a sprightly French lord??s sprightly wife who has a crippling accident out hunting and devotes the rest of her excessively somber life to good works??more useful ones than Lady Cotton??s. you leave me the more grateful. ??Another dress??? he suggested diffidently.????I never ??ave. what would happen if you should one day turn your ankle in a place like this.. ??Sometimes I almost pity them. Perhaps. I exaggerate? Perhaps. Poulteney turned to look at her. or sexuality on the other. at least in public. the nearest acknowledgment to an apology she had ever been known to muster. Almost envies them. Her look back lasted two or three seconds at most; then she resumed her stare to the south. Not the dead. The ground sloped sharply up to yet another bluff some hundred yards above them; for these were the huge subsident ??steps?? that could be glimpsed from the Cobb two miles away.