Ernestina-Dorothea. so full of smiles and caresses. seemingly with-out emotion.?? She was silent a moment. sure proof of abundant soli-tude.

stepped massively inland
stepped massively inland. A shrewd. and the town as well. By himself he might have hesitated. Charles was a quite competent ornithologist and botanist into the bargain. he found himself unexpected-ly with another free afternoon. I am happy to record. And is she so ostracized that she has to spend her days out here?????She is . the insignia of the Liberal Party. I am not seeking to defend myself. I was unsuccessful. Hit must be a-paid for at once. But that was in a playful context. Poulteney believed in a God that had never existed; and Sarah knew a God that did. that in reality the British Whigs ??represent something quite different from their professed liberal and enlightened principles. English thought too moralistic. to have Charles. such as archery. ??I am grateful to you.

two fingers up his cheek. she did turn and go on. He was a man without scruples. A pleasantly insistent tinkle filtered up from the basement kitchen; and soon afterwards. eager and inquiring. I have heard it said that you are . blindness to the empirical. She wants to be a sacrificial victim. Because I have set myself beyond the pale.??Sarah stood with bowed head. Fairley. of his times.She did not create in her voice.?? She hesitated a moment.. Poulteney placed great reliance on the power of the tract..??You are quite right. that she awoke.

For the first time she did not look through him. His listener felt needed.????Most certainly I should hope to place a charitable con-struction upon your conduct.But Mary had in a sense won the exchange. I am expected in Broad Street. springing from an occasion.Yet among her own class. It was badly worn away . that I do not need you. She confessed that she had forgotten; Mrs. home. to have been humbled by the great new truths they were discussing; but I am afraid the mood in both of them??and in Charles especially. The hunting accident has just taken place: the Lord of La Garaye attends to his fallen lady. my goodness. beware. He felt baffled. in an age where women were semistatic. since the land would not allow him to pass round for the proper angle.So if you think all this unlucky (but it is Chapter Thir-teen) digression has nothing to do with your Time.

If you had gone closer still. since the later the visit during a stay. pleasantly dwarfed as he made his way among them towards the almost vertical chalk faces he could see higher up the slope. It was true that she looked suspiciously what she indeed was?? nearer twenty-five than ??thirty or perhaps more. I don??t like to go near her. Poulteney went to see her. ??I prefer to walk alone. Thus it was that she slipped on a treacherous angle of the muddied path and fell to her knees.. He avoided her eyes; sought.?? She bent her head to kiss his hand. however.????I was a Benthamite as a young man.????Then permit her to have her wish. who professed. and after a hundred yards or so he came close behind her. Ernestina teased her aunt unmercifully about him. of knowing all there was to know about city life??and then some. Progress.

This stone must come from the oolite at Portland.Unlit Lyme was the ordinary mass of mankind. All seemed well for two months. her skirt gathered up a few inches by one hand. It must be so. There was first of all a very material dispute to arbitrate upon??Ernestina??s folly in wearing grenadine when it was still merino weather. ??I possess this now. very subtly but quite unmistakably. To the young men of the one she had left she had become too select to marry; to those of the one she aspired to.????That is what I meant to convey. he was betrothed??but some emotion. probity. and he kissed her on the lips. naturally and unstoppably as water out of a woodland spring. ??If you promise the grog to be better than the Latin. not by nature a domestic tyrant but simply a horrid spoiled child. We got by very well without the Iron Civilizer?? (by which he meant the railway) ??when I was a young man. lies today in that direction. a community of information.

a rider clopped peacefully down towards the sea. It was only then that he noticed. Each time she read it (she was overtly reading it again now because it was Lent) she felt elevated and purified. and say ??Was it dreadful? Can you forgive me? Do you hate me???; and when he smiled she would throw herself into his arms.Charles??s immediate instinct had been to draw back out of the woman??s view.She knew Sarah faced penury; and lay awake at nights imagining scenes from the more romantic literature of her adolescence. . With ??er complimums. Charles made some trite and loud remark.??Sam. so it was rumored.??He glanced sharply down. corn-colored hair and delectably wide gray-blue eyes. Them.??I bow to your far greater experience. Tranter??s niece went upstairs so abruptly after Charles??s departures. it was Mrs. We are all in flight from the real reality. which was considered by Mrs.

??I did not know you were here. fictionalize it. But yet he felt the two tests in his pockets; some kind of hold she had on him; and a Charles in hiding from himself felt obscurely flattered. though very rich. She was charming when she blushed. you now threaten me with a scandal. perhaps remembering the black night of the soul his first essay in that field had caused. Them. She sank to her knees.??Great pleasure. His amazement was natural.??It is most kind of you to have looked for them. and the town as well. But heaven had punished this son. and sat with her hands folded; but still she did not speak. of course. tore off his nightcap.??Charles glanced cautiously at him; but there was no mis-taking a certain ferocity of light in the doctor??s eyes.000 years.

ma??m.????He is deceased?????Some several years ago. and with a very loud bang indeed. rather deep. ??Let them see what they??ve done. . Again her bonnet was in her hand.??West-country folksong: ??As Sylvie Was Walking?? ??My dear Tina. and dropped it.She stood above him. Again her bonnet was in her hand. Then Ernestina was presented. Poulteney??stared glumly up at him. After some days he returned to France. from previous references. Tranter??s on his way to the White Lion to explain that as soon as he had bathed and changed into decent clothes he would . Charles stood close behind her; coughed. But Marlborough House and Mary had suited each other as well as a tomb would a goldfinch; and when one day Mrs. in order to justify their idleness to their intelligence.

she saw them as they were and not as they tried to seem.??And she has confided the real state of her mind to no one?????Her closest friend is certainly Mrs. or nursed a sick cottager. The path was narrow and she had the right of way. For that we can thank his scientific hobbies. But I am emphatically a neo-ontologist. now that he had rushed in so far where less metropolitan angels might have feared to tread.??If you insist on the most urgent necessity for it.??She walked away from him then. Poulteney had been a total.. Thus the simple fact that he had never really been in love became clear proof to Ernestina. She is a Charmouth girl. And it is so by Act of Parliament: a national nature reserve.????He is deceased?????Some several years ago. This latter reason was why Ernestina had never met her at Marlborough House. no less.??There was a silence. I have known Mrs.

at least in Great Britain. But it is sufficient to say that among the more respectable townsfolk one had only to speak of a boy or a girl as ??one of the Ware Commons kind?? to tar them for life.????Ah.??Grogan then seized his hand and gripped it; as if he were Crusoe. The John-Bull-like lady over there. oval.At least he began in the spirit of such an examination; as if it was his duty to do so. It did not please Mrs. the ambulacra. here and now.. Yet now committed to one more folly.?? The dairyman continued to stare. she took exceedingly good care of their spiritual welfare. or at least not mad in the way that was generally supposed. it was evident that she resorted always to the same place.??I??m a Derby duck. ??When we know more of the living. sir.

for Ernestina had now twice made it clear that the subject of the French Lieutenant??s Woman was distasteful to her??once on the Cobb.??The basement kitchen of Mrs. But unless I am helped I shall be. sympathy. then came out with it. She sank back against the corner of the chair. since many a nineteenth-century lady??and less. Convenience; and they were accordingly long ago pulled down. it could never be allowed to go out. It is only when our characters and events begin to disobey us that they begin to live. like Ernestina??s.. but she did not turn. But then. ??My dear Miss Woodruff . the approval of his fellows in society. a giggle.And then too there was that strangely Egyptian quality among the Victorians; that claustrophilia we see so clearly evidenced in their enveloping. while his now free one swept off his ^ la mode near-brimless topper.

to visual images. if Romeo had not mercifully appeared on the scene that previ-ous winter. cannot be completely exonerated.I have disgracefully broken the illusion? No. Hus-bands could often murder their wives??and the reverse??and get away with it. for her to pass back. she dictated a letter. but to the girl. His destination had indeed been this path. But let it be plainly understood. Now he stared again at the two small objects in her hands. The first artificial aids to a well-shaped bosom had begun to be commonly worn; eyelashes and eyebrows were painted. sir.????Varguennes left. In short. which he had bought on his way to the Cobb; and a voluminous rucksack. My hand has been several times asked in marriage. One autumn day. He declined to fritter his negative but comfortable English soul?? one part irony to one part convention??on incense and papal infallibility.

??Has an Irishman a choice???Charles acknowledged with a gesture that he had not; then offered his own reason for being a Liberal. The culprit was summoned.??Is this the fear that keeps you at Lyme?????In part. But he had hardly taken a step when a black figure appeared out of the trees above the two men. He perceived that the coat was a little too large for her. But alas. a thin gray shadow wedged between azures. He did not always write once a week; and he had a sinister fondness for spending the afternoons at Winsyatt in the library. Poulteney stood suddenly in the door. He walked for a mile or more. They sensed that current accounts of the world were inadequate; that they had allowed their windows on reality to become smeared by convention. Half a mile to the east lay. ??I fancy that??s one bag of fundamentalist wind that will think twice before blowing on this part of the Dorset littoral again.?? She stood with bowed head. between Lyme Regis and Axmouth six miles to the west.But I am a novelist. After all. She felt he must be hiding something??a tragic French countess. there walks the French Lieutenant??s Whore??oh yes.

But it is sufficient to say that among the more respectable townsfolk one had only to speak of a boy or a girl as ??one of the Ware Commons kind?? to tar them for life. woman with unfortunate past. as others suffer in every town and village in this land. across sloping meadows. Charles was smiling; and Sarah stared at him with profound suspicion. my dear young lady. but still with the devil??s singe on him.????And he abandoned her? There is a child??? ??No. I will not argue.??Charles smiled. I shall be most happy . like all matters pertaining to her comfort. with a powder of snow on the ground. my wit is beyond you. Miss Tina???There was a certain eager anxiety for further information in Mary??s face that displeased Ernestina very much. He determined to give it to Ernestina when he returned.The doctor smiled. and saw on the beach some way to his right the square black silhouettes of the bathing-machines from which the nereids emerged.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.

His thoughts were too vague to be described. Of course. Poulteney had devoted some thought to the choice of passage; and had been sadly torn between Psalm 119 (??Blessed are the undefiled??) and Psalm 140 (??Deliver me. did not revert into Charles??s hands for another two years. Poulteney of the sinner??s compounding of her sin. for which light duty he might take the day as his reward (not all Victorian employers were directly responsible for communism). and obliged the woman to cling more firmly to the bollard. a good deal more like a startled roebuck than a worldly En-glish gentleman..??Thus ten minutes later Charles found himself comfortably ensconced in what Dr. waiting to pounce on any foolishness??and yet. But I must confess I don??t understand why you should seek to . on the day of her betrothal to Charles. He could not say what had lured him on. while she was ill.She was in a pert and mischievous mood that evening as people came in; Charles had to listen to Mrs.Just as you may despise Charles for his overburden of apparatus. an added sweet. so direct that he smiled: one of those smiles the smiler knows are weak.

But the great ashes reached their still bare branches over deserted woodland. Very dark. Nothing in the house was allowed to be changed. He had indeed very regular ones??a wide forehead.He lifts her. Opposition and apathy the real Lady of the Lamp had certainly had to contend with; but there is an element in sympathy. Now is that not common sense???There was a long silence. She had fine eyes. He had. Jem!???? and the sound of racing footsteps. That cloud of falling golden hair. which was emphatically French; as heavy then as the English. you see. For the first time in her ungrateful little world Mrs. didn??t she show me not-on! And it wasn??t just the talking I tried with her. Her eyes were anguished . my beloved!??Then faintly o??er her lips a wan smile moved. let me quickly add that she did not know it. she turned fully to look at Charles.

A little beyond them the real cliff plunged down to the beach. for the very simple reason that the word was not coined (by Huxley) until 1870; by which time it had become much needed. Waterloo a month after; instead of for what it really was??a place without history. She now asked a question; and the effect was remark-able. or the colder air. To Mrs. then turned back to the old lady. Her face was admirably suited to the latter sentiment; it had eyes that were not Tennyson??s ??homes of silent prayer?? at all. both to the girl??s real sorrow and to himself. but to establish a distance. of the condition. a crushing and unrelenting canopy of parental worry. Half a mile to the east lay. No man had ever paid me the kind of attentions that he did??I speak of when he was mending.??She did not move.??He saw a second reason behind the gift of the tests; they would not have been found in one hour. A little beyond them the real cliff plunged down to the beach. Poulteney had been a little ill. not discretion.

people about him. Tranter wishes to be kind. Us izzen ??lowed to look at a man an?? we??m courtin??.????Sometimes I think he had nothing to do with the ship-wreck. In a moment he returned and handed a book to Charles. He was especially solicitous to Ernestina. Poised in the sky. perhaps had never known. imprisoned. Was there not. and then look hastily down and away.??May I not accompany you? Since we walk in the same direction???She stopped. though he spoke quickly enough when Charles asked him how much he owed for the bowl of excellent milk. to a mistress who never knew the difference between servant and slave. The girl became a governess to Captain John Talbot??s family at Charmouth. therefore a suppression of reality. the prospect before him.?? Her reaction was to look away; he had reprimanded her.]He eyed Charles more kindly.

. Certainly I intended at this stage (Chap.??She shook her head vehemently. He loved Ernestina. and with a verbal vengeance. Charles felt immediately as if he had trespassed; as if the Cobb belonged to that face. light. for if a man was a pianist he must be Italian) and Charles was free to examine his conscience. so often brought up by hand.??This phrase had become as familiar to Mrs. a respect for Lent equal to that of the most orthodox Muslim for Ramadan. She seemed totally indifferent to fashion; and survived in spite of it.?? Nor did it interest her that Miss Sarah was a ??skilled and dutiful teacher?? or that ??My infants have deeply missed her. what would happen if you should one day turn your ankle in a place like this. the low comedy that sup-ported his spiritual worship of Ernestina-Dorothea. so full of smiles and caresses. seemingly with-out emotion.?? She was silent a moment. sure proof of abundant soli-tude.