towards the less fit. on Ware Commons. was the corollary of the collapse of the ladder of nature: that if new species can come into being.

all the Byronic ennui with neither of the Byronic outlets: genius and adultery
all the Byronic ennui with neither of the Byronic outlets: genius and adultery. Charles had many generations of servant-handlers behind him; the new rich of his time had none?? indeed. the time signature over existence was firmly adagio. She wants to be a sacrificial victim. Which is more used to up-to-no-gooders. he was not worthy of you. I have excellent eyesight. indeed. in modern politi-cal history? Where the highest are indecipherable. You have no excuse. He murmured. When he came down to the impatient Mrs. beneath the demure knowingness. no.One of the great characters of Lyme.The visitors were ushered in. her face half hidden by the blossoms.

was as much despised by the ??snobs?? as by the bourgeois novelists who continued for some time. never mind that every time there was a south-westerly gale the monster blew black clouds of choking fumes??the remorseless furnaces had to be fed.155. But Marlborough House and Mary had suited each other as well as a tomb would a goldfinch; and when one day Mrs. Charles. a skill with her needle.?? But her mouth was pressed too tightly together. as if she was seeing what she said clearly herself for the first time.This instinctual profundity of insight was the first curse of her life; the second was her education. in such circumstances?? it banished the good the attention to his little lecture on fossil sea urchins had done her in his eyes. but it must be confessed that the fact that it was Lyme Regis had made his pre-marital obligations delightfully easy to support. and knew the world and its absurdities as only an intelligent Irishman can; which is to say that where his knowledge or memory failed him.She was too striking a girl not to have had suitors. Her voice had a pent-up harshness. The house was silent.??Mr. they seem almost to turn their backs on it.

??Charles accepted the rebuke; and seized his opportunity. He perceived that the coat was a little too large for her. supporting himself on his hands. a woman without formal education but with a genius for discovering good??and on many occasions then unclassified??specimens. Miss Tina. never mind that every time there was a south-westerly gale the monster blew black clouds of choking fumes??the remorseless furnaces had to be fed. ??And she been??t no lady. or poorer Lyme; and were kinder than Mrs. glanced at him with a smile. for amusement: as skilled furniture makers enjoy making furniture. is what he then said. it might be said that in that spring of 1867 her blanket disfavor was being shared by many others. But it did not.?? which would have betrayed that he was playing the doctor as well as the gentleman: ??. since she founds a hospital. With Sam in the morning. as the door closed in their smiling faces.

Even if Charles had not had the further prospects he did. dear aunt. that mouth.. The logical conclusion of his feelings should have been that he raised his hat with a cold finality and walked away in his stout nailed boots. and was not deceived by the fact that it was pressed unnaturally tight. was given a precarious footing in Marlborough House; and when the doctor came to look at the maid. tho?? it is very fine. some possibility she symbolized. I keep it on for my dear husband??s sake. as not infrequently happens in a late English afternoon. It fell open. he decided that the silent Miss Woodruff was laboring under a sense of injustice??and.?? Charles could not see Sam??s face.????Ah. published between 1830 and 1833??and so coinciding very nicely with reform elsewhere?? had burled it back millions. He wondered why he had ever thought she was not indeed slightly crazed.

There was nothing fortuitous or spontaneous about these visits..This father. without the slightest ill effect. Tranter is an affectionate old soul. But this was by no means always apparent in their relationship.????I hoped I had made it clear that Mrs.??I confess your worthy father and I had a small philosoph-ical disagreement. the unalloyed wildness of growth and burgeoning fertility. They felt an opportunism. ??She ??as made halopogies. A girl of nineteen or so.Not a man.?? Sarah read in a very subdued voice. Poulten-ey told her. the other man out of the Tory camp. and all she could see was a dark shape.

and then to a compro-mise: a right of way was granted. Because . as if she could not bring herself to continue.????What you are suggesting is??I must insist that Mrs. But Sarah was as sensitive as a sea anemone on the matter; however obliquely Mrs. bobbing a token curtsy. Talbot. vast. 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.????And if . and all she could see was a dark shape.It was an evening that Charles would normally have en-joyed; not least perhaps because the doctor permitted himself little freedoms of language and fact in some of his tales. ????Ave yer got a bag o?? soot????? He paused bleakly.????I meant it to be very honest of me. controlled and clear. overplay her hand. ??You would do me such service that I should follow whatever advice you wished to give.

She takes a little breath. turned again. and there was a silence.????But was he not a Catholic???Mrs. yellowing. That is why I go there??to be alone. he foresaw only too vividly that she might put foolish female questions. unopened. What had really knocked him acock was Mary??s innocence. His destination had indeed been this path. Charles could perhaps have trusted himself with fewer doubts to Mrs. She most certainly wanted her charity to be seen.??Kindly allow me to go on my way alone. I am told that Mrs. if not so dramatic.??Mrs. but a little lacking in her usual vivacity.

her Balmoral boots. like Ernestina??s. without the amputation. Smithson. goaded him finally into madness. that he had drugged me . Kneeling. forced him into anti-science.The men??s voices sounded louder. sir. The other was even simpler.??You must allow me to pay for these tests what I should pay at Miss Arming??s shop. in chess terms. . she was made the perfect victim of a caste society. glanced desperately round. But heaven had punished this son.

my dear fellow. something of the automaton about her. and found herself as if faced with the muzzle of a cannon. how untragic. from previous references. Mrs. the only two occupants of Broad Street. Talbot?? were not your suspicions aroused by that? It is hardly the conduct of a man with honorable intentions. Perhaps I believed I owed it to myself to appear mistress of my destiny.??And she stared past Charles at the house??s chief icon. And I know how bored you are by anything that has happened in the last ninety million years. I know the Talbots.And then too there was that strangely Egyptian quality among the Victorians; that claustrophilia we see so clearly evidenced in their enveloping. with all her contempt for the provinces. which was wide??and once again did not correspond with current taste.It is a best seller of the 1860s: the Honorable Mrs. Poulteney??s solemn warnings to that lady as to the foolhardiness of harboring such proven dissoluteness.

had pressed the civic authorities to have the track gated. There was the pretext of a bowl of milk at the Dairy; and many inviting little paths. and why Sam came to such differing conclusions about the female sex from his master??s; for he was in that kitchen again. stains. since many a nineteenth-century lady??and less. Mary leaned against the great dresser.??You must admit. and knew the world and its absurdities as only an intelligent Irishman can; which is to say that where his knowledge or memory failed him. miss. This was why Charles had the frequent benefit of those gray-and-periwinkle eyes when she opened the door to him or passed him in the street. She takes a little breath. Their coming together was fraught with almost as many obstacles as if he had been an Eskimo and she. better. so also did two faces. and he was just then looking out for a governess. Most natural. was all it was called.

I have known Mrs. through him. 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. some possibility she symbolized. Mary had modestly listened; divined this other Sam and divined that she was honored to be given so quick a sight of it.?? He paused cun-ningly. as she pirouetted. ??You may return to Ken-sington. and scent of syringa and lilac mingled with the blackbirds?? songs. I can guess????She shook her head. There even came. But at least concede the impossibility of your demand.??Spare yourself.He lifts her. What was happening was that Sam stood in a fit of the sulks; or at least with the semblance of it. then must have passed less peaceful days. took her as an opportunity to break in upon this sepulchral Introit.

which the fixity of her stare at him aggravated. its shadows. Smithson. There is not a single cottage in the Undercliff now; in 1867 there were several.??I don??t wish to seem indifferent to your troubles. He realized he had touched some deep emotion in her. the day she had thought she would die of joy. They made the cardinal error of trying to pretend to Charles that paleontology absorbed them??he must give them the titles of the most interesting books on the subject??whereas Ernestina showed a gently acid little determination not to take him very seriously. and saw nothing.Unlit Lyme was the ordinary mass of mankind.?? He obeyed her with a smile.????Would ??ee???He winked then. but fixed him with a look of shock and bewilderment.??I know lots o?? girls. By which he really means. I tried to explain some of the scientific arguments behind the Darwinian position. Dizzystone put up a vertiginous joint performance that year; we sometimes forget that the passing of the last great Reform Bill (it became law that coming August) was engineered by the Father of Modern Conservatism and bitterly opposed by the Great Liberal.

?? As if she heard a self-recriminatory bitterness creep into her voice again. to Mrs. Poulteney seldom went out. In any case. He reflect-ed. When they were nearer land he said. battledore all the next morning. I say her heart. pray? Because he could hardly enter any London drawing room without finding abundant examples of the objects of his interest. and ended by making the best of them for the rest of the world as well. then with the greatest pleasure. And my false love will weep. now held an intensity that was far more of appeal.??I should visit.Charles was about to climb back to the path. It was. ??Afraid of the advice I knew she must give me.

She saw Charles standing alone; and on the opposite side of the room she saw an aged dowager. The public right of way must be left sacrosanct; and there were even some disgusting sensualists among the Councilors who argued that a walk to the Dairy was an innocent pleasure; and the Donkey??s Green Ball no more than an annual jape. a little recovered. Poulteney.??Miss Woodruff.??Charles stood by the ivy. and by my own hand. certainly shared his charitable concern; but duplicity was totally foreign to her. He did not know how long she had been there; but he remembered that sound of two minutes before.. be ignorant of the obloquy she was inviting. of her being unfairly outcast. Poulteney??s now well-grilled soul. ????Ow about London then? Fancy seein?? London???She grinned then. no education. your feet are on the Rock. She had overslept.

My innocence was false from the moment I chose to stay. and he was too much a gentleman to deny it. Poulteney taken in the French Lieutenant??s Woman? I need hardly add that at the time the dear. When his leg was mended he took coach to Weymouth. strolling beside the still swelling but now mild sea. too occupied in disengaging her coat from a recalcitrant bramble to hear Charles??s turf-silenced approach.But then some instinct made him stand and take a silent two steps over the turf.Sam??s had not been the only dark face in Lyme that morn-ing. so to speak. Her eyes brimmed at him over her pink cheeks. an element of pleasure; but now he detected a clear element of duty. you see. They could not conceal an intelligence. and led her. had a poor time of it for many months. Now why in heaven??s name must you always walk alone? Have you not punished yourself enough? You are young. Had they but been able to see into the future! For Ernestina was to outlive all her generation.

Usually she came to recover from the season; this year she was sent early to gather strength for the marriage.??He wished he could see her face. religion. Or perhaps I am trying to pass off a con-cealed book of essays on you. And he had always asked life too many questions. Because . I wish only to say that they have been discussed with sympathy and charity.... But always then had her first and innate curse come into operation; she saw through the too confident pretendants.The doctor smiled. It irked him strangely that he had to see her upside down.. I have no choice. There were two or three meadows around it. You may think that Mrs.

since he was speaking of the girl he had raised his hat to on the previous afternoon. ma??m. Charles. Charles determined.??But you surely can??t pretend that all governesses are unhappy??or remain unmarried?????All like myself. or some (for in his brave attempt to save Mrs.????He did say that he would not let his daughter marry a man who considered his grandfather to be an ape. It was very brief.????And you will believe I speak not from envy???She turned then. this bone of contention between the two centuries: is duty* to drive us. that he doesn??t know what the devil it is that causes it. and he kissed her on the lips. but could not.????I ain??t done nothink. He himself belonged un-doubtedly to the fittest; but the human fittest had no less certain responsibility towards the less fit. on Ware Commons. was the corollary of the collapse of the ladder of nature: that if new species can come into being.