Bathsheba was at this time in her room, dressing for the event. She had called for candles, and Liddy entered and placed one on each side of her mistress's glass.

"Don't go away, Liddy," said Bathsheba, almost timidly. "I am strangely agitated. I cannot tell why. I wish I had not been obliged to go to this party, but there's no escaping now. I have not spoken to Mr. Boldwood since the autumn, when I promised to see him at Christmas on business, having no idea there was to be anything of this kind."

"But I would go, now," said Liddy, who was going with her, for Boldwood had been indiscriminate in his invitations.

66

Yes, I shall make my appearance, of course," said Bathsheba. "Liddy, I am the cause of the party, and that upsets me. Don't tell anybody."

"Oh, no. You the cause of it, ma'am?" "Yes. I am the origin of the party. I-I can't explain any more; there's no more to be explained. I wish I had never seen Weatherbury."

"That's wicked of you worse off than you are."

- to wish to be

ever was provoked by this man for attaching as much importance to a crease in the coat as to an earthquake in the Mediterranean. Boldwood at last expressed himself nearly satisfied, and paid the bill; the tailor passing out just as Oak came in to report progress for the day.

66

Ah, Oak," said Boldwood, "I shall of course see you here to-night. Make yourself merry. I am determined that neither expense nor trouble shall be spared."

"I'll be here, sir, though perhaps not early," said Gabriel quietly. "I am glad indeed to see such a change in you from what it used to be."

"Yes; I must own it. I am bright to-night, cheerful, and more than cheerful; so much so, that I am almost uneasy from a sense that everything is passing away. And sometimes when I am excessively hopeful and blithe, a trouble is looming: so I get to look upon gloom in me with content, and to fear a happy mood. Still this may be absurd. Perhaps my day is dawning, at last.” "I hope it will be a long one."

"Thank you, thank you. Yet my "No, it isn't. I have never been free cheerfulness rests upon a slender hope. from trouble since I have lived here, and And still I have reason to trust my hope; this party is likely to bring me more. I think this time I reckon with my host. Now fetch my black silk dress, and see... Oak, will you tie this neckerchief how it sits upon me." for me? My hands shake, and I cannot do it properly. The fact is, I have not been quite well lately."

"But you will leave off that, surely, ma'am? You have been a widow lady fourteen months, and ought to brighten up a little on such a night as this."

"I am sorry to hear that, sir."
"Oh, it's nothing, and will soon pass

"It is not necessary. I mean to ap-away again. Tie it as neatly as you can, pear as usual; for if I were to wear any please. Is there any late knot in fashion, gay dress, people would say things about Oak?" me, and I should seem to be rejoicing, when I am solemn all the time. The party is altogether a painful matter, but it cannot be helped; stay and finish me off."

Boldwood, at the Lower Farm, was dressing also. A tailor from Casterbridge was with him, assisting him in the operation of trying on a new coat that had just been brought home.

"I don't know, sir," said Oak, in a tone which had sunk to sadness.

Boldwood approached Gabriel, and as Oak tied the neckerchief he went on feverishly:

"Does a woman keep her promise, Gabriel?"

"If it is not inconvenient, she may." "Or rather, an implied promise." "I won't answer for her implying," said Oak, with faint bitterness. "That's a word as full of holes as a sieve with them."

Never had Boldwood been so fastidious, unreasonable about the fit, and generally difficult to please. The tailor "Oak, don't talk like that. You have walked round and round him, tugged at got quietly cynical lately. How is it? the waist, pulled the sleeve, pressed the We seem to have shifted positions. collar, and for the first time in his experi- However, does a woman keep a promise ence Boldwood was not bored. Times not to marry, but to enter on an enhad been when the farmer had exclaimed gagement to marry at some time? Now, against all such niceties as childish, but you know women better than I; tell now no philosophic or hasty rebuke what-me."

"She may, if it is made with an honest | Troy had laughed; but it was with anxintention to repair a wrong."

"Oh, she took no great heed of me, ye may well fancy. But she looked well enough. Just flashed her haughty eyes upon my poor body, and then let them If she prom-roll past me at what was yond, much as if I'd been a leafless tree. She had just got off her mare to look at the last wringdown of cider-making that was going on; Troy was sitting in a small apartment she had been riding, and her colours were in a small tavern at Casterbridge, smok-up and her breath rather quick, so that ing, and drinking a steaming mixture from a glass. A knock was given at the door and Pennyways entered.

"He was not at home. I went there the new cider, and she must needs go first, too."

"I don't know about that. She've a few soft corners in her heart, though I've never been able to get into one; the devil's in't. But she can't do without him, and knowing it well, he's pretty independent."

"Ah, baily, she's a notch above you, and you must own it; a higher class of animal, a finer tissue. However, stick to me, and neither this haughty goddessdashing piece of womanhood, Juno-wife of mine (Juno was a goddess, you know) nor anybody else shall hurt you. But all this wants looking into, I perceive. What with one thing and another, I see that my work is well cut out for me."

to business now, and how much time and thought you give it. Well, since the world is brightening for me, I want to show my sense of it by increasing your proportion in the partnership. I make a memorandum of the arrangement which struck me as convenient, for I haven't time to talk about it now, and then we'll discuss it at our leisure. My intention is ultimately to retire from the management altogether, and until you can take all the expenditure upon your shoulders, I'll be a sleeping partner in the stock. Then, if I marry her and I hope I feel I shall why

"Pray don't speak of it, sir," said Oak hastily. We don't know what may hap"How do I look to-night, Liddy?" pen. So many ups and downs go on in said Bathsheba, giving a final adjustment the world; there's many a slip, as they to her dress before leaving the glass. say, and I would advise you - I know you'll pardon me this once- not to be too sure."

"I never saw you look so well before. Yes, I'll tell you when you looked like it: that night two years ago when you came in so wild-like, and scolded us for saying things about you."

"Everybody will think that I am setting myself to captivate Mr. Boldwood, when goodness knows how I shun the thought. I dread going, yet I dread more the risk of wounding him by staying away."

66

66

I know, I know. But the feeling I have about increasing your share is on account of what I know of you. Oak, I have learnt a little about your secret: your interest in her is more than that of a bailiff for an employer. But you have behaved like a man, and I, as a sort of successful rival, successful partly through your goodness of heart,- should like to show my sense of your friendship under what must have been a pain to

Anyhow, ma'am, you can't well be dressed plainer than you are, unless you go in sackcloth at once. 'Tis your ex-you." citement is your ornament to-night."

"I don't know what's the matter," she murmured. "I feel wretched at one time, and buoyant at another. I wish I could have continued quite in solitude, as I have been for the last year or so, with no hopes and no fears, no pleasure and no grief."

"Suppose Mr. Boldwood should ask you to run away with him!"

66

Oh, that's not necessary," said Oak, "I must get used to such things. Other men have, and so shall I.

Oak then went away. He was uneasy on Boldwood's account, for he saw that the infatuation of the farmer had left him not the man he once had been.

As Boldwood continued a while in his room alone, ready and dressed to receive his company, the mood of anxiety about "Liddy, none of that!" said Bathshe-his appearance seemed to pass away, ba gravely. "I don't wish to hear joking and to be succeeded by a deep solemnion any such matter." ty. He looked out of the window, and regarded the dim outline of the trees upon the sky, and the twilight deepening to darkness.

"I beg pardon, ma'am. But knowing what we women are, I- However, I won't speak of it again."

"No marrying for me yet for many a year if ever, 'twill be for reasons very, very different from those you think, or others will believe. Now get my cloak, for it is time to go."

Then he went to a locked closet and took from a locked drawer therein a small, circular case the size of a pill-box, and was about to put it into his pocket. But he lingered to open the cover and take a momentary glance inside. It con"Oak," said Boldwood, "before you tained a woman's finger-ring, set all the go I want to mention what has been pass-way round with small brilliants, and from ing in my mind lately that little ar- its appearance had evidently been rerangement we made about your share in cently purchased. the farm, I mean. That share is small; too small, considering how little I attend

Boldwood's eyes lingered upon its sparkles, though that its natural aspect

concerned him but little was plain from to her the day after the fair, if it hadn't his manner and mien, which were those been for you talking about the law, and of a man who was following out the pre-such rubbish, and I won't put it off any sumed thread of that jewel's future his- longer. What the deuce put it into my tory. head to run away at all I can't think! Humbugging sentiment that's what it was. But what man was to know that his wife would be in such a hurry to get rid of his name!"

A few minutes elapsed and the noise of wheels at the front of the house became audible. Boldwood closed the box, stowed it away carefully in his pocket, and went out upon the landing. The man who was his indoor factotum came at the same moment to the bottom of the stairs.

"They be coming, sir, lots of 'em a-foot and a-driving!"

"I was coming down this moment. Those wheels I heard is it Mrs. Troy?"

No, sir; she's not here yet."

A reserved and sombre expression had returned to Boldwood's face again, but it poorly cloaked his feelings when he pronounced Bathsheba's name; and his feverish anxiety continued to show its existence by a galloping motion of his fingers upon the side of his thigh, as he went down the stairs.

"I should have known it. She's bad enough for anything."

"Pennyways, mind who you are talking to."

66

'Well, sergeant, all I say is this, that if I were you, I'd go abroad again where I came from; 'tisn't too late to do it now. I wouldn't stir up the business and get a bad name, for the sake of living with her. My eyes and limbs, there'll be a racket if you go back just now - in the middle of Boldwood's Christmasing."

"Yes, I expect I shall be an unwelcome guest if he has her there," said the sergeant grimly. "A sort of Alonzo the Brave; and when I go in the guests will sit in silence and fear, and all laughter and pleasure will be hushed, the lights in the chamber will burn blue, and the "How does this cover me?" said Troy worms -- ugh! how horrible! Ring for to Pennyways. "Nobody would recog-some more brandy, Pennyways, and then nize me now, I'm sure." I am off. Now let me see: is there anything else? A walking-stick; yes, I must have a walking-stick."

He was buttoning on a heavy gray overcoat of Noachian cut, with a cape and a high collar, the latter being erect, like a girding wall, about his head, and nearly reaching to the edge of the travelling cap which was pulled down over his

ears.

Pennyways snuffed the candle, and then looked up and deliberately inspected Troy.

"Ye've made up your mind to go, then?" he said.

"Made up my mind? yes; of course I have."

"Why not write to her? 'Tis a very queer corner that you've got into, sergeant. You see, all these things will come to light if you go back, and they won't sound well at all. Faith, if I were you I'd even bide as you be, a single man named Francis. The best wife is worse than none. Now that's my mind, and I've been called a long-headed fellow here and there."

"All nonsense. There is she with plenty of money, and a house and farm, and horses and comfort,- and here am I living from hand to mouth. Besides, it's no use talking now; it's too late; I've been seen and recognized here this very afternoon. I should have gone back

Pennyways now felt himself to be in something of a difficulty; for should Bathsheba and Troy become reconciled, it would be necessary to gain her good opinion if he would secure the patronage of her husband. "I sometimes think she likes ye yet, and is a good woman at bottom," he said as a saving sentence. "But there's no telling to a certainty from a body's outside. Well, you'll do as you like about going, of course, sergeant, and as for me, I'll do as you tell me."

"Now let me see what the time is," said Troy, after emptying his glass in one draught as he stood. "Six o'clock. I shall not hurry along the road, and I shall be there then before nine."

CHAPTER LIII.

CONCURRITUR; HORAE MOMENTO. OUTSIDE the front of Boldwood's house a group of men stood in the dark with their faces towards the door, which occasionally opened and closed again for the passage of some guest or servant, a golden rod of light striping the gravel for the moment and vanishing again, leaving nothing outside but the glowworm shine

keep quiet. If so be 'tis not true 'twill flurry her, and do her harm to repeat it, and if so be 'tis true, 'twill do her no good to forestall her time of trouble. God send that it may be a lie, for though Henery Fray and some o' 'em do speak against her, she's never been anything but fair to me. She's hot and hasty, but she's a brave girl, who'll never tell a lie, however much the truth may harm her; I've no cause to wish her evil."

"No, she never do tell women's little lies, that's true; and 'tis a thing that can

thinks she says to your face; there's nothing underhand wi' her."

"If he's alive, and here in the neigh-be said of very few. All the harm she bourhood, he means mischief," said the first. "Poor girl: I do pity her, if 'tis true. He'll drag her to the dogs."

"Oh no, he'll settle down quiet enough," said one disposed to take a more hopeful view of the case.

"What a fool she must have been ever to have had anything to do with the man! She is so self-willed and headstrong; too, that one is more minded to say it serves her right than pity her."

They stood silent then, every man buised with his own thoughts, during which interval sounds of merriment could be heard within. Then the front door again opened, the rays streamed out, the well-known form of Boldwood was seen in the oblong area of light, the door closed, and Boldwood walked slowly down the path.

"No, no; I don't go with ye there. "Tis master," one of the men whisShe was no otherwise than a girl, mind,pered, as he neared them. "We'd better and how could she tell what the man was stay quiet; he'll go in again directly. made of! If 'tis really true, it is too He would think it ill-mannered of us to hard a punishment, and more than she be loitering here." ought to have Hullo, who's that?" This was addressed to some footsteps that were heard approaching.

"William Smallbury," said a dim figure, and he came up and joined them. "Dark as a flue to-night, isn't it? I almost missed the plank over the river there in the bottom never did such a thing afore. Be ye any of Boldwood's workfolk?" He peered into their faces.

66

Yes; we met here a few minutes ago."

"Oh, I hear now; that's Sam Samway; thought I knowed the voice too; going in ? "

"Presently. But I say, William," he whispered, "have ye heard this strange tale ?

Boldwood came on and passed by the men, who were standing under the bushes on the grass. He paused, leant over the gate, and breathed a long breath. Then they heard low words:

"I hope to God she'll come, or all this night will be nothing but misery to me. Oh, my darling, why do you keep me in suspense like this?"

He said this to himself, and they all distinctly marked it. Boldwood became silent again, and the noise from indoors was audible as before, until, a few minutes later, light wheels could be distinguished coming down the hill. They drew nearer and ceased at the gate. Boldwood hastened back to the door and opened it, and the light shone upon Bathsheba advancing up the path.

Boldwood compressed his emotion to mere welcome: the men heard her light laugh and apology as she met him; he took her into the house, and the door closed again.

"Good God! I didn't know it was like that with him!" said one of the men. "I thought that fancy of his was over long ago."

"You don't know much of master if you thought that," said Samway.

"I wouldn't he should know we heard what he said for the world,” said a third.