“Me? Think of yourself first.”
“What irregularity?”
“Why didn’t he bring you back?”
SINCE THE WOMAN’S QUIET LET NO MAN BREED A RIOT.[1]
“He seems to be at home,” said Mrs. Yeobright.
“Must I come in, too, Aunt?” asked Thomasin faintly.
Entering the open passage, she tapped at the door of the private parlour, unfastened it, and looked in.
“But you had been staying at Anglebury?”
“I think you are very much to blame,” said Mrs. Yeobright.
“Nonsense,” said Wildeve.
“She is very unpleasant.”
“Do about you?”
“Yes, real life is never at all like that.”
“Your hand upon it, Damon.”
He carelessly gave her his hand.
Mrs. Yeobright burst in from the outer room.
“Thomasin, Thomasin!” she said, looking indignantly at Wildeve;
“here’s a pretty exposure! Let us escape at once. Come!”
A rugged knocking had begun upon the door of the front room.
“Right, Grandfer,” said Sam; and the mead then circulated.
“Is that very dangerous?” said Christian.
Wildeve breathed the breath of one intolerably bored, and glanced through the partition at the prisoners.
“O no—quite different. Nor any pain of mind.
“and yet every one in the country round is out afore ‘n.”
“Perhaps there’s meaning in it!” murmured Christian.
“Don’t ye say it, Father!” implored Christian.
“I’m as full of notes as a bird!”
“I quite believe you,” said that gentleman.
6 - The Figure against the Sky
“Ah!” she said, as if surprised.
“It seemed long,” murmured the sad boy. “And you have been so many times.”
Are you not much obliged to me for making you one?”
“A good boy.”
“I think I hear him coming again, miss.”
You like the fire, don’t you, Johnny?”
The repressed child said, “Yes, I do, miss,” and continued to stir the fire perfunctorily.
“Yes, Eustacia.”
“Miss Vye, sir.”
“Miss Vy—stacia.”
“Not any flounce into the pond yet, little man?”
“No, Miss Eustacia,” the child replied.
“Well?” said Eustacia.
“A hopfrog have jumped into the pond. Yes, I heard ‘en!”
“No, because I shall hae the crooked sixpence.”
“Yes?” she said, and held her breath.
“Eustacia! could I forget that last autumn at this same day of the month and at this same place you lighted exactly such a fire as a signal for me to come and see you? Why should there have been a bonfire again by Captain Vye’s house if not for the same purpose?”
“What have you heard to make you think that?” said Wildeve, astonished.
“Who told you that I had not married her?”
“Not even on the shoulders of Thomasin?”
“I am sorry I caused you that pain.”
“Hypochondriasis.”
“And yet I declare that until I got here tonight I intended, after this one good-bye, never to meet you again.”
“But tell me!”
“O no,” she said, intractably moving to the other side of the decayed fire. “What did you mean by that?”
“Perhaps I may kiss your hand?”
“No, you may not.”
“Then I may shake your hand?”
“No.”
Good-bye, good-bye.”
of reason darted like an electric light upon her lover-
7 - Queen of Night
8 - Those Who Are Found Where There Is Said to Be Nobody
The red man opened the lantern and turned it upon the figure of the prostrate boy.
“Who be ye?” he said.
“Johnny Nunsuch, master!”
“Watching me, I suppose?”
“Yes, master.”
“Beest hurt?”
“No.”
“Why, yes, you be—your hand is bleeding. Come under my tilt and let me tie it up.”
“Please let me look for my sixpence.”
“Miss Vye gied it to me for keeping up her bonfire.”
“To be sure, poor chap. ‘Tis enough to make you feel fainty.
Sit on that bundle.”
“The reddleman!” he faltered.
“Nonsense. All that reddlemen do is sell reddle. You see all these bags at the back of my cart? They are not full of little boys—only full of red stuff.”
“Was you born a reddleman?”
“Until a hopfrog jumped into the pond.”
The reddleman suddenly ceased to talk idly. “A hopfrog?” he inquired. “Hopfrogs don’t jump into ponds this time of year.”
“They do, for I heard one.”
“Certain-sure?”
“Yes. She told me afore that I should hear’n; and so I did. They say she’s clever and deep, and perhaps she charmed ‘en to come.”
“A gentleman—ah! What did she say to him, my man?”
“What did the gentleman say to her, my sonny?”
The little boy jumped clean from the stool.
He conducted the boy out of the gravel pit and into the path leading to his mother’s cottage. When the little figure had vanished in the darkness the reddleman returned, resumed his seat by the fire, and proceeded to darn again.
dairy-farmer, and marry a professional man. I hope you
but I felt you might try to see me again, and it is better
this by Jane Orchard’s little maid,--And remain Diggory,
your faithful friend,
THOMASIN YEOBRIGHT.
To MR. VENN, Dairy-farmer.
Nobody except himself came near the spot that night.
The same hour the next evening found him again at the same place; but Eustacia and Wildeve, the expected trysters, did not appear.
“Do you press me to tell?”
“Yes, you served me cruelly enough until I thought I had found someone fairer than you. A blessed find for me, Eustacia.”
“Do you still think you found somebody fairer?”
“Who can say?”
I have kindred in Wisconsin.”
10 - A Desperate Attempt at Persuasion
“I suppose the young lady is not up yet?” he presently said to the servant.
“Not quite yet. Folks never call upon ladies at this time of day.”
Eustacia turned quickly to him. “Do you mean Mr. Wildeve?”
“I? What is the trouble?”
“It is quite a secret. It is that he may refuse to marry Thomasin Yeobright after all.”
She shook her head.
“Miss Vye!” he said.
“You are mistaken. What do you mean?”
“I can keep secrets,” said Venn gently. “You need not fear.
“Help me to get Thomasin happy, miss, and the chance shall be yours,” urged her companion.
11 - The Dishonesty of an Honest Woman
“I half think so myself,” she said. “But nothing else remains to be done besides pressing the question upon him.”
Mrs. Yeobright appeared disinclined to enter further into the question. “I fear I must go on,” she said. “I do not see that anything else can be done.”
“Yes? What is it?” he said civilly.
“Well?”
“What is his name?”
“She never once told me of this old lover.”
“And in your disparagement of me at the same time.”
It is so sudden.”
“We have heard that before.”
“I am not in trouble,” said he. “It is merely that affairs have come to a head, and I must take a clear course.”
“Explain to me.”
Mrs. Yeobright—but she is nothing to us.”
Wildeve’s vexation has escaped him in spite of himself.
“It seems so. But I have not yet seen Thomasin.”
“And that irritates you. Don’t deny it, Damon. You are actually nettled by this slight from an unexpected quarter.”
“Well?”
“Please remember that I proposed the same thing the other day.”
“Well, darling, you agree?” said Wildeve.
“And you loved Thomasin.”
“Exactly. The only thing is that you can no longer get her.”
“A little longer, so that I may tell you decisively. I have to consider so many things. Fancy Thomasin being anxious to get rid of you! I cannot forget it.”
Shaking hands is enough till I have made up my mind.”
“I have heard none,” she said.
“Where has he been living all these years?”
“In that rookery of pomp and vanity, Paris, I believe.”
THE ARRIVAL
1 - Tidings of the Comer
the parson came in and said, “They’ve cut the king’s
“Yes, sir, that’s it. ‘Tis a blazing great business that he belongs to, so I’ve heard his mother say—like a king’s palace, as far as diments go.”
“’Tis a good thing for the feller,” said Humphrey. “A sight of times better to be selling diments than nobbling about here.”
