That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis

After being abandoned in the street, in the middle of the angry mob, Jane finds a doorstep to sit in. Some kind people take her in, feed her & ask her if they might take her home in their car. She tells the couple that her home is at St. Anne's & they take her there. She wakes up in bed at the house with Mrs. Maggs at her side with no real memory of going to bed.

...

At that very moment, Mr. Dimble hears a pupil of his calling, & is forced to excuse himself, but not before telling Jane to let him know if she thinks of telling anyone else of her strange dream.

...

By his dress, Jules can tell that Straik is also a clergyman & he gets annoyed that Wither has been appointing people to ranks without his knowledge.

...

He feels sad that he has dragged Jane into his unstable life. His thoughts are interrupted by a visitor in his room. Upon seeing Frost, Mark knows that he is at Belbury. He is also struck with the sick feeling that just hours before he would have kept company with this frightful man.

...

He sits on the side of the road & looks across a field, dreaming of honey. 2 workers for N.I.C.E., having been sent to pick up a wolf, see Mr. Bultitude & take him away to Belbury to be experimented on.

...

However, when Jane is on her way to the lodge she worries that he might not be there. She is glad to see though a window, clothes piled in a chair, because this means that Mark is there. She is ready to submit fully in the marriage relationship, and she goes into the lodge.

...

Jane finds it beautiful. Throughout the entire exchange MacPhee interjects that he should be the one going out to search for Merlin, but Ransom insists that this is impossible because he has not placed himself under the protection of Maleldil. Ransom regards Merlin as somewhat of an enemy, perhaps because he thinks that he may already be under the power of the evil eldils.

...

On the way home Jane thinks it is wise to avoid entanglements, & reflects on this as a reason why she has so far avoided trying to have children. On returning home, Jane hears the telephone ringing & Mrs. Dimble is very distraught. Jane invites her over as she has no where to stay. Mrs. Dimble on her way to Jane's house to spend the night.

...

The couple spends time together, but each is mostly thinking of him/herself. While Mark & Jane interact, a meeting is at Belbury College, where Lord Feverstone informs the fellows that Mark will not be coming back. This message is strange because Mark has not officially accepted a position at the N.I.C.E., & has not resigned from the fellowship at Bracton. While the meeting goes on, a great commotion goes on outside.

The fellows think they hear people with machine guns. Bragdon Wood is being razed.

Shortly after having this dream Jane's mind could no longer be spied on, & this occurs only because she has placed herself under the control of an oppositional force. The 2 men go on to talk about the fact that it is undesirable to bring Jane into their company by force, because this action may lead to a blockage of her psychic gift. Wither & Frost talk about 2 ways they can cajole Mark into getting his wife to come to them.

They can either make him so afraid that he will ask her to come, or they can make her so desirable to him, by using aphrodisiacs, that he will want her to come to him. They rule out this second idea because if they chemically induce feelings of lust within Mark, they think he may crave any female, and not specifically his wife. They also rule out the first option because people who are motivated by fear are unpredictable. The 2 men discuss that even without Jane, Mark is desirable for the inner circle of the N.I.C.E. because he is easily brought in & he has good genes.

1. Lord Feverstone says that there is an interplanetary problem, but he says that this problem must be set aside because nothing can be done about it. Feverstone says the only man who could help has been murdered. Feverstone uses the story of this murder to emphasize the importance of Mark choosing the right side, although Mark is at this time only vaguely aware of the battle.

2. "earthly rivals," meaning all organic life, both flora & fauna. Anything that makes the planet dirty is an obstacle to the cause of making man a more efficient creature. 3. N.I.C.E. must contend with man himself. Feverstone explains that some men must rise up & take control of the rest of humanity. Some of the plans to overcome the problem of mankind include sterilizing the unfit, selective breeding & genocide. Mark seems to take offence at none of these prospects.

Mark's car ride with Feverstone is exciting because the Lord is a bit of a daredevil. Mark is further taken in by him & very impressed. Mark arrives at Belbury, which is an "Edwardian mansion" built after Versailles, then added onto to make room for a Blood Transfusion Office.

It is into this office that the N.I.C.E. has moved its temporary headquarters. In the meantime, Jane travels to St. Anne's to meet Mrs. Ironwood.

The leader comforts Jane that if they lose the battle, they will go down with Mark, but if they win they will rescue him. He tells Jane that the housemates are to have a meeting tonight because things are getting very serious, but Jane is not to come to the meeting. The leader explains that MacPhee worries that if Jane hears some of the talk in the meeting, she will carry this information over into her dreams. It would cause Jane to negate the prophetic powers of her dreams. Jane is not offended at being left out.

After her talk with the leader, Jane is lead to MacPhee's study where he will tell her the history of their group. He tells Jane that the leader was once known as Dr. Ransom. She recognizes a book that he wrote. Ransom has disappeared from society twice & 1 of these times he came back saying that he had been kidnapped & taken to Mars. One of his kidnappers was Lord Feverstone, although a different name. His 2nd disappearance, when he visited Venus, was initiated by creatures that he calls eldils. These creatures, whom Ransom came in contact with on Mars, are inhabitants of the universe, but some of them stick to 1 planet or another.

There is only one animal he retains from the crowd, Mr. Bultitude. He sends Bultitude home to St. Anne's at once. While Merlin's back is turned, the tramp runs away with pockets full of food & a donkey. Merlin also frees all the prisoners who are waiting to be "reformed" by the N.I.C.E. & after finding Mr. Maggs, he gives him a letter from Mrs. Maggs telling him to come to the house at St. Anne's.

After setting the animals & criminals free Merlin finds Mark in the banquet hall & wakes him with cold water. Mark notices that everyone in the room is dead & then receives from Merlin a note from Jane. Her message says that he should come to her at St. Anne's. During the beginning of the confusion, Wither notices that the real Merlin is orchestrating it all. He knows that powers are being used that are not merely human & he knows that the barrier between the heavenly Oyeresu & the Earth has been broken & all is lost.

She is humbled by her experience & this is a new position for her in her relationship with Mark. His only thoughts are selfish ones because he is tired & drunk.Jane & Mark wake together the next morning & whatever drew Jane to Mark the night before is gone. She is cold toward him & all yet he is admiring her looks. Mark tells Jane of the trip he has planned to visit Belbury & of his prospective job.

After the 2 dress & start their day, each receives a visitor. Jane is called on by Mrs. Maggs-her housekeeper. Jane regards Mrs. Maggs as someone of a lower class than herself. Lord Feverstone shows up to get Mark for their trip to Belbury. Upon meeting Feverstone, Jane distrusts him. Jane goes out shopping. She reasons that Mark will probably be gone for a few days & nights-she does not like the prospect of being alone for that long. She resolves to go see Mrs. Ironwood, but she thinks it is foolish.

Chapter 2 Dinner With the Sub-Warden

After the meeting & vote held by the fellows at Bracton College, 4 of the participants go into 2 of the best rooms at the college to dine. Present are Mr. Curry, Lord Feverstone, James Busby (the college bursar) & Mark Studdock. Busby has arranged this dinner party, during which the conversation turns to N.I.C.E. Lord Feverstone raises the question as to whether anyone really knows what the institute is, or what it plans to do. Busby & Curry spout all sorts of answers to this question, but these answers are vague, except for their belief that it will create well-paying jobs.

Frost waits for the chaos to end before he makes a move. He goes to the chamber where the Head is kept & he sees Straik dead. Because his body is experiencing a stress response, he hardly notices Wither & Filostrato also dead. He notices that the head of Alcasan is missing from its podium.

After this, he goes to the garage and gets gasoline. He takes as much as he can carry to the room where Mark was being trained in objectivity. He douses the room with the gasoline & sets it on fire. He dies still denying his feelings, opinions & even his soul.

Chapter 16 Summary Baquet at Belbury

At the banquet, Mark feels happy & hopeful. He notices that the tramp is seated between Mr. Jules & Mr. Wither & behind him stands Merlin. Jules gets up to deliver a speech to the crowd. No one takes notice of his words until they stop making sense. Jules thinks he is speaking normally, but the words coming out of his mouth are all gibberish. Wither rises to stop him from speaking & begins to make apologies for their figurehead.

Chapter 8 Moonlight at Belbury

Back at N.I.C.E. headquarters, the Fairy is talking with the Deputy Director, Wither about her run-in with Jane Studdock. The director is telling the Fairy that she should not have tried to take Jane by force. He says that this method of bringing Jane to Belbury could disrupt her gift. Frost has already noted that Jane's mind is less accessible than when they began telepathically spying on her in her sleep. It is revealed during this conversation that the only reason that Mark was brought to Belbury & offered a position in N.I.C.E. was to get to Jane.

Mr. Wither states that the joy from the situation is that the N.I.C.E. police, headed by the Fairy, were on the scene almost immediately, and the local police are not opposed to their involvement. After the meeting is adjourned, a member of the N.I.C.E. named Mr. Cosser invites Mark to join him in doing some work in a town called Cure Hardy. The N.I.C.E. plans to redirect a river, the Wynd, from the town of Edgestow through the town of Cure Hardy.

Cosser takes Mark to Cure Hardy in order to write a report about this river redirection. While the 2 men are there, Mark talks about his appreciation for the countryside & the people. Cosser is in sharp contrast with Mark on these issues. He does not find any beauty or joy in either of these things. After their research outing to Cure Hardy, Cosser drops Mark off in Edgestow so that he can visit Jane. Mark thinks of how he will present the story of what he has been doing at Belbury. When the 2 are together, Jane thinks of whether she will tell Mark of her dreams or her visit to St. Anne's.

Mark has recently been invited to join a movement within the fellows at Bracton called the Progressive Element, & his thoughts are joyful because he longs to belong to almost any exclusive society. Mark chats with another member of the Progressive Element, Mr. Curry (the sub-warden), while on his way to a meeting of the fellows at Bracton College.

During his conversation with Curry, Mark learns that the meeting at Bracton will probably last long into the night, as there are many matters to discuss, & because the group of fellows contains several members who will obstruct the progress of the meeting if they do not agree with 1 of the decisions being made. Mark also learns that he will get a chance to meet a supporter of his, a man who has been away from Bracton for quite some time, Lord Feverstone.

His words come out garbled & meaningless. The dinner guests begin to whisper to one another, but their words are gibberish as well. Even when Frost tries to write a note the words do not make sense. The room erupts in chaos as everyone tries to regain order. Suddenly there is a shot, & Jules is dead. The Fairy shoots Jules just before the people begin to notice that there are animals loose in the room.

During the chaos, Mark sees the Fairy lock the main door, but in the chaos caused by the unintelligible speech & the deadly animals, the Fairy is trampled to death. Another member of N.I.C.E., Steele, is also trampled to death, but this time by an elephant. During the chaos, Merlin slips out the door. He is the reason for the garbled speech because he cast a "curse of Babel" on the crowd. He goes to another part of the house & lets all the experimental animals out to antagonize the crowd.

Chapter 15 The Descent of the Gods

Everyone at the house at St. Anne's, except Merlin & Ransom, is huddled in the kitchen around the fire. The other 2 are upstairs in Ransom's room, called the Blue Room, waiting for the Oyeresu to descend. When the beings begin to visit the house all the people in it are affected, both those in the kitchen and the 2 in the Blue Room. When Mercury descends, knowledge & thoughts flow freely between Ransom & Merlin while, downstairs, there has never been a wittier, more eloquent conversation among the group.

He is referred to as the Lord of Meaning & in the Blue Room Ransom & Merlin share words & thoughts in a free-flowing manner. As Venus comes upon the house, the couples downstairs begin getting along really well. Upstairs the temperature rises & a sweet breeze wafts through the room. Mars descends & all the people upstairs & down are filled with loyalty & admiration for each other.

Everyone finds himself with great courage when Mars, also called Malacandra, inhabits the house. Fourthly, Saturn descends into the Blue Room. Everyone in the house becomes very cold, & finally the last Oyeresu descends. This being is referred to as the "King of Kings" & Jove. This being causes everyone in the house to feel regal & proud. When all the Oyeresu are assembled, they impart power to Merlin & later that night he is dropped off near Belbury to infiltrate the N.I.C.E.

Mark gets confused about who Filostrato is referring to. He tells Mark that the Head is no figurehead, & that he meant everything he said at the dinner about man learning to live with less body. Filostrato presents Mark with 2 options. 1. He can decide to be truly one of the members of the inner circle by bringing Jane to Belbury, & this action will put the world at his feet 2. He can decide to leave the institution & end up as Hingest.

Filostrato tells Mark that he will pay a visit to the Head shortly. He tells Mark that N.I.C.E. was created for reasons other than those previously stated. It was created to figure out how to give eternal life to the human brain. Those of the inner circle have already made great progress to this end. He tells Mark that the resurrection of Jesus was a biblical symbol, but tonight he will see what it symbolized. He tells Mark that the Head is already considered by nature to be dead. Mark learns further that the Head is what remains of the prisoner Alcasan.

Chapter 13 They Have Pulled Down Deep Heaven on Their Heads

Frost & Wither become confused when the man they think to be Merlin does not respond to their Latin. They think that if they get someone who speaks Celtic or Welsh then they can communicate with the mysterious man. They resolve to allow Mark & Rev. Straik, as their only 2 pupils advancing toward admittance to the inner circle, to take shifts watching the old man in case he begins to communicate. At St. Anne's, the real Merlin advances through the door toward Ransom, who greets him in Latin, telling him to stand still & in the name of God say who he is & why he is there.

Mark makes his way through some doors, to food. Mark finds a long table at which many members of the N.I.C.E. are seated for lunch. Mark chooses a seat beside a stranger & feels awkward because he is not sure that he is a member yet. The lunch party moves across the hall to have coffee & Mark sees a fellow Bractonian & member of the Progressive Element, William Hingest. Hingest tells Mark that the vote over Bragdon Wood was all a show & that the N.I.C.E. would have had it anyway.

He alludes to the terrible plans of the N.I.C.E. & tells Mark that he has had enough. He advises Mark to go back to Bracton & continue with his career. He says that he is leaving that night, but if Mark stays he will introduce him to the head of the sociology department, Mr. Steele. When Mark is introduced to him, Steele takes a hostile attitude about working with Mark. Steele shows contempt for Lord Feverstone because he assumes that Feverstone has dumped Mark into his department without first consulting him. This is a misunderstanding because Mark has been brought to the N.I.C.E. to do jobs that do not fall within the authority of the sociology department.

In the mean time, Jane Studdock has been alone tidying the home she shares with Mark. She has been having vivid & frightening dreams, & is reminded of her last one when she picks up the newspaper. In her dream she saw the face of a foreign man who looked shocked & terrified, as if waiting for something awful to happen to him.

He began having a conversation with someone in French, & then suddenly the visitor took hold of the foreigner's head & twisted it off. Just then, the head changed from that of a foreign man to that of a very old man with a flowing white beard. Some people were trying to dig this man up from a churchyard. Jane wakes because she tries to stop them; she tries to tell them the man is alive.

Mark enters this room alone, & when he looks around the room seems very normal. On closer inspection, there are small inconsistencies such as the symmetry of doorways being slightly off. Mark looks around the room & realizes that this room was built to remove human subjectivity because one is compelled to inspect every element of the room. Mark, because he is out of the presence of anything "normal," begins to get a better understanding of it by studying the abnormal.

He chooses to cling to the idea of the normal, & resolves to stand strong against the teachings at Belbury. He knows that he must pretend that he is continuing with his initiation or he will be killed. After his time in the training room, Mark is shown in to see the old man Frost thinks is Merlin. After Mark & the old man are alone Mark speaks to him, & the old man answers in English. Mark begins to spend alternate periods of time in the training room & in the room with the old man. He begins to look forward to the old man's company, although the man is not very good at speaking.

Mark insists that he is innocent, and the 2 accusers do not make any judgment calls regarding his guilt or innocence. They merely state the evidence. Mark realizes that if he does not agree to keep his job, bring Jane to Belbury, & continue on his best behavior he will be killed. He agrees to all these things, but on leaving the room he makes a break for the door.

He heads down the same path he tried to use to leave the day before, but this time when he sees the Wither standing in his way, he strikes it in the head. At this, the specter vanishes & Mark runs toward a town where he can get a train to Edgestow. He makes it to the apartment he had shared with Jane, but finds that it has been empty for several days. He is upset & suspects that the Dimbles have something to do with Jane's disappearance.

Inside the institute at Belbury, Mark is asleep beside the old man when Frost wakes him. 3 men enter the room: Frost, Wither & a man Mark has never seen before. This new man is Merlin, but no one at the N.I.C.E. knows this fact yet, as they still believe the old man to be the real Merlin. Merlin talks with Wither in Latin, & after this he begins to control the old man with his new powers.

He holds a conversation with the old man in a language unknown to anyone in the room but himself. He puts the words in the old man's mouth. The old man is afraid at being controlled, but at no point speaks in English to give away the fact that he is not Merlin. Merlin uses the old man to make Frost & Wither think he is giving orders to them. They must kiss the dirty hands of the old man, whom they still think is Merlin. After this, Frost & Wither leave the room to get the old man some clothes & Merlin puts Mark to sleep.

Straik enters Filostrato's room & begins to tell Mark that he is being given the privilege to witness the making of God. Mark feels exhilarated & happy at the thought that he is still in the inner group enough to be shown to the Head. After this conversation, Mark is lead down a series of hallways, & told not to mention trivialities like bringing Jane to Belbury.

He is not to argue with the Head. He is made to strip off his clothes & put on some sterile ones along with gloves & masks. Mark is anticipating his meeting with the Head as he is led to the door.

After his meeting with the Deputy Director, the Fairy finds Mark & gets him started on the press releases about the institutional police & the rehabilitation of Alcasan, the prisoner. He works with the police captain to put facts from Alcasan's dossier into the articles. While working with the captain of the institutional police, Mark learns that he can ask for any amount of funds because N.I.C.E. plans to take over the area of currency.

He learns that no one has ever left N.I.C.E. except for Mr. Hingest, who was then murdered. Because Mark decides to stay & be useful to N.I.C.E. he is admitted into another more exclusive society. This group meets in the library at Belbury between 10 o'clock & midnight with the Fairy, Professor Filostrato, Lord Feverstone & Reverend Straik. A man named Mr. Frost is also present, but is silent most of the time. The Deputy Director is often there, but does not participate in discussions. Mark finds Straik most annoying because he tends to speak in tangents about spiritual matters, mostly resurrection.

Mark is being brought to Belbury by police car. He is placed in a room with no cigarettes, food or water, & he is unaware of his location. While left to his own thoughts, Mark comes to terms that he is about to be killed. Because of his state of mind, Mark is able to reflect on his dealings with N.I.C.E. with great clarity. He finally recognizes that everyone in this organization is an enemy.

He realizes that they were all acting with evil intentions & using him. He begins to berate himself for ever believing that N.I.C.E. was good for him. He finally understands that his need to belong gets him into trouble, & that he sacrifices his real companions for entrance into these groups. Along with all of these realizations, Mark comes to terms with the fact that he has chosen every circumstance in his life.

The conversation ends with the understanding that if Mark declines the position at the N.I.C.E., he is also losing his fellowship at Bracton. These 2 entities are intertwined. Jane is out of the house shopping & looking for someone to replace Mrs. Maggs. She runs into Mr. & Mrs. Denniston, from St. Anne's. They invite her out to a picnic lunch & while eating, they tell her more about their group. Jane learns that the man who leads the group if known as Mr. Fisher-King.

He remains mysterious to her, but Jane learns that he has previously been told that a group will form around him, & this group will include someone will a gift of vision. The Dennistons are quite sure that this person is Jane. When the lunch draws to a close, Jane tells the Dennistons she will not join their group, but she will inform them of any more dreams she has & promises to keep quiet about the whole business.

Later, at dinner, Mark sits beside Professor Filostrato who is talking with a member of N.I.C.E. not in the inner circle about why he chose to do away with most of the natural trees in the yard at Belbury. Filostrato says that "the forest tree is a weed" & that he plans to replace these trees with aluminum trees that will be much more hygienic. There precedes a lengthy conversation regarding the disgusting nature of organic matter.

He says that humanity is at a point where it is possible & good, to make the brain live with less of its body. This state of being would be more hygienic. At the end of the dinner conversation, Filostrato tells Mark not to come to the Library tonight because he is out of the graces of Wither, & therefore out of the favour of the group. Before Filostrato goes to the Library, he has Mark up to his room for a chat. He asks Mark why he does not want to bring his wife to Belbury. Mark says that he did not know it was so important to Wither, & Filostrato tells Mark that the offer came, not from Wither, but from the Head.

The bear, like other creatures about the house, has had a conversation with the leader of the group. Beasts & humans are forever changed & the animals would never harm any human in the house. After her bath, Jane is introduced to another member of the household, Mr. MacPhee. MacPhee is a long time friend of the leader of the group & his personality is marked by objectivity.

He tells Jane that he does not have opinions; he merely states facts & their consequences. It is during her conversation with MacPhee that Jane learns, from an interjection by Mrs. Dimble, that there are no servants in this house. The house is run on egalitarian terms with each gender taking alternating days to do the work. Jane learns that although Mrs. Maggs was her housekeeper, here at St. Anne's Mrs. Maggs is an equal. Everyone who lives there is a "charity" case it seems& this category includes Jane.

Greater Oyeresu than Ransom has ever seen are set to descend on St. Anne's. At this thought, Merlin begins to waiver. He asks if there are not other ways to fight N.I.C.E. such as a formal battle. Ransom tells Merlin that the only way to defeat N.I.C.E. and their plot against humanity is to receive the Oyeresu themselves.

He tells the magician that if evil humans had not traveled into space & bothered the Oyeresu, the barrier would not have been broken, & the plot against humanity would be carried out. But because this barrier was broken, the good side has a chance.

Mark wants to leave, but the Fairy will not hear of it. She asks Mark to sign a document that allows her to go & get Jane so Mark does not have to leave the premises. Mark storms to the Deputy Director's office, gains his divided attention, & is told to go away. He then goes for the door, & heads to the drive. He is focused to get to Jane, but just when he makes it to a clearing in the woods outside the house he meets Mr. Wither.

He thinks this is impossible, because he has just spoken with him in his office, but nevertheless, he returns to the house. Meanwhile, Jane explains a dream that she has had to the leader of the group at St. Anne's. She describes seeing a head without a body, a head whose top has been removed & there seem to be brains bubbling out of it. The head sits on a pedestal, & seems to be in great pain. Then Jane sees 3 men walk into the room, 1 of whom she is sure is Mark. She sees the head address the 3 & Mark being introduced to it, & Mark passes out.

Ransom had at first thought that N.I.C.E. wanted the wood because of its inherent magical powers, but because Jane shared her dream of the man lying cold on the stone table, he now knows that they want Merlin himself. The eldils tell Ransom that Merlin has not been dead, but sleeping.

He will wake under the right conditions & his power is of an ancient kind. The eldils did not tell Ransom sooner because they did not know themselves of Merlin's presence. They are not omniscient. If the evil eldils, through the actions of the N.I.C.E., win Merlin over to their side then all of Nature will be destroyed.

MacPhee says that they probably have tried to increase its brain & that is why there is substance bubbling out of the top of its skull. He goes on to say that N.I.C.E. is taking all sorts of action to further their cause. Why does this group not take any action to counteract it? MacPhee says that if they are not going to do anything they should disband. Ransom tells the group that he has no authority to disband it as he did not bring it together.

His masters, the eldils, did. Ransom ends the conversation by telling the group that this head is a new power at Belbury, but N.I.C.E. is also after an old power connected with Bragdon Wood in Edgestow. If it acquires this old power & combines it with the new 1, then the group at St. Anne's has lost the battle. The old power that N.I.C.E. seeks is explained below: Merlin, the character from Arthurian legend, sleeps under Bragdon Wood.

Mrs. Dimble asks Jane about her visit to St. Anne's to see Miss Ironwood. Jane makes it clear that she would rather not talk about her trip, and the 2 women go to bed. Jane has another vivid dream. In this dream, Jane sees a man riding along in a car, stopping in a clearing, & getting badly beaten by several people. In the end, the man is killed. Jane's screams during this dream wake Mrs. Dimble, & they have a short chat before going back to bed.

In the morning Jane & Mrs. Dimble go about doing the chores--this activity cheers Jane because she feels less lonely. Mrs. Dimble asks again about Jane's trip to see Miss Ironwood-Jane says she does not plan to go back to St. Anne's. Jane feels that by visiting Miss Ironwood she has dealt with the problem-she expects to have fewer disturbing dreams. During this conversation Mrs. Dimble informs Jane that her housekeeper, Mrs. Maggs is not coming because her home was also near the edge of Bragdon Wood & in turn, has been forced to evacuate. Jane is strangely preoccupied with finding someone else to fill this position.

Chapter 17 Summary Venus at St. Anne's

In the morning of the next day Mark is sill traveling to St. Anne's. After leaving Belbury, he runs into a succession of people who treat him very kindly, even though they do not know him personally. Mark stays at an inn & when he is about to leave he realizes that he is a little shy to see Jane. He knows that Jane is of great value & that she has many gifts. He feels unworthy of her love. Meanwhile Lord Feverstone has crashed his car. He climbs out of the vehicle & sees a tall man wearing a robe standing in front of him.

While the group dines, they talk about why the battle took place in Britain. Dr. Dimble explains to the group that Britain exists as a dichotomy, that is, for everything that is good, there is a dark counterpart. The good part, for the purpose of this conversation, is called Logres. Ransom tells the group that each land has its own evil haunting it, so Britain is not special in having Logres.

It is only that they must focus on their own struggle in order to make the world better. The group talks about how the whole town of Edgestow was destroyed. At the end of the conversation, Mr. Bultitude knocks on the door & the group receives him happily & Mrs. Maggs leaves the room to tend to his needs. A moment later, Mrs. Maggs comes back in screaming. There seems to be a female bear in the house that has taken a liking to Mr. Bultitude.

Chapter 1 Sale of College Property

Jane & Mark Studdock are a newly married couple who live in post-war England in a town called Edgestow. Jane is consumed with feelings of loneliness, neglect & loss of her identity within the marriage. Mark is unaware of his wife's distress, & his primary concern is with his fellowship at the local college, called Bracton.

Upon looking at the newspaper, Jane realizes that the initial face in her dream is that of a prisoner who was recently executed for the murder of his wife. In order to calm her nerves, & because she is alone & her house is already tidy, Jane goes out to shop. Upon leaving a hat shop, Jane runs into an old acquaintance, Mrs. Dimble. She invites Jane to join she and her husband for lunch at their home.

Jane accepts, & is whisked away to the Dimble's home, which is at the edge of Bragdon Wood, where she learns that Mark's college group has voted to sell the wood, & this action will force the Dimbles to relocate. Also during lunch, Jane tells the Dimbles about her being very lonely, & about her horrible dream. She learns from the Dimbles that Bragdon Wood is not fit to build on, which raises a question about why the N.I.C.E. wishes to purchase it.

Chapter 7 The Pendragon

Jane goes to the house at St. Anne's & is greeted by Mr. & Mrs. Denniston. She is shown in & to Miss Ironwood's room where the group tells her that the man she has been dreaming about with a clipboard in her bedroom is actually collecting information about her. She also learns that the leader of the group wants to see her & that in this meeting she will be asked to make a final decision regarding joining their group. Upon being shown into the leader's room, Jane is struck by the fact that he seems to be without age.

Mark tells the old man that they are both in danger, & that he should never answer the other people in the house in English. The old man's chief concern seems to be eating as much food as possible. By asking enough questions, Mark ascertains that the old man had his clothes stolen by someone, but he came away from the theft with a deep admiration for the thief. Mark, by conversing with this man, enters into an exclusive group without even trying.

Jane has been helping Mrs. Dimble prepare a lodge that is outside the main house at St. Anne's. This lodge is to be the place where Mrs. Maggs will bring her husband back, & they will spend their first night back together again. Mr. Maggs has been serving a jail sentence for a small theft, & Mrs. Maggs has gone to pick him up because his sentence is now over. Mrs. Dimble tells Jane how to help her prepare the lodge by making beds & cleaning things, & during these preparations Jane thinks of her inevitable meeting with Mark.

The conversation ends with someone called "the Head" summoning the Fairy. She goes to see "Head" by walking down several passages, & the décor becomes more sterile. Professor Filostrato gives the Fairy explicit instructions about how to act once inside the room with the Head. Apparently the Head is to respected above all else.

Jane wakes up at St. Anne's on the Hill after her long terrible night with the N.I.C.E. police. She is greeted by Mrs. Maggs & told to wait until her bath is ready & drink some hot tea. While Mrs. Maggs is downstairs getting the tea, Jane decides that she can get the bath ready herself. When Jane opens the bathroom door, she is met by a huge bear. She runs screaming out into the hallway & Mrs. Maggs explains that the bear, Mr. Bultitude, is a part of the group at St. Anne's.

She is brought into a room to wait until Camilla Denniston goes to get Miss Ironwood. Mrs. Denniston is the wife of the man who was up for the fellowship at Bracton against Mark but Jane doesn't know this. Jane is brought before Miss Ironwood-she begins to tell about her horrible dreams. It becomes clear that Jane has come to see this woman for a cure, in order to stop the dreams. Miss Ironwood informs Jane that there is no cure for the dreams because they are a gift.

Jane's ancestor had the same gift & wrote a short book about it. Jane makes it clear that she does not fully believe that her dreams allude to real events. She wants the dreams to stop. Miss Ironwood takes time to explain that Jane's dreams are a part of something that is more important than the happiness of one individual. Jane is made to understand that there is a struggle between 2 sides & she is advised to join the group at St. Anne's. Jane is overtaken by feelings of resentment & vanity. She decides that she wants nothing to do with this group & leaves.

Merlin tells Ransom to alert the master of the house that he has come. Merlin refuses to recognize Ransom as the leader of the group because of the casual way he is dressed. After answering several riddles, Ransom finally makes Merlin understand that he is who he says he is. When Ransom answers the last riddle, Merlin gets down on 1 knee & bows to him. Ransom notices that MacPhee has been asleep during this interaction, & he & Merlin head upstairs.

Jane, Mr. Dimble & Mr. Denniston arrive back at the house & find MacPhee alone & asleep in the kitchen. They try to shake MacPhee awake & when it works he tells them what he remembers about the visitor. His description excites the group because this is the very man they have just seen in the field. They suddenly remember that the ladies were in the den, and they go to check on them. Everyone in the den is asleep, just as MacPhee had been. They decide to not wake the sleepers, & they proceed upstairs where they see some lights on.

Chapter 12 Wet and Windy Night

Jane, Mr. Dimble & Mr. Denniston turn back toward the car from the vagrant's camp, & at the moment they do they spot tracks that do not belong to them. They inspect the camp, but after they find nothing they turn again toward the car. After walking awhile they hear horse hooves. They see a man riding on horseback & he rides away upon being spotted. Mr. Dimble does not say the things he practiced in the language of the eldils because he cannot yell & he is tired.

In fact, all the animals on the grounds of St. Anne's are paired. Ransom tells the group that Venus herself is visiting them, she is the last of the gods to ascend & with her will go Dr. Ransom. One by one, Ransom sends the group members out of the room. First the Dimbles go, & later Mrs. Maggs because her husband finally makes it to the house. Instead of going to the lodge outside the house, Mrs. Dimble has prepared a room inside the house for Mr. & Mrs. Maggs.

Just then, Ransom tells Jane that she should go because Mark is waiting for her in the lodge outside the main house. It is her own "marriage chamber" that she prepared earlier. On parting, Ransom tells Jane that she will no longer have her strange dreams, but that instead she should have children. Before arriving at the house at St. Anne's, Mark decides that he will give Jane a chance to get out of the marriage. The same feelings that have made Jane more humble as a wife have brought humility to Mark.

Frost tells Mark to stomp on it & further insult it. Mark does not want to do this, not because he is a religious man, but because he identifies with the helplessness of the Christ image. Mark tells Frost that he will not complete the training & just then Merlin, the tramp & Wither walk through the door on their tour. Mr. Jules has already been waiting in Wither's study for quite some time, & other members of N.I.C.E. are attempting to entertain him.

Just when the conversation seems unbearable, Wither comes in followed by the rest of the group. Wither has just learned that his fake Merlin & the real Merlin intend to sit down with everyone for dinner. Wither introduces the vagrant as an important foreign guest, Dr. Ambrosius. Just when Mr. Jules is expressing his dislike for the priestly look of the interpreter, who is actually Merlin, Rev. Straik pushes himself toward Jules to ask a question.

At his core, Mark knows that Jane's presence would make all the conversations & laughter with the people in different groups sound hollow & fake. Jane would provide a contrast for Mark that might make him acknowledge that the people with whom he has been spending time are all evil. Mark does not answer Wither, but excuses himself hurriedly.

Later that evening, the topic of brining Jane to Belbury comes up again with the Fairy. She tells Mark that he has put himself outside the graces of the Deputy Director again by snubbing his invitation for Jane. The Fairy tells Mark that Wither has never offered this gift to anyone else, & by refusing it, Mark has made the worst mistake. Wither thinks he is not really "settled" at Belbury because he refused to bring Jane. The Fairy encourages Mark to bring Jane to Belbury in order to smooth things over with Wither.

Feverstone offers to take Mark to visit the N.I.C.E.'s temporary facility in Belbury. While there, Mark will get to meet the Deputy Director of the institute, Mr. Wither. It becomes more clear to Mark that Feverstone is offering him a position with the N.I.C.E., but Mark cannot figure out what his job would require him to do. Mark is a sociologist, but it appears from his conversation with Feverstone that they are interested in his writing. Mark does not want his primary job to be writing, but he is so taken in by Lord Feverstone & the chance to be a part of another exclusive group that he relents & agrees to visit.

Mark also finds out that the man he thought of as the leader of the N.I.C.E. is nothing more than a figurehead used for publicity. Then, Curry comes back from his meeting. When Mark returns home late that same night, he is greeted by a distraught & crying Jane. She has been home from the Dimbles' house for hours now & she has been thinking of her odd dream. By letting her mind dwell on the events of this dream, Jane has become panicked. To calm herself, she phones Mrs. Dimble & is advised to seek the council of a Mrs. Ironwood residing at St. Anne's on the Hill. This advice makes her feel worse & she sits huddled in the house until Mark comes home.

On his way to see Mr. Dimble at Bracton College, Mark stops at a home that has been converted into a N.I.C.E. bar. He finds satisfaction at being able to get in because he is still considered in N.I.C.E. After a few drinks, Mark calls on Mr. Dimble & he is in his office seeing pupils at the college. Mark asks where Jane can be found & when Mr. Dimble will not give him the address, Mark argues with him.

Mark asks why he was not notified of his wife's mistreatment & he tells Mr. Dimble that he will get to the bottom of it when he gets back to Belbury. They both know he has no power to ask questions of the institutional police. Finally, Mark tells Mr. Dimble he will leave N.I.C.E. Dimble hopes a little that Mark is serious & he offers to help Mark leave. Dimble tells Mark to come with him immediately, but Mark wishes to think it over. Dimble tells Mark that he only wants to have time for his mind to become cloudy, but he is being offered a spot of the "right" side.

Chapter 14 Real Life is Meeting

Mark does not know how much time has passed in the cell, but eventually Frost comes back in & talks to Mark about objectivity. Frost tells Mark that the macrobes desire their human compatriots to be totally free of subjective thought. He tells Mark that he will be trained in objectivity, & when Mark replies that he accepts this training he is led out of the cell & given some food. After Mark's dinner, Frost leads him through the room with the head of Alcasan & into another room.

He tells Mark that if he does not complete the initiation he will be killed. He explains the entire plot of the inner circle of N.I.C.E. & tells Mark that beings known as macrobes communicate with them through the head of Alcasan. These macrobes have instructed the inner group that the fate of human beings is to begin to exist without bodies. The less organic matter the better.

Mark finds this fascinating & he begins to be pulled in, but suddenly Frost is interrupted & given a note from outside the cell. Because of the note, Frost retreats from the room immediately. The note given to Frost prompts him to go into an inner room with Wither. In it several men are transferring a naked man from a stretcher onto a bed. The man appears to be in a trance, & Wither notes that he does not look like a "master (eldil)." The man wakes up & motions for beer, but he takes no note of Frost & Wither otherwise.

Chapter 6 Fog

Mark has finally decided for sure that he will take the position within the N.I.C.E., but when he tells Deputy Director Wither about his decision, he finds that Wither assumes he did not want it. The Deputy Director tells Mark he is no longer being offered admission under the original terms, but that he may be able to come on for a probationary period. Mark says yes because his fears of being left out have been manipulated.

Chapter 10 The Conquered City

Mark has trouble sleeping that night, & in the morning is called early to see the Deputy Director. Wither & the Fairy tell Mark that an investigation at the scene of Bill Hingest's murder turned up Mark's missing wallet. This finding implicates him in the murder of Mr. Hingest, but Wither & the Fairy tell Mark that they have not informed Scotland Yard of the finding. They tell Mark that he should be on his best behavior for the next few months, & if this happens maybe they can sweep this evidence under the rug.

He tells Mark that his position is secure & his salary is to be a comfortable one. Mark relents to the job because he does not want to go home & tell Jane that the prospect of a higher paying job is gone. After meeting with Wither, Mark goes downstairs & finds a letter addressed to him from Mr. Curry & the fellows at Bracton. The letter states their sorrow at learning from Lord Feverstone that Mark is resigning his chair at Bracton.

Mark is upset at this news because he has still not accepted his position at the N.I.C.E. & he wants to fall back on his post a Bracton. He writes Curry a letter in which he refutes the idea that he is leaving the fellowship & cites Jane's nervous condition as a reason to return to Edgestow & Bracton. At teatime-Mark spots Lord Feverstone & asks him to explain what he is doing at N.I.C.E. He tells Feverstone that he has not resigned at Bracton & he wants to be restored to his position there while he decides about the N.I.C.E.

The day after Hingest's funeral, Mark goes into the library without being escorted by 1 of the members. He receives a warm welcome which solidifies his feelings of belonging. He is given a job to write 2 press releases regarding a riot that the institutional police are going to orchestrate. Mark is surprised to find that the police are orchestrating the disturbances, but he falls into the propaganda work easily.

Mark learns that the reason for choreographing these riots is that under "emergency regulations," which must be declared by the government N.I.C.E. will have less bureaucracy to deal with when carrying out their plans. Mark writes 2 articles that tell about the night's riot & cast the N.I.C.E. police force in a positive & even heroic light. These articles refer to some organization engineering the riots & propose turning the whole matter over to the institutional police so that they may find which group is doing these things.

Chapter 4 The Liquidation of Anachronisms

Mrs. Dimble comes over & explains to Jane why she finds herself in need of a place to sleep--she sent Mr. Dimble to sleep at the college. Earlier in the day the Dimbles go home to find a wrecking crew from the N.I.C.E. is tearing up their yard because they live on the edge of Bragdon Wood. They are told that that they will not be able to stay at home anymore, which brings Mrs. Dimble to Jane's house.

While this conversation is taking place, Professor Filostrato, introduces himself to Mark but Mark recognizes him at once. He is well known as a physiologist, & Mark had dined with him years ago. Filostrato tells Mark that the business of the N.I.C.E. is very serious. The existence & perpetuance of the human race depends on it. Filostrato also tells Mark that within the N.I.C.E. there is an inside group, & an outside group.

Mark should not worry about people like Steele because the real work of the N.I.C.E. does not concern him. Filostrato tells Mark that he can be in control of such people if he abides within the good graces of the Deputy Director. Filostrato begins to warn Mark that he should not make enemies of a woman called the Fairy. Filostrato spots the Fairy & introduces her to Mark. The Fairy, also known as Miss Hardcastle, is the leader of the institutional police. While conversing with her Mark gets a welcomed feeling that he is part of a group instead of an outsider.

Chapter 9 The Saracen's Head

Mark wakes the next morning with a terrible pain in his head. He remembers that in the night he had strange visions & 1 stands out. He believes that what he saw last night was a nightmare, but then he realizes that it really happened. He was lead in to see the Head & it was just a head. This head, Alcasan's head, has no body. It is able to speak with the help of air & artificial saliva that are pumped in through tubes. After seeing this head, Mark passed out-- Straik & Filostrato must have put him to bed.

Chapter 3 Belbury and St. Anne's on the Hill

Mark's walks into Belbury & notices the sharp contrast between the appearance of himself & that of Lord Feverstone. When each of the men pass a mirror, Mark notes to himself that Feverstone looks like a "master of his clothes," while Mark himself is plagued by a blob of cotton on his face because of a shaving accident. It is with this scene in his mind that Mark is introduced to Mr. John Wither, the Deputy Director of the N.I.C.E.

Chapter 11 Battle Begun

Mr. Denniston drives Jane & Mr. Dimble out to the countryside where the group thinks they might find the fence Jane dreamed about in connection with Merlin. The rain is coming down very hard, & the group is unable to find the gate. Jane sees a fire in the distance off the road. Jane tells the others she dreamed about this fire, but she forgot about it until just now. She leads the group across a field to search for the spot where the fire is because she believes this might be where Merlin has made camp.

As the 3 walk across several fields, & the fire seems farther than they originally thought, a change begins to occur within Jane. She comes to the realization that this walk could be her final 1. She does not know what Merlin will do, or if he will be persuaded to join the good side of the battle. She comes to peace with the fact that there is a God, & that there may be an afterlife.

Mr. Dimble also experiences internal changes. Near the beginning of the outing he feels fearful, but as the search progresses his fear subsides. Jane, Mr. Dimble & Mr. Denniston walk until they reach the campsite of which the fire is a part. They search the premises but find nothing of a human except a tent & some attempts at bedding. This appears to be the camp of a vagrant, & the group finds his mode of transportation to be a donkey. They do not find the man himself.

Mark asks for an hour so that he may go out & get a drink. He wants to think it over for 1 hour, & then he will come back & give his decision to Mr. Dimble. Upon leaving the college, Mark is stopped by a man asking his name. When Mark replies, the man arrests him for the murder of Bill Hingest.

Mr. Dimble, after waiting an hour, begins to drive home & thinks of how he could have made his conversation with Mark to go better. He does not know that Mark has been picked up by the police, but he wishes he could have said something to make Mark come with him. Upon his arrival at the house at St. Anne's there is much commotion. He is ushered in & fed dinner while he is told of the recent happenings.

MacPhee explains that Ransom insists that he is visited by a group of eldils that are good. They have told him of a plot against humanity being carried out by some bad eldils. These bad eldils are using N.I.C.E. to achieve their desired ends. As MacPhee is a man who prides himself in having no opinions, he only states what Ransom has said happened without giving any kind of judgment as to whether he believes it or not. Jane states that she believes Ransom.

Mrs. Denniston comes to get Jane for a walk outside. They talk of MacPhee's loyalty to objectivity & also tabout Ransom's age. People who visit Venus (Perelandra) come back that way, they never get a day older because Paradise is there. Jane asks Mrs. Denniston if Ransom will die & she replies that he will be taken back to "Deep Heaven." That evening the housemates, minus Jane, meet to discuss Jane's dream. They come to the conclusion that it is possible for a group of people to keep a human head alive without its body.

Mark has been at Belbury talking with Frost, the Fairy & Wither about that night's riots. It seems they went off exactly how they were supposed to. Mark learns nothing of his wife's capture & torture, but is very proud of his work on the newspaper articles. Mark also learns that the government has handed over Edgestow to the N.I.C.E.'s police squad. N.I.C.E. has the power to appoint an emergency governor & for this position has chosen Lord Feverstone.

N.I.C.E. will appoint him because he is good at politics, but also because he can be sacrificed when the people of Edgestow begin to hate the N.I.C.E. It seems that his usefulness has already peaked & N.I.C.E. is no longer in need of him. The Deputy Director takes Mark aside & tells him that normally N.I.C.E. does not allow members' spouses to join them at Belbury, but for Mark they wish to make an exception. Wither asks Mark to write to his wife & have her come to stay. At the thought of Jane coming to Belbury, Mark begins to feel uneasy. He is determined to avoid asking her to come.

Frost & Wither have a conversation outside the room & they wonder whether the old man is really Merlin. They go to Wither's apartment within N.I.C.E. to get some clothes for the old man. They do not trust the real Merlin, although they do not yet suspect him to be Merlin. They agree that the real & fake Merlins must be detained. While on this errand, the 2 men remember that there is a great feast being held that night because the figurehead, Mr. Jules, is coming to N.I.C.E., & they must find something to do with the 2 old men so that no one else sees them.

On coming back into the room with Mark & the old men, Wither & Frost see that Mark is asleep & Merlin blames it on the vagrant. Merlin tells the men that he will not stay in the room any longer with a conjurer. Merlin tells the men that the tramp says that he must be taken to look at everything in the house & he will go with Wither only. Frost objects, but in the end they decide that there must be someone to greet Mr. Jules when he arrives anyway. After Merlin, the tramp & Wither leave the room, Frost wakes Mark & takes him to the room in which he is being trained in objectivity. When Mark gets to this room, there is a large crucifix on the floor in the center of the room.

Mark feels ashamed that he passed out, but his body is not as tough as he would like it to be. He is still a virtuous person, but his mind has banished his virtue to his body.Mark decides that he must get Jane to Belbury or he will be killed. All his thoughts about the unpleasantness of her at Belbury are banished by the thought of imminent death. While at breakfast, Mark begins to write to Jane about coming to stay, but he is interrupted by the Fairy.

She causes him to drop his pen & he realizes that he regards her as a bully. He begins to feel hate & contempt for her. The Fairy tells Mark that she is concerned about Jane--she has looked her up as a favor to Mark. She says that she found Jane in a degenerated condition. She speaks of Jane's possible induction into the mental asylum. She says that Jane spoke of a person breaking into the Studdocks' apartment & burning her with cigarettes. She says that Jane eventually began to blame the burn marks on the Fairy herself, but this is all nonsense.

He seems neither young, nor old. The man apologizes for not getting up to greet her, but his foot has been wounded. He tells Jane that she has already been of great help & they had hoped that she could join them, but it seems that there is trouble because Mark is a member of N.I.C.E. Jane, becomes desperate to join at hearing that his membership in this organization might bar her from St. Anne's.

She feels resentful for Mark holding her back. The man tells her that she must first make sure it is alright with Mark for her to join them. Jane becomes unhappy because she feels that Mark never takes note of what she says. While Jane deals with these kinds of feelings about Mark, the leader of St. Anne's tells her that his "masters" would not be happy with him accepting her into the group without her husband's consent. This sparks a conversation about whether Jane's marriage to Mark was a mistake.

She then gets a sense of someone who is good coming into the place, but he never shows up. This is the end of the dream. After waking & having breakfast, Jane goes to town to shop & look for a replacement housekeeper. Shortly after arriving in town, Jane sees a man getting into a car belonging to N.I.C.E. who looks exactly like the man she has seen making notes on her in her dreams. She decides to go to St. Anne's immediately.

She goes by train & notices a change in the weather as she approaches. The fog that has been over Edgestow is not present at St. Anne's.

The Fairy explains to Mark the plan for the "remedial treatment" of criminals. She does not go into detail about how criminals will be treated, she does let Mark know that eventually this treatment will extend to every citizen & be called "prevention". The police will be able to have control over each citizen, & alter him/her by any means they like. The Fairy tells Mark to be careful of Mr. Wither & a man named Mr. Frost.

She tells Mark to avoid getting on Wither's bad side by trying to pin down exactly what his job is. Later, Mark sits beside Hingest & he is warned 1 more time to go back to Bracton & finish his work there. Mark, does not care about Hingest's warnings & chooses to stay at Belbury. Jane has gone to St. Anne's on the Hill to visit with Miss Ironwood, as instructed by the Dimbles. She is not permitted entrance into the house until she tells the girl who greets her that she was sent by Dr. Dimble.

He explains to her that the woman she saw was probably the earthly representation, or wraith, of the Oyersa Venus. She may have shown up to foretell the coming of the actual Oyersa, because Ransom expects many of them to visit the grounds at St. Anne's this very night. Jane walks out in the garden alone & has a conversion experience. She realizes that all Ransom & the others talk about is not what she considers religion, but they only talk of God.

She thinks on her aversion to being seen as an object to be owned, & how that affects her marriage. She comes to terms with the fact that maybe she was created by God to be owned by Him & used for His purposes. She thinks she may have even been created to be owned by others, Ransom & even Mark. Parts of her rebel against these thoughts, but in the end she believes in, & wishes to be aligned with, God. Mr. Bultitude, the household bear, has climbed out of the fence. He is lead outside the walls of St. Anne's by his curiosity & longing for Mrs. Maggs.

The 2 men think that this man is Merlin, although he does have some inconsistent qualities. After Frost leaves Mark in the cell alone, Mark begins to feel glad at being free of his compulsion to impress people within N.I.C.E., & he switches sides mentally. He aligns his thoughts & feelings with those of Jane & the group at St. Anne's.

Suddenly he is attacked by feelings of wanting to belong, & of pride, & he knows that the bad eldils are in the room with him. Eventually he regains his logical self, & resigns himself to the idea of death once more. He relaxes his muscles & slips off to sleep.

Mark's impression of Wither is that he is polite, but distracted from their conversation. His eyes seem far away & unfocused. During their conversation Mark tries in vain to figure out exactly what his position at the N.I.C.E. will be. Wither constantly avoids his questions, stating that elasticity of the duties to be carried out is key, so nailing down a job description is useless.

The Deputy Director is looking for Mark to be flexible. He assures Mark that his needs will be taken care of & that he will be comfortable with his compensation. Lord Feverstone then leads Mark into a hall where other members of the N.I.C.E. are talking. Mark is offered membership into the Institute & he finds that the best way to join is by a lifetime membership-a fee of 200 pounds. Mark knows he does not have that much money in the bank & says he hasn't got his checkbook as an excuse. Lord Feverstone greets another colleague & leaves Mark standing alone in the hall.

Meanwhile at Belbury, the Fairy meets with Mr. Wither & Mr. Frost. She tells them that she had Mark trailed after he left N.I.C.E., & he was followed all the way into Bracton College. After that, the Fairy's agents were unable to follow Mark because the emergency governor of Edgestow, Lord Feverstone, has banned the institutional police from entering colleges.

The Fairy says that she then saw only 3 men come out of the college behind Mark. There are 2 men that she suspects as being a part of the group at St. Anne's, but the 3rd man, Mr. Dimble, she thinks is harmless. Wither & Frost get into a bit of an argument about Jane & Mark. Wither suggests that N.I.C.E. is placing too much emphasis on having Jane in their company. Frost reminds Wither, that Jane was observed dreaming about classified information.

He goes to Wither's office, barges in & finds him in the middle of a meeting. Mark is forced to make an appointment with Wither's secretary for the next day. Mark runs into the Fairy & tells her of his plan to find out what his job is or to leave N.I.C.E. She reminds him that if he stays in the good graces of Wither he can simply ignore anyone, such as Steele, who may give him a hard time. She tells him that he should not bother Wither with specifics about his job, but that she can give him part of his job right now.

The Fairy tells Mark that a prisoner, Alcasan, has been chosen to be rehabilitated instead of killed by the guillotine. Mark is to write a series of press releases regarding the rehabilitation, making the public feel more comfortable. His job is to write propaganda for newspapers. Mark is upset at this because he is a scientist, not a journalist. The Fairy tells Mark that if he decides to leave the N.I.C.E. he had better keep his mouth shut. The next day Mark proceeds with his meeting with the Deputy Director, Wither & begins by telling him that he must leave the institute. By several twists of logic, Wither manipulates Mark into wanting to stay in order to be part of the group.

Merlin tells Ransom that he does not know why he has been awakened, or what powers he might use to help the battle against N.I.C.E. Ransom begins by explaining that his masters are called Oyeresu, & they are very powerful beings from Deep Heaven. God decreed that they not be able to come down to Earth, but because humans have learned how to invade space, they have broken this barrier & allowed the Oyeresu to enter.

The Oyeresu are essentially good beings, & Ransom has met 2 of them, 1 of Mars & 1 of Venus. Ransom tells Merlin that several Oyeresu will descend on the grounds at St. Anne's to interact with Merlin & himself. He tells Merlin that God chose to use him because he is from a time when dabbling in black magic was not yet evil. Because Merlin has practiced black magic, he is not fully good, but because it was not evil to practice it at the time he is not fully evil either. Ransom tells Merlin that the Oyeresu might take both their lives, or make them both crazy.

However, there are those individuals in the fellowship who disagree with selling this particular property. This piece of property, Bragdon Wood, is at the center of Bracton & at its center is a deep well. This has historically been known as Merlin's well. During Queen Elizabeth's reign, a man surrounded this wood with a wall in order to dispel myths & ceremonies centering on this well.

The college was likely founded here because of this well, & the wood itself has acquired mysterious & dark connotations. Because of the history of this wood, some of the fellows do not like the idea of selling it, but at the end of the meeting the motion to sell the wood passes, with a little help from the mysterious Lord Feverstone.

Jane has had a dream, & in it she was back inside the room with the raised platform where the cold bearded man was lying. In this dream the man is gone. She sees him at the end of a long tunnel moving stones, & then she is outside & sees a gate. Ransom tells Mr. Dimble that he & Jane must go looking for the man. Ransom tells him what he knows now about Merlin & that the reason he must go is because he knows the language of the eldils.

The idea of God, called Maleldil is introduced. Mr. Dimble has placed himself under the protection of Maleldil, & Jane is asked to do the same. She tells Ransom that she knows nothing of Maleldil, but she will place herself under Ransom's protection. Before going out to search for Merlin, Mr. Dimble asks Ransom what he should say if they find him. Ransom tells Dimble to say he comes in the name of God & the one who sits in "the seat of the Pendragon." Ransom then asks Dimble to practice saying these words, & the language spoken is that of before the Biblical fall of man in the Garden of Eden.

Ransom asks if anyone in the group trusts him, & Jane speaks up and says that she does. Ransom does begin to explain what is going on. They had thought that when Merlin woke he would be on the side of N.I.C.E., but he is actually on the side of the group at St. Anne's. Ransom tells the group that he must command them to accept Merlin as 1 of the group, but that they can talk about the rest in the late morning.

The next day the Dimbles have a private conversation in their room about their new member, Merlin. Mr. Dimble says that Merlin existed in a very different time period, & it is a strange fit to expect him to get along in today's time. He is unique in that he lived in a time when the boundaries between things were less defined. He is more in-between than any other member of the household. While the Dimbles converse, Ransom & Merlin also hold a very serious conversation.

Chapter 5 Elasticity

The next morning, Mark goes back to Belbury by train & almost mentions the report he is working on with Cosser to Mr. Steele. Mr. Steele is the head of Cosser's department & if Mark is to be a member of this department. It is clear to Mark that Steele knew nothing of this report & is angry at the prospect of the 2 working on this without his knowledge. Because of this negative interaction with Mr. Steele, Mark decides to go to the Deputy Director, Mr. Wither, & find out what his job is to be.

She knows that she will approach him very differently, with humility this time. Mrs. Dimble goes inside to look for something. While Mrs. Dimble is gone, Jane has what she thinks is a hallucination. She sees a person dressed in a crimson robe sitting by the door of the main house. The person resembles Mrs. Dimble, but with something missing. The person seems menacing to Jane, and when she looks away from its face she sees 4 or 5 dwarves.

The person, who is a giantess, comes into the lodge with the dwarves & begins using her torch to spread, not fire, but flowers about the room. Mrs. Dimble wakes Jane up. Jane is lying asleep on the floor, & the bed has been torn to shreds. Jane goes to see Ransom about her dream. After telling him the whole thing, he explains to her that it highlighted one of her major sins. She has spent most of her life being offended by the masculine, & Ransom connects these feelings with pride. He tells her that she can get away from the male, but every person carries traits that are both masculine and feminine, so she cannot escape from the masculine.

The man gives Jane some advice about submitting within the marriage relationship & her feelings about Mark begin to change. Jane goes home by train. At the Edgestow station there is commotion. She tries to make it home by walking from the station, but the roads are blocked & there is rioting. (that the N.I.C.E. has orchestrated) The institutional police are enforcing the street closings, but on finding a dimly lit street that might lead her home, Jane makes a run for it & is caught by them.

The police that catch Jane bring her to a makeshift headquarters where she is faced with a tough looking woman. This is the Fairy, although Jane knows nothing of her. The Fairy takes no special interest in Jane until she hears her last name, & then tries to find out where Jane was coming from that evening. Jane refuses to tell the woman where she was on her way from & she is tortured. The Fairy burns Jane with a cigarette & she begins to take her, with the help of some other officers, to N.I.C.E. by force. They carry her down several streets, but when the mob gets more out of control, they have to let her go in order to get back to their post.

Upon publication N.I.C.E.'s name is nowhere connected with the author of the articles. Mark feels good about his work. In fact, the longer he works on the articles, the more he likes what he has produced. The child inside him feels proud at being a part of something so secret, exclusive, & important. Meetings have taken place at Bracton & Mr. Busby, the bursar, has been made to understand that Bracton College is to sell out to the N.I.C.E., & if they do not accept the generous offer being presented now they will be forced to relocate with nominal compensation.

The workers have begun redirecting the Wynd river & most places in Edgestow are torn up & broken. Jane has been having more dreams. She has a recurring dream of a man sitting beside her bed taking notes on a clipboard. His description matches that of Mr. Frost from Belbury, but Jane is unaware of his connection to Mark. She also has a vivid dream, in which she becomes aware of dreaming & escapes the normal fright she gets. In this dream, she is in a small, dark place, & there is a man lying on a raised platform. He appears to be dead, but she can only use her sense of touch to explore the space because of the intense darkness. She feels a cold foot, then a long beard, & finally begins to feel a face.

Curry is called away to a meeting with the Warden of Bracton & Busby announces that he plans to go to bed early. Mark is alone with Feverstone, which is exactly what Feverstone wanted in the beginning. Feverstone begins to make fun of Curry & Busby for what they said about the N.I.C.E. He lets Mark know that they are only being used as a means to an end, & that they are stupid.

They have been persuaded to fight to bring the N.I.C.E. to Edgestow & they are carrying out this task as if it were their own idea. After revealing this plan to Mark, Feverstone divulges more. The true plan within the N.I.C.E., as Feverstone tells Mark, is to use science in the remaking of the human race. It is the position of this institute, & Lord Feverstone, that man can be made into a much more efficient animal. There are only 3 problems that stand in the way.

Mark learns that this man, Lord Feverstone, is primarily responsible for his own fellowship at Bracton College, as he was running against another candidate, Denniston. Besides learning these things, Mark speaks to Curry about a decision that will be brought to vote that very night. Mark & Curry are supporters of a move to sell part of the college property, Bragdon Wood, to a national agency called the National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments (the N.I.C.E.).

This agency exists to make advances in science, without being held back by "red tape." It operates with little or no restraints in regard to paperwork, money matters, &, it turns out, ethics. The N.I.C.E. intends to buy the property at Bracton College in order to build a huge facility in which they will employ many people, all working toward bettering the world through advances in the field of science. The draw for the fellows at Bracton is that they hope their college will become an academic hub, & they wish to bring jobs to Edgestow. One other important reason for the fellows at Bracton to want the N.I.C.E. to purchase their land is that the college is low on funds, & cannot even spare the money to re-fence the piece of property being sold.

On looking up the stairs, they see two men looking down at them. 1 of the men is Ransom, & the other is Merlin. Jane is confused at seeing these 2 men together because Ransom referred to Merlin as an enemy earlier that night. Now these 2 men seemed to be just alike. At seeing the group of people, Merlin tells Ransom in Latin, which only the 2 and Dimble understand, that Jane should be killed.

When asked why, Merlin says that God had willed for Jane to bear a child who would have kept humanity safe for a 1000 years, but because of her own sins, she has chosen not to conceive a child with Mark, & so she deserves to die. At these words, Mr. Dimble puts Jane behind himself & asks Ransom to explain the meaning of this situation. Mr. Dimble demands an explanation, & at the same time MacPhee gets very aggressive toward Ransom. He tells him that if he has changed sides after all they have been through, then he might as well be dead.

The man starts to walk away & Feverstone follows him briefly. Then the man says something to a horse standing nearby & suddenly he is riding the horse off into the distance. Lord Feverstone tries to make his way to Edgestow on foot, but as he meets more & more people on the road who tell him not to travel there, he decides to go toward London. After this point in his journey he begins to feel the ground sinking around him. A wave, made of earth, overtakes him and the ground swallows him.

While Mark is traveling, the group at St. Anne's is preparing for a farewell dinner for Dr. Ransom. The men are downstairs making the food & the women are upstairs getting dressed. The clothes that the women have to pick from are the finest clothes they have seen, and each of them looks more radiant than ever when she finds the dress meant for her. There are no mirrors, so each woman must trust the opinions of the others about which dress to pick. As the women dress they talk about why Dr. Ransom must go away. It seems he will be taken back up to Perelandra, or Venus, that night.

Mrs. Dimble goes to town to meet up with her husband & Jane comes along. After they part ways, Jane runs into one of Mark's colleagues, Mr. Curry. He tells her that Mr. Hingest has been found murdered, beaten to death. Jane is greatly disturbed because of the connections between her dream & this real event. Mark is still at Belburry, & while waiting for the committee to meet, talks with a man named Reverend Straik. Rev. Straik seems a bit crazy.

While talking with Mark he mentions Jesus' teachings & Mark blushes at the mention of this name. Straik lets Mark know that once you join the N.I.C.E. & begin helping- there is no turning back. During the committee meeting Mark takes note that the real work of the N.I.C.E. must take place elsewhere because the topics being discussed during this meeting are not of importance. There is an announcement during the meeting about the death of William Hingest. When the details are stated, they are eerily similar to those in Jane's dream, of which Mark is unaware.

Back at the house at St. Anne's the rest of the group is amusing itself in idle conversation. This is because they are all nervous about the fate of the 3 that went out looking for Merlin, especially Mrs. Dimble. Suddenly the group hears the sound of hooves outside the kitchen door. The 2 men, Ransom & MacPhee, go to open the door & greet the visitor. MacPhee opens the door, & Ransom sees a man in ragged clothes dismount from a horse.

Wither is back at Belbury. He is drifting between consciousness & unconsciousness. This is the state in which he lives most of his life, & because of this, he hardly ever sleeps. He is awoken from his trance-like state by a phone call. 1 of his employees has been out looking for the chamber that Merlin has been sleeping in for thousands of years. He has found the chamber, but Merlin is nowhere to be found. Frost is in the cell with Mark. He explains to Mark that the murder charge brought against him & all the details surrounding it, was part of the initiation into the innermost circle at N.I.C.E.

He meets Straik in the hallway along with Filostrato. The 2 members of the inner circle of N.I.C.E. Wither & Straik escort Filostrato to the Head. While the other 2 are familiar with the evil eldils & their plot against humanity, Filostrato is oblivious. After entering into the room of the Head, Straik & Wither cut off Filostrato's head. Soon after this they realize that the Head will ask for another head & they struggle to sacrifice each other.

Wither slits Straik's throat, but then is confronted by a bear in the anteroom. Lord Feverstone has been hiding in a dish cupboard to get away from the crowd & the animals. After the chaos calms down, he makes his way to the garage & gets into a car. There is someone in the back seat of the car, but when he addresses the person he becomes unable to control his own body. He begins to drive toward Edgestow, but he is not controlling his body as it drives too fast & recklessly.