Mr Charlton's growing infatuation with Mariette

Mr Charlton’s growing infatuation with Mariette takes shape less through declarations than through a recurring pattern: Mariette approaches with confidence, he is visibly unsettled, and then he finds an excuse to withdraw or delay. From her first affectionate gestures to their private time in a buttercup field and the half-dark stable, the relationship advances through both invitation and hesitation. The contrast between Mr Charlton’s formal obligations and the intimacy he increasingly welcomes gives the developing romance its characteristic rhythm.

The First Signs of Intimacy

Mariette first tests how Mr Charlton understands their closeness, asking how he knew what she meant and then explaining that she had been watching him. She places her hands against his cheeks; the gesture is light, but he experiences it as acutely disconcerting. When he sees her lips raised toward him, he responds with a startling and embarrassed confession. The episode establishes a mismatch that recurs throughout their courtship: Mariette acts with relative assurance, while Mr Charlton experiences each advance as a disturbance he has not yet learned how to manage.

Afterward, Mariette asks whether her being the same girl makes any difference. She insists that she remains herself, repeating that she is unchanged. Mr Charlton looks toward her bare shoulder, but when she touches his face again he takes refuge in the memory of a buff-yellow form that he needs to have her father sign. The contrast is telling. His attraction is already present, but he tries to redirect the moment toward paperwork and an ordinary duty, as if a practical errand could restore familiar boundaries.

Attraction in Company

The attraction returns in a more exposed social setting when Mariette sits on Mr Charlton’s lap without being asked. Her closeness intensifies his confusion, and he asks what the scent is; she identifies it as gardenia. The moment makes their intimacy legible to him through immediate physical reaction before he has found a settled way to describe his feelings. Around the family, their courtship is not separated from the ordinary bustle of shared life, but his response marks the difference between his composure in public and the emotional force of Mariette’s attention.

That uncertainty persists after a family gathering. When Mariette gets up to fetch ice cream and a jug of Jersey milk, she hopes Mr Charlton will accompany her, but he remains confused and does not take the opportunity. The warm, humid day and the high buttercups in the meadow sharpen her own thoughts about him. She remembers the kiss she had given him and wonders whether intimacy might ease his troubled state; she also imagines what it would be like to be with him in a buttercup field. Her thoughts are not simply a response to his hesitancy: she is actively considering how to bring the two of them closer.

Mariette’s interest has a personal focus. She is growing fonder of Mr Charlton, drawn to his soft, endearing, sometimes sad eyes and their delicate brown lashes. The narrative places this developing attachment beside her practical hope that he will follow her into the kitchen, then lets her attention move beyond that missed chance to the possibility of a more private encounter. Affection and initiative belong to her as much as they do to his eventual response.

Retreat, Return, and Growing Attachment

Mr Charlton’s doubts are repeatedly countered by Mariette’s willingness to make the next move. Pop urges him to take advantage of paid sick leave, presenting it as an opportunity to stay away from work. The advice becomes consequential when, just before midnight, Mariette pins Mr Charlton against the dark stair newel post and kisses him again. She tells him that his hands are hot; he objects that they are often hot at that time of year, but her renewed kiss leaves him in turmoil. His thoughts circle among the buttercup field, the nightingales, and the earlier image of the goose’s neck around his leg. The attraction is no longer an isolated response: it has gathered associations and now competes directly with his effort to return to ordinary professional life.

Mariette gives that choice a concrete shape by inviting him to stay for a week and then through the following weekend. Mr Charlton answers by citing the formidable pile of papers on his office desk and the trouble that would follow if he did not return. His explanation shows the practical pressure behind his hesitation, but it does not resolve his attachment. Instead, work and desire are set against each other: the office offers a reason to leave, while Mariette’s repeated advances make staying increasingly attractive.

Later, in the buttercup field, their positions begin to shift. Mariette gently draws Mr Charlton toward her, and his expression has become searching and proud. The change is measured rather than announced: the man who repeatedly fell back on a form or a backlog of office papers is now responding to her more openly. The field, first a place Mariette imagined as a possible setting for intimacy, becomes the setting in which the narrative shows their growing closeness.

The Stable and the Changing Pattern

Their affection also enters the routine of preparing for the pony event. After breakfast, Mariette and Mr Charlton cross the yard to feed the donkeys in the stable Pop had built for the family’s anticipated riding. Four donkeys are already there: two hired by Pop and two brought by their owners the night before, with three more hoped for. In the stable’s half-dark, Mr Charlton quickly takes Mariette in his arms and kisses her. Their closeness now occurs within a shared task and a familiar farm setting, rather than only as a sudden interruption to conversation.

Mariette laughs and trembles, saying she had hardly been able to wait for that first kiss of the day; Mr Charlton says he had not been able to wait either, especially for the afternoon. She answers that she feels the same and offers herself to him again. Their exchange marks a clearer reciprocity than the earlier scenes: her initiative has not disappeared, but he now expresses eagerness in return. The donkeys stir and swish their tails as they hear the couple, and Mariette breaks away partway through their second kiss to observe that she has never been kissed among donkeys before. The everyday surroundings do not halt their intimacy; they give it a comic, matter-of-fact setting.

Across these episodes, the relationship changes from a sequence of advances that leave Mr Charlton bewildered into a closeness he actively anticipates. Yet the evidence retains the tension between his desire and his stated obligations, and it does not provide a final resolution for their future. What it does establish is the direction of change: Mariette’s steady pursuit is met at last by a growing willingness in Mr Charlton to remain, respond, and look forward to being with her.