62 Gender and Space in Rural Britain, 1840–1920
nervous excitement. Metaphors of extraordinary mobility convey her new sense
of freedom, and as she leaves, ‘her feet seemed to tread upon air’ and she feels
that she is ‘shod with triumph’. Alex is, however, immediately ‘confronted’ with
the Admiral’s nephew Van: ‘she wanted to hurry past him with a word, but he
jumped up’.^25 Th e mansion house and the rural space that surrounds it feel, to the
cosmopolitan Van, like a trap. Even though Alex is experiencing her surround-
ings as a space of new-found independence, Van sets the pace as he walks with
her, venting his boredom and sense of isolation in the countryside. In a manner
that will mark her journeys to and from Foxe Hall, Van unconscientiously, but
decisively, accompanies Alex, putting his need for conversation and affi rmation
ahead of her need for privacy and free movement.
It is a pattern Alex and Van will fall into throughout the novel, as in his lone-
liness the young Van involves himself in the life of the Hopes, eventually falling
in love with Alex. Although she cares for Van, Alex cannot reciprocate, but nei-
ther does she have the strength to fi rmly reject him. Th eir manner of walking
together, then, refl ects her inability to fully direct and defi ne her life as yet, and
achieve independence. When, at the end of the avenue aft er her next appoint-
ment at Foxe Hall, she tells Van ‘You mustn’t come any further with me, it’s not
a bit dark’, he responds, ‘“Oh do let me come!” ... so earnestly that she could not
refuse his escort’.^26 A sense of politeness and compliance entrap her, and though
she would like to be ‘disagreeable’ and send him away, feminine codes of conduct
restrain her. When, aft er a painful argument concerning money at the Hope’s
cottage, she most needs privacy – ‘She must be alone and quiet, she felt’ – he
pursues her. He asks if he can come with her, to which she responds fi rst nega-
tively, and then moderates her tone: ‘No ... At least, of course, the high road is
free to every one. You can walk where you like. But I want to walk as fast as ever
I can for miles, without speaking a word’. In the subsequent walk across the rural
landscape, Van accompanies Alex in silence, at points even outpacing her so that
‘she had to quicken her steps to keep up with him’.^27
Th e scene encapsulates the ambivalences of Alex and Van’s relationship: while
respecting her need for silence to refl ect, his own need to accompany her outweighs
her desires for solitude and free movement. Although they both, at points, follow
and lead, walk ‘nearly at the same pace’ and agree to stop and turn back with some
consensus, her initial desire to be, for a time, outside of anyone’s consideration and
view, are not met. Van is there to look at her and to take in how fl ushed her face is
and how out of breath the walk has made her.^28 It is a scene of romantic tension,
and at the end of their walk Alex feels elated, having found someone to share her
privacy and, perhaps, accompany her as an equal as she achieves a modern sense
of freedom and independence. However, as the deterioration of their relationship
will demonstrate, Alex’s needs cannot be met within conventional arrangements,
even in her potential, but never realized, marriage to the intellectually progressive