Mark goes to Belbury, where he meets Wither, whose manner even at this early stage is described as "vague and chaotic." Later we'll find out why. Ironically, Belbury and the N.I.C.E. are described as "a very happy family" (51), and Mark is told, "you are among friends here" (52). He meets Bill, the "Blizzard," Hingest, as well as Steele and "Fairy" Hardcastle. Hingest has decided to leave the N.I.C.E and advises Mark to go back to Bracton; I noticed in this reading that Hingest is a gardener, which is maybe interesting in light of Jane's experience at St. Anne's.
While Mark is trying desperately to figure out if he's in at the N.I.C.E., Jane goes to St. Anne's to see Grace Ironwood. The description of the grounds there is very organic: fruit trees, a mossy path, gooseberry bushes, a lawn with a see-saw, a greenhouse, a barn, a stable, a potting shed, a pigstye, a vegetable garden, and roses (59-60). Walking through these to the house, Jane starts comparing it all to gardens she has read about in literature: the garden in Peter Rabbit, or the Romance of the Rose, or Klingsor's garden (from Parsifal), or the garden in Alice; these thoughts elicit a "memory": "The beauty of the female is the root of joy to the female as well as to the male . . ." (60), but she doesn't remember where she's read this. A few minutes later, waiting to meet Miss Ironwood, Jane opens a book and sees, for the first time, the quote she's just "remembered."
After the interview with Miss Ironwood (I wonder if my students will figure out the importance of her name), Jane is uncomfortable and not convinced that she should connect herself with the "company" at St. Anne's; while Mark is dying to get in to the inner circle at Belbury, she is worried about being drawn in to something against her will. She had, we are told, a "fear of being invaded and intangled" and a "resentment against love" (70-71); she doesn't want to lose her individuality.
Chapter 4 begins with the N.I.C.E. cutting down trees and proceeding with construction in Edgestow, which leads to the Dimbles and Mrs. Maggs being put out of their homes, and it ends with the N.I.C.E's workmen tearing up Bracton College grounds and a riot breaking out, which is quelled by the N.I.C.E. "police." Jane has a dream in which she sees the murder of Hingest; when she hears the report of the murder from Curry, she begins to think she must go back to St. Anne's, but still hesitates to become part of the company.
In this chapter, too, we meet the Reverend Straik, a member of the N.I.C.E., who believes that science will help to bring the Kingdom of God on earth; he says, "Where we see power, we see the sign of His coming" (77). I won't stop to rant about this! We get another view of Mark here as well; when he and Cosser go to Cure Hardy to write their report, we see that he is really quite different from the N.I.C.E. members. He finds pleasure in the simplicities of the small village; we're told that "Mark was not as a rule very sensitive to beauty, but Jane and his love for Jane had already awakened him in this respect" (84). Also, we find that "his education had had the curious effect of making things he read and wrote more real to him than things he saw" (85). This is interesting in light of Jane's thoughts at St. Anne's, where she relates the real garden only to gardens in literature.
I do think sometimes our students may be lead to this kind of response to the real world; too often we hedge them in with books, books, and more books, as though these were the most important and only substantial things in the world, when we really ought to be providing them with books as a means of opening up the world and helping them to interact with real people in more integral ways. At a student writing conference this afternoon, one young woman stopped afterwards to tell me how much she appreciated my "stories" in class; I laughed because I know I do tend to go off on rabbit trails occasionally, but she said the stories really encouraged her and helped her to connect what we were reading or working on to the real world--a world, though she didn't say this--that I think she and others are a little apprehensive of encountering as adults. Anyway, it made my day! And I'm always amazed when my own reading connects with my own experience. I should stop being amazed I suppose; that's one of the beauties of language and Story.
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