Read The French Lieutenant's Woman - John Fowles for Free Online Page B

disgracefully
to condemn sufficiently the governess's conduct. One phrase in particular
angered Mrs. Poulteney. "Monsieur Varguennes was a person of considerable
charm, and Captain Talbot wishes me to suggest to you that a sailor's life
is not the best school of morals." Nor did it interest her that Miss Sarah
was a "skilled and dutiful teacher" or that "My infants have deeply missed
her." But Mrs. Talbot's patent laxity of standard and foolish sentimentality
finally helped Sarah with Mrs. Poulteney; they set her a challenge.
    So Sarah came for an interview,
accompanied by the vicar. She secretly pleased Mrs. Poulteney from the
start, by seeming so cast down, so annihilated by circumstance. It was
true that she looked suspiciously what she indeed was-- nearer twenty-five
than "thirty or perhaps more." But there was her only too visible sorrow,
which showed she was a sinner, and Mrs. Poulteney wanted nothing to do
with anyone who did not look very clearly to be in that category. And there
was her reserve, which Mrs. Poulteney took upon herself to interpret as
a mute gratitude. Above all, with the memory of so many departed domestics
behind her, the old lady abhorred impertinence and forwardness, terms synonymous
in her experience with speaking before being spoken to and anticipating
her demands, which deprived her of the pleasure of demanding why they had
not been anticipated.
    Then, at the vicar's suggestion,
she dictated a letter. The handwriting was excellent, the spelling faultless.
She set a more cunning test. She passed Sarah her Bible and made her read.
Mrs. 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, O Lord, from the evil man"). She had finally chosen the
former; and listened not only to the reading voice, but also for any fatal
sign that the words of the psalmist were not being taken very much to the
reader's heart.
    Sarah's voice was firm, rather
deep. It retained traces of a rural accent, but in those days a genteel
accent was not the great social requisite it later became. There were men
in the House of Lords, dukes even, who still kept traces of the accent
of their province; and no one thought any the worse of them. Perhaps it
was by contrast with Mrs. Fairley's uninspired stumbling that the voice
first satisfied Mrs. Poulteney. But it charmed her; and so did the demeanor
of the girl as she read "O that my ways were directed to keep Thy
statutes!"
    There remained a brief interrogation.
    " Mr. Forsythe informs me
that you retain an attachment to the foreign person."
    " I do not wish to speak of
it, ma'm."
    Now if any maid had dared
to say such a thing to Mrs. Poulteney, the Dies Irae would have followed.
But this was spoken openly, without fear, yet respectfully; and for once
Mrs. Poulteney let a golden opportunity for bullying pass.
    " I will not have French books
in my house."
    " I possess none. Nor English,
ma'm."
    She possessed none, I may
add, because they were all sold; not because she was an early forerunner
of the egregious McLuhan.
    " You have surely a Bible?"
    The girl shook her head.
The vicar intervened. "I will attend to that, my dear Mrs. Poulteney."
    " I am told you are constant
in your attendance at divine service."
    " Yes, ma'm."
    " Let it remain so. God consoles
us in all adversity."
    " I try to share your belief,
ma'm."
    Mrs. Poulteney put her most
difficult question, one the vicar had in fact previously requested her
not to ask.
    " What if this ... person
returns; what then?"
    But again Sarah did the best
possible thing: she said nothing, and simply bowed her head and shook it.
In her increasingly favorable mood Mrs. Poulteney allowed this to be an
indication of speechless repentance.
    So she entered upon her good
deed.
    It had not occurred to her,
of course, to ask why Sarah, who had refused offers of work from less sternly
Christian souls than Mrs. Poulteney's, should wish to