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diff --git a/old/2662.txt b/old/2662.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a52fb60 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2662.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7397 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Under the Greenwood Tree, by Thomas Hardy + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Under the Greenwood Tree + +Author: Thomas Hardy + +Release Date: October 28, 2004 [eBook #2662] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE*** + + + + + +Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk from the 1912 +Macmillan and Co. edition. Proofed by Margaret Rose Price, Dagny and +David Price. + + + + + +UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE +or +THE MELLSTOCK QUIRE +A RURAL PAINTING OF THE DUTCH SCHOOL +by Thomas Hardy + + +PREFACE + + +This story of the Mellstock Quire and its old established west-gallery +musicians, with some supplementary descriptions of similar officials in +Two on a Tower, A Few Crusted Characters, and other places, is intended +to be a fairly true picture, at first hand, of the personages, ways, and +customs which were common among such orchestral bodies in the villages of +fifty or sixty years ago. + +One is inclined to regret the displacement of these ecclesiastical +bandsmen by an isolated organist (often at first a barrel-organist) or +harmonium player; and despite certain advantages in point of control and +accomplishment which were, no doubt, secured by installing the single +artist, the change has tended to stultify the professed aims of the +clergy, its direct result being to curtail and extinguish the interest of +parishioners in church doings. Under the old plan, from half a dozen to +ten full-grown players, in addition to the numerous more or less grown-up +singers, were officially occupied with the Sunday routine, and concerned +in trying their best to make it an artistic outcome of the combined +musical taste of the congregation. With a musical executive limited, as +it mostly is limited now, to the parson's wife or daughter and the school- +children, or to the school-teacher and the children, an important union +of interests has disappeared. + +The zest of these bygone instrumentalists must have been keen and staying +to take them, as it did, on foot every Sunday after a toilsome week, +through all weathers, to the church, which often lay at a distance from +their homes. They usually received so little in payment for their +performances that their efforts were really a labour of love. In the +parish I had in my mind when writing the present tale, the gratuities +received yearly by the musicians at Christmas were somewhat as follows: +From the manor-house ten shillings and a supper; from the vicar ten +shillings; from the farmers five shillings each; from each +cottage-household one shilling; amounting altogether to not more than ten +shillings a head annually--just enough, as an old executant told me, to +pay for their fiddle-strings, repairs, rosin, and music-paper (which they +mostly ruled themselves). Their music in those days was all in their own +manuscript, copied in the evenings after work, and their music-books were +home-bound. + +It was customary to inscribe a few jigs, reels, horn-pipes, and ballads +in the same book, by beginning it at the other end, the insertions being +continued from front and back till sacred and secular met together in the +middle, often with bizarre effect, the words of some of the songs +exhibiting that ancient and broad humour which our grandfathers, and +possibly grandmothers, took delight in, and is in these days unquotable. + +The aforesaid fiddle-strings, rosin, and music-paper were supplied by a +pedlar, who travelled exclusively in such wares from parish to parish, +coming to each village about every six months. Tales are told of the +consternation once caused among the church fiddlers when, on the occasion +of their producing a new Christmas anthem, he did not come to time, owing +to being snowed up on the downs, and the straits they were in through +having to make shift with whipcord and twine for strings. He was +generally a musician himself, and sometimes a composer in a small way, +bringing his own new tunes, and tempting each choir to adopt them for a +consideration. Some of these compositions which now lie before me, with +their repetitions of lines, half-lines, and half-words, their fugues and +their intermediate symphonies, are good singing still, though they would +hardly be admitted into such hymn-books as are popular in the churches of +fashionable society at the present time. + +August 1896. + +Under the Greenwood Tree was first brought out in the summer of 1872 in +two volumes. The name of the story was originally intended to be, more +appropriately, The Mellstock Quire, and this has been appended as a sub- +title since the early editions, it having been thought unadvisable to +displace for it the title by which the book first became known. + +In rereading the narrative after a long interval there occurs the +inevitable reflection that the realities out of which it was spun were +material for another kind of study of this little group of church +musicians than is found in the chapters here penned so lightly, even so +farcically and flippantly at times. But circumstances would have +rendered any aim at a deeper, more essential, more transcendent handling +unadvisable at the date of writing; and the exhibition of the Mellstock +Quire in the following pages must remain the only extant one, except for +the few glimpses of that perished band which I have given in verse +elsewhere. + +T. H. +April 1912. + + + + +PART THE FIRST--WINTER + + +CHAPTER I: MELLSTOCK-LANE + + +To dwellers in a wood almost every species of tree has its voice as well +as its feature. At the passing of the breeze the fir-trees sob and moan +no less distinctly than they rock; the holly whistles as it battles with +itself; the ash hisses amid its quiverings; the beech rustles while its +flat boughs rise and fall. And winter, which modifies the note of such +trees as shed their leaves, does not destroy its individuality. + +On a cold and starry Christmas-eve within living memory a man was passing +up a lane towards Mellstock Cross in the darkness of a plantation that +whispered thus distinctively to his intelligence. All the evidences of +his nature were those afforded by the spirit of his footsteps, which +succeeded each other lightly and quickly, and by the liveliness of his +voice as he sang in a rural cadence: + + "With the rose and the lily + And the daffodowndilly, + The lads and the lasses a-sheep-shearing go." + +The lonely lane he was following connected one of the hamlets of +Mellstock parish with Upper Mellstock and Lewgate, and to his eyes, +casually glancing upward, the silver and black-stemmed birches with their +characteristic tufts, the pale grey boughs of beech, the dark-creviced +elm, all appeared now as black and flat outlines upon the sky, wherein +the white stars twinkled so vehemently that their flickering seemed like +the flapping of wings. Within the woody pass, at a level anything lower +than the horizon, all was dark as the grave. The copse-wood forming the +sides of the bower interlaced its branches so densely, even at this +season of the year, that the draught from the north-east flew along the +channel with scarcely an interruption from lateral breezes. + +After passing the plantation and reaching Mellstock Cross the white +surface of the lane revealed itself between the dark hedgerows like a +ribbon jagged at the edges; the irregularity being caused by temporary +accumulations of leaves extending from the ditch on either side. + +The song (many times interrupted by flitting thoughts which took the +place of several bars, and resumed at a point it would have reached had +its continuity been unbroken) now received a more palpable check, in the +shape of "Ho-i-i-i-i-i!" from the crossing lane to Lower Mellstock, on +the right of the singer who had just emerged from the trees. + +"Ho-i-i-i-i-i!" he answered, stopping and looking round, though with no +idea of seeing anything more than imagination pictured. + +"Is that thee, young Dick Dewy?" came from the darkness. + +"Ay, sure, Michael Mail." + +"Then why not stop for fellow-craters--going to thy own father's house +too, as we be, and knowen us so well?" + +Dick Dewy faced about and continued his tune in an under-whistle, +implying that the business of his mouth could not be checked at a +moment's notice by the placid emotion of friendship. + +Having come more into the open he could now be seen rising against the +sky, his profile appearing on the light background like the portrait of a +gentleman in black cardboard. It assumed the form of a low-crowned hat, +an ordinary-shaped nose, an ordinary chin, an ordinary neck, and ordinary +shoulders. What he consisted of further down was invisible from lack of +sky low enough to picture him on. + +Shuffling, halting, irregular footsteps of various kinds were now heard +coming up the hill, and presently there emerged from the shade severally +five men of different ages and gaits, all of them working villagers of +the parish of Mellstock. They, too, had lost their rotundity with the +daylight, and advanced against the sky in flat outlines, which suggested +some processional design on Greek or Etruscan pottery. They represented +the chief portion of Mellstock parish choir. + +The first was a bowed and bent man, who carried a fiddle under his arm, +and walked as if engaged in studying some subject connected with the +surface of the road. He was Michael Mail, the man who had hallooed to +Dick. + +The next was Mr. Robert Penny, boot- and shoemaker; a little man, who, +though rather round-shouldered, walked as if that fact had not come to +his own knowledge, moving on with his back very hollow and his face fixed +on the north-east quarter of the heavens before him, so that his lower +waist-coat-buttons came first, and then the remainder of his figure. His +features were invisible; yet when he occasionally looked round, two faint +moons of light gleamed for an instant from the precincts of his eyes, +denoting that he wore spectacles of a circular form. + +The third was Elias Spinks, who walked perpendicularly and dramatically. +The fourth outline was Joseph Bowman's, who had now no distinctive +appearance beyond that of a human being. Finally came a weak lath-like +form, trotting and stumbling along with one shoulder forward and his head +inclined to the left, his arms dangling nervelessly in the wind as if +they were empty sleeves. This was Thomas Leaf. + +"Where be the boys?" said Dick to this somewhat indifferently-matched +assembly. + +The eldest of the group, Michael Mail, cleared his throat from a great +depth. + +"We told them to keep back at home for a time, thinken they wouldn't be +wanted yet awhile; and we could choose the tuens, and so on." + +"Father and grandfather William have expected ye a little sooner. I have +just been for a run round by Ewelease Stile and Hollow Hill to warm my +feet." + +"To be sure father did! To be sure 'a did expect us--to taste the little +barrel beyond compare that he's going to tap." + +"'Od rabbit it all! Never heard a word of it!" said Mr. Penny, gleams of +delight appearing upon his spectacle-glasses, Dick meanwhile singing +parenthetically-- + + "The lads and the lasses a-sheep-shearing go." + +"Neighbours, there's time enough to drink a sight of drink now afore +bedtime?" said Mail. + +"True, true--time enough to get as drunk as lords!" replied Bowman +cheerfully. + +This opinion being taken as convincing they all advanced between the +varying hedges and the trees dotting them here and there, kicking their +toes occasionally among the crumpled leaves. Soon appeared glimmering +indications of the few cottages forming the small hamlet of Upper +Mellstock for which they were bound, whilst the faint sound of church- +bells ringing a Christmas peal could be heard floating over upon the +breeze from the direction of Longpuddle and Weatherbury parishes on the +other side of the hills. A little wicket admitted them to the garden, +and they proceeded up the path to Dick's house. + + + +CHAPTER II: THE TRANTER'S + + +It was a long low cottage with a hipped roof of thatch, having dormer +windows breaking up into the eaves, a chimney standing in the middle of +the ridge and another at each end. The window-shutters were not yet +closed, and the fire- and candle-light within radiated forth upon the +thick bushes of box and laurestinus growing in clumps outside, and upon +the bare boughs of several codlin-trees hanging about in various +distorted shapes, the result of early training as espaliers combined with +careless climbing into their boughs in later years. The walls of the +dwelling were for the most part covered with creepers, though these were +rather beaten back from the doorway--a feature which was worn and +scratched by much passing in and out, giving it by day the appearance of +an old keyhole. Light streamed through the cracks and joints of +outbuildings a little way from the cottage, a sight which nourished a +fancy that the purpose of the erection must be rather to veil bright +attractions than to shelter unsightly necessaries. The noise of a beetle +and wedges and the splintering of wood was periodically heard from this +direction; and at some little distance further a steady regular munching +and the occasional scurr of a rope betokened a stable, and horses feeding +within it. + +The choir stamped severally on the door-stone to shake from their boots +any fragment of earth or leaf adhering thereto, then entered the house +and looked around to survey the condition of things. Through the open +doorway of a small inner room on the right hand, of a character between +pantry and cellar, was Dick Dewy's father Reuben, by vocation a +"tranter," or irregular carrier. He was a stout florid man about forty +years of age, who surveyed people up and down when first making their +acquaintance, and generally smiled at the horizon or other distant object +during conversations with friends, walking about with a steady sway, and +turning out his toes very considerably. Being now occupied in bending +over a hogshead, that stood in the pantry ready horsed for the process of +broaching, he did not take the trouble to turn or raise his eyes at the +entry of his visitors, well knowing by their footsteps that they were the +expected old comrades. + +The main room, on the left, was decked with bunches of holly and other +evergreens, and from the middle of the beam bisecting the ceiling hung +the mistletoe, of a size out of all proportion to the room, and extending +so low that it became necessary for a full-grown person to walk round it +in passing, or run the risk of entangling his hair. This apartment +contained Mrs. Dewy the tranter's wife, and the four remaining children, +Susan, Jim, Bessy, and Charley, graduating uniformly though at wide +stages from the age of sixteen to that of four years--the eldest of the +series being separated from Dick the firstborn by a nearly equal +interval. + +Some circumstance had apparently caused much grief to Charley just +previous to the entry of the choir, and he had absently taken down a +small looking-glass, holding it before his face to learn how the human +countenance appeared when engaged in crying, which survey led him to +pause at the various points in each wail that were more than ordinarily +striking, for a thorough appreciation of the general effect. Bessy was +leaning against a chair, and glancing under the plaits about the waist of +the plaid frock she wore, to notice the original unfaded pattern of the +material as there preserved, her face bearing an expression of regret +that the brightness had passed away from the visible portions. Mrs. Dewy +sat in a brown settle by the side of the glowing wood fire--so glowing +that with a heedful compression of the lips she would now and then rise +and put her hand upon the hams and flitches of bacon lining the chimney, +to reassure herself that they were not being broiled instead of smoked--a +misfortune that had been known to happen now and then at Christmas-time. + +"Hullo, my sonnies, here you be, then!" said Reuben Dewy at length, +standing up and blowing forth a vehement gust of breath. "How the blood +do puff up in anybody's head, to be sure, a-stooping like that! I was +just going out to gate to hark for ye." He then carefully began to wind +a strip of brown paper round a brass tap he held in his hand. "This in +the cask here is a drop o' the right sort" (tapping the cask); "'tis a +real drop o' cordial from the best picked apples--Sansoms, Stubbards, +Five-corners, and such-like--you d'mind the sort, Michael?" (Michael +nodded.) "And there's a sprinkling of they that grow down by the orchard- +rails--streaked ones--rail apples we d'call 'em, as 'tis by the rails +they grow, and not knowing the right name. The water-cider from 'em is +as good as most people's best cider is." + +"Ay, and of the same make too," said Bowman. "'It rained when we wrung +it out, and the water got into it,' folk will say. But 'tis on'y an +excuse. Watered cider is too common among us." + +"Yes, yes; too common it is!" said Spinks with an inward sigh, whilst his +eyes seemed to be looking at the case in an abstract form rather than at +the scene before him. "Such poor liquor do make a man's throat feel very +melancholy--and is a disgrace to the name of stimmilent." + +"Come in, come in, and draw up to the fire; never mind your shoes," said +Mrs. Dewy, seeing that all except Dick had paused to wipe them upon the +door-mat. "I am glad that you've stepped up-along at last; and, Susan, +you run down to Grammer Kaytes's and see if you can borrow some larger +candles than these fourteens. Tommy Leaf, don't ye be afeard! Come and +sit here in the settle." + +This was addressed to the young man before mentioned, consisting chiefly +of a human skeleton and a smock-frock, who was very awkward in his +movements, apparently on account of having grown so very fast that before +he had had time to get used to his height he was higher. + +"Hee--hee--ay!" replied Leaf, letting his mouth continue to smile for +some time after his mind had done smiling, so that his teeth remained in +view as the most conspicuous members of his body. + +"Here, Mr. Penny," resumed Mrs. Dewy, "you sit in this chair. And how's +your daughter, Mrs. Brownjohn?" + +"Well, I suppose I must say pretty fair." He adjusted his spectacles a +quarter of an inch to the right. "But she'll be worse before she's +better, 'a b'lieve." + +"Indeed--poor soul! And how many will that make in all, four or five?" + +"Five; they've buried three. Yes, five; and she not much more than a +maid yet. She do know the multiplication table onmistakable well. +However, 'twas to be, and none can gainsay it." + +Mrs. Dewy resigned Mr. Penny. "Wonder where your grandfather James is?" +she inquired of one of the children. "He said he'd drop in to-night." + +"Out in fuel-house with grandfather William," said Jimmy. + +"Now let's see what we can do," was heard spoken about this time by the +tranter in a private voice to the barrel, beside which he had again +established himself, and was stooping to cut away the cork. + +"Reuben, don't make such a mess o' tapping that barrel as is mostly made +in this house," Mrs. Dewy cried from the fireplace. "I'd tap a hundred +without wasting more than you do in one. Such a squizzling and squirting +job as 'tis in your hands! There, he always was such a clumsy man +indoors." + +"Ay, ay; I know you'd tap a hundred beautiful, Ann--I know you would; two +hundred, perhaps. But I can't promise. This is a' old cask, and the +wood's rotted away about the tap-hole. The husbird of a feller Sam +Lawson--that ever I should call'n such, now he's dead and gone, poor +heart!--took me in completely upon the feat of buying this cask. 'Reub,' +says he--'a always used to call me plain Reub, poor old heart!--'Reub,' +he said, says he, 'that there cask, Reub, is as good as new; yes, good as +new. 'Tis a wine-hogshead; the best port-wine in the commonwealth have +been in that there cask; and you shall have en for ten shillens, +Reub,'--'a said, says he--'he's worth twenty, ay, five-and-twenty, if +he's worth one; and an iron hoop or two put round en among the wood ones +will make en worth thirty shillens of any man's money, if--'" + +"I think I should have used the eyes that Providence gave me to use afore +I paid any ten shillens for a jimcrack wine-barrel; a saint is sinner +enough not to be cheated. But 'tis like all your family was, so easy to +be deceived." + +"That's as true as gospel of this member," said Reuben. + +Mrs. Dewy began a smile at the answer, then altering her lips and +refolding them so that it was not a smile, commenced smoothing little +Bessy's hair; the tranter having meanwhile suddenly become oblivious to +conversation, occupying himself in a deliberate cutting and arrangement +of some more brown paper for the broaching operation. + +"Ah, who can believe sellers!" said old Michael Mail in a +carefully-cautious voice, by way of tiding-over this critical point of +affairs. + +"No one at all," said Joseph Bowman, in the tone of a man fully agreeing +with everybody. + +"Ay," said Mail, in the tone of a man who did not agree with everybody as +a rule, though he did now; "I knowed a' auctioneering feller once--a very +friendly feller 'a was too. And so one hot day as I was walking down the +front street o' Casterbridge, jist below the King's Arms, I passed a' +open winder and see him inside, stuck upon his perch, a-selling off. I +jist nodded to en in a friendly way as I passed, and went my way, and +thought no more about it. Well, next day, as I was oilen my boots by +fuel-house door, if a letter didn't come wi' a bill charging me with a +feather-bed, bolster, and pillers, that I had bid for at Mr. Taylor's +sale. The slim-faced martel had knocked 'em down to me because I nodded +to en in my friendly way; and I had to pay for 'em too. Now, I hold that +that was coming it very close, Reuben?" + +"'Twas close, there's no denying," said the general voice. + +"Too close, 'twas," said Reuben, in the rear of the rest. "And as to Sam +Lawson--poor heart! now he's dead and gone too!--I'll warrant, that if so +be I've spent one hour in making hoops for that barrel, I've spent fifty, +first and last. That's one of my hoops"--touching it with his +elbow--"that's one of mine, and that, and that, and all these." + +"Ah, Sam was a man," said Mr. Penny, contemplatively. + +"Sam was!" said Bowman. + +"Especially for a drap o' drink," said the tranter. + +"Good, but not religious-good," suggested Mr. Penny. + +The tranter nodded. Having at last made the tap and hole quite ready, +"Now then, Suze, bring a mug," he said. "Here's luck to us, my sonnies!" + +The tap went in, and the cider immediately squirted out in a horizontal +shower over Reuben's hands, knees, and leggings, and into the eyes and +neck of Charley, who, having temporarily put off his grief under pressure +of more interesting proceedings, was squatting down and blinking near his +father. + +"There 'tis again!" said Mrs. Dewy. + +"Devil take the hole, the cask, and Sam Lawson too, that good cider +should be wasted like this!" exclaimed the tranter. "Your thumb! Lend +me your thumb, Michael! Ram it in here, Michael! I must get a bigger +tap, my sonnies." + +"Idd it cold inthide te hole?" inquired Charley of Michael, as he +continued in a stooping posture with his thumb in the cork-hole. + +"What wonderful odds and ends that chiel has in his head to be sure!" +Mrs. Dewy admiringly exclaimed from the distance. "I lay a wager that he +thinks more about how 'tis inside that barrel than in all the other parts +of the world put together." + +All persons present put on a speaking countenance of admiration for the +cleverness alluded to, in the midst of which Reuben returned. The +operation was then satisfactorily performed; when Michael arose and +stretched his head to the extremest fraction of height that his body +would allow of, to re-straighten his back and shoulders--thrusting out +his arms and twisting his features to a mass of wrinkles to emphasize the +relief aquired. A quart or two of the beverage was then brought to +table, at which all the new arrivals reseated themselves with wide-spread +knees, their eyes meditatively seeking out any speck or knot in the board +upon which the gaze might precipitate itself. + +"Whatever is father a-biding out in fuel-house so long for?" said the +tranter. "Never such a man as father for two things--cleaving up old +dead apple-tree wood and playing the bass-viol. 'A'd pass his life +between the two, that 'a would." He stepped to the door and opened it. + +"Father!" + +"Ay!" rang thinly from round the corner. + +"Here's the barrel tapped, and we all a-waiting!" + +A series of dull thuds, that had been heard without for some time past, +now ceased; and after the light of a lantern had passed the window and +made wheeling rays upon the ceiling inside the eldest of the Dewy family +appeared. + + + +CHAPTER III: THE ASSEMBLED QUIRE + + +William Dewy--otherwise grandfather William--was now about seventy; yet +an ardent vitality still preserved a warm and roughened bloom upon his +face, which reminded gardeners of the sunny side of a ripe +ribstone-pippin; though a narrow strip of forehead, that was protected +from the weather by lying above the line of his hat-brim, seemed to +belong to some town man, so gentlemanly was its whiteness. His was a +humorous and kindly nature, not unmixed with a frequent melancholy; and +he had a firm religious faith. But to his neighbours he had no character +in particular. If they saw him pass by their windows when they had been +bottling off old mead, or when they had just been called long-headed men +who might do anything in the world if they chose, they thought concerning +him, "Ah, there's that good-hearted man--open as a child!" If they saw +him just after losing a shilling or half-a-crown, or accidentally letting +fall a piece of crockery, they thought, "There's that poor weak-minded +man Dewy again! Ah, he's never done much in the world either!" If he +passed when fortune neither smiled nor frowned on them, they merely +thought him old William Dewy. + +"Ah, so's--here you be!--Ah, Michael and Joseph and John--and you too, +Leaf! a merry Christmas all! We shall have a rare log-wood fire +directly, Reub, to reckon by the toughness of the job I had in cleaving +'em." As he spoke he threw down an armful of logs which fell in the +chimney-corner with a rumble, and looked at them with something of the +admiring enmity he would have bestowed on living people who had been very +obstinate in holding their own. "Come in, grandfather James." + +Old James (grandfather on the maternal side) had simply called as a +visitor. He lived in a cottage by himself, and many people considered +him a miser; some, rather slovenly in his habits. He now came forward +from behind grandfather William, and his stooping figure formed a well- +illuminated picture as he passed towards the fire-place. Being by trade +a mason, he wore a long linen apron reaching almost to his toes, corduroy +breeches and gaiters, which, together with his boots, graduated in tints +of whitish-brown by constant friction against lime and stone. He also +wore a very stiff fustian coat, having folds at the elbows and shoulders +as unvarying in their arrangement as those in a pair of bellows: the +ridges and the projecting parts of the coat collectively exhibiting a +shade different from that of the hollows, which were lined with small +ditch-like accumulations of stone and mortar-dust. The extremely large +side-pockets, sheltered beneath wide flaps, bulged out convexly whether +empty or full; and as he was often engaged to work at buildings far +away--his breakfasts and dinners being eaten in a strange chimney-corner, +by a garden wall, on a heap of stones, or walking along the road--he +carried in these pockets a small tin canister of butter, a small canister +of sugar, a small canister of tea, a paper of salt, and a paper of +pepper; the bread, cheese, and meat, forming the substance of his meals, +hanging up behind him in his basket among the hammers and chisels. If a +passer-by looked hard at him when he was drawing forth any of these, "My +buttery," he said, with a pinched smile. + +"Better try over number seventy-eight before we start, I suppose?" said +William, pointing to a heap of old Christmas-carol books on a side table. + +"Wi' all my heart," said the choir generally. + +"Number seventy-eight was always a teaser--always. I can mind him ever +since I was growing up a hard boy-chap." + +"But he's a good tune, and worth a mint o' practice," said Michael. + +"He is; though I've been mad enough wi' that tune at times to seize en +and tear en all to linnit. Ay, he's a splendid carrel--there's no +denying that." + +"The first line is well enough," said Mr. Spinks; "but when you come to +'O, thou man,' you make a mess o't." + +"We'll have another go into en, and see what we can make of the martel. +Half-an-hour's hammering at en will conquer the toughness of en; I'll +warn it." + +"'Od rabbit it all!" said Mr. Penny, interrupting with a flash of his +spectacles, and at the same time clawing at something in the depths of a +large side-pocket. "If so be I hadn't been as scatter-brained and +thirtingill as a chiel, I should have called at the schoolhouse wi' a +boot as I cam up along. Whatever is coming to me I really can't estimate +at all!" + +"The brain has its weaknesses," murmured Mr. Spinks, waving his head +ominously. Mr. Spinks was considered to be a scholar, having once kept a +night-school, and always spoke up to that level. + +"Well, I must call with en the first thing to-morrow. And I'll empt my +pocket o' this last too, if you don't mind, Mrs. Dewy." He drew forth a +last, and placed it on a table at his elbow. The eyes of three or four +followed it. + +"Well," said the shoemaker, seeming to perceive that the interest the +object had excited was greater than he had anticipated, and warranted the +last's being taken up again and exhibited; "now, whose foot do ye suppose +this last was made for? It was made for Geoffrey Day's father, over at +Yalbury Wood. Ah, many's the pair o' boots he've had off the last! Well, +when 'a died, I used the last for Geoffrey, and have ever since, though a +little doctoring was wanted to make it do. Yes, a very queer natured +last it is now, 'a b'lieve," he continued, turning it over caressingly. +"Now, you notice that there" (pointing to a lump of leather bradded to +the toe), "that's a very bad bunion that he've had ever since 'a was a +boy. Now, this remarkable large piece" (pointing to a patch nailed to +the side), "shows a' accident he received by the tread of a horse, that +squashed his foot a'most to a pomace. The horseshoe cam full-butt on +this point, you see. And so I've just been over to Geoffrey's, to know +if he wanted his bunion altered or made bigger in the new pair I'm +making." + +During the latter part of this speech, Mr. Penny's left hand wandered +towards the cider-cup, as if the hand had no connection with the person +speaking; and bringing his sentence to an abrupt close, all but the +extreme margin of the bootmaker's face was eclipsed by the circular brim +of the vessel. + +"However, I was going to say," continued Penny, putting down the cup, "I +ought to have called at the school"--here he went groping again in the +depths of his pocket--"to leave this without fail, though I suppose the +first thing to-morrow will do." + +He now drew forth and placed upon the table a boot--small, light, and +prettily shaped--upon the heel of which he had been operating. + +"The new schoolmistress's!" + +"Ay, no less, Miss Fancy Day; as neat a little figure of fun as ever I +see, and just husband-high." + +"Never Geoffrey's daughter Fancy?" said Bowman, as all glances present +converged like wheel-spokes upon the boot in the centre of them. + +"Yes, sure," resumed Mr. Penny, regarding the boot as if that alone were +his auditor; "'tis she that's come here schoolmistress. You knowed his +daughter was in training?" + +"Strange, isn't it, for her to be here Christmas night, Master Penny?" + +"Yes; but here she is, 'a b'lieve." + +"I know how she comes here--so I do!" chirruped one of the children. + +"Why?" Dick inquired, with subtle interest. + +"Pa'son Maybold was afraid he couldn't manage us all to-morrow at the +dinner, and he talked o' getting her jist to come over and help him hand +about the plates, and see we didn't make pigs of ourselves; and that's +what she's come for!" + +"And that's the boot, then," continued its mender imaginatively, "that +she'll walk to church in to-morrow morning. I don't care to mend boots I +don't make; but there's no knowing what it may lead to, and her father +always comes to me." + +There, between the cider-mug and the candle, stood this interesting +receptacle of the little unknown's foot; and a very pretty boot it was. A +character, in fact--the flexible bend at the instep, the rounded +localities of the small nestling toes, scratches from careless scampers +now forgotten--all, as repeated in the tell-tale leather, evidencing a +nature and a bias. Dick surveyed it with a delicate feeling that he had +no right to do so without having first asked the owner of the foot's +permission. + +"Now, neighbours, though no common eye can see it," the shoemaker went +on, "a man in the trade can see the likeness between this boot and that +last, although that is so deformed as hardly to recall one of God's +creatures, and this is one of as pretty a pair as you'd get for ten-and- +sixpence in Casterbridge. To you, nothing; but 'tis father's voot and +daughter's voot to me, as plain as houses." + +"I don't doubt there's a likeness, Master Penny--a mild likeness--a +fantastical likeness," said Spinks. "But I han't got imagination enough +to see it, perhaps." + +Mr. Penny adjusted his spectacles. + +"Now, I'll tell ye what happened to me once on this very point. You used +to know Johnson the dairyman, William?" + +"Ay, sure; I did." + +"Well, 'twasn't opposite his house, but a little lower down--by his +paddock, in front o' Parkmaze Pool. I was a-bearing across towards +Bloom's End, and lo and behold, there was a man just brought out o' the +Pool, dead; he had un'rayed for a dip, but not being able to pitch it +just there had gone in flop over his head. Men looked at en; women +looked at en; children looked at en; nobody knowed en. He was covered +wi' a sheet; but I catched sight of his voot, just showing out as they +carried en along. 'I don't care what name that man went by,' I said, in +my way, 'but he's John Woodward's brother; I can swear to the family +voot.' At that very moment up comes John Woodward, weeping and teaving, +'I've lost my brother! I've lost my brother!'" + +"Only to think of that!" said Mrs. Dewy. + +"'Tis well enough to know this foot and that foot," said Mr. Spinks. +"'Tis long-headed, in fact, as far as feet do go. I know little, 'tis +true--I say no more; but show me a man's foot, and I'll tell you that +man's heart." + +"You must be a cleverer feller, then, than mankind in jineral," said the +tranter. + +"Well, that's nothing for me to speak of," returned Mr. Spinks. "A man +lives and learns. Maybe I've read a leaf or two in my time. I don't +wish to say anything large, mind you; but nevertheless, maybe I have." + +"Yes, I know," said Michael soothingly, "and all the parish knows, that +ye've read sommat of everything a'most, and have been a great filler of +young folks' brains. Learning's a worthy thing, and ye've got it, Master +Spinks." + +"I make no boast, though I may have read and thought a little; and I +know--it may be from much perusing, but I make no boast--that by the time +a man's head is finished, 'tis almost time for him to creep underground. +I am over forty-five." + +Mr. Spinks emitted a look to signify that if his head was not finished, +nobody's head ever could be. + +"Talk of knowing people by their feet!" said Reuben. "Rot me, my +sonnies, then, if I can tell what a man is from all his members put +together, oftentimes." + +"But still, look is a good deal," observed grandfather William absently, +moving and balancing his head till the tip of grandfather James's nose +was exactly in a right line with William's eye and the mouth of a +miniature cavern he was discerning in the fire. "By the way," he +continued in a fresher voice, and looking up, "that young crater, the +schoolmis'ess, must be sung to to-night wi' the rest? If her ear is as +fine as her face, we shall have enough to do to be up-sides with her." + +"What about her face?" said young Dewy. + +"Well, as to that," Mr. Spinks replied, "'tis a face you can hardly +gainsay. A very good pink face, as far as that do go. Still, only a +face, when all is said and done." + +"Come, come, Elias Spinks, say she's a pretty maid, and have done wi' +her," said the tranter, again preparing to visit the cider-barrel. + + + +CHAPTER IV: GOING THE ROUNDS + + +Shortly after ten o'clock the singing-boys arrived at the tranter's +house, which was invariably the place of meeting, and preparations were +made for the start. The older men and musicians wore thick coats, with +stiff perpendicular collars, and coloured handkerchiefs wound round and +round the neck till the end came to hand, over all which they just showed +their ears and noses, like people looking over a wall. The remainder, +stalwart ruddy men and boys, were dressed mainly in snow-white +smock-frocks, embroidered upon the shoulders and breasts, in ornamental +forms of hearts, diamonds, and zigzags. The cider-mug was emptied for +the ninth time, the music-books were arranged, and the pieces finally +decided upon. The boys in the meantime put the old horn-lanterns in +order, cut candles into short lengths to fit the lanterns; and, a thin +fleece of snow having fallen since the early part of the evening, those +who had no leggings went to the stable and wound wisps of hay round their +ankles to keep the insidious flakes from the interior of their boots. + +Mellstock was a parish of considerable acreage, the hamlets composing it +lying at a much greater distance from each other than is ordinarily the +case. Hence several hours were consumed in playing and singing within +hearing of every family, even if but a single air were bestowed on each. +There was Lower Mellstock, the main village; half a mile from this were +the church and vicarage, and a few other houses, the spot being rather +lonely now, though in past centuries it had been the most +thickly-populated quarter of the parish. A mile north-east lay the +hamlet of Upper Mellstock, where the tranter lived; and at other points +knots of cottages, besides solitary farmsteads and dairies. + +Old William Dewy, with the violoncello, played the bass; his grandson +Dick the treble violin; and Reuben and Michael Mail the tenor and second +violins respectively. The singers consisted of four men and seven boys, +upon whom devolved the task of carrying and attending to the lanterns, +and holding the books open for the players. Directly music was the +theme, old William ever and instinctively came to the front. + +"Now mind, neighbours," he said, as they all went out one by one at the +door, he himself holding it ajar and regarding them with a critical face +as they passed, like a shepherd counting out his sheep. "You two counter- +boys, keep your ears open to Michael's fingering, and don't ye go +straying into the treble part along o' Dick and his set, as ye did last +year; and mind this especially when we be in 'Arise, and hail.' Billy +Chimlen, don't you sing quite so raving mad as you fain would; and, all +o' ye, whatever ye do, keep from making a great scuffle on the ground +when we go in at people's gates; but go quietly, so as to strike up all +of a sudden, like spirits." + +"Farmer Ledlow's first?" + +"Farmer Ledlow's first; the rest as usual." + +"And, Voss," said the tranter terminatively, "you keep house here till +about half-past two; then heat the metheglin and cider in the warmer +you'll find turned up upon the copper; and bring it wi' the victuals to +church-hatch, as th'st know." + +* * * * * + +Just before the clock struck twelve they lighted the lanterns and +started. The moon, in her third quarter, had risen since the snowstorm; +but the dense accumulation of snow-cloud weakened her power to a faint +twilight, which was rather pervasive of the landscape than traceable to +the sky. The breeze had gone down, and the rustle of their feet and +tones of their speech echoed with an alert rebound from every post, +boundary-stone, and ancient wall they passed, even where the distance of +the echo's origin was less than a few yards. Beyond their own slight +noises nothing was to be heard, save the occasional bark of foxes in the +direction of Yalbury Wood, or the brush of a rabbit among the grass now +and then, as it scampered out of their way. + +Most of the outlying homesteads and hamlets had been visited by about two +o'clock; they then passed across the outskirts of a wooded park toward +the main village, nobody being at home at the Manor. Pursuing no +recognized track, great care was necessary in walking lest their faces +should come in contact with the low-hanging boughs of the old lime-trees, +which in many spots formed dense over-growths of interlaced branches. + +"Times have changed from the times they used to be," said Mail, regarding +nobody can tell what interesting old panoramas with an inward eye, and +letting his outward glance rest on the ground, because it was as +convenient a position as any. "People don't care much about us now! I've +been thinking we must be almost the last left in the county of the old +string players? Barrel-organs, and the things next door to 'em that you +blow wi' your foot, have come in terribly of late years." + +"Ay!" said Bowman, shaking his head; and old William, on seeing him, did +the same thing. + +"More's the pity," replied another. "Time was--long and merry ago +now!--when not one of the varmits was to be heard of; but it served some +of the quires right. They should have stuck to strings as we did, and +kept out clarinets, and done away with serpents. If you'd thrive in +musical religion, stick to strings, says I." + +"Strings be safe soul-lifters, as far as that do go," said Mr. Spinks. + +"Yet there's worse things than serpents," said Mr. Penny. "Old things +pass away, 'tis true; but a serpent was a good old note: a deep rich note +was the serpent." + +"Clar'nets, however, be bad at all times," said Michael Mail. "One +Christmas--years agone now, years--I went the rounds wi' the Weatherbury +quire. 'Twas a hard frosty night, and the keys of all the clar'nets +froze--ah, they did freeze!--so that 'twas like drawing a cork every time +a key was opened; and the players o' 'em had to go into a +hedger-and-ditcher's chimley-corner, and thaw their clar'nets every now +and then. An icicle o' spet hung down from the end of every man's +clar'net a span long; and as to fingers--well, there, if ye'll believe +me, we had no fingers at all, to our knowing." + +"I can well bring back to my mind," said Mr. Penny, "what I said to poor +Joseph Ryme (who took the treble part in Chalk-Newton Church for two-and- +forty year) when they thought of having clar'nets there. 'Joseph,' I +said, says I, 'depend upon't, if so be you have them tooting clar'nets +you'll spoil the whole set-out. Clar'nets were not made for the service +of the Lard; you can see it by looking at 'em,' I said. And what came +o't? Why, souls, the parson set up a barrel-organ on his own account +within two years o' the time I spoke, and the old quire went to nothing." + +"As far as look is concerned," said the tranter, "I don't for my part see +that a fiddle is much nearer heaven than a clar'net. 'Tis further off. +There's always a rakish, scampish twist about a fiddle's looks that seems +to say the Wicked One had a hand in making o'en; while angels be supposed +to play clar'nets in heaven, or som'at like 'em, if ye may believe +picters." + +"Robert Penny, you was in the right," broke in the eldest Dewy. "They +should ha' stuck to strings. Your brass-man is a rafting dog--well and +good; your reed-man is a dab at stirring ye--well and good; your drum-man +is a rare bowel-shaker--good again. But I don't care who hears me say +it, nothing will spak to your heart wi' the sweetness o' the man of +strings!" + +"Strings for ever!" said little Jimmy. + +"Strings alone would have held their ground against all the new comers in +creation." ("True, true!" said Bowman.) "But clarinets was death." +("Death they was!" said Mr. Penny.) "And harmonions," William continued +in a louder voice, and getting excited by these signs of approval, +"harmonions and barrel-organs" ("Ah!" and groans from Spinks) "be +miserable--what shall I call 'em?--miserable--" + +"Sinners," suggested Jimmy, who made large strides like the men, and did +not lag behind like the other little boys. + +"Miserable dumbledores!" + +"Right, William, and so they be--miserable dumbledores!" said the choir +with unanimity. + +By this time they were crossing to a gate in the direction of the school, +which, standing on a slight eminence at the junction of three ways, now +rose in unvarying and dark flatness against the sky. The instruments +were retuned, and all the band entered the school enclosure, enjoined by +old William to keep upon the grass. + +"Number seventy-eight," he softly gave out as they formed round in a +semicircle, the boys opening the lanterns to get a clearer light, and +directing their rays on the books. + +Then passed forth into the quiet night an ancient and time-worn hymn, +embodying a quaint Christianity in words orally transmitted from father +to son through several generations down to the present characters, who +sang them out right earnestly: + + "Remember Adam's fall, + O thou Man: + Remember Adam's fall + From Heaven to Hell. + Remember Adam's fall; + How he hath condemn'd all + In Hell perpetual + There for to dwell. + + Remember God's goodnesse, + O thou Man: + Remember God's goodnesse, + His promise made. + Remember God's goodnesse; + He sent His Son sinlesse + Our ails for to redress; + Be not afraid! + + In Bethlehem He was born, + O thou Man: + In Bethlehem He was born, + For mankind's sake. + In Bethlehem He was born, + Christmas-day i' the morn: + Our Saviour thought no scorn + Our faults to take. + + Give thanks to God alway, + O thou Man: + Give thanks to God alway + With heart-most joy. + Give thanks to God alway + On this our joyful day: + Let all men sing and say, + Holy, Holy!" + +Having concluded the last note, they listened for a minute or two, but +found that no sound issued from the schoolhouse. + +"Four breaths, and then, 'O, what unbounded goodness!' number +fifty-nine," said William. + +This was duly gone through, and no notice whatever seemed to be taken of +the performance. + +"Good guide us, surely 'tisn't a' empty house, as befell us in the year +thirty-nine and forty-three!" said old Dewy. + +"Perhaps she's jist come from some musical city, and sneers at our +doings?" the tranter whispered. + +"'Od rabbit her!" said Mr. Penny, with an annihilating look at a corner +of the school chimney, "I don't quite stomach her, if this is it. Your +plain music well done is as worthy as your other sort done bad, a' +b'lieve, souls; so say I." + +"Four breaths, and then the last," said the leader authoritatively. +"'Rejoice, ye Tenants of the Earth,' number sixty-four." + +At the close, waiting yet another minute, he said in a clear loud voice, +as he had said in the village at that hour and season for the previous +forty years--"A merry Christmas to ye!" + + + +CHAPTER V: THE LISTENERS + + +When the expectant stillness consequent upon the exclamation had nearly +died out of them all, an increasing light made itself visible in one of +the windows of the upper floor. It came so close to the blind that the +exact position of the flame could be perceived from the outside. +Remaining steady for an instant, the blind went upward from before it, +revealing to thirty concentrated eyes a young girl, framed as a picture +by the window architrave, and unconsciously illuminating her countenance +to a vivid brightness by a candle she held in her left hand, close to her +face, her right hand being extended to the side of the window. She was +wrapped in a white robe of some kind, whilst down her shoulders fell a +twining profusion of marvellously rich hair, in a wild disorder which +proclaimed it to be only during the invisible hours of the night that +such a condition was discoverable. Her bright eyes were looking into the +grey world outside with an uncertain expression, oscillating between +courage and shyness, which, as she recognized the semicircular group of +dark forms gathered before her, transformed itself into pleasant +resolution. + +Opening the window, she said lightly and warmly--"Thank you, singers, +thank you!" + +Together went the window quickly and quietly, and the blind started +downward on its return to its place. Her fair forehead and eyes +vanished; her little mouth; her neck and shoulders; all of her. Then the +spot of candlelight shone nebulously as before; then it moved away. + +"How pretty!" exclaimed Dick Dewy. + +"If she'd been rale wexwork she couldn't ha' been comelier," said Michael +Mail. + +"As near a thing to a spiritual vision as ever I wish to see!" said +tranter Dewy. + +"O, sich I never, never see!" said Leaf fervently. + +All the rest, after clearing their throats and adjusting their hats, +agreed that such a sight was worth singing for. + +"Now to Farmer Shiner's, and then replenish our insides, father?" said +the tranter. + +"Wi' all my heart," said old William, shouldering his bass-viol. + +Farmer Shiner's was a queer lump of a house, standing at the corner of a +lane that ran into the principal thoroughfare. The upper windows were +much wider than they were high, and this feature, together with a broad +bay-window where the door might have been expected, gave it by day the +aspect of a human countenance turned askance, and wearing a sly and +wicked leer. To-night nothing was visible but the outline of the roof +upon the sky. + +The front of this building was reached, and the preliminaries arranged as +usual. + +"Four breaths, and number thirty-two, 'Behold the Morning Star,'" said +old William. + +They had reached the end of the second verse, and the fiddlers were doing +the up bow-stroke previously to pouring forth the opening chord of the +third verse, when, without a light appearing or any signal being given, a +roaring voice exclaimed-- + +"Shut up, woll 'ee! Don't make your blaring row here! A feller wi' a +headache enough to split his skull likes a quiet night!" + +Slam went the window. + +"Hullo, that's a' ugly blow for we!" said the tranter, in a keenly +appreciative voice, and turning to his companions. + +"Finish the carrel, all who be friends of harmony!" commanded old +William; and they continued to the end. + +"Four breaths, and number nineteen!" said William firmly. "Give it him +well; the quire can't be insulted in this manner!" + +A light now flashed into existence, the window opened, and the farmer +stood revealed as one in a terrific passion. + +"Drown en!--drown en!" the tranter cried, fiddling frantically. "Play +fortissimy, and drown his spaking!" + +"Fortissimy!" said Michael Mail, and the music and singing waxed so loud +that it was impossible to know what Mr. Shiner had said, was saying, or +was about to say; but wildly flinging his arms and body about in the +forms of capital Xs and Ys, he appeared to utter enough invectives to +consign the whole parish to perdition. + +"Very onseemly--very!" said old William, as they retired. "Never such a +dreadful scene in the whole round o' my carrel practice--never! And he a +churchwarden!" + +"Only a drap o' drink got into his head," said the tranter. "Man's well +enough when he's in his religious frame. He's in his worldly frame now. +Must ask en to our bit of a party to-morrow night, I suppose, and so put +en in humour again. We bear no mortal man ill-will." + +They now crossed Mellstock Bridge, and went along an embowered path +beside the Froom towards the church and vicarage, meeting Voss with the +hot mead and bread-and-cheese as they were approaching the churchyard. +This determined them to eat and drink before proceeding further, and they +entered the church and ascended to the gallery. The lanterns were +opened, and the whole body sat round against the walls on benches and +whatever else was available, and made a hearty meal. In the pauses of +conversation there could be heard through the floor overhead a little +world of undertones and creaks from the halting clockwork, which never +spread further than the tower they were born in, and raised in the more +meditative minds a fancy that here lay the direct pathway of Time. + +Having done eating and drinking, they again tuned the instruments, and +once more the party emerged into the night air. + +"Where's Dick?" said old Dewy. + +Every man looked round upon every other man, as if Dick might have been +transmuted into one or the other; and then they said they didn't know. + +"Well now, that's what I call very nasty of Master Dicky, that I do," +said Michael Mail. + +"He've clinked off home-along, depend upon't," another suggested, though +not quite believing that he had. + +"Dick!" exclaimed the tranter, and his voice rolled sonorously forth +among the yews. + +He suspended his muscles rigid as stone whilst listening for an answer, +and finding he listened in vain, turned to the assemblage. + +"The treble man too! Now if he'd been a tenor or counter chap, we might +ha' contrived the rest o't without en, you see. But for a quire to lose +the treble, why, my sonnies, you may so well lose your . . . " The +tranter paused, unable to mention an image vast enough for the occasion. + +"Your head at once," suggested Mr. Penny. + +The tranter moved a pace, as if it were puerile of people to complete +sentences when there were more pressing things to be done. + +"Was ever heard such a thing as a young man leaving his work half done +and turning tail like this!" + +"Never," replied Bowman, in a tone signifying that he was the last man in +the world to wish to withhold the formal finish required of him. + +"I hope no fatal tragedy has overtook the lad!" said his grandfather. + +"O no," replied tranter Dewy placidly. "Wonder where he's put that there +fiddle of his. Why that fiddle cost thirty shillings, and good words +besides. Somewhere in the damp, without doubt; that instrument will be +unglued and spoilt in ten minutes--ten! ay, two." + +"What in the name o' righteousness can have happened?" said old William, +more uneasily. "Perhaps he's drownded!" + +Leaving their lanterns and instruments in the belfry they retraced their +steps along the waterside track. "A strapping lad like Dick d'know +better than let anything happen onawares," Reuben remarked. "There's +sure to be some poor little scram reason for't staring us in the face all +the while." He lowered his voice to a mysterious tone: "Neighbours, have +ye noticed any sign of a scornful woman in his head, or suchlike?" + +"Not a glimmer of such a body. He's as clear as water yet." + +"And Dicky said he should never marry," cried Jimmy, "but live at home +always along wi' mother and we!" + +"Ay, ay, my sonny; every lad has said that in his time." + +They had now again reached the precincts of Mr. Shiner's, but hearing +nobody in that direction, one or two went across to the schoolhouse. A +light was still burning in the bedroom, and though the blind was down, +the window had been slightly opened, as if to admit the distant notes of +the carollers to the ears of the occupant of the room. + +Opposite the window, leaning motionless against a beech tree, was the +lost man, his arms folded, his head thrown back, his eyes fixed upon the +illuminated lattice. + +"Why, Dick, is that thee? What b'st doing here?" + +Dick's body instantly flew into a more rational attitude, and his head +was seen to turn east and west in the gloom, as if endeavouring to +discern some proper answer to that question; and at last he said in +rather feeble accents--"Nothing, father." + +"Th'st take long enough time about it then, upon my body," said the +tranter, as they all turned anew towards the vicarage. + +"I thought you hadn't done having snap in the gallery," said Dick. + +"Why, we've been traypsing and rambling about, looking everywhere, and +thinking you'd done fifty deathly things, and here have you been at +nothing at all!" + +"The stupidness lies in that point of it being nothing at all," murmured +Mr. Spinks. + +The vicarage front was their next field of operation, and Mr. Maybold, +the lately-arrived incumbent, duly received his share of the night's +harmonies. It was hoped that by reason of his profession he would have +been led to open the window, and an extra carol in quick time was added +to draw him forth. But Mr. Maybold made no stir. + +"A bad sign!" said old William, shaking his head. + +However, at that same instant a musical voice was heard exclaiming from +inner depths of bedclothes--"Thanks, villagers!" + +"What did he say?" asked Bowman, who was rather dull of hearing. Bowman's +voice, being therefore loud, had been heard by the vicar within. + +"I said, 'Thanks, villagers!'" cried the vicar again. + +"Oh, we didn't hear 'ee the first time!" cried Bowman. + +"Now don't for heaven's sake spoil the young man's temper by answering +like that!" said the tranter. + +"You won't do that, my friends!" the vicar shouted. + +"Well to be sure, what ears!" said Mr. Penny in a whisper. "Beats any +horse or dog in the parish, and depend upon't, that's a sign he's a +proper clever chap." + +"We shall see that in time," said the tranter. + +Old William, in his gratitude for such thanks from a comparatively new +inhabitant, was anxious to play all the tunes over again; but renounced +his desire on being reminded by Reuben that it would be best to leave +well alone. + +"Now putting two and two together," the tranter continued, as they went +their way over the hill, and across to the last remaining houses; "that +is, in the form of that young female vision we zeed just now, and this +young tenor-voiced parson, my belief is she'll wind en round her finger, +and twist the pore young feller about like the figure of 8--that she will +so, my sonnies." + + + +CHAPTER VI: CHRISTMAS MORNING + + +The choir at last reached their beds, and slept like the rest of the +parish. Dick's slumbers, through the three or four hours remaining for +rest, were disturbed and slight; an exhaustive variation upon the +incidents that had passed that night in connection with the school-window +going on in his brain every moment of the time. + +In the morning, do what he would--go upstairs, downstairs, out of doors, +speak of the wind and weather, or what not--he could not refrain from an +unceasing renewal, in imagination, of that interesting enactment. Tilted +on the edge of one foot he stood beside the fireplace, watching his +mother grilling rashers; but there was nothing in grilling, he thought, +unless the Vision grilled. The limp rasher hung down between the bars of +the gridiron like a cat in a child's arms; but there was nothing in +similes, unless She uttered them. He looked at the daylight shadows of a +yellow hue, dancing with the firelight shadows in blue on the whitewashed +chimney corner, but there was nothing in shadows. "Perhaps the new young +wom--sch--Miss Fancy Day will sing in church with us this morning," he +said. + +The tranter looked a long time before he replied, "I fancy she will; and +yet I fancy she won't." + +Dick implied that such a remark was rather to be tolerated than admired; +though deliberateness in speech was known to have, as a rule, more to do +with the machinery of the tranter's throat than with the matter +enunciated. + +They made preparations for going to church as usual; Dick with extreme +alacrity, though he would not definitely consider why he was so +religious. His wonderful nicety in brushing and cleaning his best light +boots had features which elevated it to the rank of an art. Every +particle and speck of last week's mud was scraped and brushed from toe +and heel; new blacking from the packet was carefully mixed and made use +of, regardless of expense. A coat was laid on and polished; then another +coat for increased blackness; and lastly a third, to give the perfect and +mirror-like jet which the hoped-for rencounter demanded. + +It being Christmas-day, the tranter prepared himself with Sunday +particularity. Loud sousing and snorting noises were heard to proceed +from a tub in the back quarters of the dwelling, proclaiming that he was +there performing his great Sunday wash, lasting half-an-hour, to which +his washings on working-day mornings were mere flashes in the pan. +Vanishing into the outhouse with a large brown towel, and the above-named +bubblings and snortings being carried on for about twenty minutes, the +tranter would appear round the edge of the door, smelling like a summer +fog, and looking as if he had just narrowly escaped a watery grave with +the loss of much of his clothes, having since been weeping bitterly till +his eyes were red; a crystal drop of water hanging ornamentally at the +bottom of each ear, one at the tip of his nose, and others in the form of +spangles about his hair. + +After a great deal of crunching upon the sanded stone floor by the feet +of father, son, and grandson as they moved to and fro in these +preparations, the bass-viol and fiddles were taken from their nook, and +the strings examined and screwed a little above concert-pitch, that they +might keep their tone when the service began, to obviate the awkward +contingency of having to retune them at the back of the gallery during a +cough, sneeze, or amen--an inconvenience which had been known to arise in +damp wintry weather. + +The three left the door and paced down Mellstock-lane and across the ewe- +lease, bearing under their arms the instruments in faded green-baize +bags, and old brown music-books in their hands; Dick continually finding +himself in advance of the other two, and the tranter moving on with toes +turned outwards to an enormous angle. + +At the foot of an incline the church became visible through the north +gate, or 'church hatch,' as it was called here. Seven agile figures in a +clump were observable beyond, which proved to be the choristers waiting; +sitting on an altar-tomb to pass the time, and letting their heels dangle +against it. The musicians being now in sight, the youthful party +scampered off and rattled up the old wooden stairs of the gallery like a +regiment of cavalry; the other boys of the parish waiting outside and +observing birds, cats, and other creatures till the vicar entered, when +they suddenly subsided into sober church-goers, and passed down the aisle +with echoing heels. + +The gallery of Mellstock Church had a status and sentiment of its own. A +stranger there was regarded with a feeling altogether differing from that +of the congregation below towards him. Banished from the nave as an +intruder whom no originality could make interesting, he was received +above as a curiosity that no unfitness could render dull. The gallery, +too, looked down upon and knew the habits of the nave to its remotest +peculiarity, and had an extensive stock of exclusive information about +it; whilst the nave knew nothing of the gallery folk, as gallery folk, +beyond their loud-sounding minims and chest notes. Such topics as that +the clerk was always chewing tobacco except at the moment of crying amen; +that he had a dust-hole in his pew; that during the sermon certain young +daughters of the village had left off caring to read anything so mild as +the marriage service for some years, and now regularly studied the one +which chronologically follows it; that a pair of lovers touched fingers +through a knot-hole between their pews in the manner ordained by their +great exemplars, Pyramus and Thisbe; that Mrs. Ledlow, the farmer's wife, +counted her money and reckoned her week's marketing expenses during the +first lesson--all news to those below--were stale subjects here. + +Old William sat in the centre of the front row, his violoncello between +his knees and two singers on each hand. Behind him, on the left, came +the treble singers and Dick; and on the right the tranter and the tenors. +Farther back was old Mail with the altos and supernumeraries. + +But before they had taken their places, and whilst they were standing in +a circle at the back of the gallery practising a psalm or two, Dick cast +his eyes over his grandfather's shoulder, and saw the vision of the past +night enter the porch-door as methodically as if she had never been a +vision at all. A new atmosphere seemed suddenly to be puffed into the +ancient edifice by her movement, which made Dick's body and soul tingle +with novel sensations. Directed by Shiner, the churchwarden, she +proceeded to the small aisle on the north side of the chancel, a spot now +allotted to a throng of Sunday-school girls, and distinctly visible from +the gallery-front by looking under the curve of the furthermost arch on +that side. + +Before this moment the church had seemed comparatively empty--now it was +thronged; and as Miss Fancy rose from her knees and looked around her for +a permanent place in which to deposit herself--finally choosing the +remotest corner--Dick began to breathe more freely the warm new air she +had brought with her; to feel rushings of blood, and to have impressions +that there was a tie between her and himself visible to all the +congregation. + +Ever afterwards the young man could recollect individually each part of +the service of that bright Christmas morning, and the trifling +occurrences which took place as its minutes slowly drew along; the duties +of that day dividing themselves by a complete line from the services of +other times. The tunes they that morning essayed remained with him for +years, apart from all others; also the text; also the appearance of the +layer of dust upon the capitals of the piers; that the holly-bough in the +chancel archway was hung a little out of the centre--all the ideas, in +short, that creep into the mind when reason is only exercising its lowest +activity through the eye. + +By chance or by fate, another young man who attended Mellstock Church on +that Christmas morning had towards the end of the service the same +instinctive perception of an interesting presence, in the shape of the +same bright maiden, though his emotion reached a far less developed +stage. And there was this difference, too, that the person in question +was surprised at his condition, and sedulously endeavoured to reduce +himself to his normal state of mind. He was the young vicar, Mr. +Maybold. + +The music on Christmas mornings was frequently below the standard of +church-performances at other times. The boys were sleepy from the heavy +exertions of the night; the men were slightly wearied; and now, in +addition to these constant reasons, there was a dampness in the +atmosphere that still further aggravated the evil. Their strings, from +the recent long exposure to the night air, rose whole semitones, and +snapped with a loud twang at the most silent moment; which necessitated +more retiring than ever to the back of the gallery, and made the gallery +throats quite husky with the quantity of coughing and hemming required +for tuning in. The vicar looked cross. + +When the singing was in progress there was suddenly discovered to be a +strong and shrill reinforcement from some point, ultimately found to be +the school-girls' aisle. At every attempt it grew bolder and more +distinct. At the third time of singing, these intrusive feminine voices +were as mighty as those of the regular singers; in fact, the flood of +sound from this quarter assumed such an individuality, that it had a +time, a key, almost a tune of its own, surging upwards when the gallery +plunged downwards, and the reverse. + +Now this had never happened before within the memory of man. The girls, +like the rest of the congregation, had always been humble and respectful +followers of the gallery; singing at sixes and sevens if without gallery +leaders; never interfering with the ordinances of these practised +artists--having no will, union, power, or proclivity except it was given +them from the established choir enthroned above them. + +A good deal of desperation became noticeable in the gallery throats and +strings, which continued throughout the musical portion of the service. +Directly the fiddles were laid down, Mr. Penny's spectacles put in their +sheath, and the text had been given out, an indignant whispering began. + +"Did ye hear that, souls?" Mr. Penny said, in a groaning breath. + +"Brazen-faced hussies!" said Bowman. + +"True; why, they were every note as loud as we, fiddles and all, if not +louder!" + +"Fiddles and all!" echoed Bowman bitterly. + +"Shall anything saucier be found than united 'ooman?" Mr. Spinks +murmured. + +"What I want to know is," said the tranter (as if he knew already, but +that civilization required the form of words), "what business people have +to tell maidens to sing like that when they don't sit in a gallery, and +never have entered one in their lives? That's the question, my sonnies." + +"'Tis the gallery have got to sing, all the world knows," said Mr. Penny. +"Why, souls, what's the use o' the ancients spending scores of pounds to +build galleries if people down in the lowest depths of the church sing +like that at a moment's notice?" + +"Really, I think we useless ones had better march out of church, fiddles +and all!" said Mr. Spinks, with a laugh which, to a stranger, would have +sounded mild and real. Only the initiated body of men he addressed could +understand the horrible bitterness of irony that lurked under the quiet +words 'useless ones,' and the ghastliness of the laughter apparently so +natural. + +"Never mind! Let 'em sing too--'twill make it all the louder--hee, hee!" +said Leaf. + +"Thomas Leaf, Thomas Leaf! Where have you lived all your life?" said +grandfather William sternly. + +The quailing Leaf tried to look as if he had lived nowhere at all. + +"When all's said and done, my sonnies," Reuben said, "there'd have been +no real harm in their singing if they had let nobody hear 'em, and only +jined in now and then." + +"None at all," said Mr. Penny. "But though I don't wish to accuse people +wrongfully, I'd say before my lord judge that I could hear every note o' +that last psalm come from 'em as much as from us--every note as if 'twas +their own." + +"Know it! ah, I should think I did know it!" Mr. Spinks was heard to +observe at this moment, without reference to his fellow players--shaking +his head at some idea he seemed to see floating before him, and smiling +as if he were attending a funeral at the time. "Ah, do I or don't I know +it!" + +No one said "Know what?" because all were aware from experience that what +he knew would declare itself in process of time. + +"I could fancy last night that we should have some trouble wi' that young +man," said the tranter, pending the continuance of Spinks's speech, and +looking towards the unconscious Mr. Maybold in the pulpit. + +"I fancy," said old William, rather severely, "I fancy there's too much +whispering going on to be of any spiritual use to gentle or simple." Then +folding his lips and concentrating his glance on the vicar, he implied +that none but the ignorant would speak again; and accordingly there was +silence in the gallery, Mr. Spinks's telling speech remaining for ever +unspoken. + +Dick had said nothing, and the tranter little, on this episode of the +morning; for Mrs. Dewy at breakfast expressed it as her intention to +invite the youthful leader of the culprits to the small party it was +customary with them to have on Christmas night--a piece of knowledge +which had given a particular brightness to Dick's reflections since he +had received it. And in the tranter's slightly-cynical nature, party +feeling was weaker than in the other members of the choir, though +friendliness and faithful partnership still sustained in him a hearty +earnestness on their account. + + + +CHAPTER VII: THE TRANTER'S PARTY + + +During the afternoon unusual activity was seen to prevail about the +precincts of tranter Dewy's house. The flagstone floor was swept of +dust, and a sprinkling of the finest yellow sand from the innermost +stratum of the adjoining sand-pit lightly scattered thereupon. Then were +produced large knives and forks, which had been shrouded in darkness and +grease since the last occasion of the kind, and bearing upon their sides, +"Shear-steel, warranted," in such emphatic letters of assurance, that the +warranter's name was not required as further proof, and not given. The +key was left in the tap of the cider-barrel, instead of being carried in +a pocket. And finally the tranter had to stand up in the room and let +his wife wheel him round like a turnstile, to see if anything +discreditable was visible in his appearance. + +"Stand still till I've been for the scissors," said Mrs. Dewy. + +The tranter stood as still as a sentinel at the challenge. + +The only repairs necessary were a trimming of one or two whiskers that +had extended beyond the general contour of the mass; a like trimming of a +slightly-frayed edge visible on his shirt-collar; and a final tug at a +grey hair--to all of which operations he submitted in resigned silence, +except the last, which produced a mild "Come, come, Ann," by way of +expostulation. + +"Really, Reuben, 'tis quite a disgrace to see such a man," said Mrs. +Dewy, with the severity justifiable in a long-tried companion, giving him +another turn round, and picking several of Smiler's hairs from the +shoulder of his coat. Reuben's thoughts seemed engaged elsewhere, and he +yawned. "And the collar of your coat is a shame to behold--so plastered +with dirt, or dust, or grease, or something. Why, wherever could you +have got it?" + +"'Tis my warm nater in summer-time, I suppose. I always did get in such +a heat when I bustle about." + +"Ay, the Dewys always were such a coarse-skinned family. There's your +brother Bob just as bad--as fat as a porpoise--wi' his low, mean, 'How'st +do, Ann?' whenever he meets me. I'd 'How'st do' him indeed! If the sun +only shines out a minute, there be you all streaming in the face--I never +see!" + +"If I be hot week-days, I must be hot Sundays." + +"If any of the girls should turn after their father 'twill be a bad look- +out for 'em, poor things! None of my family were sich vulgar sweaters, +not one of 'em. But, Lord-a-mercy, the Dewys! I don't know how ever I +cam' into such a family!" + +"Your woman's weakness when I asked ye to jine us. That's how it was I +suppose." But the tranter appeared to have heard some such words from +his wife before, and hence his answer had not the energy it might have +shown if the inquiry had possessed the charm of novelty. + +"You never did look so well in a pair o' trousers as in them," she +continued in the same unimpassioned voice, so that the unfriendly +criticism of the Dewy family seemed to have been more normal than +spontaneous. "Such a cheap pair as 'twas too. As big as any man could +wish to have, and lined inside, and double-lined in the lower parts, and +an extra piece of stiffening at the bottom. And 'tis a nice high cut +that comes up right under your armpits, and there's enough turned down +inside the seams to make half a pair more, besides a piece of cloth left +that will make an honest waistcoat--all by my contriving in buying the +stuff at a bargain, and having it made up under my eye. It only shows +what may be done by taking a little trouble, and not going straight to +the rascally tailors." + +The discourse was cut short by the sudden appearance of Charley on the +scene, with a face and hands of hideous blackness, and a nose like a +guttering candle. Why, on that particularly cleanly afternoon, he should +have discovered that the chimney-crook and chain from which the hams were +suspended should have possessed more merits and general interest as +playthings than any other articles in the house, is a question for +nursing mothers to decide. However, the humour seemed to lie in the +result being, as has been seen, that any given player with these articles +was in the long-run daubed with soot. The last that was seen of Charley +by daylight after this piece of ingenuity was when in the act of +vanishing from his father's presence round the corner of the +house--looking back over his shoulder with an expression of great sin on +his face, like Cain as the Outcast in Bible pictures. + +* * * * * + +The guests had all assembled, and the tranter's party had reached that +degree of development which accords with ten o'clock P.M. in rural +assemblies. At that hour the sound of a fiddle in process of tuning was +heard from the inner pantry. + +"That's Dick," said the tranter. "That lad's crazy for a jig." + +"Dick! Now I cannot--really, I cannot have any dancing at all till +Christmas-day is out," said old William emphatically. "When the clock +ha' done striking twelve, dance as much as ye like." + +"Well, I must say there's reason in that, William," said Mrs. Penny. "If +you do have a party on Christmas-night, 'tis only fair and honourable to +the sky-folk to have it a sit-still party. Jigging parties be all very +well on the Devil's holidays; but a jigging party looks suspicious now. O +yes; stop till the clock strikes, young folk--so say I." + +It happened that some warm mead accidentally got into Mr. Spinks's head +about this time. + +"Dancing," he said, "is a most strengthening, livening, and courting +movement, 'specially with a little beverage added! And dancing is good. +But why disturb what is ordained, Richard and Reuben, and the company +zhinerally? Why, I ask, as far as that do go?" + +"Then nothing till after twelve," said William. + +Though Reuben and his wife ruled on social points, religious questions +were mostly disposed of by the old man, whose firmness on this head quite +counterbalanced a certain weakness in his handling of domestic matters. +The hopes of the younger members of the household were therefore +relegated to a distance of one hour and three-quarters--a result that +took visible shape in them by a remote and listless look about the +eyes--the singing of songs being permitted in the interim. + +At five minutes to twelve the soft tuning was again heard in the back +quarters; and when at length the clock had whizzed forth the last stroke, +Dick appeared ready primed, and the instruments were boldly handled; old +William very readily taking the bass-viol from its accustomed nail, and +touching the strings as irreligiously as could be desired. + +The country-dance called the 'Triumph, or Follow my Lover,' was the +figure with which they opened. The tranter took for his partner Mrs. +Penny, and Mrs. Dewy was chosen by Mr. Penny, who made so much of his +limited height by a judicious carriage of the head, straightening of the +back, and important flashes of his spectacle-glasses, that he seemed +almost as tall as the tranter. Mr. Shiner, age about thirty-five, farmer +and church-warden, a character principally composed of a crimson stare, +vigorous breath, and a watch-chain, with a mouth hanging on a dark smile +but never smiling, had come quite willingly to the party, and showed a +wondrous obliviousness of all his antics on the previous night. But the +comely, slender, prettily-dressed prize Fancy Day fell to Dick's lot, in +spite of some private machinations of the farmer, for the reason that Mr. +Shiner, as a richer man, had shown too much assurance in asking the +favour, whilst Dick had been duly courteous. + +We gain a good view of our heroine as she advances to her place in the +ladies' line. She belonged to the taller division of middle height. +Flexibility was her first characteristic, by which she appeared to enjoy +the most easeful rest when she was in gliding motion. Her dark +eyes--arched by brows of so keen, slender, and soft a curve, that they +resembled nothing so much as two slurs in music--showed primarily a +bright sparkle each. This was softened by a frequent thoughtfulness, yet +not so frequent as to do away, for more than a few minutes at a time, +with a certain coquettishness; which in its turn was never so decided as +to banish honesty. Her lips imitated her brows in their clearly-cut +outline and softness of bend; and her nose was well shaped--which is +saying a great deal, when it is remembered that there are a hundred +pretty mouths and eyes for one pretty nose. Add to this, plentiful knots +of dark-brown hair, a gauzy dress of white, with blue facings; and the +slightest idea may be gained of the young maiden who showed, amidst the +rest of the dancing-ladies, like a flower among vegetables. And so the +dance proceeded. Mr. Shiner, according to the interesting rule laid +down, deserted his own partner, and made off down the middle with this +fair one of Dick's--the pair appearing from the top of the room like two +persons tripping down a lane to be married. Dick trotted behind with +what was intended to be a look of composure, but which was, in fact, a +rather silly expression of feature--implying, with too much earnestness, +that such an elopement could not be tolerated. Then they turned and came +back, when Dick grew more rigid around his mouth, and blushed with +ingenuous ardour as he joined hands with the rival and formed the arch +over his lady's head; which presumably gave the figure its name; +relinquishing her again at setting to partners, when Mr. Shiner's new +chain quivered in every link, and all the loose flesh upon the +tranter--who here came into action again--shook like jelly. Mrs. Penny, +being always rather concerned for her personal safety when she danced +with the tranter, fixed her face to a chronic smile of timidity the whole +time it lasted--a peculiarity which filled her features with wrinkles, +and reduced her eyes to little straight lines like hyphens, as she jigged +up and down opposite him; repeating in her own person not only his proper +movements, but also the minor flourishes which the richness of the +tranter's imagination led him to introduce from time to time--an +imitation which had about it something of slavish obedience, not unmixed +with fear. + +The ear-rings of the ladies now flung themselves wildly about, turning +violent summersaults, banging this way and that, and then swinging +quietly against the ears sustaining them. Mrs. Crumpler--a heavy woman, +who, for some reason which nobody ever thought worth inquiry, danced in a +clean apron--moved so smoothly through the figure that her feet were +never seen; conveying to imaginative minds the idea that she rolled on +castors. + +Minute after minute glided by, and the party reached the period when +ladies' back-hair begins to look forgotten and dissipated; when a +perceptible dampness makes itself apparent upon the faces even of +delicate girls--a ghastly dew having for some time rained from the +features of their masculine partners; when skirts begin to be torn out of +their gathers; when elderly people, who have stood up to please their +juniors, begin to feel sundry small tremblings in the region of the +knees, and to wish the interminable dance was at Jericho; when (at +country parties of the thorough sort) waistcoats begin to be unbuttoned, +and when the fiddlers' chairs have been wriggled, by the frantic bowing +of their occupiers, to a distance of about two feet from where they +originally stood. + +Fancy was dancing with Mr. Shiner. Dick knew that Fancy, by the law of +good manners, was bound to dance as pleasantly with one partner as with +another; yet he could not help suggesting to himself that she need not +have put quite so much spirit into her steps, nor smiled quite so +frequently whilst in the farmer's hands. + +"I'm afraid you didn't cast off," said Dick mildly to Mr. Shiner, before +the latter man's watch-chain had done vibrating from a recent whirl. + +Fancy made a motion of accepting the correction; but her partner took no +notice, and proceeded with the next movement, with an affectionate bend +towards her. + +"That Shiner's too fond of her," the young man said to himself as he +watched them. They came to the top again, Fancy smiling warmly towards +her partner, and went to their places. + +"Mr. Shiner, you didn't cast off," said Dick, for want of something else +to demolish him with; casting off himself, and being put out at the +farmer's irregularity. + +"Perhaps I sha'n't cast off for any man," said Mr. Shiner. + +"I think you ought to, sir." + +Dick's partner, a young lady of the name of Lizzy--called Lizz for +short--tried to mollify. + +"I can't say that I myself have much feeling for casting off," she said. + +"Nor I," said Mrs. Penny, following up the argument, "especially if a +friend and neighbour is set against it. Not but that 'tis a terrible +tasty thing in good hands and well done; yes, indeed, so say I." + +"All I meant was," said Dick, rather sorry that he had spoken +correctingly to a guest, "that 'tis in the dance; and a man has hardly +any right to hack and mangle what was ordained by the regular +dance-maker, who, I daresay, got his living by making 'em, and thought of +nothing else all his life." + +"I don't like casting off: then very well; I cast off for no dance-maker +that ever lived." + +Dick now appeared to be doing mental arithmetic, the act being really an +effort to present to himself, in an abstract form, how far an argument +with a formidable rival ought to be carried, when that rival was his +mother's guest. The dead-lock was put an end to by the stamping arrival +up the middle of the tranter, who, despising minutiae on principle, +started a theme of his own. + +"I assure you, neighbours," he said, "the heat of my frame no tongue can +tell!" He looked around and endeavoured to give, by a forcible gaze of +self-sympathy, some faint idea of the truth. + +Mrs. Dewy formed one of the next couple. + +"Yes," she said, in an auxiliary tone, "Reuben always was such a hot +man." + +Mrs. Penny implied the species of sympathy that such a class of +affliction required, by trying to smile and to look grieved at the same +time. + +"If he only walk round the garden of a Sunday morning, his shirt-collar +is as limp as no starch at all," continued Mrs. Dewy, her countenance +lapsing parenthetically into a housewifely expression of concern at the +reminiscence. + +"Come, come, you women-folk; 'tis hands across--come, come!" said the +tranter; and the conversation ceased for the present. + + + +CHAPTER VIII: THEY DANCE MORE WILDLY + + +Dick had at length secured Fancy for that most delightful of +country-dances, opening with six-hands-round. + +"Before we begin," said the tranter, "my proposal is, that 'twould be a +right and proper plan for every mortal man in the dance to pull off his +jacket, considering the heat." + +"Such low notions as you have, Reuben! Nothing but strip will go down +with you when you are a-dancing. Such a hot man as he is!" + +"Well, now, look here, my sonnies," he argued to his wife, whom he often +addressed in the plural masculine for economy of epithet merely; "I don't +see that. You dance and get hot as fire; therefore you lighten your +clothes. Isn't that nature and reason for gentle and simple? If I strip +by myself and not necessary, 'tis rather pot-housey I own; but if we +stout chaps strip one and all, why, 'tis the native manners of the +country, which no man can gainsay? Hey--what did you say, my sonnies?" + +"Strip we will!" said the three other heavy men who were in the dance; +and their coats were accordingly taken off and hung in the passage, +whence the four sufferers from heat soon reappeared, marching in close +column, with flapping shirt-sleeves, and having, as common to them all, a +general glance of being now a match for any man or dancer in England or +Ireland. Dick, fearing to lose ground in Fancy's good opinion, retained +his coat like the rest of the thinner men; and Mr. Shiner did the same +from superior knowledge. + +And now a further phase of revelry had disclosed itself. It was the time +of night when a guest may write his name in the dust upon the tables and +chairs, and a bluish mist pervades the atmosphere, becoming a distinct +halo round the candles; when people's nostrils, wrinkles, and crevices in +general, seem to be getting gradually plastered up; when the very +fiddlers as well as the dancers get red in the face, the dancers having +advanced further still towards incandescence, and entered the cadaverous +phase; the fiddlers no longer sit down, but kick back their chairs and +saw madly at the strings, with legs firmly spread and eyes closed, +regardless of the visible world. Again and again did Dick share his +Love's hand with another man, and wheel round; then, more delightfully, +promenade in a circle with her all to himself, his arm holding her waist +more firmly each time, and his elbow getting further and further behind +her back, till the distance reached was rather noticeable; and, most +blissful, swinging to places shoulder to shoulder, her breath curling +round his neck like a summer zephyr that had strayed from its proper +date. Threading the couples one by one they reached the bottom, when +there arose in Dick's mind a minor misery lest the tune should end before +they could work their way to the top again, and have anew the same +exciting run down through. Dick's feelings on actually reaching the top +in spite of his doubts were supplemented by a mortal fear that the +fiddling might even stop at this supreme moment; which prompted him to +convey a stealthy whisper to the far-gone musicians, to the effect that +they were not to leave off till he and his partner had reached the bottom +of the dance once more, which remark was replied to by the nearest of +those convulsed and quivering men by a private nod to the anxious young +man between two semiquavers of the tune, and a simultaneous "All right, +ay, ay," without opening the eyes. Fancy was now held so closely that +Dick and she were practically one person. The room became to Dick like a +picture in a dream; all that he could remember of it afterwards being the +look of the fiddlers going to sleep, as humming-tops sleep, by increasing +their motion and hum, together with the figures of grandfather James and +old Simon Crumpler sitting by the chimney-corner, talking and nodding in +dumb-show, and beating the air to their emphatic sentences like people +near a threshing machine. + +The dance ended. "Piph-h-h-h!" said tranter Dewy, blowing out his breath +in the very finest stream of vapour that a man's lips could form. "A +regular tightener, that one, sonnies!" He wiped his forehead, and went +to the cider and ale mugs on the table. + +"Well!" said Mrs. Penny, flopping into a chair, "my heart haven't been in +such a thumping state of uproar since I used to sit up on old Midsummer- +eves to see who my husband was going to be." + +"And that's getting on for a good few years ago now, from what I've heard +you tell," said the tranter, without lifting his eyes from the cup he was +filling. Being now engaged in the business of handing round +refreshments, he was warranted in keeping his coat off still, though the +other heavy men had resumed theirs. + +"And a thing I never expected would come to pass, if you'll believe me, +came to pass then," continued Mrs. Penny. "Ah, the first spirit ever I +see on a Midsummer-eve was a puzzle to me when he appeared, a hard +puzzle, so say I!" + +"So I should have fancied," said Elias Spinks. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Penny, throwing her glance into past times, and talking +on in a running tone of complacent abstraction, as if a listener were not +a necessity. "Yes; never was I in such a taking as on that Midsummer- +eve! I sat up, quite determined to see if John Wildway was going to +marry me or no. I put the bread-and-cheese and beer quite ready, as the +witch's book ordered, and I opened the door, and I waited till the clock +struck twelve, my nerves all alive and so strained that I could feel +every one of 'em twitching like bell-wires. Yes, sure! and when the +clock had struck, lo and behold, I could see through the door a little +small man in the lane wi' a shoemaker's apron on." + +Here Mr. Penny stealthily enlarged himself half an inch. + +"Now, John Wildway," Mrs. Penny continued, "who courted me at that time, +was a shoemaker, you see, but he was a very fair-sized man, and I +couldn't believe that any such a little small man had anything to do wi' +me, as anybody might. But on he came, and crossed the threshold--not +John, but actually the same little small man in the shoemaker's apron--" + +"You needn't be so mighty particular about little and small!" said her +husband. + +"In he walks, and down he sits, and O my goodness me, didn't I flee +upstairs, body and soul hardly hanging together! Well, to cut a long +story short, by-long and by-late, John Wildway and I had a miff and +parted; and lo and behold, the coming man came! Penny asked me if I'd go +snacks with him, and afore I knew what I was about a'most, the thing was +done." + +"I've fancied you never knew better in your life; but I mid be mistaken," +said Mr. Penny in a murmur. + +After Mrs. Penny had spoken, there being no new occupation for her eyes, +she still let them stay idling on the past scenes just related, which +were apparently visible to her in the centre of the room. Mr. Penny's +remark received no reply. + +During this discourse the tranter and his wife might have been observed +standing in an unobtrusive corner, in mysterious closeness to each other, +a just perceptible current of intelligence passing from each to each, +which had apparently no relation whatever to the conversation of their +guests, but much to their sustenance. A conclusion of some kind having +at length been drawn, the palpable confederacy of man and wife was once +more obliterated, the tranter marching off into the pantry, humming a +tune that he couldn't quite recollect, and then breaking into the words +of a song of which he could remember about one line and a quarter. Mrs. +Dewy spoke a few words about preparations for a bit of supper. + +That elder portion of the company which loved eating and drinking put on +a look to signify that till this moment they had quite forgotten that it +was customary to expect suppers on these occasions; going even further +than this politeness of feature, and starting irrelevant subjects, the +exceeding flatness and forced tone of which rather betrayed their object. +The younger members said they were quite hungry, and that supper would be +delightful though it was so late. + +Good luck attended Dick's love-passes during the meal. He sat next +Fancy, and had the thrilling pleasure of using permanently a glass which +had been taken by Fancy in mistake; of letting the outer edge of the sole +of his boot touch the lower verge of her skirt; and to add to these +delights the cat, which had lain unobserved in her lap for several +minutes, crept across into his own, touching him with fur that had +touched her hand a moment before. There were, besides, some little +pleasures in the shape of helping her to vegetable she didn't want, and +when it had nearly alighted on her plate taking it across for his own +use, on the plea of waste not, want not. He also, from time to time, +sipped sweet sly glances at her profile; noticing the set of her head, +the curve of her throat, and other artistic properties of the lively +goddess, who the while kept up a rather free, not to say too free, +conversation with Mr. Shiner sitting opposite; which, after some uneasy +criticism, and much shifting of argument backwards and forwards in Dick's +mind, he decided not to consider of alarming significance. + +"A new music greets our ears now," said Miss Fancy, alluding, with the +sharpness that her position as village sharpener demanded, to the +contrast between the rattle of knives and forks and the late notes of the +fiddlers. + +"Ay; and I don't know but what 'tis sweeter in tone when you get above +forty," said the tranter; "except, in faith, as regards father there. +Never such a mortal man as he for tunes. They do move his soul; don't +'em, father?" + +The eldest Dewy smiled across from his distant chair an assent to +Reuben's remark. + +"Spaking of being moved in soul," said Mr. Penny, "I shall never forget +the first time I heard the 'Dead March.' 'Twas at poor Corp'l Nineman's +funeral at Casterbridge. It fairly made my hair creep and fidget about +like a vlock of sheep--ah, it did, souls! And when they had done, and +the last trump had sounded, and the guns was fired over the dead hero's +grave, a' icy-cold drop o' moist sweat hung upon my forehead, and another +upon my jawbone. Ah, 'tis a very solemn thing!" + +"Well, as to father in the corner there," the tranter said, pointing to +old William, who was in the act of filling his mouth; "he'd starve to +death for music's sake now, as much as when he was a boy-chap of +fifteen." + +"Truly, now," said Michael Mail, clearing the corner of his throat in the +manner of a man who meant to be convincing; "there's a friendly tie of +some sort between music and eating." He lifted the cup to his mouth, and +drank himself gradually backwards from a perpendicular position to a +slanting one, during which time his looks performed a circuit from the +wall opposite him to the ceiling overhead. Then clearing the other +corner of his throat: "Once I was a-setting in the little kitchen of the +Dree Mariners at Casterbridge, having a bit of dinner, and a brass band +struck up in the street. Such a beautiful band as that were! I was +setting eating fried liver and lights, I well can mind--ah, I was! and to +save my life, I couldn't help chawing to the tune. Band played six-eight +time; six-eight chaws I, willynilly. Band plays common; common time went +my teeth among the liver and lights as true as a hair. Beautiful 'twere! +Ah, I shall never forget that there band!" + +"That's as tuneful a thing as ever I heard of," said grandfather James, +with the absent gaze which accompanies profound criticism. + +"I don't like Michael's tuneful stories then," said Mrs. Dewy. "They are +quite coarse to a person o' decent taste." + +Old Michael's mouth twitched here and there, as if he wanted to smile but +didn't know where to begin, which gradually settled to an expression that +it was not displeasing for a nice woman like the tranter's wife to +correct him. + +"Well, now," said Reuben, with decisive earnestness, "that sort o' coarse +touch that's so upsetting to Ann's feelings is to my mind a +recommendation; for it do always prove a story to be true. And for the +same reason, I like a story with a bad moral. My sonnies, all true +stories have a coarse touch or a bad moral, depend upon't. If the story- +tellers could ha' got decency and good morals from true stories, who'd +ha' troubled to invent parables?" Saying this the tranter arose to fetch +a new stock of cider, ale, mead, and home-made wines. + +Mrs. Dewy sighed, and appended a remark (ostensibly behind her husband's +back, though that the words should reach his ears distinctly was +understood by both): "Such a man as Dewy is! Nobody do know the trouble +I have to keep that man barely respectable. And did you ever hear +too--just now at supper-time--talking about 'taties' with Michael in such +a work-folk way. Well, 'tis what I was never brought up to! With our +family 'twas never less than 'taters,' and very often 'pertatoes' +outright; mother was so particular and nice with us girls there was no +family in the parish that kept them selves up more than we." + +The hour of parting came. Fancy could not remain for the night, because +she had engaged a woman to wait up for her. She disappeared temporarily +from the flagging party of dancers, and then came downstairs wrapped up +and looking altogether a different person from whom she had been +hitherto, in fact (to Dick's sadness and disappointment), a woman +somewhat reserved and of a phlegmatic temperament--nothing left in her of +the romping girl that she had seemed but a short quarter-hour before, who +had not minded the weight of Dick's hand upon her waist, nor shirked the +purlieus of the mistletoe. + +"What a difference!" thought the young man--hoary cynic pro tem. "What a +miserable deceiving difference between the manners of a maid's life at +dancing times and at others! Look at this lovely Fancy! Through the +whole past evening touchable, squeezeable--even kissable! For whole half- +hours I held her so chose to me that not a sheet of paper could have been +shipped between us; and I could feel her heart only just outside my own, +her life beating on so close to mine, that I was aware of every breath in +it. A flit is made upstairs--a hat and a cloak put on--and I no more +dare to touch her than--" Thought failed him, and he returned to +realities. + +But this was an endurable misery in comparison with what followed. Mr. +Shiner and his watch-chain, taking the intrusive advantage that ardent +bachelors who are going homeward along the same road as a pretty young +woman always do take of that circumstance, came forward to assure +Fancy--with a total disregard of Dick's emotions, and in tones which were +certainly not frigid--that he (Shiner) was not the man to go to bed +before seeing his Lady Fair safe within her own door--not he, nobody +should say he was that;--and that he would not leave her side an inch +till the thing was done--drown him if he would. The proposal was +assented to by Miss Day, in Dick's foreboding judgment, with one +degree--or at any rate, an appreciable fraction of a degree--of warmth +beyond that required by a disinterested desire for protection from the +dangers of the night. + +All was over; and Dick surveyed the chair she had last occupied, looking +now like a setting from which the gem has been torn. There stood her +glass, and the romantic teaspoonful of elder wine at the bottom that she +couldn't drink by trying ever so hard, in obedience to the mighty +arguments of the tranter (his hand coming down upon her shoulder the +while, like a Nasmyth hammer); but the drinker was there no longer. There +were the nine or ten pretty little crumbs she had left on her plate; but +the eater was no more seen. + +There seemed a disagreeable closeness of relationship between himself and +the members of his family, now that they were left alone again face to +face. His father seemed quite offensive for appearing to be in just as +high spirits as when the guests were there; and as for grandfather James +(who had not yet left), he was quite fiendish in being rather glad they +were gone. + +"Really," said the tranter, in a tone of placid satisfaction, "I've had +so little time to attend to myself all the evenen, that I mean to enjoy a +quiet meal now! A slice of this here ham--neither too fat nor too +lean--so; and then a drop of this vinegar and pickles--there, that's +it--and I shall be as fresh as a lark again! And to tell the truth, my +sonny, my inside has been as dry as a lime-basket all night." + +"I like a party very well once in a while," said Mrs. Dewy, leaving off +the adorned tones she had been bound to use throughout the evening, and +returning to the natural marriage voice; "but, Lord, 'tis such a sight of +heavy work next day! What with the dirty plates, and knives and forks, +and dust and smother, and bits kicked off your furniture, and I don't +know what all, why a body could a'most wish there were no such things as +Christmases . . . Ah-h dear!" she yawned, till the clock in the corner +had ticked several beats. She cast her eyes round upon the displaced, +dust-laden furniture, and sank down overpowered at the sight. + +"Well, I be getting all right by degrees, thank the Lord for't!" said the +tranter cheerfully through a mangled mass of ham and bread, without +lifting his eyes from his plate, and chopping away with his knife and +fork as if he were felling trees. "Ann, you may as well go on to bed at +once, and not bide there making such sleepy faces; you look as +long-favoured as a fiddle, upon my life, Ann. There, you must be wearied +out, 'tis true. I'll do the doors and draw up the clock; and you go on, +or you'll be as white as a sheet to-morrow." + +"Ay; I don't know whether I shan't or no." The matron passed her hand +across her eyes to brush away the film of sleep till she got upstairs. + +Dick wondered how it was that when people were married they could be so +blind to romance; and was quite certain that if he ever took to wife that +dear impossible Fancy, he and she would never be so dreadfully practical +and undemonstrative of the Passion as his father and mother were. The +most extraordinary thing was, that all the fathers and mothers he knew +were just as undemonstrative as his own. + + + +CHAPTER IX: DICK CALLS AT THE SCHOOL + + +The early days of the year drew on, and Fancy, having spent the holiday +weeks at home, returned again to Mellstock. + +Every spare minute of the week following her return was used by Dick in +accidentally passing the schoolhouse in his journeys about the +neighbourhood; but not once did she make herself visible. A handkerchief +belonging to her had been providentially found by his mother in clearing +the rooms the day after that of the dance; and by much contrivance Dick +got it handed over to him, to leave with her at any time he should be +near the school after her return. But he delayed taking the extreme +measure of calling with it lest, had she really no sentiment of interest +in him, it might be regarded as a slightly absurd errand, the reason +guessed; and the sense of the ludicrous, which was rather keen in her, do +his dignity considerable injury in her eyes; and what she thought of him, +even apart from the question of her loving, was all the world to him now. + +But the hour came when the patience of love at twenty-one could endure no +longer. One Saturday he approached the school with a mild air of +indifference, and had the satisfaction of seeing the object of his quest +at the further end of her garden, trying, by the aid of a spade and +gloves, to root a bramble that had intruded itself there. + +He disguised his feelings from some suspicious-looking cottage-windows +opposite by endeavouring to appear like a man in a great hurry of +business, who wished to leave the handkerchief and have done with such +trifling errands. + +This endeavour signally failed; for on approaching the gate he found it +locked to keep the children, who were playing 'cross-dadder' in the +front, from running into her private grounds. + +She did not see him; and he could only think of one thing to be done, +which was to shout her name. + +"Miss Day!" + +The words were uttered with a jerk and a look meant to imply to the +cottages opposite that he was now simply one who liked shouting as a +pleasant way of passing his time, without any reference to persons in +gardens. The name died away, and the unconscious Miss Day continued +digging and pulling as before. + +He screwed himself up to enduring the cottage-windows yet more stoically, +and shouted again. Fancy took no notice whatever. + +He shouted the third time, with desperate vehemence, turning suddenly +about and retiring a little distance, as if it were by no means for his +own pleasure that he had come. + +This time she heard him, came down the garden, and entered the school at +the back. Footsteps echoed across the interior, the door opened, and +three-quarters of the blooming young schoolmistress's face and figure +stood revealed before him; a slice on her left-hand side being cut off by +the edge of the door. Having surveyed and recognized him, she came to +the gate. + +At sight of him had the pink of her cheeks increased, lessened, or did it +continue to cover its normal area of ground? It was a question meditated +several hundreds of times by her visitor in after-hours--the meditation, +after wearying involutions, always ending in one way, that it was +impossible to say. + +"Your handkerchief: Miss Day: I called with." He held it out +spasmodically and awkwardly. "Mother found it: under a chair." + +"O, thank you very much for bringing it, Mr. Dewy. I couldn't think +where I had dropped it." + +Now Dick, not being an experienced lover--indeed, never before having +been engaged in the practice of love-making at all, except in a small +schoolboy way--could not take advantage of the situation; and out came +the blunder, which afterwards cost him so many bitter moments and a +sleepless night:- + +"Good morning, Miss Day." + +"Good morning, Mr. Dewy." + +The gate was closed; she was gone; and Dick was standing outside, +unchanged in his condition from what he had been before he called. Of +course the Angel was not to blame--a young woman living alone in a house +could not ask him indoors unless she had known him better--he should have +kept her outside before floundering into that fatal farewell. He wished +that before he called he had realized more fully than he did the pleasure +of being about to call; and turned away. + + + + +PART THE SECOND--SPRING + + +CHAPTER I: PASSING BY THE SCHOOL + + +It followed that, as the spring advanced, Dick walked abroad much more +frequently than had hitherto been usual with him, and was continually +finding that his nearest way to or from home lay by the road which +skirted the garden of the school. The first-fruits of his perseverance +were that, on turning the angle on the nineteenth journey by that track, +he saw Miss Fancy's figure, clothed in a dark-gray dress, looking from a +high open window upon the crown of his hat. The friendly greeting +resulting from this rencounter was considered so valuable an elixir that +Dick passed still oftener; and by the time he had almost trodden a little +path under the fence where never a path was before, he was rewarded with +an actual meeting face to face on the open road before her gate. This +brought another meeting, and another, Fancy faintly showing by her +bearing that it was a pleasure to her of some kind to see him there; but +the sort of pleasure she derived, whether exultation at the hope her +exceeding fairness inspired, or the true feeling which was alone Dick's +concern, he could not anyhow decide, although he meditated on her every +little movement for hours after it was made. + + + +CHAPTER II: A MEETING OF THE QUIRE + + +It was the evening of a fine spring day. The descending sun appeared as +a nebulous blaze of amber light, its outline being lost in cloudy masses +hanging round it, like wild locks of hair. + +The chief members of Mellstock parish choir were standing in a group in +front of Mr. Penny's workshop in the lower village. They were all +brightly illuminated, and each was backed up by a shadow as long as a +steeple; the lowness of the source of light rendering the brims of their +hats of no use at all as a protection to the eyes. + +Mr. Penny's was the last house in that part of the parish, and stood in a +hollow by the roadside so that cart-wheels and horses' legs were about +level with the sill of his shop-window. This was low and wide, and was +open from morning till evening, Mr. Penny himself being invariably seen +working inside, like a framed portrait of a shoemaker by some modern +Moroni. He sat facing the road, with a boot on his knees and the awl in +his hand, only looking up for a moment as he stretched out his arms and +bent forward at the pull, when his spectacles flashed in the passer's +face with a shine of flat whiteness, and then returned again to the boot +as usual. Rows of lasts, small and large, stout and slender, covered the +wall which formed the background, in the extreme shadow of which a kind +of dummy was seen sitting, in the shape of an apprentice with a string +tied round his hair (probably to keep it out of his eyes). He smiled at +remarks that floated in from without, but was never known to answer them +in Mr. Penny's presence. Outside the window the upper-leather of a +Wellington-boot was usually hung, pegged to a board as if to dry. No +sign was over his door; in fact--as with old banks and mercantile +houses--advertising in any shape was scorned, and it would have been felt +as beneath his dignity to paint up, for the benefit of strangers, the +name of an establishment whose trade came solely by connection based on +personal respect. + +His visitors now came and stood on the outside of his window, sometimes +leaning against the sill, sometimes moving a pace or two backwards and +forwards in front of it. They talked with deliberate gesticulations to +Mr. Penny, enthroned in the shadow of the interior. + +"I do like a man to stick to men who be in the same line o' life--o' +Sundays, anyway--that I do so." + +"'Tis like all the doings of folk who don't know what a day's work is, +that's what I say." + +"My belief is the man's not to blame; 'tis she--she's the bitter weed!" + +"No, not altogether. He's a poor gawk-hammer. Look at his sermon +yesterday." + +"His sermon was well enough, a very good guessable sermon, only he +couldn't put it into words and speak it. That's all was the matter wi' +the sermon. He hadn't been able to get it past his pen." + +"Well--ay, the sermon might have been good; for, 'tis true, the sermon of +Old Eccl'iastes himself lay in Eccl'iastes's ink-bottle afore he got it +out." + +Mr. Penny, being in the act of drawing the last stitch tight, could +afford time to look up and throw in a word at this point. + +"He's no spouter--that must be said, 'a b'lieve." + +"'Tis a terrible muddle sometimes with the man, as far as spout do go," +said Spinks. + +"Well, we'll say nothing about that," the tranter answered; "for I don't +believe 'twill make a penneth o' difference to we poor martels here or +hereafter whether his sermons be good or bad, my sonnies." + +Mr. Penny made another hole with his awl, pushed in the thread, and +looked up and spoke again at the extension of arms. + +"'Tis his goings-on, souls, that's what it is." He clenched his features +for an Herculean addition to the ordinary pull, and continued, "The first +thing he done when he came here was to be hot and strong about church +business." + +"True," said Spinks; "that was the very first thing he done." + +Mr. Penny, having now been offered the ear of the assembly, accepted it, +ceased stitching, swallowed an unimportant quantity of air as if it were +a pill, and continued: + +"The next thing he do do is to think about altering the church, until he +found 'twould be a matter o' cost and what not, and then not to think no +more about it." + +"True: that was the next thing he done." + +"And the next thing was to tell the young chaps that they were not on no +account to put their hats in the christening font during service." + +"True." + +"And then 'twas this, and then 'twas that, and now 'tis--" + +Words were not forcible enough to conclude the sentence, and Mr. Penny +gave a huge pull to signify the concluding word. + +"Now 'tis to turn us out of the quire neck and crop," said the tranter +after an interval of half a minute, not by way of explaining the pause +and pull, which had been quite understood, but as a means of keeping the +subject well before the meeting. + +Mrs. Penny came to the door at this point in the discussion. Like all +good wives, however much she was inclined to play the Tory to her +husband's Whiggism, and vice versa, in times of peace, she coalesced with +him heartily enough in time of war. + +"It must be owned he's not all there," she replied in a general way to +the fragments of talk she had heard from indoors. "Far below poor Mr. +Grinham" (the late vicar). + +"Ay, there was this to be said for he, that you were quite sure he'd +never come mumbudgeting to see ye, just as you were in the middle of your +work, and put you out with his fuss and trouble about ye." + +"Never. But as for this new Mr. Maybold, though he mid be a very well- +intending party in that respect, he's unbearable; for as to sifting your +cinders, scrubbing your floors, or emptying your slops, why, you can't do +it. I assure you I've not been able to empt them for several days, +unless I throw 'em up the chimley or out of winder; for as sure as the +sun you meet him at the door, coming to ask how you are, and 'tis such a +confusing thing to meet a gentleman at the door when ye are in the mess +o' washing." + +"'Tis only for want of knowing better, poor gentleman," said the tranter. +"His meaning's good enough. Ay, your pa'son comes by fate: 'tis heads or +tails, like pitch-halfpenny, and no choosing; so we must take en as he +is, my sonnies, and thank God he's no worse, I suppose." + +"I fancy I've seen him look across at Miss Day in a warmer way than +Christianity asked for," said Mrs. Penny musingly; "but I don't quite +like to say it." + +"O no; there's nothing in that," said grandfather William. + +"If there's nothing, we shall see nothing," Mrs. Penny replied, in the +tone of a woman who might possibly have private opinions still. + +"Ah, Mr. Grinham was the man!" said Bowman. "Why, he never troubled us +wi' a visit from year's end to year's end. You might go anywhere, do +anything: you'd be sure never to see him." + +"Yes, he was a right sensible pa'son," said Michael. "He never entered +our door but once in his life, and that was to tell my poor wife--ay, +poor soul, dead and gone now, as we all shall!--that as she was such a' +old aged person, and lived so far from the church, he didn't at all +expect her to come any more to the service." + +"And 'a was a very jinerous gentleman about choosing the psalms and hymns +o' Sundays. 'Confound ye,' says he, 'blare and scrape what ye will, but +don't bother me!'" + +"And he was a very honourable man in not wanting any of us to come and +hear him if we were all on-end for a jaunt or spree, or to bring the +babies to be christened if they were inclined to squalling. There's good +in a man's not putting a parish to unnecessary trouble." + +"And there's this here man never letting us have a bit o' peace; but +keeping on about being good and upright till 'tis carried to such a pitch +as I never see the like afore nor since!" + +"No sooner had he got here than he found the font wouldn't hold water, as +it hadn't for years off and on; and when I told him that Mr. Grinham +never minded it, but used to spet upon his vinger and christen 'em just +as well, 'a said, 'Good Heavens! Send for a workman immediate. What +place have I come to!' Which was no compliment to us, come to that." + +"Still, for my part," said old William, "though he's arrayed against us, +I like the hearty borussnorus ways of the new pa'son." + +"You, ready to die for the quire," said Bowman reproachfully, "to stick +up for the quire's enemy, William!" + +"Nobody will feel the loss of our church-work so much as I," said the old +man firmly; "that you d'all know. I've a-been in the quire man and boy +ever since I was a chiel of eleven. But for all that 'tisn't in me to +call the man a bad man, because I truly and sincerely believe en to be a +good young feller." + +Some of the youthful sparkle that used to reside there animated William's +eye as he uttered the words, and a certain nobility of aspect was also +imparted to him by the setting sun, which gave him a Titanic shadow at +least thirty feet in length, stretching away to the east in outlines of +imposing magnitude, his head finally terminating upon the trunk of a +grand old oak-tree. + +"Mayble's a hearty feller enough," the tranter replied, "and will spak to +you be you dirty or be you clane. The first time I met en was in a +drong, and though 'a didn't know me no more than the dead, 'a passed the +time of day. 'D'ye do?' he said, says he, nodding his head. 'A fine +day.' Then the second time I met en was full-buff in town street, when +my breeches were tore into a long strent by getting through a copse of +thorns and brimbles for a short cut home-along; and not wanting to +disgrace the man by spaking in that state, I fixed my eye on the +weathercock to let en pass me as a stranger. But no: 'How d'ye do, +Reuben?' says he, right hearty, and shook my hand. If I'd been dressed +in silver spangles from top to toe, the man couldn't have been civiller." + +At this moment Dick was seen coming up the village-street, and they +turned and watched him. + + + +CHAPTER III: A TURN IN THE DISCUSSION + + +"I'm afraid Dick's a lost man," said the tranter. + +"What?--no!" said Mail, implying by his manner that it was a far commoner +thing for his ears to report what was not said than that his judgment +should be at fault. + +"Ay," said the tranter, still gazing at Dick's unconscious advance. "I +don't at all like what I see! There's too many o' them looks out of the +winder without noticing anything; too much shining of boots; too much +peeping round corners; too much looking at the clock; telling about +clever things she did till you be sick of it; and then upon a hint to +that effect a horrible silence about her. I've walked the path once in +my life and know the country, neighbours; and Dick's a lost man!" The +tranter turned a quarter round and smiled a smile of miserable satire at +the setting new moon, which happened to catch his eye. + +The others became far too serious at this announcement to allow them to +speak; and they still regarded Dick in the distance. + +"'Twas his mother's fault," the tranter continued, "in asking the young +woman to our party last Christmas. When I eyed the blue frock and light +heels o' the maid, I had my thoughts directly. 'God bless thee, Dicky my +sonny,' I said to myself; 'there's a delusion for thee!'" + +"They seemed to be rather distant in manner last Sunday, I thought?" Mail +tentatively observed, as became one who was not a member of the family. + +"Ay, that's a part of the zickness. Distance belongs to it, slyness +belongs to it, queerest things on earth belongs to it! There, 'tmay as +well come early as late s'far as I know. The sooner begun, the sooner +over; for come it will." + +"The question I ask is," said Mr. Spinks, connecting into one thread the +two subjects of discourse, as became a man learned in rhetoric, and +beating with his hand in a way which signified that the manner rather +than the matter of his speech was to be observed, "how did Mr. Maybold +know she could play the organ? You know we had it from her own lips, as +far as lips go, that she has never, first or last, breathed such a thing +to him; much less that she ever would play." + +In the midst of this puzzle Dick joined the party, and the news which had +caused such a convulsion among the ancient musicians was unfolded to him. +"Well," he said, blushing at the allusion to Miss Day, "I know by some +words of hers that she has a particular wish not to play, because she is +a friend of ours; and how the alteration comes, I don't know." + +"Now, this is my plan," said the tranter, reviving the spirit of the +discussion by the infusion of new ideas, as was his custom--"this is my +plan; if you don't like it, no harm's done. We all know one another very +well, don't we, neighbours?" + +That they knew one another very well was received as a statement which, +though familiar, should not be omitted in introductory speeches. + +"Then I say this"--and the tranter in his emphasis slapped down his hand +on Mr. Spinks's shoulder with a momentum of several pounds, upon which +Mr. Spinks tried to look not in the least startled--"I say that we all +move down-along straight as a line to Pa'son Mayble's when the clock has +gone six to-morrow night. There we one and all stand in the passage, +then one or two of us go in and spak to en, man and man; and say, 'Pa'son +Mayble, every tradesman d'like to have his own way in his workshop, and +Mellstock Church is yours. Instead of turning us out neck and crop, let +us stay on till Christmas, and we'll gie way to the young woman, Mr. +Mayble, and make no more ado about it. And we shall always be quite +willing to touch our hats when we meet ye, Mr. Mayble, just as before.' +That sounds very well? Hey?" + +"Proper well, in faith, Reuben Dewy." + +"And we won't sit down in his house; 'twould be looking too familiar when +only just reconciled?" + +"No need at all to sit down. Just do our duty man and man, turn round, +and march out--he'll think all the more of us for it." + +"I hardly think Leaf had better go wi' us?" said Michael, turning to Leaf +and taking his measure from top to bottom by the eye. "He's so terrible +silly that he might ruin the concern." + +"He don't want to go much; do ye, Thomas Leaf?" said William. + +"Hee-hee! no; I don't want to. Only a teeny bit!" + +"I be mortal afeard, Leaf, that you'll never be able to tell how many +cuts d'take to sharpen a spar," said Mail. + +"I never had no head, never! that's how it happened to happen, hee-hee!" + +They all assented to this, not with any sense of humiliating Leaf by +disparaging him after an open confession, but because it was an accepted +thing that Leaf didn't in the least mind having no head, that deficiency +of his being an unimpassioned matter of parish history. + +"But I can sing my treble!" continued Thomas Leaf, quite delighted at +being called a fool in such a friendly way; "I can sing my treble as well +as any maid, or married woman either, and better! And if Jim had lived, +I should have had a clever brother! To-morrow is poor Jim's birthday. +He'd ha' been twenty-six if he'd lived till to-morrow." + +"You always seem very sorry for Jim," said old William musingly. + +"Ah! I do. Such a stay to mother as he'd always ha' been! She'd never +have had to work in her old age if he had continued strong, poor Jim!" + +"What was his age when 'a died?" + +"Four hours and twenty minutes, poor Jim. 'A was born as might be at +night; and 'a didn't last as might be till the morning. No, 'a didn't +last. Mother called en Jim on the day that would ha' been his +christening day if he had lived; and she's always thinking about en. You +see he died so very young." + +"Well, 'twas rather youthful," said Michael. + +"Now to my mind that woman is very romantical on the matter o' children?" +said the tranter, his eye sweeping his audience. + +"Ah, well she mid be," said Leaf. "She had twelve regular one after +another, and they all, except myself, died very young; either before they +was born or just afterwards." + +"Pore feller, too. I suppose th'st want to come wi' us?" the tranter +murmured. + +"Well, Leaf, you shall come wi' us as yours is such a melancholy family," +said old William rather sadly. + +"I never see such a melancholy family as that afore in my life," said +Reuben. "There's Leaf's mother, poor woman! Every morning I see her +eyes mooning out through the panes of glass like a pot-sick +winder-flower; and as Leaf sings a very high treble, and we don't know +what we should do without en for upper G, we'll let en come as a trate, +poor feller." + +"Ay, we'll let en come, 'a b'lieve," said Mr. Penny, looking up, as the +pull happened to be at that moment. + +"Now," continued the tranter, dispersing by a new tone of voice these +digressions about Leaf; "as to going to see the pa'son, one of us might +call and ask en his meaning, and 'twould be just as well done; but it +will add a bit of flourish to the cause if the quire waits on him as a +body. Then the great thing to mind is, not for any of our fellers to be +nervous; so before starting we'll one and all come to my house and have a +rasher of bacon; then every man-jack het a pint of cider into his inside; +then we'll warm up an extra drop wi' some mead and a bit of ginger; every +one take a thimbleful--just a glimmer of a drop, mind ye, no more, to +finish off his inner man--and march off to Pa'son Mayble. Why, sonnies, +a man's not himself till he is fortified wi' a bit and a drop? We shall +be able to look any gentleman in the face then without shrink or shame." + +Mail recovered from a deep meditation and downward glance into the earth +in time to give a cordial approval to this line of action, and the +meeting adjourned. + + + +CHAPTER IV: THE INTERVIEW WITH THE VICAR + + +At six o'clock the next day, the whole body of men in the choir emerged +from the tranter's door, and advanced with a firm step down the lane. +This dignity of march gradually became obliterated as they went on, and +by the time they reached the hill behind the vicarage a faint resemblance +to a flock of sheep might have been discerned in the venerable party. A +word from the tranter, however, set them right again; and as they +descended the hill, the regular tramp, tramp, tramp of the united feet +was clearly audible from the vicarage garden. At the opening of the gate +there was another short interval of irregular shuffling, caused by a +rather peculiar habit the gate had, when swung open quickly, of striking +against the bank and slamming back into the opener's face. + +"Now keep step again, will ye?" said the tranter. "It looks better, and +more becomes the high class of arrant which has brought us here." Thus +they advanced to the door. + +At Reuben's ring the more modest of the group turned aside, adjusted +their hats, and looked critically at any shrub that happened to lie in +the line of vision; endeavouring thus to give a person who chanced to +look out of the windows the impression that their request, whatever it +was going to be, was rather a casual thought occurring whilst they were +inspecting the vicar's shrubbery and grass-plot than a predetermined +thing. The tranter, who, coming frequently to the vicarage with luggage, +coals, firewood, etc., had none of the awe for its precincts that filled +the breasts of most of the others, fixed his eyes firmly on the knocker +during this interval of waiting. The knocker having no characteristic +worthy of notice, he relinquished it for a knot in one of the +door-panels, and studied the winding lines of the grain. + +"O, sir, please, here's Tranter Dewy, and old William Dewy, and young +Richard Dewy, O, and all the quire too, sir, except the boys, a-come to +see you!" said Mr. Maybold's maid-servant to Mr. Maybold, the pupils of +her eyes dilating like circles in a pond. + +"All the choir?" said the astonished vicar (who may be shortly described +as a good-looking young man with courageous eyes, timid mouth, and +neutral nose), abandoning his writing and looking at his parlour-maid +after speaking, like a man who fancied he had seen her face before but +couldn't recollect where. + +"And they looks very firm, and Tranter Dewy do turn neither to the right +hand nor to the left, but stares quite straight and solemn with his mind +made up!" + +"O, all the choir," repeated the vicar to himself, trying by that simple +device to trot out his thoughts on what the choir could come for. + +"Yes; every man-jack of 'em, as I be alive!" (The parlour-maid was +rather local in manner, having in fact been raised in the same village.) +"Really, sir, 'tis thoughted by many in town and country that--" + +"Town and country!--Heavens, I had no idea that I was public property in +this way!" said the vicar, his face acquiring a hue somewhere between +that of the rose and the peony. "Well, 'It is thought in town and +country that--'" + +"It is thought that you be going to get it hot and strong!--excusen my +incivility, sir." + +The vicar suddenly recalled to his recollection that he had long ago +settled it to be decidedly a mistake to encourage his servant Jane in +giving personal opinions. The servant Jane saw by the vicar's face that +he recalled this fact to his mind; and removing her forehead from the +edge of the door, and rubbing away the indent that edge had made, +vanished into the passage as Mr. Maybold remarked, "Show them in, Jane." + +A few minutes later a shuffling and jostling (reduced to as refined a +form as was compatible with the nature of shuffles and jostles) was heard +in the passage; then an earnest and prolonged wiping of shoes, conveying +the notion that volumes of mud had to be removed; but the roads being so +clean that not a particle of dirt appeared on the choir's boots (those of +all the elder members being newly oiled, and Dick's brightly polished), +this wiping might have been set down simply as a desire to show that +respectable men had no wish to take a mean advantage of clean roads for +curtailing proper ceremonies. Next there came a powerful whisper from +the same quarter:- + +"Now stand stock-still there, my sonnies, one and all! And don't make no +noise; and keep your backs close to the wall, that company may pass in +and out easy if they want to without squeezing through ye: and we two are +enough to go in." . . . The voice was the tranter's. + +"I wish I could go in too and see the sight!" said a reedy voice--that of +Leaf. + +"'Tis a pity Leaf is so terrible silly, or else he might," said another. + +"I never in my life seed a quire go into a study to have it out about the +playing and singing," pleaded Leaf; "and I should like to see it just +once!" + +"Very well; we'll let en come in," said the tranter. "You'll be like +chips in porridge, {1} Leaf--neither good nor hurt. All right, my sonny, +come along;" and immediately himself, old William, and Leaf appeared in +the room. + +"We took the liberty to come and see 'ee, sir," said Reuben, letting his +hat hang in his left hand, and touching with his right the brim of an +imaginary one on his head. "We've come to see 'ee, sir, man and man, and +no offence, I hope?" + +"None at all," said Mr. Maybold. + +"This old aged man standing by my side is father; William Dewy by name, +sir." + +"Yes; I see it is," said the vicar, nodding aside to old William, who +smiled. + +"I thought you mightn't know en without his bass-viol," the tranter +apologized. "You see, he always wears his best clothes and his bass-viol +a-Sundays, and it do make such a difference in a' old man's look." + +"And who's that young man?" the vicar said. + +"Tell the pa'son yer name," said the tranter, turning to Leaf, who stood +with his elbows nailed back to a bookcase. + +"Please, Thomas Leaf, your holiness!" said Leaf, trembling. + +"I hope you'll excuse his looks being so very thin," continued the +tranter deprecatingly, turning to the vicar again. "But 'tisn't his +fault, poor feller. He's rather silly by nature, and could never get +fat; though he's a' excellent treble, and so we keep him on." + +"I never had no head, sir," said Leaf, eagerly grasping at this +opportunity for being forgiven his existence. + +"Ah, poor young man!" said Mr. Maybold. + +"Bless you, he don't mind it a bit, if you don't, sir," said the tranter +assuringly. "Do ye, Leaf?" + +"Not I--not a morsel--hee, hee! I was afeard it mightn't please your +holiness, sir, that's all." + +The tranter, finding Leaf get on so very well through his negative +qualities, was tempted in a fit of generosity to advance him still +higher, by giving him credit for positive ones. "He's very clever for a +silly chap, good-now, sir. You never knowed a young feller keep his +smock-frocks so clane; very honest too. His ghastly looks is all there +is against en, poor feller; but we can't help our looks, you know, sir." + +"True: we cannot. You live with your mother, I think, Leaf?" + +The tranter looked at Leaf to express that the most friendly assistant to +his tongue could do no more for him now, and that he must be left to his +own resources. + +"Yes, sir: a widder, sir. Ah, if brother Jim had lived she'd have had a +clever son to keep her without work!" + +"Indeed! poor woman. Give her this half-crown. I'll call and see your +mother." + +"Say, 'Thank you, sir,'" the tranter whispered imperatively towards Leaf. + +"Thank you, sir!" said Leaf. + +"That's it, then; sit down, Leaf," said Mr. Maybold. + +"Y-yes, sir!" + +The tranter cleared his throat after this accidental parenthesis about +Leaf, rectified his bodily position, and began his speech. + +"Mr. Mayble," he said, "I hope you'll excuse my common way, but I always +like to look things in the face." + +Reuben made a point of fixing this sentence in the vicar's mind by gazing +hard at him at the conclusion of it, and then out of the window. + +Mr. Maybold and old William looked in the same direction, apparently +under the impression that the things' faces alluded to were there +visible. + +"What I have been thinking"--the tranter implied by this use of the past +tense that he was hardly so discourteous as to be positively thinking it +then--"is that the quire ought to be gie'd a little time, and not done +away wi' till Christmas, as a fair thing between man and man. And, Mr. +Mayble, I hope you'll excuse my common way?" + +"I will, I will. Till Christmas," the vicar murmured, stretching the two +words to a great length, as if the distance to Christmas might be +measured in that way. "Well, I want you all to understand that I have no +personal fault to find, and that I don't wish to change the church music +by forcible means, or in a way which should hurt the feelings of any +parishioners. Why I have at last spoken definitely on the subject is +that a player has been brought under--I may say pressed upon--my notice +several times by one of the churchwardens. And as the organ I brought +with me is here waiting" (pointing to a cabinet-organ standing in the +study), "there is no reason for longer delay." + +"We made a mistake I suppose then, sir? But we understood the young +woman didn't want to play particularly?" The tranter arranged his +countenance to signify that he did not want to be inquisitive in the +least. + +"No, nor did she. Nor did I definitely wish her to just yet; for your +playing is very good. But, as I said, one of the churchwardens has been +so anxious for a change, that, as matters stand, I couldn't consistently +refuse my consent." + +Now for some reason or other, the vicar at this point seemed to have an +idea that he had prevaricated; and as an honest vicar, it was a thing he +determined not to do. He corrected himself, blushing as he did so, +though why he should blush was not known to Reuben. + +"Understand me rightly," he said: "the church-warden proposed it to me, +but I had thought myself of getting--Miss Day to play." + +"Which churchwarden might that be who proposed her, sir?--excusing my +common way." The tranter intimated by his tone that, so far from being +inquisitive, he did not even wish to ask a single question. + +"Mr. Shiner, I believe." + +"Clk, my sonny!--beg your pardon, sir, that's only a form of words of +mine, and slipped out accidental--he nourishes enmity against us for some +reason or another; perhaps because we played rather hard upon en +Christmas night. Anyhow 'tis certain sure that Mr. Shiner's real love +for music of a particular kind isn't his reason. He've no more ear than +that chair. But let that be." + +"I don't think you should conclude that, because Mr. Shiner wants a +different music, he has any ill-feeling for you. I myself, I must own, +prefer organ-music to any other. I consider it most proper, and feel +justified in endeavouring to introduce it; but then, although other music +is better, I don't say yours is not good." + +"Well then, Mr. Mayble, since death's to be, we'll die like men any day +you name (excusing my common way)." + +Mr. Maybold bowed his head. + +"All we thought was, that for us old ancient singers to be choked off +quiet at no time in particular, as now, in the Sundays after Easter, +would seem rather mean in the eyes of other parishes, sir. But if we +fell glorious with a bit of a flourish at Christmas, we should have a +respectable end, and not dwindle away at some nameless paltry +second-Sunday-after or Sunday-next-before something, that's got no name +of his own." + +"Yes, yes, that's reasonable; I own it's reasonable." + +"You see, Mr. Mayble, we've got--do I keep you inconvenient long, sir?" + +"No, no." + +"We've got our feelings--father there especially." + +The tranter, in his earnestness, had advanced his person to within six +inches of the vicar's. + +"Certainly, certainly!" said Mr. Maybold, retreating a little for +convenience of seeing. "You are all enthusiastic on the subject, and I +am all the more gratified to find you so. A Laodicean lukewarmness is +worse than wrongheadedness itself." + +"Exactly, sir. In fact now, Mr. Mayble," Reuben continued, more +impressively, and advancing a little closer still to the vicar, "father +there is a perfect figure o' wonder, in the way of being fond of music!" + +The vicar drew back a little further, the tranter suddenly also standing +back a foot or two, to throw open the view of his father, and pointing to +him at the same time. + +Old William moved uneasily in the large chair, and with a minute smile on +the mere edge of his lips, for good-manners, said he was indeed very fond +of tunes. + +"Now, you see exactly how it is," Reuben continued, appealing to Mr. +Maybold's sense of justice by looking sideways into his eyes. The vicar +seemed to see how it was so well that the gratified tranter walked up to +him again with even vehement eagerness, so that his waistcoat-buttons +almost rubbed against the vicar's as he continued: "As to father, if you +or I, or any man or woman of the present generation, at the time music is +a-playing, was to shake your fist in father's face, as may be this way, +and say, 'Don't you be delighted with that music!'"--the tranter went +back to where Leaf was sitting, and held his fist so close to Leaf's face +that the latter pressed his head back against the wall: "All right, Leaf, +my sonny, I won't hurt you; 'tis just to show my meaning to Mr. +Mayble.--As I was saying, if you or I, or any man, was to shake your fist +in father's face this way, and say, 'William, your life or your music!' +he'd say, 'My life!' Now that's father's nature all over; and you see, +sir, it must hurt the feelings of a man of that kind for him and his bass- +viol to be done away wi' neck and crop." + +The tranter went back to the vicar's front and again looked earnestly at +his face. + +"True, true, Dewy," Mr. Maybold answered, trying to withdraw his head and +shoulders without moving his feet; but finding this impracticable, edging +back another inch. These frequent retreats had at last jammed Mr. +Maybold between his easy-chair and the edge of the table. + +And at the moment of the announcement of the choir, Mr. Maybold had just +re-dipped the pen he was using; at their entry, instead of wiping it, he +had laid it on the table with the nib overhanging. At the last retreat +his coat-tails came in contact with the pen, and down it rolled, first +against the back of the chair, thence turning a summersault into the +seat, thence falling to the floor with a rattle. + +The vicar stooped for his pen, and the tranter, wishing to show that, +however great their ecclesiastical differences, his mind was not so small +as to let this affect his social feelings, stooped also. + +"And have you anything else you want to explain to me, Dewy?" said Mr. +Maybold from under the table. + +"Nothing, sir. And, Mr. Mayble, you be not offended? I hope you see our +desire is reason?" said the tranter from under the chair. + +"Quite, quite; and I shouldn't think of refusing to listen to such a +reasonable request," the vicar replied. Seeing that Reuben had secured +the pen, he resumed his vertical position, and added, "You know, Dewy, it +is often said how difficult a matter it is to act up to our convictions +and please all parties. It may be said with equal truth, that it is +difficult for a man of any appreciativeness to have convictions at all. +Now in my case, I see right in you, and right in Shiner. I see that +violins are good, and that an organ is good; and when we introduce the +organ, it will not be that fiddles were bad, but that an organ was +better. That you'll clearly understand, Dewy?" + +"I will; and thank you very much for such feelings, sir. Piph-h-h-h! How +the blood do get into my head, to be sure, whenever I quat down like +that!" said Reuben, who having also risen to his feet stuck the pen +vertically in the inkstand and almost through the bottom, that it might +not roll down again under any circumstances whatever. + +Now the ancient body of minstrels in the passage felt their curiosity +surging higher and higher as the minutes passed. Dick, not having much +affection for this errand, soon grew tired, and went away in the +direction of the school. Yet their sense of propriety would probably +have restrained them from any attempt to discover what was going on in +the study had not the vicar's pen fallen to the floor. The conviction +that the movement of chairs, etc., necessitated by the search, could only +have been caused by the catastrophe of a bloody fight beginning, +overpowered all other considerations; and they advanced to the door, +which had only just fallen to. Thus, when Mr. Maybold raised his eyes +after the stooping he beheld glaring through the door Mr. Penny in full- +length portraiture, Mail's face and shoulders above Mr. Penny's head, +Spinks's forehead and eyes over Mail's crown, and a fractional part of +Bowman's countenance under Spinks's arm--crescent-shaped portions of +other heads and faces being visible behind these--the whole dozen and odd +eyes bristling with eager inquiry. + +Mr. Penny, as is the case with excitable boot-makers and men, seeing the +vicar look at him and hearing no word spoken, thought it incumbent upon +himself to say something of any kind. Nothing suggested itself till he +had looked for about half a minute at the vicar. + +"You'll excuse my naming of it, sir," he said, regarding with much +commiseration the mere surface of the vicar's face; "but perhaps you +don't know that your chin have bust out a-bleeding where you cut yourself +a-shaving this morning, sir." + +"Now, that was the stooping, depend upon't," the tranter suggested, also +looking with much interest at the vicar's chin. "Blood always will bust +out again if you hang down the member that's been bleeding." + +Old William raised his eyes and watched the vicar's bleeding chin +likewise; and Leaf advanced two or three paces from the bookcase, +absorbed in the contemplation of the same phenomenon, with parted lips +and delighted eyes. + +"Dear me, dear me!" said Mr. Maybold hastily, looking very red, and +brushing his chin with his hand, then taking out his handkerchief and +wiping the place. + +"That's it, sir; all right again now, 'a b'lieve--a mere nothing," said +Mr. Penny. "A little bit of fur off your hat will stop it in a minute if +it should bust out again." + +"I'll let 'ee have a bit off mine," said Reuben, to show his good +feeling; "my hat isn't so new as yours, sir, and 'twon't hurt mine a +bit." + +"No, no; thank you, thank you," Mr. Maybold again nervously replied. + +"'Twas rather a deep cut seemingly?" said Reuben, feeling these to be the +kindest and best remarks he could make. + +"O, no; not particularly." + +"Well, sir, your hand will shake sometimes a-shaving, and just when it +comes into your head that you may cut yourself, there's the blood." + +"I have been revolving in my mind that question of the time at which we +make the change," said Mr. Maybold, "and I know you'll meet me half-way. +I think Christmas-day as much too late for me as the present time is too +early for you. I suggest Michaelmas or thereabout as a convenient time +for both parties; for I think your objection to a Sunday which has no +name is not one of any real weight." + +"Very good, sir. I suppose mortal men mustn't expect their own way +entirely; and I express in all our names that we'll make shift and be +satisfied with what you say." The tranter touched the brim of his +imaginary hat again, and all the choir did the same. "About Michaelmas, +then, as far as you are concerned, sir, and then we make room for the +next generation." + +"About Michaelmas," said the vicar. + + + +CHAPTER V: RETURNING HOME WARD + + +"'A took it very well, then?" said Mail, as they all walked up the hill. + +"He behaved like a man, 'a did so," said the tranter. "And I'm glad +we've let en know our minds. And though, beyond that, we ha'n't got much +by going, 'twas worth while. He won't forget it. Yes, he took it very +well. Supposing this tree here was Pa'son Mayble, and I standing here, +and thik gr't stone is father sitting in the easy-chair. 'Dewy,' says +he, 'I don't wish to change the church music in a forcible way.'" + +"That was very nice o' the man, even though words be wind." + +"Proper nice--out and out nice. The fact is," said Reuben +confidentially, "'tis how you take a man. Everybody must be managed. +Queens must be managed: kings must be managed; for men want managing +almost as much as women, and that's saying a good deal." + +"'Tis truly!" murmured the husbands. + +"Pa'son Mayble and I were as good friends all through it as if we'd been +sworn brothers. Ay, the man's well enough; 'tis what's put in his head +that spoils him, and that's why we've got to go." + +"There's really no believing half you hear about people nowadays." + +"Bless ye, my sonnies! 'tisn't the pa'son's move at all. That gentleman +over there" (the tranter nodded in the direction of Shiner's farm) "is at +the root of the mischty." + +"What! Shiner?" + +"Ay; and I see what the pa'son don't see. Why, Shiner is for putting +forward that young woman that only last night I was saying was our Dick's +sweet-heart, but I suppose can't be, and making much of her in the sight +of the congregation, and thinking he'll win her by showing her off. Well, +perhaps 'a woll." + +"Then the music is second to the woman, the other churchwarden is second +to Shiner, the pa'son is second to the churchwardens, and God A'mighty is +nowhere at all." + +"That's true; and you see," continued Reuben, "at the very beginning it +put me in a stud as to how to quarrel wi' en. In short, to save my soul, +I couldn't quarrel wi' such a civil man without belying my conscience. +Says he to father there, in a voice as quiet as a lamb's, 'William, you +are a' old aged man, as all shall be, so sit down in my easy-chair, and +rest yourself.' And down father zot. I could fain ha' laughed at thee, +father; for thou'st take it so unconcerned at first, and then looked so +frightened when the chair-bottom sunk in." + +"You see," said old William, hastening to explain, "I was scared to find +the bottom gie way--what should I know o' spring bottoms?--and thought I +had broke it down: and of course as to breaking down a man's chair, I +didn't wish any such thing." + +"And, neighbours, when a feller, ever so much up for a miff, d'see his +own father sitting in his enemy's easy-chair, and a poor chap like Leaf +made the best of, as if he almost had brains--why, it knocks all the wind +out of his sail at once: it did out of mine." + +"If that young figure of fun--Fance Day, I mean," said Bowman, "hadn't +been so mighty forward wi' showing herself off to Shiner and Dick and the +rest, 'tis my belief we should never ha' left the gallery." + +"'Tis my belief that though Shiner fired the bullets, the parson made +'em," said Mr. Penny. "My wife sticks to it that he's in love wi' her." + +"That's a thing we shall never know. I can't onriddle her, nohow." + +"Thou'st ought to be able to onriddle such a little chiel as she," the +tranter observed. + +"The littler the maid, the bigger the riddle, to my mind. And coming of +such a stock, too, she may well be a twister." + +"Yes; Geoffrey Day is a clever man if ever there was one. Never says +anything: not he." + +"Never." + +"You might live wi' that man, my sonnies, a hundred years, and never know +there was anything in him." + +"Ay; one o' these up-country London ink-bottle chaps would call Geoffrey +a fool." + +"Ye never find out what's in that man: never," said Spinks. "Close? ah, +he is close! He can hold his tongue well. That man's dumbness is +wonderful to listen to." + +"There's so much sense in it. Every moment of it is brimmen over wi' +sound understanding." + +"'A can hold his tongue very clever--very clever truly," echoed Leaf. "'A +do look at me as if 'a could see my thoughts running round like the works +of a clock." + +"Well, all will agree that the man can halt well in his talk, be it a +long time or be it a short time. And though we can't expect his daughter +to inherit his closeness, she may have a few dribblets from his sense." + +"And his pocket, perhaps." + +"Yes; the nine hundred pound that everybody says he's worth; but I call +it four hundred and fifty; for I never believe more than half I hear." + +"Well, he've made a pound or two, and I suppose the maid will have it, +since there's nobody else. But 'tis rather sharp upon her, if she's been +born to fortune, to bring her up as if not born for it, and letting her +work so hard." + +"'Tis all upon his principle. A long-headed feller!" + +"Ah," murmured Spinks, "'twould be sharper upon her if she were born for +fortune, and not to it! I suffer from that affliction." + + + +CHAPTER VI: YALBURY WOOD AND THE KEEPER'S HOUSE + + +A mood of blitheness rarely experienced even by young men was Dick's on +the following Monday morning. It was the week after the Easter holidays, +and he was journeying along with Smart the mare and the light +spring-cart, watching the damp slopes of the hill-sides as they streamed +in the warmth of the sun, which at this unsettled season shone on the +grass with the freshness of an occasional inspector rather than as an +accustomed proprietor. His errand was to fetch Fancy, and some +additional household goods, from her father's house in the neighbouring +parish to her dwelling at Mellstock. The distant view was darkly shaded +with clouds; but the nearer parts of the landscape were whitely illumined +by the visible rays of the sun streaming down across the heavy gray shade +behind. + +The tranter had not yet told his son of the state of Shiner's heart that +had been suggested to him by Shiner's movements. He preferred to let +such delicate affairs right themselves; experience having taught him that +the uncertain phenomenon of love, as it existed in other people, was not +a groundwork upon which a single action of his own life could be founded. + +Geoffrey Day lived in the depths of Yalbury Wood, which formed portion of +one of the outlying estates of the Earl of Wessex, to whom Day was head +game-keeper, timber-steward, and general overlooker for this district. +The wood was intersected by the highway from Casterbridge to London at a +place not far from the house, and some trees had of late years been +felled between its windows and the ascent of Yalbury Hill, to give the +solitary cottager a glimpse of the passers-by. + +It was a satisfaction to walk into the keeper's house, even as a +stranger, on a fine spring morning like the present. A curl of +wood-smoke came from the chimney, and drooped over the roof like a blue +feather in a lady's hat; and the sun shone obliquely upon the patch of +grass in front, which reflected its brightness through the open doorway +and up the staircase opposite, lighting up each riser with a shiny green +radiance, and leaving the top of each step in shade. + +The window-sill of the front room was between four and five feet from the +floor, dropping inwardly to a broad low bench, over which, as well as +over the whole surface of the wall beneath, there always hung a deep +shade, which was considered objectionable on every ground save one, +namely, that the perpetual sprinkling of seeds and water by the caged +canary above was not noticed as an eyesore by visitors. The window was +set with thickly-leaded diamond glazing, formed, especially in the lower +panes, of knotty glass of various shades of green. Nothing was better +known to Fancy than the extravagant manner in which these circular knots +or eyes distorted everything seen through them from the outside--lifting +hats from heads, shoulders from bodies; scattering the spokes of cart- +wheels, and bending the straight fir-trunks into semicircles. The +ceiling was carried by a beam traversing its midst, from the side of +which projected a large nail, used solely and constantly as a peg for +Geoffrey's hat; the nail was arched by a rainbow-shaped stain, imprinted +by the brim of the said hat when it was hung there dripping wet. + +The most striking point about the room was the furniture. This was a +repetition upon inanimate objects of the old principle introduced by +Noah, consisting for the most part of two articles of every sort. The +duplicate system of furnishing owed its existence to the forethought of +Fancy's mother, exercised from the date of Fancy's birthday onwards. The +arrangement spoke for itself: nobody who knew the tone of the household +could look at the goods without being aware that the second set was a +provision for Fancy, when she should marry and have a house of her own. +The most noticeable instance was a pair of green-faced eight-day clocks, +ticking alternately, which were severally two and half minutes and three +minutes striking the hour of twelve, one proclaiming, in Italian +flourishes, Thomas Wood as the name of its maker, and the other--arched +at the top, and altogether of more cynical appearance--that of Ezekiel +Saunders. They were two departed clockmakers of Casterbridge, whose +desperate rivalry throughout their lives was nowhere more emphatically +perpetuated than here at Geoffrey's. These chief specimens of the +marriage provision were supported on the right by a couple of kitchen +dressers, each fitted complete with their cups, dishes, and plates, in +their turn followed by two dumb-waiters, two family Bibles, two warming- +pans, and two intermixed sets of chairs. + +But the position last reached--the chimney-corner--was, after all, the +most attractive side of the parallelogram. It was large enough to admit, +in addition to Geoffrey himself, Geoffrey's wife, her chair, and her work- +table, entirely within the line of the mantel, without danger or even +inconvenience from the heat of the fire; and was spacious enough overhead +to allow of the insertion of wood poles for the hanging of bacon, which +were cloaked with long shreds of soot, floating on the draught like the +tattered banners on the walls of ancient aisles. + +These points were common to most chimney corners of the neighbourhood; +but one feature there was which made Geoffrey's fireside not only an +object of interest to casual aristocratic visitors--to whom every cottage +fireside was more or less a curiosity--but the admiration of friends who +were accustomed to fireplaces of the ordinary hamlet model. This +peculiarity was a little window in the chimney-back, almost over the +fire, around which the smoke crept caressingly when it left the +perpendicular course. The window-board was curiously stamped with black +circles, burnt thereon by the heated bottoms of drinking-cups, which had +rested there after previously standing on the hot ashes of the hearth for +the purpose of warming their contents, the result giving to the ledge the +look of an envelope which has passed through innumerable post-offices. + +Fancy was gliding about the room preparing dinner, her head inclining now +to the right, now to the left, and singing the tips and ends of tunes +that sprang up in her mind like mushrooms. The footsteps of Mrs. Day +could be heard in the room overhead. Fancy went finally to the door. + +"Father! Dinner." + +A tall spare figure was seen advancing by the window with periodical +steps, and the keeper entered from the garden. He appeared to be a man +who was always looking down, as if trying to recollect something he said +yesterday. The surface of his face was fissured rather than wrinkled, +and over and under his eyes were folds which seemed as a kind of exterior +eyelids. His nose had been thrown backwards by a blow in a poaching +fray, so that when the sun was low and shining in his face, people could +see far into his head. There was in him a quiet grimness, which would in +his moments of displeasure have become surliness, had it not been +tempered by honesty of soul, and which was often wrongheadedness because +not allied with subtlety. + +Although not an extraordinarily taciturn man among friends slightly +richer than himself, he never wasted words upon outsiders, and to his +trapper Enoch his ideas were seldom conveyed by any other means than nods +and shakes of the head. Their long acquaintance with each other's ways, +and the nature of their labours, rendered words between them almost +superfluous as vehicles of thought, whilst the coincidence of their +horizons, and the astonishing equality of their social views, by +startling the keeper from time to time as very damaging to the theory of +master and man, strictly forbade any indulgence in words as courtesies. + +Behind the keeper came Enoch (who had been assisting in the garden) at +the well-considered chronological distance of three minutes--an interval +of non-appearance on the trapper's part not arrived at without some +reflection. Four minutes had been found to express indifference to +indoor arrangements, and simultaneousness had implied too great an +anxiety about meals. + +"A little earlier than usual, Fancy," the keeper said, as he sat down and +looked at the clocks. "That Ezekiel Saunders o' thine is tearing on +afore Thomas Wood again." + +"I kept in the middle between them," said Fancy, also looking at the two +clocks. + +"Better stick to Thomas," said her father. "There's a healthy beat in +Thomas that would lead a man to swear by en offhand. He is as true as +the town time. How is it your stap-mother isn't here?" + +As Fancy was about to reply, the rattle of wheels was heard, and "Weh- +hey, Smart!" in Mr. Richard Dewy's voice rolled into the cottage from +round the corner of the house. + +"Hullo! there's Dewy's cart come for thee, Fancy--Dick driving--afore +time, too. Well, ask the lad to have pot-luck with us." + +Dick on entering made a point of implying by his general bearing that he +took an interest in Fancy simply as in one of the same race and country +as himself; and they all sat down. Dick could have wished her manner had +not been so entirely free from all apparent consciousness of those +accidental meetings of theirs: but he let the thought pass. Enoch sat +diagonally at a table afar off, under the corner cupboard, and drank his +cider from a long perpendicular pint cup, having tall fir-trees done in +brown on its sides. He threw occasional remarks into the general tide of +conversation, and with this advantage to himself, that he participated in +the pleasures of a talk (slight as it was) at meal-times, without +saddling himself with the responsibility of sustaining it. + +"Why don't your stap-mother come down, Fancy?" said Geoffrey. "You'll +excuse her, Mister Dick, she's a little queer sometimes." + +"O yes,--quite," said Richard, as if he were in the habit of excusing +people every day. + +"She d'belong to that class of womankind that become second wives: a rum +class rather." + +"Indeed," said Dick, with sympathy for an indefinite something. + +"Yes; and 'tis trying to a female, especially if you've been a first +wife, as she hev." + +"Very trying it must be." + +"Yes: you see her first husband was a young man, who let her go too far; +in fact, she used to kick up Bob's-a-dying at the least thing in the +world. And when I'd married her and found it out, I thought, thinks I, +''Tis too late now to begin to cure 'e;' and so I let her bide. But +she's queer,--very queer, at times!" + +"I'm sorry to hear that." + +"Yes: there; wives be such a provoking class o' society, because though +they be never right, they be never more than half wrong." + +Fancy seemed uneasy under the infliction of this household moralizing, +which might tend to damage the airy-fairy nature that Dick, as maiden +shrewdness told her, had accredited her with. Her dead silence impressed +Geoffrey with the notion that something in his words did not agree with +her educated ideas, and he changed the conversation. + +"Did Fred Shiner send the cask o' drink, Fancy?" + +"I think he did: O yes, he did." + +"Nice solid feller, Fred Shiner!" said Geoffrey to Dick as he helped +himself to gravy, bringing the spoon round to his plate by way of the +potato-dish, to obviate a stain on the cloth in the event of a spill. + +Now Geoffrey's eyes had been fixed upon his plate for the previous four +or five minutes, and in removing them he had only carried them to the +spoon, which, from its fulness and the distance of its transit, +necessitated a steady watching through the whole of the route. Just as +intently as the keeper's eyes had been fixed on the spoon, Fancy's had +been fixed on her father's, without premeditation or the slightest phase +of furtiveness; but there they were fastened. This was the reason why: + +Dick was sitting next to her on the right side, and on the side of the +table opposite to her father. Fancy had laid her right hand lightly down +upon the table-cloth for an instant, and to her alarm Dick, after +dropping his fork and brushing his forehead as a reason, flung down his +own left hand, overlapping a third of Fancy's with it, and keeping it +there. So the innocent Fancy, instead of pulling her hand from the trap, +settled her eyes on her father's, to guard against his discovery of this +perilous game of Dick's. Dick finished his mouthful; Fancy finished her +crumb, and nothing was done beyond watching Geoffrey's eyes. Then the +hands slid apart; Fancy's going over six inches of cloth, Dick's over +one. Geoffrey's eye had risen. + +"I said Fred Shiner is a nice solid feller," he repeated, more +emphatically. + +"He is; yes, he is," stammered Dick; "but to me he is little more than a +stranger." + +"O, sure. Now I know en as well as any man can be known. And you know +en very well too, don't ye, Fancy?" + +Geoffrey put on a tone expressing that these words signified at present +about one hundred times the amount of meaning they conveyed literally. + +Dick looked anxious. + +"Will you pass me some bread?" said Fancy in a flurry, the red of her +face becoming slightly disordered, and looking as solicitous as a human +being could look about a piece of bread. + +"Ay, that I will," replied the unconscious Geoffrey. "Ay," he continued, +returning to the displaced idea, "we are likely to remain friendly wi' +Mr. Shiner if the wheels d'run smooth." + +"An excellent thing--a very capital thing, as I should say," the youth +answered with exceeding relevance, considering that his thoughts, instead +of following Geoffrey's remark, were nestling at a distance of about two +feet on his left the whole time. + +"A young woman's face will turn the north wind, Master Richard: my heart +if 'twon't." Dick looked more anxious and was attentive in earnest at +these words. "Yes; turn the north wind," added Geoffrey after an +impressive pause. "And though she's one of my own flesh and blood . . . +" + +"Will you fetch down a bit of raw-mil' cheese from pantry-shelf?" Fancy +interrupted, as if she were famishing. + +"Ay, that I will, chiel; chiel, says I, and Mr. Shiner only asking last +Saturday night . . . cheese you said, Fancy?" + +Dick controlled his emotion at these mysterious allusions to Mr. +Shiner,--the better enabled to do so by perceiving that Fancy's heart +went not with her father's--and spoke like a stranger to the affairs of +the neighbourhood. "Yes, there's a great deal to be said upon the power +of maiden faces in settling your courses," he ventured, as the keeper +retreated for the cheese. + +"The conversation is taking a very strange turn: nothing that I have ever +done warrants such things being said!" murmured Fancy with emphasis, just +loud enough to reach Dick's ears. + +"You think to yourself, 'twas to be," cried Enoch from his distant +corner, by way of filling up the vacancy caused by Geoffrey's momentary +absence. "And so you marry her, Master Dewy, and there's an end o't." + +"Pray don't say such things, Enoch," came from Fancy severely, upon which +Enoch relapsed into servitude. + +"If we be doomed to marry, we marry; if we be doomed to remain single, we +do," replied Dick. + +Geoffrey had by this time sat down again, and he now made his lips thin +by severely straining them across his gums, and looked out of the window +along the vista to the distant highway up Yalbury Hill. "That's not the +case with some folk," he said at length, as if he read the words on a +board at the further end of the vista. + +Fancy looked interested, and Dick said, "No?" + +"There's that wife o' mine. It was her doom to be nobody's wife at all +in the wide universe. But she made up her mind that she would, and did +it twice over. Doom? Doom is nothing beside a elderly woman--quite a +chiel in her hands!" + +A movement was now heard along the upstairs passage, and footsteps +descending. The door at the foot of the stairs opened, and the second +Mrs. Day appeared in view, looking fixedly at the table as she advanced +towards it, with apparent obliviousness of the presence of any other +human being than herself. In short, if the table had been the +personages, and the persons the table, her glance would have been the +most natural imaginable. + +She showed herself to possess an ordinary woman's face, iron-grey hair, +hardly any hips, and a great deal of cleanliness in a broad white apron- +string, as it appeared upon the waist of her dark stuff dress. + +"People will run away with a story now, I suppose," she began saying, +"that Jane Day's tablecloths are as poor and ragged as any union +beggar's!" + +Dick now perceived that the tablecloth was a little the worse for wear, +and reflecting for a moment, concluded that 'people' in step-mother +language probably meant himself. On lifting his eyes he found that Mrs. +Day had vanished again upstairs, and presently returned with an armful of +new damask-linen tablecloths, folded square and hard as boards by long +compression. These she flounced down into a chair; then took one, shook +it out from its folds, and spread it on the table by instalments, +transferring the plates and dishes one by one from the old to the new +cloth. + +"And I suppose they'll say, too, that she ha'n't a decent knife and fork +in her house!" + +"I shouldn't say any such ill-natured thing, I am sure--" began Dick. But +Mrs. Day had vanished into the next room. Fancy appeared distressed. + +"Very strange woman, isn't she?" said Geoffrey, quietly going on with his +dinner. "But 'tis too late to attempt curing. My heart! 'tis so growed +into her that 'twould kill her to take it out. Ay, she's very queer: +you'd be amazed to see what valuable goods we've got stowed away +upstairs." + +Back again came Mrs. Day with a box of bright steel horn-handled knives, +silver-plated forks, carver, and all complete. These were wiped of the +preservative oil which coated them, and then a knife and fork were laid +down to each individual with a bang, the carving knife and fork thrust +into the meat dish, and the old ones they had hitherto used tossed away. + +Geoffrey placidly cut a slice with the new knife and fork, and asked Dick +if he wanted any more. + +The table had been spread for the mixed midday meal of dinner and tea, +which was common among frugal countryfolk. "The parishioners about +here," continued Mrs. Day, not looking at any living being, but snatching +up the brown delf tea-things, "are the laziest, gossipest, poachest, +jailest set of any ever I came among. And they'll talk about my teapot +and tea-things next, I suppose!" She vanished with the teapot, cups, and +saucers, and reappeared with a tea-service in white china, and a packet +wrapped in brown paper. This was removed, together with folds of tissue- +paper underneath; and a brilliant silver teapot appeared. + +"I'll help to put the things right," said Fancy soothingly, and rising +from her seat. "I ought to have laid out better things, I suppose. But" +(here she enlarged her looks so as to include Dick) "I have been away +from home a good deal, and I make shocking blunders in my housekeeping." +Smiles and suavity were then dispensed all around by this bright little +bird. + +After a little more preparation and modification, Mrs. Day took her seat +at the head of the table, and during the latter or tea division of the +meal, presided with much composure. It may cause some surprise to learn +that, now her vagary was over, she showed herself to be an excellent +person with much common sense, and even a religious seriousness of tone +on matters pertaining to her afflictions. + + + +CHAPTER VII: DICK MAKES HIMSELF USEFUL + + +The effect of Geoffrey's incidental allusions to Mr. Shiner was to +restrain a considerable flow of spontaneous chat that would otherwise +have burst from young Dewy along the drive homeward. And a certain +remark he had hazarded to her, in rather too blunt and eager a manner, +kept the young lady herself even more silent than Dick. On both sides +there was an unwillingness to talk on any but the most trivial subjects, +and their sentences rarely took a larger form than could be expressed in +two or three words. + +Owing to Fancy being later in the day than she had promised, the +charwoman had given up expecting her; whereupon Dick could do no less +than stay and see her comfortably tided over the disagreeable time of +entering and establishing herself in an empty house after an absence of a +week. The additional furniture and utensils that had been brought (a +canary and cage among the rest) were taken out of the vehicle, and the +horse was unharnessed and put in the plot opposite, where there was some +tender grass. Dick lighted the fire already laid; and activity began to +loosen their tongues a little. + +"There!" said Fancy, "we forgot to bring the fire-irons!" + +She had originally found in her sitting-room, to bear out the expression +'nearly furnished' which the school-manager had used in his letter to +her, a table, three chairs, a fender, and a piece of carpet. This +'nearly' had been supplemented hitherto by a kind friend, who had lent +her fire-irons and crockery until she should fetch some from home. + +Dick attended to the young lady's fire, using his whip-handle for a poker +till it was spoilt, and then flourishing a hurdle stick for the remainder +of the time. + +"The kettle boils; now you shall have a cup of tea," said Fancy, diving +into the hamper she had brought. + +"Thank you," said Dick, whose drive had made him ready for some, +especially in her company. + +"Well, here's only one cup-and-saucer, as I breathe! Whatever could +mother be thinking about? Do you mind making shift, Mr. Dewy?" + +"Not at all, Miss Day," said that civil person. + +"--And only having a cup by itself? or a saucer by itself?" + +"Don't mind in the least." + +"Which do you mean by that?" + +"I mean the cup, if you like the saucer." + +"And the saucer, if I like the cup?" + +"Exactly, Miss Day." + +"Thank you, Mr. Dewy, for I like the cup decidedly. Stop a minute; there +are no spoons now!" She dived into the hamper again, and at the end of +two or three minutes looked up and said, "I suppose you don't mind if I +can't find a spoon?" + +"Not at all," said the agreeable Richard. + +"The fact is, the spoons have slipped down somewhere; right under the +other things. O yes, here's one, and only one. You would rather have +one than not, I suppose, Mr. Dewy?" + +"Rather not. I never did care much about spoons." + +"Then I'll have it. I do care about them. You must stir up your tea +with a knife. Would you mind lifting the kettle off, that it may not +boil dry?" + +Dick leapt to the fireplace, and earnestly removed the kettle. + +"There! you did it so wildly that you have made your hand black. We +always use kettle-holders; didn't you learn housewifery as far as that, +Mr. Dewy? Well, never mind the soot on your hand. Come here. I am +going to rinse mine, too." + +They went to a basin she had placed in the back room. "This is the only +basin I have," she said. "Turn up your sleeves, and by that time my +hands will be washed, and you can come." + +Her hands were in the water now. "O, how vexing!" she exclaimed. +"There's not a drop of water left for you, unless you draw it, and the +well is I don't know how many furlongs deep; all that was in the pitcher +I used for the kettle and this basin. Do you mind dipping the tips of +your fingers in the same?" + +"Not at all. And to save time I won't wait till you have done, if you +have no objection?" + +Thereupon he plunged in his hands, and they paddled together. It being +the first time in his life that he had touched female fingers under +water, Dick duly registered the sensation as rather a nice one. + +"Really, I hardly know which are my own hands and which are yours, they +have got so mixed up together," she said, withdrawing her own very +suddenly. + +"It doesn't matter at all," said Dick, "at least as far as I am +concerned." + +"There! no towel! Whoever thinks of a towel till the hands are wet?" + +"Nobody." + +"'Nobody.' How very dull it is when people are so friendly! Come here, +Mr. Dewy. Now do you think you could lift the lid of that box with your +elbow, and then, with something or other, take out a towel you will find +under the clean clothes? Be sure don't touch any of them with your wet +hands, for the things at the top are all Starched and Ironed." + +Dick managed, by the aid of a knife and fork, to extract a towel from +under a muslin dress without wetting the latter; and for a moment he +ventured to assume a tone of criticism. + +"I fear for that dress," he said, as they wiped their hands together. + +"What?" said Miss Day, looking into the box at the dress alluded to. "O, +I know what you mean--that the vicar will never let me wear muslin?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, I know it is condemned by all orders in the church as flaunting, +and unfit for common wear for girls who've their living to get; but we'll +see." + +"In the interest of the church, I hope you don't speak seriously." + +"Yes, I do; but we'll see." There was a comely determination on her lip, +very pleasant to a beholder who was neither bishop, priest, nor deacon. +"I think I can manage any vicar's views about me if he's under forty." + +Dick rather wished she had never thought of managing vicars. + +"I certainly shall be glad to get some of your delicious tea," he said in +rather a free way, yet modestly, as became one in a position between that +of visitor and inmate, and looking wistfully at his lonely saucer. + +"So shall I. Now is there anything else we want, Mr Dewy?" + +"I really think there's nothing else, Miss Day." + +She prepared to sit down, looking musingly out of the window at Smart's +enjoyment of the rich grass. "Nobody seems to care about me," she +murmured, with large lost eyes fixed upon the sky beyond Smart. + +"Perhaps Mr. Shiner does," said Dick, in the tone of a slightly injured +man. + +"Yes, I forgot--he does, I know." Dick precipitately regretted that he +had suggested Shiner, since it had produced such a miserable result as +this. + +"I'll warrant you'll care for somebody very much indeed another day, +won't you, Mr. Dewy?" she continued, looking very feelingly into the +mathematical centre of his eyes. + +"Ah, I'll warrant I shall," said Dick, feelingly too, and looking back +into her dark pupils, whereupon they were turned aside. + +"I meant," she went on, preventing him from speaking just as he was going +to narrate a forcible story about his feelings; "I meant that nobody +comes to see if I have returned--not even the vicar." + +"If you want to see him, I'll call at the vicarage directly we have had +some tea." + +"No, no! Don't let him come down here, whatever you do, whilst I am in +such a state of disarrangement. Parsons look so miserable and awkward +when one's house is in a muddle; walking about, and making impossible +suggestions in quaint academic phrases till your flesh creeps and you +wish them dead. Do you take sugar?" + +Mr. Maybold was at this instant seen coming up the path. + +"There! That's he coming! How I wish you were not here!--that is, how +awkward--dear, dear!" she exclaimed, with a quick ascent of blood to her +face, and irritated with Dick rather than the vicar, as it seemed. + +"Pray don't be alarmed on my account, Miss Day--good-afternoon!" said +Dick in a huff, putting on his hat, and leaving the room hastily by the +back-door. + +The horse was caught and put in, and on mounting the shafts to start he +saw through the window the vicar, standing upon some books piled in a +chair, and driving a nail into the wall; Fancy, with a demure glance, +holding the canary-cage up to him, as if she had never in her life +thought of anything but vicars and canaries. + + + +CHAPTER VIII: DICK MEETS HIS FATHER + + +For several minutes Dick drove along homeward, with the inner eye of +reflection so anxiously set on his passages at arms with Fancy, that the +road and scenery were as a thin mist over the real pictures of his mind. +Was she a coquette? The balance between the evidence that she did love +him and that she did not was so nicely struck, that his opinion had no +stability. She had let him put his hand upon hers; she had allowed her +gaze to drop plumb into the depths of his--his into hers--three or four +times; her manner had been very free with regard to the basin and towel; +she had appeared vexed at the mention of Shiner. On the other hand, she +had driven him about the house like a quiet dog or cat, said Shiner cared +for her, and seemed anxious that Mr. Maybold should do the same. + +Thinking thus as he neared the handpost at Mellstock Cross, sitting on +the front board of the spring cart--his legs on the outside, and his +whole frame jigging up and down like a candle-flame to the time of +Smart's trotting--who should he see coming down the hill but his father +in the light wagon, quivering up and down on a smaller scale of shakes, +those merely caused by the stones in the road. They were soon crossing +each other's front. + +"Weh-hey!" said the tranter to Smiler. + +"Weh-hey!" said Dick to Smart, in an echo of the same voice. + +"Th'st hauled her back, I suppose?" Reuben inquired peaceably. + +"Yes," said Dick, with such a clinching period at the end that it seemed +he was never going to add another word. Smiler, thinking this the close +of the conversation, prepared to move on. + +"Weh-hey!" said the tranter. "I tell thee what it is, Dick. That there +maid is taking up thy thoughts more than's good for thee, my sonny. +Thou'rt never happy now unless th'rt making thyself miserable about her +in one way or another." + +"I don't know about that, father," said Dick rather stupidly. + +"But I do--Wey, Smiler!--'Od rot the women, 'tis nothing else wi' 'em +nowadays but getting young men and leading 'em astray." + +"Pooh, father! you just repeat what all the common world says; that's all +you do." + +"The world's a very sensible feller on things in jineral, Dick; very +sensible indeed." + +Dick looked into the distance at a vast expanse of mortgaged estate. "I +wish I was as rich as a squire when he's as poor as a crow," he murmured; +"I'd soon ask Fancy something." + +"I wish so too, wi' all my heart, sonny; that I do. Well, mind what +beest about, that's all." + +Smart moved on a step or two. "Supposing now, father,--We-hey, Smart!--I +did think a little about her, and I had a chance, which I ha'n't; don't +you think she's a very good sort of--of--one?" + +"Ay, good; she's good enough. When you've made up your mind to marry, +take the first respectable body that comes to hand--she's as good as any +other; they be all alike in the groundwork; 'tis only in the flourishes +there's a difference. She's good enough; but I can't see what the nation +a young feller like you--wi' a comfortable house and home, and father and +mother to take care o' thee, and who sent 'ee to a school so good that +'twas hardly fair to the other children--should want to go hollering +after a young woman for, when she's quietly making a husband in her +pocket, and not troubled by chick nor chiel, to make a poverty-stric' +wife and family of her, and neither hat, cap, wig, nor waistcoat to set +'em up with: be drowned if I can see it, and that's the long and the +short o't, my sonny." + +Dick looked at Smart's ears, then up the hill; but no reason was +suggested by any object that met his gaze. + +"For about the same reason that you did, father, I suppose." + +"Dang it, my sonny, thou'st got me there!" And the tranter gave vent to +a grim admiration, with the mien of a man who was too magnanimous not to +appreciate artistically a slight rap on the knuckles, even if they were +his own. + +"Whether or no," said Dick, "I asked her a thing going along the road." + +"Come to that, is it? Turk! won't thy mother be in a taking! Well, +she's ready, I don't doubt?" + +"I didn't ask her anything about having me; and if you'll let me speak, +I'll tell 'ee what I want to know. I just said, Did she care about me?" + +"Piph-ph-ph!" + +"And then she said nothing for a quarter of a mile, and then she said she +didn't know. Now, what I want to know is, what was the meaning of that +speech?" The latter words were spoken resolutely, as if he didn't care +for the ridicule of all the fathers in creation. + +"The meaning of that speech is," the tranter replied deliberately, "that +the meaning is meant to be rather hid at present. Well, Dick, as an +honest father to thee, I don't pretend to deny what you d'know well +enough; that is, that her father being rather better in the pocket than +we, I should welcome her ready enough if it must be somebody." + +"But what d'ye think she really did mean?" said the unsatisfied Dick. + +"I'm afeard I am not o' much account in guessing, especially as I was not +there when she said it, and seeing that your mother was the only 'ooman I +ever cam' into such close quarters as that with." + +"And what did mother say to you when you asked her?" said Dick musingly. + +"I don't see that that will help 'ee." + +"The principle is the same." + +"Well--ay: what did she say? Let's see. I was oiling my working-day +boots without taking 'em off, and wi' my head hanging down, when she just +brushed on by the garden hatch like a flittering leaf. 'Ann,' I said, +says I, and then,--but, Dick I'm afeard 'twill be no help to thee; for we +were such a rum couple, your mother and I, leastways one half was, that +is myself--and your mother's charms was more in the manner than the +material." + +"Never mind! 'Ann,' said you." + +"'Ann,' said I, as I was saying . . . 'Ann,' I said to her when I was +oiling my working-day boots wi' my head hanging down, 'Woot hae me?' . . +. What came next I can't quite call up at this distance o' time. Perhaps +your mother would know,--she's got a better memory for her little +triumphs than I. However, the long and the short o' the story is that we +were married somehow, as I found afterwards. 'Twas on White +Tuesday,--Mellstock Club walked the same day, every man two and two, and +a fine day 'twas,--hot as fire,--how the sun did strike down upon my back +going to church! I well can mind what a bath o' sweating I was in, body +and soul! But Fance will ha' thee, Dick--she won't walk with another +chap--no such good luck." + +"I don't know about that," said Dick, whipping at Smart's flank in a +fanciful way, which, as Smart knew, meant nothing in connection with +going on. "There's Pa'son Maybold, too--that's all against me." + +"What about he? She's never been stuffing into thy innocent heart that +he's in hove with her? Lord, the vanity o' maidens!" + +"No, no. But he called, and she looked at him in such a way, and at me +in such a way--quite different the ways were,--and as I was coming off, +there was he hanging up her birdcage." + +"Well, why shouldn't the man hang up her bird-cage? Turk seize it all, +what's that got to do wi' it? Dick, that thou beest a white-lyvered chap +I don't say, but if thou beestn't as mad as a cappel-faced bull, let me +smile no more." + +"O, ay." + +"And what's think now, Dick?" + +"I don't know." + +"Here's another pretty kettle o' fish for thee. Who d'ye think's the +bitter weed in our being turned out? Did our party tell 'ee?" + +"No. Why, Pa'son Maybold, I suppose." + +"Shiner,--because he's in love with thy young woman, and d'want to see +her young figure sitting up at that queer instrument, and her young +fingers rum-strumming upon the keys." + +A sharp ado of sweet and bitter was going on in Dick during this +communication from his father. "Shiner's a fool!--no, that's not it; I +don't believe any such thing, father. Why, Shiner would never take a +bold step like that, unless she'd been a little made up to, and had taken +it kindly. Pooh!" + +"Who's to say she didn't?" + +"I do." + +"The more fool you." + +"Why, father of me?" + +"Has she ever done more to thee?" + +"No." + +"Then she has done as much to he--rot 'em! Now, Dick, this is how a maid +is. She'll swear she's dying for thee, and she is dying for thee, and +she will die for thee; but she'll fling a look over t'other shoulder at +another young feller, though never leaving off dying for thee just the +same." + +"She's not dying for me, and so she didn't fling a look at him." + +"But she may be dying for him, for she looked at thee." + +"I don't know what to make of it at all," said Dick gloomily. + +"All I can make of it is," the tranter said, raising his whip, arranging +his different joints and muscles, and motioning to the horse to move on, +"that if you can't read a maid's mind by her motions, nature d'seem to +say thou'st ought to be a bachelor. Clk, clk! Smiler!" And the tranter +moved on. + +Dick held Smart's rein firmly, and the whole concern of horse, cart, and +man remained rooted in the lane. How long this condition would have +lasted is unknown, had not Dick's thoughts, after adding up numerous +items of misery, gradually wandered round to the fact that as something +must be done, it could not be done by staying there all night. + +Reaching home he went up to his bedroom, shut the door as if he were +going to be seen no more in this life, and taking a sheet of paper and +uncorking the ink-bottle, he began a letter. The dignity of the writer's +mind was so powerfully apparent in every line of this effusion that it +obscured the logical sequence of facts and intentions to an appreciable +degree; and it was not at all clear to a reader whether he there and then +left off loving Miss Fancy Day; whether he had never loved her seriously, +and never meant to; whether he had been dying up to the present moment, +and now intended to get well again; or whether he had hitherto been in +good health, and intended to die for her forthwith. + +He put this letter in an envelope, sealed it up, directed it in a stern +handwriting of straight dashes--easy flourishes being rigorously +excluded. He walked with it in his pocket down the lane in strides not +an inch less than three feet long. Reaching her gate he put on a +resolute expression--then put it off again, turned back homeward, tore up +his letter, and sat down. + +That letter was altogether in a wrong tone--that he must own. A +heartless man-of-the-world tone was what the juncture required. That he +rather wanted her, and rather did not want her--the latter for choice; +but that as a member of society he didn't mind making a query in jaunty +terms, which could only be answered in the same way: did she mean +anything by her bearing towards him, or did she not? + +This letter was considered so satisfactory in every way that, being put +into the hands of a little boy, and the order given that he was to run +with it to the school, he was told in addition not to look behind him if +Dick called after him to bring it back, but to run along with it just the +same. Having taken this precaution against vacillation, Dick watched his +messenger down the road, and turned into the house whistling an air in +such ghastly jerks and starts, that whistling seemed to be the act the +very furthest removed from that which was instinctive in such a youth. + +The letter was left as ordered: the next morning came and passed--and no +answer. The next. The next. Friday night came. Dick resolved that if +no answer or sign were given by her the next day, on Sunday he would meet +her face to face, and have it all out by word of mouth. + +"Dick," said his father, coming in from the garden at that moment--in +each hand a hive of bees tied in a cloth to prevent their egress--"I +think you'd better take these two swarms of bees to Mrs. Maybold's to- +morrow, instead o' me, and I'll go wi' Smiler and the wagon." + +It was a relief; for Mrs. Maybold, the vicar's mother, who had just taken +into her head a fancy for keeping bees (pleasantly disguised under the +pretence of its being an economical wish to produce her own honey), lived +near the watering-place of Budmouth-Regis, ten miles off, and the +business of transporting the hives thither would occupy the whole day, +and to some extent annihilate the vacant time between this evening and +the coming Sunday. The best spring-cart was washed throughout, the axles +oiled, and the bees placed therein for the journey. + + + + +PART THE THIRD--SUMMER + + +CHAPTER I: DRIVING OUT OF BUDMOUTH + + +An easy bend of neck and graceful set of head; full and wavy bundles of +dark-brown hair; light fall of little feet; pretty devices on the skirt +of the dress; clear deep eyes; in short, a bunch of sweets: it was Fancy! +Dick's heart went round to her with a rush. + +The scene was the corner of Mary Street in Budmouth-Regis, near the +King's statue, at which point the white angle of the last house in the +row cut perpendicularly an embayed and nearly motionless expanse of salt +water projected from the outer ocean--to-day lit in bright tones of green +and opal. Dick and Smart had just emerged from the street, and there on +the right, against the brilliant sheet of liquid colour, stood Fancy Day; +and she turned and recognized him. + +Dick suspended his thoughts of the letter and wonder at how she came +there by driving close to the chains of the Esplanade--incontinently +displacing two chairmen, who had just come to life for the summer in new +clean shirts and revivified clothes, and being almost displaced in turn +by a rigid boy rattling along with a baker's cart, and looking neither to +the right nor the left. He asked if she were going to Mellstock that +night. + +"Yes, I'm waiting for the carrier," she replied, seeming, too, to suspend +thoughts of the letter. + +"Now I can drive you home nicely, and you save half an hour. Will ye +come with me?" + +As Fancy's power to will anything seemed to have departed in some +mysterious manner at that moment, Dick settled the matter by getting out +and assisting her into the vehicle without another word. + +The temporary flush upon her cheek changed to a lesser hue, which was +permanent, and at length their eyes met; there was present between them a +certain feeling of embarrassment, which arises at such moments when all +the instinctive acts dictated by the position have been performed. Dick, +being engaged with the reins, thought less of this awkwardness than did +Fancy, who had nothing to do but to feel his presence, and to be more and +more conscious of the fact, that by accepting a seat beside him in this +way she succumbed to the tone of his note. Smart jogged along, and Dick +jogged, and the helpless Fancy necessarily jogged, too; and she felt that +she was in a measure captured and made a prisoner. + +"I am so much obliged to you for your company, Miss Day," he observed, as +they drove past the two semicircular bays of the Old Royal Hotel, where +His Majesty King George the Third had many a time attended the balls of +the burgesses. + +To Miss Day, crediting him with the same consciousness of mastery--a +consciousness of which he was perfectly innocent--this remark sounded +like a magnanimous intention to soothe her, the captive. + +"I didn't come for the pleasure of obliging you with my company," she +said. + +The answer had an unexpected manner of incivility in it that must have +been rather surprising to young Dewy. At the same time it may be +observed, that when a young woman returns a rude answer to a young man's +civil remark, her heart is in a state which argues rather hopefully for +his case than otherwise. + +There was silence between them till they had left the sea-front and +passed about twenty of the trees that ornamented the road leading up out +of the town towards Casterbridge and Mellstock. + +"Though I didn't come for that purpose either, I would have done it," +said Dick at the twenty-first tree. + +"Now, Mr. Dewy, no flirtation, because it's wrong, and I don't wish it." + +Dick seated himself afresh just as he had been sitting before, arranged +his looks very emphatically, and cleared his throat. + +"Really, anybody would think you had met me on business and were just +going to commence," said the lady intractably. + +"Yes, they would." + +"Why, you never have, to be sure!" + +This was a shaky beginning. He chopped round, and said cheerily, as a +man who had resolved never to spoil his jollity by loving one of +womankind-- + +"Well, how are you getting on, Miss Day, at the present time? Gaily, I +don't doubt for a moment." + +"I am not gay, Dick; you know that." + +"Gaily doesn't mean decked in gay dresses." + +"I didn't suppose gaily was gaily dressed. Mighty me, what a scholar +you've grown!" + +"Lots of things have happened to you this spring, I see." + +"What have you seen?" + +"O, nothing; I've heard, I mean!" + +"What have you heard?" + +"The name of a pretty man, with brass studs and a copper ring and a tin +watch-chain, a little mixed up with your own. That's all." + +"That's a very unkind picture of Mr. Shiner, for that's who you mean! The +studs are gold, as you know, and it's a real silver chain; the ring I +can't conscientiously defend, and he only wore it once." + +"He might have worn it a hundred times without showing it half so much." + +"Well, he's nothing to me," she serenely observed. + +"Not any more than I am?" + +"Now, Mr. Dewy," said Fancy severely, "certainly he isn't any more to me +than you are!" + +"Not so much?" + +She looked aside to consider the precise compass of that question. "That +I can't exactly answer," she replied with soft archness. + +As they were going rather slowly, another spring-cart, containing a +farmer, farmer's wife, and farmer's man, jogged past them; and the +farmer's wife and farmer's man eyed the couple very curiously. The +farmer never looked up from the horse's tail. + +"Why can't you exactly answer?" said Dick, quickening Smart a little, and +jogging on just behind the farmer and farmer's wife and man. + +As no answer came, and as their eyes had nothing else to do, they both +contemplated the picture presented in front, and noticed how the farmer's +wife sat flattened between the two men, who bulged over each end of the +seat to give her room, till they almost sat upon their respective wheels; +and they looked too at the farmer's wife's silk mantle, inflating itself +between her shoulders like a balloon and sinking flat again, at each jog +of the horse. The farmer's wife, feeling their eyes sticking into her +back, looked over her shoulder. Dick dropped ten yards further behind. + +"Fancy, why can't you answer?" he repeated. + +"Because how much you are to me depends upon how much I am to you," said +she in low tones. + +"Everything," said Dick, putting his hand towards hers, and casting +emphatic eyes upon the upper curve of her cheek. + +"Now, Richard Dewy, no touching me! I didn't say in what way your +thinking of me affected the question--perhaps inversely, don't you see? +No touching, sir! Look; goodness me, don't, Dick!" + +The cause of her sudden start was the unpleasant appearance over Dick's +right shoulder of an empty timber-wagon and four journeymen-carpenters +reclining in lazy postures inside it, their eyes directed upwards at +various oblique angles into the surrounding world, the chief object of +their existence being apparently to criticize to the very backbone and +marrow every animate object that came within the compass of their vision. +This difficulty of Dick's was overcome by trotting on till the wagon and +carpenters were beginning to look rather misty by reason of a film of +dust that accompanied their wagon-wheels, and rose around their heads +like a fog. + +"Say you love me, Fancy." + +"No, Dick, certainly not; 'tisn't time to do that yet." + +"Why, Fancy?" + +"'Miss Day' is better at present--don't mind my saying so; and I ought +not to have called you Dick." + +"Nonsense! when you know that I would do anything on earth for your love. +Why, you make any one think that loving is a thing that can be done and +undone, and put on and put off at a mere whim." + +"No, no, I don't," she said gently; "but there are things which tell me I +ought not to give way to much thinking about you, even if--" + +"But you want to, don't you? Yes, say you do; it is best to be truthful. +Whatever they may say about a woman's right to conceal where her love +lies, and pretend it doesn't exist, and things like that, it is not best; +I do know it, Fancy. And an honest woman in that, as well as in all her +daily concerns, shines most brightly, and is thought most of in the long- +run." + +"Well then, perhaps, Dick, I do love you a little," she whispered +tenderly; "but I wish you wouldn't say any more now." + +"I won't say any more now, then, if you don't like it, dear. But you do +love me a little, don't you?" + +"Now you ought not to want me to keep saying things twice; I can't say +any more now, and you must be content with what you have." + +"I may at any rate call you Fancy? There's no harm in that." + +"Yes, you may." + +"And you'll not call me Mr. Dewy any more?" + +"Very well." + + + +CHAPTER II: FURTHER ALONG THE ROAD + + +Dick's spirits having risen in the course of these admissions of his +sweetheart, he now touched Smart with the whip; and on Smart's neck, not +far behind his ears. Smart, who had been lost in thought for some time, +never dreaming that Dick could reach so far with a whip which, on this +particular journey, had never been extended further than his flank, +tossed his head, and scampered along with exceeding briskness, which was +very pleasant to the young couple behind him till, turning a bend in the +road, they came instantly upon the farmer, farmer's man, and farmer's +wife with the flapping mantle, all jogging on just the same as ever. + +"Bother those people! Here we are upon them again." + +"Well, of course. They have as much right to the road as we." + +"Yes, but it is provoking to be overlooked so. I like a road all to +myself. Look what a lumbering affair theirs is!" The wheels of the +farmer's cart, just at that moment, jogged into a depression running +across the road, giving the cart a twist, whereupon all three nodded to +the left, and on coming out of it all three nodded to the right, and went +on jerking their backs in and out as usual. "We'll pass them when the +road gets wider." + +When an opportunity seemed to offer itself for carrying this intention +into effect, they heard light flying wheels behind, and on their +quartering there whizzed along past them a brand-new gig, so brightly +polished that the spokes of the wheels sent forth a continual quivering +light at one point in their circle, and all the panels glared like +mirrors in Dick and Fancy's eyes. The driver, and owner as it appeared, +was really a handsome man; his companion was Shiner. Both turned round +as they passed Dick and Fancy, and stared with bold admiration in her +face till they were obliged to attend to the operation of passing the +farmer. Dick glanced for an instant at Fancy while she was undergoing +their scrutiny; then returned to his driving with rather a sad +countenance. + +"Why are you so silent?" she said, after a while, with real concern. + +"Nothing." + +"Yes, it is, Dick. I couldn't help those people passing." + +"I know that." + +"You look offended with me. What have I done?" + +"I can't tell without offending you." + +"Better out." + +"Well," said Dick, who seemed longing to tell, even at the risk of +offending her, "I was thinking how different you in love are from me in +love. Whilst those men were staring, you dismissed me from your thoughts +altogether, and--" + +"You can't offend me further now; tell all!" + +"And showed upon your face a pleased sense of being attractive to 'em." + +"Don't be silly, Dick! You know very well I didn't." + +Dick shook his head sceptically, and smiled. + +"Dick, I always believe flattery if possible--and it was possible then. +Now there's an open confession of weakness. But I showed no +consciousness of it." + +Dick, perceiving by her look that she would adhere to her statement, +charitably forbore saying anything that could make her prevaricate. The +sight of Shiner, too, had recalled another branch of the subject to his +mind; that which had been his greatest trouble till her company and words +had obscured its probability. + +"By the way, Fancy, do you know why our quire is to be dismissed?" + +"No: except that it is Mr. Maybold's wish for me to play the organ." + +"Do you know how it came to be his wish?" + +"That I don't." + +"Mr. Shiner, being churchwarden, has persuaded the vicar; who, however, +was willing enough before. Shiner, I know, is crazy to see you playing +every Sunday; I suppose he'll turn over your music, for the organ will be +close to his pew. But--I know you have never encouraged him?" + +"Never once!" said Fancy emphatically, and with eyes full of earnest +truth. "I don't like him indeed, and I never heard of his doing this +before! I have always felt that I should like to play in a church, but I +never wished to turn you and your choir out; and I never even said that I +could play till I was asked. You don't think for a moment that I did, +surely, do you?" + +"I know you didn't, dear." + +"Or that I care the least morsel of a bit for him?" + +"I know you don't." + +The distance between Budmouth and Mellstock was ten or eleven miles, and +there being a good inn, 'The Ship,' four miles out of Budmouth, with a +mast and cross-trees in front, Dick's custom in driving thither was to +divide the journey into three stages by resting at this inn going and +coming, and not troubling the Budmouth stables at all, whenever his visit +to the town was a mere call and deposit, as to-day. + +Fancy was ushered into a little tea-room, and Dick went to the stables to +see to the feeding of Smart. In face of the significant twitches of +feature that were visible in the ostler and labouring men idling around, +Dick endeavoured to look unconscious of the fact that there was any +sentiment between him and Fancy beyond a tranter's desire to carry a +passenger home. He presently entered the inn and opened the door of +Fancy's room. + +"Dick, do you know, it has struck me that it is rather awkward, my being +here alone with you like this. I don't think you had better come in with +me." + +"That's rather unpleasant, dear." + +"Yes, it is, and I wanted you to have some tea as well as myself too, +because you must be tired." + +"Well, let me have some with you, then. I was denied once before, if you +recollect, Fancy." + +"Yes, yes, never mind! And it seems unfriendly of me now, but I don't +know what to do." + +"It shall be as you say, then." Dick began to retreat with a +dissatisfied wrinkling of face, and a farewell glance at the cosy tea- +tray. + +"But you don't see how it is, Dick, when you speak like that," she said, +with more earnestness than she had ever shown before. "You do know, that +even if I care very much for you, I must remember that I have a difficult +position to maintain. The vicar would not like me, as his +schoolmistress, to indulge in a tete-a-tete anywhere with anybody." + +"But I am not any body!" exclaimed Dick. + +"No, no, I mean with a young man;" and she added softly, "unless I were +really engaged to be married to him." + +"Is that all? Then, dearest, dearest, why we'll be engaged at once, to +be sure we will, and down I sit! There it is, as easy as a glove!" + +"Ah! but suppose I won't! And, goodness me, what have I done!" she +faltered, getting very red. "Positively, it seems as if I meant you to +say that!" + +"Let's do it! I mean get engaged," said Dick. "Now, Fancy, will you be +my wife?" + +"Do you know, Dick, it was rather unkind of you to say what you did +coming along the road," she remarked, as if she had not heard the latter +part of his speech; though an acute observer might have noticed about her +breast, as the word 'wife' fell from Dick's lips, a soft silent escape of +breaths, with very short rests between each. + +"What did I say?" + +"About my trying to look attractive to those men in the gig." + +"You couldn't help looking so, whether you tried or no. And, Fancy, you +do care for me?" + +"Yes." + +"Very much?" + +"Yes." + +"And you'll be my own wife?" + +Her heart quickened, adding to and withdrawing from her cheek varying +tones of red to match each varying thought. Dick looked expectantly at +the ripe tint of her delicate mouth, waiting for what was coming forth. + +"Yes--if father will let me." + +Dick drew himself close to her, compressing his lips and pouting them +out, as if he were about to whistle the softest melody known. + +"O no!" said Fancy solemnly. + +The modest Dick drew back a little. + +"Dick, Dick, kiss me and let me go instantly!--here's somebody coming!" +she whisperingly exclaimed. + +* * * + +Half an hour afterwards Dick emerged from the inn, and if Fancy's lips +had been real cherries probably Dick's would have appeared deeply +stained. The landlord was standing in the yard. + +"Heu-heu! hay-hay, Master Dewy! Ho-ho!" he laughed, letting the laugh +slip out gently and by degrees that it might make little noise in its +exit, and smiting Dick under the fifth rib at the same time. "This will +never do, upon my life, Master Dewy! calling for tay for a feymel +passenger, and then going in and sitting down and having some too, and +biding such a fine long time!" + +"But surely you know?" said Dick, with great apparent surprise. "Yes, +yes! Ha-ha!" smiting the landlord under the ribs in return. + +"Why, what? Yes, yes; ha-ha!" + +"You know, of course!" + +"Yes, of course! But--that is--I don't." + +"Why about--between that young lady and me?" nodding to the window of the +room that Fancy occupied. + +"No; not I!" said the innkeeper, bringing his eyes into circles. + +"And you don't!" + +"Not a word, I'll take my oath!" + +"But you laughed when I laughed." + +"Ay, that was me sympathy; so did you when I laughed!" + +"Really, you don't know? Goodness--not knowing that!" + +"I'll take my oath I don't!" + +"O yes," said Dick, with frigid rhetoric of pitying astonishment, "we're +engaged to be married, you see, and I naturally look after her." + +"Of course, of course! I didn't know that, and I hope ye'll excuse any +little freedom of mine, Mr. Dewy. But it is a very odd thing; I was +talking to your father very intimate about family matters only last +Friday in the world, and who should come in but Keeper Day, and we all +then fell a-talking o' family matters; but neither one o' them said a +mortal word about it; knowen me too so many years, and I at your father's +own wedding. 'Tisn't what I should have expected from an old neighbour!" + +"Well, to say the truth, we hadn't told father of the engagement at that +time; in fact, 'twasn't settled." + +"Ah! the business was done Sunday. Yes, yes, Sunday's the courting day. +Heu-heu!" + +"No, 'twasn't done Sunday in particular." + +"After school-hours this week? Well, a very good time, a very proper +good time." + +"O no, 'twasn't done then." + +"Coming along the road to-day then, I suppose?" + +"Not at all; I wouldn't think of getting engaged in a dog-cart." + +"Dammy--might as well have said at once, the when be blowed! Anyhow, +'tis a fine day, and I hope next time you'll come as one." + +Fancy was duly brought out and assisted into the vehicle, and the newly +affianced youth and maiden passed up the steep hill to the Ridgeway, and +vanished in the direction of Mellstock. + + + +CHAPTER III: A CONFESSION + + +It was a morning of the latter summer-time; a morning of lingering dews, +when the grass is never dry in the shade. Fuchsias and dahlias were +laden till eleven o'clock with small drops and dashes of water, changing +the colour of their sparkle at every movement of the air; and elsewhere +hanging on twigs like small silver fruit. The threads of garden spiders +appeared thick and polished. In the dry and sunny places, dozens of long- +legged crane-flies whizzed off the grass at every step the passer took. + +Fancy Day and her friend Susan Dewy the tranter's daughter, were in such +a spot as this, pulling down a bough laden with early apples. Three +months had elapsed since Dick and Fancy had journeyed together from +Budmouth, and the course of their love had run on vigorously during the +whole time. There had been just enough difficulty attending its +development, and just enough finesse required in keeping it private, to +lend the passion an ever-increasing freshness on Fancy's part, whilst, +whether from these accessories or not, Dick's heart had been at all times +as fond as could be desired. But there was a cloud on Fancy's horizon +now. + +"She is so well off--better than any of us," Susan Dewy was saying. "Her +father farms five hundred acres, and she might marry a doctor or curate +or anything of that kind if she contrived a little." + +"I don't think Dick ought to have gone to that gipsy-party at all when he +knew I couldn't go," replied Fancy uneasily. + +"He didn't know that you would not be there till it was too late to +refuse the invitation," said Susan. + +"And what was she like? Tell me." + +"Well, she was rather pretty, I must own." + +"Tell straight on about her, can't you! Come, do, Susan. How many times +did you say he danced with her?" + +"Once." + +"Twice, I think you said?" + +"Indeed I'm sure I didn't." + +"Well, and he wanted to again, I expect." + +"No; I don't think he did. She wanted to dance with him again bad +enough, I know. Everybody does with Dick, because he's so handsome and +such a clever courter." + +"O, I wish!--How did you say she wore her hair?" + +"In long curls,--and her hair is light, and it curls without being put in +paper: that's how it is she's so attractive." + +"She's trying to get him away! yes, yes, she is! And through keeping +this miserable school I mustn't wear my hair in curls! But I will; I +don't care if I leave the school and go home, I will wear my curls! Look, +Susan, do! is her hair as soft and long as this?" Fancy pulled from its +coil under her hat a twine of her own hair, and stretched it down her +shoulder to show its length, looking at Susan to catch her opinion from +her eyes. + +"It is about the same length as that, I think," said Miss Dewy. + +Fancy paused hopelessly. "I wish mine was lighter, like hers!" she +continued mournfully. "But hers isn't so soft, is it? Tell me, now." + +"I don't know." + +Fancy abstractedly extended her vision to survey a yellow butterfly and a +red-and-black butterfly that were flitting along in company, and then +became aware that Dick was advancing up the garden. + +"Susan, here's Dick coming; I suppose that's because we've been talking +about him." + +"Well, then, I shall go indoors now--you won't want me;" and Susan turned +practically and walked off. + +Enter the single-minded Dick, whose only fault at the gipsying, or +picnic, had been that of loving Fancy too exclusively, and depriving +himself of the innocent pleasure the gathering might have afforded him, +by sighing regretfully at her absence,--who had danced with the rival in +sheer despair of ever being able to get through that stale, flat, and +unprofitable afternoon in any other way; but this she would not believe. + +Fancy had settled her plan of emotion. To reproach Dick? O no, no. "I +am in great trouble," said she, taking what was intended to be a +hopelessly melancholy survey of a few small apples lying under the tree; +yet a critical ear might have noticed in her voice a tentative tone as to +the effect of the words upon Dick when she uttered them. + +"What are you in trouble about? Tell me of it," said Dick earnestly. +"Darling, I will share it with 'ee and help 'ee." + +"No, no: you can't! Nobody can!" + +"Why not? You don't deserve it, whatever it is. Tell me, dear." + +"O, it isn't what you think! It is dreadful: my own sin!" + +"Sin, Fancy! as if you could sin! I know it can't be." + +"'Tis, 'tis!" said the young lady, in a pretty little frenzy of sorrow. +"I have done wrong, and I don't like to tell it! Nobody will forgive me, +nobody! and you above all will not! . . . I have allowed myself +to--to--fl--" + +"What,--not flirt!" he said, controlling his emotion as it were by a +sudden pressure inward from his surface. "And you said only the day +before yesterday that you hadn't flirted in your life!" + +"Yes, I did; and that was a wicked story! I have let another love me, +and--" + +"Good G--! Well, I'll forgive you,--yes, if you couldn't help it,--yes, +I will!" said the now dismal Dick. "Did you encourage him?" + +"O,--I don't know,--yes--no. O, I think so!" + +"Who was it?" A pause. "Tell me!" + +"Mr. Shiner." + +After a silence that was only disturbed by the fall of an apple, a long- +checked sigh from Dick, and a sob from Fancy, he said with real +austerity-- + +"Tell it all;--every word!" + +"He looked at me, and I looked at him, and he said, 'Will you let me show +you how to catch bullfinches down here by the stream?' And I--wanted to +know very much--I did so long to have a bullfinch! I couldn't help that +and I said, 'Yes!' and then he said, 'Come here.' And I went with him +down to the lovely river, and then he said to me, 'Look and see how I do +it, and then you'll know: I put this birdlime round this twig, and then I +go here,' he said, 'and hide away under a bush; and presently clever +Mister Bird comes and perches upon the twig, and flaps his wings, and +you've got him before you can say Jack'--something; O, O, O, I forget +what!" + +"Jack Sprat," mournfully suggested Dick through the cloud of his misery. + +"No, not Jack Sprat," she sobbed. + +"Then 'twas Jack Robinson!" he said, with the emphasis of a man who had +resolved to discover every iota of the truth, or die. + +"Yes, that was it! And then I put my hand upon the rail of the bridge to +get across, and--That's all." + +"Well, that isn't much, either," said Dick critically, and more +cheerfully. "Not that I see what business Shiner has to take upon +himself to teach you anything. But it seems--it do seem there must have +been more than that to set you up in such a dreadful taking?" + +He looked into Fancy's eyes. Misery of miseries!--guilt was written +there still. + +"Now, Fancy, you've not told me all!" said Dick, rather sternly for a +quiet young man. + +"O, don't speak so cruelly! I am afraid to tell now! If you hadn't been +harsh, I was going on to tell all; now I can't!" + +"Come, dear Fancy, tell: come. I'll forgive; I must,--by heaven and +earth, I must, whether I will or no; I love you so!" + +"Well, when I put my hand on the bridge, he touched it--" + +"A scamp!" said Dick, grinding an imaginary human frame to powder. + +"And then he looked at me, and at last he said, 'Are you in love with +Dick Dewy?' And I said, 'Perhaps I am!' and then he said, 'I wish you +weren't then, for I want to marry you, with all my soul.'" + +"There's a villain now! Want to marry you!" And Dick quivered with the +bitterness of satirical laughter. Then suddenly remembering that he +might be reckoning without his host: "Unless, to be sure, you are willing +to have him,--perhaps you are," he said, with the wretched indifference +of a castaway. + +"No, indeed I am not!" she said, her sobs just beginning to take a +favourable turn towards cure. + +"Well, then," said Dick, coming a little to his senses, "you've been +stretching it very much in giving such a dreadful beginning to such a +mere nothing. And I know what you've done it for,--just because of that +gipsy-party!" He turned away from her and took five paces decisively, as +if he were tired of an ungrateful country, including herself. "You did +it to make me jealous, and I won't stand it!" He flung the words to her +over his shoulder and then stalked on, apparently very anxious to walk to +the remotest of the Colonies that very minute. + +"O, O, O, Dick--Dick!" she cried, trotting after him like a pet lamb, and +really seriously alarmed at last, "you'll kill me! My impulses are +bad--miserably wicked,--and I can't help it; forgive me, Dick! And I +love you always; and those times when you look silly and don't seem quite +good enough for me,--just the same, I do, Dick! And there is something +more serious, though not concerning that walk with him." + +"Well, what is it?" said Dick, altering his mind about walking to the +Colonies; in fact, passing to the other extreme, and standing so rooted +to the road that he was apparently not even going home. + +"Why this," she said, drying the beginning of a new flood of tears she +had been going to shed, "this is the serious part. Father has told Mr. +Shiner that he would like him for a son-in-law, if he could get me;--that +he has his right hearty consent to come courting me!" + + + +CHAPTER IV: AN ARRANGEMENT + + +"That is serious," said Dick, more intellectually than he had spoken for +a long time. + +The truth was that Geoffrey knew nothing about his daughter's continued +walks and meetings with Dick. When a hint that there were symptoms of an +attachment between them had first reached Geoffrey's ears, he stated so +emphatically that he must think the matter over before any such thing +could be allowed that, rather unwisely on Dick's part, whatever it might +have been on the lady's, the lovers were careful to be seen together no +more in public; and Geoffrey, forgetting the report, did not think over +the matter at all. So Mr. Shiner resumed his old position in Geoffrey's +brain by mere flux of time. Even Shiner began to believe that Dick +existed for Fancy no more,--though that remarkably easy-going man had +taken no active steps on his own account as yet. + +"And father has not only told Mr. Shiner that," continued Fancy, "but he +has written me a letter, to say he should wish me to encourage Mr. +Shiner, if 'twas convenient!" + +"I must start off and see your father at once!" said Dick, taking two or +three vehement steps to the south, recollecting that Mr. Day lived to the +north, and coming back again. + +"I think we had better see him together. Not tell him what you come for, +or anything of the kind, until he likes you, and so win his brain through +his heart, which is always the way to manage people. I mean in this way: +I am going home on Saturday week to help them in the honey-taking. You +might come there to me, have something to eat and drink, and let him +guess what your coming signifies, without saying it in so many words." + +"We'll do it, dearest. But I shall ask him for you, flat and plain; not +wait for his guessing." And the lover then stepped close to her, and +attempted to give her one little kiss on the cheek, his lips alighting, +however, on an outlying tract of her back hair by reason of an impulse +that had caused her to turn her head with a jerk. "Yes, and I'll put on +my second-best suit and a clean shirt and collar, and black my boots as +if 'twas a Sunday. 'Twill have a good appearance, you see, and that's a +great deal to start with." + +"You won't wear that old waistcoat, will you, Dick?" + +"Bless you, no! Why I--" + +"I didn't mean to be personal, dear Dick," she said, fearing she had hurt +his feelings. "'Tis a very nice waistcoat, but what I meant was, that +though it is an excellent waistcoat for a settled-down man, it is not +quite one for" (she waited, and a blush expanded over her face, and then +she went on again)--"for going courting in." + +"No, I'll wear my best winter one, with the leather lining, that mother +made. It is a beautiful, handsome waistcoat inside, yes, as ever anybody +saw. In fact, only the other day, I unbuttoned it to show a chap that +very lining, and he said it was the strongest, handsomest lining you +could wish to see on the king's waistcoat himself." + +"I don't quite know what to wear," she said, as if her habitual +indifference alone to dress had kept back so important a subject till +now. + +"Why, that blue frock you wore last week." + +"Doesn't set well round the neck. I couldn't wear that." + +"But I shan't care." + +"No, you won't mind." + +"Well, then it's all right. Because you only care how you look to me, do +you, dear? I only dress for you, that's certain." + +"Yes, but you see I couldn't appear in it again very well." + +"Any strange gentleman you mid meet in your journey might notice the set +of it, I suppose. Fancy, men in love don't think so much about how they +look to other women." It is difficult to say whether a tone of playful +banter or of gentle reproach prevailed in the speech. + +"Well then, Dick," she said, with good-humoured frankness, "I'll own it. +I shouldn't like a stranger to see me dressed badly, even though I am in +love. 'Tis our nature, I suppose." + +"You perfect woman!" + +"Yes; if you lay the stress on 'woman,'" she murmured, looking at a group +of hollyhocks in flower, round which a crowd of butterflies had gathered +like female idlers round a bonnet-shop. + +"But about the dress. Why not wear the one you wore at our party?" + +"That sets well, but a girl of the name of Bet Tallor, who lives near our +house, has had one made almost like it (only in pattern, though of +miserably cheap stuff), and I couldn't wear it on that account. Dear me, +I am afraid I can't go now." + +"O yes, you must; I know you will!" said Dick, with dismay. "Why not +wear what you've got on?" + +"What! this old one! After all, I think that by wearing my gray one +Saturday, I can make the blue one do for Sunday. Yes, I will. A hat or +a bonnet, which shall it be? Which do I look best in?" + +"Well, I think the bonnet is nicest, more quiet and matronly." + +"What's the objection to the hat? Does it make me look old?" + +"O no; the hat is well enough; but it makes you look rather too--you +won't mind me saying it, dear?" + +"Not at all, for I shall wear the bonnet." + +"--Rather too coquettish and flirty for an engaged young woman." + +She reflected a minute. "Yes; yes. Still, after all, the hat would do +best; hats are best, you see. Yes, I must wear the hat, dear Dicky, +because I ought to wear a hat, you know." + + + + +PART THE FOURTH--AUTUMN + + +CHAPTER I: GOING NUTTING + + +Dick, dressed in his 'second-best' suit, burst into Fancy's sitting-room +with a glow of pleasure on his face. + +It was two o'clock on Friday, the day before her contemplated visit to +her father, and for some reason connected with cleaning the school the +children had been given this Friday afternoon for pastime, in addition to +the usual Saturday. + +"Fancy! it happens just right that it is a leisure half day with you. +Smart is lame in his near-foot-afore, and so, as I can't do anything, +I've made a holiday afternoon of it, and am come for you to go nutting +with me!" + +She was sitting by the parlour window, with a blue frock lying across her +lap and scissors in her hand. + +"Go nutting! Yes. But I'm afraid I can't go for an hour or so." + +"Why not? 'Tis the only spare afternoon we may both have together for +weeks." + +"This dress of mine, that I am going to wear on Sunday at Yalbury;--I +find it fits so badly that I must alter it a little, after all. I told +the dressmaker to make it by a pattern I gave her at the time; instead of +that, she did it her own way, and made me look a perfect fright." + +"How long will you be?" he inquired, looking rather disappointed. + +"Not long. Do wait and talk to me; come, do, dear." + +Dick sat down. The talking progressed very favourably, amid the snipping +and sewing, till about half-past two, at which time his conversation +began to be varied by a slight tapping upon his toe with a walking-stick +he had cut from the hedge as he came along. Fancy talked and answered +him, but sometimes the answers were so negligently given, that it was +evident her thoughts lay for the greater part in her lap with the blue +dress. + +The clock struck three. Dick arose from his seat, walked round the room +with his hands behind him, examined all the furniture, then sounded a few +notes on the harmonium, then looked inside all the books he could find, +then smoothed Fancy's head with his hand. Still the snipping and sewing +went on. + +The clock struck four. Dick fidgeted about, yawned privately; counted +the knots in the table, yawned publicly; counted the flies on the +ceiling, yawned horribly; went into the kitchen and scullery, and so +thoroughly studied the principle upon which the pump was constructed that +he could have delivered a lecture on the subject. Stepping back to +Fancy, and finding still that she had not done, he went into her garden +and looked at her cabbages and potatoes, and reminded himself that they +seemed to him to wear a decidedly feminine aspect; then pulled up several +weeds, and came in again. The clock struck five, and still the snipping +and sewing went on. + +Dick attempted to kill a fly, peeled all the rind off his walking-stick, +then threw the stick into the scullery because it was spoilt, produced +hideous discords from the harmonium, and accidentally overturned a vase +of flowers, the water from which ran in a rill across the table and +dribbled to the floor, where it formed a lake, the shape of which, after +the lapse of a few minutes, he began to modify considerably with his +foot, till it was like a map of England and Wales. + +"Well, Dick, you needn't have made quite such a mess." + +"Well, I needn't, I suppose." He walked up to the blue dress, and looked +at it with a rigid gaze. Then an idea seemed to cross his brain. + +"Fancy." + +"Yes." + +"I thought you said you were going to wear your gray gown all day +to-morrow on your trip to Yalbury, and in the evening too, when I shall +be with you, and ask your father for you?" + +"So I am." + +"And the blue one only on Sunday?" + +"And the blue one Sunday." + +"Well, dear, I sha'n't be at Yalbury Sunday to see it." + +"No, but I shall walk to Longpuddle church in the afternoon with father, +and such lots of people will be looking at me there, you know; and it did +set so badly round the neck." + +"I never noticed it, and 'tis like nobody else would." + +"They might." + +"Then why not wear the gray one on Sunday as well? 'Tis as pretty as the +blue one." + +"I might make the gray one do, certainly. But it isn't so good; it +didn't cost half so much as this one, and besides, it would be the same I +wore Saturday." + +"Then wear the striped one, dear." + +"I might." + +"Or the dark one." + +"Yes, I might; but I want to wear a fresh one they haven't seen." + +"I see, I see," said Dick, in a voice in which the tones of love were +decidedly inconvenienced by a considerable emphasis, his thoughts +meanwhile running as follows: "I, the man she loves best in the world, as +she says, am to understand that my poor half-holiday is to be lost, +because she wants to wear on Sunday a gown there is not the slightest +necessity for wearing, simply, in fact, to appear more striking than +usual in the eyes of Longpuddle young men; and I not there, either." + +"Then there are three dresses good enough for my eyes, but neither is +good enough for the youths of Longpuddle," he said. + +"No, not that exactly, Dick. Still, you see, I do want--to look pretty +to them--there, that's honest! But I sha'n't be much longer." + +"How much?" + +"A quarter of an hour." + +"Very well; I'll come in in a quarter of an hour." + +"Why go away?" + +"I mid as well." + +He went out, walked down the road, and sat upon a gate. Here he +meditated and meditated, and the more he meditated the more decidedly did +he begin to fume, and the more positive was he that his time had been +scandalously trifled with by Miss Fancy Day--that, so far from being the +simple girl who had never had a sweetheart before, as she had solemnly +assured him time after time, she was, if not a flirt, a woman who had had +no end of admirers; a girl most certainly too anxious about her frocks; a +girl, whose feelings, though warm, were not deep; a girl who cared a +great deal too much how she appeared in the eyes of other men. "What she +loves best in the world," he thought, with an incipient spice of his +father's grimness, "is her hair and complexion. What she loves next +best, her gowns and hats; what she loves next best, myself, perhaps!" + +Suffering great anguish at this disloyalty in himself and harshness to +his darling, yet disposed to persevere in it, a horribly cruel thought +crossed his mind. He would not call for her, as he had promised, at the +end of a quarter of an hour! Yes, it would be a punishment she well +deserved. Although the best part of the afternoon had been wasted he +would go nutting as he had intended, and go by himself. + +He leaped over the gate, and pushed up the lane for nearly two miles, +till a winding path called Snail-Creep sloped up a hill and entered a +hazel copse by a hole like a rabbit's burrow. In he plunged, vanished +among the bushes, and in a short time there was no sign of his existence +upon earth, save an occasional rustling of boughs and snapping of twigs +in divers points of Grey's Wood. + +Never man nutted as Dick nutted that afternoon. He worked like a galley +slave. Half-hour after half-hour passed away, and still he gathered +without ceasing. At last, when the sun had set, and bunches of nuts +could not be distinguished from the leaves which nourished them, he +shouldered his bag, containing quite two pecks of the finest produce of +the wood, about as much use to him as two pecks of stones from the road, +strolled down the woodland track, crossed the highway and entered the +homeward lane, whistling as he went. + +Probably, Miss Fancy Day never before or after stood so low in Mr. Dewy's +opinion as on that afternoon. In fact, it is just possible that a few +more blue dresses on the Longpuddle young men's account would have +clarified Dick's brain entirely, and made him once more a free man. + +But Venus had planned other developments, at any rate for the present. +Cuckoo-Lane, the way he pursued, passed over a ridge which rose keenly +against the sky about fifty yards in his van. Here, upon the bright +after-glow about the horizon, was now visible an irregular shape, which +at first he conceived to be a bough standing a little beyond the line of +its neighbours. Then it seemed to move, and, as he advanced still +further, there was no doubt that it was a living being sitting in the +bank, head bowed on hand. The grassy margin entirely prevented his +footsteps from being heard, and it was not till he was close that the +figure recognized him. Up it sprang, and he was face to face with Fancy. + +"Dick, Dick! O, is it you, Dick!" + +"Yes, Fancy," said Dick, in a rather repentant tone, and lowering his +nuts. + +She ran up to him, flung her parasol on the grass, put her little head +against his breast, and then there began a narrative, disjointed by such +a hysterical weeping as was never surpassed for intensity in the whole +history of love. + +"O Dick," she sobbed out, "where have you been away from me? O, I have +suffered agony, and thought you would never come any more! 'Tis cruel, +Dick; no 'tisn't, it is justice! I've been walking miles and miles up +and down Grey's Wood, trying to find you, till I was wearied and worn +out, and I could walk no further, and had come back this far! O Dick, +directly you were gone, I thought I had offended you and I put down the +dress; 'tisn't finished now, and I never will finish, it, and I'll wear +an old one Sunday! Yes, Dick, I will, because I don't care what I wear +when you are not by my side--ha, you think I do, but I don't!--and I ran +after you, and I saw you go up Snail-Creep and not look back once, and +then you plunged in, and I after you; but I was too far behind. O, I did +wish the horrid bushes had been cut down, so that I could see your dear +shape again! And then I called out to you, and nobody answered, and I +was afraid to call very loud, lest anybody else should hear me. Then I +kept wandering and wandering about, and it was dreadful misery, Dick. And +then I shut my eyes and fell to picturing you looking at some other +woman, very pretty and nice, but with no affection or truth in her at +all, and then imagined you saying to yourself, 'Ah, she's as good as +Fancy, for Fancy told me a story, and was a flirt, and cared for herself +more than me, so now I'll have this one for my sweetheart.' O, you +won't, will you, Dick, for I do love you so!" + +It is scarcely necessary to add that Dick renounced his freedom there and +then, and kissed her ten times over, and promised that no pretty woman of +the kind alluded to should ever engross his thoughts; in short, that +though he had been vexed with her, all such vexation was past, and that +henceforth and for ever it was simply Fancy or death for him. And then +they set about proceeding homewards, very slowly on account of Fancy's +weariness, she leaning upon his shoulder, and in addition receiving +support from his arm round her waist; though she had sufficiently +recovered from her desperate condition to sing to him, 'Why are you +wandering here, I pray?' during the latter part of their walk. Nor is it +necessary to describe in detail how the bag of nuts was quite forgotten +until three days later, when it was found among the brambles and restored +empty to Mrs. Dewy, her initials being marked thereon in red cotton; and +how she puzzled herself till her head ached upon the question of how on +earth her meal-bag could have got into Cuckoo-Lane. + + + +CHAPTER II: HONEY-TAKING, AND AFTERWARDS + + +Saturday evening saw Dick Dewy journeying on foot to Yalbury Wood, +according to the arrangement with Fancy. + +The landscape being concave, at the going down of the sun everything +suddenly assumed a uniform robe of shade. The evening advanced from +sunset to dusk long before Dick's arrival, and his progress during the +latter portion of his walk through the trees was indicated by the flutter +of terrified birds that had been roosting over the path. And in crossing +the glades, masses of hot dry air, that had been formed on the hills +during the day, greeted his cheeks alternately with clouds of damp night +air from the valleys. He reached the keeper-steward's house, where the +grass-plot and the garden in front appeared light and pale against the +unbroken darkness of the grove from which he had emerged, and paused at +the garden gate. + +He had scarcely been there a minute when he beheld a sort of procession +advancing from the door in his front. It consisted first of Enoch the +trapper, carrying a spade on his shoulder and a lantern dangling in his +hand; then came Mrs. Day, the light of the lantern revealing that she +bore in her arms curious objects about a foot long, in the form of Latin +crosses (made of lath and brown paper dipped in brimstone--called matches +by bee-masters); next came Miss Day, with a shawl thrown over her head; +and behind all, in the gloom, Mr. Frederic Shiner. + +Dick, in his consternation at finding Shiner present, was at a loss how +to proceed, and retired under a tree to collect his thoughts. + +"Here I be, Enoch," said a voice; and the procession advancing farther, +the lantern's rays illuminated the figure of Geoffrey, awaiting their +arrival beside a row of bee-hives, in front of the path. Taking the +spade from Enoch, he proceeded to dig two holes in the earth beside the +hives, the others standing round in a circle, except Mrs. Day, who +deposited her matches in the fork of an apple-tree and returned to the +house. The party remaining were now lit up in front by the lantern in +their midst, their shadows radiating each way upon the garden-plot like +the spokes of a wheel. An apparent embarrassment of Fancy at the +presence of Shiner caused a silence in the assembly, during which the +preliminaries of execution were arranged, the matches fixed, the stake +kindled, the two hives placed over the two holes, and the earth stopped +round the edges. Geoffrey then stood erect, and rather more, to +straighten his backbone after the digging. + +"They were a peculiar family," said Mr. Shiner, regarding the hives +reflectively. + +Geoffrey nodded. + +"Those holes will be the grave of thousands!" said Fancy. "I think 'tis +rather a cruel thing to do." + +Her father shook his head. "No," he said, tapping the hives to shake the +dead bees from their cells, "if you suffocate 'em this way, they only die +once: if you fumigate 'em in the new way, they come to life again, and +die o' starvation; so the pangs o' death be twice upon 'em." + +"I incline to Fancy's notion," said Mr. Shiner, laughing lightly. + +"The proper way to take honey, so that the bees be neither starved nor +murdered, is a puzzling matter," said the keeper steadily. + +"I should like never to take it from them," said Fancy. + +"But 'tis the money," said Enoch musingly. "For without money man is a +shadder!" + +The lantern-light had disturbed many bees that had escaped from hives +destroyed some days earlier, and, demoralized by affliction, were now +getting a living as marauders about the doors of other hives. Several +flew round the head and neck of Geoffrey; then darted upon him with an +irritated bizz. + +Enoch threw down the lantern, and ran off and pushed his head into a +currant bush; Fancy scudded up the path; and Mr. Shiner floundered away +helter-skelter among the cabbages. Geoffrey stood his ground, unmoved +and firm as a rock. Fancy was the first to return, followed by Enoch +picking up the lantern. Mr. Shiner still remained invisible. + +"Have the craters stung ye?" said Enoch to Geoffrey. + +"No, not much--on'y a little here and there," he said with leisurely +solemnity, shaking one bee out of his shirt sleeve, pulling another from +among his hair, and two or three more from his neck. The rest looked on +during this proceeding with a complacent sense of being out of it,--much +as a European nation in a state of internal commotion is watched by its +neighbours. + +"Are those all of them, father?" said Fancy, when Geoffrey had pulled +away five. + +"Almost all,--though I feel one or two more sticking into my shoulder and +side. Ah! there's another just begun again upon my backbone. You lively +young mortals, how did you get inside there? However, they can't sting +me many times more, poor things, for they must be getting weak. They mid +as well stay in me till bedtime now, I suppose." + +As he himself was the only person affected by this arrangement, it seemed +satisfactory enough; and after a noise of feet kicking against cabbages +in a blundering progress among them, the voice of Mr. Shiner was heard +from the darkness in that direction. + +"Is all quite safe again?" + +No answer being returned to this query, he apparently assumed that he +might venture forth, and gradually drew near the lantern again. The +hives were now removed from their position over the holes, one being +handed to Enoch to carry indoors, and one being taken by Geoffrey +himself. + +"Bring hither the lantern, Fancy: the spade can bide." + +Geoffrey and Enoch then went towards the house, leaving Shiner and Fancy +standing side by side on the garden-plot. + +"Allow me," said Shiner, stooping for the lantern and seizing it at the +same time with Fancy. + +"I can carry it," said Fancy, religiously repressing all inclination to +trifle. She had thoroughly considered that subject after the tearful +explanation of the bird-catching adventure to Dick, and had decided that +it would be dishonest in her, as an engaged young woman, to trifle with +men's eyes and hands any more. Finding that Shiner still retained his +hold of the lantern, she relinquished it, and he, having found her +retaining it, also let go. The lantern fell, and was extinguished. Fancy +moved on. + +"Where is the path?" said Mr. Shiner. + +"Here," said Fancy. "Your eyes will get used to the dark in a minute or +two." + +"Till that time will ye lend me your hand?" Fancy gave him the extreme +tips of her fingers, and they stepped from the plot into the path. + +"You don't accept attentions very freely." + +"It depends upon who offers them." + +"A fellow like me, for instance." A dead silence. + +"Well, what do you say, Missie?" + +"It then depends upon how they are offered." + +"Not wildly, and yet not careless-like; not purposely, and yet not by +chance; not too quick nor yet too slow." + +"How then?" said Fancy. + +"Coolly and practically," he said. "How would that kind of love be +taken?" + +"Not anxiously, and yet not indifferently; neither blushing nor pale; nor +religiously nor yet quite wickedly." + +"Well, how?" + +"Not at all." + +* * * * * + +Geoffrey Day's storehouse at the back of his dwelling was hung with +bunches of dried horehound, mint, and sage; brown-paper bags of thyme and +lavender; and long ropes of clean onions. On shelves were spread large +red and yellow apples, and choice selections of early potatoes for seed +next year;--vulgar crowds of commoner kind lying beneath in heaps. A few +empty beehives were clustered around a nail in one corner, under which +stood two or three barrels of new cider of the first crop, each bubbling +and squirting forth from the yet open bunghole. + +Fancy was now kneeling beside the two inverted hives, one of which rested +against her lap, for convenience in operating upon the contents. She +thrust her sleeves above her elbows, and inserted her small pink hand +edgewise between each white lobe of honeycomb, performing the act so +adroitly and gently as not to unseal a single cell. Then cracking the +piece off at the crown of the hive by a slight backward and forward +movement, she lifted each portion as it was loosened into a large blue +platter, placed on a bench at her side. + +"Bother these little mortals!" said Geoffrey, who was holding the light +to her, and giving his back an uneasy twist. "I really think I may as +well go indoors and take 'em out, poor things! for they won't let me +alone. There's two a stinging wi' all their might now. I'm sure I +wonder their strength can last so long." + +"All right, friend; I'll hold the candle whilst you are gone," said Mr. +Shiner, leisurely taking the light, and allowing Geoffrey to depart, +which he did with his usual long paces. + +He could hardly have gone round to the house-door when other footsteps +were heard approaching the outbuilding; the tip of a finger appeared in +the hole through which the wood latch was lifted, and Dick Dewy came in, +having been all this time walking up and down the wood, vainly waiting +for Shiner's departure. + +Fancy looked up and welcomed him rather confusedly. Shiner grasped the +candlestick more firmly, and, lest doing this in silence should not imply +to Dick with sufficient force that he was quite at home and cool, he sang +invincibly-- + + "'King Arthur he had three sons.'" + +"Father here?" said Dick. + +"Indoors, I think," said Fancy, looking pleasantly at him. + +Dick surveyed the scene, and did not seem inclined to hurry off just at +that moment. Shiner went on singing-- + + "'The miller was drown'd in his pond, + The weaver was hung in his yarn, + And the d--- ran away with the little tail-or, + With the broadcloth under his arm.'" + +"That's a terrible crippled rhyme, if that's your rhyme!" said Dick, with +a grain of superciliousness in his tone. + +"It's no use your complaining to me about the rhyme!" said Mr. Shiner. +"You must go to the man that made it." + +Fancy by this time had acquired confidence. + +"Taste a bit, Mr. Dewy," she said, holding up to him a small circular +piece of honeycomb that had been the last in the row of layers, remaining +still on her knees and flinging back her head to look in his face; "and +then I'll taste a bit too." + +"And I, if you please," said Mr. Shiner. Nevertheless the farmer looked +superior, as if he could even now hardly join the trifling from very +importance of station; and after receiving the honeycomb from Fancy, he +turned it over in his hand till the cells began to be crushed, and the +liquid honey ran down from his fingers in a thin string. + +Suddenly a faint cry from Fancy caused them to gaze at her. + +"What's the matter, dear?" said Dick. + +"It is nothing, but O-o! a bee has stung the inside of my lip! He was in +one of the cells I was eating!" + +"We must keep down the swelling, or it may be serious!" said Shiner, +stepping up and kneeling beside her. "Let me see it." + +"No, no!" + +"Just let me see it," said Dick, kneeling on the other side: and after +some hesitation she pressed down her lip with one finger to show the +place. "O, I hope 'twill soon be better! I don't mind a sting in +ordinary places, but it is so bad upon your lip," she added with tears in +her eyes, and writhing a little from the pain. + +Shiner held the light above his head and pushed his face close to +Fancy's, as if the lip had been shown exclusively to himself, upon which +Dick pushed closer, as if Shiner were not there at all. + +"It is swelling," said Dick to her right aspect. + +"It isn't swelling," said Shiner to her left aspect. + +"Is it dangerous on the lip?" cried Fancy. "I know it is dangerous on +the tongue." + +"O no, not dangerous!" answered Dick. + +"Rather dangerous," had answered Shiner simultaneously. + +"I must try to bear it!" said Fancy, turning again to the hives. + +"Hartshorn-and-oil is a good thing to put to it, Miss Day," said Shiner +with great concern. + +"Sweet-oil-and-hartshorn I've found to be a good thing to cure stings, +Miss Day," said Dick with greater concern. + +"We have some mixed indoors; would you kindly run and get it for me?" she +said. + +Now, whether by inadvertence, or whether by mischievous intention, the +individuality of the you was so carelessly denoted that both Dick and +Shiner sprang to their feet like twin acrobats, and marched abreast to +the door; both seized the latch and lifted it, and continued marching on, +shoulder to shoulder, in the same manner to the dwelling-house. Not only +so, but entering the room, they marched as before straight up to Mrs. +Day's chair, letting the door in the oak partition slam so forcibly, that +the rows of pewter on the dresser rang like a bell. + +"Mrs. Day, Fancy has stung her lip, and wants you to give me the +hartshorn, please," said Mr. Shiner, very close to Mrs. Day's face. + +"O, Mrs. Day, Fancy has asked me to bring out the hartshorn, please, +because she has stung her lip!" said Dick, a little closer to Mrs. Day's +face. + +"Well, men alive! that's no reason why you should eat me, I suppose!" +said Mrs. Day, drawing back. + +She searched in the corner-cupboard, produced the bottle, and began to +dust the cork, the rim, and every other part very carefully, Dick's hand +and Shiner's hand waiting side by side. + +"Which is head man?" said Mrs. Day. "Now, don't come mumbudgeting so +close again. Which is head man?" + +Neither spoke; and the bottle was inclined towards Shiner. Shiner, as a +high-class man, would not look in the least triumphant, and turned to go +off with it as Geoffrey came downstairs after the search in his linen for +concealed bees. + +"O--that you, Master Dewy?" + +Dick assured the keeper that it was; and the young man then determined +upon a bold stroke for the attainment of his end, forgetting that the +worst of bold strokes is the disastrous consequences they involve if they +fail. + +"I've come on purpose to speak to you very particular, Mr. Day," he said, +with a crushing emphasis intended for the ears of Mr. Shiner, who was +vanishing round the door-post at that moment. + +"Well, I've been forced to go upstairs and unrind myself, and shake some +bees out o' me" said Geoffrey, walking slowly towards the open door, and +standing on the threshold. "The young rascals got into my shirt and +wouldn't be quiet nohow." + +Dick followed him to the door. + +"I've come to speak a word to you," he repeated, looking out at the pale +mist creeping up from the gloom of the valley. "You may perhaps guess +what it is about." + +The keeper lowered his hands into the depths of his pockets, twirled his +eyes, balanced himself on his toes, looked as perpendicularly downward as +if his glance were a plumb-line, then horizontally, collecting together +the cracks that lay about his face till they were all in the +neighbourhood of his eyes. + +"Maybe I don't know," he replied. + +Dick said nothing; and the stillness was disturbed only by some small +bird that was being killed by an owl in the adjoining wood, whose cry +passed into the silence without mingling with it. + +"I've left my hat up in chammer," said Geoffrey; "wait while I step up +and get en." + +"I'll be in the garden," said Dick. + +He went round by a side wicket into the garden, and Geoffrey went +upstairs. It was the custom in Mellstock and its vicinity to discuss +matters of pleasure and ordinary business inside the house, and to +reserve the garden for very important affairs: a custom which, as is +supposed, originated in the desirability of getting away at such times +from the other members of the family when there was only one room for +living in, though it was now quite as frequently practised by those who +suffered from no such limitation to the size of their domiciles. + +The head-keeper's form appeared in the dusky garden, and Dick walked +towards him. The elder paused and leant over the rail of a piggery that +stood on the left of the path, upon which Dick did the same; and they +both contemplated a whitish shadowy shape that was moving about and +grunting among the straw of the interior. + +"I've come to ask for Fancy," said Dick. + +"I'd as lief you hadn't." + +"Why should that be, Mr. Day?" + +"Because it makes me say that you've come to ask what ye be'n't likely to +have. Have ye come for anything else?" + +"Nothing." + +"Then I'll just tell 'ee you've come on a very foolish errand. D'ye know +what her mother was?" + +"No." + +"A teacher in a landed family's nursery, who was foolish enough to marry +the keeper of the same establishment; for I was only a keeper then, +though now I've a dozen other irons in the fire as steward here for my +lord, what with the timber sales and the yearly fellings, and the gravel +and sand sales and one thing and 'tother. However, d'ye think Fancy +picked up her good manners, the smooth turn of her tongue, her musical +notes, and her knowledge of books, in a homely hole like this?" + +"No." + +"D'ye know where?" + +"No." + +"Well, when I went a-wandering after her mother's death, she lived with +her aunt, who kept a boarding-school, till her aunt married Lawyer +Green--a man as sharp as a needle--and the school was broke up. Did ye +know that then she went to the training-school, and that her name stood +first among the Queen's scholars of her year?" + +"I've heard so." + +"And that when she sat for her certificate as Government teacher, she had +the highest of the first class?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, and do ye know what I live in such a miserly way for when I've got +enough to do without it, and why I make her work as a schoolmistress +instead of living here?" + +"No." + +"That if any gentleman, who sees her to be his equal in polish, should +want to marry her, and she want to marry him, he sha'n't be superior to +her in pocket. Now do ye think after this that you be good enough for +her?" + +"No." + +"Then good-night t'ee, Master Dewy." + +"Good-night, Mr. Day." + +Modest Dick's reply had faltered upon his tongue, and he turned away +wondering at his presumption in asking for a woman whom he had seen from +the beginning to be so superior to him. + + + +CHAPTER III: FANCY IN THE RAIN + + +The next scene is a tempestuous afternoon in the following month, and +Fancy Day is discovered walking from her father's home towards Mellstock. + +A single vast gray cloud covered the country, from which the small rain +and mist had just begun to blow down in wavy sheets, alternately thick +and thin. The trees of the fields and plantations writhed like miserable +men as the air wound its way swiftly among them: the lowest portions of +their trunks, that had hardly ever been known to move, were visibly +rocked by the fiercer gusts, distressing the mind by its painful +unwontedness, as when a strong man is seen to shed tears. Low-hanging +boughs went up and down; high and erect boughs went to and fro; the +blasts being so irregular, and divided into so many cross-currents, that +neighbouring branches of the same tree swept the skies in independent +motions, crossed each other, or became entangled. Across the open spaces +flew flocks of green and yellowish leaves, which, after travelling a long +distance from their parent trees, reached the ground, and lay there with +their under-sides upward. + +As the rain and wind increased, and Fancy's bonnet-ribbons leapt more and +more snappishly against her chin, she paused on entering Mellstock Lane +to consider her latitude, and the distance to a place of shelter. The +nearest house was Elizabeth Endorfield's, in Higher Mellstock, whose +cottage and garden stood not far from the junction of that hamlet with +the road she followed. Fancy hastened onward, and in five minutes +entered a gate, which shed upon her toes a flood of water-drops as she +opened it. + +"Come in, chiel!" a voice exclaimed, before Fancy had knocked: a +promptness that would have surprised her had she not known that Mrs. +Endorfield was an exceedingly and exceptionally sharp woman in the use of +her eyes and ears. + +Fancy went in and sat down. Elizabeth was paring potatoes for her +husband's supper. + +Scrape, scrape, scrape; then a toss, and splash went a potato into a +bucket of water. + +Now, as Fancy listlessly noted these proceedings of the dame, she began +to reconsider an old subject that lay uppermost in her heart. Since the +interview between her father and Dick, the days had been melancholy days +for her. Geoffrey's firm opposition to the notion of Dick as a son-in- +law was more than she had expected. She had frequently seen her lover +since that time, it is true, and had loved him more for the opposition +than she would have otherwise dreamt of doing--which was a happiness of a +certain kind. Yet, though love is thus an end in itself, it must be +believed to be the means to another end if it is to assume the rosy hues +of an unalloyed pleasure. And such a belief Fancy and Dick were +emphatically denied just now. + +Elizabeth Endorfield had a repute among women which was in its nature +something between distinction and notoriety. It was founded on the +following items of character. She was shrewd and penetrating; her house +stood in a lonely place; she never went to church; she wore a red cloak; +she always retained her bonnet indoors and she had a pointed chin. Thus +far her attributes were distinctly Satanic; and those who looked no +further called her, in plain terms, a witch. But she was not gaunt, nor +ugly in the upper part of her face, nor particularly strange in manner; +so that, when her more intimate acquaintances spoke of her the term was +softened, and she became simply a Deep Body, who was as long-headed as +she was high. It may be stated that Elizabeth belonged to a class of +suspects who were gradually losing their mysterious characteristics under +the administration of the young vicar; though, during the long reign of +Mr. Grinham, the parish of Mellstock had proved extremely favourable to +the growth of witches. + +While Fancy was revolving all this in her mind, and putting it to herself +whether it was worth while to tell her troubles to Elizabeth, and ask her +advice in getting out of them, the witch spoke. + +"You be down--proper down," she said suddenly, dropping another potato +into the bucket. + +Fancy took no notice. + +"About your young man." + +Fancy reddened. Elizabeth seemed to be watching her thoughts. Really, +one would almost think she must have the powers people ascribed to her. + +"Father not in the humour for't, hey?" Another potato was finished and +flung in. "Ah, I know about it. Little birds tell me things that people +don't dream of my knowing." + +Fancy was desperate about Dick, and here was a chance--O, such a wicked +chance--of getting help; and what was goodness beside love! + +"I wish you'd tell me how to put him in the humour for it?" she said. + +"That I could soon do," said the witch quietly. + +"Really? O, do; anyhow--I don't care--so that it is done! How could I +do it, Mrs. Endorfield?" + +"Nothing so mighty wonderful in it." + +"Well, but how?" + +"By witchery, of course!" said Elizabeth. + +"No!" said Fancy. + +"'Tis, I assure ye. Didn't you ever hear I was a witch?" + +"Well," hesitated Fancy, "I have heard you called so." + +"And you believed it?" + +"I can't say that I did exactly believe it, for 'tis very horrible and +wicked; but, O, how I do wish it was possible for you to be one!" + +"So I am. And I'll tell you how to bewitch your father to let you marry +Dick Dewy." + +"Will it hurt him, poor thing?" + +"Hurt who?" + +"Father." + +"No; the charm is worked by common sense, and the spell can only be broke +by your acting stupidly." + +Fancy looked rather perplexed, and Elizabeth went on: + + "This fear of Lizz--whatever 'tis-- + By great and small; + She makes pretence to common sense, + And that's all. + +"You must do it like this." The witch laid down her knife and potato, +and then poured into Fancy's ear a long and detailed list of directions, +glancing up from the corner of her eye into Fancy's face with an +expression of sinister humour. Fancy's face brightened, clouded, rose +and sank, as the narrative proceeded. "There," said Elizabeth at length, +stooping for the knife and another potato, "do that, and you'll have him +by-long and by-late, my dear." + +"And do it I will!" said Fancy. + +She then turned her attention to the external world once more. The rain +continued as usual, but the wind had abated considerably during the +discourse. Judging that it was now possible to keep an umbrella erect, +she pulled her hood again over her bonnet, bade the witch good-bye, and +went her way. + + + +CHAPTER IV: THE SPELL + + +Mrs. Endorfield's advice was duly followed. + +"I be proper sorry that your daughter isn't so well as she might be," +said a Mellstock man to Geoffrey one morning. + +"But is there anything in it?" said Geoffrey uneasily, as he shifted his +hat to the right. "I can't understand the report. She didn't complain +to me a bit when I saw her." + +"No appetite at all, they say." + +Geoffrey crossed to Mellstock and called at the school that afternoon. +Fancy welcomed him as usual, and asked him to stay and take tea with her. + +"I be'n't much for tea, this time o' day," he said, but stayed. + +During the meal he watched her narrowly. And to his great consternation +discovered the following unprecedented change in the healthy girl--that +she cut herself only a diaphanous slice of bread-and-butter, and, laying +it on her plate, passed the meal-time in breaking it into pieces, but +eating no more than about one-tenth of the slice. Geoffrey hoped she +would say something about Dick, and finish up by weeping, as she had done +after the decision against him a few days subsequent to the interview in +the garden. But nothing was said, and in due time Geoffrey departed +again for Yalbury Wood. + +"'Tis to be hoped poor Miss Fancy will be able to keep on her school," +said Geoffrey's man Enoch to Geoffrey the following week, as they were +shovelling up ant-hills in the wood. + +Geoffrey stuck in the shovel, swept seven or eight ants from his sleeve, +and killed another that was prowling round his ear, then looked +perpendicularly into the earth as usual, waiting for Enoch to say more. +"Well, why shouldn't she?" said the keeper at last. + +"The baker told me yesterday," continued Enoch, shaking out another emmet +that had run merrily up his thigh, "that the bread he've left at that +there school-house this last month would starve any mouse in the three +creations; that 'twould so! And afterwards I had a pint o' small down at +Morrs's, and there I heard more." + +"What might that ha' been?" + +"That she used to have a pound o' the best rolled butter a week, regular +as clockwork, from Dairyman Viney's for herself, as well as just so much +salted for the helping girl, and the 'ooman she calls in; but now the +same quantity d'last her three weeks, and then 'tis thoughted she throws +it away sour." + +"Finish doing the emmets, and carry the bag home-along." The keeper +resumed his gun, tucked it under his arm, and went on without whistling +to the dogs, who however followed, with a bearing meant to imply that +they did not expect any such attentions when their master was reflecting. + +On Saturday morning a note came from Fancy. He was not to trouble about +sending her the couple of rabbits, as was intended, because she feared +she should not want them. Later in the day Geoffrey went to Casterbridge +and called upon the butcher who served Fancy with fresh meat, which was +put down to her father's account. + +"I've called to pay up our little bill, Neighbour Haylock, and you can +gie me the chiel's account at the same time." + +Mr. Haylock turned round three quarters of a circle in the midst of a +heap of joints, altered the expression of his face from meat to money, +went into a little office consisting only of a door and a window, looked +very vigorously into a book which possessed length but no breadth; and +then, seizing a piece of paper and scribbling thereupon, handed the bill. + +Probably it was the first time in the history of commercial transactions +that the quality of shortness in a butcher's bill was a cause of +tribulation to the debtor. "Why, this isn't all she've had in a whole +month!" said Geoffrey. + +"Every mossel," said the butcher--"(now, Dan, take that leg and shoulder +to Mrs. White's, and this eleven pound here to Mr. Martin's)--you've been +treating her to smaller joints lately, to my thinking, Mr. Day?" + +"Only two or three little scram rabbits this last week, as I am alive--I +wish I had!" + +"Well, my wife said to me--(Dan! not too much, not too much on that tray +at a time; better go twice)--my wife said to me as she posted up the +books: she says, 'Miss Day must have been affronted this summer during +that hot muggy weather that spolit so much for us; for depend upon't,' +she says, 'she've been trying John Grimmett unknown to us: see her +account else.' 'Tis little, of course, at the best of times, being only +for one, but now 'tis next kin to nothing." + +"I'll inquire," said Geoffrey despondingly. + +He returned by way of Mellstock, and called upon Fancy, in fulfilment of +a promise. It being Saturday, the children were enjoying a holiday, and +on entering the residence Fancy was nowhere to be seen. Nan, the +charwoman, was sweeping the kitchen. + +"Where's my da'ter?" said the keeper. + +"Well, you see she was tired with the week's teaching, and this morning +she said, 'Nan, I sha'n't get up till the evening.' You see, Mr. Day, if +people don't eat, they can't work; and as she've gie'd up eating, she +must gie up working." + +"Have ye carried up any dinner to her?" + +"No; she don't want any. There, we all know that such things don't come +without good reason--not that I wish to say anything about a broken +heart, or anything of the kind." + +Geoffrey's own heart felt inconveniently large just then. He went to the +staircase and ascended to his daughter's door. + +"Fancy!" + +"Come in, father." + +To see a person in bed from any cause whatever, on a fine afternoon, is +depressing enough; and here was his only child Fancy, not only in bed, +but looking very pale. Geoffrey was visibly disturbed. + +"Fancy, I didn't expect to see thee here, chiel," he said. "What's the +matter?" + +"I'm not well, father." + +"How's that?" + +"Because I think of things." + +"What things can you have to think o' so mortal much?" + +"You know, father." + +"You think I've been cruel to thee in saying that that penniless Dick o' +thine sha'n't marry thee, I suppose?" + +No answer. + +"Well, you know, Fancy, I do it for the best, and he isn't good enough +for thee. You know that well enough." Here he again looked at her as +she lay. "Well, Fancy, I can't let my only chiel die; and if you can't +live without en, you must ha' en, I suppose." + +"O, I don't want him like that; all against your will, and everything so +disobedient!" sighed the invalid. + +"No, no, 'tisn't against my will. My wish is, now I d'see how 'tis +hurten thee to live without en, that he shall marry thee as soon as we've +considered a little. That's my wish flat and plain, Fancy. There, never +cry, my little maid! You ought to ha' cried afore; no need o' crying now +'tis all over. Well, howsoever, try to step over and see me and mother- +law to-morrow, and ha' a bit of dinner wi' us." + +"And--Dick too?" + +"Ay, Dick too, 'far's I know." + +"And when do you think you'll have considered, father, and he may marry +me?" she coaxed. + +"Well, there, say next Midsummer; that's not a day too long to wait." + +On leaving the school Geoffrey went to the tranter's. Old William opened +the door. + +"Is your grandson Dick in 'ithin, William?" + +"No, not just now, Mr. Day. Though he've been at home a good deal +lately." + +"O, how's that?" + +"What wi' one thing, and what wi' t'other, he's all in a mope, as might +be said. Don't seem the feller he used to. Ay, 'a will sit studding and +thinking as if 'a were going to turn chapel-member, and then do nothing +but traypse and wamble about. Used to be such a chatty boy, too, Dick +did; and now 'a don't speak at all. But won't ye step inside? Reuben +will be home soon, 'a b'lieve." + +"No, thank you, I can't stay now. Will ye just ask Dick if he'll do me +the kindness to step over to Yalbury to-morrow with my da'ter Fancy, if +she's well enough? I don't like her to come by herself, now she's not so +terrible topping in health." + +"So I've heard. Ay, sure, I'll tell him without fail." + + + +CHAPTER V: AFTER GAINING HER POINT + + +The visit to Geoffrey passed off as delightfully as a visit might have +been expected to pass off when it was the first day of smooth experience +in a hitherto obstructed love-course. And then came a series of several +happy days, of the same undisturbed serenity. Dick could court her when +he chose; stay away when he chose,--which was never; walk with her by +winding streams and waterfalls and autumn scenery till dews and twilight +sent them home. And thus they drew near the day of the Harvest +Thanksgiving, which was also the time chosen for opening the organ in +Mellstock Church. + +It chanced that Dick on that very day was called away from Mellstock. A +young acquaintance had died of consumption at Charmley, a neighbouring +village, on the previous Monday, and Dick, in fulfilment of a +long-standing promise, was to assist in carrying him to the grave. When +on Tuesday, Dick went towards the school to acquaint Fancy with the fact, +it is difficult to say whether his own disappointment at being denied the +sight of her triumphant debut as organist, was greater than his vexation +that his pet should on this great occasion be deprived of the pleasure of +his presence. However, the intelligence was communicated. She bore it +as she best could, not without many expressions of regret, and +convictions that her performance would be nothing to her now. + +Just before eleven o'clock on Sunday he set out upon his sad errand. The +funeral was to be immediately after the morning service, and as there +were four good miles to walk, driving being inconvenient, it became +necessary to start comparatively early. Half an hour later would +certainly have answered his purpose quite as well, yet at the last moment +nothing would content his ardent mind but that he must go a mile out of +his way in the direction of the school, in the hope of getting a glimpse +of his Love as she started for church. + +Striking, therefore, into the lane towards the school, instead of across +the ewelease direct to Charmley, he arrived opposite her door as his +goddess emerged. + +If ever a woman looked a divinity, Fancy Day appeared one that morning as +she floated down those school steps, in the form of a nebulous collection +of colours inclining to blue. With an audacity unparalleled in the whole +history of village-school-mistresses at this date--partly owing, no +doubt, to papa's respectable accumulation of cash, which rendered her +profession not altogether one of necessity--she had actually donned a hat +and feather, and lowered her hitherto plainly looped-up hair, which now +fell about her shoulders in a profusion of curls. Poor Dick was +astonished: he had never seen her look so distractingly beautiful before, +save on Christmas-eve, when her hair was in the same luxuriant condition +of freedom. But his first burst of delighted surprise was followed by +less comfortable feelings, as soon as his brain recovered its power to +think. + +Fancy had blushed;--was it with confusion? She had also involuntarily +pressed back her curls. She had not expected him. + +"Fancy, you didn't know me for a moment in my funeral clothes, did you?" + +"Good-morning, Dick--no, really, I didn't know you for an instant in such +a sad suit." + +He looked again at the gay tresses and hat. "You've never dressed so +charming before, dearest." + +"I like to hear you praise me in that way, Dick," she said, smiling +archly. "It is meat and drink to a woman. Do I look nice really?" + +"Fie! you know it. Did you remember,--I mean didn't you remember about +my going away to-day?" + +"Well, yes, I did, Dick; but, you know, I wanted to look well;--forgive +me." + +"Yes, darling; yes, of course,--there's nothing to forgive. No, I was +only thinking that when we talked on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday +and Friday about my absence to-day, and I was so sorry for it, you said, +Fancy, so were you sorry, and almost cried, and said it would be no +pleasure to you to be the attraction of the church to-day, since I could +not be there." + +"My dear one, neither will it be so much pleasure to me . . . But I do +take a little delight in my life, I suppose," she pouted. + +"Apart from mine?" + +She looked at him with perplexed eyes. "I know you are vexed with me, +Dick, and it is because the first Sunday I have curls and a hat and +feather since I have been here happens to be the very day you are away +and won't be with me. Yes, say it is, for that is it! And you think +that all this week I ought to have remembered you wouldn't be here to- +day, and not have cared to be better dressed than usual. Yes, you do, +Dick, and it is rather unkind!" + +"No, no," said Dick earnestly and simply, "I didn't think so badly of you +as that. I only thought that--if you had been going away, I shouldn't +have tried new attractions for the eyes of other people. But then of +course you and I are different, naturally." + +"Well, perhaps we are." + +"Whatever will the vicar say, Fancy?" + +"I don't fear what he says in the least!" she answered proudly. "But he +won't say anything of the sort you think. No, no." + +"He can hardly have conscience to, indeed." + +"Now come, you say, Dick, that you quite forgive me, for I must go," she +said with sudden gaiety, and skipped backwards into the porch. "Come +here, sir;--say you forgive me, and then you shall kiss me;--you never +have yet when I have worn curls, you know. Yes, just where you want to +so much,--yes, you may!" + +Dick followed her into the inner corner, where he was probably not slow +in availing himself of the privilege offered. + +"Now that's a treat for you, isn't it?" she continued. "Good-bye, or I +shall be late. Come and see me to-morrow: you'll be tired to-night." + +Thus they parted, and Fancy proceeded to the church. The organ stood on +one side of the chancel, close to and under the immediate eye of the +vicar when he was in the pulpit, and also in full view of the +congregation. Here she sat down, for the first time in such a +conspicuous position, her seat having previously been in a remote spot in +the aisle. + +"Good heavens--disgraceful! Curls and a hat and feather!" said the +daughters of the small gentry, who had either only curly hair without a +hat and feather, or a hat and feather without curly hair. "A bonnet for +church always," said sober matrons. + +That Mr. Maybold was conscious of her presence close beside him during +the sermon; that he was not at all angry at her development of costume; +that he admired her, she perceived. But she did not see that he loved +her during that sermon-time as he had never loved a woman before; that +her proximity was a strange delight to him; and that he gloried in her +musical success that morning in a spirit quite beyond a mere cleric's +glory at the inauguration of a new order of things. + +The old choir, with humbled hearts, no longer took their seats in the +gallery as heretofore (which was now given up to the school-children who +were not singers, and a pupil-teacher), but were scattered about with +their wives in different parts of the church. Having nothing to do with +conducting the service for almost the first time in their lives, they all +felt awkward, out of place, abashed, and inconvenienced by their hands. +The tranter had proposed that they should stay away to-day and go +nutting, but grandfather William would not hear of such a thing for a +moment. "No," he replied reproachfully, and quoted a verse: "Though this +has come upon us, let not our hearts be turned back, or our steps go out +of the way." + +So they stood and watched the curls of hair trailing down the back of the +successful rival, and the waving of her feather, as she swayed her head. +After a few timid notes and uncertain touches her playing became markedly +correct, and towards the end full and free. But, whether from prejudice +or unbiassed judgment, the venerable body of musicians could not help +thinking that the simpler notes they had been wont to bring forth were +more in keeping with the simplicity of their old church than the crowded +chords and interludes it was her pleasure to produce. + + + +CHAPTER VI: INTO TEMPTATION + + +The day was done, and Fancy was again in the school-house. About five +o'clock it began to rain, and in rather a dull frame of mind she wandered +into the schoolroom, for want of something better to do. She was +thinking--of her lover Dick Dewy? Not precisely. Of how weary she was +of living alone: how unbearable it would be to return to Yalbury under +the rule of her strange-tempered step-mother; that it was far better to +be married to anybody than do that; that eight or nine long months had +yet to be lived through ere the wedding could take place. + +At the side of the room were high windows of Ham-hill stone, upon either +sill of which she could sit by first mounting a desk and using it as a +footstool. As the evening advanced here she perched herself, as was her +custom on such wet and gloomy occasions, put on a light shawl and bonnet, +opened the window, and looked out at the rain. + +The window overlooked a field called the Grove, and it was the position +from which she used to survey the crown of Dick's passing hat in the +early days of their acquaintance and meetings. Not a living soul was now +visible anywhere; the rain kept all people indoors who were not forced +abroad by necessity, and necessity was less importunate on Sundays than +during the week. + +Sitting here and thinking again--of her lover, or of the sensation she +had created at church that day?--well, it is unknown--thinking and +thinking she saw a dark masculine figure arising into distinctness at the +further end of the Grove--a man without an umbrella. Nearer and nearer +he came, and she perceived that he was in deep mourning, and then that it +was Dick. Yes, in the fondness and foolishness of his young heart, after +walking four miles, in a drizzling rain without overcoat or umbrella, and +in face of a remark from his love that he was not to come because he +would be tired, he had made it his business to wander this mile out of +his way again, from sheer wish of spending ten minutes in her presence. + +"O Dick, how wet you are!" she said, as he drew up under the window. +"Why, your coat shines as if it had been varnished, and your hat--my +goodness, there's a streaming hat!" + +"O, I don't mind, darling!" said Dick cheerfully. "Wet never hurts me, +though I am rather sorry for my best clothes. However, it couldn't be +helped; we lent all the umbrellas to the women. I don't know when I +shall get mine back!" + +"And look, there's a nasty patch of something just on your shoulder." + +"Ah, that's japanning; it rubbed off the clamps of poor Jack's coffin +when we lowered him from our shoulders upon the bier! I don't care about +that, for 'twas the last deed I could do for him; and 'tis hard if you +can't afford a coat for an old friend." + +Fancy put her hand to her mouth for half a minute. Underneath the palm +of that little hand there existed for that half-minute a little yawn. + +"Dick, I don't like you to stand there in the wet. And you mustn't sit +down. Go home and change your things. Don't stay another minute." + +"One kiss after coming so far," he pleaded. + +"If I can reach, then." + +He looked rather disappointed at not being invited round to the door. She +twisted from her seated position and bent herself downwards, but not even +by standing on the plinth was it possible for Dick to get his lips into +contact with hers as she held them. By great exertion she might have +reached a little lower; but then she would have exposed her head to the +rain. + +"Never mind, Dick; kiss my hand," she said, flinging it down to him. +"Now, good-bye." + +"Good-bye." + +He walked slowly away, turning and turning again to look at her till he +was out of sight. During the retreat she said to herself, almost +involuntarily, and still conscious of that morning's triumph--"I like +Dick, and I love him; but how plain and sorry a man looks in the rain, +with no umbrella, and wet through!" + +As he vanished, she made as if to descend from her seat; but glancing in +the other direction she saw another form coming along the same track. It +was also that of a man. He, too, was in black from top to toe; but he +carried an umbrella. + +He drew nearer, and the direction of the rain caused him so to slant his +umbrella that from her height above the ground his head was invisible, as +she was also to him. He passed in due time directly beneath her, and in +looking down upon the exterior of his umbrella her feminine eyes +perceived it to be of superior silk--less common at that date than +since--and of elegant make. He reached the entrance to the building, and +Fancy suddenly lost sight of him. Instead of pursuing the roadway as +Dick had done he had turned sharply round into her own porch. + +She jumped to the floor, hastily flung off her shawl and bonnet, smoothed +and patted her hair till the curls hung in passable condition, and +listened. No knock. Nearly a minute passed, and still there was no +knock. Then there arose a soft series of raps, no louder than the +tapping of a distant woodpecker, and barely distinct enough to reach her +ears. She composed herself and flung open the door. + +In the porch stood Mr. Maybold. + +There was a warm flush upon his face, and a bright flash in his eyes, +which made him look handsomer than she had ever seen him before. + +"Good-evening, Miss Day." + +"Good-evening, Mr. Maybold," she said, in a strange state of mind. She +had noticed, beyond the ardent hue of his face, that his voice had a +singular tremor in it, and that his hand shook like an aspen leaf when he +laid his umbrella in the corner of the porch. Without another word being +spoken by either, he came into the schoolroom, shut the door, and moved +close to her. Once inside, the expression of his face was no more +discernible, by reason of the increasing dusk of evening. + +"I want to speak to you," he then said; "seriously--on a perhaps +unexpected subject, but one which is all the world to me--I don't know +what it may be to you, Miss Day." + +No reply. + +"Fancy, I have come to ask you if you will be my wife?" + +As a person who has been idly amusing himself with rolling a snowball +might start at finding he had set in motion an avalanche, so did Fancy +start at these words from the vicar. And in the dead silence which +followed them, the breathings of the man and of the woman could be +distinctly and separately heard; and there was this difference between +them--his respirations gradually grew quieter and less rapid after the +enunciation, hers, from having been low and regular, increased in +quickness and force, till she almost panted. + +"I cannot, I cannot, Mr. Maybold--I cannot! Don't ask me!" she said. + +"Don't answer in a hurry!" he entreated. "And do listen to me. This is +no sudden feeling on my part. I have loved you for more than six months! +Perhaps my late interest in teaching the children here has not been so +single-minded as it seemed. You will understand my motive--like me +better, perhaps, for honestly telling you that I have struggled against +my emotion continually, because I have thought that it was not well for +me to love you! But I resolved to struggle no longer; I have examined +the feeling; and the love I bear you is as genuine as that I could bear +any woman! I see your great charm; I respect your natural talents, and +the refinement they have brought into your nature--they are quite enough, +and more than enough for me! They are equal to anything ever required of +the mistress of a quiet parsonage-house--the place in which I shall pass +my days, wherever it may be situated. O Fancy, I have watched you, +criticized you even severely, brought my feelings to the light of +judgment, and still have found them rational, and such as any man might +have expected to be inspired with by a woman like you! So there is +nothing hurried, secret, or untoward in my desire to do this. Fancy, +will you marry me?" + +No answer was returned. + +"Don't refuse; don't," he implored. "It would be foolish of you--I mean +cruel! Of course we would not live here, Fancy. I have had for a long +time the offer of an exchange of livings with a friend in Yorkshire, but +I have hitherto refused on account of my mother. There we would go. Your +musical powers shall be still further developed; you shall have whatever +pianoforte you like; you shall have anything, Fancy, anything to make you +happy--pony-carriage, flowers, birds, pleasant society; yes, you have +enough in you for any society, after a few months of travel with me! Will +you, Fancy, marry me?" + +Another pause ensued, varied only by the surging of the rain against the +window-panes, and then Fancy spoke, in a faint and broken voice. + +"Yes, I will," she said. + +"God bless you, my own!" He advanced quickly, and put his arm out to +embrace her. She drew back hastily. "No no, not now!" she said in an +agitated whisper. "There are things;--but the temptation is, O, too +strong, and I can't resist it; I can't tell you now, but I must tell you! +Don't, please, don't come near me now! I want to think, I can scarcely +get myself used to the idea of what I have promised yet." The next +minute she turned to a desk, buried her face in her hands, and burst into +a hysterical fit of weeping. "O, leave me to myself!" she sobbed; "leave +me! O, leave me!" + +"Don't be distressed; don't, dearest!" It was with visible difficulty +that he restrained himself from approaching her. "You shall tell me at +your leisure what it is that grieves you so; I am happy--beyond all +measure happy!--at having your simple promise." + +"And do go and leave me now!" + +"But I must not, in justice to you, leave for a minute, until you are +yourself again." + +"There then," she said, controlling her emotion, and standing up; "I am +not disturbed now." + +He reluctantly moved towards the door. "Good-bye!" he murmured tenderly. +"I'll come to-morrow about this time." + + + +CHAPTER VII: SECOND THOUGHTS + + +The next morning the vicar rose early. The first thing he did was to +write a long and careful letter to his friend in Yorkshire. Then, eating +a little breakfast, he crossed the meadows in the direction of +Casterbridge, bearing his letter in his pocket, that he might post it at +the town office, and obviate the loss of one day in its transmission that +would have resulted had he left it for the foot-post through the village. + +It was a foggy morning, and the trees shed in noisy water-drops the +moisture they had collected from the thick air, an acorn occasionally +falling from its cup to the ground, in company with the drippings. In +the meads, sheets of spiders'-web, almost opaque with wet, hung in folds +over the fences, and the falling leaves appeared in every variety of +brown, green, and yellow hue. + +A low and merry whistling was heard on the highway he was approaching, +then the light footsteps of a man going in the same direction as himself. +On reaching the junction of his path with the road, the vicar beheld Dick +Dewy's open and cheerful face. Dick lifted his hat, and the vicar came +out into the highway that Dick was pursuing. + +"Good-morning, Dewy. How well you are looking!" said Mr. Maybold. + +"Yes, sir, I am well--quite well! I am going to Casterbridge now, to get +Smart's collar; we left it there Saturday to be repaired." + +"I am going to Casterbridge, so we'll walk together," the vicar said. +Dick gave a hop with one foot to put himself in step with Mr. Maybold, +who proceeded: "I fancy I didn't see you at church yesterday, Dewy. Or +were you behind the pier?" + +"No; I went to Charmley. Poor John Dunford chose me to be one of his +bearers a long time before he died, and yesterday was the funeral. Of +course I couldn't refuse, though I should have liked particularly to have +been at home as 'twas the day of the new music." + +"Yes, you should have been. The musical portion of the service was +successful--very successful indeed; and what is more to the purpose, no +ill-feeling whatever was evinced by any of the members of the old choir. +They joined in the singing with the greatest good-will." + +"'Twas natural enough that I should want to be there, I suppose," said +Dick, smiling a private smile; "considering who the organ-player was." + +At this the vicar reddened a little, and said, "Yes, yes," though not at +all comprehending Dick's true meaning, who, as he received no further +reply, continued hesitatingly, and with another smile denoting his pride +as a lover-- + +"I suppose you know what I mean, sir? You've heard about me and--Miss +Day?" + +The red in Maybold's countenance went away: he turned and looked Dick in +the face. + +"No," he said constrainedly, "I've heard nothing whatever about you and +Miss Day." + +"Why, she's my sweetheart, and we are going to be married next Midsummer. +We are keeping it rather close just at present, because 'tis a good many +months to wait; but it is her father's wish that we don't marry before, +and of course we must submit. But the time 'ill soon slip along." + +"Yes, the time will soon slip along--Time glides away every day--yes." + +Maybold said these words, but he had no idea of what they were. He was +conscious of a cold and sickly thrill throughout him; and all he reasoned +was this that the young creature whose graces had intoxicated him into +making the most imprudent resolution of his life, was less an angel than +a woman. + +"You see, sir," continued the ingenuous Dick, "'twill be better in one +sense. I shall by that time be the regular manager of a branch o' +father's business, which has very much increased lately, and business, +which we think of starting elsewhere. It has very much increased lately, +and we expect next year to keep a' extra couple of horses. We've already +our eye on one--brown as a berry, neck like a rainbow, fifteen hands, and +not a gray hair in her--offered us at twenty-five want a crown. And to +kip pace with the times I have had some cards prented and I beg leave to +hand you one, sir." + +"Certainly," said the vicar, mechanically taking the card that Dick +offered him. + +"I turn in here by Grey's Bridge," said Dick. "I suppose you go straight +on and up town?" + +"Yes." + +"Good-morning, sir." + +"Good-morning, Dewy." + +Maybold stood still upon the bridge, holding the card as it had been put +into his hand, and Dick's footsteps died away towards Durnover Mill. The +vicar's first voluntary action was to read the card:-- + + DEWY AND SON, + TRANTERS AND HAULIERS, + MELLSTOCK. + NB.--Furniture, Coals, Potatoes, Live and Dead Stock, removed to any + distance on the shortest notice. + +Mr. Maybold leant over the parapet of the bridge and looked into the +river. He saw--without heeding--how the water came rapidly from beneath +the arches, glided down a little steep, then spread itself over a pool in +which dace, trout, and minnows sported at ease among the long green locks +of weed that lay heaving and sinking with their roots towards the +current. At the end of ten minutes spent leaning thus, he drew from his +pocket the letter to his friend, tore it deliberately into such minute +fragments that scarcely two syllables remained in juxtaposition, and sent +the whole handful of shreds fluttering into the water. Here he watched +them eddy, dart, and turn, as they were carried downwards towards the +ocean and gradually disappeared from his view. Finally he moved off, and +pursued his way at a rapid pace back again to Mellstock Vicarage. + +Nerving himself by a long and intense effort, he sat down in his study +and wrote as follows: + + "DEAR MISS DAY,--The meaning of your words, 'the temptation is too + strong,' of your sadness and your tears, has been brought home to me + by an accident. I know to-day what I did not know yesterday--that you + are not a free woman. + + "Why did you not tell me--why didn't you? Did you suppose I knew? No. + Had I known, my conduct in coming to you as I did would have been + reprehensible. + + "But I don't chide you! Perhaps no blame attaches to you--I can't + tell. Fancy, though my opinion of you is assailed and disturbed in a + way which cannot be expressed, I love you still, and my word to you + holds good yet. But will you, in justice to an honest man who relies + upon your word to him, consider whether, under the circumstances, you + can honourably forsake him?--Yours ever sincerely, + + "ARTHUR MAYBOLD." + +He rang the bell. "Tell Charles to take these copybooks and this note to +the school at once." + +The maid took the parcel and the letter, and in a few minutes a boy was +seen to leave the vicarage gate, with the one under his arm, and the +other in his hand. The vicar sat with his hand to his brow, watching the +lad as he descended Church Lane and entered the waterside path which +intervened between that spot and the school. + +Here he was met by another boy, and after a free salutation and +pugilistic frisk had passed between the two, the second boy came on his +way to the vicarage, and the other vanished out of sight. + +The boy came to the door, and a note for Mr. Maybold was brought in. + +He knew the writing. Opening the envelope with an unsteady hand, he read +the subjoined words: + + "DEAR MR. MAYBOLD,--I have been thinking seriously and sadly through + the whole of the night of the question you put to me last evening and + of my answer. That answer, as an honest woman, I had no right to + give. + + "It is my nature--perhaps all women's--to love refinement of mind and + manners; but even more than this, to be ever fascinated with the idea + of surroundings more elegant and pleasing than those which have been + customary. And you praised me, and praise is life to me. It was + alone my sensations at these things which prompted my reply. Ambition + and vanity they would be called; perhaps they are so. + + "After this explanation I hope you will generously allow me to + withdraw the answer I too hastily gave. + + "And one more request. To keep the meeting of last night, and all + that passed between us there, for ever a secret. Were it to become + known, it would utterly blight the happiness of a trusting and + generous man, whom I love still, and shall love always.--Yours + sincerely, + + "FANCY DAY. + +The last written communication that ever passed from the vicar to Fancy, +was a note containing these words only: + + "Tell him everything; it is best. He will forgive you." + + + + +PART THE FIFTH: CONCLUSION + + +CHAPTER I: 'THE KNOT THERE'S NO UNTYING' + + +The last day of the story is dated just subsequent to that point in the +development of the seasons when country people go to bed among nearly +naked trees, are lulled to sleep by a fall of rain, and awake next +morning among green ones; when the landscape appears embarrassed with the +sudden weight and brilliancy of its leaves; when the night-jar comes and +strikes up for the summer his tune of one note; when the apple-trees have +bloomed, and the roads and orchard-grass become spotted with fallen +petals; when the faces of the delicate flowers are darkened, and their +heads weighed down, by the throng of honey-bees, which increase their +humming till humming is too mild a term for the all-pervading sound; and +when cuckoos, blackbirds, and sparrows, that have hitherto been merry and +respectful neighbours, become noisy and persistent intimates. + +The exterior of Geoffrey Day's house in Yalbury Wood appeared exactly as +was usual at that season, but a frantic barking of the dogs at the back +told of unwonted movements somewhere within. Inside the door the eyes +beheld a gathering, which was a rarity indeed for the dwelling of the +solitary wood-steward and keeper. + +About the room were sitting and standing, in various gnarled attitudes, +our old acquaintance, grandfathers James and William, the tranter, Mr. +Penny, two or three children, including Jimmy and Charley, besides three +or four country ladies and gentlemen from a greater distance who do not +require any distinction by name. Geoffrey was seen and heard stamping +about the outhouse and among the bushes of the garden, attending to +details of daily routine before the proper time arrived for their +performance, in order that they might be off his hands for the day. He +appeared with his shirt-sleeves rolled up; his best new nether garments, +in which he had arrayed himself that morning, being temporarily disguised +under a weekday apron whilst these proceedings were in operation. He +occasionally glanced at the hives in passing, to see if his wife's bees +were swarming, ultimately rolling down his shirt-sleeves and going +indoors, talking to tranter Dewy whilst buttoning the wristbands, to save +time; next going upstairs for his best waistcoat, and coming down again +to make another remark whilst buttoning that, during the time looking +fixedly in the tranter's face as if he were a looking-glass. + +The furniture had undergone attenuation to an alarming extent, every +duplicate piece having been removed, including the clock by Thomas Wood; +Ezekiel Saunders being at last left sole referee in matters of time. + +Fancy was stationary upstairs, receiving her layers of clothes and +adornments, and answering by short fragments of laughter which had more +fidgetiness than mirth in them, remarks that were made from time to time +by Mrs. Dewy and Mrs. Penny, who were assisting her at the toilet, Mrs. +Day having pleaded a queerness in her head as a reason for shutting +herself up in an inner bedroom for the whole morning. Mrs. Penny +appeared with nine corkscrew curls on each side of her temples, and a +back comb stuck upon her crown like a castle on a steep. + +The conversation just now going on was concerning the banns, the last +publication of which had been on the Sunday previous. + +"And how did they sound?" Fancy subtly inquired. + +"Very beautiful indeed," said Mrs. Penny. "I never heard any sound +better." + +"But how?" + +"O, so natural and elegant, didn't they, Reuben!" she cried, through the +chinks of the unceiled floor, to the tranter downstairs. + +"What's that?" said the tranter, looking up inquiringly at the floor +above him for an answer. + +"Didn't Dick and Fancy sound well when they were called home in church +last Sunday?" came downwards again in Mrs. Penny's voice. + +"Ay, that they did, my sonnies!--especially the first time. There was a +terrible whispering piece of work in the congregation, wasn't there, +neighbour Penny?" said the tranter, taking up the thread of conversation +on his own account and, in order to be heard in the room above, speaking +very loud to Mr. Penny, who sat at the distance of three feet from him, +or rather less. + +"I never can mind seeing such a whispering as there was," said Mr. Penny, +also loudly, to the room above. "And such sorrowful envy on the maidens' +faces; really, I never did see such envy as there was!" + +Fancy's lineaments varied in innumerable little flushes, and her heart +palpitated innumerable little tremors of pleasure. "But perhaps," she +said, with assumed indifference, "it was only because no religion was +going on just then?" + +"O, no; nothing to do with that. 'Twas because of your high standing in +the parish. It was just as if they had one and all caught Dick kissing +and coling ye to death, wasn't it, Mrs. Dewy?" + +"Ay; that 'twas." + +"How people will talk about one's doings!" Fancy exclaimed. + +"Well, if you make songs about yourself, my dear, you can't blame other +people for singing 'em." + +"Mercy me! how shall I go through it?" said the young lady again, but +merely to those in the bedroom, with a breathing of a kind between a sigh +and a pant, round shining eyes, and warm face. + +"O, you'll get through it well enough, child," said Mrs. Dewy placidly. +"The edge of the performance is took off at the calling home; and when +once you get up to the chancel end o' the church, you feel as saucy as +you please. I'm sure I felt as brave as a sodger all through the +deed--though of course I dropped my face and looked modest, as was +becoming to a maid. Mind you do that, Fancy." + +"And I walked into the church as quiet as a lamb, I'm sure," subjoined +Mrs. Penny. "There, you see Penny is such a little small man. But +certainly, I was flurried in the inside o' me. Well, thinks I, 'tis to +be, and here goes! And do you do the same: say, ''Tis to be, and here +goes!'" + +"Is there such wonderful virtue in ''Tis to be, and here goes!'" inquired +Fancy. + +"Wonderful! 'Twill carry a body through it all from wedding to +churching, if you only let it out with spirit enough." + +"Very well, then," said Fancy, blushing. "'Tis to be, and here goes!" + +"That's a girl for a husband!" said Mrs. Dewy. + +"I do hope he'll come in time!" continued the bride-elect, inventing a +new cause of affright, now that the other was demolished. + +"'Twould be a thousand pities if he didn't come, now you be so brave," +said Mrs. Penny. + +Grandfather James, having overheard some of these remarks, said +downstairs with mischievous loudness-- + +"I've known some would-be weddings when the men didn't come." + +"They've happened not to come, before now, certainly," said Mr. Penny, +cleaning one of the glasses of his spectacles. + +"O, do hear what they are saying downstairs," whispered Fancy. "Hush, +hush!" + +She listened. + +"They have, haven't they, Geoffrey?" continued grandfather James, as +Geoffrey entered. + +"Have what?" said Geoffrey. + +"The men have been known not to come." + +"That they have," said the keeper. + +"Ay; I've knowed times when the wedding had to be put off through his not +appearing, being tired of the woman. And another case I knowed was when +the man was catched in a man-trap crossing Oaker's Wood, and the three +months had run out before he got well, and the banns had to be published +over again." + +"How horrible!" said Fancy. + +"They only say it on purpose to tease 'ee, my dear," said Mrs. Dewy. + +"'Tis quite sad to think what wretched shifts poor maids have been put +to," came again from downstairs. "Ye should hear Clerk Wilkins, my +brother-law, tell his experiences in marrying couples these last thirty +year: sometimes one thing, sometimes another--'tis quite +heart-rending--enough to make your hair stand on end." + +"Those things don't happen very often, I know," said Fancy, with +smouldering uneasiness. + +"Well, really 'tis time Dick was here," said the tranter. + +"Don't keep on at me so, grandfather James and Mr. Dewy, and all you down +there!" Fancy broke out, unable to endure any longer. "I am sure I shall +die, or do something, if you do!" + +"Never you hearken to these old chaps, Miss Day!" cried Nat Callcome, the +best man, who had just entered, and threw his voice upward through the +chinks of the floor as the others had done. "'Tis all right; Dick's +coming on like a wild feller; he'll be here in a minute. The hive o' +bees his mother gie'd en for his new garden swarmed jist as he was +starting, and he said, 'I can't afford to lose a stock o' bees; no, that +I can't, though I fain would; and Fancy wouldn't wish it on any account.' +So he jist stopped to ting to 'em and shake 'em." + +"A genuine wise man," said Geoffrey. + +"To be sure, what a day's work we had yesterday!" Mr. Callcome continued, +lowering his voice as if it were not necessary any longer to include +those in the room above among his audience, and selecting a remote corner +of his best clean handkerchief for wiping his face. "To be sure!" + +"Things so heavy, I suppose," said Geoffrey, as if reading through the +chimney-window from the far end of the vista. + +"Ay," said Nat, looking round the room at points from which furniture had +been removed. "And so awkward to carry, too. 'Twas ath'art and across +Dick's garden; in and out Dick's door; up and down Dick's stairs; round +and round Dick's chammers till legs were worn to stumps: and Dick is so +particular, too. And the stores of victuals and drink that lad has laid +in: why, 'tis enough for Noah's ark! I'm sure I never wish to see a +choicer half-dozen of hams than he's got there in his chimley; and the +cider I tasted was a very pretty drop, indeed;--none could desire a +prettier cider." + +"They be for the love and the stalled ox both. Ah, the greedy martels!" +said grandfather James. + +"Well, may-be they be. Surely," says I, "that couple between 'em have +heaped up so much furniture and victuals, that anybody would think they +were going to take hold the big end of married life first, and begin wi' +a grown-up family. Ah, what a bath of heat we two chaps were in, to be +sure, a-getting that furniture in order!" + +"I do so wish the room below was ceiled," said Fancy, as the dressing +went on; "we can hear all they say and do down there." + +"Hark! Who's that?" exclaimed a small pupil-teacher, who also assisted +this morning, to her great delight. She ran half-way down the stairs, +and peeped round the banister. "O, you should, you should, you should!" +she exclaimed, scrambling up to the room again. + +"What?" said Fancy. + +"See the bridesmaids! They've just a come! 'Tis wonderful, really! 'tis +wonderful how muslin can be brought to it. There, they don't look a bit +like themselves, but like some very rich sisters o' theirs that nobody +knew they had!" + +"Make 'em come up to me, make 'em come up!" cried Fancy ecstatically; and +the four damsels appointed, namely, Miss Susan Dewy, Miss Bessie Dewy, +Miss Vashti Sniff, and Miss Mercy Onmey, surged upstairs, and floated +along the passage. + +"I wish Dick would come!" was again the burden of Fancy. + +The same instant a small twig and flower from the creeper outside the +door flew in at the open window, and a masculine voice said, "Ready, +Fancy dearest?" + +"There he is, he is!" cried Fancy, tittering spasmodically, and breathing +as it were for the first time that morning. + +The bridesmaids crowded to the window and turned their heads in the +direction pointed out, at which motion eight earrings all swung as +one:--not looking at Dick because they particularly wanted to see him, +but with an important sense of their duty as obedient ministers of the +will of that apotheosised being--the Bride. + +"He looks very taking!" said Miss Vashti Sniff, a young lady who blushed +cream-colour and wore yellow bonnet ribbons. + +Dick was advancing to the door in a painfully new coat of shining cloth, +primrose-coloured waistcoat, hat of the same painful style of newness, +and with an extra quantity of whiskers shaved off his face, and hair cut +to an unwonted shortness in honour of the occasion. + +"Now, I'll run down," said Fancy, looking at herself over her shoulder in +the glass, and flitting off. + +"O Dick!" she exclaimed, "I am so glad you are come! I knew you would, +of course, but I thought, Oh if you shouldn't!" + +"Not come, Fancy! Het or wet, blow or snow, here come I to-day! Why, +what's possessing your little soul? You never used to mind such things a +bit." + +"Ah, Mr. Dick, I hadn't hoisted my colours and committed myself then!" +said Fancy. + +"'Tis a pity I can't marry the whole five of ye!" said Dick, surveying +them all round. + +"Heh-heh-heh!" laughed the four bridesmaids, and Fancy privately touched +Dick and smoothed him down behind his shoulder, as if to assure herself +that he was there in flesh and blood as her own property. + +"Well, whoever would have thought such a thing?" said Dick, taking off +his hat, sinking into a chair, and turning to the elder members of the +company. + +The latter arranged their eyes and lips to signify that in their opinion +nobody could have thought such a thing, whatever it was. + +"That my bees should ha' swarmed just then, of all times and seasons!" +continued Dick, throwing a comprehensive glance like a net over the whole +auditory. "And 'tis a fine swarm, too: I haven't seen such a fine swarm +for these ten years." + +"A' excellent sign," said Mrs. Penny, from the depths of experience. "A' +excellent sign." + +"I am glad everything seems so right," said Fancy with a breath of +relief. + +"And so am I," said the four bridesmaids with much sympathy. + +"Well, bees can't be put off," observed the inharmonious grandfather +James. "Marrying a woman is a thing you can do at any moment; but a +swarm o' bees won't come for the asking." + +Dick fanned himself with his hat. "I can't think," he said thoughtfully, +"whatever 'twas I did to offend Mr. Maybold, a man I like so much too. He +rather took to me when he came first, and used to say he should like to +see me married, and that he'd marry me, whether the young woman I chose +lived in his parish or no. I just hinted to him of it when I put in the +banns, but he didn't seem to take kindly to the notion now, and so I said +no more. I wonder how it was." + +"I wonder!" said Fancy, looking into vacancy with those beautiful eyes of +hers--too refined and beautiful for a tranter's wife; but, perhaps, not +too good. + +"Altered his mind, as folks will, I suppose," said the tranter. "Well, +my sonnies, there'll be a good strong party looking at us to-day as we go +along." + +"And the body of the church," said Geoffrey, "will be lined with females, +and a row of young fellers' heads, as far down as the eyes, will be +noticed just above the sills of the chancel-winders." + +"Ay, you've been through it twice," said Reuben, "and well mid know." + +"I can put up with it for once," said Dick, "or twice either, or a dozen +times." + +"O Dick!" said Fancy reproachfully. + +"Why, dear, that's nothing,--only just a bit of a flourish. You be as +nervous as a cat to-day." + +"And then, of course, when 'tis all over," continued the tranter, "we +shall march two and two round the parish." + +"Yes, sure," said Mr. Penny: "two and two: every man hitched up to his +woman, 'a b'lieve." + +"I never can make a show of myself in that way!" said Fancy, looking at +Dick to ascertain if he could. + +"I'm agreed to anything you and the company like, my dear!" said Mr. +Richard Dewy heartily. + +"Why, we did when we were married, didn't we, Ann?" said the tranter; +"and so do everybody, my sonnies." + +"And so did we," said Fancy's father. + +"And so did Penny and I," said Mrs. Penny: "I wore my best Bath clogs, I +remember, and Penny was cross because it made me look so tall." + +"And so did father and mother," said Miss Mercy Onmey. + +"And I mean to, come next Christmas!" said Nat the groomsman vigorously, +and looking towards the person of Miss Vashti Sniff. + +"Respectable people don't nowadays," said Fancy. "Still, since poor +mother did, I will." + +"Ay," resumed the tranter, "'twas on a White Tuesday when I committed it. +Mellstock Club walked the same day, and we new-married folk went a-gaying +round the parish behind 'em. Everybody used to wear something white at +Whitsuntide in them days. My sonnies, I've got the very white trousers +that I wore, at home in box now. Ha'n't I, Ann?" + +"You had till I cut 'em up for Jimmy," said Mrs. Dewy. + +"And we ought, by rights, after doing this parish, to go round Higher and +Lower Mellstock, and call at Viney's, and so work our way hither again +across He'th," said Mr. Penny, recovering scent of the matter in hand. +"Dairyman Viney is a very respectable man, and so is Farmer Kex, and we +ought to show ourselves to them." + +"True," said the tranter, "we ought to go round Mellstock to do the thing +well. We shall form a very striking object walking along in rotation, +good-now, neighbours?" + +"That we shall: a proper pretty sight for the nation," said Mrs. Penny. + +"Hullo!" said the tranter, suddenly catching sight of a singular human +figure standing in the doorway, and wearing a long smock-frock of pillow- +case cut and of snowy whiteness. "Why, Leaf! whatever dost thou do +here?" + +"I've come to know if so be I can come to the wedding--hee-hee!" said +Leaf in a voice of timidity. + +"Now, Leaf," said the tranter reproachfully, "you know we don't want 'ee +here to-day: we've got no room for ye, Leaf." + +"Thomas Leaf, Thomas Leaf, fie upon ye for prying!" said old William. + +"I know I've got no head, but I thought, if I washed and put on a clane +shirt and smock-frock, I might just call," said Leaf, turning away +disappointed and trembling. + +"Poor feller!" said the tranter, turning to Geoffrey. "Suppose we must +let en come? His looks are rather against en, and he is terrible silly; +but 'a have never been in jail, and 'a won't do no harm." + +Leaf looked with gratitude at the tranter for these praises, and then +anxiously at Geoffrey, to see what effect they would have in helping his +cause. + +"Ay, let en come," said Geoffrey decisively. "Leaf, th'rt welcome, 'st +know;" and Leaf accordingly remained. + +They were now all ready for leaving the house, and began to form a +procession in the following order: Fancy and her father, Dick and Susan +Dewy, Nat Callcome and Vashti Sniff, Ted Waywood and Mercy Onmey, and +Jimmy and Bessie Dewy. These formed the executive, and all appeared in +strict wedding attire. Then came the tranter and Mrs. Dewy, and last of +all Mr. and Mrs. Penny;--the tranter conspicuous by his enormous gloves, +size eleven and three-quarters, which appeared at a distance like boxing +gloves bleached, and sat rather awkwardly upon his brown hands; this hall- +mark of respectability having been set upon himself to-day (by Fancy's +special request) for the first time in his life. + +"The proper way is for the bridesmaids to walk together," suggested +Fancy. + +"What? 'Twas always young man and young woman, arm in crook, in my +time!" said Geoffrey, astounded. + +"And in mine!" said the tranter. + +"And in ours!" said Mr. and Mrs. Penny. + +"Never heard o' such a thing as woman and woman!" said old William; who, +with grandfather James and Mrs. Day, was to stay at home. + +"Whichever way you and the company like, my dear!" said Dick, who, being +on the point of securing his right to Fancy, seemed willing to renounce +all other rights in the world with the greatest pleasure. The decision +was left to Fancy. + +"Well, I think I'd rather have it the way mother had it," she said, and +the couples moved along under the trees, every man to his maid. + +"Ah!" said grandfather James to grandfather William as they retired, "I +wonder which she thinks most about, Dick or her wedding raiment!" + +"Well, 'tis their nature," said grandfather William. "Remember the words +of the prophet Jeremiah: 'Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her +attire?'" + +Now among dark perpendicular firs, like the shafted columns of a +cathedral; now through a hazel copse, matted with primroses and wild +hyacinths; now under broad beeches in bright young leaves they threaded +their way into the high road over Yalbury Hill, which dipped at that +point directly into the village of Geoffrey Day's parish; and in the +space of a quarter of an hour Fancy found herself to be Mrs. Richard +Dewy, though, much to her surprise, feeling no other than Fancy Day +still. + +On the circuitous return walk through the lanes and fields, amid much +chattering and laughter, especially when they came to stiles, Dick +discerned a brown spot far up a turnip field. + +"Why, 'tis Enoch!" he said to Fancy. "I thought I missed him at the +house this morning. How is it he's left you?" + +"He drank too much cider, and it got into his head, and they put him in +Weatherbury stocks for it. Father was obliged to get somebody else for a +day or two, and Enoch hasn't had anything to do with the woods since." + +"We might ask him to call down to-night. Stocks are nothing for once, +considering 'tis our wedding day." The bridal party was ordered to halt. + +"Eno-o-o-o-ch!" cried Dick at the top of his voice. + +"Y-a-a-a-a-a-as!" said Enoch from the distance. + +"D'ye know who I be-e-e-e-e-e?" + +"No-o-o-o-o-o-o!" + +"Dick Dew-w-w-w-wy!" + +"O-h-h-h-h-h!" + +"Just a-ma-a-a-a-a-arried!" + +"O-h-h-h-h-h!" + +"This is my wife, Fa-a-a-a-a-ancy!" (holding her up to Enoch's view as if +she had been a nosegay.) + +"O-h-h-h-h-h!" + +"Will ye come across to the party to-ni-i-i-i-i-i-ight!" + +"Ca-a-a-a-a-an't!" + +"Why n-o-o-o-o-ot?" + +"Don't work for the family no-o-o-o-ow!" + +"Not nice of Master Enoch," said Dick, as they resumed their walk. + +"You mustn't blame en," said Geoffrey; "the man's not hisself now; he's +in his morning frame of mind. When he's had a gallon o' cider or ale, or +a pint or two of mead, the man's well enough, and his manners be as good +as anybody's in the kingdom." + + + +CHAPTER II: UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE + + +The point in Yalbury Wood which abutted on the end of Geoffrey Day's +premises was closed with an ancient tree, horizontally of enormous +extent, though having no great pretensions to height. Many hundreds of +birds had been born amidst the boughs of this single tree; tribes of +rabbits and hares had nibbled at its bark from year to year; quaint tufts +of fungi had sprung from the cavities of its forks; and countless +families of moles and earthworms had crept about its roots. Beneath and +beyond its shade spread a carefully-tended grass-plot, its purpose being +to supply a healthy exercise-ground for young chickens and pheasants; the +hens, their mothers, being enclosed in coops placed upon the same green +flooring. + +All these encumbrances were now removed, and as the afternoon advanced, +the guests gathered on the spot, where music, dancing, and the singing of +songs went forward with great spirit throughout the evening. The +propriety of every one was intense by reason of the influence of Fancy, +who, as an additional precaution in this direction, had strictly charged +her father and the tranter to carefully avoid saying 'thee' and 'thou' in +their conversation, on the plea that those ancient words sounded so very +humiliating to persons of newer taste; also that they were never to be +seen drawing the back of the hand across the mouth after drinking--a +local English custom of extraordinary antiquity, but stated by Fancy to +be decidedly dying out among the better classes of society. + +In addition to the local musicians present, a man who had a thorough +knowledge of the tambourine was invited from the village of Tantrum +Clangley,--a place long celebrated for the skill of its inhabitants as +performers on instruments of percussion. These important members of the +assembly were relegated to a height of two or three feet from the ground, +upon a temporary erection of planks supported by barrels. Whilst the +dancing progressed the older persons sat in a group under the trunk of +the tree,--the space being allotted to them somewhat grudgingly by the +young ones, who were greedy of pirouetting room,--and fortified by a +table against the heels of the dancers. Here the gaffers and gammers, +whose dancing days were over, told stories of great impressiveness, and +at intervals surveyed the advancing and retiring couples from the same +retreat, as people on shore might be supposed to survey a naval +engagement in the bay beyond; returning again to their tales when the +pause was over. Those of the whirling throng, who, during the rests +between each figure, turned their eyes in the direction of these seated +ones, were only able to discover, on account of the music and bustle, +that a very striking circumstance was in course of narration--denoted by +an emphatic sweep of the hand, snapping of the fingers, close of the +lips, and fixed look into the centre of the listener's eye for the space +of a quarter of a minute, which raised in that listener such a +reciprocating working of face as to sometimes make the distant dancers +half wish to know what such an interesting tale could refer to. + +Fancy caused her looks to wear as much matronly expression as was +obtainable out of six hours' experience as a wife, in order that the +contrast between her own state of life and that of the unmarried young +women present might be duly impressed upon the company: occasionally +stealing glances of admiration at her left hand, but this quite +privately; for her ostensible bearing concerning the matter was intended +to show that, though she undoubtedly occupied the most wondrous position +in the eyes of the world that had ever been attained, she was almost +unconscious of the circumstance, and that the somewhat prominent position +in which that wonderfully-emblazoned left hand was continually found to +be placed, when handing cups and saucers, knives, forks, and glasses, was +quite the result of accident. As to wishing to excite envy in the bosoms +of her maiden companions, by the exhibition of the shining ring, every +one was to know it was quite foreign to the dignity of such an +experienced married woman. Dick's imagination in the meantime was far +less capable of drawing so much wontedness from his new condition. He +had been for two or three hours trying to feel himself merely a newly- +married man, but had been able to get no further in the attempt than to +realize that he was Dick Dewy, the tranter's son, at a party given by +Lord Wessex's head man-in-charge, on the outlying Yalbury estate, dancing +and chatting with Fancy Day. + +Five country dances, including 'Haste to the Wedding,' two reels, and +three fragments of horn-pipes, brought them to the time for supper, +which, on account of the dampness of the grass from the immaturity of the +summer season, was spread indoors. At the conclusion of the meal Dick +went out to put the horse in; and Fancy, with the elder half of the four +bridesmaids, retired upstairs to dress for the journey to Dick's new +cottage near Mellstock. + +"How long will you be putting on your bonnet, Fancy?" Dick inquired at +the foot of the staircase. Being now a man of business and married, he +was strong on the importance of time, and doubled the emphasis of his +words in conversing, and added vigour to his nods. + +"Only a minute." + +"How long is that?" + +"Well, dear, five." + +"Ah, sonnies!" said the tranter, as Dick retired, "'tis a talent of the +female race that low numbers should stand for high, more especially in +matters of waiting, matters of age, and matters of money." + +"True, true, upon my body," said Geoffrey. + +"Ye spak with feeling, Geoffrey, seemingly." + +"Anybody that d'know my experience might guess that." + +"What's she doing now, Geoffrey?" + +"Claning out all the upstairs drawers and cupboards, and dusting the +second-best chainey--a thing that's only done once a year. 'If there's +work to be done I must do it,' says she, 'wedding or no.'" + +"'Tis my belief she's a very good woman at bottom." + +"She's terrible deep, then." + +Mrs. Penny turned round. "Well, 'tis humps and hollers with the best of +us; but still and for all that, Dick and Fancy stand as fair a chance of +having a bit of sunsheen as any married pair in the land." + +"Ay, there's no gainsaying it." + +Mrs. Dewy came up, talking to one person and looking at another. "Happy, +yes," she said. "'Tis always so when a couple is so exactly in tune with +one another as Dick and she." + +"When they be'n't too poor to have time to sing," said grandfather James. + +"I tell ye, neighbours, when the pinch comes," said the tranter: "when +the oldest daughter's boots be only a size less than her mother's, and +the rest o' the flock close behind her. A sharp time for a man that, my +sonnies; a very sharp time! Chanticleer's comb is a-cut then, 'a +believe." + +"That's about the form o't," said Mr. Penny. "That'll put the stuns upon +a man, when you must measure mother and daughter's lasts to tell 'em +apart." + +"You've no cause to complain, Reuben, of such a close-coming flock," said +Mrs. Dewy; "for ours was a straggling lot enough, God knows!" + +"I d'know it, I d'know it," said the tranter. "You be a well-enough +woman, Ann." + +Mrs. Dewy put her mouth in the form of a smile, and put it back again +without smiling. + +"And if they come together, they go together," said Mrs. Penny, whose +family had been the reverse of the tranter's; "and a little money will +make either fate tolerable. And money can be made by our young couple, I +know." + +"Yes, that it can!" said the impulsive voice of Leaf, who had hitherto +humbly admired the proceedings from a corner. "It can be done--all +that's wanted is a few pounds to begin with. That's all! I know a story +about it!" + +"Let's hear thy story, Leaf," said the tranter. "I never knew you were +clever enough to tell a story. Silence, all of ye! Mr. Leaf will tell a +story." + +"Tell your story, Thomas Leaf," said grandfather William in the tone of a +schoolmaster. + +"Once," said the delighted Leaf, in an uncertain voice, "there was a man +who lived in a house! Well, this man went thinking and thinking night +and day. At last, he said to himself, as I might, 'If I had only ten +pound, I'd make a fortune.' At last by hook or by crook, behold he got +the ten pounds!" + +"Only think of that!" said Nat Callcome satirically. + +"Silence!" said the tranter. + +"Well, now comes the interesting part of the story! In a little time he +made that ten pounds twenty. Then a little time after that he doubled +it, and made it forty. Well, he went on, and a good while after that he +made it eighty, and on to a hundred. Well, by-and-by he made it two +hundred! Well, you'd never believe it, but--he went on and made it four +hundred! He went on, and what did he do? Why, he made it eight hundred! +Yes, he did," continued Leaf, in the highest pitch of excitement, +bringing down his fist upon his knee with such force that he quivered +with the pain; "yes, and he went on and made it A THOUSAND!" + +"Hear, hear!" said the tranter. "Better than the history of England, my +sonnies!" + +"Thank you for your story, Thomas Leaf," said grandfather William; and +then Leaf gradually sank into nothingness again. + +Amid a medley of laughter, old shoes, and elder-wine, Dick and his bride +took their departure, side by side in the excellent new spring-cart which +the young tranter now possessed. The moon was just over the full, +rendering any light from lamps or their own beauties quite unnecessary to +the pair. They drove slowly along Yalbury Bottom, where the road passed +between two copses. Dick was talking to his companion. + +"Fancy," he said, "why we are so happy is because there is such full +confidence between us. Ever since that time you confessed to that little +flirtation with Shiner by the river (which was really no flirtation at +all), I have thought how artless and good you must be to tell me o' such +a trifling thing, and to be so frightened about it as you were. It has +won me to tell you my every deed and word since then. We'll have no +secrets from each other, darling, will we ever?--no secret at all." + +"None from to-day," said Fancy. "Hark! what's that?" + +From a neighbouring thicket was suddenly heard to issue in a loud, +musical, and liquid voice-- + +"Tippiwit! swe-e-et! ki-ki-ki! Come hither, come hither, come hither!" + +"O, 'tis the nightingale," murmured she, and thought of a secret she +would never tell. + + + + +Footnotes: + + +{1} This, a local expression, must be a corruption of something less +questionable. + + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE*** + + +******* This file should be named 2662.txt or 2662.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/6/2662 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Proofing by +Margaret Price. + + + + + +UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE +or +THE MELLSTOCK QUIRE +A RURAL PAINTING OF THE DUTCH SCHOOL + + + + +PREFACE + + + +This story of the Mellstock Quire and its old established west- +gallery musicians, with some supplementary descriptions of similar +officials in Two on a Tower, A Few Crusted Characters, and other +places, is intended to be a fairly true picture, at first hand, of +the personages, ways, and customs which were common among such +orchestral bodies in the villages of fifty or sixty years ago. + +One is inclined to regret the displacement of these ecclesiastical +bandsmen by an isolated organist (often at first a barrel-organist) +or harmonium player; and despite certain advantages in point of +control and accomplishment which were, no doubt, secured by +installing the single artist, the change has tended to stultify the +professed aims of the clergy, its direct result being to curtail and +extinguish the interest of parishioners in church doings. Under the +old plan, from half a dozen to ten full-grown players, in addition +to the numerous more or less grown-up singers, were officially +occupied with the Sunday routine, and concerned in trying their best +to make it an artistic outcome of the combined musical taste of the +congregation. With a musical executive limited, as it mostly is +limited now, to the parson's wife or daughter and the school- +children, or to the school-teacher and the children, an important +union of interests has disappeared. + +The zest of these bygone instrumentalists must have been keen and +staying to take them, as it did, on foot every Sunday after a +toilsome week, through all weathers, to the church, which often lay +at a distance from their homes. They usually received so little in +payment for their performances that their efforts were really a +labour of love. In the parish I had in my mind when writing the +present tale, the gratuities received yearly by the musicians at +Christmas were somewhat as follows: From the manor-house ten +shillings and a supper; from the vicar ten shillings; from the +farmers five shillings each; from each cottage-household one +shilling; amounting altogether to not more than ten shillings a head +annually--just enough, as an old executant told me, to pay for their +fiddle-strings, repairs, rosin, and music-paper (which they mostly +ruled themselves). Their music in those days was all in their own +manuscript, copied in the evenings after work, and their music-books +were home-bound. + +It was customary to inscribe a few jigs, reels, horn-pipes, and +ballads in the same book, by beginning it at the other end, the +insertions being continued from front and back till sacred and +secular met together in the middle, often with bizarre effect, the +words of some of the songs exhibiting that ancient and broad humour +which our grandfathers, and possibly grandmothers, took delight in, +and is in these days unquotable. + +The aforesaid fiddle-strings, rosin, and music-paper were supplied +by a pedlar, who travelled exclusively in such wares from parish to +parish, coming to each village about every six months. Tales are +told of the consternation once caused among the church fiddlers +when, on the occasion of their producing a new Christmas anthem, he +did not come to time, owing to being snowed up on the downs, and the +straits they were in through having to make shift with whipcord and +twine for strings. He was generally a musician himself, and +sometimes a composer in a small way, bringing his own new tunes, and +tempting each choir to adopt them for a consideration. Some of +these compositions which now lie before me, with their repetitions +of lines, half-lines, and half-words, their fugues and their +intermediate symphonies, are good singing still, though they would +hardly be admitted into such hymn-books as are popular in the +churches of fashionable society at the present time. + +August 1896. + +Under the Greenwood Tree was first brought out in the summer of 1872 +in two volumes. The name of the story was originally intended to +be, more appropriately, The Mellstock Quire, and this has been +appended as a sub-title since the early editions, it having been +thought unadvisable to displace for it the title by which the book +first became known. + +In rereading the narrative after a long interval there occurs the +inevitable reflection that the realities out of which it was spun +were material for another kind of study of this little group of +church musicians than is found in the chapters here penned so +lightly, even so farcically and flippantly at times. But +circumstances would have rendered any aim at a deeper, more +essential, more transcendent handling unadvisable at the date of +writing; and the exhibition of the Mellstock Quire in the following +pages must remain the only extant one, except for the few glimpses +of that perished band which I have given in verse elsewhere. + +T. H. + +April 1912. + + + + +PART THE FIRST--WINTER + + + + +CHAPTER I: MELLSTOCK-LANE + + + +To dwellers in a wood almost every species of tree has its voice as +well as its feature. At the passing of the breeze the fir-trees sob +and moan no less distinctly than they rock; the holly whistles as it +battles with itself; the ash hisses amid its quiverings; the beech +rustles while its flat boughs rise and fall. And winter, which +modifies the note of such trees as shed their leaves, does not +destroy its individuality. + +On a cold and starry Christmas-eve within living memory a man was +passing up a lane towards Mellstock Cross in the darkness of a +plantation that whispered thus distinctively to his intelligence. +All the evidences of his nature were those afforded by the spirit of +his footsteps, which succeeded each other lightly and quickly, and +by the liveliness of his voice as he sang in a rural cadence: + + +"With the rose and the lily +And the daffodowndilly, +The lads and the lasses a-sheep-shearing go." + + +The lonely lane he was following connected one of the hamlets of +Mellstock parish with Upper Mellstock and Lewgate, and to his eyes, +casually glancing upward, the silver and black-stemmed birches with +their characteristic tufts, the pale grey boughs of beech, the dark- +creviced elm, all appeared now as black and flat outlines upon the +sky, wherein the white stars twinkled so vehemently that their +flickering seemed like the flapping of wings. Within the woody +pass, at a level anything lower than the horizon, all was dark as +the grave. The copse-wood forming the sides of the bower interlaced +its branches so densely, even at this season of the year, that the +draught from the north-east flew along the channel with scarcely an +interruption from lateral breezes. + +After passing the plantation and reaching Mellstock Cross the white +surface of the lane revealed itself between the dark hedgerows like +a ribbon jagged at the edges; the irregularity being caused by +temporary accumulations of leaves extending from the ditch on either +side. + +The song (many times interrupted by flitting thoughts which took the +place of several bars, and resumed at a point it would have reached +had its continuity been unbroken) now received a more palpable +check, in the shape of "Ho-i-i-i-i-i!" from the crossing lane to +Lower Mellstock, on the right of the singer who had just emerged +from the trees. + +"Ho-i-i-i-i-i!" he answered, stopping and looking round, though with +no idea of seeing anything more than imagination pictured. + +"Is that thee, young Dick Dewy?" came from the darkness. + +"Ay, sure, Michael Mail." + +"Then why not stop for fellow-craters--going to thy own father's +house too, as we be, and knowen us so well?" + +Dick Dewy faced about and continued his tune in an under-whistle, +implying that the business of his mouth could not be checked at a +moment's notice by the placid emotion of friendship. + +Having come more into the open he could now be seen rising against +the sky, his profile appearing on the light background like the +portrait of a gentleman in black cardboard. It assumed the form of +a low-crowned hat, an ordinary-shaped nose, an ordinary chin, an +ordinary neck, and ordinary shoulders. What he consisted of further +down was invisible from lack of sky low enough to picture him on. + +Shuffling, halting, irregular footsteps of various kinds were now +heard coming up the hill, and presently there emerged from the shade +severally five men of different ages and gaits, all of them working +villagers of the parish of Mellstock. They, too, had lost their +rotundity with the daylight, and advanced against the sky in flat +outlines, which suggested some processional design on Greek or +Etruscan pottery. They represented the chief portion of Mellstock +parish choir. + +The first was a bowed and bent man, who carried a fiddle under his +arm, and walked as if engaged in studying some subject connected +with the surface of the road. He was Michael Mail, the man who had +hallooed to Dick. + +The next was Mr. Robert Penny, boot- and shoemaker; a little man, +who, though rather round-shouldered, walked as if that fact had not +come to his own knowledge, moving on with his back very hollow and +his face fixed on the north-east quarter of the heavens before him, +so that his lower waist-coat-buttons came first, and then the +remainder of his figure. His features were invisible; yet when he +occasionally looked round, two faint moons of light gleamed for an +instant from the precincts of his eyes, denoting that he wore +spectacles of a circular form. + +The third was Elias Spinks, who walked perpendicularly and +dramatically. The fourth outline was Joseph Bowman's, who had now +no distinctive appearance beyond that of a human being. Finally +came a weak lath-like form, trotting and stumbling along with one +shoulder forward and his bead inclined to the left, his arms +dangling nervelessly in the wind as if they were empty sleeves. +This was Thomas Leaf. + +"Where be the boys?" said Dick to this somewhat indifferently- +matched assembly. + +The eldest of the group, Michael Mail, cleared his throat from a +great depth. + +"We told them to keep back at home for a time, thinken they wouldn't +be wanted yet awhile; and we could choose the tuens, and so on." + +"Father and grandfather William have expected ye a little sooner. I +have just been for a run round by Ewelease Stile and Hollow Hill to +warm my feet." + +"To be sure father did! To be sure 'a did expect us--to taste the +little barrel beyond compare that he's going to tap." + +"'Od rabbit it all! Never heard a word of it!" said Mr. Penny, +gleams of delight appearing upon his spectacle-glasses, Dick +meanwhile singing parenthetically--"The lads and the lasses a-sheep- +shearing go." + +"Neighbours, there's time enough to drink a sight of drink now afore +bedtime?" said Mail. + +"True, true--time enough to get as drunk as lords!" replied Bowman +cheerfully. + +This opinion being taken as convincing they all advanced between the +varying hedges and the trees dotting them here and there, kicking +their toes occasionally among the crumpled leaves. Soon appeared +glimmering indications of the few cottages forming the small hamlet +of Upper Mellstock for which they were bound, whilst the faint sound +of church-bells ringing a Christmas peal could be heard floating +over upon the breeze from the direction of Longpuddle and +Weatherbury parishes on the other side of the hills. A little +wicket admitted them to the garden, and they proceeded up the path +to Dick's house. + + + +CHAPTER II: THE TRANTER'S + + + +It was a long low cottage with a hipped roof of thatch, having +dormer windows breaking up into the eaves, a chimney standing in the +middle of the ridge and another at each end. The window-shutters +were not yet closed, and the fire- and candle-light within radiated +forth upon the thick bushes of box and laurestinus growing in clumps +outside, and upon the bare boughs of several codlin-trees hanging +about in various distorted shapes, the result of early training as +espaliers combined with careless climbing into their boughs in later +years. The walls of the dwelling were for the most part covered +with creepers, though these were rather beaten back from the +doorway--a feature which was worn and scratched by much passing in +and out, giving it by day the appearance of an old keyhole. Light +streamed through the cracks and joints of outbuildings a little way +from the cottage, a sight which nourished a fancy that the purpose +of the erection must be rather to veil bright attractions than to +shelter unsightly necessaries. The noise of a beetle and wedges and +the splintering of wood was periodically heard from this direction; +and at some little distance further a steady regular munching and +the occasional scurr of a rope betokened a stable, and horses +feeding within it. + +The choir stamped severally on the door-stone to shake from their +boots any fragment of earth or leaf adhering thereto, then entered +the house and looked around to survey the condition of things. +Through the open doorway of a small inner room on the right hand, of +a character between pantry and cellar, was Dick Dewy's father +Reuben, by vocation a "tranter," or irregular carrier. He was a +stout florid man about forty years of age, who surveyed people up +and down when first making their acquaintance, and generally smiled +at the horizon or other distant object during conversations with +friends, walking about with a steady sway, and turning out his toes +very considerably. Being now occupied in bending over a hogshead, +that stood in the pantry ready horsed for the process of broaching, +he did not take the trouble to turn or raise his eyes at the entry +of his visitors, well knowing by their footsteps that they were the +expected old comrades. + +The main room, on the left, was decked with bunches of holly and +other evergreens, and from the middle of the beam bisecting the +ceiling hung the mistletoe, of a size out of all proportion to the +room, and extending so low that it became necessary for a full-grown +person to walk round it in passing, or run the risk of entangling +his hair. This apartment contained Mrs. Dewy the tranter's wife, +and the four remaining children, Susan, Jim, Bessy, and Charley, +graduating uniformly though at wide stages from the age of sixteen +to that of four years--the eldest of the series being separated from +Dick the firstborn by a nearly equal interval. + +Some circumstance had apparently caused much grief to Charley just +previous to the entry of the choir, and he had absently taken down a +small looking-glass, holding it before his face to learn how the +human countenance appeared when engaged in crying, which survey led +him to pause at the various points in each wail that were more than +ordinarily striking, for a thorough appreciation of the general +effect. Bessy was leaning against a chair, and glancing under the +plaits about the waist of the plaid frock she wore, to notice the +original unfaded pattern of the material as there preserved, her +face bearing an expression of regret that the brightness had passed +away from the visible portions. Mrs. Dewy sat in a brown settle by +the side of the glowing wood fire--so glowing that with a heedful +compression of the lips she would now and then rise and put her hand +upon the hams and flitches of bacon lining the chimney, to reassure +herself that they were not being broiled instead of smoked--a +misfortune that had been known to happen now and then at Christmas- +time. + +"Hullo, my sonnies, here you be, then!" said Reuben Dewy at length, +standing up and blowing forth a vehement gust of breath. "How the +blood do puff up in anybody's head, to be sure, a-stooping like +that! I was just going out to gate to hark for ye." He then +carefully began to wind a strip of brown paper round a brass tap he +held in his hand. "This in the cask here is a drop o' the right +sort" (tapping the cask); "'tis a real drop o' cordial from the best +picked apples--Sansoms, Stubbards, Five-corners, and such--like--you +d'mind the sort, Michael?" (Michael nodded.) "And there's a +sprinkling of they that grow down by the orchard-rails--streaked +ones--rail apples we d'call 'em, as 'tis by the rails they grow, and +not knowing the right name. The water-cider from 'em is as good as +most people's best cider is." + +"Ay, and of the same make too," said Bowman. "'It rained when we +wrung it out, and the water got into it,' folk will say. But 'tis +on'y an excuse. Watered cider is too common among us." + +"Yes, yes; too common it is!" said Spinks with an inward sigh, +whilst his eyes seemed to be looking at the case in an abstract form +rather than at the scene before him. "Such poor liquor do make a +man's throat feel very melancholy--and is a disgrace to the name of +stimmilent." + +"Come in, come in, and draw up to the fire; never mind your shoes," +said Mrs. Dewy, seeing that all except Dick had paused to wipe them +upon the door-mat. "I am glad that you've stepped up-along at last; +and, Susan, you run down to Grammer Kaytes's and see if you can +borrow some larger candles than these fourteens. Tommy Leaf, don't +ye be afeard! Come and sit here in the settle." + +This was addressed to the young man before mentioned, consisting +chiefly of a human skeleton and a smock-frock, who was very awkward +in his movements, apparently on account of having grown so very fast +that before he had had time to get used to his height he was higher. + +"Hee--hee--ay!" replied Leaf, letting his mouth continue to smile +for some time after his mind had done smiling, so that his teeth +remained in view as the most conspicuous members of his body. + +"Here, Mr. Penny," resumed Mrs. Dewy, "you sit in this chair. And +how's your daughter, Mrs. Brownjohn?" + +"Well, I suppose I must say pretty fair." He adjusted his +spectacles a quarter of an inch to the right. "But she'll be worse +before she's better, 'a b'lieve." + +"Indeed--poor soul! And how many will that make in all, four or +five?" + +"Five; they've buried three. Yes, five; and she not much more than +a maid yet. She do know the multiplication table onmistakable well. +However, 'twas to be, and none can gainsay it." + +Mrs. Dewy resigned Mr. Penny. "Wonder where your grandfather James +is?" she inquired of one of the children. "He said he'd drop in to- +night." + +"Out in fuel-house with grandfather William," said Jimmy. + +"Now let's see what we can do," was heard spoken about this time by +the tranter in a private voice to the barrel, beside which he had +again established himself, and was stooping to cut away the cork. + +"Reuben, don't make such a mess o' tapping that barrel as is mostly +made in this house," Mrs. Dewy cried from the fireplace. "I'd tap a +hundred without wasting more than you do in one. Such a squizzling- +-and squirting job as 'tis in your hands! There, he always was such +a clumsy man indoors." + +"Ay, ay; I know you'd tap a hundred beautiful, Ann--I know you +would; two hundred, perhaps. But I can't promise. This is a' old +cask, and the wood's rotted away about the tap-hole. The husbird of +a feller Sam Lawson--that ever I should call'n such, now he's dead +and gone, poor heart!--took me in completely upon the feat of buying +this cask. 'Reub,' says he--'a always used to call me plain Reub, +poor old heart!--'Reub,' he said, says he, 'that there cask, Reub, +is as good as new; yes, good as new. 'Tis a wine-hogshead; the best +port-wine in the commonwealth have been in that there cask; and you +shall have en for ten shillens, Reub,'--'a said, says he--'he's +worth twenty, ay, five-and-twenty, if he's worth one; and an iron +hoop or two put round en among the wood ones will make en worth +thirty shillens of any man's money, if--'" + +"I think I should have used the eyes that Providence gave me to use +afore I paid any ten shillens for a jimcrack wine-barrel; a saint is +sinner enough not to be cheated. But 'tis like all your family was, +so easy to be deceived." + +"That's as true as gospel of this member," said Reuben. + +Mrs. Dewy began a smile at the answer, then altering her lips and +refolding them so that it was not a smile, commenced smoothing +little Bessy's hair; the tranter having meanwhile suddenly become +oblivious to conversation, occupying himself in a deliberate cutting +and arrangement of some more brown paper for the broaching +operation. + +"Ah, who can believe sellers!" said old Michael Mail in a carefully- +cautious voice, by way of tiding-over this critical point of +affairs. + +"No one at all," said Joseph Bowman, in the tone of a man fully +agreeing with everybody. + +"Ay," said Mail, in the tone of a man who did not agree with +everybody as a rule, though he did now; "I knowed a' auctioneering +feller once--a very friendly feller 'a was too. And so one hot day +as I was walking down the front street o' Casterbridge, jist below +the King's Arms, I passed a' open winder and see him inside, stuck +upon his perch, a-selling off. I jist nodded to en in a friendly +way as I passed, and went my way, and thought no more about it. +Well, next day, as I was oilen my boots by fuel-house door, if a +letter didn't come wi' a bill charging me with a feather--bed, +bolster, and pillers, that I had bid for at Mr. Taylor's sale. The +shim-faced martel had knocked 'em down to me because I nodded to en +in my friendly way; and I had to pay for 'em too. Now, I hold that +that was coming it very close, Reuben?" + +"'Twas close, there's no denying," said the general voice. + +"Too close, 'twas," said Reuben, in the rear of the rest. "And as +to Sam Lawson--poor heart! now he's dead and gone too!--I'll +warrant, that if so be I've spent one hour in making hoops for that +barrel, I've spent fifty, first and last. That's one of my hoops'-- +touching it with his elbow--'that's one of mine, and that, and that, +and all these." + +"Ah, Sam was a man," said Mr. Penny, contemplatively. + +"Sam was!" said Bowman. + +"Especially for a drap o' drink," said the tranter. + +"Good, but not religious--good," suggested Mr. Penny. + +The tranter nodded. Having at last made the tap and hole quite +ready, "Now then, Suze, bring a mug," he said. "Here's luck to us, +my sonnies!" + +The tap went in, and the cider immediately squirted out in a +horizontal shower over Reuben's hands, knees, and leggings, and into +the eyes and neck of Charley, who, having temporarily put off his +grief under pressure of more interesting proceedings, was squatting +down and blinking near his father. + +"There 'tis again!" said Mrs. Dewy. + +"Devil take the hole, the cask, and Sam Lawson too, that good cider +should be wasted like this!" exclaimed the tranter. "Your thumb! +Lend me your thumb, Michael! Ram it in here, Michael! I must get a +bigger tap, my sonnies." + +"Idd it cold inthide te hole?" inquired Charley of Michael, as he +continued in a stooping posture with his thumb in the cork-hole. + +"What wonderful odds and ends that chiel has in his head to be +sure!" Mrs. Dewy admiringly exclaimed from the distance. "I lay a +wager that he thinks more about how 'tis inside that barrel than in +all the other parts of the world put together." + +All persons present put on a speaking countenance of admiration for +the cleverness alluded to, in the midst of which Reuben returned. +The operation was then satisfactorily performed; when Michael arose +and stretched his head to the extremest fraction of height that his +body would allow of, to re-straighten his back and shoulders-- +thrusting out his arms and twisting his features to a mass of +wrinkles to emphasize the relief aquired. A quart or two of the +beverage was then brought to table, at which all the new arrivals +reseated themselves with wide-spread knees, their eyes meditatively +seeking out any speck or knot in the board upon which the gaze might +precipitate itself. + +"Whatever is father a-biding out in fuel-house so long for?" said +the tranter. "Never such a man as father for two things--cleaving +up old dead apple-tree wood and playing the bass-viol. 'A'd pass +his life between the two, that 'a would." He stepped to the door +and opened it. + +"Father!" + +"Ay!" rang thinly from round the corner. + +"Here's the barrel tapped, and we all a-waiting!" + +A series of dull thuds, that had been heard without for some time +past, now ceased; and after the light of a lantern had passed the +window and made wheeling rays upon the ceiling inside the eldest of +the Dewy family appeared. + + + +CHAPTER III: THE ASSEMBLED QUIRE + + + +William Dewy--otherwise grandfather William--was now about seventy; +yet an ardent vitality still preserved a warm and roughened bloom +upon his face, which reminded gardeners of the sunny side of a ripe +ribstone-pippin; though a narrow strip of forehead, that was +protected from the weather by lying above the line of his hat-brim, +seemed to belong to some town man, so gentlemanly was its whiteness. +His was a humorous and kindly nature, not unmixed with a frequent +melancholy; and he had a firm religious faith. But to his +neighbours he had no character in particular. If they saw him pass +by their windows when they had been bottling off old mead, or when +they had just been called long-headed men who might do anything in +the world if they chose, they thought concerning him, "Ah, there's +that good-hearted man--open as a child!" If they saw him just after +losing a shilling or half-a-crown, or accidentally letting fall a +piece of crockery, they thought, "There's that poor weak-minded man +Dewy again! Ah, he's never done much in the world either!" If he +passed when fortune neither smiled nor frowned on them, they merely +thought him old William Dewy. + +"Ah, so's--here you be!--Ah, Michael and Joseph and John--and you +too, Leaf! a merry Christmas all! We shall have a rare log-wood +fire directly, Reub, to reckon by the toughness of the job I had in +cleaving 'em." As he spoke he threw down an armful of logs which +fell in the chimney-corner with a rumble, and looked at them with +something of the admiring enmity he would have bestowed on living +people who had been very obstinate in holding their own. "Come in, +grandfather James." + +Old James (grandfather on the maternal side) had simply called as a +visitor. He lived in a cottage by himself, and many people +considered him a miser; some, rather slovenly in his habits. He now +came forward from behind grandfather William, and his stooping +figure formed a well-illuminated picture as he passed towards the +fire-place. Being by trade a mason, he wore a long linen apron +reaching almost to his toes, corduroy breeches and gaiters, which, +together with his boots, graduated in tints of whitish-brown by +constant friction against lime and stone. He also wore a very stiff +fustian coat, having folds at the elbows and shoulders as unvarying +in their arrangement as those in a pair of bellows: the ridges and +the projecting parts of the coat collectively exhibiting a shade +different from that of the hollows, which were lined with small +ditch-like accumulations of stone and mortar-dust. The extremely +large side-pockets, sheltered beneath wide flaps, bulged out +convexly whether empty or full; and as he was often engaged to work +at buildings far away--his breakfasts and dinners being eaten in a +strange chimney-corner, by a garden wall, on a heap of stones, or +walking along the road--he carried in these pockets a small tin +canister of butter, a small canister of sugar, a small canister of +tea, a paper of salt, and a paper of pepper; the bread, cheese, and +meat, forming the substance of his meals, hanging up behind him in +his basket among the hammers and chisels. If a passer-by looked +hard at him when he was drawing forth any of these, "My buttery," he +said, with a pinched smile. + +"Better try over number seventy-eight before we start, I suppose?" +said William, pointing to a heap of old Christmas-carol books on a +side table. + +"Wi' all my heart," said the choir generally. + +"Number seventy-eight was always a teaser--always. I can mind him +ever since I was growing up a hard boy-chap." + +"But he's a good tune, and worth a mint o' practice," said Michael. + +"He is; though I've been mad enough wi' that tune at times to seize +en and tear en all to linnit. Ay, he's a splendid carrel--there's +no denying that." + +"The first line is well enough," said Mr. Spinks; "but when you come +to 'O, thou man,' you make a mess o't." + +"We'll have another go into en, and see what we can make of the +martel. Half-an-hour's hammering at en will conquer the toughness +of en; I'll warn it." + +"'Od rabbit it all!" said Mr. Penny, interrupting with a flash of +his spectacles, and at the same time clawing at something in the +depths of a large side-pocket. "If so be I hadn't been as scatter- +brained and thirtingill as a chiel, I should have called at the +schoolhouse wi' a boot as I cam up along. Whatever is coming to me +I really can't estimate at all!" + +"The brain has its weaknesses," murmured Mr. Spinks, waving his head +ominously. Mr. Spinks was considered to be a scholar, having once +kept a night-school, and always spoke up to that level. + +"Well, I must call with en the first thing tomorrow. And I'll empt +my pocket o' this last too, if you don't mind, Mrs. Dewy." He drew +forth a last, and placed it on a table at his elbow. The eyes of +three or four followed it. + +"Well," said the shoemaker, seeming to perceive that the interest +the object had excited was greater than he had anticipated, and +warranted the last's being taken up again and exhibited; "now, whose +foot do ye suppose this last was made for? It was made for Geoffrey +Day's father, over at Yalbury Wood. Ah, many's the pair o' boots +he've had off the last! Well, when 'a died, I used the last for +Geoffrey, and have ever since, though a little doctoring was wanted +to make it do. Yes, a very queer natured last it is now, 'a +b'lieve," he continued, turning it over caressingly. "Now, you +notice that there" (pointing to a lump of leather bradded to the +toe), "that's a very bad bunion that he've had ever since 'a was a +boy. Now, this remarkable large piece" (pointing to a patch nailed +to the side), "shows a' accident he received by the tread of a +horse, that squashed his foot a'most to a pomace. The horseshoe cam +full-butt on this point, you see. And so I've just been over to +Geoffrey's, to know if he wanted his bunion altered or made bigger +in the new pair I'm making." + +During the hatter part of this speech, Mr. Penny's left hand +wandered towards the cider-cup, as if the hand had no connection +with the person speaking; and bringing his sentence to an abrupt +chose, all but the extreme margin of the bootmaker's face was +eclipsed by the circular brim of the vessel. + +"However, I was going to say," continued Penny, putting down the +cup, "I ought to have called at the school'--here he went groping +again in the depths of his pocket--'to leave this without fail, +though I suppose the first thing to-morrow will do." + +He now drew forth and placed upon the table a boot--small, light, +and prettily shaped--upon the heel of which he had been operating. + +"The new schoolmistress's!" + +"Ay, no less, Miss Fancy Day; as neat a little figure of fun as ever +I see, and just husband-high." + +"Never Geoffrey's daughter Fancy?" said Bowman, as all glances +present converged like wheel-spokes upon the boot in the centre of +them. + +"Yes, sure," resumed Mr. Penny, regarding the boot as if that alone +were his auditor; "'tis she that's come here schoolmistress. You +knowed his daughter was in training?" + +"Strange, isn't it, for her to be here Christmas night, Master +Penny?" + +"Yes; but here she is, 'a b'lieve." + +"I know how she comes here--so I do!" chirruped one of the children. + +"Why?" Dick inquired, with subtle interest. + +"Pa'son Maybold was afraid he couldn't manage us all to-morrow at +the dinner, and he talked o' getting her jist to come over and help +him hand about the plates, and see we didn't make pigs of ourselves; +and that's what she's come for!" + +"And that's the boot, then," continued its mender imaginatively, +"that she'll walk to church in tomorrow morning. I don't care to +mend boots I don't make; but there's no knowing what it may lead to, +and her father always comes to me." + +There, between the cider--mug and the candle, stood this interesting +receptacle of the little unknown's foot; and a very pretty boot it +was. A character, in fact--the flexible bend at the instep, the +rounded localities of the small nestling toes, scratches from +careless scampers now forgotten--all, as repeated in the tell-tale +leather, evidencing a nature and a bias. Dick surveyed it with a +delicate feeling that he had no right to do so without having first +asked the owner of the foot's permission. + +"Now, neighbours, though no common eye can see it," the shoemaker, +went on, "a man in the trade can see the likeness between this boot +and that last, although that is so deformed as hardly to recall one +of God's creatures, and this is one of as pretty a pair as you'd get +for ten-and-sixpence in Casterbridge. To you, nothing; but 'tis +father's voot and daughter's voot to me, as plain as houses." + +"I don't doubt there's a likeness, Master Penny--a mild likeness--a +fantastical likeness," said Spinks. "But _I_ han't got imagination +enough to see it, perhaps." + +Mr. Penny adjusted his spectacles. + +"Now, I'll tell ye what happened to me once on this very point. You +used to know Johnson the dairyman, William?" + +"Ay, sure; I did." + +"Well, 'twasn't opposite his house, but a little lower down--by his +paddock, in front o' Parkmaze Pool. I was a-bearing across towards +Bloom's End,--and ho and behold, there was a man just brought out o' +the Pool, dead; he had un'rayed for a dip, but not being able to +pitch it just there had gone in flop over his head. Men looked at +en; women looked at en; children looked at en; nobody knowed en. He +was covered wi' a sheet; but I catched sight of his voot, just +showing out as they carried en along. 'I don't care what name that +man went by,' I said, in my way, 'but he's John Woodward's brother; +I can swear to the family voot.' At that very moment up comes John +Woodward, weeping and teaving, 'I've lost my brother! I've lost my +brother!'" + +"Only to think of that!" said Mrs. Dewy. + +"'Tis well enough to know this foot and that foot," said Mr. Spinks. +"'Tis long-headed, in fact, as far as feet do go. I know little, +'tis true--I say no more; but show ME a man's foot, and I'll tell +you that man's heart." + +"You must be a cleverer feller, then, than mankind in jineral," said +the tranter. + +"Well, that's nothing for me to speak of," returned Mr. Spinks. "A +man hives and learns. Maybe I've read a leaf or two in my time. I +don't wish to say anything large, mind you; but nevertheless, maybe +I have." + +"Yes, I know," said Michael soothingly, "and all the parish knows, +that ye've read sommat of everything a'most, and have been a great +filler of young folks' brains. Learning's a worthy thing, and ye've +got it, Master Spinks." + +"I make no boast, though I may have read and thought a little; and I +know--it may be from much perusing, but I make no boast--that by the +time a man's head is finished, 'tis almost time for him to creep +underground. I am over forty-five." + +Mr. Spinks emitted a hook to signify that if his head was not +finished, nobody's head ever could be. + +"Talk of knowing people by their feet!" said Reuben. "Rot me, my +sonnies, then, if I can tell what a man is from all his members put +together, oftentimes." + +"But still, look is a good deal," observed grandfather William +absently, moving and balancing his head till the tip of grandfather +James's nose was exactly in a right line with William's eye and the +mouth of a miniature cavern he was discerning in the fire. "By the +way," he continued in a fresher voice, and looking up, "that young +crater, the schoolmis'ess, must be sung to to-night wi' the rest? +If her ear is as fine as her face, we shall have enough to do to be +up-sides with her." + +"What about her face?" said young Dewy. + +"Well, as to that," Mr. Spinks replied, "'tis a face you can hardly +gainsay. A very good pink face, as far as that do go. Still, only +a face, when all is said and done." + +"Come, come, Elias Spinks, say she's a pretty maid, and have done +wi' her," said the tranter, again preparing to visit the cider- +barrel. + + + +CHAPTER IV: GOING THE ROUNDS + + + +Shortly after ten o'clock the singing-boys arrived at the tranter's +house, which was invariably the place of meeting, and preparations +were made for the start. The older men and musicians wore thick +coats, with stiff perpendicular collars, and coloured handkerchiefs +wound round and round the neck till the end came to hand, over all +which they just showed their ears and noses, like people looking +over a wall. The remainder, stalwart ruddy men and boys, were +dressed mainly in snow-white smock-frocks, embroidered upon the +shoulders and breasts, in ornamental forms of hearts, diamonds, and +zigzags. The cider-mug was emptied for the ninth time, the music- +books were arranged, and the pieces finally decided upon. The boys +in the meantime put the old horn-lanterns in order, cut candles into +short lengths to fit the lanterns; and, a thin fleece of snow having +fallen since the early part of the evening, those who had no +leggings went to the stable and wound wisps of hay round their +ankles to keep the insidious flakes from the interior of their +boots. + +Mellstock was a parish of considerable acreage, the hamlets +composing it lying at a much greater distance from each other than +is ordinarily the case. Hence several hours were consumed in +playing and singing within hearing of every family, even if but a +single air were bestowed on each. There was Lower Mellstock, the +main village; half a mile from this were the church and vicarage, +and a few other houses, the spot being rather lonely now, though in +past centuries it had been the most thickly-populated quarter of the +parish. A mile north-east hay the hamlet of Upper Mellstock, where +the tranter lived; and at other points knots of cottages, besides +solitary farmsteads and dairies. + +Old William Dewy, with the violoncello, played the bass; his +grandson Dick the treble violin; and Reuben and Michael Mail the +tenor and second violins respectively. The singers consisted of +four men and seven boys, upon whom devolved the task of carrying and +attending to the lanterns, and holding the books open for the +players. Directly music was the theme, old William ever and +instinctively came to the front. + +"Now mind, neighbours," he said, as they all went out one by one at +the door, he himself holding it ajar and regarding them with a +critical face as they passed, like a shepherd counting out his +sheep. "You two counter-boys, keep your ears open to Michael's +fingering, and don't ye go straying into the treble part along o' +Dick and his set, as ye did last year; and mind this especially when +we be in "Arise, and hail." Billy Chimlen, don't you sing quite so +raving mad as you fain would; and, all o' ye, whatever ye do, keep +from making a great scuffle on the ground when we go in at people's +gates; but go quietly, so as to strike up all of a sudden, like +spirits." + +"Farmer Ledlow's first?" + +"Farmer Ledlow's first; the rest as usual." + +"And, Voss," said the tranter terminatively, "you keep house here +till about half-past two; then heat the metheglin and cider in the +warmer you'll find turned up upon the copper; and bring it wi' the +victuals to church-hatch, as th'st know." + + +Just before the chock struck twelve they lighted the lanterns and +started. The moon, in her third quarter, had risen since the +snowstorm; but the dense accumulation of snow-cloud weakened her +power to a faint twilight, which was rather pervasive of the +landscape than traceable to the sky. The breeze had gone down, and +the rustle of their feet and tones of their speech echoed with an +alert rebound from every post, boundary-stone, and ancient wall they +passed, even where the distance of the echo's origin was less than a +few yards. Beyond their own slight noises nothing was to be heard, +save the occasional bark of foxes in the direction of Yalbury Wood, +or the brush of a rabbit among the grass now and then, as it +scampered out of their way. + +Most of the outlying homesteads and hamlets had been visited by +about two o'clock; they then passed across the outskirts of a wooded +park toward the main village, nobody being at home at the Manor. +Pursuing no recognized track, great care was necessary in walking +lest their faces should come in contact with the low-hanging boughs +of the old lime-trees, which in many spots formed dense over-growths +of interlaced branches. + +"Times have changed from the times they used to be," said Mail, +regarding nobody can tell what interesting old panoramas with an +inward eye, and letting his outward glance rest on the ground, +because it was as convenient a position as any. "People don't care +much about us now! I've been thinking we must be almost the last +left in the county of the old string players? Barrel-organs, and +the things next door to 'em that you blow wi' your foot, have come +in terribly of late years." + +"Ay!" said Bowman, shaking his head; and old William, on seeing him, +did the same thing. + +"More's the pity," replied another. "Time was--long and merry ago +now!--when not one of the varmits was to be heard of; but it served +some of the quires right. They should have stuck to strings as we +did, and kept out clarinets, and done away with serpents. If you'd +thrive in musical religion, stick to strings, says I." + +"Strings be safe soul-lifters, as far as that do go," said Mr. +Spinks. + +"Yet there's worse things than serpents," said Mr. Penny. "Old +things pass away, 'tis true; but a serpent was a good old note: a +deep rich note was the serpent." + +"Clar'nets, however, be bad at all times," said Michael Mail. "One +Christmas--years agone now, years--I went the rounds wi' the +Weatherbury quire. 'Twas a hard frosty night, and the keys of all +the clar'nets froze--ah, they did freeze!--so that 'twas like +drawing a cork every time a key was opened; and the players o' 'em +had to go into a hedger-and-ditcher's chimley-corner, and thaw their +clar'nets every now and then. An icicle o' spet hung down from the +end of every man's clar'net a span long; and as to fingers--well, +there, if ye'll believe me, we bad no fingers at all, to our +knowing." + +"I can well bring back to my mind," said Mr. Penny, "what I said to +poor Joseph Ryme (who took the treble part in Chalk-Newton Church +for two-and-forty year) when they thought of having clar'nets there. +"Joseph," I said, says I, "depend upon't, if so be you have them +tooting clar'nets you'll spoil the whole set-out. Clar'nets were +not made for the service of the Lard; you can see it by looking at +'em," I said. And what came o't? Why, souls, the parson set up a +barrel-organ on his own account within two years o' the time I +spoke, and the old quire went to nothing." + +"As far as look is concerned," said the tranter, "I don't for my +part see that a fiddle is much nearer heaven than a clar'net. 'Tis +further off. There's always a rakish, scampish twist about a +fiddle's looks that seems to say the Wicked One had a hand in making +o'en; while angels be supposed to play clar'nets in heaven, or +som'at like 'em, if ye may believe picters." + +"Robert Penny, you was in the right," broke in the eldest Dewy. +"They should ha' stuck to strings. Your brass-man is a rafting dog- +-well and good; your reed-man is a dab at stirring ye--well and +good; your drum-man is a rare bowel-shaker--good again. But I don't +care who hears me say it, nothing will spak to your heart wi' the +sweetness o' the man of strings!" + +"Strings for ever!" said little Jimmy. + +"Strings alone would have held their ground against all the new +comers in creation." ("True, true!" said Bowman.) "But clarinets +was death." ("Death they was!" said Mr. Penny.) "And harmonions," +William continued in a louder voice, and getting excited by these +signs of approval, "harmonions and barrel-organs" ("Ah!" and groans +from Spinks) "be miserable--what shall I call 'em?--miserable--" + +"Sinners," suggested Jimmy, who made large strides like the men, and +did not lag behind like the other little boys. + +"Miserable dumbledores!" + +"Right, William, and so they be--miserable dumbledores!" said the +choir with unanimity. + +By this time they were crossing to a gate in the direction of the +school, which, standing on a slight eminence at the junction of +three ways, now rose in unvarying and dark flatness against the sky. +The instruments were retuned, and all the band entered the school +enclosure, enjoined by old William to keep upon the grass. + +"Number seventy-eight," he softly gave out as they formed round in a +semicircle, the boys opening the lanterns to get a clearer light, +and directing their rays on the books. + +Then passed forth into the quiet night an ancient and time-worn +hymn, embodying a quaint Christianity in words orally transmitted +from father to son through several generations down to the present +characters, who sang them out right earnestly: + + +"Remember Adam's fall, +O thou Man: +Remember Adam's fall +From Heaven to Hell. +Remember Adam's fall +How he hath condemn'd all +In Hell perpetual +There for to dwell. + +Remember God's goodnesse, +O thou Man: +Remember God's goodnesse, +His promise made. +Remember God's goodnesse; +He sent His Son sinlesse +Our ails for to redress; +Be not afraid + +In Bethlehem He was born, +O thou Man: +In Bethlehem He was born, +For mankind's sake. + +In Bethlehem He was born, +Christmas-day i' the morn: +Our Saviour thought no scorn +Our faults to take. + +Give thanks to God alway, +O thou Man: +Give thanks to God alway +With heart-most joy. +Give thanks to God alway +On this our joyful day: +Let all men sing and say, +Holy, Holy!" + + +Having concluded the last note, they listened for a minute or two, +but found that no sound issued from the schoolhouse. + +"Four breaths, and then, "O, what unbounded goodness!" number fifty- +nine," said William. + +This was duly gone through, and no notice whatever seemed to be +taken of the performance. + +"Good guide us, surely 'tisn't a' empty house, as befell us in the +year thirty-nine and forty-three!" said old Dewy. + +"Perhaps she's jist come from some musical city, and sneers at our +doings?" the tranter whispered. + +"'Od rabbit her!" said Mr. Penny, with an annihilating look at a +corner of the school chimney, "I don't quite stomach her, if this is +it. Your plain music well done is as worthy as your other sort done +bad, a' b'lieve, souls; so say I." + +"Four breaths, and then the last," said the leader authoritatively. +"'Rejoice, ye Tenants of the Earth,' number sixty-four." + +At the close, waiting yet another minute, he said in a clear loud +voice, as he had said in the village at that hour and season for the +previous forty years--"A merry Christmas to ye!" + + + +CHAPTER V: THE LISTENERS + + + +When the expectant stillness consequent upon the exclamation had +nearly died out of them all, an increasing light made itself visible +in one of the windows of the upper floor. It came so close to the +blind that the exact position of the flame could be perceived from +the outside. Remaining steady for an instant, the blind went upward +from before it, revealing to thirty concentrated eyes a young girl, +framed as a picture by the window architrave, and unconsciously +illuminating her countenance to a vivid brightness by a candle she +held in her left hand, close to her face, her right hand being +extended to the side of the window. She was wrapped in a white robe +of some kind, whilst down her shoulders fell a twining profusion of +marvellously rich hair, in a wild disorder which proclaimed it to be +only during the invisible hours of the night that such a condition +was discoverable. Her bright eyes were looking into the grey world +outside with an uncertain expression, oscillating between courage +and shyness, which, as she recognized the semicircular group of dark +forms gathered before her, transformed itself into pheasant +resolution. + +Opening the window, she said lightly and warmly--"Thank you, +singers, thank you!" + +Together went the window quickly and quietly, and the blind started +downward on its return to its place. Her fair forehead and eyes +vanished; her little mouth; her neck and shoulders; all of her. +Then the spot of candlelight shone nebulously as before; then it +moved away. + +"How pretty!" exclaimed Dick Dewy. + +"If she'd been rale wexwork she couldn't ha' been comelier," said +Michael Mail. + +"As near a thing to a spiritual vision as ever I wish to see!" said +tranter Dewy. + +"O, sich I never, never see!" said Leaf fervently. + +All the rest, after clearing their threats and adjusting their hats, +agreed that such a sight was worth singing for. + +"Now to Farmer Shiner's, and then replenish our insides, father?" +said the tranter. + +"Wi' all my heart," said old William, shouldering his bass-viol. + +Farmer Shiner's was a queer lump of a house, standing at the corner +of a lane that ran into the principal thoroughfare. The upper +windows were much wider than they were high, and this feature, +together with a broad bay-window where the door might have been +expected, gave it by day the aspect of a human countenance turned +askance, and wearing a sly and wicked leer. To-night nothing was +visible but the outline of the roof upon the sky. + +The front of this building was reached, and the preliminaries +arranged as usual. + +"Four breaths, and number thirty-two, 'Behold the Morning Star,'" +said old William. + +They had reached the end of the second verse, and the fiddlers were +doing the up bow-stroke previously to pouring forth the opening +chord of the third verse, when, without a light appearing or any +signal being given, a roaring voice exclaimed - + +"Shut up, woll 'ee! Don't make your blaring row here! A feller wi' +a headache enough to split his skull likes a quiet night!" + +Slam went the window. + +"Hullo, that's a' ugly blow for we!" said the tranter, in a keenly +appreciative voice, and turning to his companions. + +"Finish the carrel, all who be friends of harmony!" commanded old +William; and they continued to the end. + +"Four breaths, and number nineteen!" said William firmly. "Give it +him well; the quire can't be insulted in this manner!" + +A light now flashed into existence, the window opened, and the +farmer stood revealed as one in a terrific passion. + +"Drown en!--drown en!" the tranter cried, fiddling frantically. +"Play fortissimy, and drown his spaking!" + +"Fortissimy!" said Michael Mail, and the music and singing waxed so +loud that it was impossible to know what Mr. Shiner had said, was +saying, or was about to say; but wildly flinging his arms and body +about in the forms of capital Xs and Ys, he appeared to utter enough +invectives to consign the whole parish to perdition. + +"Very onseemly--very!" said old William, as they retired. "Never +such a dreadful scene in the whole round o' my carrel practice-- +never! And he a churchwarden!" + +"Only a drap o' drink got into his head," said the tranter. "Man's +well enough when he's in his religious frame. He's in his worldly +frame now. Must ask en to our bit of a party to-morrow night, I +suppose, and so put en in humour again. We bear no mortal man ill- +will." + +They now crossed Mellstock Bridge, and went along an embowered path +beside the Froom towards the church and vicarage, meeting Voss with +the hot mead and bread-and-cheese as they were approaching the +churchyard. This determined them to eat and drink before proceeding +further, and they entered the church and ascended to the gallery. +The lanterns were opened, and the whole body sat round against the +walls on benches and whatever else was available, and made a hearty +meal. In the pauses of conversation there could be heard through +the floor overhead a little world of undertones and creaks from the +halting clockwork, which never spread further than the tower they +were born in, and raised in the more meditative minds a fancy that +here hay the direct pathway of Time. + +Having done eating and drinking, they again tuned the instruments, +and once more the party emerged into the night air. + +"Where's Dick?" said old Dewy. + +Every man hooked round upon every other man, as if Dick might have +been transmuted into one or the other; and then they said they +didn't know. + +"Well now, that's what I call very nasty of Master Dicky, that I +do," said Michael Mail. + +"He've clinked off home-along, depend upon't," another suggested, +though not quite believing that he had. + +"Dick!" exclaimed the tranter, and his voice rolled sonorously forth +among the yews. + +He suspended his muscles rigid as stone whilst listening for an +answer, and finding he listened in vain, turned to the assemblage. + +"The treble man too! Now if he'd been a tenor or counter chap, we +might ha' contrived the rest o't without en, you see. But for a +quire to lose the treble, why, my sonnies, you may so well lose your +. . . " The tranter paused, unable to mention an image vast enough +for the occasion. + +"Your head at once," suggested Mr. Penny. + +The tranter moved a pace, as if it were puerile of people to +complete sentences when there were more pressing things to be done. + +"Was ever heard such a thing as a young man leaving his work half +done and turning tail like this!" + +"Never," replied Bowman, in a tone signifying that he was the last +man in the world to wish to withhold the formal finish required of +him. + +"I hope no fatal tragedy has overtook the had!" said his +grandfather. + +"O no," replied tranter Dewy placidly. "Wonder where he's put that +there fiddle of his. Why that fiddle cost thirty shillings, and +good words besides. Somewhere in the damp, without doubt; that +instrument will be unglued and spoilt in ten minutes--ten! ay, two." + +"What in the name o' righteousness can have happened?" said old +William, more uneasily. "Perhaps he's drownded!" + +"Leaving their lanterns and instruments in the belfry they retraced +their steps along the waterside track. "A strapping lad like Dick +d'know better than let anything happen onawares," Reuben remarked. +"There's sure to be some poor little scram reason for't staring us +in the face all the while." He lowered his voice to a mysterious +tone: 'Neighbours, have ye noticed any sign of a scornful woman in +his head, or suchlike?" + +"Not a glimmer of such a body. He's as clear as water yet." + +"And Dicky said he should never marry," cried Jimmy, "but live at +home always along wi' mother and we!" + +"Ay, ay, my sonny; every had has said that in his time." + +They had now again reached the precincts of Mr. Shiner's, but +hearing nobody in that direction, one or two went across to the +schoolhouse. A light was still burning in the bedroom, and though +the blind was down, the window had been slightly opened, as if to +admit the distant notes of the carollers to the ears of the occupant +of the room. + +Opposite the window, leaning motionless against a beech tree, was +the lost man, his arms folded, his head thrown back, his eyes fixed +upon the illuminated lattice. + +"Why, Dick, is that thee? What b'st doing here?" + +Dick's body instantly flew into a more rational attitude, and his +head was seen to turn east and west in the gloom, as if endeavouring +to discern some proper answer to that question; and at last he said +in rather feeble accents--"Nothing, father." + +"Th'st take long enough time about it then, upon my body," said the +tranter, as they all turned anew towards the vicarage. + +"I thought you hadn't done having snap in the gallery," said Dick. + +"Why, we've been traypsing and rambling about, looking everywhere, +and thinking you'd done fifty deathly things, and here have you been +at nothing at all!" + +"The stupidness lies in that point of it being nothing at all," +murmured Mr. Spinks. + +The vicarage front was their next field of operation, and Mr. +Maybold, the lately-arrived incumbent, duly received his share of +the night's harmonies. It was hoped that by reason of his +profession he would have been led to open the window, and an extra +carol in quick time was added to draw him forth. But Mr. Maybold +made no stir. + +"A bad sign!" said old William, shaking his head. + +However, at that same instant a musical voice was heard exclaiming +from inner depths of bedclothes--"Thanks, villagers!" + +"What did he say?" asked Bowman, who was rather dull of hearing. +Bowman's voice, being therefore loud, had been heard by the vicar +within. + +"I said, 'Thanks, villagers!'" cried the vicar again. + +"Oh, we didn't hear 'ee the first time!" cried Bowman. + +"Now don't for heaven's sake spoil the young man's temper by +answering like that!" said the tranter. + +"You won't do that, my friends!" the vicar shouted. + +"Well to be sure, what ears!" said Mr. Penny in a whisper. "Beats +any horse or dog in the parish, and depend upon't, that's a sign +he's a proper clever chap." + +"We shall see that in time," said the tranter. + +Old William, in his gratitude for such thanks from a comparatively +new inhabitant, was anxious to play all the tunes over again; but +renounced his desire on being reminded by Reuben that it would be +best to leave well alone. + +"Now putting two and two together," the tranter continued, as they +went their way over the hill, and across to the last remaining +houses; "that is, in the form of that young female vision we zeed +just now, and this young tenor-voiced parson, my belief is she'll +wind en round her finger, and twist the pore young feller about like +the figure of 8--that she will so, my sonnies." + + + +CHAPTER VI: CHRISTMAS MORNING + + + +The choir at last reached their beds, and slept like the rest of the +parish. Dick's slumbers, through the three or four hours remaining +for rest, were disturbed and slight; an exhaustive variation upon +the incidents that had passed that night in connection with the +school-window going on in his brain every moment of the time. + +In the morning, do what he would--go upstairs, downstairs, out of +doors, speak of the wind and weather, or what not--he could not +refrain from an unceasing renewal, in imagination, of that +interesting enactment. Tilted on the edge of one foot he stood +beside the fireplace, watching his mother grilling rashers; but +there was nothing in grilling, he thought, unless the Vision +grilled. The limp rasher hung down between the bars of the gridiron +like a cat in a child's arms; but there was nothing in similes, +unless She uttered them. He looked at the daylight shadows of a +yellow hue, dancing with the firelight shadows in blue on the +whitewashed chimney corner, but there was nothing in shadows. +"Perhaps the new young wom--sch--Miss Fancy Day will sing in church +with us this morning," he said. + +The tranter looked a long time before he replied, "I fancy she will; +and yet I fancy she won't." + +Dick implied that such a remark was rather to be tolerated than +admired; though deliberateness in speech was known to have, as a +rule, more to do with the machinery of the tranter's throat than +with the matter enunciated. + +They made preparations for going to church as usual; Dick with +extreme alacrity, though he would not definitely consider why he was +so religious. His wonderful nicety in brushing and cleaning his +best light boots had features which elevated it to the rank of an +art. Every particle and speck of last week's mud was scraped and +brushed from toe and heel; new blacking from the packet was +carefully mixed and made use of, regardless of expense. A coat was +laid on and polished; then another coat for increased blackness; and +lastly a third, to give the perfect and mirror-like jet which the +hoped-for rencounter demanded. + +It being Christmas-day, the tranter prepared himself with Sunday +particularity. Loud sousing and snorting noises were heard to +proceed from a tub in the back quarters of the dwelling, proclaiming +that he was there performing his great Sunday wash, lasting half-an- +hour, to which his washings on working-day mornings were mere +flashes in the pan. Vanishing into the outhouse with a large brown +towel, and the above-named bubblings and snortings being carried on +for about twenty minutes, the tranter would appear round the edge of +the door, smelling like a summer fog, and looking as if he had just +narrowly escaped a watery grave with the loss of much of his +clothes, having since been weeping bitterly till his eyes were red; +a crystal drop of water hanging ornamentally at the bottom of each +ear, one at the tip of his nose, and others in the form of spangles +about his hair. + +After a great deal of crunching upon the sanded stone floor by the +feet of father, son, and grandson as they moved to and fro in these +preparations, the bass-viol and fiddles were taken from their nook, +and the strings examined and screwed a little above concert-pitch, +that they might keep their tone when the service began, to obviate +the awkward contingency of having to retune them at the back of the +gallery during a cough, sneeze, or amen--an inconvenience which had +been known to arise in damp wintry weather. + +The three left the door and paced down Mellstock-lane and across the +ewe-lease, bearing under their arms the instruments in faded green- +baize bags, and old brown music-books in their hands; Dick +continually finding himself in advance of the other two, and the +tranter moving on with toes turned outwards to an enormous angle. + +At the foot of an incline the church became visible through the +north gate, or 'church hatch,' as it was called here. Seven agile +figures in a clump were observable beyond, which proved to be the +choristers waiting; sitting on an altar-tomb to pass the time, and +letting their heels dangle against it. The musicians being now in +sight, the youthful party scampered off and rattled up the old +wooden stairs of the gallery like a regiment of cavalry; the other +boys of the parish waiting outside and observing birds, cats, and +other creatures till the vicar entered, when they suddenly subsided +into sober church-goers, and passed down the aisle with echoing +heels. + +The gallery of Mellstock Church had a status and sentiment of its +own. A stranger there was regarded with a feeling altogether +differing from that of the congregation below towards him. Banished +from the nave as an intruder whom no originality could make +interesting, he was received above as a curiosity that no unfitness +could render dull. The gallery, too, looked down upon and knew the +habits of the nave to its remotest peculiarity, and had an extensive +stock of exclusive information about it; whilst the nave knew +nothing of the gallery folk, as gallery folk, beyond their loud- +sounding minims and chest notes. Such topics as that the clerk was +always chewing tobacco except at the moment of crying amen; that he +had a dust-hole in his pew; that during the sermon certain young +daughters of the village had left off caring to read anything so +mild as the marriage service for some years, and now regularly +studied the one which chronologically follows it; that a pair of +lovers touched fingers through a knot-hole between their pews in the +manner ordained by their great exemplars, Pyramus and Thisbe; that +Mrs. Ledlow, the farmer's wife, counted her money and reckoned her +week's marketing expenses during the first lesson--all news to those +below--were stale subjects here. + +Old William sat in the centre of the front row, his violoncello +between his knees and two singers on each hand. Behind him, on the +left, came the treble singers and Dick; and on the right the tranter +and the tenors. Farther back was old Mail with the altos and +supernumeraries. + +But before they had taken their places, and whilst they were +standing in a circle at the back of the gallery practising a psalm +or two, Dick cast his eyes over his grandfather's shoulder, and saw +the vision of the past night enter the porch-door as methodically as +if she had never been a vision at all. A new atmosphere seemed +suddenly to be puffed into the ancient edifice by her movement, +which made Dick's body and soul tingle with novel sensations. +Directed by Shiner, the churchwarden, she proceeded to the small +aisle on the north side of the chancel, a spot now allotted to a +throng of Sunday-school girls, and distinctly visible from the +gallery-front by looking under the curve of the furthermost arch on +that side. + +Before this moment the church had seemed comparatively empty--now it +was thronged; and as Miss Fancy rose from her knees and looked +around her for a permanent place in which to deposit herself-- +finally choosing the remotest corner--Dick began to breathe more +freely the warm new air she had brought with her; to feel rushings +of blood, and to have impressions that there was a tie between her +and himself visible to all the congregation. + +Ever afterwards the young man could recollect individually each part +of the service of that bright Christmas morning, and the trifling +occurrences which took place as its minutes slowly drew along; the +duties of that day dividing themselves by a complete line from the +services of other times. The tunes they that morning essayed +remained with him for years, apart from all others; also the text; +also the appearance of the layer of dust upon the capitals of the +piers; that the holly-bough in the chancel archway was hung a little +out of the centre--all the ideas, in short, that creep into the mind +when reason is only exercising its lowest activity through the eye. + +By chance or by fate, another young man who attended Mellstock +Church on that Christmas morning had towards the end of the service +the same instinctive perception of an interesting presence, in the +shape of the same bright maiden, though his emotion reached a far +less developed stage. And there was this difference, too, that the +person in question was surprised at his condition, and sedulously +endeavoured to reduce himself to his normal state of mind. He was +the young vicar, Mr. Maybold. + +The music on Christmas mornings was frequently below the standard of +church-performances at other times. The boys were sleepy from the +heavy exertions of the night; the men were slightly wearied; and +now, in addition to these constant reasons, there was a dampness in +the atmosphere that still further aggravated the evil. Their +strings, from the recent long exposure to the night air, rose whole +semitones, and snapped with a loud twang at the most silent moment; +which necessitated more retiring than ever to the back of the +gallery, and made the gallery throats quite husky with the quantity +of coughing and hemming required for tuning in. The vicar looked +cross. + +When the singing was in progress there was suddenly discovered to be +a strong and shrill reinforcement from some point, ultimately found +to be the school-girls' aisle. At every attempt it grew bolder and +more distinct. At the third time of singing, these intrusive +feminine voices were as mighty as those of the regular singers; in +fact, the flood of sound from this quarter assumed such an +individuality, that it had a time, a key, almost a tune of its own, +surging upwards when the gallery plunged downwards, and the reverse. + +Now this had never happened before within the memory of man. The +girls, like the rest of the congregation, had always been humble and +respectful followers of the gallery; singing at sixes and sevens if +without gallery leaders; never interfering with the ordinances of +these practised artists--having no will, union, power, or proclivity +except it was given them from the established choir enthroned above +them. + +A good deal of desperation became noticeable in the gallery throats +and strings, which continued throughout the musical portion of the +service. Directly the fiddles were laid down, Mr. Penny's +spectacles put in their sheath, and the text had been given out, an +indignant whispering began. + +"Did ye hear that, souls?" Mr. Penny said, in a groaning breath. + +"Brazen-faced hussies!" said Bowman. + +"True; why, they were every note as loud as we, fiddles and all, if +not louder!" + +"Fiddles and all!" echoed Bowman bitterly. + +"Shall anything saucier be found than united 'ooman?" Mr. Spinks +murmured. + +"What I want to know is," said the tranter (as if he knew already, +but that civilization required the form of words), "what business +people have to tell maidens to sing like that when they don't sit in +a gallery, and never have entered one in their lives? That's the +question, my sonnies." + +"'Tis the gallery have got to sing, all the world knows," said Mr. +Penny. "Why, souls, what's the use o' the ancients spending scores +of pounds to build galleries if people down in the lowest depths of +the church sing like that at a moment's notice?" + +"Really, I think we useless ones had better march out of church, +fiddles and all!" said Mr. Spinks, with a laugh which, to a +stranger, would have sounded mild and real. Only the initiated body +of men he addressed could understand the horrible bitterness of +irony that lurked under the quiet words 'useless ones,' and the +ghastliness of the laughter apparently so natural. + +"Never mind! Let 'em sing too--'twill make it all the louder--hee, +hee!" said Leaf. + +"Thomas Leaf, Thomas Leaf! Where have you lived all your life?" +said grandfather William sternly. + +The quailing Leaf tried to leek as if he had lived nowhere at all. + +"When all's said and done, my sonnies," Reuben said, "there'd have +been no real harm in their singing if they had let nobody hear 'em, +and only jined in now and then." + +"None at all," said Mr. Penny. "But though I don't wish to accuse +people wrongfully, I'd say before my lord judge that I could hear +every note o' that last psalm come from 'em as much as from us-- +every note as if 'twas their own." + +"Know it! ah, I should think I did know it!" Mr. Spinks was heard +to observe at this moment, without reference to his fellow players-- +shaking his head at some idea he seemed to see floating before him, +and smiling as if he were attending a funeral at the time. "Ah, do +I or don't I know it!" + +No one said "Know what?" because all were aware from experience that +what he knew would declare itself in process of time. + +"I could fancy last night that we should have some trouble wi' that +young man," said the tranter, pending the continuance of Spinks's +speech, and looking towards the unconscious Mr. Maybold in the +pulpit. + +"_I_ fancy," said old William, rather severely, "I fancy there's too +much whispering going on to be of any spiritual use to gentle or +simple." Then folding his lips and concentrating his glance on the +vicar, he implied that none but the ignorant would speak again; and +accordingly there was silence in the gallery, Mr. Spinks's telling +speech remaining for ever unspoken. + +Dick had said nothing, and the tranter little, on this episode of +the morning; for Mrs. Dewy at breakfast expressed it as her +intention to invite the youthful leader of the culprits to the small +party it was customary with them to have on Christmas night--a piece +of knowledge which had given a particular brightness to Dick's +reflections since he had received it. And in the tranter's +slightly-cynical nature, party feeling was weaker than in the other +members of the choir, though friendliness and faithful partnership +still sustained in him a hearty earnestness on their account. + + + +CHAPTER VII: THE TRANTER'S PARTY + + + +During the afternoon unusual activity was seen to prevail about the +precincts of tranter Dewy's house. The flagstone floor was swept of +dust, and a sprinkling of the finest yellow sand from the innermost +stratum of the adjoining sand-pit lightly scattered thereupon. Then +were produced large knives and forks, which had been shrouded in +darkness and grease since the last occasion of the kind, and bearing +upon their sides, "Shear-steel, warranted," in such emphatic letters +of assurance, that the warranter's name was not required as further +proof, and not given. The key was left in the tap of the cider- +barrel, instead of being carried in a pocket. And finally the +tranter had to stand up in the room and let his wife wheel him round +like a turnstile, to see if anything discreditable was visible in +his appearance. + +"Stand still till I've been for the scissors," said Mrs. Dewy. + +The tranter stood as still as a sentinel at the challenge. + +The only repairs necessary were a trimming of one or two whiskers +that had extended beyond the general contour of the mass; a like +trimming of a slightly-frayed edge visible on his shirt-collar; and +a final tug at a grey hair--to all of which operations he submitted +in resigned silence, except the last, which produced a mild "Come, +come, Ann," by way of expostulation. + +"Really, Reuben, 'tis quite a disgrace to see such a man," said Mrs. +Dewy, with the severity justifiable in a long-tried companion, +giving him another turn round, and picking several of Smiler's hairs +from the shoulder of his coat. Reuben's thoughts seemed engaged +elsewhere, and he yawned. "And the cellar of your coat is a shame +to behold--so plastered with dirt, or dust, or grease, or something. +Why, wherever could you have got it?" + +"'Tis my warm nater in summer-time, I suppose. I always did get in +such a heat when I bustle about." + +"Ay, the Dewys always were such a coarse-skinned family. There's +your brother Bob just as bad--as fat as a porpoise--wi' his how, +mean, "How'st do, Ann?" whenever he meets me. I'd "How'st do" him +indeed! If the sun only shines out a minute, there be you all +streaming in the face--I never see!" + +"If I be hot week-days, I must be hot Sundays." + +"If any of the girls should turn after their father 'twill be a bad +look-out for 'em, poor things! None of my family were sich vulgar +sweaters, not one of 'em. But, Lord-a-mercy, the Dewys! I don't +know how ever I cam' into such a family!" + +"Your woman's weakness when I asked ye to jine us. That's how it +was I suppose." But the tranter appeared to have heard some such +words from his wife before, and hence his answer had not the energy +it might have shown if the inquiry had possessed the charm of +novelty. + +"You never did hook so well in a pair o' trousers as in them," she +continued in the same unimpassioned voice, so that the unfriendly +criticism of the Dewy family seemed to have been mere normal than +spontaneous. "Such a cheap pair as 'twas too. As big as any man +could wish to have, and lined inside, and double-lined in the lower +parts, and an extra piece of stiffening at the bottom. And 'tis a +nice high cut that comes up right under your armpits, and there's +enough turned down inside the seams to make half a pair more, +besides a piece of cloth heft that will make an honest waistcoat-- +all by my contriving in buying the stuff at a bargain, and having it +made up under my eye. It only shows what may be done by taking a +little trouble, and not going straight to the rascally tailors." + +The discourse was cut short by the sudden appearance of Charley on +the scene, with a face and hands of hideous blackness, and a nose +like a guttering candle. Why, on that particularly cleanly +afternoon, he should have discovered that the chimney-crook and +chain from which the hams were suspended should have possessed more +merits and general interest as playthings than any other articles in +the house, is a question for nursing mothers to decide. However, +the humour seemed to lie in the result being, as has been seen, that +any given player with these articles was in the long-run daubed with +soot. The last that was seen of Charley by daylight after this +piece of ingenuity was when in the act of vanishing from his +father's presence round the corner of the house--looking back over +his shoulder with an expression of great sin on his face, like Cain +as the Outcast in Bible pictures. + + +The guests had all assembled, and the tranter's party had reached +that degree of development which accords with ten o'clock P.M. in +rural assemblies. At that hour the sound of a fiddle in process of +tuning was heard from the inner pantry. + +"That's Dick," said the tranter. "That lad's crazy for a jig." + +"Dick! Now I cannot--really, I cannot have any dancing at all till +Christmas-day is out," said old William emphatically. "When the +clock ha' done striking twelve, dance as much as ye like." + +"Well, I must say there's reason in that, William," said Mrs. Penny. +"If you do have a party on Christmas-night, 'tis only fair and +honourable to the sky-folk to have it a sit-still party. Jigging +parties be all very well on the Devil's holidays; but a jigging +party looks suspicious now. O yes; stop till the chock strikes, +young folk--so say I." + +It happened that some warm mead accidentally got into Mr. Spinks's +head about this time. + +"Dancing," he said, "is a most strengthening, livening, and courting +movement, 'specially with a little beverage added! And dancing is +good. But why disturb what is ordained, Richard and Reuben, and the +company zhinerally? Why, I ask, as far as that do go?" + +"Then nothing till after twelve," said William. + +Though Reuben and his wife ruled on social points, religious +questions were mostly disposed of by the old man, whose firmness on +this head quite counterbalanced a certain weakness in his handling +of domestic matters. The hopes of the younger members of the +household were therefore relegated to a distance of one hour and +three-quarters--a result that took visible shape in them by a remote +and listless look about the eyes--the singing of songs being +permitted in the interim. + +At five minutes to twelve the soft tuning was again heard in the +back quarters; and when at length the clock had whizzed forth the +last stroke, Dick appeared ready primed, and the instruments were +boldly handled; old William very readily taking the bass-viol from +its accustomed nail, and touching the strings as irreligiously as +could be desired. + +The country-dance called the 'Triumph, or Follow my Lover,' was the +figure with which they opened. The tranter took for his partner +Mrs. Penny, and Mrs. Dewy was chosen by Mr. Penny, who made so much +of his limited height by a judicious carriage of the head, +straightening of the back, and important flashes of his spectacle- +glasses, that he seemed almost as tall as the tranter. Mr. Shiner, +age about thirty-five, farmer and church-warden, a character +principally composed of a crimson stare, vigorous breath, and a +watch-chain, with a mouth hanging on a dark smile but never smiling, +had come quite willingly to the party, and showed a wondrous +obliviousness of all his antics on the previous night. But the +comely, slender, prettily-dressed prize Fancy Day fell to Dick's +hot, in spite of some private machinations of the farmer, for the +reason that Mr. Shiner, as a richer man, had shown too much +assurance in asking the favour, whilst Dick had been duly courteous. + +We gain a good view of our heroine as she advances to her place in +the ladies' line. She belonged to the taller division of middle +height. Flexibility was her first characteristic, by which she +appeared to enjoy the most easeful rest when she was in gliding +motion. Her dark eyes--arched by brows of so keen, slender, and +soft a curve, that they resembled nothing so much as two slurs in +music--showed primarily a bright sparkle each. This was softened by +a frequent thoughtfulness, yet not so frequent as to do away, for +more than a few minutes at a time, with a certain coquettishness; +which in its turn was never so decided as to banish honesty. Her +lips imitated her brows in their clearly-cut outline and softness of +bend; and her nose was well shaped--which is saying a great deal, +when it is remembered that there are a hundred pretty mouths and +eyes for one pretty nose. Add to this, plentiful knots of dark- +brown hair, a gauzy dress of white, with blue facings; and the +slightest idea may be gained of the young maiden who showed, amidst +the rest of the dancing-ladies, like a flower among vegetables. And +so the dance proceeded. Mr. Shiner, according to the interesting +rule laid down, deserted his own partner, and made off down the +middle with this fair one of Dick's--the pair appearing from the top +of the room like two persons tripping down a lane to be married. +Dick trotted behind with what was intended to be a look of +composure, but which was, in fact, a rather silly expression of +feature--implying, with too much earnestness, that such an elopement +could not be tolerated. Then they turned and came back, when Dick +grew more rigid around his mouth, and blushed with ingenuous ardour +as he joined hands with the rival and formed the arch over his +lady's head; which presumably gave the figure its name; +relinquishing her again at setting to partners, when Mr. Shiner's +new chain quivered in every link, and all the loose flesh upon the +tranter--who here came into action again--shook like jelly. Mrs. +Penny, being always rather concerned for her personal safety when +she danced with the tranter, fixed her face to a chronic smile of +timidity the whole time it hasted--a peculiarity which filled her +features with wrinkles, and reduced her eyes to little straight +lines like hyphens, as she jigged up and down opposite him; +repeating in her own person not only his proper movements, but also +the minor flourishes which the richness of the tranter's imagination +led him to introduce from time to time--an imitation which had about +it something of slavish obedience, not unmixed with fear. + +The ear-rings of the ladies now flung themselves wildly about, +turning violent summersaults, banging this way and that, and then +swinging quietly against the ears sustaining them. Mrs. Crumpler--a +heavy woman, who, for some reason which nobody ever thought worth +inquiry, danced in a clean apron--moved so smoothly through the +figure that her feet were never seen; conveying to imaginative minds +the idea that she rolled on castors. + +Minute after minute glided by, and the party reached the period when +ladies' back-hair begins to look forgotten and dissipated; when a +perceptible dampness makes itself apparent upon the faces even of +delicate girls--a ghastly dew having for some time rained from the +features of their masculine partners; when skirts begin to be torn +out of their gathers; when elderly people, who have stood up to +please their juniors, begin to feel sundry small tremblings in the +region of the knees, and to wish the interminable dance was at +Jericho; when (at country parties of the thorough sort)waistcoats +begin to be unbuttoned, and when the fiddlers' chairs have been +wriggled, by the frantic bowing of their occupiers, to a distance of +about two feet from where they originally stood. + +Fancy was dancing with Mr. Shiner. Dick knew that Fancy, by the law +of good manners, was bound to dance as pleasantly with one partner +as with another; yet he could not help suggesting to himself that +she need not have put QUITE so much spirit into her steps, nor +smiled QUITE so frequently whilst in the farmer's hands. + +"I'm afraid you didn't cast off," said Dick mildly to Mr. Shiner, +before the latter man's watch-chain had done vibrating from a recent +whirl. + +Fancy made a motion of accepting the correction; but her partner +took no notice, and proceeded with the next movement, with an +affectionate bend towards her. + +"That Shiner's too fond of her," the young man said to himself as he +watched them. They came to the top again, Fancy smiling warmly +towards her partner, and went to their places. + +"Mr. Shiner, you didn't cast off," said Dick, for want of something +else to demolish him with; casting off himself, and being put out at +the farmer's irregularity. + +"Perhaps I sha'n't cast off for any man," said Mr. Shiner. + +"I think you ought to, sir." + +Dick's partner, a young lady of the name of Lizzy--called Lizz for +short--tried to mollify. + +"I can't say that I myself have much feeling for casting off," she +said. + +"Nor I," said Mrs. Penny, following up the argument, "especially if +a friend and neighbour is set against it. Not but that 'tis a +terrible tasty thing in good hands and well done; yes, indeed, so +say I." + +"All I meant was," said Dick, rather sorry that he had spoken +correctingly to a guest, "that 'tis in the dance; and a man has +hardly any right to hack and mangle what was ordained by the regular +dance-maker, who, I daresay, got his living by making 'em, and +thought of nothing else all his life." + +"I don't like casting off: then very well; I cast off for no dance- +maker that ever lived." + +Dick now appeared to be doing mental arithmetic, the act being +really an effort to present to himself, in an abstract form, how far +an argument with a formidable rival ought to be carried, when that +rival was his mother's guest. The dead-lock was put an end to by +the stamping arrival up the middle of the tranter, who, despising +minutiae on principle, started a theme of his own. + +"I assure you, neighbours," he said, "the heat of my frame no tongue +can tell!" He looked around and endeavoured to give, by a forcible +gaze of self-sympathy, some faint idea of the truth. + +Mrs. Dewy formed one of the next couple. + +"Yes," she said, in an auxiliary tone, "Reuben always was such a hot +man." + +Mrs. Penny implied the species of sympathy that such a class of +affliction required, by trying to smile and to look grieved at the +same time. + +"If he only walk round the garden of a Sunday morning, his shirt- +collar is as limp as no starch at all," continued Mrs. Dewy, her +countenance lapsing parenthetically into a housewifely expression of +concern at the reminiscence. + +"Come, come, you women-folk; 'tis hands across--come, come!" said +the tranter; and the conversation ceased for the present. + + + +CHAPTER VIII: THEY DANCE MORE WILDLY + + + +Dick had at length secured Fancy for that most delightful of +country-dances, opening with six-hands-round. + +"Before we begin," said the tranter, "my proposal is, that 'twould +be a right and proper plan for every mortal man in the dance to pull +off his jacket, considering the heat." + +"Such low notions as you have, Reuben! Nothing but strip will go +down with you when you are a-dancing. Such a hot man as he is!" + +"Well, now, look here, my sonnies," he argued to his wife, whom he +often addressed in the plural masculine for economy of epithet +merely; "I don't see that. You dance and get hot as fire; therefore +you lighten your clothes. Isn't that nature and reason for gentle +and simple? If I strip by myself and not necessary, 'tis rather +pot-housey I own; but if we stout chaps strip one and all, why, 'tis +the native manners of the country, which no man can gainsay? Hey-- +what did you say, my sonnies?" + +"Strip we will!" said the three other heavy men who were in the +dance; and their coats were accordingly taken off and hung in the +passage, whence the four sufferers from heat soon reappeared, +marching in close column, with flapping shirt-sleeves, and having, +as common to them all, a general glance of being now a match for any +man or dancer in England or Ireland. Dick, fearing to lose ground +in Fancy's good opinion, retained his coat like the rest of the +thinner men; and Mr. Shiner did the same from superior knowledge. + +And now a further phase of revelry had disclosed itself. It was the +time of night when a guest may write his name in the dust upon the +tables and chairs, and a bluish mist pervades the atmosphere, +becoming a distinct halo round the candles; when people's nostrils, +wrinkles, and crevices in general, seem to be getting gradually +plastered up; when the very fiddlers as well as the dancers get red +in the face, the dancers having advanced further still towards +incandescence, and entered the cadaverous phase; the fiddlers no +longer sit down, but kick back their chairs and saw madly at the +strings, with legs firmly spread and eyes closed, regardless of the +visible world. Again and again did Dick share his Love's hand with +another man, and wheel round; then, more delightfully, promenade in +a circle with her all to himself, his arm holding her waist more +firmly each time, and his elbow getting further and further behind +her back, till the distance reached was rather noticeable; and, most +blissful, swinging to places shoulder to shoulder, her breath +curling round his neck like a summer zephyr that had strayed from +its proper date. Threading the couples one by one they reached the +bottom, when there arose in Dick's mind a minor misery lest the tune +should end before they could work their way to the top again, and +have anew the same exciting run down through. Dick's feelings on +actually reaching the top in spite of his doubts were supplemented +by a mortal fear that the fiddling might even stop at this supreme +moment; which prompted him to convey a stealthy whisper to the far- +gone musicians, to the effect that they were not to leave off till +he and his partner had reached the bottom of the dance once more, +which remark was replied to by the nearest of those convulsed and +quivering men by a private nod to the anxious young man between two +semiquavers of the tune, and a simultaneous "All right, ay, ay," +without opening the eyes. Fancy was now held so closely that Dick +and she were practically one person. The room became to Dick like a +picture in a dream; all that he could remember of it afterwards +being the look of the fiddlers going to sleep, as humming-tops +sleep, by increasing their motion and hum, together with the figures +of grandfather James and old Simon Crumpler sitting by the chimney- +corner, talking and nodding in dumb-show, and beating the air to +their emphatic sentences like people near a threshing machine. + +The dance ended. "Piph-h-h-h!" said tranter Dewy, blowing out his +breath in the very finest stream of vapour that a man's lips could +form. "A regular tightener, that one, sonnies!" He wiped his +forehead, and went to the cider and ale mugs on the table. + +"Well!" said Mrs. Penny, flopping into a chair, "my heart haven't +been in such a thumping state of uproar since I used to sit up on +old Midsummer-eves to see who my husband was going to be." + +"And that's getting on for a good few years ago now, from what I've +heard you tell," said the tranter, without lifting his eyes from the +cup he was filling. Being now engaged in the business of handing +round refreshments, he was warranted in keeping his coat off still, +though the other heavy men had resumed theirs. + +"And a thing I never expected would come to pass, if you'll believe +me, came to pass then," continued Mrs. Penny. "Ah, the first spirit +ever I see on a Midsummer-eve was a puzzle to me when he appeared, a +hard puzzle, so say I!" + +"So I should have fancied," said Elias Spinks. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Penny, throwing her glance into past times, and +talking on in a running tone of complacent abstraction, as if a +listener were not a necessity. "Yes; never was I in such a taking +as on that Midsummer-eve! I sat up, quite determined to see if John +Wildway was going to marry me or no. I put the bread-and-cheese and +beer quite ready, as the witch's book ordered, and I opened the +door, and I waited till the clock struck twelve, my nerves all alive +and so strained that I could feel every one of 'em twitching like +bell-wires. Yes, sure! and when the clock had struck, ho and +behold, I could see through the door a LITTLE SMALL man in the lane +wi' a shoemaker's apron on." + +Here Mr. Penny stealthily enlarged himself half an inch. + +"Now, John Wildway," Mrs. Penny continued, "who courted me at that +time, was a shoemaker, you see, but he was a very fair-sized man, +and I couldn't believe that any such a little small man had anything +to do wi' me, as anybody might. But on he came, and crossed the +threshold--not John, but actually the same little small man in the +shoemaker's apron--" + +"You needn't be so mighty particular about little and small!" said +her husband. + +"In he walks, and down he sits, and O my goodness me, didn't I flee +upstairs, body and soul hardly hanging together! Well, to cut a +long story short, by-long and by-late. John Wildway and I had a +miff and parted; and lo and behold, the coming man came! Penny +asked me if I'd go snacks with him, and afore I knew what I was +about a'most, the thing was done." + +"I've fancied you never knew better in your life; but I mid be +mistaken," said Mr. Penny in a murmur. + +After Mrs. Penny had spoken, there being no new occupation for her +eyes, she still let them stay idling on the past scenes just +related, which were apparently visible to her in the centre of the +room Mr. Penny's remark received no reply. + +During this discourse the tranter and his wife might have been +observed standing in an unobtrusive corner, in mysterious closeness +to each other, a just perceptible current of intelligence passing +from each to each, which had apparently no relation whatever to the +conversation of their guests, but much to their sustenance. A +conclusion of some kind having at length been drawn, the palpable +confederacy of man and wife was once more obliterated, the tranter +marching off into the pantry, humming a tune that he couldn't quite +recollect, and then breaking into the words of a song of which he +could remember about one line and a quarter. Mrs. Dewy spoke a few +words about preparations for a bit of supper. + +That elder portion of the company which loved eating and drinking +put on a look to signify that till this moment they had quite +forgotten that it was customary to expect suppers on these +occasions; going even further than this politeness of feature, and +starting irrelevant subjects, the exceeding flatness and forced tone +of which rather betrayed their object. The younger members said +they were quite hungry, and that supper would be delightful though +it was so late. + +Good luck attended Dick's love-passes during the meal. He sat next +Fancy, and had the thrilling pleasure of using permanently a glass +which had been taken by Fancy in mistake; of letting the outer edge +of the sole of his boot touch the lower verge of her skirt; and to +add to these delights the cat, which had lain unobserved in her hap +for several minutes, crept across into his own, touching him with +fur that had touched her hand a moment before. There were, besides, +some little pleasures in the shape of helping her to vegetable she +didn't want, and when it had nearly alighted on her plate taking it +across for his own use, on the plea of waste not, want not. He +also, from time to time, sipped sweet sly glances at her profile; +noticing the set of her head, the curve of her throat, and other +artistic properties of the lively goddess, who the while kept up a +rather free, not to say too free, conversation with Mr. Shiner +sitting opposite; which, after some uneasy criticism, and much +shifting of argument backwards and forwards in Dick's mind, he +decided not to consider of alarming significance. + +"A new music greets our ears now," said Miss Fancy, alluding, with +the sharpness that her position as village sharpener demanded, to +the contrast between the rattle of knives and forks and the late +notes of the fiddlers. + +"Ay; and I don't know but what 'tis sweeter in tone when you get +above forty," said the tranter; "except, in faith, as regards father +there. Never such a mortal man as he for tunes. They do move his +soul; don't 'em, father?" + +The eldest Dewy smiled across from his distant chair an assent to +Reuben's remark. + +"Spaking of being moved in soul," said Mr. Penny, "I shall never +forget the first time I heard the "Dead March." 'Twas at poor +Corp'l Nineman's funeral at Casterbridge. It fairly made my hair +creep and fidget about like a vlock of sheep--ah, it did, souls! +And when they had done, and the last trump had sounded, and the guns +was fired over the dead hero's grave, a' icy-cold drop o' moist +sweat hung upon my forehead, and another upon my jawbone. Ah, 'tis +a very solemn thing!" + +"Well, as to father in the corner there," the tranter said, pointing +to old William, who was in the act of filling his mouth; "he'd +starve to death for music's sake now, as much as when he was a boy- +chap of fifteen." + +"Truly, now," said Michael Mail, clearing the corner of his throat +in the manner of a man who meant to be convincing; 'there's a +friendly tie of some sort between music and eating." He lifted the +cup to his mouth, and drank himself gradually backwards from a +perpendicular position to a slanting one, during which time his +looks performed a circuit from the wall opposite him to the ceiling +overhead. Then clearing the other corner of his throat: 'Once I +was a-setting in the little kitchen of the Dree Mariners at +Casterbridge, having a bit of dinner, and a brass band struck up in +the street. Such a beautiful band as that were! I was setting +eating fried liver and lights, I well can mind--ah, I was! and to +save my life, I couldn't help chawing to the tune. Band played six- +eight time; six-eight chaws I, willynilly. Band plays common; +common time went my teeth among the liver and lights as true as a +hair. Beautiful 'twere! Ah, I shall never forget that there band!" + +"That's as tuneful a thing as ever I heard of," said grandfather +James, with the absent gaze which accompanies profound criticism. + +"I don't like Michael's tuneful stories then," said Mrs. Dewy. +"They are quite coarse to a person o' decent taste." + +Old Michael's mouth twitched here and there, as if he wanted to +smile but didn't know where to begin, which gradually settled to an +expression that it was not displeasing for a nice woman like the +tranter's wife to correct him. + +"Well, now," said Reuben, with decisive earnestness, "that sort o' +coarse touch that's so upsetting to Ann's feelings is to my mind a +recommendation; for it do always prove a story to be true. And for +the same reason, I like a story with a bad moral. My sonnies, all +true stories have a coarse touch or a bad moral, depend upon't. If +the story-tellers could ha' got decency and good morals from true +stories, who'd ha' troubled to invent parables?" Saying this the +tranter arose to fetch a new stock of cider, ale, mead, and home- +made wines. + +Mrs. Dewy sighed, and appended a remark (ostensibly behind her +husband's back, though that the words should reach his ears +distinctly was understood by both): "Such a man as Dewy is! Nobody +do know the trouble I have to keep that man barely respectable. And +did you ever hear too--just now at supper-time--talking about +"taties" with Michael in such a work-folk way. Well, 'tis what I +was never brought up to! With our family 'twas never less than +"taters," and very often "pertatoes" outright; mother was so +particular and nice with us girls there was no family in the parish +that kept them selves up more than we." + +The hour of parting came. Fancy could not remain for the night, +because she had engaged a woman to wait up for her. She disappeared +temporarily from the flagging party of dancers, and then came +downstairs wrapped up and looking altogether a different person from +whom she had been hitherto, in fact (to Dick's sadness and +disappointment), a woman somewhat reserved and of a phlegmatic +temperament--nothing left in her of the romping girl that she had +seemed but a short quarter-hour before, who had not minded the +weight of Dick's hand upon her waist, nor shirked the purlieus of +the mistletoe. + +"What a difference!" thought the young man--hoary cynic pro tem. +"What a miserable deceiving difference between the manners of a +maid's life at dancing times and at others! Look at this lovely +Fancy! Through the whole past evening touchable, squeezeable--even +kissable! For whole half-hours I held her so chose to me that not a +sheet of paper could have been shipped between us; and I could feel +her heart only just outside my own, her life beating on so close to +mine, that I was aware of every breath in it. A flit is made +upstairs--a hat and a cloak put on--and I no more dare to touch her +than--" Thought failed him, and he returned to realities. + +But this was an endurable misery in comparison with what followed. +Mr. Shiner and his watch-chain, taking the intrusive advantage that +ardent bachelors who are going homeward along the same road as a +pretty young woman always do take of that circumstance, came forward +to assure Fancy--with a total disregard of Dick's emotions, and in +tones which were certainly not frigid--that he (Shiner) was not the +man to go to bed before seeing his Lady Fair safe within her own +door--not he, nobody should say he was that;--and that he would not +leave her side an inch till the thing was done--drown him if he +would. The proposal was assented to by Miss Day, in Dick's +foreboding judgment, with one degree--or at any rate, an appreciable +fraction of a degree--of warmth beyond that required by a +disinterested desire for protection from the dangers of the night. + +All was over; and Dick surveyed the chair she had last occupied, +looking now like a setting from which the gem has been torn. There +stood her glass, and the romantic teaspoonful of elder wine at the +bottom that she couldn't drink by trying ever so hard, in obedience +to the mighty arguments of the tranter (his hand coming down upon +her shoulder the while, like a Nasmyth hammer); but the drinker was +there no longer. There were the nine or ten pretty little crumbs +she had left on her plate; but the eater was no more seen. + +There seemed a disagreeable closeness of relationship between +himself and the members of his family, now that they were left alone +again face to face. His father seemed quite offensive for appearing +to be in just as high spirits as when the guests were there; and as +for grandfather James (who had not yet left), he was quite fiendish +in being rather glad they were gone. + +"Really," said the tranter, in a tone of placid satisfaction, "I've +had so little time to attend to myself all the evenen, that I mean +to enjoy a quiet meal now! A slice of this here ham--neither too +fat nor too lean--so; and then a drop of this vinegar and pickles-- +there, that's it--and I shall be as fresh as a lark again! And to +tell the truth, my sonny, my inside has been as dry as a lime-basket +all night." + +"I like a party very well once in a while," said Mrs. Dewy, leaving +off the adorned tones she had been bound to use throughout the +evening, and returning to the natural marriage voice; "but, Lord, +'tis such a sight of heavy work next day! What with the dirty +plates, and knives and forks, and dust and smother, and bits kicked +off your furniture, and I don't know what all, why a body could +a'most wish there were no such things as Christmases . . . Ah-h +dear!" she yawned, till the chock in the corner had ticked several +beats. She cast her eyes round upon the displaced, dust-laden +furniture, and sank down overpowered at the sight. + +"Well, I be getting all right by degrees, thank the Lord for't!" +said the tranter cheerfully through a mangled mass of ham and bread, +without lifting his eyes from his plate, and chopping away with his +knife and fork as if he were felling trees. "Ann, you may as well +go on to bed at once, and not bide there making such sleepy faces; +you look as long-favoured as a fiddle, upon my life, Ann. There, +you must be wearied out, 'tis true. I'll do the doors and draw up +the clock; and you go on, or you'll be as white as a sheet to- +morrow." + +"Ay; I don't know whether I shan't or no." The matron passed her +hand across her eyes to brush away the film of sheep till she got +upstairs. + +Dick wondered how it was that when people were married they could be +so blind to romance; and was quite certain that if he ever took to +wife that dear impossible Fancy, he and she would never be so +dreadfully practical and undemonstrative of the Passion as his +father and mother were. The most extraordinary thing was, that all +the fathers and mothers he knew were just as undemonstrative as his +own. + + + +CHAPTER IX: DICK CALLS AT THE SCHOOL + + + +The early days of the year drew on, and Fancy, having spent the +holiday weeks at borne, returned again to Mellstock. + +Every spare minute of the week following her return was used by Dick +in accidentally passing the schoolhouse in his journeys about the +neighbourhood; but not once did she make herself visible. A +handkerchief belonging to her had been providentially found by his +mother in clearing the rooms the day after that of the dance; and by +much contrivance Dick got it handed over to him, to leave with her +at any time he should be near the school after her return. But he +delayed taking the extreme measure of calling with it lest, had she +really no sentiment of interest in him, it might be regarded as a +slightly absurd errand, the reason guessed; and the sense of the +ludicrous, which was rather keen in her, do his dignity considerable +injury in her eyes; and what she thought of him, even apart from the +question of her loving, was all the world to him now. + +But the hour came when the patience of love at twenty-one could +endure no longer. One Saturday he approached the school with a mild +air of indifference, and had the satisfaction of seeing the object +of his quest at the further end of her garden, trying, by the aid of +a spade and gloves, to root a bramble that had intruded itself +there. + +He disguised his feelings from some suspicious-looking cottage- +windows opposite by endeavouring to appear like a man in a great +hurry of business, who wished to leave the handkerchief and have +done with such trifling errands. + +This endeavour signally failed; for on approaching the gate he found +it locked to keep the children, who were playing 'cross-dadder' in +the front, from running into her private grounds. + +She did not see him; and he could only think of one thing to be +done, which was to shout her name. + +"Miss Day!" + +The words were uttered with a jerk and a look meant to imply to the +cottages opposite that he was now simply one who liked shouting as a +pheasant way of passing his time, without any reference to persons +in gardens. The name died away, and the unconscious Miss Day +continued digging and pulling as before. + +He screwed himself up to enduring the cottage-windows yet more +stoically, and shouted again. Fancy took no notice whatever. + +He shouted the third time, with desperate vehemence, turning +suddenly about and retiring a little distance, as if it were by no +means for his own pleasure that he had come. + +This time she heard him, came down the garden, and entered the +school at the back. Footsteps echoed across the interior, the door +opened, and three-quarters of the blooming young schoolmistress's +face and figure stood revealed before him; a slice on her left-hand +side being cut off by the edge of the door. Having surveyed and +recognized him, she came to the gate. + +At sight of him had the pink of her cheeks increased, lessened, or +did it continue to cover its normal area of ground? It was a +question meditated several hundreds of times by her visitor in +after-hours--the meditation, after wearying involutions, always +ending in one way, that it was impossible to say. + +"Your handkerchief: Miss Day: I called with." He held it out +spasmodically and awkwardly. "Mother found it: under a chair." + +"O, thank you very much for bringing it, Mr. Dewy. I couldn't think +where I had dropped it." + +Now Dick, not being an experienced lover--indeed, never before +having been engaged in the practice of love-making at all, except in +a small schoolboy way--could not take advantage of the situation; +and out came the blunder, which afterwards cost him so many bitter +moments and a sleepless night:- + +"Good morning, Miss Day." + +"Good morning, Mr. Dewy." + +The gate was closed; she was gone; and Dick was standing outside, +unchanged in his condition from what he had been before he called. +Of course the Angel was not to blame--a young woman living alone in +a house could not ask him indoors unless she had known him better-- +he should have kept her outside before floundering into that fatal +farewell. He wished that before he called he had realized more +fully than he did the pleasure of being about to call; and turned +away. + + + + +PART THE SECOND--SPRING + + + + +CHAPTER I: PASSING BY THE SCHOOL + + + +It followed that, as the spring advanced, Dick walked abroad much +more frequently than had hitherto been usual with him, and was +continually finding that his nearest way to or from home lay by the +road which skirted the garden of the school. The first-fruits of +his perseverance were that, on turning the angle on the nineteenth +journey by that track, he saw Miss Fancy's figure, clothed in a +dark-gray dress, looking from a high open window upon the crown of +his hat. The friendly greeting resulting from this rencounter was +considered so valuable an elixir that Dick passed still oftener; and +by the time he had almost trodden a little path under the fence +where never a path was before, he was rewarded with an actual +meeting face to face on the open road before her gate. This brought +another meeting, and another, Fancy faintly showing by her bearing +that it was a pleasure to her of some kind to see him there but the +sort of pleasure she derived, whether exultation at the hope her +exceeding fairness inspired, or the true feeling which was alone +Dick's concern, he could not anyhow decide, although he meditated on +her every little movement for hours after it was made. + + + +CHAPTER II: A MEETING OF THE QUIRE + + + +It was the evening of a fine spring day. The descending sun +appeared as a nebulous blaze of amber light, its outline being lost +in cloudy masses hanging round it, like wild locks of hair. + +The chief members of Mellstock parish choir were standing in a group +in front of Mr. Penny's workshop in the lower village. They were +all brightly illuminated, and each was backed up by a shadow as long +as a steeple the lowness of the source of light rendering the brims +of their hats of no use at all as a protection to the eyes. + +Mr. Penny's was the last house in that part of the parish, and stood +in a hollow by the roadside so that cart-wheels and horses' legs +were about level with the sill of his shop-window. This was low and +wide, and was open from morning till evening, Mr. Penny himself +being invariably seen working inside, like a framed portrait of a +shoemaker by some modern Moroni. He sat facing the road, with a +boot on his knees and the awl in his hand, only looking up for a +moment as he stretched out his arms and bent forward at the pull, +when his spectacles flashed in the passer's face with a shine of +flat whiteness, and then returned again to the boot as usual. Rows +of lasts, small and large, stout and slender, covered the wall which +formed the background, in the extreme shadow of which a kind of +dummy was seen sitting, in the shape of an apprentice with a string +tied round his hair (probably to keep it out of his eyes). He +smiled at remarks that floated in from without, but was never known +to answer them in Mr. Penny's presence. Outside the window the +upper-leather of a Wellington-boot was usually hung, pegged to a +board as if to dry. No sign was over his door; in fact--as with old +banks and mercantile houses--advertising in any shape was scorned, +and it would have been felt as beneath his dignity to paint up, for +the benefit of strangers, the name of an establishment whose trade +came solely by connection based on personal respect. + +His visitors now came and stood on the outside of his window, +sometimes leaning against the sill, sometimes moving a pace or two +backwards and forwards in front of it. They talked with deliberate +gesticulations to Mr. Penny, enthroned in the shadow of the +interior. + +"I do like a man to stick to men who be in the same line o' life--o' +Sundays, anyway--that I do so." + +"'Tis like all the doings of folk who don't know what a day's work +is, that's what I say." + +"My belief is the man's not to blame; 'tis SHE--she's the bitter +weed!" + +"No, not altogether. He's a poor gawk-hammer. Look at his sermon +yesterday." + +"His sermon was well enough, a very good guessable sermon, only he +couldn't put it into words and speak it. That's all was the matter +wi' the sermon. He hadn't been able to get it past his pen." + +"Well--ay, the sermon might have been good; for, 'tis true, the +sermon of Old Eccl'iastes himself lay in Eccl'iastes's ink-bottle +afore he got it out." + +Mr. Penny, being in the act of drawing the last stitch tight, could +afford time to look up and throw in a word at this point. + +"He's no spouter--that must be said, 'a b'lieve." + +"'Tis a terrible muddle sometimes with the man, as far as spout do +go," said Spinks. + +"Well, we'll say nothing about that," the tranter answered; "for I +don't believe 'twill make a penneth o' difference to we poor martels +here or hereafter whether his sermons be good or bad, my sonnies." + +Mr. Penny made another hole with his awl, pushed in the thread, and +looked up and spoke again at the extension of arms. + +"'Tis his goings-on, souls, that's what it is." He clenched his +features for an Herculean addition to the ordinary pull, and +continued, "The first thing he done when he came here was to be hot +and strong about church business." + +"True," said Spinks; "that was the very first thing he done." + +Mr. Penny, having now been offered the ear of the assembly, accepted +it, ceased stitching, swallowed an unimportant quantity of air as if +it were a pill, and continued: + +"The next thing he do do is to think about altering the church, +until he found 'twould be a matter o' cost and what not, and then +not to think no more about it." + +"True: that was the next thing he done." + +"And the next thing was to tell the young chaps that they were not +on no account to put their hats in the christening font during +service." + +"True." + +"And then 'twas this, and then 'twas that, and now 'tis--" + +Words were not forcible enough to conclude the sentence, and Mr. +Penny gave a huge pull to signify the concluding word. + +"Now 'tis to turn us out of the quire neck and crop," said the +tranter after an interval of half a minute, not by way of explaining +the pause and pull, which had been quite understood, but as a means +of keeping the subject well before the meeting. + +Mrs. Penny came to the door at this point in the discussion. Like +all good wives, however much she was inclined to play the Tory to +her husband's Whiggism, and vice versa, in times of peace, she +coalesced with him heartily enough in time of war. + +"It must be owned he's not all there," she replied in a general way +to the fragments of talk she had heard from indoors. "Far below +poor Mr. Grinham" (the late vicar). + +"Ay, there was this to be said for he, that you were quite sure he'd +never come mumbudgeting to see ye, just as you were in the middle of +your work, and put you out with his fuss and trouble about ye." + +"Never. But as for this new Mr. Maybold, though he mid be a very +well-intending party in that respect, he's unbearable; for as to +sifting your cinders, scrubbing your floors, or emptying your slops, +why, you can't do it. I assure you I've not been able to empt them +for several days, unless I throw 'em up the chimley or out of +winder; for as sure as the sun you meet him at the door, coming to +ask how you are, and 'tis such a confusing thing to meet a gentleman +at the door when ye are in the mess o' washing." + +"'Tis only for want of knowing better, poor gentleman," said the +tranter. "His meaning's good enough. Ay, your pa'son comes by +fate: 'tis heads or tails, like pitch-halfpenny, and no choosing; +so we must take en as he is, my sonnies, and thank God he's no +worse, I suppose." + +"I fancy I've seen him look across at Miss Day in a warmer way than +Christianity asked for," said Mrs. Penny musingly; "but I don't +quite like to say it." + +"O no; there's nothing in that," said grandfather William. + +"If there's nothing, we shall see nothing," Mrs. Penny replied, in +the tone of a woman who might possibly have private opinions still. + +"Ah, Mr. Grinham was the man!" said Bowman. "Why, he never troubled +us wi' a visit from year's end to year's end. You might go +anywhere, do anything: you'd be sure never to see him." + +"Yes, he was a right sensible pa'son," said Michael. "He never +entered our door but once in his life, and that was to tell my poor +wife--ay, poor soul, dead and gone now, as we all shall I--that as +she was such a' old aged person, and lived so far from the church, +he didn't at all expect her to come any more to the service." + +"And 'a was a very jinerous gentleman about choosing the psalms and +hymns o' Sundays. 'Confound ye,' says he, 'blare and scrape what ye +will, but don't bother me!'" + +"And he was a very honourable man in not wanting any of us to come +and hear him if we were all on-end for a jaunt or spree, or to bring +the babies to be christened if they were inclined to squalling. +There's good in a man's not putting a parish to unnecessary +trouble." + +"And there's this here man never letting us have a bit o' peace; but +keeping on about being good and upright till 'tis carried to such a +pitch as I never see the like afore nor since!" + +"No sooner had he got here than he found the font wouldn't hold +water, as it hadn't for years off and on; and when I told him that +Mr. Grinham never minded it, but used to spet upon his vinger and +christen 'em just as well, 'a said, 'Good Heavens! Send for a +workman immediate. What place have I come to!' Which was no +compliment to us, come to that." + +"Still, for my part," said old William, "though he's arrayed against +us, I like the hearty borussnorus ways of the new pa'son." + +"You, ready to die for the quire," said Bowman reproachfully, "to +stick up for the quire's enemy, William!" + +"Nobody will feel the loss of our church-work so much as I," said +the old man firmly; "that you d'all know. I've a-been in the quire +man and boy ever since I was a chiel of eleven. But for all that +'tisn't in me to call the man a bad man, because I truly and +sincerely believe en to be a good young feller." + +Some of the youthful sparkle that used to reside there animated +William's eye as he uttered the words, and a certain nobility of +aspect was also imparted to him by the setting sun, which gave him a +Titanic shadow at least thirty feet in length, stretching away to +the east in outlines of imposing magnitude, his head finally +terminating upon the trunk of a grand old oak-tree. + +"Mayble's a hearty feller enough," the tranter replied, "and will +spak to you be you dirty or be you clane. The first time I met en +was in a drong, and though 'a didn't know me no more than the dead, +'a passed the time of day. 'D'ye do?' he said, says he, nodding his +head. 'A fine day.' Then the second time I met en was full-buff in +town street, when my breeches were tore into a long strent by +getting through a copse of thorns and brimbles for a short cut home- +along; and not wanting to disgrace the man by spaking in that state, +I fixed my eye on the weathercock to let en pass me as a stranger. +But no: 'How d'ye do, Reuben?' says he, right hearty, and shook my +hand. If I'd been dressed in silver spangles from top to toe, the +man couldn't have been civiller." + +At this moment Dick was seen coming up the village-street, and they +turned and watched him. + + + +CHAPTER III: A TURN IN THE DISCUSSION + + + +"I'm afraid Dick's a lost man," said the tranter. + +"What?--no!" said Mail, implying by his manner that it was a far +commoner thing for his ears to report what was not said than that +his judgment should be at fault. + +"Ay," said the tranter, still gazing at Dick's unconscious advance. +"I don't at all like what I see! There's too many o' them looks out +of the winder without noticing anything; too much shining of boots; +too much peeping round corners; too much looking at the clock; +telling about clever things SHE did till you be sick of it; and then +upon a hint to that effect a horrible silence about her. I've +walked the path once in my life and know the country, neighbours; +and Dick's a lost man!" The tranter turned a quarter round and +smiled a smile of miserable satire at the setting new moon, which +happened to catch his eye. + +The others became far too serious at this announcement to allow them +to speak; and they still regarded Dick in the distance. + +"'Twas his mother's fault," the tranter continued, "in asking the +young woman to our party last Christmas. When I eyed the blue frock +and light heels o' the maid, I had my thoughts directly. 'God bless +thee, Dicky my sonny,' I said to myself; 'there's a delusion for +thee!'" + +"They seemed to be rather distant in manner last Sunday, I thought?" +Mail tentatively observed, as became one who was not a member of the +family. + +"Ay, that's a part of the zickness. Distance belongs to it, slyness +belongs to it, queerest things on earth belongs to it! There, 'tmay +as well come early as late s'far as I know. The sooner begun, the +sooner over; for come it will." + +"The question I ask is," said Mr. Spinks, connecting into one thread +the two subjects of discourse, as became a man learned in rhetoric, +and beating with his hand in a way which signified that the manner +rather than the matter of his speech was to be observed, "how did +Mr. Maybold know she could play the organ? You know we had it from +her own lips, as far as hips go, that she has never, first or last, +breathed such a thing to him; much less that she ever would play." + +In the midst of this puzzle Dick joined the party, and the news +which had caused such a convulsion among the ancient musicians was +unfolded to him. "Well," he said, blushing at the allusion to Miss +Day, "I know by some words of hers that she has a particular wish +not to play, because she is a friend of ours; and how the alteration +comes, I don't know." + +"Now, this is my plan," said the tranter, reviving the spirit of the +discussion by the infusion of new ideas, as was his custom--"this is +my plan; if you don't like it, no harm's done. We all know one +another very well, don't we, neighbours?" + +That they knew one another very well was received as a statement +which, though familiar, should not be omitted in introductory +speeches. + +"Then I say this"--and the tranter in his emphasis slapped down his +hand on Mr. Spinks's shoulder with a momentum of several pounds, +upon which Mr. Spinks tried to look not in the least startled--"I +say that we all move down-along straight as a line to Pa'son +Mayble's when the clock has gone six to-morrow night. There we one +and all stand in the passage, then one or two of us go in and spak +to en, man and man; and say, 'Pa'son Mayble, every tradesman d'like +to have his own way in his workshop, and Mellstock Church is yours. +Instead of turning us out neck and crop, let us stay on till +Christmas, and we'll gie way to the young woman, Mr. Mayble, and +make no more ado about it. And we shall always be quite willing to +touch our hats when we meet ye, Mr. Mayble, just as before.' That +sounds very well? Hey?" + +"Proper well, in faith, Reuben Dewy." + +"And we won't sit down in his house; 'twould be looking too familiar +when only just reconciled?" + +"No need at all to sit down. Just do our duty man and man, turn +round, and march out--he'll think all the more of us for it." + +"I hardly think Leaf had better go wi' us?" said Michael, turning to +Leaf and taking his measure from top to bottom by the eye. "He's so +terrible silly that he might ruin the concern." + +"He don't want to go much; do ye, Thomas Leaf?" said William. + +"Hee-hee! no; I don't want to. Only a teeny bit!" + +"I be mortal afeard, Leaf; that you'll never be able to tell how +many cuts d'take to sharpen a spar," said Mail. + +"I never had no head, never! that's how it happened to happen, hee- +hee!" + +They all assented to this, not with any sense of humiliating Leaf by +disparaging him after an open confession, but because it was an +accepted thing that Leaf didn't in the least mind having no head, +that deficiency of his being an unimpassioned matter of parish +history. + +"But I can sing my treble!" continued Thomas Leaf; quite delighted +at being called a fool in such a friendly way; "I can sing my treble +as well as any maid, or married woman either, and better! And if +Jim had lived, I should have had a clever brother! To-morrow is +poor Jim's birthday. He'd ha' been twenty-six if he'd lived till +to-morrow." + +"You always seem very sorry for Jim," said old William musingly. + +"Ah! I do. Such a stay to mother as he'd always ha' been! She'd +never have had to work in her old age if he had continued strong, +poor Jim!" + +"What was his age when 'a died?" + +"Four hours and twenty minutes, poor Jim. 'A was born as might be +at night; and 'a didn't last as might be till the morning. No, 'a +didn't last. Mother called en Jim on the day that would ha' been +his christening day if he had lived; and she's always thinking about +en. You see he died so very young." + +"Well, 'twas rather youthful," said Michael. + +"Now to my mind that woman is very romantical on the matter o' +children?" said the tranter, his eye sweeping his audience. + +"Ah, well she mid be," said Leaf. "She had twelve regular one after +another, and they all, except myself; died very young; either before +they was born or just afterwards." + +"Pore feller, too. I suppose th'st want to come wi' us?" the +tranter murmured. + +"Well, Leaf; you shall come wi' us as yours is such a melancholy +family," said old William rather sadly. + +"I never see such a melancholy family as that afore in my life," +said Reuben. "There's Leaf's mother, poor woman! Every morning I +see her eyes mooning out through the panes of glass like a pot-sick +winder-flower; and as Leaf sings a very high treble, and we don't +know what we should do without en for upper G, we'll let en come as +a trate, poor feller." + +"Ay, we'll let en come, 'a b'lieve," said Mr. Penny, looking up, as +the pull happened to be at that moment. + +"Now," continued the tranter, dispersing by a new tone of voice +these digressions about Leaf; "as to going to see the pa'son, one of +us might call and ask en his meaning, and 'twould be just as well +done; but it will add a bit of flourish to the cause if the quire +waits on him as a body. Then the great thing to mind is, not for +any of our fellers to be nervous; so before starting we'll one and +all come to my house and have a rasher of bacon; then every man-jack +het a pint of cider into his inside; then we'll warm up an extra +drop wi' some mead and a bit of ginger; every one take a thimbleful- +-just a glimmer of a drop, mind ye, no more, to finish off his inner +man--and march off to Pa'son Mayble. Why, sonnies, a man's not +himself till he is fortified wi' a bit and a drop? We shall be able +to look any gentleman in the face then without shrink or shame." + +Mail recovered from a deep meditation and downward glance into the +earth in time to give a cordial approval to this line of action, and +the meeting adjourned. + + + +CHAPTER IV: INTERVIEW WITH THE VICAR + + + +At six o'clock the next day, the whole body of men in the choir +emerged from the tranter's door, and advanced with a firm step down +the lane. This dignity of march gradually became obliterated as +they went on, and by the time they reached the hill behind the +vicarage a faint resemblance to a flock of sheep might have been +discerned in the venerable party. A word from the tranter, however, +set them right again; and as they descended the hill, the regular +tramp, tramp, tramp of the united feet was clearly audible from the +vicarage garden. At the opening of the gate there was another short +interval of irregular shuffling, caused by a rather peculiar habit +the gate had, when swung open quickly, of striking against the bank +and slamming back into the opener's face. + +"Now keep step again, will ye?" said the tranter. "It looks better, +and more becomes the high class of arrant which has brought us +here." Thus they advanced to the door. + +At Reuben's ring the more modest of the group turned aside, adjusted +their hats, and looked critically at any shrub that happened to lie +in the line of vision; endeavouring thus to give a person who +chanced to look out of the windows the impression that their +request, whatever it was going to be, was rather a casual thought +occurring whilst they were inspecting the vicar's shrubbery and +grass-plot than a predetermined thing. The tranter, who, coming +frequently to the vicarage with luggage, coals, firewood, etc., had +none of the awe for its precincts that filled the breasts of most of +the others, fixed his eyes firmly on the knocker during this +interval of waiting. The knocker having no characteristic worthy of +notice, he relinquished it for a knot in one of the door-panels, and +studied the winding lines of the grain. + +"O, sir, please, here's Tranter Dewy, and old William Dewy, and +young Richard Dewy, O, and all the quire too, sir, except the boys, +a-come to see you!" said Mr. Maybold's maid-servant to Mr. Maybold, +the pupils of her eyes dilating like circles in a pond. + +"All the choir?" said the astonished vicar (who may be shortly +described as a good-looking young man with courageous eyes, timid +mouth, and neutral nose), abandoning his writing and looking at his +parlour-maid after speaking, like a man who fancied he had seen her +face before but couldn't recollect where. + +"And they looks very firm, and Tranter Dewy do turn neither to the +right hand nor to the left, but stares quite straight and solemn +with his mind made up!" + +"O, all the choir," repeated the vicar to himself; trying by that +simple device to trot out his thoughts on what the choir could come +for. + +"Yes; every man-jack of 'em, as I be alive!" (The parlour-maid was +rather local in manner, having in fact been raised in the same +village.) "Really, sir, 'tis thoughted by many in town and country +that--" + +"Town and country!--Heavens, I had no idea that I was public +property in this way!" said the vicar, his face acquiring a hue +somewhere between that of the rose and the peony. "Well, 'It is +thought in town and country that--'" + +"It is thought that you be going to get it hot and strong--excusen +my incivility, sir." + +The vicar suddenly recalled to his recollection that he had long ago +settled it to be decidedly a mistake to encourage his servant Jane +in giving personal opinions. The servant Jane saw by the vicar's +face that he recalled this fact to his mind; and removing her +forehead from the edge of the door, and rubbing away the indent that +edge had made, vanished into the passage as Mr. Maybold remarked, +"Show them in, Jane." + +A few minutes later a shuffling and jostling (reduced to as refined +a form as was compatible with the nature of shuffles and jostles) +was heard in the passage; then an earnest and prolonged wiping of +shoes, conveying the notion that volumes of mud had to be removed; +but the roads being so clean that not a particle of dirt appeared on +the choir's boots (those of all the elder members being newly oiled, +and Dick's brightly polished), this wiping might have been set down +simply as a desire to show that respectable men had no wish to take +a mean advantage of clean roads for curtailing proper ceremonies. +Next there came a powerful whisper from the same quarter:- + +"Now stand stock-still there, my sonnies, one and all! And don't +make no noise; and keep your backs close to the wall, that company +may pass in and out easy if they want to without squeezing through +ye: and we two are enough to go in." . . . The voice was the +tranter's. + +"I wish I could go in too and see the sight!" said a reedy voice-- +that of Leaf. + +"'Tis a pity Leaf is so terrible silly, or else he might," said +another. + +"I never in my life seed a quire go into a study to have it out +about the playing and singing," pleaded Leaf; "and I should like to +see it just once!" + +"Very well; we'll let en come in," said the tranter. "You'll be +like chips in porridge, {1} Leaf--neither good nor hurt. All right, +my sonny, come along;" and immediately himself, old William, and +Leaf appeared in the room. + +"We took the liberty to come and see 'ee, sir," said Reuben, letting +his hat hang in his left hand, and touching with his right the brim +of an imaginary one on his head. "We've come to see 'ee, sir, man +and man, and no offence, I hope?" + +"None at all," said Mr. Maybold. + +"This old aged man standing by my side is father; William Dewy by +name, sir." + +"Yes; I see it is," said the vicar, nodding aside to old William, +who smiled. + +"I thought you mightn't know en without his bass-viol," the tranter +apologized. "You see, he always wears his best clothes and his +bass-viol a-Sundays, and it do make such a difference in a' old +man's look." + +"And who's that young man?" the vicar said. + +"Tell the pa'son yer name," said the tranter, turning to Leaf; who +stood with his elbows nailed back to a bookcase. + +"Please, Thomas Leaf, your holiness!" said Leaf; trembling. + +"I hope you'll excuse his looks being so very thin," continued the +tranter deprecatingly, turning to the vicar again. "But 'tisn't his +fault, poor feller. He's rather silly by nature, and could never +get fat; though he's a' excellent treble, and so we keep him on." + +"I never had no head, sir," said Leaf; eagerly grasping at this +opportunity for being forgiven his existence. + +"Ah, poor young man!" said Mr. Maybold. + +"Bless you, he don't mind it a bit, if you don't, sir," said the +tranter assuringly. "Do ye, Leaf?" + +"Not I--not a morsel--hee, hee! I was afeard it mightn't please +your holiness, sir, that's all." + +The tranter, finding Leaf get on so very well through his negative +qualities, was tempted in a fit of generosity to advance him still +higher, by giving him credit for positive ones. "He's very clever +for a silly chap, good-now, sir. You never knowed a young feller +keep his smock-frocks so clane; very honest too. His ghastly looks +is all there is against en, poor feller; but we can't help our +looks, you know, sir." + +"True: we cannot. You live with your mother, I think, Leaf?" + +The tranter looked at Leaf to express that the most friendly +assistant to his tongue could do no more for him now, and that he +must be left to his own resources. + +"Yes, sir: a widder, sir. Ah, if brother Jim had lived she'd have +had a clever son to keep her without work!" + +"Indeed! poor woman. Give her this half-crown. I'll call and see +your mother." + +"Say, 'Thank you, sir,'" the tranter whispered imperatively towards +Leaf. + +"Thank you, sir!" said Leaf. + +"That's it, then; sit down, Leaf;" said Mr. Maybold. + +"Y-yes, sir!" + +The tranter cleared his throat after this accidental parenthesis +about Leaf; rectified his bodily position, and began his speech. + +"Mr. Mayble," he said, "I hope you'll excuse my common way, but I +always like to look things in the face." + +Reuben made a point of fixing this sentence in the vicar's mind by +gazing hard at him at the conclusion of it, and then out of the +window. + +Mr. Maybold and old William looked in the same direction, apparently +under the impression that the things' faces alluded to were there +visible. + +"What I have been thinking"--the tranter implied by this use of the +past tense that he was hardly so discourteous as to be positively +thinking it then--"is that the quire ought to be gie'd a little +time, and not done away wi' till Christmas, as a fair thing between +man and man. And, Mr. Mayble, I hope you'll excuse my common way?" + +"I will, I will. Till Christmas," the vicar murmured, stretching +the two words to a great length, as if the distance to Christmas +might be measured in that way. "Well, I want you all to understand +that I have no personal fault to find, and that I don't wish to +change the church music by forcible means, or in a way which should +hurt the feelings of any parishioners. Why I have at last spoken +definitely on the subject is that a player has been brought under--I +may say pressed upon--my notice several times by one of the +churchwardens. And as the organ I brought with me is here waiting" +(pointing to a cabinet-organ standing in the study), "there is no +reason for longer delay." + +"We made a mistake I suppose then, sir? But we understood the young +woman didn't want to play particularly?" The tranter arranged his +countenance to signify that he did not want to be inquisitive in the +least. + +"No, nor did she. Nor did I definitely wish her to just yet; for +your playing is very good. But, as I said, one of the churchwardens +has been so anxious for a change, that, as matters stand, I couldn't +consistently refuse my consent." + +Now for some reason or other, the vicar at this point seemed to have +an idea that he had prevaricated; and as an honest vicar, it was a +thing he determined not to do. He corrected himself; blushing as he +did so, though why he should blush was not known to Reuben. + +"Understand me rightly," he said: "the church-warden proposed it to +me, but I had thought myself of getting--Miss Day to play." + +"Which churchwarden might that be who proposed her, sir?--excusing +my common way." The tranter intimated by his tone that, so far from +being inquisitive, he did not even wish to ask a single question. + +"Mr. Shiner, I believe." + +"Clk, my sonny!--beg your pardon, sir, that's only a form of words +of mine, and slipped out accidental--he nourishes enmity against us +for some reason or another; perhaps because we played rather hard +upon en Christmas night. Anyhow 'tis certain sure that Mr. Shiner's +real love for music of a particular kind isn't his reason. He've no +more ear than that chair. But let that be." + +"I don't think you should conclude that, because Mr. Shiner wants a +different music, he has any ill-feeling for you. I myself; I must +own, prefer organ-music to any other. I consider it most proper, +and feel justified in endeavouring to introduce it; but then, +although other music is better, I don't say yours is not good." + +"Well then, Mr. Mayble, since death's to be, we'll die like men any +day you name (excusing my common way)." + +Mr. Maybold bowed his head. + +"All we thought was, that for us old ancient singers to be choked +off quiet at no time in particular, as now, in the Sundays after +Easter, would seem rather mean in the eyes of other parishes, sir. +But if we fell glorious with a bit of a flourish at Christmas, we +should have a respectable end, and not dwindle away at some nameless +paltry second-Sunday-after or Sunday-next-before something, that's +got no name of his own." + +"Yes, yes, that's reasonable; I own it's reasonable." + +"You see, Mr. Mayble, we've got--do I keep you inconvenient long, +sir?" + +"No, no." + +"We've got our feelings--father there especially." + +The tranter, in his earnestness, had advanced his person to within +six inches of the vicar's. + +"Certainly, certainly!" said Mr. Maybold, retreating a little for +convenience of seeing. "You are all enthusiastic on the subject, +and I am all the more gratified to find you so. A Laodicean +lukewarmness is worse than wrongheadedness itself." + +"Exactly, sir. In fact now, Mr. Mayble," Reuben continued, more +impressively, and advancing a little closer still to the vicar, +"father there is a perfect figure o' wonder, in the way of being +fond of music!" + +The vicar drew back a little further, the tranter suddenly also +standing back a foot or two, to throw open the view of his father, +and pointing to him at the same time. + +Old William moved uneasily in the large chair, and with a minute +smile on the mere edge of his lips, for good-manners, said he was +indeed very fond of tunes. + +"Now, you see exactly how it is," Reuben continued, appealing to Mr. +Maybold's sense of justice by looking sideways into his eyes. The +vicar seemed to see how it was so well that the gratified tranter +walked up to him again with even vehement eagerness, so that his +waistcoat-buttons almost rubbed against the vicar's as he continued: +"As to father, if you or I, or any man or woman of the present +generation, at the time music is a-playing, was to shake your fist +in father's face, as may be this way, and say, "Don't you be +delighted with that music!--the tranter went back to where Leaf was +sitting, and held his fist so close to Leaf's face that the latter +pressed his head back against the wall: "All right, Leaf; my sonny, +I won't hurt you; 'tis just to show my meaning to Mr. Mayble.--As I +was saying, if you or I, or any man, was to shake your fist in +father's face this way, and say, "William, your life or your music!" +he'd say, "My life!" Now that's father's nature all over; and you +see, sir, it must hurt the feelings of a man of that kind for him +and his bass-viol to be done away wi' neck and crop." + +The tranter went back to the vicar's front and again looked +earnestly at his face. + +"True, true, Dewy," Mr. Maybold answered, trying to withdraw his +head and shoulders without moving his feet; but finding this +impracticable, edging back another inch. These frequent retreats +had at last jammed Mr. Maybold between his easy-chair and the edge +of the table. + +And at the moment of the announcement of the choir, Mr. Maybold had +just re-dipped the pen he was using; at their entry, instead of +wiping it, he had laid it on the table with the nib overhanging. At +the last retreat his coat-tails came in contact with the pen, and +down it rolled, first against the back of the chair, thence turning +a summersault into the seat, thence falling to the floor with a +rattle. + +The vicar stooped for his pen, and the tranter, wishing to show +that, however great their ecclesiastical differences, his mind was +not so small as to let this affect his social feelings, stooped +also. + +"And have you anything else you want to explain to me, Dewy?" said +Mr. Maybold from under the table. + +"Nothing, sir. And, Mr. Mayble, you be not offended? I hope you +see our desire is reason?" said the tranter from under the chair. + +"Quite, quite; and I shouldn't think of refusing to listen to such a +reasonable request," the vicar replied. Seeing that Reuben had +secured the pen, he resumed his vertical position, and added, "You +know, Dewy, it is often said how difficult a matter it is to act up +to our convictions and please all parties. It may be said with +equal truth, that it is difficult for a man of any appreciativeness +to have convictions at all. Now in my case, I see right in you, and +right in Shiner. I see that violins are good, and that an organ is +good; and when we introduce the organ, it will not be that fiddles +were bad, but that an organ was better. That you'll clearly +understand, Dewy?" + +"I will; and thank you very much for such feelings, sir. Piph-h-h- +h! How the blood do get into my head, to be sure, whenever I quat +down like that!" said Reuben, who having also risen to his feet +stuck the pen vertically in the inkstand and almost through the +bottom, that it might not roll down again under any circumstances +whatever. + +Now the ancient body of minstrels in the passage felt their +curiosity surging higher and higher as the minutes passed. Dick, +not having much affection for this errand, soon grew tired, and went +away in the direction of the school. Yet their sense of propriety +would probably have restrained them from any attempt to discover +what was going on in the study had not the vicar's pen fallen to the +floor. The conviction that the movement of chairs, etc., +necessitated by the search, could only have been caused by the +catastrophe of a bloody fight beginning, overpowered all other +considerations; and they advanced to the door, which had only just +fallen to. Thus, when Mr. Maybold raised his eyes after the +stooping he beheld glaring through the door Mr. Penny in full-length +portraiture, Mail's face and shoulders above Mr. Penny's head, +Spinks's forehead and eyes over Mail's crown, and a fractional part +of Bowman's countenance under Spinks's arm--crescent shaped portions +of other heads and faces being visible behind these--the whole dozen +and odd eyes bristling with eager inquiry. + +Mr. Penny, as is the case with excitable boot-makers and men, seeing +the vicar look at him and hearing no word spoken, thought it +incumbent upon himself to say something of any kind. Nothing +suggested itself till he had looked for about half a minute at the +vicar. + +"You'll excuse my naming of it, sir," he said, regarding with much +commiseration the mere surface of the vicar's face; "but perhaps you +don't know that your chin have bust out a-bleeding where you cut +yourself a-shaving this morning, sir." + +"Now, that was the stooping, depend upon't," the tranter suggested, +also looking with much interest at the vicar's chin. "Blood always +will bust out again if you hang down the member that's been +bleeding." + +Old William raised his eyes and watched the vicar's bleeding chin +likewise; and Leaf advanced two or three paces from the bookcase, +absorbed in the contemplation of the same phenomenon, with parted +lips and delighted eyes. + +"Dear me, dear me!" said Mr. Maybold hastily, looking very red, and +brushing his chin with his hand, then taking out his handkerchief +and wiping the place. + +"That's it, sir; all right again now, 'a b'lieve--a mere nothing," +said Mr. Penny. "A little bit of fur off your hat will stop it in a +minute if it should bust out again." + +"I'll let 'ee have a bit off mine," said Reuben, to show his good +feeling; "my hat isn't so new as yours, sir, and 'twon't hurt mine a +bit." + +"No, no; thank you, thank you," Mr. Maybold again nervously replied. + +"'Twas rather a deep cut seemingly?" said Reuben, feeling these to +be the kindest and best remarks he could make. + +"O, no; not particularly." + +"Well, sir, your hand will shake sometimes a-shaving, and just when +it comes into your head that you may cut yourself; there's the +blood." + +"I have been revolving in my mind that question of the time at which +we make the change," said Mr. Maybold, "and I know you'll meet me +half-way. I think Christmas-day as much too late for me as the +present time is too early for you. I suggest Michaelmas or +thereabout as a convenient time for both parties; for I think your +objection to a Sunday which has no name is not one of any real +weight." + +"Very good, sir. I suppose mortal men mustn't expect their own way +entirely; and I express in all our names that we'll make shift and +be satisfied with what you say." The tranter touched the brim of +his imaginary hat again, and all the choir did the same. "About +Michaelmas, then, as far as you are concerned, sir, and then we make +room for the next generation." + +"About Michaelmas," said the vicar. + + + +CHAPTER V: RETURNING HOME WARD + + + +"'A took it very well, then?" said Mail, as they all walked up the +hill. + +"He behaved like a man, 'a did so," said the tranter. "And I'm glad +we've let en know our minds. And though, beyond that, we ha'n't got +much by going, 'twas worth while. He won't forget it. Yes, he took +it very well. Supposing this tree here was Pa'son Mayble, and I +standing here, and thik gr't stone is father sitting in the easy- +chair. 'Dewy,' says he, 'I don't wish to change the church music in +a forcible way.'" + +"That was very nice o' the man, even though words be wind." + +"Proper nice--out and out nice. The fact is," said Reuben +confidentially, "'tis how you take a man. Everybody must be +managed. Queens must be managed: kings must be managed; for men +want managing almost as much as women, and that's saying a good +deal." + +"'Tis truly!" murmured the husbands. + +"Pa'son Mayble and I were as good friends all through it as if we'd +been sworn brothers. Ay, the man's well enough; 'tis what's put in +his head that spoils him, and that's why we've got to go." + +"There's really no believing half you hear about people nowadays." + +"Bless ye, my sonnies! 'tisn't the pa'son's move at all. That +gentleman over there" (the tranter nodded in the direction of +Shiner's farm) "is at the root of the mischty." + +"What! Shiner?" + +"Ay; and I see what the pa'son don't see. Why, Shiner is for +putting forward that young woman that only last night I was saying +was our Dick's sweet-heart, but I suppose can't be, and making much +of her in the sight of the congregation, and thinking he'll win her +by showing her off. Well, perhaps 'a woll." + +"Then the music is second to the woman, the other churchwarden is +second to Shiner, the pa'son is second to the churchwardens, and God +A'mighty is nowhere at all." + +"That's true; and you see," continued Reuben, "at the very beginning +it put me in a stud as to how to quarrel wi' en. In short, to save +my soul, I couldn't quarrel wi' such a civil man without belying my +conscience. Says he to father there, in a voice as quiet as a +lamb's, "William, you are a' old aged man, as all shall be, so sit +down in my easy-chair, and rest yourself." And down father zot. I +could fain ha' laughed at thee, father; for thou'st take it so +unconcerned at first, and then looked so frightened when the chair- +bottom sunk in." + +"You see," said old William, hastening to explain, "I was scared to +find the bottom gie way--what should I know o' spring bottoms?--and +thought I had broke it down: and of course as to breaking down a +man's chair, I didn't wish any such thing." + +"And, neighbours, when a feller, ever so much up for a miff, d'see +his own father sitting in his enemy's easy-chair, and a poor chap +like Leaf made the best of; as if he almost had brains--why, it +knocks all the wind out of his sail at once: it did out of mine." + +"If that young figure of fun--Fance Day, I mean," said Bowman, +"hadn't been so mighty forward wi' showing herself off to Shiner and +Dick and the rest, 'tis my belief we should never ha' left the +gallery." + +"'Tis my belief that though Shiner fired the bullets, the parson +made 'em," said Mr. Penny. "My wife sticks to it that he's in love +wi' her." + +"That's a thing we shall never know. I can't onriddle her, nohow." + +"Thou'st ought to be able to onriddle such a little chiel as she," +the tranter observed. + +"The littler the maid, the bigger the riddle, to my mind. And +coming of such a stock, too, she may well be a twister." + +"Yes; Geoffrey Day is a clever man if ever there was one. Never +says anything: not he." + +"Never." + +"You might live wi' that man, my sonnies, a hundred years, and never +know there was anything in him." + +"Ay; one o' these up-country London ink-bottle chaps would call +Geoffrey a fool." + +"Ye never find out what's in that man: never," said Spinks. +"Close? ah, he is close! He can hold his tongue well. That man's +dumbness is wonderful to listen to." + +"There's so much sense in it. Every moment of it is brimmen over +wi' sound understanding." + +"'A can hold his tongue very clever--very clever truly," echoed +Leaf. "A do look at me as if 'a could see my thoughts running round +like the works of a clock." + +"Well, all will agree that the man can halt well in his talk, be it +a long time or be it a short time. And though we can't expect his +daughter to inherit his closeness, she may have a few dribblets from +his sense." + +"And his pocket, perhaps." + +"Yes; the nine hundred pound that everybody says he's worth; but I +call it four hundred and fifty; for I never believe more than half I +hear." + +"Well, he've made a pound or two, and I suppose the maid will have +it, since there's nobody else. But 'tis rather sharp upon her, if +she's been born to fortune, to bring her up as if not born for it, +and letting her work so hard." + +"'Tis all upon his principle. A long--headed feller!" + +"Ah," murmured Spinks, "'twould be sharper upon her if she were born +for fortune, and not to it! I suffer from that affliction." + + + +CHAPTER VI: YALBURY WOOD AND THE KEEPER'S HOUSE + + + +A mood of blitheness rarely experienced even by young men was Dick's +on the following Monday morning. It was the week after the Easter +holidays, and he was journeying along with Smart the mare and the +light spring-cart, watching the damp slopes of the hill-sides as +they streamed in the warmth of the sun, which at this unsettled +season shone on the grass with the freshness of an occasional +inspector rather than as an accustomed proprietor. His errand was +to fetch Fancy, and some additional household goods, from her +father's house in the neighbouring parish to her dwelling at +Mellstock. The distant view was darkly shaded with clouds; but the +nearer parts of the landscape were whitely illumined by the visible +rays of the sun streaming down across the heavy gray shade behind. + +The tranter had not yet told his son of the state of Shiner's heart +that had been suggested to him by Shiner's movements. He preferred +to let such delicate affairs right themselves; experience having +taught him that the uncertain phenomenon of love, as it existed in +other people, was not a groundwork upon which a single action of his +own life could be founded. + +Geoffrey Day lived in the depths of Yalbury Wood, which formed +portion of one of the outlying estates of the Earl of Wessex, to +whom Day was head game-keeper, timber-steward, and general +overlooker for this district. The wood was intersected by the +highway from Casterbridge to London at a place not far from the +house, and some trees had of late years been felled between its +windows and the ascent of Yalbury Hill, to give the solitary +cottager a glimpse of the passers-by. + +It was a satisfaction to walk into the keeper's house, even as a +stranger, on a fine spring morning like the present. A curl of +wood-smoke came from the chimney, and drooped over the roof like a +blue feather in a lady's hat; and the sun shone obliquely upon the +patch of grass in front, which reflected its brightness through the +open doorway and up the staircase opposite, lighting up each riser +with a shiny green radiance, and leaving the top of each step in +shade. + +The window-sill of the front room was between four and five feet +from the floor, dropping inwardly to a broad low bench, over which, +as well as over the whole surface of the wall beneath, there always +hung a deep shade, which was considered objectionable on every +ground save one, namely, that the perpetual sprinkling of seeds and +water by the caged canary above was not noticed as an eyesore by +visitors. The window was set with thickly-leaded diamond glazing, +formed, especially in the lower panes, of knotty glass of various +shades of green. Nothing was better known to Fancy than the +extravagant manner in which these circular knots or eyes distorted +everything seen through them from the outside--lifting hats from +heads, shoulders from bodies; scattering the spokes of cart-wheels, +and bending the straight fir-trunks into semicircles. The ceiling +was carried by a beam traversing its midst, from the side of which +projected a large nail, used solely and constantly as a peg for +Geoffrey's hat; the nail was arched by a rainbow--shaped stain, +imprinted by the brim of the said hat when it was hung there +dripping wet. + +The most striking point about the room was the furniture. This was +a repetition upon inanimate objects of the old principle introduced +by Noah, consisting for the most part of two articles of every sort. +The duplicate system of furnishing owed its existence to the +forethought of Fancy's mother, exercised from the date of Fancy's +birthday onwards. The arrangement spoke for itself: nobody who +knew the tone of the household could look at the goods without being +aware that the second set was a provision for Fancy, when she should +marry and have a house of her own. The most noticeable instance was +a pair of green-faced eight-day clocks, ticking alternately, which +were severally two and half minutes and three minutes striking the +hour of twelve, one proclaiming, in Italian flourishes, Thomas Wood +as the name of its maker, and the other--arched at the top, and +altogether of more cynical appearance--that of Ezekiel Saunders. +They were two departed clockmakers of Casterbridge, whose desperate +rivalry throughout their lives was nowhere more emphatically +perpetuated than here at Geoffrey's. These chief specimens of the +marriage provision were supported on the right by a couple of +kitchen dressers, each fitted complete with their cups, dishes, and +plates, in their turn followed by two dumb-waiters, two family +Bibles, two warming-pans, and two intermixed sets of chairs. + +But the position last reached--the chimney-corner--was, after all, +the most attractive side of the parallelogram. It was large enough +to admit, in addition to Geoffrey himself; Geoffrey's wife, her +chair, and her work-table, entirely within the line of the mantel, +without danger or even inconvenience from the heat of the fire; and +was spacious enough overhead to allow of the insertion of wood poles +for the hanging of bacon, which were cloaked with long shreds of +soot, floating on the draught like the tattered banners on the walls +of ancient aisles. + +These points were common to most chimney corners of the +neighbourhood; but one feature there was which made Geoffrey's +fireside not only an object of interest to casual aristocratic +visitors--to whom every cottage fireside was more or less a +curiosity--but the admiration of friends who were accustomed to +fireplaces of the ordinary hamlet model. This peculiarity was a +little window in the chimney-back, almost over the fire, around +which the smoke crept caressingly when it left the perpendicular +course. The window-board was curiously stamped with black circles, +burnt thereon by the heated bottoms of drinking-cups, which had +rested there after previously standing on the hot ashes of the +hearth for the purpose of warming their contents, the result giving +to the ledge the look of an envelope which has passed through +innumerable post-offices. + +Fancy was gliding about the room preparing dinner, her head +inclining now to the right, now to the left, and singing the tips +and ends of tunes that sprang up in her mind like mushrooms. The +footsteps of Mrs. Day could be heard in the room overhead. Fancy +went finally to the door. + +"Father! Dinner." + +A tall spare figure was seen advancing by the window with periodical +steps, and the keeper entered from the garden. He appeared to be a +man who was always looking down, as if trying to recollect something +he said yesterday. The surface of his face was fissured rather than +wrinkled, and over and under his eyes were folds which seemed as a +kind of exterior eyelids. His nose had been thrown backwards by a +blow in a poaching fray, so that when the sun was low and shining in +his face, people could see far into his head. There was in him a +quiet grimness, which would in his moments of displeasure have +become surliness, had it not been tempered by honesty of soul, and +which was often wrongheadedness because not allied with subtlety. + +Although not an extraordinarily taciturn man among friends slightly +richer than himself, he never wasted words upon outsiders, and to +his trapper Enoch his ideas were seldom conveyed by any other means +than nods and shakes of the head. Their long acquaintance with each +other's ways, and the nature of their labours, rendered words +between them almost superfluous as vehicles of thought, whilst the +coincidence of their horizons, and the astonishing equality of their +social views, by startling the keeper from time to time as very +damaging to the theory of master and man, strictly forbade any +indulgence in words as courtesies. + +Behind the keeper came Enoch (who had been assisting in the garden) +at the well-considered chronological distance of three minutes--an +interval of non-appearance on the trapper's part not arrived at +without some reflection. Four minutes had been found to express +indifference to indoor arrangements, and simultaneousness had +implied too great an anxiety about meals. + +"A little earlier than usual, Fancy," the keeper said, as he sat +down and looked at the clocks. "That Ezekiel Saunders o' thine is +tearing on afore Thomas Wood again." + +"I kept in the middle between them," said Fancy, also looking at the +two clocks. + +"Better stick to Thomas," said her father. "There's a healthy beat +in Thomas that would lead a man to swear by en offhand. He is as +true as the town time. How is it your stap-mother isn't here?" + +As Fancy was about to reply, the rattle of wheels was heard, and +"Weh-hey, Smart!" in Mr. Richard Dewy's voice rolled into the +cottage from round the corner of the house. + +"Hullo! there's Dewy's cart come for thee, Fancy--Dick driving-- +afore time, too. Well, ask the lad to have pot-luck with us." + +Dick on entering made a point of implying by his general bearing +that he took an interest in Fancy simply as in one of the same race +and country as himself; and they all sat down. Dick could have +wished her manner had not been so entirely free from all apparent +consciousness of those accidental meetings of theirs: but he let +the thought pass. Enoch sat diagonally at a table afar off; under +the corner cupboard, and drank his cider from a long perpendicular +pint cup, having tall fir-trees done in brown on its sides, He threw +occasional remarks into the general tide of conversation, and with +this advantage to himself; that he participated in the pleasures of +a talk (slight as it was) at meal-times, without saddling himself +with the responsibility of sustaining it. + +"Why don't your stap-mother come down, Fancy?" said Geoffrey. +"You'll excuse her, Mister Dick, she's a little queer sometimes." + +"O yes,--quite," said Richard, as if he were in the habit of +excusing people every day. + +"She d'belong to that class of womankind that become second wives: +a rum class rather." + +"Indeed," said Dick, with sympathy for an indefinite something. + +"Yes; and 'tis trying to a female, especially if you've been a first +wife, as she hey." + +"Very trying it must be." + +"Yes: you see her first husband was a young man, who let her go too +far; in fact, she used to kick up Bob's-a-dying at the least thing +in the world. And when I'd married her and found it out, I thought, +thinks I, "'Tis too late now to begin to cure 'e;" and so I let her +bide. But she's queer,--very queer, at times!" + +"I'm sorry to hear that." + +"Yes: there; wives be such a provoking class o' society, because +though they be never right, they be never more than half wrong." + +Fancy seemed uneasy under the infliction of this household +moralizing, which might tend to damage the airy-fairy nature that +Dick, as maiden shrewdness told her, had accredited her with. Her +dead silence impressed Geoffrey with the notion that something in +his words did not agree with her educated ideas, and he changed the +conversation. + +"Did Fred Shiner send the cask o' drink, Fancy?" + +"I think he did: O yes, he did." + +"Nice solid feller, Fred Shiner!" said Geoffrey to Dick as he helped +himself to gravy, bringing the spoon round to his plate by way of +the potato-dish, to obviate a stain on the cloth in the event of a +spill. + +Now Geoffrey's eyes had been fixed upon his plate for the previous +four or five minutes, and in removing them he had only carried them +to the spoon, which, from its fulness and the distance of its +transit, necessitated a steady watching through the whole of the +route. Just as intently as the keeper's eyes had been fixed on the +spoon, Fancy's had been fixed on her father's, without premeditation +or the slightest phase of furtiveness; but there they were fastened. +This was the reason why: + +Dick was sitting next to her on the right side, and on the side of +the table opposite to her father. Fancy had laid her right hand +lightly down upon the table-cloth for an instant, and to her alarm +Dick, after dropping his fork and brushing his forehead as a reason, +flung down his own left hand, overlapping a third of Fancy's with +it, and keeping it there. So the innocent Fancy, instead of pulling +her hand from the trap, settled her eyes on her father's, to guard +against his discovery of this perilous game of Dick's. Dick +finished his mouthful; Fancy finished, her crumb, and nothing was +done beyond watching Geoffrey's eyes. Then the hands slid apart; +Fancy's going over six inches of cloth, Dick's over one. Geoffrey's +eye had risen. + +"I said Fred Shiner is a nice solid feller," he repeated, more +emphatically. + +"He is; yes, he is," stammered Dick; "but to me he is little more +than a stranger." + +"O, sure. Now I know en as well as any man can be known. And you +know en very well too, don't ye, Fancy?" + +Geoffrey put on a tone expressing that these words signified at +present about one hundred times the amount of meaning they conveyed +literally. + +Dick looked anxious. + +"Will you pass me some bread?" said Fancy in a flurry, the red of +her face becoming slightly disordered, and looking as solicitous as +a human being could look about a piece of bread. + +"Ay, that I will," replied the unconscious Geoffrey. "Ay," he +continued, returning to the displaced idea, "we are likely to remain +friendly wi' Mr. Shiner if the wheels d'run smooth." + +"An excellent thing--a very capital thing, as I should say," the +youth answered with exceeding relevance, considering that his +thoughts, instead of following Geoffrey's remark, were nestling at a +distance of about two feet on his left the whole time. + +"A young woman's face will turn the north wind, Master Richard: my +heart if 'twon't." Dick looked more anxious and was attentive in +earnest at these words. "Yes; turn the north wind," added Geoffrey +after an impressive pause. "And though she's one of my own flesh +and blood . . . " + +"Will you fetch down a bit of raw-mil' cheese from pantry-shelf?" +Fancy interrupted, as if she were famishing. + +"Ay, that I will, chiel; chiel, says I, and Mr. Shiner only asking +last Saturday night . . . cheese you said, Fancy?" + +Dick controlled his emotion at these mysterious allusions to Mr. +Shiner,--the better enabled to do so by perceiving that Fancy's +heart went not with her father's--and spoke like a stranger to the +affairs of the neighbourhood. "Yes, there's a great deal to be said +upon the power of maiden faces in settling your courses," he +ventured, as the keeper retreated for the cheese. + +"The conversation is taking a very strange turn: nothing that _I_ +have ever done warrants such things being said!" murmured Fancy with +emphasis, just loud enough to reach Dick's ears. + +"You think to yourself; 'twas to be," cried Enoch from his distant +corner, by way of filling up the vacancy caused by Geoffrey's +momentary absence. "And so you marry her, Master Dewy, and there's +an end o't." + +"Pray don't say such things, Enoch," came from Fancy severely, upon +which Enoch relapsed into servitude. + +"If we be doomed to marry, we marry; if we be doomed to remain +single, we do," replied Dick. + +Geoffrey had by this time sat down again, and he now made his lips +thin by severely straining them across his gums, and looked out of +the window along the vista to the distant highway up Yalbury Hill. +"That's not the case with some folk," he said at length, as if he +read the words on a board at the further end of the vista. + +Fancy looked interested, and Dick said, "No?" + +"There's that wife o' mine. It was her doom to be nobody's wife at +all in the wide universe. But she made up her mind that she would, +and did it twice over. Doom? Doom is nothing beside a elderly +woman--quite a chiel in her hands!" + +A movement was now heard along the upstairs passage, and footsteps +descending. The door at the foot of the stairs opened, and the +second Mrs. Day appeared in view, looking fixedly at the table as +she advanced towards it, with apparent obliviousness of the presence +of any other human being than herself. In short, if the table had +been the personages, and the persons the table, her glance would +have been the most natural imaginable. + +She showed herself to possess an ordinary woman's face, iron-grey +hair, hardly any hips, and a great deal of cleanliness in a broad +white apron-string, as it appeared upon the waist of her dark stuff +dress. + +"People will run away with a story now, I suppose," she began +saying, "that Jane Day's tablecloths are as poor and ragged as any +union beggar's!" + +Dick now perceived that the tablecloth was a little the worse for +wear, and reflecting for a moment, concluded that 'people' in step- +mother language probably meant himself. On lifting his eyes he +found that Mrs. Day had vanished again upstairs, and presently +returned with an armful of new damask-linen tablecloths, folded +square and hard as boards by long compression. These she flounced +down into a chair; then took one, shook it out from its folds, and +spread it on the table by instalments, transferring the plates and +dishes one by one from the old to the new cloth. + +"And I suppose they'll say, too, that she ha'n't a decent knife and +fork in her house!" + +"I shouldn't say any such ill-natured thing, I am sure--" began +Dick. But Mrs. Day had vanished into the next room. Fancy appeared +distressed. + +"Very strange woman, isn't she?" said Geoffrey, quietly going on +with his dinner. "But 'tis too late to attempt curing. My heart! +'tis so growed into her that 'twould kill her to take it out. Ay, +she's very queer: you'd be amazed to see what valuable goods we've +got stowed away upstairs." + +Back again came Mrs. Day with a box of bright steel horn-handled +knives, silver-plated forks, carver, and all complete. These were +wiped of the preservative oil which coated them, and then a knife +and fork were laid down to each individual with a bang, the carving +knife and fork thrust into the meat dish, and the old ones they had +hitherto used tossed away. + +Geoffrey placidly cut a slice with the new knife and fork, and asked +Dick if he wanted any more. + +The table had been spread for the mixed midday meal of dinner and +tea, which was common among frugal countryfolk. "The parishioners +about here," continued Mrs. Day, not looking at any living being, +but snatching up the brown delf tea-things, "are the laziest, +gossipest, poachest, jailest set of any ever I came among. And +they'll talk about my teapot and tea-things next, I suppose!" She +vanished with the teapot, cups, and saucers, and reappeared with a +tea-service in white china, and a packet wrapped in brown paper. +This was removed, together with folds of tissue-paper underneath; +and a brilliant silver teapot appeared. + +"I'll help to put the things right," said Fancy soothingly, and +rising from her seat. "I ought to have laid out better things, I +suppose. But" (here she enlarged her looks so as to include Dick) +"I have been away from home a good deal, and I make shocking +blunders in my housekeeping." Smiles and suavity were then +dispensed all around by this bright little bird. + +After a little more preparation and modification, Mrs. Day took her +seat at the head of the table, and during the latter or tea division +of the meal, presided with much composure. It may cause some +surprise to learn that, now her vagary was over, she showed herself +to be an excellent person with much common sense, and even a +religious seriousness of tone on matters pertaining to her +afflictions. + + + +CHAPTER VII: DICK MAKES HIMSELF USEFUL + + + +The effect of Geoffrey's incidental allusions to Mr. Shiner was to +restrain a considerable flow of spontaneous chat that would +otherwise have burst from young Dewy along the drive homeward. And +a certain remark he had hazarded to her, in rather too blunt and +eager a manner, kept the young lady herself even more silent than +Dick. On both sides there was an unwillingness to talk on any but +the most trivial subjects, and their sentences rarely took a larger +form than could be expressed in two or three words. + +Owing to Fancy being later in the day than she had promised, the +charwoman had given up expecting her; whereupon Dick could do no +less than stay and see her comfortably tided over the disagreeable +time of entering and establishing herself in an empty house after an +absence of a week. The additional furniture and utensils that had +been brought (a canary and cage among the rest) were taken out of +the vehicle, and the horse was unharnessed and put in the plot +opposite, where there was some tender grass. Dick lighted the fire +already laid; and activity began to loosen their tongues a little. + +"There!" said Fancy, "we forgot to bring the fire-irons!" + +She had originally found in her sitting-room, to bear out the +expression 'nearly furnished' which the school-manager had used in +his letter to her, a table, three chairs, a fender, and a piece of +carpet. This 'nearly' had been supplemented hitherto by a kind +friend, who had lent her fire-irons and crockery until she should +fetch some from home. + +Dick attended to the young lady's fire, using his whip-handle for a +poker till it was spoilt, and then flourishing a hurdle stick for +the remainder of the time. + +"The kettle boils; now you shall have a cup of tea," said Fancy, +diving into the hamper she had brought. + +"Thank you," said Dick, whose drive had made him ready for some, +especially in her company. + +"Well, here's only one cup-and-saucer, as I breathe! Whatever could +mother be thinking about? Do you mind making shift, Mr. Dewy?" + +"Not at all, Miss Day," said that civil person. + +"--And only having a cup by itself? or a saucer by itself?" + +"Don't mind in the least." + +"Which do you mean by that?" + +"I mean the cup, if you like the saucer." + +"And the saucer, if I like the cup?" + +"Exactly, Miss Day." + +"Thank you, Mr. Dewy, for I like the cup decidedly. Stop a minute; +there are no spoons now!" She dived into the hamper again, and at +the end of two or three minutes looked up and said, "I suppose you +don't mind if I can't find a spoon?" + +"Not at all," said the agreeable Richard. + +"The fact is, the spoons have slipped down somewhere; right under +the other things. O yes, here's one, and only one. You would +rather have one than not, I suppose, Mr. Dewy?" + +"Rather not. I never did care much about spoons." + +"Then I'll have it. I do care about them. You must stir up your +tea with a knife. Would you mind lifting the kettle off, that it +may not boil dry?" + +Dick leapt to the fireplace, and earnestly removed the kettle. + +"There! you did it so wildly that you have made your hand black. We +always use kettle-holders; didn't you learn housewifery as far as +that, Mr. Dewy? Well, never mind the soot on your hand. Come here. +I am going to rinse mine, too." + +They went' to a basin she had placed in the back room. "This is the +only basin I have," she said. "Turn up your sleeves, and by that +time my hands will be washed, and you can come." + +Her hands were in the water now. "O, how vexing!" she exclaimed. +"There's not a drop of water left for you, unless you draw it, and +the well is I don't know how many furlongs deep; all that was in the +pitcher I used for the kettle and this basin. Do you mind dipping +the tips of your fingers in the same?" + +"Not at all. And to save time I won't wait till you have done, if +you have no objection?" + +Thereupon he plunged in his hands, and they paddled together. It +being the first time in his life that he had touched female fingers +under water, Dick duly registered the sensation as rather a nice +one. + +"Really, I hardly know which are my own hands and which are yours, +they have got so mixed up together," she said, withdrawing her own +very suddenly. + +"It doesn't matter at all," said Dick, "at least as far as I am +concerned." + +"There! no towel! Whoever thinks of a towel till the hands are +wet?" + +"Nobody." + +"'Nobody.' How very dull it is when people are so friendly! Come +here, Mr. Dewy. Now do you think you could lift the lid of that box +with your elbow, and then, with something or other, take out a towel +you will find under the clean clothes? Be SURE don't touch any of +them with your wet hands, for the things at the top are all Starched +and Ironed." + +Dick managed, by the aid of a knife and fork, to extract a towel +from under a muslin dress without wetting the latter; and for a +moment he ventured to assume a tone of criticism. + +"I fear for that dress," he said, as they wiped their hands +together. + +"What?" said Miss Day, looking into the box at the dress alluded to. +"O, I know what you mean--that the vicar will never let me wear +muslin?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, I know it is condemned by all orders in the church as +flaunting, and unfit for common wear for girls who've their living +to get; hut we'll see." + +"In the interest of the church, I hope you don't speak seriously." + +"Yes, I do; but we'll see." There was a comely determination on her +lip, very pleasant to a beholder who was neither bishop, priest, nor +deacon. "I think I can manage any vicar's views about me if he's +under forty." + +Dick rather wished she had never thought of managing vicars. + +"I certainly shall be glad to get some of your delicious tea," he +said in rather a free way, yet modestly, as became one in a position +between that of visitor and inmate, and looking wistfully at his +lonely saucer. + +"So shall I. Now is there anything else we want, Mr Dewy?" + +"I really think there's nothing else, Miss Day." + +She prepared to sit down, looking musingly out of the window at +Smart's enjoyment of the rich grass. "Nobody seems to care about +me," she murmured, with large lost eyes fixed upon the sky beyond +Smart. + +"Perhaps Mr. Shiner does," said Dick, in the tone of a slightly +injured man. + +"Yes, I forgot--he does, I know." Dick precipitately regretted that +he had suggested Shiner, since it had produced such a miserable +result as this. + +"I'll warrant you'll care for somebody very much indeed another day, +won't you, Mr. Dewy?" she continued, looking very feelingly into the +mathematical centre of his eyes. + +"Ah, I'll warrant I shall," said Dick, feelingly too, and looking +back into her dark pupils, whereupon they were turned aside. + +"I meant," she went on, preventing him from speaking just as he was +going to narrate a forcible story about his feelings; "I meant that +nobody comes to see if I have returned--not even the vicar." + +"If you want to see him, I'll call at the vicarage directly we have +had some tea." + +"No, no! Don't let him come down here, whatever you do, whilst I am +in such a state of disarrangement. Parsons look so miserable and +awkward when one's house is in a muddle; walking about, and making +impossible suggestions in quaint academic phrases till your flesh +creeps and you wish them dead. Do you take sugar?" + +Mr. Maybold was at this instant seen coming up the path. + +"There! That's he coming! How I wish you were not here I--that is, +how awkward--dear, dear!" she exclaimed, with a quick ascent of +blood to her face, and irritated with Dick rather than the vicar, as +it seemed. + +"Pray don't be alarmed on my account, Miss Day--good-afternoon!" +said Dick in a huff, putting on his hat, and leaving the room +hastily by the back-door. + +The horse was caught and put in, and on mounting the shafts to start +he saw through the window the vicar, standing upon some books piled +in a chair, and driving a nail into the wall; Fancy, with a demure +glance, holding the canary-cage up to him, as if she had never in +her life thought of anything but vicars and canaries. + + + +CHAPTER VIII: DICK MEETS HIS FATHER + + + +For several minutes Dick drove along homeward, with the inner eye of +reflection so anxiously set on his passages at arms with Fancy, that +the road and scenery were as a thin mist over the real pictures of +his mind. Was she a coquette? The balance between the evidence +that she did love him and that she did not was so nicely struck, +that his opinion had no stability. She had let him put his hand +upon hers; she had allowed her gaze to drop plumb into the depths of +his--his into hers--three or four times; her manner had been very +free with regard to the basin and towel; she had appeared vexed at +the mention of Shiner. On the other hand, she had driven him about +the house like a quiet dog or cat, said Shiner cared for her, and +seemed anxious that Mr. Maybold should do the same. + +Thinking thus as he neared the handpost at Mellstock Cross, sitting +on the front board of the spring cart--his legs on the outside, and +his whole frame jigging up and down like a candle-flame to the time +of Smart's trotting--who should he see coming down the hill but his +father in the light wagon, quivering up and down on a smaller scale +of shakes, those merely caused by the stones in the road. They were +soon crossing each other's front. + +"Weh-hey!" said the tranter to Smiler. + +"Weh-hey!" said Dick to Smart, in an echo of the same voice. + +"Th'st hauled her back, I suppose?" Reuben inquired peaceably. + +"Yes," said Dick, with such a clinching period at the end that it +seemed he was never going to add another word. Smiler, thinking +this the close of the conversation, prepared to move on. + +"Weh-hey!" said the tranter. "I tell thee what it is, Dick. That +there maid is taking up thy thoughts more than's good for thee, my +sonny. Thou'rt never happy now unless th'rt making thyself +miserable about her in one way or another." + +"I don't know about that, father," said Dick rather stupidly. + +"But I do--Wey, Smiler!--'Od rot the women, 'tis nothing else wi' +'em nowadays but getting young men and leading 'em astray." + +"Pooh, father! you just repeat what all the common world says; +that's all you do." + +"The world's a very sensible feller on things in jineral, Dick; very +sensible indeed." + +Dick looked into the distance at a vast expanse of mortgaged estate. +"I wish I was as rich as a squire when he's as poor as a crow," he +murmured; "I'd soon ask Fancy something." + +"I wish so too, wi' all my heart, sonny; that I do. Well, mind what +beest about, that's all." + +Smart moved on a step or two. "Supposing now, father,--We-hey, +Smart!--I did think a little about her, and I had a chance, which I +ha'n't; don't you think she's a very good sort of--of--one?" + +"Ay, good; she's good enough. When you've made up your mind to +marry, take the first respectable body that comes to hand--she's as +good as any other; they be all alike in the groundwork; 'tis only in +the flourishes there's a difference. She's good enough; but I can't +see what the nation a young feller like you--wi a comfortable house +and home, and father and mother to take care o' thee, and who sent +'ee to a school so good that 'twas hardly fair to the other +children--should want to go hollering after a young woman for, when +she's quietly making a husband in her pocket, and not troubled by +chick nor chiel, to make a poverty-stric' wife and family of her, +and neither hat, cap, wig, nor waistcoat to set 'em up with: be +drowned if I can see it, and that's the long and the short o't, my +sonny." + +Dick looked at Smart's ears, then up the hill; but no reason was +suggested by any object that met his gaze. + +"For about the same reason that you did, father, I suppose." + +"Dang it, my sonny, thou'st got me there!" And the tranter gave +vent to a grim admiration, with the mien of a man who was too +magnanimous not to appreciate artistically a slight rap on the +knuckles, even if they were his own. + +"Whether or no," said Dick, "I asked her a thing going along the +road." + +"Come to that, is it? Turk! won't thy mother be in a taking! Well, +she's ready, I don't doubt?" + +"I didn't ask her anything about having me; and if you'll let me +speak, I'll tell 'ee what I want to know. I just said, Did she care +about me?" + +"Piph-ph-ph!" + +"And then she said nothing for a quarter of a mile, and then she +said she didn't know. Now, what I want to know is, what was the +meaning of that speech?" The latter words were spoken resolutely, +as if he didn't care for the ridicule of all the fathers in +creation. + +"The meaning of that speech is," the tranter replied deliberately, +"that the meaning is meant to be rather hid at present. Well, Dick, +as an honest father to thee, I don't pretend to deny what you d'know +well enough; that is, that her father being rather better in the +pocket than we, I should welcome her ready enough if it must be +somebody." + +"But what d'ye think she really did mean?" said the unsatisfied +Dick. + +"I'm afeard I am not o' much account in guessing, especially as I +was not there when she said it, and seeing that your mother was the +only 'ooman I ever cam' into such close quarters as that with." + +"And what did mother say to you when you asked her?" said Dick +musingly. + +"I don't see that that will help 'ee." + +"The principle is the same." + +"Well--ay: what did she say? Let's see. I was oiling my working- +day boots without taking 'em off, and wi' my head hanging down, when +she just brushed on by the garden hatch like a flittering leaf. +"Ann," I said, says I, and then,--but, Dick I'm afeard 'twill be no +help to thee; for we were such a rum couple, your mother and I, +leastways one half was, that is myself--and your mother's charms was +more in the manner than the material." + +"Never mind! "Ann," said you." + +"'Ann,' said I, as I was saying . . . 'Ann,' I said to her when I +was oiling my working-day boots wi' my head hanging down, 'Woot hae +me?' . . . What came next I can't quite call up at this distance o' +time. Perhaps your mother would know,--she's got a better memory +for her little triumphs than I. However, the long and the short o' +the story is that we were married somehow, as I found afterwards. +'Twas on White Tuesday,--Mellstock Club walked the same day, every +man two and two, and a fine day 'twas,--hot as fire,--how the sun +did strike down upon my back going to church! I well can mind what +a bath o' sweating I was in, body and soul! But Fance will ha' +thee, Dick--she won't walk with another chap--no such good luck." + +"I don't know about that," said Dick, whipping at Smart's flank in a +fanciful way, which, as Smart knew, meant nothing in connection with +going on. "There's Pa'son Maybold, too--that's all against me." + +"What about he? She's never been stuffing into thy innocent heart +that he's in hove with her? Lord, the vanity o' maidens!" + +"No, no. But he called, and she looked at him in such a way, and at +me in such a way--quite different the ways were,--and as I was +coming off, there was he hanging up her birdcage." + +"Well, why shouldn't the man hang up her bird-cage? Turk seize it +all, what's that got to do wi' it? Dick, that thou beest a white- +lyvered chap I don't say, but if thou beestn't as mad as a cappel- +faced bull, let me smile no more." + +"O, ay." + +"And what's think now, Dick?" + +"I don't know." + +"Here's another pretty kettle o' fish for thee. Who d'ye think's +the bitter weed in our being turned out? Did our party tell 'ee?" + +"No. Why, Pa'son Maybold, I suppose." + +"Shiner,--because he's in love with thy young woman, and d'want to +see her young figure sitting up at that queer instrument, and her +young fingers rum-strumming upon the keys." + +A sharp ado of sweet and bitter was going on in Dick during this +communication from his father. "Shiner's a fool!--no, that's not +it; I don't believe any such thing, father. Why, Shiner would never +take a bold step like that, unless she'd been a little made up to, +and had taken it kindly. Pooh!" + +"Who's to say she didn't?" + +"I do." + +"The more fool you." + +"Why, father of me?" + +"Has she ever done more to thee?" + +"No." + +"Then she has done as much to he--rot 'em! Now, Dick, this is how a +maid is. She'll swear she's dying for thee, and she is dying for +thee, and she will die for thee; but she'll fling a look over +t'other shoulder at another young feller, though never leaving off +dying for thee just the same." + +"She's not dying for me, and so she didn't fling a look at him." + +"But she may be dying for him, for she looked at thee." + +"I don't know what to make of it at all," said Dick gloomily. + +"All I can make of it is," the tranter said, raising his whip, +arranging his different joints and muscles, and motioning to the +horse to move on, "that if you can't read a maid's mind by her +motions, nature d'seem to say thou'st ought to be a bachelor. Clk, +clk! Smiler!" And the tranter moved on. + +Dick held Smart's rein firmly, and the whole concern of horse, cart, +and man remained rooted in the lane. Hew long this condition would +have lasted is unknown, had not Dick's thoughts, after adding up +numerous items of misery, gradually wandered round to the fact that +as something must be done, it could not be done by staying there all +night. + +Reaching home he went up to his bedroom, shut the door as if he were +going to be seen no more in this life, and taking a sheet of paper +and uncorking the ink-bottle, he began a letter. The dignity of the +writer's mind was so powerfully apparent in every line of this +effusion that it obscured the logical sequence of facts and +intentions to an appreciable degree; and it was not at all clear to +a reader whether he there and then left off loving Miss Fancy Day; +whether he had never loved her seriously, and never meant to; +whether he had been dying up to the present moment, and now intended +to get well again; or whether he had hitherto been in good health, +and intended to die for her forthwith. + +He put this letter in an envelope, sealed it up, directed it in a +stern handwriting of straight dashes--easy flourishes being +rigorously excluded. He walked with it in his pocket down the lane +in strides not an inch less than three feet long. Reaching her gate +he put on a resolute expression--then put it off again, turned back +homeward, tore up his letter, and sat down. + +That letter was altogether in a wrong tone--that he must own. A +heartless man-of-the-world tone was what the juncture required. +That he rather wanted her, and rather did not want her--the latter +for choice; hut that as a member of society he didn't mind making a +query in jaunty terms, which could only be answered in the same way: +did she mean anything by her bearing towards him, or did she not? + +This letter was considered so satisfactory in every way that, being +put into the hands of a little boy, and the order given that he was +to run with it to the school, he was told in addition not to look +behind him if Dick called after him to bring it hack, but to run +along with it just the same. Having taken this precaution against +vacillation, Dick watched his messenger down the road, and turned +into the house whistling an air in such ghastly jerks and starts, +that whistling seemed to be the act the very furthest removed from +that which was instinctive in such a youth. + +The letter was left as ordered: the next morning came and passed-- +and no answer. The next. The next. Friday night came. Dick +resolved that if no answer or sign were given by her the next day, +on Sunday he would meet her face to face, and have it all out by +word of mouth. + +"Dick," said his father, coming in from the garden at that moment-- +in each hand a hive of bees tied in a cloth to prevent their egress- +-"I think you'd better take these two swarms of bees to Mrs. +Maybold's to-morrow, instead o' me, and I'll go wi' Smiler and the +wagon." + +It was a relief; for Mrs. Maybold, the vicar's mother, who had just +taken into her head a fancy for keeping bees (pleasantly disguised +under the pretence of its being an economical wish to produce her +own honey), lived near the watering-place of Budmouth-Regis, ten +miles off, and the business of transporting the hives thither would +occupy the whole day, and to some extent annihilate the vacant time +between this evening and the coming Sunday. The best spring-cart +was washed throughout, the axles oiled, and the bees placed therein +for the journey. + + + + +PART THE THIRD--SUMMER + + + + +CHAPTER I: DRIVING OUT OF BUDMOUTH + + + +An easy bend of neck and graceful set of head; full and wavy bundles +of dark-brown hair; light fall of little feet; pretty devices on the +skirt of the dress; clear deep eyes; in short, a bunch of sweets: +it was Fancy! Dick's heart went round to her with a rush. + +The scene was the corner of Mary Street in Budmouth-Regis, near the +King's statue, at which point the white angle of the last house in +the row cut perpendicularly an embayed and nearly motionless expanse +of salt water projected from the outer ocean--to-day lit in bright +tones of green and opal. Dick and Smart had just emerged from the +street, and there on the right, against the brilliant sheet of +liquid colour, stood Fancy Day; and she turned and recognized him. + +Dick suspended his thoughts of the letter and wonder at how she came +there by driving close to the chains of the Esplanade--incontinently +displacing two chairmen, who had just come to life for the summer in +new clean shirts and revivified clothes, and being almost displaced +in turn by a rigid boy rattling along with a baker's cart, and +looking neither to the right nor the left. He asked if she were +going to Mellstock that night. + +"Yes, I'm waiting for the carrier," she replied, seeming, too, to +suspend thoughts of the letter. + +"Now I can drive you home nicely, and you save half an hour. Will +ye come with me?" + +As Fancy's power to will anything seemed to have departed in some +mysterious manner at that moment, Dick settled the matter by getting +out and assisting her into the vehicle without another word. + +The temporary flush upon her cheek changed to a lesser hue, which +was permanent, and at length their eyes met; there was present +between them a certain feeling of embarrassment, which arises at +such moments when all the instinctive acts dictated by the position +have been performed. Dick, being engaged with the reins, thought +less of this awkwardness than did Fancy, who had nothing to do but +to feel his presence, and to be more and more conscious of the fact, +that by accepting a seat beside him in this way she succumbed to the +tone of his note. Smart jogged along, and Dick jogged, and the +helpless Fancy necessarily jogged, too; and she felt that she was in +a measure capture I and made a prisoner. + +"I am so much obliged to you for your company, Miss Day," he +observed, as they drove past the two semicircular bays of the Old +Royal Hotel, where His Majesty King George the Third had many a time +attended the balls of the burgesses. + +To Miss Day, crediting him with the same consciousness of mastery--a +consciousness of which he was perfectly innocent--this remark +sounded like a magnanimous intention to soothe her, the captive. + +"I didn't come for the pleasure of obliging you with my company," +she said. + +The answer had an unexpected manner of incivility in it that must +have been rather surprising to young Dewy. At the same time it may +be observed, that when a young woman returns a rude answer to a +young man's civil remark, her heart is in a state which argues +rather hopefully for his case than otherwise. + +There was silence between them till they had left the sea-front and +passed about twenty of the trees that ornamented the road leading up +out of the town towards Casterbridge and Mellstock. + +"Though I didn't come for that purpose either, I would have done +it," said Dick at the twenty-first tree. + +"Now, Mr. Dewy, no flirtation, because it's wrong, and I don't wish +it." + +Dick seated himself afresh just as he had been sitting before, +arranged his looks very emphatically, and cleared his throat. + +"Really, anybody would think you had met me on business and were +just going to commence," said the lady intractably. + +"Yes, they would." + +"Why, you never have, to be sure!" + +This was a shaky beginning. He chopped round, and said cheerily, as +a man who had resolved never to spoil his jollity by loving one of +womankind--"Well, how are you getting on, Miss Day, at the present +time? Gaily, I don't doubt for a moment." + +"I am not gay, Dick; you know that." + +"Gaily doesn't mean decked in gay dresses." + +"I didn't suppose gaily was gaily dressed. Mighty me, what a +scholar you've grown!" + +"Lots of things have happened to you this spring, I see." + +"What have you seen?" + +"O, nothing; I've heard, I mean!" + +"What have you heard?" + +"The name of a pretty man, with brass studs and a copper ring and a +tin watch-chain, a little mixed up with your own. That's all." + +"That's a very unkind picture of Mr. Shiner, for that's who you +mean! The studs are gold, as you know, and it's a real silver +chain; the ring I can't conscientiously defend, and he only wore it +once." + +"He might have worn it a hundred times without showing it half so +much." + +"Well, he's nothing to me," she serenely observed. + +"Not any more than I am?" + +"Now, Mr. Dewy," said Fancy severely, "certainly he isn't any more +to me than you are!" + +"Not so much?" + +She looked aside to consider the precise compass of that question. +"That I can't exactly answer," she replied with soft archness. + +As they were going rather slowly, another spring-cart, containing a +farmer, farmer's wife, and farmer's man, jogged past them; and the +farmer's wife and farmer's man eyed the couple very curiously. The +farmer never looked up from the horse's tail. + +"Why can't you exactly answer?" said Dick, quickening Smart a +little, and jogging on just behind the farmer and farmer's wife and +man. + +As no answer came, and as their eyes had nothing else to do, they +both contemplated the picture presented in front, and noticed how +the farmer's wife sat flattened between the two men, who bulged over +each end of the seat to give her room, till they almost sat upon +their respective wheels; and they looked too at the farmer's wife's +silk mantle, inflating itself between her shoulders like a balloon +and sinking flat again, at each jog of the horse. The farmer's +wife, feeling their eyes sticking into her back, looked over her +shoulder. Dick dropped ten yards further behind. + +"Fancy, why can't you answer?" he repeated. + +"Because how much you are to me depends upon how much I am to you," +said she in low tones. + +"Everything," said Dick, putting his hand towards hers, and casting +emphatic eyes upon the upper curve of her cheek. + +"Now, Richard Dewy, no touching me! I didn't say in what way your +thinking of me affected the question--perhaps inversely, don't you +see? No touching, sir! Look; goodness me, don't, Dick!" + +The cause of her sudden start was the unpleasant appearance over +Dick's right shoulder of an empty timber-wagon and four journeymen- +carpenters reclining in lazy postures inside it, their eyes directed +upwards at various oblique angles into the surrounding world, the +chief object of their existence being apparently to criticize to the +very backbone and marrow every animate object that came within the +compass of their vision. This difficulty of Dick's was overcome by +trotting on till the wagon and carpenters were beginning to look +rather misty by reason of a film of dust that accompanied their +wagon-wheels, and rose around their heads like a fog. + +"Say you love me, Fancy." + +"No, Dick, certainly not; 'tisn't time to do that yet." + +"Why, Fancy?" + +"'Miss Day' is better at present--don't mind my saying so; and I +ought not to have called you Dick." + +"Nonsense! when you know that I would do anything on earth for your +love. Why, you make any one think that loving is a thing that can +be done and undone, and put on and put off at a mere whim." + +"No, no, I don't," she said gently; "but there are things which tell +me I ought not to give way to much thinking about you, even if--" + +"But you want to, don't you? Yes, say you do; it is best to be +truthful. Whatever they may say about a woman's right to conceal +where her love lies, and pretend it doesn't exist, and things like +that, it is not best; I do know it, Fancy. And an honest woman in +that, as well as in all her daily concerns, shines most brightly, +and is thought most of in the long-run." + +"Well then, perhaps, Dick, I do love you a little," she whispered +tenderly; "but I wish you wouldn't say any more now." + +"I won't say any more now, then, if you don't like it, dear. But +you do love me a little, don't you?" + +"Now you ought not to want me to keep saying things twice; I can't +say any more now, and you must be content with what you have." + +"I may at any rate call you Fancy? There's no harm in that." + +"Yes, you may." + +"And you'll not call me Mr. Dewy any more?" + +"Very well." + + + +CHAPTER II: FURTHER ALONG THE ROAD + + + +Dick's spirits having risen in the course of these admissions of his +sweetheart, he now touched Smart with the whip; and on Smart's neck, +not far behind his ears. Smart, who had been lost in thought for +some time, never dreaming that Dick could reach so far with a whip +which, on this particular journey, had never been extended further +than his flank, tossed his head, and scampered along with exceeding +briskness, which was very pleasant to the young couple behind him +till, turning a bend in the road, they came instantly upon the +farmer, farmer's man, and farmer's wife with the flapping mantle, +all jogging on just the same as ever. + +"Bother those people! Here we are upon them again." + +"Well, of course. They have as much right to the road as we." + +"Yes, but it is provoking to be overlooked so. I like a road all to +myself. Look what a lumbering affair theirs is!" The wheels of the +farmer's cart, just at that moment, jogged into a depression running +across the road, giving the cart a twist, whereupon all three nodded +to the left, and on coming out of it all three nodded to the right, +and went on jerking their backs in and out as usual. "We'll pass +them when the road gets wider." + +When an opportunity seemed to offer itself for carrying this +intention into effect, they heard light flying wheels behind, and on +their quartering there whizzed along past them a brand-new gig, so +brightly polished that the spokes of the wheels sent forth a +continual quivering light at one point in their circle, and all the +panels glared like mirrors in Dick and Fancy's eyes. The driver, +and owner as it appeared, was really a handsome man; his companion +was Shiner. Both turned round as they passed Dick and Fancy, and +stared with bold admiration in her face till they were obliged to +attend to the operation of passing the farmer. Dick glanced for an +instant at Fancy while she was undergoing their scrutiny; then +returned to his driving with rather a sad countenance. + +"Why are you so silent?" she said, after a while, with real concern. + +"Nothing." + +"Yes, it is, Dick. I couldn't help those people passing." + +"I know that." + +"You look offended with me. What have I done?" + +"I can't tell without offending you." + +"Better out." + +"Well," said Dick, who seemed longing to tell, even at the risk of +offending her, "I was thinking how different you in love are from me +in love. Whilst those men were staring, you dismissed me from your +thoughts altogether, and--" + +"You can't offend me further now; tell all!" + +"And showed upon your face a pleased sense of being attractive to +'em." + +"Don't be silly, Dick! You know very well I didn't." + +Dick shook his head sceptically, and smiled. + +"Dick, I always believe flattery IF POSSIBLE--and it was possible +then. Now there's an open confession of weakness. But I showed no +consciousness of it." + +Dick, perceiving by her look that she would adhere to her statement, +charitably forbore saying anything that could make her prevaricate. +The sight of Shiner, too, had recalled another branch of the subject +to his mind; that which had been his greatest trouble till her +company and words had obscured its probability. + +"By the way, Fancy, do you know why our quire is to be dismissed?" + +"No: except that it is Mr. Maybold's wish for me to play the +organ." + +"Do you know how it came to be his wish?" + +"That I don't." + +"Mr. Shiner, being churchwarden, has persuaded the vicar; who, +however, was willing enough before. Shiner, I know, is crazy to see +you playing every Sunday; I suppose he'll turn over your music, for +the organ will be close to his pew. But--I know you have never +encouraged him?" + +"Never once!" said Fancy emphatically, and with eyes full of earnest +truth. "I don't like him indeed, and I never heard of his doing +this before! I have always felt that I should like to play in a +church, but I never wished to turn you and your choir out; and I +never even said that I could play till I was asked. You don't think +for a moment that I did, surely, do you?" + +"I know you didn't, dear." + +"Or that I care the least morsel of a bit for him?" + +"I know you don't." + +The distance between Budmouth and Mellstock was ten or eleven miles, +and there being a good inn, "The Ship," four miles out of Budmouth, +with a mast and cross-trees in front, Dick's custom in driving +thither was to divide the journey into three stages by resting at +this inn going and coming, and not troubling the Budmouth stables at +all, whenever his visit to the town was a mere call and deposit, as +to-day. + +Fancy was ushered into a little tea-room, and Dick went to the +stables to see to the feeding of Smart. In face of the significant +twitches of feature that were visible in the ostler and labouring +men idling around, Dick endeavoured to look unconscious of the fact +that there was any sentiment between him and Fancy beyond a +tranter's desire to carry a passenger home. He presently entered +the inn and opened the door of Fancy's room. + +"Dick, do you know, it has struck me that it is rather awkward, my +being here alone with you like this. I don't think you had better +come in with me." + +"That's rather unpleasant, dear." + +"Yes, it is, and I wanted you to have some tea as well as myself +too, because you must be tired." + +"Well, let me have some with you, then. I was denied once before, +if you recollect, Fancy." + +"Yes, yes, never mind! And it seems unfriendly of me now, but I +don't know what to do." + +"It shall be as you say, then." Dick began to retreat with a +dissatisfied wrinkling of face, and a farewell glance at the cosy +tea-tray. + +"But you don't see how it is, Dick, when you speak like that," she +said, with more earnestness than she had ever shown before. "You do +know, that even if I care very much for you, I must remember that I +have a difficult position to maintain. The vicar would not like me, +as his schoolmistress, to indulge in a tete-a-tete anywhere with +anybody." + +"But I am not ANY body!" exclaimed Dick. + +"No, no, I mean with a young man;" and she added softly, "unless I +were really engaged to be married to him." + +"Is that all? Then, dearest, dearest, why we'll be engaged at once, +to be sure we will, and down I sit! There it is, as easy as a +glove!" + +"Ah! but suppose I won't! And, goodness me, what have I done!" she +faltered, getting very red. "Positively, it seems as if I meant you +to say that!" + +"Let's do it! I mean get engaged," said Dick. "Now, Fancy, will +you be my wife?" + +"Do you know, Dick, it was rather unkind of you to say what you did +coming along the road," she remarked, as if she had not heard the +latter part of his speech; though an acute observer might have +noticed about her breast, as the word 'wife' fell from Dick's lips, +a soft silent escape of breaths, with very short rests between each. + +"What did I say?" + +"About my trying to look attractive to those men in the gig." + +"You couldn't help looking so, whether you tried or no. And, Fancy, +you do care for me?" + +"Yes." + +"Very much?" + +"Yes." + +"And you'll be my own wife?" + +Her heart quickened, adding to and withdrawing from her cheek +varying tones of red to match each varying thought. Dick looked +expectantly at the ripe tint of her delicate mouth, waiting for what +was coming forth. + +"Yes--if father will let me." + +Dick drew himself close to her, compressing his lips and pouting +them out, as if he were about to whistle the softest melody known. + +"O no!" said Fancy solemnly. + +The modest Dick drew back a little. + +"Dick, Dick, kiss me and let me go instantly!--here's somebody +coming!" she whisperingly exclaimed. + +* * * + +Half an hour afterwards Dick emerged from the inn, and if Fancy's +lips had been real cherries probably Dick's would have appeared +deeply stained. The landlord was standing in the yard. + +"Heu-heu! hay-hay, Master Dewy! Ho-ho!" he laughed, letting the +laugh slip out gently and by degrees that it might make little noise +in its exit, and smiting Dick under the fifth rib at the same time. +"This will never do, upon my life, Master Dewy! calling for tay for +a feymel passenger, and then going in and sitting down and having +some too, and biding such a fine long time!" + +"But surely you know?" said Dick, with great apparent surprise. +"Yes, yes! Ha-ha!" smiting the landlord under the ribs in return. + +"Why, what? Yes, yes; ha-ha!" + +"You know, of course!" + +"Yes, of course! But--that is--I don't." + +"Why about--between that young lady and me?" nodding to the window +of the room that Fancy occupied. + +"No; not I!" said the innkeeper, bringing his eyes into circles. + +"And you don't!" + +"Not a word, I'll take my oath!" + +"But you laughed when I laughed." + +"Ay, that was me sympathy; so did you when I laughed!" + +"Really, you don't know? Goodness--not knowing that!" + +"I'll take my oath I don't!" + +"O yes," said Dick, with frigid rhetoric of pitying astonishment, +"we're engaged to be married, you see, and I naturally look after +her." + +"Of course, of course! I didn't know that, and I hope ye'll excuse +any little freedom of mine, Mr. Dewy. But it is a very odd thing; I +was talking to your father very intimate about family matters only +last Friday in the world, and who should come in but Keeper Day, and +we all then fell a-talking o' family matters; but neither one o' +them said a mortal word about it; knowen me too so many years, and I +at your father's own wedding. 'Tisn't what I should have expected +from an old neighbour!" + +"Well, to say the truth, we hadn't told father of the engagement at +that time; in fact, 'twasn't settled." + +"Ah! the business was done Sunday. Yes, yes, Sunday's the courting +day. Heu-heu!" + +"No, 'twasn't done Sunday in particular." + +"After school-hours this week? Well, a very good time, a very +proper good time." + +"O no, 'twasn't done then." + +"Coming along the road to-day then, I suppose?" + +"Not at all; I wouldn't think of getting engaged in a dog-cart." + +"Dammy--might as well have said at once, the WHEN be blowed! +Anyhow, 'tis a fine day, and I hope next time you'll come as one." + +Fancy was duly brought out and assisted into the vehicle, and the +newly affianced youth and maiden passed up the steep hill to the +Ridgeway, and vanished in the direction of Mellstock. + + + +CHAPTER III: A CONFESSION + + + +It was a morning of the latter summer-time; a morning of lingering +dews, when the grass is never dry in the shade. Fuchsias and +dahlias were laden till eleven o'clock with small drops and dashes +of water, changing the colour of their sparkle at every movement of +the air; and elsewhere hanging on twigs like small silver fruit. +The threads of garden spiders appeared thick and polished. In the +dry and sunny places, dozens of long-legged crane-flies whizzed off +the grass at every step the passer took. + +Fancy Day and her friend Susan Dewy the tranter's daughter, were in +such a spot as this, pulling down a bough laden with early apples. +Three months had elapsed since Dick and Fancy had journeyed together +from Budmouth, and the course of their love had run on vigorously +during the whole time. There had been just enough difficulty +attending its development, and just enough finesse required in +keeping it private, to lend the passion an ever-increasing freshness +on Fancy's part, whilst, whether from these accessories or not, +Dick's heart had been at all times as fond as could be desired. But +there was a cloud on Fancy's horizon now. + +"She is so well off--better than any of us," Susan Dewy was saying. +"Her father farms five hundred acres, and she might marry a doctor +or curate or anything of that kind if she contrived a little." + +"I don't think Dick ought to have gone to that gipsy-party at all +when he knew I couldn't go," replied Fancy uneasily. + +"He didn't know that you would not be there till it was too late to +refuse the invitation," said Susan. + +"And what was she like? Tell me." + +"Well, she was rather pretty, I must own." + +"Tell straight on about her, can't you! Come, do, Susan. How many +times did you say he danced with her?" + +"Once." + +"Twice, I think you said?" + +"Indeed I'm sure I didn't." + +"Well, and he wanted to again, I expect." + +"No; I don't think he did. She wanted to dance with him again bad +enough, I know. Everybody does with Dick, because he's so handsome +and such a clever courter." + +"O, I wish!--How did you say she wore her hair?" + +"In long curls,--and her hair is light, and it curls without being +put in paper: that's how it is she's so attractive." + +"She's trying to get him away! yes, yes, she is! And through +keeping this miserable school I mustn't wear my hair in curls! But +I will; I don't care if I leave the school and go home, I will wear +my curls! Look, Susan, do! is her hair as soft and long as this?" +Fancy pulled from its coil under her hat a twine of her own hair, +and stretched it down her shoulder to show its length, looking at +Susan to catch her opinion from her eyes. + +"It is about the same length as that, I think," said Miss Dewy. + +Fancy paused hopelessly. "I wish mine was lighter, like hers!" she +continued mournfully. "But hers isn't so soft, is it? Tell me, +now." + +"I don't know." + +Fancy abstractedly extended her vision to survey a yellow butterfly +and a red-and-black butterfly that were flitting along in company, +and then became aware that Dick was advancing up the garden. + +"Susan, here's Dick coming; I suppose that's because we've been +talking about him." + +"Well, then, I shall go indoors now--you won't want me;" and Susan +turned practically and walked off. + +Enter the single-minded Dick, whose only fault at the gipsying, or +picnic, had been that of loving Fancy too exclusively, and depriving +himself of the innocent pleasure the gathering might have afforded +him, by sighing regretfully at her absence,--who had danced with the +rival in sheer despair of ever being able to get through that stale, +flat, and unprofitable afternoon in any other way; but this she +would not believe. + +Fancy had settled her plan of emotion. To reproach Dick? O no, no. +"I am in great trouble," said she, taking what was intended to be a +hopelessly melancholy survey of a few small apples lying under the +tree; yet a critical ear might have noticed in her voice a tentative +tone as to the effect of the words upon Dick when she uttered them. + +"What are you in trouble about? Tell me of it," said Dick +earnestly. "Darling, I will share it with 'ee and help 'ee." + +"No, no: you can't! Nobody can!" + +"Why not? You don't deserve it, whatever it is. Tell me, dear." + +"O, it isn't what you think! It is dreadful: my own sin!" + +"Sin, Fancy! as if you could sin! I know it can't be." + +"'Tis, 'tis!" said the young lady, in a pretty little frenzy of +sorrow. "I have done wrong, and I don't like to tell it! Nobody +will forgive me, nobody! and you above all will not! . . . I have +allowed myself to--to--fl--" + +"What,--not flirt!" he said, controlling his emotion as it were by a +sudden pressure inward from his surface. "And you said only the day +before yesterday that you hadn't flirted in your life!" + +"Yes, I did; and that was a wicked story! I have let another love +me, and--" + +"Good G--! Well, I'll forgive you,--yes, if you couldn't help it,-- +yes, I will!" said the now dismal Dick. "Did you encourage him?" + +"O,--I don't know,--yes--no. O, I think so!" + +"Who was it?" A pause. "Tell me!" + +"Mr. Shiner." + +After a silence that was only disturbed by the fall of an apple, a +long-checked sigh from Dick, and a sob from Fancy, he said with real +austerity - + +"Tell it all;--every word!" + +"He looked at me, and I looked at him, and he said, "Will you let me +show you how to catch bullfinches down here by the stream?" And I-- +wanted to know very much--I did so long to have a bullfinch! I +couldn't help that and I said, "Yes!" and then he said, "Come here." +And I went with him down to the lovely river, and then he said to +me, "Look and see how I do it, and then you'll know: I put this +birdlime round this twig, and then I go here," he said, "and hide +away under a hush; and presently clever Mister Bird comes and +perches upon the twig, and flaps his wings, and you've got him +before you can say Jack"--something; O, O, O, I forget what!" + +"Jack Sprat," mournfully suggested Dick through the cloud of his +misery. + +"No, not Jack Sprat," she sobbed. + +"Then 'twas Jack Robinson!" he said, with the emphasis of a man who +had resolved to discover every iota of the truth, or die. + +"Yes, that was it! And then I put my hand upon the rail of the +bridge to get across, and--That's all." + +"Well, that isn't much, either," said Dick critically, and more +cheerfully. "Not that I see what business Shiner has to take upon +himself to teach you anything. But it seems--it do seem there must +have been more than that to set you up in such a dreadful taking?" + +He looked into Fancy's eyes. Misery of miseries!--guilt was written +there still. + +"Now, Fancy, you've not told me all!" said Dick, rather sternly for +a quiet young man. + +"O, don't speak so cruelly! I am afraid to tell now! If you hadn't +been harsh, I was going on to tell all; now I can't!" + +"Come, dear Fancy, tell: come. I'll forgive; I must,--by heaven +and earth, I must, whether I will or no; I love you so!" + +"Well, when I put my hand on the bridge, he touched it--" + +"A scamp!" said Dick, grinding an imaginary human frame to powder. + +"And then he looked at me, and at last he said, 'Are you in love +with Dick Dewy?' And I said, 'Perhaps I am!' and then he said, 'I +wish you weren't then, for I want to marry you, with all my soul.'" + +"There's a villain now! Want to marry you!" And Dick quivered with +the bitterness of satirical laughter. Then suddenly remembering +that he might be reckoning without his host: "Unless, to he sure, +you are willing to have him,--perhaps you are," he said, with the +wretched indifference of a castaway. + +"No, indeed I am not!" she said, her sobs just beginning to take a +favourable turn towards cure. + +"Well, then," said Dick, coming a little to his senses, "you've been +stretching it very much in giving such a dreadful beginning to such +a mere nothing. And I know what you've done it for,--just because +of that gipsy-party!" He turned away from her and took five paces +decisively, as if he were tired of an ungrateful country, including +herself "You did it to make me jealous, and I won't stand it!" He +flung the words to her over his shoulder and then stalked on, +apparently very anxious to walk to the remotest of the Colonies that +very minute. + +"O, O, O, Dick--Dick!" she cried, trotting after him like a pet +lamb, and really seriously alarmed at last, "you'll kill me! My +impulses are bad--miserably wicked,--and I can't help it; forgive +me, Dick! And I love you always; and those times when you look +silly and don't seem quite good enough for me,--just the same, I do, +Dick! And there is something more serious, though not concerning +that walk with him." + +"Well, what is it?" said Dick, altering his mind about walking to +the Colonies in fact, passing to the other extreme, and standing so +rooted to the road that he was apparently not even going home. + +"Why this," she said, drying the beginning of a new flood of tears +she had been going to shed, "this is the serious part. Father has +told Mr. Shiner that he would like him for a son-in-law, if he could +get me;--that he has his right hearty consent to come courting me!" + + + +CHAPTER IV: AN ARRANGEMENT + + + +"That IS serious," said Dick, more intellectually than he had spoken +for a long time. + +The truth was that Geoffrey knew nothing about his daughter's +continued walks and meetings with Dick. When a hint that there were +symptoms of an attachment between them had first reached Geoffrey's +ears, he stated so emphatically that he must think the matter over +before any such thing could be allowed that, rather unwisely on +Dick's part, whatever it might have been on the lady's, the lovers +were careful to be seen together no more in public; and Geoffrey, +forgetting the report, did not think over the matter at all. So Mr. +Shiner resumed his old position in Geoffrey's brain by mere flux of +time. Even Shiner began to believe that Dick existed for Fancy no +more,--though that remarkably easy-going man had taken no active +steps on his own account as yet. + +"And father has not only told Mr. Shiner that," continued Fancy, +"but he has written me a letter, to say he should wish me to +encourage Mr. Shiner, if 'twas convenient!" + +"I must start off and see your father at once!" said Dick, taking +two or three vehement steps to the south, recollecting that Mr. Day +lived to the north, and coming back again. + +"I think we had better see him together. Not tell him what you come +for, or anything of the kind, until he likes you, and so win his +brain through his heart, which is always the way to manage people. +I mean in this way: I am going home on Saturday week to help them +in the honey-taking. You might come there to me, have something to +eat and drink, and let him guess what your coming signifies, without +saying it in so many words." + +"We'll do it, dearest. But I shall ask him for you, flat and plain; +not wait for his guessing." And the lover then stepped close to +her, and attempted to give her one little kiss on the cheek, his +lips alighting however, on an outlying tract of her back hair by +reason of an impulse that had caused her to turn her head with a +jerk. "Yes, and I'll put on my second-best suit and a clean shirt +and collar, and black my boots as if 'twas a Sunday. 'Twill have a +good appearance, you see, and that's a great deal to start with." + +"You won't wear that old waistcoat, will you, Dick?" + +"Bless you, no! Why I--" + +"I didn't mean to be personal, dear Dick," she said, fearing she had +hurt his feelings. "'Tis a very nice waistcoat, but what I meant +was, that though it is an excellent waistcoat for a settled-down +man, it is not quite one for" (she waited, and a blush expanded over +her face, and then she went on again)--"for going courting in." + +"No, I'll wear my best winter one, with the leather lining, that +mother made. It is a beautiful, handsome waistcoat inside, yes, as +ever anybody saw. In fact, only the other day, I unbuttoned it to +show a chap that very lining, and he said it was the strongest, +handsomest lining you could wish to see on the king's waistcoat +himself." + +"_I_ don't quite know what to wear," she said, as if her habitual +indifference alone to dress had kept back so important a subject +till now. + +"Why, that blue frock you wore last week." + +"Doesn't set well round the neck. I couldn't wear that." + +"But I shan't care." + +"No, you won't mind." + +"Well, then it's all right. Because you only care how you look to +me, do you, dear? I only dress for you, that's certain." + +"Yes, but you see I couldn't appear in it again very well." + +"Any strange gentleman you mid meet in your journey might notice the +set of it, I suppose. Fancy, men in love don't think so much about +how they look to other women." It is difficult to say whether a +tone of playful banter or of gentle reproach prevailed in the +speech. + +"Well then, Dick," she said, with good-humoured frankness, "I'll own +it. I shouldn't like a stranger to see me dressed badly, even +though I am in love. 'Tis our nature, I suppose." + +"You perfect woman!" + +"Yes; if you lay the stress on 'woman,'" she murmured, looking at a +group of hollyhocks in flower, round which a crowd of butterflies +had gathered like female idlers round a bonnet-shop. + +"But about the dress. Why not wear the one you wore at our party?" + +"That sets well, but a girl of the name of Bet Tallor, who lives +near our house, has had one made almost like it (only in pattern, +though of miserably cheap stuff), and I couldn't wear it on that +account. Dear me, I am afraid I can't go now." + +"O yes, you must; I know you will!" said Dick, with dismay. "Why +not wear what you've got on?" + +"What! this old one! After all, I think that by wearing my gray one +Saturday, I can make the blue one do for Sunday. Yes, I will. A +hat or a bonnet, which shall it be? Which do I look best in?" + +"Well, I think the bonnet is nicest, more quiet and matronly." + +"What's the objection to the hat? Does it make me look old?" + +"O no; the hat is well enough; but it makes you look rather too--you +won't mind me saying it, dear?" + +"Not at all, for I shall wear the bonnet." + +"--Rather too coquettish and flirty for an engaged young woman." + +She reflected a minute. "Yes; yes. Still, after all, the hat would +do best; hats ARE best, you see. Yes, I must wear the hat, dear +Dicky, because I ought to wear a hat, you know." + + + + +PART THE FORTH--AUTUMN + + + + +CHAPTER I: GOING NUTTING + + +Dick, dressed in his 'second-best' suit, burst into Fancy's sitting- +room with a glow of pleasure on his face. + +It was two o'clock on Friday, the day be fore her contemplated visit +to her father, and for some reason connected with cleaning the +school the children had been given this Friday afternoon for +pastime, in addition to the usual Saturday. + +"Fancy! it happens just right that it is a leisure half day with +you. Smart is lame in his near-foot-afore, and so, as I can't do +anything, I've made a holiday afternoon of it, and am come for you +to go nutting with me!" + +She was sitting by the parlour window, with a blue frock lying +across her lap and scissors in her hand. + +"Go nutting! Yes. But I'm afraid I can't go for an hour or so." + +"Why not? 'Tis the only spare afternoon we may both have together +for weeks." + +"This dress of mine, that I am going to wear on Sunday at Yalbury;-- +I find it fits so badly that I must alter it a little, after all. I +told the dressmaker to make it by a pattern I gave her at the time; +instead of that, she did it her own way, and made me look a perfect +fright." + +"How long will you be?" he inquired, looking rather disappointed. + +"Not long. Do wait and talk to me; come, do, dear." + +Dick sat down. The talking progressed very favourably, amid the +snipping and sewing, till about half-past two, at which time his +conversation began to be varied by a slight tapping upon his toe +with a walking-stick he had cut from the hedge as he came along. +Fancy talked and answered him, but sometimes the answers were so +negligently given, that it was evident her thoughts lay for the +greater part in her lap with the blue dress. + +The clock struck three. Dick arose from his seat, walked round the +room with his hands behind him, examined all the furniture, then +sounded a few notes on the harmonium, then looked inside all the +books he could find, then smoothed Fancy's head with his hand. +Still the snipping and sewing went on. + +The clock struck four. Dick fidgeted about, yawned privately; +counted the knots in the table, yawned publicly; counted the flies +on the ceiling, yawned horribly; went into the kitchen and scullery, +and so thoroughly studied the principle upon which the pump was +constructed that he could have delivered a lecture on the subject. +Stepping back to Fancy, and finding still that she had not done, he +went into her garden and looked at her cabbages and potatoes, and +reminded himself that they seemed to him to wear a decidedly +feminine aspect; then pulled up several weeds, and came in again. +The clock struck five, and still the snipping and sewing went on. + +Dick attempted to kill a fly, peeled all the rind off his walking- +stick, then threw the stick into the scullery because it was spoilt, +produced hideous discords from the harmonium, and accidentally +overturned a vase of flowers, the water from which ran in a rill +across the table and dribbled to the floor, where it formed a lake, +the shape of which, after the lapse of a few minutes, he began to +modify considerably with his foot, till it was like a map of England +and Wales. + +"Well, Dick, you needn't have made quite such a mess." + +"Well, I needn't, I suppose." He walked up to the blue dress, and +looked at it with a rigid gaze. Then an idea seemed to cross his +brain. + +"Fancy." + +"Yes." + +"I thought you said you were going to wear your gray gown all day +to-morrow on your trip to Yalbury, and in the evening too, when I +shall be with you, and ask your father for you?" + +"So I am." + +"And the blue one only on Sunday?" + +"And the blue one Sunday." + +"Well, dear, I sha'n't be at Yalbury Sunday to see it." + +"No, but I shall walk to Longpuddle church in the afternoon with +father, and such lots of people will be looking at me there, you +know; and it did set so badly round the neck." + +"I never noticed it, and 'tis like nobody else would." + +"They might." + +"Then why not wear the gray one on Sunday as well? 'Tis as pretty +as the blue one." + +"I might make the gray one do, certainly. But it isn't so good; it +didn't cost half so much as this one, and besides, it would be the +same I wore Saturday." + +"Then wear the striped one, dear." + +"I might." + +"Or the dark one." + +"Yes, I might; but I want to wear a fresh one they haven't seen." + +"I see, I see," said Dick, in a voice in which the tones of love +were decidedly inconvenienced by a considerable emphasis, his +thoughts meanwhile running as follows: "I, the man she loves best +in the world, as she says, am to understand that my poor half- +holiday is to be lost, because she wants to wear on Sunday a gown +there is not the slightest necessity for wearing, simply, in fact, +to appear more striking than usual in the eyes of Longpuddle young +men; and I not there, either." + +"Then there are three dresses good enough for my eyes, but neither +is good enough for the youths of Longpuddle," he said. + +"No, not that exactly, Dick. Still, you see, I do want--to look +pretty to them--there, that's honest! But I sha'n't be much +longer." + +"How much?" + +"A quarter of an hour." + +"Very well; I'll come in in a quarter of an hour." + +"Why go away?" + +"I mid as well." + +He went out, walked down the road, and sat upon a gate. Here he +meditated and meditated, and the more he meditated the more +decidedly did he begin to fume, and the more positive was he that +his time had been scandalously trifled with by Miss Fancy Day--that, +so far from being the simple girl who had never had a sweetheart +before, as she had solemnly assured him time after time, she was, if +not a flirt, a woman who had had no end of admirers; a girl most +certainly too anxious about her frocks; a girl, whose feelings, +though warm, were not deep; a girl who cared a great deal too much +how she appeared in the eyes of other men. "What she loves best in +the world," he thought, with an incipient spice of his father's +grimness, "is her hair and complexion. What she loves next best, +her gowns and hats; what she loves next best, myself, perhaps!" + +Suffering great anguish at this disloyalty in himself and harshness +to his darling, yet disposed to persevere in it, a horribly cruel +thought crossed his mind. He would not call for her, as he had +promised, at the end of a quarter of an hour! Yes, it would be a +punishment she well deserved. Although the best part of the +afternoon had been wasted he would go nutting as he had intended, +and go by himself. + +He leaped over the gate, and pushed up the lane for nearly two +miles, till a winding path called Snail-Creep sloped up a hill and +entered a hazel copse by a hole hike a rabbit's burrow. In he +plunged, vanished among the bushes, and in a short time there was no +sign of his existence upon earth, save an occasional rustling of +boughs and snapping of twigs in divers points of Grey's Wood. + +Never man nutted as Dick nutted that afternoon. He worked like a +galley slave. Half-hour after half-hour passed away, and still he +gathered without ceasing. At last, when the sun had set, and +bunches of nuts could not be distinguished from the leaves which +nourished them, he shouldered his bag, containing quite two pecks of +the finest produce of the wood, about as much use to him as two +pecks of stones from the road, strolled down the woodland track, +crossed the highway and entered the homeward lane, whistling as be +went. + +Probably, Miss Fancy Day never before or after stood so low in Mr. +Dewy's opinion as on that afternoon. In fact, it is just possible +that a few more blue dresses on the Longpuddle young men's account +would have clarified Dick's brain entirely, and made him once more a +free man. + +But Venus had planned other developments, at any rate for the +present. Cuckoo-Lane, the way he pursued, passed over a ridge which +rose keenly against the sky about fifty yards in his van. Here, +upon the bright after-glow about the horizon, was now visible an +irregular shape, which at first he conceived to be a bough standing +a little beyond the line of its neighbours. Then it seemed to move, +and, as he advanced still further, there was no doubt that it was a +living being sitting in the bank, head bowed on hand. The grassy +margin entirely prevented his footsteps from being heard, and it was +not till he was close that the figure recognized him. Up it sprang, +and he was face to face with Fancy. + +"Dick, Dick! O, is it you, Dick!" + +"Yes, Fancy," said Dick, in a rather repentant tone, and lowering +his nuts. + +She ran up to him, flung her parasol on the grass, put her little +head against his breast, and then there began a narrative, +disjointed by such a hysterical weeping as was never surpassed for +intensity in the whole history of love. + +"O Dick," she sobbed out, "where have you been away from me? O, I +have suffered agony, and thought you would never come any more! +'Tis cruel, Dick; no 'tisn't, it is justice! I've been walking +miles and miles up and down Grey's Wood, trying to find you, till I +was wearied and worn out, and I could walk no further, and had come +back this far! O Dick, directly you were gone, I thought I had +offended you and I put down the dress; 'tisn't finished now, and I +never will finish, it, and I'll wear an old one Sunday! Yes, Dick, +I will, because I don't care what I wear when you are not by my +side--ha, you think I do, but I don't!--and I ran after you, and I +saw you go up Snail-Creep and not look back once, and then you +plunged in, and I after you; but I was too far behind. O, I did +wish the horrid bushes had been cut down, so that I could see your +dear shape again! And then I called out to you, and nobody +answered, and I was afraid to call very loud, lest anybody else +should hear me. Then I kept wandering and wandering about, and it +was dreadful misery, Dick. And then I shut my eyes and fell to +picturing you looking at some other woman, very pretty and nice, but +with no affection or truth in her at all, and then imagined you +saying to yourself, "Ah, she's as good as Fancy, for Fancy told me a +story, and was a flirt, and cared for herself more than me, so now +I'll have this one for my sweetheart." O, you won't, will you, +Dick, for I do love you so!" + +It is scarcely necessary to add that Dick renounced his freedom +there and then, and kissed her ten times over, and promised that no +pretty woman of the kind alluded to should ever engross his +thoughts; in short, that though he had been vexed with her, all such +vexation was past, and that henceforth and for ever it was simply +Fancy or death for him. And then they set about proceeding +homewards, very slowly on account of Fancy's weariness, she leaning +upon his shoulder, and in addition receiving support from his arm +round her waist; though she had sufficiently recovered from her +desperate condition to sing to him, "Why are you wandering here, I +pray?" during the latter part of their walk. Nor is it necessary to +describe in detail how the bag of nuts was quite forgotten until +three days later, when it was found among the brambles and restored +empty to Mrs. Dewy, her initials being marked thereon in red cotton; +and how she puzzled herself till her head ached upon the question of +how on earth her meal-bag could have got into Cuckoo-Lane. + + + +CHAPTER II: HONEY-TAKING, AND AFTERWARDS + + + +Saturday evening saw Dick Dewy journeying on foot to Yalbury Wood, +according to the arrangement with Fancy. + +The landscape being concave, at the going down of the sun everything +suddenly assumed a uniform robe of shade. The evening advanced from +sunset to dusk long before Dick's arrival, and his progress during +the latter portion of his walk through the trees was indicated by +the flutter of terrified birds that had been roosting over the path. +And in crossing the glades, masses of hot dry air, that had been +formed on the hills during the day, greeted his cheeks alternately +with clouds of damp night air from the valleys. He reached the +keeper-steward's house, where the grass-plot and the garden in front +appeared light and pale against the unbroken darkness of the grove +from which he had emerged, and paused at the garden gate. + +He had scarcely been there a minute when he beheld a sort of +procession advancing from the door in his front. It consisted first +of Enoch the trapper, carrying a spade on his shoulder and a lantern +dangling in his hand; then came Mrs. Day, the light of the lantern +revealing that she bore in her arms curious objects about a foot +long, in the form of Latin crosses (made of lath and brown paper +dipped in brimstone--called matches by bee-masters); next came Miss +Day, with a shawl thrown over her head; and behind all, in the +gloom, Mr. Frederic Shiner. + +Dick, in his consternation at finding Shiner present, was at a loss +how to proceed, and retired under a tree to collect his thoughts. + +"Here I be, Enoch," said a voice; and the procession advancing +farther, the lantern's rays illuminated the figure of Geoffrey, +awaiting their arrival beside a row of bee-hives, in front of the +path. Taking the spade from Enoch, he proceeded to dig two holes in +the earth beside the hives, the others standing round in a circle, +except Mrs. Day, who deposited her matches in the fork of an apple- +tree and returned to the house. The party remaining were now lit up +in front by the lantern in their midst, their shadows radiating each +way upon the garden-plot like the spokes of a wheel. An apparent +embarrassment of Fancy at the presence of Shiner caused a silence in +the assembly, during which the preliminaries of execution were +arranged, the matches fixed, the stake kindled, the two hives placed +over the two holes, and the earth stopped round the edges. Geoffrey +then stood erect, and rather more, to straighten his backbone after +the digging. + +"They were a peculiar family," said Mr. Shiner, regarding the hives +reflectively. + +Geoffrey nodded. + +"Those holes will be the grave of thousands!" said Fancy. "I think +'tis rather a cruel thing to do." + +Her father shook his head. "No," he said, tapping the hives to +shake the dead bees from their cells, "if you suffocate 'em this +way, they only die once: if you fumigate 'em in the new way, they +come to life again, and die o' starvation; so the pangs o' death be +twice upon 'em." + +"I incline to Fancy's notion," said Mr. Shiner, laughing lightly. + +"The proper way to take honey, so that the bees be neither starved +nor murdered, is a puzzling matter," said the keeper steadily. + +"I should like never to take it from them," said Fancy. + +"But 'tis the money," said Enoch musingly. "For without money man +is a shadder!" + +The lantern-light had disturbed many bees that had escaped from +hives destroyed some days earlier, and, demoralized by affliction, +were now getting a living as marauders about the doors of other +hives. Several flew round the head and neck of Geoffrey; then +darted upon him with an irritated bizz. + +Enoch threw down the lantern, and ran off and pushed his head into a +currant bush; Fancy scudded up the path; and Mr. Shiner floundered +away helter-skelter among the cabbages. Geoffrey stood his ground, +unmoved and firm as a rock. Fancy was the first to return, followed +by Enoch picking up the lantern. Mr. Shiner still remained +invisible. + +"Have the craters stung ye?" said Enoch to Geoffrey. + +"No, not much--on'y a little here and there," he said with leisurely +solemnity, shaking one bee out of his shirt sleeve, pulling another +from among his hair, and two or three more from his neck. The rest +looked on during this proceeding with a complacent sense of being +out of it,--much as a European nation in a state of internal +commotion is watched by its neighbours. + +"Are those all of them, father?" said Fancy, when Geoffrey had +pulled away five. + +"Almost all,--though I feel one or two more sticking into my +shoulder and side. Ah! there's another just begun again upon my +backbone. You lively young mortals, how did you get inside there? +However, they can't sting me many times more, poor things, for they +must be getting weak. They mid as well stay in me till bedtime now, +I suppose." + +As he himself was the only person affected by this arrangement, it +seemed satisfactory enough; and after a noise of feet kicking +against cabbages in a blundering progress among them, the voice of +Mr. Shiner was heard from the darkness in that direction. + +"Is all quite safe again?" + +No answer being returned to this query, he apparently assumed that +he might venture forth, and gradually drew near the lantern again. +The hives were now removed from their position over the holes, one +being handed to Enoch to carry indoors, and one being taken by +Geoffrey himself. + +"Bring hither the lantern, Fancy: the spade can bide." + +Geoffrey and Enoch then went towards the house, leaving Shiner and +Fancy standing side by side on the garden-plot. + +"Allow me," said Shiner, stooping for the lantern and seizing it at +the same time with Fancy. + +"I can carry it," said Fancy, religiously repressing all inclination +to trifle. She had thoroughly considered that subject after the +tearful explanation of the bird-catching adventure to Dick, and had +decided that it would be dishonest in her, as an engaged young +woman, to trifle with men's eyes and hands any more. Finding that +Shiner still retained his hold of the lantern, she relinquished it, +and he, having found her retaining it, also let go. The lantern +fell, and was extinguished. Fancy moved on. + +"Where is the path?" said Mr. Shiner. + +"Here," said Fancy. "Your eyes will get used to the dark in a +minute or two." + +"Till that time will ye lend me your hand?" Fancy gave him the +extreme tips of her fingers, and they stepped from the plot into the +path. + +"You don't accept attentions very freely." + +"It depends upon who offers them." + +"A fellow like me, for instance." A dead silence. + +"Well, what do you say, Missie?" + +"It then depends upon how they are offered." + +"Not wildly, and yet not careless-like; not purposely, and yet not +by chance; not too quick nor yet too slow." + +"How then?" said Fancy. + +"Coolly and practically," he said. "How would that kind of love be +taken?" + +"Not anxiously, and yet not indifferently; neither blushing nor +pale; nor religiously nor yet quite wickedly." + +"Not at all." + +Geoffrey Day's storehouse at the back of his dwelling was hung with +bunches of dried horehound, mint, and sage; brown-paper bags of +thyme and lavender; and long ropes of clean onions. On shelves were +spread large red and yellow apples, and choice selections of early +potatoes for seed next year;--vulgar crowds of commoner kind lying +beneath in heaps. A few empty beehives were clustered around a nail +in one corner, under which stood two or three barrels of new cider +of the first crop, each bubbling and squirting forth from the yet +open bunghole. + +Fancy was now kneeling beside the two inverted hives, one of which +rested against her lap, for convenience in operating upon the +contents. She thrust her sleeves above her elbows, and inserted her +small pink hand edgewise between each white lobe of honeycomb, +performing the act so adroitly and gently as not to unseal a single +cell. Then cracking the piece off at the crown of the hive by a +slight backward and forward movement, she lifted each portion as it +was loosened into a large blue platter, placed on a bench at her +side. + +"Bother these little mortals!" said Geoffrey, who was holding the +light to her, and giving his back an uneasy twist. "I really think +I may as well go indoors and take 'em out, poor things! for they +won't let me alone. There's two a stinging wi' all their might now. +I'm sure I wonder their strength can last so long." + +"All right, friend; I'll hold the candle whilst you are gone," said +Mr. Shiner, leisurely taking the light, and allowing Geoffrey to +depart, which he did with his usual long paces. + +He could hardly have gone round to the house-door when other +footsteps were heard approaching the outbuilding; the tip of a +finger appeared in the hole through which the wood latch was lifted, +and Dick Dewy came in, having been all this time walking up and down +the wood, vainly waiting for Shiner's departure. + +Fancy looked up and welcomed him rather confusedly. Shiner grasped +the candlestick more firmly, and, lest doing this in silence should +not imply to Dick with sufficient force that he was quite at home +and cool, he sang invincibly - + + +"'King Arthur he had three sons.'" + + +"Father here?" said Dick. + +"Indoors, I think," said Fancy, looking pleasantly at him. + +Dick surveyed the scene, and did not seem inclined to hurry off just +at that moment. Shiner went on singing + + +"'The miller was drown'd in his pond, +The weaver was hung in his yarn, +And the d- ran away with the little tail-or, +With the broadcloth under his arm.'" + + +"That's a terrible crippled rhyme, if that's your rhyme!" said Dick, +with a grain of superciliousness in his tone. + +"It's no use your complaining to me about the rhyme!" said Mr. +Shiner. "You must go to the man that made it." + +Fancy by this time had acquired confidence. + +"Taste a bit, Mr. Dewy," she said, holding up to him a small +circular piece of honeycomb that had been the last in the row of +layers, remaining still on her knees and flinging back her head to +look in his face; "and then I'll taste a bit too." + +"And I, if you please," said Mr. Shiner. Nevertheless the farmer +looked superior, as if he could even now hardly join the trifling +from very importance of station; and after receiving the honeycomb +from Fancy, he turned it over in his hand till the cells began to be +crushed, and the liquid honey ran down from his fingers in a thin +string. + +Suddenly a faint cry from Fancy caused them to gaze at her. + +"What's the matter, dear?" said Dick. + +"It is nothing, but O-o! a bee has stung the inside of my lip! He +was in one of the cells I was eating!" + +"We must keep down the swelling, or it may be serious!" said Shiner, +stepping up and kneeling beside her. "Let me see it." + +"No, no!" + +"Just let ME see it," said Dick, kneeling on the other side: and +after some hesitation she pressed down her lip with one finger to +show the place. "O, I hope 'twill soon he better! I don't mind a +sting in ordinary places, hut it is so bad upon your lip," she added +with tears in her eyes, and writhing a little from the pain. + +Shiner held the light above his head and pushed his face close to +Fancy's, as if the lip had been shown exclusively to himself, upon +which Dick pushed closer, as if Shiner were not there at all. + +"It is swelling," said Dick to her right aspect. + +"It isn't swelling," said Shiner to her left aspect. + +"Is it dangerous on the lip?" cried Fancy. "I know it is dangerous +on the tongue." + +"O no, not dangerous!" answered Dick. + +"Rather dangerous," had answered Shiner simultaneously. + +"I must try to bear it!" said Fancy, turning again to the hives. + +"Hartshorn-and-oil is a good thing to put to it, Miss Day," said +Shiner with great concern. + +"Sweet-oil-and-hartshorn I've found to be a good thing to cure +stings, Miss Day," said Dick with greater concern. + +"We have some mixed indoors; would you kindly run and get it for +me?" she said. + +Now, whether by inadvertence, or whether by mischievous intention, +the individuality of the YOU was so carelessly denoted that both +Dick and Shiner sprang to their feet like twin acrobats, and marched +abreast to the door; both seized the latch and lifted it, and +continued marching on, shoulder to shoulder, in the same manner to +the dwelling-house. Not only so, but entering the room, they +marched as before straight up to Mrs. Day's chair, letting the door +in the oak partition slam so forcibly, that the rows of pewter on +the dresser rang like a bell. + +"Mrs. Day, Fancy has stung her lip, and wants you to give me the +hartshorn, please," said Mr. Shiner, very close to Mrs. Day's face. + +"O, Mrs. Day, Fancy has asked me to bring out the hartshorn, please, +because she has stung her lip!" said Dick, a little closer to Mrs. +Day's face. + +"Well, men alive! that's no reason why you should eat me, I +suppose!" said Mrs. Day, drawing back. + +She searched in the corner-cupboard, produced the bottle, and began +to dust the cork, the rim, and every other part very carefully, +Dick's hand and Shiner's hand waiting side by side. + +"Which is head man?" said Mrs. Day. "Now, don't come mumbudgeting +so close again. Which is head man?" + +Neither spoke; and the bottle was inclined towards Shiner. Shiner, +as a high-class man, would not look in the least triumphant, and +turned to go off with it as Geoffrey came downstairs after the +search in his linen for concealed bees. + +"O--that you, Master Dewy?" + +Dick assured the keeper that it was; and the young man then +determined upon a bold stroke for the attainment of his end, +forgetting that the worst of bold strokes is the disastrous +consequences they involve if they fail. + +"I've come on purpose to speak to you very particular, Mr. Day," he +said, with a crushing emphasis intended for the ears of Mr. Shiner, +who was vanishing round the door-post at that moment. + +"Well, I've been forced to go upstairs and unrind myself, and shake +some bees out o' me" said Geoffrey, walking slowly towards the open +door, and standing on the threshold. "The young rascals got into my +shirt and wouldn't be quiet nohow." + +Dick followed him to the door. + +"I've come to speak a word to you," he repeated, looking out at the +pale mist creeping up from the gloom of the valley. "You may +perhaps guess what it is about." + +The keeper lowered his hands into the depths of his pockets, twirled +his eyes, balanced himself on his toes, looked as perpendicularly +downward as if his glance were a plumb-line, then horizontally, +collecting together the cracks that lay about his face till they +were all in the neighbourhood of his eyes. + +"Maybe I don't know," he replied. + +Dick said nothing; and the stillness was disturbed only by some +small bird that was being killed by an owl in the adjoining wood, +whose cry passed into the silence without mingling with it. + +"I've left my hat up in chammer," said Geoffrey; "wait while I step +up and get en." + +"I'll be in the garden," said Dick. + +He went round by a side wicket into the garden, and Geoffrey went +upstairs. It was the custom in Mellstock and its vicinity to +discuss matters of pleasure and ordinary business inside the house, +and to reserve the garden for very important affairs: a custom +which, as is supposed, originated in the desirability of getting +away at such times from the other members of the family when there +was only one room for living in, though it was now quite as +frequently practised by those who suffered from no such limitation +to the size of their domiciles. + +The head-keeper's form appeared in the dusky garden, and Dick walked +towards him. The elder paused and leant over the rail of a piggery +that stood on the left of the path, upon which Dick did the same; +and they both contemplated a whitish shadowy shape that was moving +about and grunting among the straw of the interior. + +"I've come to ask for Fancy," said Dick. + +"I'd as lief you hadn't." + +"Why should that be, Mr. Day?" + +"Because it makes me say that you've come to ask what ye be'n't +likely to have. Have ye come for anything else?" + +"Nothing." + +"Then I'll just tell 'ee you've come on a very foolish errand. D'ye +know what her mother was?" + +"No." + +"A teacher in a landed family's nursery, who was foolish enough to +marry the keeper of the same establishment; for I was only a keeper +then, though now I've a dozen other irons in the fire as steward +here for my lord, what with the timber sales and the yearly +fellings, and the gravel and sand sales and one thing and 'tother. +However, d'ye think Fancy picked up her good manners, the smooth +turn of her tongue, her musical notes, and her knowledge of books, +in a homely hole like this?" + +"No." + +"D'ye know where?" + +"No." + +"Well, when I went a-wandering after her mother's death, she lived +with her aunt, who kept a boarding-school, till her aunt married +Lawyer Green--a man as sharp as a needle--and the school was broke +up. Did ye know that then she went to the training-school, and that +her name stood first among the Queen's scholars of her year?" + +"I've heard so." + +"And that when she sat for her certificate as Government teacher, +she had the highest of the first class?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, and do ye know what I live in such a miserly way for when +I've got enough to do without it, and why I make her work as a +schoolmistress instead of living here?" + +"No." + +"That if any gentleman, who sees her to be his equal in polish, +should want to marry her, and she want to marry him, he sha'n't be +superior to her in pocket. Now do ye think after this that you be +good enough for her?" + +"No." + +"Then good-night t'ee, Master Dewy." + +"Good-night, Mr. Day." + +Modest Dick's reply had faltered upon his tongue, and he turned away +wondering at his presumption in asking for a woman whom he had seen +from the beginning to be so superior to him. + + + +CHAPTER III: FANCY IN THE RAIN + + + +The next scene is a tempestuous afternoon in the following month, +and Fancy Day is discovered walking from her father's home towards +Mellstock. + +A single vast gray cloud covered the country, from which the small +rain and mist had just begun to blow down in wavy sheets, +alternately thick and thin. The trees of the fields and plantations +writhed like miserable men as the air wound its way swiftly among +them: the lowest portions of their trunks, that had hardly ever +been known to move, were visibly rocked by the fiercer gusts, +distressing the mind by its painful unwontedness, as when a strong +man is seen to shed tears. Low-hanging boughs went up and down; +high and erect boughs went to and fro; the blasts being so +irregular, and divided into so many cross--currents, that +neighbouring branches of the same tree swept the skies in +independent motions, crossed each other, or became entangled. +Across the open spaces flew flocks of green and yellowish leaves, +which, after travelling a long distance from their parent trees, +reached the ground, and lay there with their under--sides upward. + +As the rain and wind increased, and Fancy's bonnet--ribbons leapt +more and more snappishly against her chin, she paused on entering +Mellstock Lane to consider her latitude, and the distance to a place +of shelter. The nearest house was Elizabeth Endorfield's, in Higher +Mellstock, whose cottage and garden stood not far from the junction +of that hamlet with the road she followed. Fancy hastened onward, +and in five minutes entered a gate, which shed upon her toes a flood +of water-drops as she opened it. + +"Come in, chiel!" a voice exclaimed, before Fancy had knocked: a +promptness that would have surprised her had she not known that Mrs. +Endorfield was an exceedingly and exceptionally sharp woman in the +use of her eyes and ears. + +Fancy went in and sat down. Elizabeth was paring potatoes for her +husband's supper. + +Scrape, scrape, scrape; then a toss, and splash went a potato into a +bucket of water. + +Now, as Fancy listlessly noted these proceedings of the dame, she +began to reconsider an old subject that hay uppermost in her heart. +Since the interview between her father and Dick, the days had been +melancholy days for her. Geoffrey's firm opposition to the notion +of Dick as a son-in-law was more than she had expected. She had +frequently seen her lover since that time, it is true, and had loved +him more for the opposition than she would have otherwise dreamt of +doing--which was a happiness of a certain kind. Yet, though love is +thus an end in itself, it must be believed to be the means to +another end if it is to assume the rosy hues of an unalloyed +pleasure. And such a belief Fancy and Dick were emphatically denied +just now. + +Elizabeth Endorfield had a repute among women which was in its +nature something between distinction and notoriety. It was founded +on the following items of character. She was shrewd and +penetrating; her house stood in a lonely place; she never went to +church; she wore a red cloak; she always retained her bonnet indoors +and she had a pointed chin. Thus far her attributes were distinctly +Satanic; and those who looked no further called her, in plain terms +a witch. But she was not gaunt, nor ugly in the upper part of her +face, nor particularly strange in manner; so that, when her more +intimate acquaintances spoke of her the term was softened, and she +became simply a Deep Body, who was as long-headed as she was high. +It may be stated that Elizabeth, belonged to a class of suspects who +were gradually losing their mysterious characteristics under the +administration of the young vicar; though, during the long reign of +Mr. Grinham, the parish of Mellstock had proved extremely favourable +to the growth of witches. + +While Fancy was revolving all this in her mind, and putting it to +herself whether it was worth while to tell her troubles to +Elizabeth, and ask her advice in getting out of them, the witch +spoke. + +"You be down--proper down," she said suddenly, dropping another +potato into the bucket. + +Fancy took no notice. + +"About your young man." + +Fancy reddened. Elizabeth seemed to be watching her thoughts. +Really, one would almost think she must have the powers people +ascribed to her. + +"Father not in the humour for't, hey?" Another potato was finished +and flung in. "Ah, I know about it. Little birds tell me things +that people don't dream of my knowing." + +Fancy was desperate about Dick, and here was a chance--O, such a +wicked chance--of getting help; and what was goodness beside love! + +"I wish you'd tell me how to put him in the humour for it?" she +said. + +"That I could soon do," said the witch quietly. + +"Really? O, do; anyhow--I don't care--so that it is done! How +could I do it, Mrs. Endorfield?" + +"Nothing so mighty wonderful in it." + +"Well, but how?" + +"By witchery, of course!" said Elizabeth. + +"No!" said Fancy. + +"'Tis, I assure ye. Didn't you ever hear I was a witch?" + +"Well," hesitated Fancy, "I have heard you called so." + +"And you believed it?" + +"I can't say that I did exactly believe it, for 'tis very horrible +and wicked; but, O, how I do wish it was possible for you to be +one!" + +"So I am. And I'll tell you how to bewitch your father to let you +marry Dick Dewy." + +"Will it hurt him, poor thing?" + +"Hurt who?" + +"Father." + +"No; the charm is worked by common sense, and the spell can only be +broke by your acting stupidly." + +Fancy looked rather perplexed, and Elizabeth went on: + + +"This fear of Lizz--whatever 'tis - +By great and small; +She makes pretence to common sense, +And that's all. + + +"You must do it like this." The witch laid down her knife and +potato, and then poured into Fancy's ear a long and detailed list of +directions, glancing up from the corner of her eye into Fancy's face +with an expression of sinister humour. Fancy's face brightened, +clouded, rose and sank, as the narrative proceeded. "There," said +Elizabeth at length, stooping for the knife and another potato, "do +that, and you'll have him by-long and by-late, my dear." + +"And do it I will!" said Fancy. + +She then turned her attention to the external world once more. The +rain continued as usual, but the wind had abated considerably during +the discourse. Judging that it was now possible to keep an umbrella +erect, she pulled her hood again over her bonnet, bade the witch +good-bye, and went her way. + + + +CHAPTER IV: THE SPELL + + + +Mrs. Endorfield's advice was duly followed. + +"I be proper sorry that your daughter isn't so well as she might +be," said a Mellstock man to Geoffrey one morning. + +"But is there anything in it?" said Geoffrey uneasily, as he shifted +his hat to the right. "I can't understand the report. She didn't +complain to me a bit when I saw her." + +"No appetite at all, they say." + +Geoffrey crossed to Mellstock and called at the school that +afternoon. Fancy welcomed him as usual, and asked him to stay and +take tea with her. + +"I be'n't much for tea, this time o' day," he said, but stayed. + +During the meal he watched her narrowly. And to his great +consternation discovered the following unprecedented change in the +healthy girl--that she cut herself only a diaphanous slice of bread- +and-butter, and, laying it on her plate, passed the meal-time in +breaking it into pieces, but eating no more than about one-tenth of +the slice. Geoffrey hoped she would say something about Dick, and +finish up by weeping, as she had done after the decision against him +a few days subsequent to the interview in the garden. But nothing +was said, and in due time Geoffrey departed again for Yalbury Wood. + +"'Tis to be hoped poor Miss Fancy will be able to keep on her +school," said Geoffrey's man Enoch to Geoffrey the following week, +as they were shovelling up ant-hills in the wood. + +Geoffrey stuck in the shovel, swept seven or eight ants from his +sleeve, and killed another that was prowling round his ear, then +looked perpendicularly into the earth as usual, waiting for Enoch to +say more. "Well, why shouldn't she?" said the keeper at last. + +"The baker told me yesterday," continued Enoch, shaking out another +emmet that had run merrily up his thigh, "that the bread he've left +at that there school-house this last month would starve any mouse in +the three creations; that 'twould so! And afterwards I had a pint +o' small down at Morrs's, and there I heard more." + +"What might that ha' been?" + +"That she used to have a pound o' the best rolled butter a week, +regular as clockwork, from Dairyman Viney's for herself, as well as +just so much salted for the helping girl, and the 'ooman she calls +in; but now the same quantity d'last her three weeks, and then 'tis +thoughted she throws it away sour." + +"Finish doing the emmets, and carry the bag home-along." The keeper +resumed his gun, tucked it under his arm, and went on without +whistling to the dogs, who however followed, with a bearing meant to +imply that they did not expect any such attentions when their master +was reflecting. + +On Saturday morning a note came from Fancy. He was not to trouble +about sending her the couple of rabbits, as was intended, because +she feared she should not want them. Later in the day Geoffrey went +to Casterbridge and called upon the butcher who served Fancy with +fresh meat, which was put down to her father's account. + +"I've called to pay up our little bill, Neighbour Haylock, and you +can gie me the chiel's account at the same time." + +Mr. Haylock turned round three quarters of a circle in the midst of +a heap of joints, altered the expression of his face from meat to +money, went into a little office consisting only of a door and a +window, looked very vigorously into a book which possessed length +but no breadth; and then, seizing a piece of paper and scribbling +thereupon, handed the bill. + +Probably it was the first time in the history of commercial +transactions that the quality of shortness in a butcher's bill was a +cause of tribulation to the debtor. "Why, this isn't all she've had +in a whole month!" said Geoffrey. + +"Every mossel," said the butcher--"(now, Dan, take that leg and +shoulder to Mrs. White's, and this eleven pound here to Mr. +Martin's)--you've been treating her to smaller joints lately, to my +thinking, Mr. Day?" + +"Only two or three little scram rabbits this last week, as I am +alive--I wish I had!" + +"Well, my wife said to me--(Dan! not too much, not too much on that +tray at a time; better go twice)--my wife said to me as she posted +up the books: she says, "Miss Day must have been summer during that +hot muggy weather much for us; for depend upon't," she says, "she've +been trying John Grimmett unknown to us: see her account else." +'Tis little, of course, at the best of times, being only for one, +but now 'tis next kin to nothing." + +"I'll inquire," said Geoffrey despondingly. + +He returned by way of Mellstock, and called upon Fancy, in +fulfilment of a promise. It being Saturday, the children were +enjoying a holiday, and on entering the residence Fancy was nowhere +to be seen. Nan, the charwoman, was sweeping the kitchen. + +"Where's my da'ter?" said the keeper. + +"Well, you see she was tired with the week's teaching, and this +morning she said, "Nan, I sha'n't get up till the evening." You +see, Mr. Day, if people don't eat, they can't work; and as she've +gie'd up eating, she must gie up working." + +"Have ye carried up any dinner to her?" + +"No; she don't want any. There, we all know that such things don't +come without good reason--not that I wish to say anything about a +broken heart, or anything of the kind." + +Geoffrey's own heart felt inconveniently large just then. He went +to the staircase and ascended to his daughter's door. + +"Fancy!" + +"Come in, father." + +To see a person in bed from any cause whatever, on a fine afternoon, +is depressing enough; and here was his only child Fancy, not only in +bed, but looking very pale. Geoffrey was visibly disturbed. + +"Fancy, I didn't expect to see thee here, chiel," he said. "What's +the matter?" + +"I'm not well, father." + +"How's that?" + +"Because I think of things." + +"What things can you have to think o' so mortal much?" + +"You know, father." + +"You think I've been cruel to thee in saying that that penniless +Dick o' thine sha'n't marry thee, I suppose?" + +No answer. + +"Well, you know, Fancy, I do it for the best, and he isn't good +enough for thee. You know that well enough." Here he again looked +at her as she lay. "Well, Fancy, I can't let my only chiel die; and +if you can't live without en, you must ha' en, I suppose." + +"O, I don't want him like that; all against your will, and +everything so disobedient!" sighed the invalid. + +"No, no, 'tisn't against my will. My wish is, now I d'see how 'tis +hurten thee to live without en, that he shall marry thee as soon as +we've considered a little. That's my wish flat and plain, Fancy. +There, never cry, my little maid! You ought to ha' cried afore; no +need o' crying now 'tis all over. Well, howsoever, try to step over +and see me and mother-law to-morrow, and ha' a bit of dinner wi' +us." + +"And--Dick too?" + +"Ay, Dick too, 'far's I know." + +"And WHEN do you think you'll have considered, father, and he may +marry me?" she coaxed. + +"Well, there, say next Midsummer; that's not a day too long to +wait." + +On leaving the school Geoffrey went to the tranter's. Old William +opened the door. + +"Is your grandson Dick in 'ithin, William?" + +"No, not just now, Mr. Day. Though he've been at home a good deal +lately." + +"O, how's that?" + +"What wi' one thing, and what wi' t'other, he's all in a mope, as +might be said. Don't seem the feller he used to. Ay, 'a will sit +studding and thinking as if 'a were going to turn chapel-member, and +then do nothing but traypse and wamble about. Used to be such a +chatty boy, too, Dick did; and now 'a don't speak at all. But won't +ye step inside? Reuben will be home soon, 'a b'lieve." + +"No, thank you, I can't stay now. Will ye just ask Dick if he'll do +me the kindness to step over to Yalbury to-morrow with my da'ter +Fancy, if she's well enough? I don't like her to come by herself, +now she's not so terrible topping in health." + +"So I've heard. Ay, sure, I'll tell him without fail." + + + +CHAPTER V: AFTER GAINING HER POINT + + + +The visit to Geoffrey passed off as delightfully as a visit might +have been expected to pass off when it was the first day of smooth +experience in a hitherto obstructed love-course. And then came a +series of several happy days, of the same undisturbed serenity. +Dick could court her when he chose; stay away when he chose,--which +was never; walk with her by winding streams and waterfalls and +autumn scenery till dews arid twilight sent them home. And thus +they drew near the day of the Harvest Thanksgiving, which was also +the time chosen for opening the organ in Mellstock Church. + +It chanced that Dick on that very day was called away from +Mellstock. A young acquaintance had died of consumption at +Charmley, a neighbouring village, on the previous Monday, and Dick, +in fulfilment of a long-standing promise, was to assist in carrying +him to the grave. When on Tuesday, Dick went towards the school to +acquaint Fancy with the fact, it is difficult to say whether his own +disappointment at being denied the sight of her triumphant debut as +organist, was greater than his vexation that his pet should on this +great occasion be deprived of the pleasure of his presence. +However, the intelligence was communicated. She bore it as she best +could, not without many expressions of regret, and convictions that +her performance would be nothing to her now. + +Just before eleven o'clock on Sunday he set out upon his sad errand. +The funeral was to be immediately after the morning service, and as +there were four good miles to walk, driving being inconvenient, it +became necessary to start comparatively early. Half an hour later +would certainly have answered his purpose quite as well, yet at the +last moment nothing would content his ardent mind but that he must +go a mile out of his way in the direction of the school, in the hope +of getting a glimpse of his Love as she started for church. + +Striking, therefore, into the lane towards the school, instead of +across the ewelease direct to Charmley, he arrived opposite her door +as his goddess emerged. + +If ever a woman looked a divinity, Fancy Day appeared one that +morning as she floated down those school steps, in the form of a +nebulous collection of colours inclining to blue. With an audacity +unparalleled in the whole history of village-school-mistresses at +this date--partly owing, no doubt, to papa's respectable +accumulation of cash, which rendered her profession not altogether +one of necessity--she had actually donned a hat and feather, and +lowered her hitherto plainly looped-up hair, which now fell about +her shoulders in a profusion of curls. Poor Dick was astonished: +he had never seen her look so distractingly beautiful before, save +on Christmas-eve, when her hair was in the same luxuriant condition +of freedom. But his first burst of delighted surprise was followed +by less comfortable feelings, as soon as his brain recovered its +power to think. + +Fancy had blushed;--was it with confusion? She had also +involuntarily pressed back her curls. She had not expected him. + +"Fancy, you didn't know me for a moment in my funeral clothes, did +you?" + +"Good-morning, Dick--no, really, I didn't know you for an instant in +such a sad suit." + +He looked again at the gay tresses and hat. "You've never dressed +so charming before, dearest." + +"I like to hear you praise me in that way, Dick," she said, smiling +archly. "It is meat and drink to a woman. Do I look nice really?" + +"Fie! you know it. Did you remember,--I mean didn't you remember +about my going away to-day?" + +"Well, yes, I did, Dick; but, you know, I wanted to look well;-- +forgive me." + +"Yes, darling; yes, of course,--there's nothing to forgive. No, I +was only thinking that when we talked on Tuesday and Wednesday and +Thursday and Friday about my absence to-day, and I was so sorry for +it, you said, Fancy, so were you sorry, and almost cried, and said +it would be no pleasure to you to be the attraction of the church +to-day, since I could not be there." + +"My dear one, neither will it be so much pleasure to me . . . But I +do take a little delight in my life, I suppose," she pouted. + +"Apart from mine?" + +She looked at him with perplexed eyes. "I know you are vexed with +me, Dick, and it is because the first Sunday I have curls and a hat +and feather since I have been here happens to be the very day you +are away and won't be with me. Yes, say it is, for that is it! And +you think that all this week I ought to have remembered you wouldn't +be here to-day, and not have cared to be better dressed than usual. +Yes, you do, Dick, and it is rather unkind!" + +"No, no," said Dick earnestly and simply, "I didn't think so badly +of you as that. I only thought that--if YOU had been going away, I +shouldn't have tried new attractions for the eyes of other people. +But then of course you and I are different, naturally." + +"Well, perhaps we are." + +"Whatever will the vicar say, Fancy?" + +"I don't fear what he says in the least!" she answered proudly. +"But he won't say anything of the sort you think. No, no." + +"He can hardly have conscience to, indeed." + +"Now come, you say, Dick, that you quite forgive me, for I must go," +she said with sudden gaiety, and skipped backwards into the porch. +"Come here, sir;--say you forgive me, and then you shall kiss me;-- +you never have yet when I have worn curls, you know. Yes, just +where you want to so much,--yes, you may!" + +Dick followed her into the inner corner, where he was probably not +slow in availing himself of the privilege offered. + +"Now that's a treat for you, isn't it?" she continued. "Good-bye, +or I shall be late. Come and see me to-morrow: you'll be tired to +night." + +Thus they parted, and Fancy proceeded to the church. The organ +stood on one side of the chancel, close to and under the immediate +eye of the vicar when he was in the pulpit, and also in full view of +the congregation. Here she sat down, for the first time in such a +conspicuous position, her seat having previously been in a remote +spot in the aisle. + +"Good heavens--disgraceful! Curls and a hat and feather!" said the +daughters of the small gentry, who had either only curly hair +without a hat and feather, or a hat and feather without curly hair. +"A bonnet for church always," said sober matrons. + +That Mr. Maybold was conscious of her presence close beside him +during the sermon; that he was not at all angry at her development +of costume; that he admired her, she perceived. But she did not see +that he loved her during that sermon-time as he had never loved a +woman before; that her proximity was a strange delight to him; and +that he gloried in her musical success that morning in a spirit +quite beyond a mere cleric's glory at the inauguration of a new +order of things. + +The old choir, with humbled hearts, no longer took their seats in +the gallery as heretofore (which was now given up to the school- +children who were not singers, and a pupil-teacher), but were +scattered about with their wives in different parts of the church. +Having nothing to do with conducting the service for almost the +first time in their lives, they all felt awkward, out of place, +abashed, and inconvenienced by their hands. The tranter had +proposed that they should stay away to-day and go nutting, but +grandfather William would not hear of such a thing for a moment. +"No," he replied reproachfully, and quoted a verse "Though this has +come upon us, let not our hearts be turned back, or our steps go out +of the way." + +So they stood and watched the curls of hair trailing down the back +of the successful rival, and the waving of her feather, as she +swayed her head. After a few timid notes and uncertain touches her +playing became markedly correct, and towards the end full and free. +But, whether from prejudice or unbiassed judgment, the venerable +body of musicians could not help thinking that the simpler notes +they had been wont to bring forth were more in keeping with the +simplicity of their old church than the crowded chords and +interludes it was her pleasure to produce. + + + +CHAPTER VI: INTO TEMPTATION + + + +The day was done, and Fancy was again in the school-house. About +five o'clock it began to rain, and in rather a dull frame of mind +she wandered into the schoolroom, for want of something better to +do. She was thinking--of her lover Dick Dewy? Not precisely. Of +how weary she was of living alone: how unbearable it would be to +return to Yalbury under the rule of her strange-tempered step- +mother; that it was far better to be married to anybody than do +that; that eight or nine long months had yet to be lived through ere +the wedding could take place. + +At the side of the room were high windows of Ham-hill stone, upon +either sill of which she could sit by first mounting a desk and +using it as a footstool. As the evening advanced here she perched +herself, as was her custom on such wet and gloomy occasions, put on +a light shawl and bonnet, opened the window, and looked out at the +rain. + +The window overlooked a field called the Grove, and it was the +position from which she used to survey the crown of Dick's passing +hat in the early days of their acquaintance and meetings. Not a +living soul was now visible anywhere; the rain kept all people +indoors who were not forced abroad by necessity, and necessity was +less importunate on Sundays than during the week. + +Sitting here and thinking again--of her lover, or of the sensation +she had created at church that day?--well, it is unknown--thinking +and thinking she saw a dark masculine figure arising into +distinctness at the further end of the Grove--a man without an +umbrella. Nearer and nearer he came, and she perceived that he was +in deep mourning, and then that it was Dick. Yes, in the fondness +and foolishness of his young heart, after walking four miles, in a +drizzling rain without overcoat or umbrella, and in face of a remark +from his love that he was not to come because he would be tired, he +had made it his business to wander this mile out of his way again, +from sheer wish of spending ten minutes in her presence. + +"O Dick, how wet you are!" she said, as he drew up under the window. +"Why, your coat shines as if it had been varnished, and your hat--my +goodness, there's a streaming hat!" + +"O, I don't mind, darling!" said Dick cheerfully. "Wet never hurts +me, though I am rather sorry for my best clothes. However, it +couldn't be helped; we lent all the umbrellas to the women. I don't +know when I shall get mine back!" + +"And look, there's a nasty patch of something just on your +shoulder." + +"Ah, that's japanning; it rubbed off the clamps of poor Jack's +coffin when we lowered him from our shoulders upon the bier! I +don't care about that, for 'twas the last deed I could do for him; +and 'tis hard if you can't afford a coat for an old friend." + +Fancy put her hand to her mouth for half a minute. Underneath the +palm of that little hand there existed for that half-minute a little +yawn. + +"Dick, I don't like you to stand there in the wet. And you mustn't +sit down. Go home and change your things. Don't stay another +minute." + +"One kiss after coming so far," he pleaded. + +"If I can reach, then." + +He looked rather disappointed at not being invited round to the +door. She twisted from her seated position and bent herself +downwards, but not even by standing on the plinth was it possible +for Dick to get his lips into contact with hers as she held them. +By great exertion she might have reached a little lower; but then +she would have exposed her head to the rain. + +"Never mind, Dick; kiss my hand," she said, flinging it down to him. +"Now, good-bye." + +"Good-bye." + +He walked slowly away, turning and turning again to look at her till +he was out of sight. During the retreat she said to herself, almost +involuntarily, and still conscious of that morning's triumph--"I +like Dick, and I love him; but how plain and sorry a man looks in +the rain, with no umbrella, and wet through!" + +As he vanished, she made as if to descend from her seat; but +glancing in the other direction she saw another form coming along +the same track. It was also that of a man. He, too, was in black +from top to toe; but he carried an umbrella. + +He drew nearer, and the direction of the rain caused him so to slant +his umbrella that from her height above the ground his head was +invisible, as she was also to him. He passed in due time directly +beneath her, and in looking down upon the exterior of his umbrella +her feminine eyes perceived it to be of superior silk--less common +at that date than since--and of elegant make. He reached the +entrance to the building, and Fancy suddenly lost sight of him. +Instead of pursuing the roadway as Dick had done he had turned +sharply round into her own porch. + +She jumped to the floor, hastily flung off her shawl and bonnet, +smoothed and patted her hair till the curls hung in passable +condition, and listened. No knock. Nearly a minute passed, and +still there was no knock. Then there arose a soft series of raps, +no louder than the tapping of a distant woodpecker, and barely +distinct enough to reach her ears. She composed herself and flung +open the door. + +In the porch stood Mr. Maybold. + +There was a warm flush upon his face, and a bright flash in his +eyes, which made him look handsomer than she had ever seen him +before. + +"Good-evening, Miss Day." + +"Good-evening, Mr. Maybold," she said, in a strange state of mind. +She had noticed, beyond the ardent hue of his face, that his voice +had a singular tremor in it, and that his hand shook like an aspen +leaf when he laid his umbrella in the corner of the porch. Without +another word being spoken by either, he came into the schoolroom, +shut the door, and moved close to her. Once inside, the expression +of his face was no more discernible, by reason of the increasing +dusk of evening. + +"I want to speak to you," he then said; "seriously--on a perhaps +unexpected subject, but one which is all the world to me--I don't +know what it may be to you, Miss Day." + +No reply. + +"Fancy, I have come to ask you if you will be my wife?" + +As a person who has been idly amusing himself with rolling a +snowball might start at finding he had set in motion an avalanche, +so did Fancy start at these words from the vicar. And in the dead +silence which followed them, the breathings of the man and of the +woman could be distinctly and separately heard; and there was this +difference between them--his respirations gradually grew quieter and +less rapid after the enunciation hers, from having been low and +regular, increased in quickness and force, till she almost panted. + +"I cannot, I cannot, Mr. Maybold--I cannot! Don't ask me!" she +said. + +"Don't answer in a hurry!" he entreated. "And do listen to me. +This is no sudden feeling on my part. I have loved you for more +than six months! Perhaps my late interest in teaching the children +here has not been so single-minded as it seemed. You will +understand my motive--like me better, perhaps, for honestly telling +you that I have struggled against my emotion continually, because I +have thought that it was not well for me to love you! But I +resolved to struggle no longer; I have examined the feeling; and the +love I bear you is as genuine as that I could bear any woman! I see +your great charm; I respect your natural talents, and the refinement +they have brought into your nature--they are quite enough, and more +than enough for me! They are equal to anything ever required of the +mistress of a quiet parsonage-house--the place in which I shall pass +my days, wherever it may be situated. O Fancy, I have watched you, +criticized you even severely, brought my feelings to the light of +judgment, and still have found them rational, and such as any man +might have expected to be inspired with by a woman like you! So +there is nothing hurried, secret, or untoward in my desire to do +this. Fancy, will you marry me?" + +No answer was returned. + +"Don't refuse; don't," he implored. "It would be foolish of you--I +mean cruel! Of course we would not live here, Fancy. I have had +for a long time the offer of an exchange of livings with a friend in +Yorkshire, but I have hitherto refused on account of my mother. +There we would go. Your musical powers shall be still further +developed; you shall have whatever pianoforte you like; you shall +have anything, Fancy, anything to make you happy--pony-carriage, +flowers, birds, pleasant society; yes, you have enough in you for +any society, after a few months of travel with me! Will you, Fancy, +marry me?" + +Another pause ensued, varied only by the surging of the rain against +the window--panes, and then Fancy spoke, in a faint and broken +voice. + +"Yes, I will," she said. + +"God bless you, my own!" He advanced quickly, and put his arm out +to embrace her. She drew back hastily. "No no, not now!" she said +in an agitated whisper. "There are things;--but the temptation is, +O, too strong, and I can't resist it I can't tell you now, but I +must tell you! Don't, please, don't come near me now! I want to +think, I can scarcely get myself used to the idea of what I have +promised yet." The next minute she turned to a desk, buried her +face in her hands, and burst into a hysterical fit of weeping. "O, +leave me to myself!" she sobbed; "leave me! O, leave me!" + +"Don't be distressed; don't, dearest!" It was with visible +difficulty that he restrained himself from approaching her. "You +shall tell me at your leisure what it is that grieves you so; I am +happy--beyond all measure happy!--at having your simple promise." + +"And do go and leave me now!" + +"But I must not, in justice to you, leave for a minute, until you +are yourself again." + +"There then," she said, controlling her emotion, and standing up; "I +am not disturbed now." + +He reluctantly moved towards the door. "Good-bye!" he murmured +tenderly. "I'll come to-morrow about this time." + + + +CHAPTER VII: SECOND THOUGHTS + + + +The next morning the vicar rose early. The first thing he did was +to write a long and careful letter to his friend in Yorkshire. +Then, eating a little breakfast, he crossed the meadows in the +direction of Casterbridge, bearing his letter in his pocket, that he +might post it at the town office, and obviate the loss of one day in +its transmission that would have resulted had he left it for the +foot-post through the village. + +It was a foggy morning, and the trees shed in noisy water-drops the +moisture they had collected from the thick air, an acorn +occasionally falling from its cup to the ground, in company with the +drippings. In the meads, sheets of spiders'-web, almost opaque with +wet, hung in folds over the fences, and the falling leaves appeared +in every variety of brown, green, and yellow hue. + +A low and merry whistling was heard on the highway he was +approaching, then the light footsteps of a man going in the same +direction as himself. On reaching the junction of his path with the +road, the vicar beheld Dick Dewy's open and cheerful face. Dick +lifted his hat, and the vicar came out into the highway that Dick +was pursuing. + +"Good-morning, Dewy. How well you are looking!" said Mr. Maybold. + +"Yes, sir, I am well--quite well! I am going to Casterbridge now, +to get Smart's collar; we left it there Saturday to be repaired." + +"I am going to Casterbridge, so we'll walk together," the vicar +said. Dick gave a hop with one foot to put himself in step with Mr. +Maybold, who proceeded: "I fancy I didn't see you at church +yesterday, Dewy. Or were you behind the pier?" + +"No; I went to Charmley. Poor John Dunford chose me to be one of +his bearers a long time before he died, and yesterday was the +funeral. Of course I couldn't refuse, though I should have liked +particularly to have been at home as 'twas the day of the new +music." + +"Yes, you should have been. The musical portion of the service was +successful--very successful indeed; and what is more to the purpose, +no ill-feeling whatever was evinced by any of the members of the old +choir. They joined in the singing with the greatest good-will." + +"'Twas natural enough that I should want to be there, I suppose," +said Dick, smiling a private smile; "considering who the organ-- +player was." + +At this the vicar reddened a little, and said, "Yes, yes," though +not at all comprehending Dick's true meaning, who, as he received no +further reply, continued hesitatingly, and with another smile +denoting his pride as a lover - + + "I suppose you know what I mean, sir? You've heard about me and-- +Miss Day?" + +The red in Maybold's countenance went away: he turned and looked +Dick in the face. + +"No," he said constrainedly, "I've heard nothing whatever about you +and Miss Day." + +"Why, she's my sweetheart, and we are going to be married next +Midsummer. We are keeping it rather close just at present, because +'tis a good many months to wait; but it is her father's wish that we +don't marry before, and of course we must submit. But the time 'ill +soon slip along." + +"Yes, the time will soon slip along--Time glides away every day-- +yes." + +Maybold said these words, but he had no idea of what they were. He +was conscious of a cold and sickly thrill throughout him; and all he +reasoned was this that the young creature whose graces had +intoxicated him into making the most imprudent resolution of his +life, was less an angel than a woman. + +"You see, sir," continued the ingenuous Dick, "'twill be better in +one sense. I shall by that time be the regular manager of a branch +o' father's business, which has very much increased lately, and +business, which we think of starting elsewhere. It has very much +increased lately, and we expect next year to keep a' extra couple of +horses. We've already our eye on one--brown as a berry, neck like a +rainbow, fifteen hands, and not a gray hair in her--offered us at +twenty-five want a crown. And to kip pace with the times I have had +some cards prented and I beg leave to hand you one, sir." + +"Certainly," said the vicar, mechanically taking the card that Dick +offered him. + +"I turn in here by Grey's Bridge," said Dick. "I suppose you go +straight on and up town?" + +"Yes." + +"Good-morning, sir." + +"Good-morning, Dewy." + +Maybold stood still upon the bridge, holding the card as it had been +put into his hand, and Dick's footsteps died away towards Durnover +Mill. The vicar's first voluntary action was to read the card + + +DEWY AND SON, +TRANTERS AND HAULIERS, +MELLSTOCK. + +NB.--FURNITURE, COALS, POTATOES, LIVE AND DEAD STOCK, REMOVED TO ANY +DISTANCE ON THE SHORTEST NOTICE. + + +Mr. Maybold leant over the parapet of the bridge and looked into the +river. He saw--without heeding--how the water came rapidly from +beneath the arches, glided down a little steep, then spread itself +over a pool in which dace, trout, and minnows sported at ease among +the long green locks of weed that lay heaving and sinking with their +roots towards the current. At the end of ten minutes spent leaning +thus, he drew from his pocket the letter to his friend, tore it +deliberately into such minute fragments that scarcely two syllables +remained in juxtaposition, and sent the whole handful of shreds +fluttering into the water. Here he watched them eddy, dart, and +turn, as they were carried downwards towards the ocean and gradually +disappeared from his view. Finally he moved off, and pursued his +way at a rapid pace back again to Mellstock Vicarage. + +Nerving himself by a long and intense effort, he sat down in his +study and wrote as follows: + + +"DEAR MISS DAY,--The meaning of your words, 'the temptation is too +strong,' of your sadness and your tears, has been brought home to me +by an accident. I know to-day what I did not know yesterday--that +you are not a free woman. + +"Why did you not tell me--why didn't you? Did you suppose I knew? +No. Had I known, my conduct in coming to you as I did would have +been reprehensible. + +"But I don't chide you! Perhaps no blame attaches to you--I can't +tell. Fancy, though my opinion of you is assailed and disturbed in +a way which cannot be expressed, I love you still, and my word to +you holds good yet. But will you, in justice to an honest man who +relies upon your word to him, consider whether, under the +circumstances, you can honourably forsake him?--Yours ever +sincerely, + +"ARTHUR MAYBOLD." + + +He rang the bell. "Tell Charles to take these copybooks and this +note to the school at once." + +The maid took the parcel and the letter, and in a few minutes a boy +was seen to leave the vicarage gate, with the one under his arm, and +the other in his hand. The vicar sat with his hand to his brow, +watching the lad as he descended Church Lane and entered the +waterside path which intervened between that spot and the school. + +Here he was met by another boy, and after a free salutation and +pugilistic frisk had passed between the two, the second boy came on +his way to the vicarage, and the other vanished out of sight. + +The boy came to the door, and a note for Mr. Maybold was brought in. + +He knew the writing. Opening the envelope with an unsteady hand, he +read the subjoined words: + + +"DEAR MR. MAYBOLD,--I have been thinking seriously and sadly through +the whole of the night of the question you put to me last evening +and of my answer. That answer, as an honest woman, I had no right +to give. + +"It is my nature--perhaps all women's--to love refinement of mind +and manners; but even more than this, to be ever fascinated with the +idea of surroundings more elegant and pleasing than those which have +been customary. And you praised me, and praise is life to me. It +was alone my sensations at these things which prompted my reply. +Ambition and vanity they would be called; perhaps they are so. + +"After this explanation I hope you will generously allow me to +withdraw the answer I too hastily gave. + +"And one more request. To keep the meeting of last night, and all +that passed between us there, for ever a secret. Were it to become +known, it would utterly blight the happiness of a trusting and +generous man, whom I love still, and shall love always.--Yours +sincerely, + +"FANCY DAY. + + +The last written communication that ever passed from the vicar to +Fancy, was a note containing these words only: + +"Tell him everything; it is best. He will forgive you." + + + + +PART THE FIFTH: CONCLUSION + + + + +CHAPTER I: 'THE KNOT THERE'S NO UNTYING' + + + +The last day of the story is dated just subsequent to that point in +the development of the seasons when country people go to bed among +nearly naked trees, are lulled to sleep by a fall of rain, and awake +next morning among green ones; when the landscape appears +embarrassed with the sudden weight and brilliancy of its leaves; +when the night-jar comes and strikes up for the summer his tune of +one note; when the apple-trees have bloomed, and the roads and +orchard-grass become spotted with fallen petals; when the faces of +the delicate flowers are darkened, and their heads weighed down, by +the throng of honey-bees, which increase their humming till humming +is too mild a term for the all-pervading sound; and when cuckoos, +blackbirds, and sparrows, that have hitherto been merry and +respectful neighbours, become noisy and persistent intimates. + +The exterior of Geoffrey Day's house in Yalbury Wood appeared +exactly as was usual at that season, but a frantic barking of the +dogs at the back told of unwonted movements somewhere within. +Inside the door the eyes beheld a gathering, which was a rarity +indeed for the dwelling of the solitary wood-steward and keeper. + +About the room were sitting and standing, in various gnarled +attitudes, our old acquaintance, grandfathers James and William, the +tranter, Mr. Penny, two or three children, including Jimmy and +Charley, besides three or four country ladies and gentlemen from a +greater distance who do not require any distinction by name. +Geoffrey was seen and heard stamping about the outhouse and among +the bushes of the garden, attending to details of daily routine +before the proper time arrived for their performance, in order that +they might be off his hands for the day. He appeared with his +shirt-sleeves rolled up; his best new nether garments, in which he +had arrayed himself that morning, being temporarily disguised under +a weekday apron whilst these proceedings were in operation. He +occasionally glanced at the hives in passing, to see if his wife's +bees were swarming, ultimately rolling down his shirt-sleeves and +going indoors, talking to tranter Dewy whilst buttoning the +wristbands, to save time; next going upstairs for his best +waistcoat, and coming down again to make another remark whilst +buttoning that, during the time looking fixedly in the tranter's +face as if he were a looking-glass. + +The furniture had undergone attenuation to an alarming extent, every +duplicate piece having been removed, including the clock by Thomas +Wood; Ezekiel Saunders being at last left sole referee in matters of +time. + +Fancy was stationary upstairs, receiving her layers of clothes and +adornments, and answering by short fragments of laughter which had +more fidgetiness than mirth in them, remarks that were made from +time to time by Mrs. Dewy and Mrs. Penny, who were assisting her at +the toilet, Mrs. Day having pleaded a queerness in her head as a +reason for shutting herself up in an inner bedroom for the whole +morning. Mrs. Penny appeared with nine corkscrew curls on each side +of her temples, and a back comb stuck upon her crown like a castle +on a steep. + +The conversation just now going on was concerning the banns, the +last publication of which had been on the Sunday previous. + +"And how did they sound?" Fancy subtly inquired. + +"Very beautiful indeed," said Mrs. Penny. "I never heard any sound +better." + +"But HOW?" + +"O, SO natural and elegant, didn't they, Reuben!" she cried, through +the chinks of the unceiled floor, to the tranter downstairs. + +"What's that?" said the tranter, looking up inquiringly at the floor +above him for an answer. + +"Didn't Dick and Fancy sound well when they were called home in +church last Sunday?" came downwards again in Mrs. Penny's voice. + +"Ay, that they did, my sonnies!--especially the first time. There +was a terrible whispering piece of work in the congregation, wasn't +there, neighbour Penny?" said the tranter, taking up the thread of +conversation on his own account and, in order to be heard in the +room above, speaking very loud to Mr. Penny, who sat at the distance +of three feet from him, or rather less. + +"I never can mind seeing such a whispering as there was," said Mr. +Penny, also loudly, to the room above. "And such sorrowful envy on +the maidens' faces; really, I never did see such envy as there was!" + +Fancy's lineaments varied in innumerable little flushes, and her +heart palpitated innumerable little tremors of pleasure. "But +perhaps," she said, with assumed indifference, "it was only because +no religion was going on just then?" + +"O, no; nothing to do with that. 'Twas because of your high +standing in the parish. It was just as if they had one and all +caught Dick kissing and coling ye to death, wasn't it, Mrs. Dewy?" + +"Ay; that 'twas." + +"How people will talk about one's doings!" Fancy exclaimed. + +"Well, if you make songs about yourself, my dear, you can't blame +other people for singing 'em." + +"Mercy me! how shall I go through it?" said the young lady again, +but merely to those in the bedroom, with a breathing of a kind +between a sigh and a pant, round shining eyes, and warm face. + +"O, you'll get through it well enough, child," said Mrs. Dewy +placidly. "The edge of the performance is took off at the calling +home; and when once you get up to the chancel end o' the church, you +feel as saucy as you please. I'm sure I felt as brave as a sodger +all through the deed--though of course I dropped my face and looked +modest, as was becoming to a maid. Mind you do that, Fancy." + +"And I walked into the church as quiet as a lamb, I'm sure," +subjoined Mrs. Penny. "There, you see Penny is such a little small +man, But certainly, I was flurried in the inside o' me. Well, +thinks I, 'tis to be, and here goes! And do you do the same: say, +''Tis to be, and here goes!'" + +"Is there such wonderful virtue in ''Tis to be, and here goes!'" +inquired Fancy. + +"Wonderful! 'Twill carry a body through it all from wedding to +churching, if you only let it out with spirit enough." + +"Very well, then," said Fancy, blushing. "'Tis to be, and here +goes!" + +"That's a girl for a husband!" said Mrs. Dewy. + +"I do hope he'll come in time!" continued the bride-elect, inventing +a new cause of affright, now that the other was demolished. + +"'Twould be a thousand pities if he didn't come, now you he so +brave," said Mrs. Penny. + +Grandfather James, having overheard some of these remarks, said +downstairs with mischievous loudness--"I've known some would-be +weddings when the men didn't come." + +"They've happened not to come, before now, certainly," said Mr. +Penny, cleaning one of the glasses of his spectacles. + +"O, do hear what they are saying downstairs," whispered Fancy. +"Hush, hush!" + +She listened. + +"They have, haven't they, Geoffrey?" continued grandfather James, as +Geoffrey entered. + +"Have what?" said Geoffrey. + +"The men have been known not to come." + +"That they have," said the keeper. + +"Ay; I've knowed times when the wedding had to be put off through +his not appearing, being tired of the woman. And another case I +knowed was when the man was catched in a man-trap crossing Oaker's +Wood, and the three months had run out before he got well, and the +banns had to be published over again." + +"How horrible!" said Fancy. + +"They only say it on purpose to tease 'ee, my dear," said Mrs. Dewy. + +"'Tis quite sad to think what wretched shifts poor maids have been +put to," came again from downstairs. "Ye should hear Clerk Wilkins, +my brother-law, tell his experiences in marrying couples these last +thirty year: sometimes one thing, sometimes another--'tis quite +heart-rending--enough to make your hair stand on end." + +"Those things don't happen very often, I know," said Fancy, with +smouldering uneasiness. + +"Well, really 'tis time Dick was here," said the tranter. + +"Don't keep on at me so, grandfather James and Mr. Dewy, and all you +down there!" Fancy broke out, unable to endure any longer. "I am +sure I shall die, or do something, if you do!" + +"Never you hearken to these old chaps, Miss Day!" cried Nat +Callcome, the best man, who had just entered, and threw his voice +upward through the chinks of the floor as the others had done. +"'Tis all right; Dick's coming on like a wild feller; he'll be here +in a minute. The hive o' bees his mother gie'd en for his new +garden swarmed jist as he was starting, and he said, "I can't afford +to lose a stock o' bees; no, that I can't, though I fain would; and +Fancy wouldn't wish it on any account." So he jist stopped to ting +to 'em and shake 'em." + +"A genuine wise man," said Geoffrey. + +"To be sure, what a day's work we had yesterday!" Mr. Callcome +continued, lowering his voice as if it were not necessary any longer +to include those in the room above among his audience, and selecting +a remote corner of his best clean handkerchief for wiping his face. +"To be sure!" + +"Things so heavy, I suppose," said Geoffrey, as if reading through +the chimney-window from the far end of the vista. + +"Ay," said Nat, looking round the room at points from which +furniture had been removed. "And so awkward to carry, too. 'Twas +ath'art and across Dick's garden; in and out Dick's door; up and +down Dick's stairs; round and round Dick's chammers till legs were +worn to stumps: and Dick is so particular, too. And the stores of +victuals and drink that lad has laid in: why, 'tis enough for +Noah's ark! I'm sure I never wish to see a choicer half-dozen of +hams than he's got there in his chimley; and the cider I tasted was +a very pretty drop, indeed;--none could desire a prettier cider." + +"They be for the love and the stalled ox both, Ah, the greedy +martels!" said grandfather James. + +"Well, may-be they be. Surely," says I, "that couple between 'em +have heaped up so much furniture and victuals, that anybody would +think they were going to take hold the big end of married life +first, and begin wi' a grown-up family. Ah, what a bath of heat we +two chaps were in, to be sure, a-getting that furniture in order!" + +"I do so wish the room below was ceiled," said Fancy, as the +dressing went on; "we can hear all they say and do down there." + +"Hark! Who's that?" exclaimed a small pupil-teacher, who also +assisted this morning, to her great delight. She ran half-way down +the stairs, and peeped round the banister. "O, you should, you +should, you should!" she exclaimed, scrambling up to the room again. + +"What?" said Fancy. + +"See the bridesmaids! They've just a come! 'Tis wonderful, really! +'tis wonderful how muslin can be brought to it. There, they don't +look a bit like themselves, but like some very rich sisters o' +theirs that nobody knew they had!" + +"Make 'em come up to me, make 'em come up!" cried Fancy +ecstatically; and the four damsels appointed, namely, Miss Susan +Dewy, Miss Bessie Dewy, Miss Vashti Sniff, and Miss Mercy Onmey, +surged upstairs, and floated along the passage. + +"I wish Dick would come!" was again the burden of Fancy. + +The same instant a small twig and flower from the creeper outside +the door flew in at the open window, and a masculine voice said, +"Ready, Fancy dearest?" + +"There he is, he is!" cried Fancy, tittering spasmodically, and +breathing as it were for the first time that morning. + +The bridesmaids crowded to the window and turned their heads in the +direction pointed out, at which motion eight earrings all swung as +one: --not looking at Dick because they particularly wanted to see +him, but with an important sense of their duty as obedient ministers +of the will of that apotheosised being--the Bride. + +"He looks very taking!" said Miss Vashti Sniff, a young lady who +blushed cream-colour and wore yellow bonnet ribbons. + +Dick was advancing to the door in a painfully new coat of shining +cloth, primrose-coloured waistcoat, hat of the same painful style of +newness, and with an extra quantity of whiskers shaved off his face, +and hair cut to an unwonted shortness in honour of the occasion. + +"Now, I'll run down," said Fancy, looking at herself over her +shoulder in the glass, and flitting off. + +"O Dick!" she exclaimed, "I am so glad you are come! I knew you +would, of course, but I thought, Oh if you shouldn't!" + +"Not come, Fancy! Het or wet, blow or snow, here come I to-day! +Why, what's possessing your little soul? You never used to mind +such things a bit." + +"Ah, Mr. Dick, I hadn't hoisted my colours and committed myself +then!" said Fancy. + +"'Tis a pity I can't marry the whole five of ye!" said Dick, +surveying them all round. + +"Heh-heh-heh!" laughed the four bridesmaids, and Fancy privately +touched Dick and smoothed him down behind his shoulder, as if to +assure herself that he was there in flesh and blood as her own +property. + +"Well, whoever would have thought such a thing?" said Dick, taking +off his hat, sinking into a chair, and turning to the elder members +of the company. + +The latter arranged their eyes and lips to signify that in their +opinion nobody could have thought such a thing, whatever it was. + +"That my bees should ha' swarmed just then, of all times and +seasons!" continued Dick, throwing a comprehensive glance like a net +over the whole auditory. "And 'tis a fine swarm, too: I haven't +seen such a fine swarm for these ten years." + +"A' excellent sign," said Mrs. Penny, from the depths of experience. +"A' excellent sign." + +"I am glad everything seems so right," said Fancy with a breath of +relief. + +"And so am I," said the four bridesmaids with much sympathy. + +"Well, bees can't be put off," observed the inharmonious grandfather +James. "Marrying a woman is a thing you can do at any moment; but a +swarm o' bees won't come for the asking." + +Dick fanned himself with his hat. "I can't think," he said +thoughtfully, "whatever 'twas I did to offend Mr. Maybold, a man I +like so much too. He rather took to me when he came first, and used +to say he should like to see me married, and that he'd marry me, +whether the young woman I chose lived in his parish or no. I just +hinted to him of it when I put in the banns, but he didn't seem to +take kindly to the notion now, and so I said no more. I wonder how +it was." + +"I wonder!" said Fancy, looking into vacancy with those beautiful +eyes of hers--too refined and beautiful for a tranter's wife; but, +perhaps, not too good. + +"Altered his mind, as folks will, I suppose," said the tranter. +"Well, my sonnies, there'll he a good strong party looking at us to- +day as we go along." + +"And the body of the church," said Geoffrey, "will be lined with +females, and a row of young fellers' heads, as far down as the eyes, +will be noticed just above the sills of the chancel-winders." + +"Ay, you've been through it twice," said Reuben, "and well mid +know." + +"I can put up with it for once," said Dick, "or twice either, or a +dozen times." + +"O Dick!" said Fancy reproachfully. + +"Why, dear, that's nothing,--only just a bit of a flourish. You be +as nervous as a cat to-day." + +"And then, of course, when 'tis all over," continued the tranter, +"we shall march two and two round the parish." + +"Yes, sure," said Mr. Penny: "two and two: every man hitched up to +his woman, 'a b'lieve." + +"I never can make a show of myself in that way!" said Fancy, looking +at Dick to ascertain if he could. + +"I'm agreed to anything you and the company like, my dear!" said Mr. +Richard Dewy heartily. + +"Why, we did when we were married, didn't we, Ann?" said the +tranter; "and so do everybody, my sonnies." + +"And so did we," said Fancy's father. + +"And so did Penny and I," said Mrs. Penny: "I wore my best Bath +clogs, I remember, and Penny was cross because it made me look so +tall." + +"And so did father and mother," said Miss Mercy Onmey. + +"And I mean to, come next Christmas!" said Nat the groomsman +vigorously, and looking towards the person of Miss Vashti Sniff. + +"Respectable people don't nowadays," said Fancy. "Still, since poor +mother did, I will." + +"Ay," resumed the tranter, "'twas on a White Tuesday when I +committed it. Mellstock Club walked the same day, and we new- +married folk went a-gaying round the parish behind 'em. Everybody +used to wear something white at Whitsuntide in them days. My +sonnies, I've got the very white trousers that I wore, at home in +box now, Ha'n't I, Ann?" + +"You had till I cut 'em up for Jimmy," said Mrs. Dewy. + +"And we ought, by rights, after doing this parish, to go round +Higher and Lower Mellstock, and call at Viney's, and so work our way +hither again across He'th," said Mr. Penny, recovering scent of the +matter in hand. "Dairyman Viney is a very respectable man, and so +is Farmer Kex, and we ought to show ourselves to them." + +"True," said the tranter, "we ought to go round Mellstock to do the +thing well. We shall form a very striking object walking along in +rotation, good-now, neighbours?" + +"That we shall: a proper pretty sight for the nation," said Mrs. +Penny. + +"Hullo!" said the tranter, suddenly catching sight of a singular +human figure standing in the doorway, and wearing a long smock-frock +of pillow-case cut and of snowy whiteness. "Why, Leaf! whatever +dost thou do here?" + +"I've come to know if so be I can come to the wedding--hee-hee!" +said Leaf in a voice of timidity. + +"Now, Leaf," said the tranter reproachfully, "you know we don't want +'ee here to-day: we've got no room for ye, Leaf." + +"Thomas Leaf, Thomas Leaf, fie upon ye for prying!" said old +William. + +"I know I've got no head, but I thought, if I washed and put on a +clane shirt and smock-frock, I might just call," said Leaf; turning +away disappointed and trembling. + +"Poor feller!" said the tranter, turning to Geoffrey. "Suppose we +must let en come? His looks are rather against en, and he is +terrible silly; but 'a have never been in jail, and 'a won't do no +harm." + +Leaf looked with gratitude at the tranter for these praises, and +then anxiously at Geoffrey, to see what effect they would have in +helping his cause. + +"Ay, let en come," said Geoffrey decisively. "Leaf, th'rt welcome, +'st know;" and Leaf accordingly remained. + +They were now all ready for leaving the house, and began to form a +procession in the following order: Fancy and her father, Dick and +Susan Dewy, Nat Callcome and Vashti Sniff, Ted Waywood and Mercy +Onmey, and Jimmy and Bessie Dewy. These formed the executive, and +all appeared in strict wedding attire. Then came the tranter and +Mrs. Dewy, and last of all Mr. and Mrs. Penny;--the tranter +conspicuous by his enormous gloves, size eleven and three-quarters, +which appeared at a distance like boxing gloves bleached, and sat +rather awkwardly upon his brown hands; this hall-mark of +respectability having been set upon himself to-day (by Fancy's +special request) for the first time in his life. + +"The proper way is for the bridesmaids to walk together," suggested +Fancy. + +"What? 'Twas always young man and young woman, arm in crook, in my +time!" said Geoffrey, astounded. + +"And in mine!" said the tranter. + +"And in ours!" said Mr. and Mrs. Penny. + +"Never heard o' such a thing as woman and woman!" said old William; +who, with grandfather James and Mrs. Day, was to stay at home. + +"Whichever way you and the company like, my dear!" said Dick, who, +being on the point of securing his right to Fancy, seemed willing to +renounce all other rights in the world with the greatest pleasure +The decision was left to Fancy. + +"Well, I think I'd rather have it the way mother had it," she said, +and the couples moved along under the trees, every man to his maid. + +"Ah!" said grandfather James to grandfather William as they retired, +"I wonder which she thinks most about, Dick or her wedding raiment!" + +"Well, 'tis their nature," said grandfather William. "Remember the +words of the prophet Jeremiah: 'Can a maid forget her ornaments, or +a bride her attire?'" + +Now among dark perpendicular firs, like the shafted columns of a +cathedral; now through a hazel copse, matted with primroses and wild +hyacinths; now under broad beeches in bright young leaves they +threaded their way into the high road over Yalbury Hill, which +dipped at that point directly into the village of Geoffrey Day's +parish; and in the space of a quarter of an hour Fancy found herself +to be Mrs. Richard Dewy, though, much to her surprise, feeling no +other than Fancy Day still. + +On the circuitous return walk through the lanes and fields, amid +much chattering and laughter, especially when they came to stiles, +Dick discerned a brown spot far up a turnip field. + +"Why, 'tis Enoch!" he said to Fancy. "I thought I missed him at the +house this morning. How is it he's left you?" + +"He drank too much cider, and it got into his head, and they put him +in Weatherbury stocks for it. Father was obliged to get somebody +else for a day or two, and Enoch hasn't had anything to do with the +woods since." + +"We might ask him to call down to-night. Stocks are nothing for +once, considering 'tis our wedding day." The bridal party was +ordered to halt. + +"Eno-o-o-o-ch!" cried Dick at the top of his voice. + +"Y-a-a-a-a-a-as!" said Enoch from the distance. + +"D'ye know who I be-e-e-e-e-e?" + +"No-o-o-o-o-o-o!" + +"Dick Dew-w-w-w-wy!" + +"O-h-h-h-h-h!" + +"Just a-ma-a-a-a-a-arried!" + +"O-h-h-h-h-h!" + +"This is my wife, Fa-a-a-a-a-ancy!" (holding her up to Enoch's view +as if she had been a nosegay.) + +"O-h-h-h-h-h!" + +"Will ye come across to the party to-ni-i-i-i-i-i-ight!" + +"Ca-a-a-a-a-an't!" + +"Why n-o-o-o-o-ot?" + +"Don't work for the family no-o-o-o-ow!" + +"Not nice of Master Enoch," said Dick, as they resumed their walk. + +"You mustn't blame en," said Geoffrey; "the man's not hisself now; +he's in his morning frame of mind. When he's had a gallon o' cider +or ale, or a pint or two of mead, the man's well enough, and his +manners be as good as anybody's in the kingdom." + + + +CHAPTER II: UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE + + + +The point in Yalbury Wood which abutted on the end of Geoffrey Day's +premises was closed with an ancient tree, horizontally of enormous +extent, though having no great pretensions to height. Many hundreds +of birds had been born amidst the boughs of this single tree; tribes +of rabbits and hares had nibbled at its bark from year to year; +quaint tufts of fungi had sprung from the cavities of its forks; and +countless families of moles and earthworms had crept about its +roots. Beneath and beyond its shade spread a carefully-tended +grass-plot, its purpose being to supply a healthy exercise-ground +for young chickens and pheasants; the hens, their mothers, being +enclosed in coops placed upon the same green flooring. + +All these encumbrances were now removed, and as the afternoon +advanced, the guests gathered on the spot, where music, dancing, and +the singing of songs went forward with great spirit throughout the +evening. The propriety of every one was intense by reason of the +influence of Fancy, who, as an additional precaution in this +direction, had strictly charged her father and the tranter to +carefully avoid saying 'thee' and 'thou' in their conversation, on +the plea that those ancient words sounded so very humiliating to +persons of newer taste; also that they were never to be seen drawing +the back of the hand across the mouth after drinking--a local +English custom of extraordinary antiquity, but stated by Fancy to be +decidedly dying out among the better classes of society. + +In addition to the local musicians present, a man who had a thorough +knowledge of the tambourine was invited from the village of Tantrum +Clangley,--a place long celebrated for the skill of its inhabitants +as performers on instruments of percussion. These important members +of the assembly were relegated to a height of two or three feet from +the ground, upon a temporary erection of planks supported by +barrels. Whilst the dancing progressed the older persons sat in a +group under the trunk of the tree,--the space being allotted to them +somewhat grudgingly by the young ones, who were greedy of +pirouetting room,--and fortified by a table against the heels of the +dancers. Here the gaffers and gammers, whose dancing days were +over, told stories of great impressiveness, and at intervals +surveyed the advancing and retiring couples from the same retreat, +as people on shore might be supposed to survey a naval engagement in +the bay beyond; returning again to their tales when the pause was +over. Those of the whirling throng, who, during the rests between +each figure, turned their eyes in the direction of these seated +ones, were only able to discover, on account of the music and +bustle, that a very striking circumstance was in course of +narration--denoted by an emphatic sweep of the hand, snapping of the +fingers, close of the lips, and fixed look into the centre of the +listener's eye for the space of a quarter of a minute, which raised +in that listener such a reciprocating working of face as to +sometimes make the distant dancers half wish to know what such an +interesting tale could refer to. + +Fancy caused her looks to wear as much matronly expression as was +obtainable out of six hours' experience as a wife, in order that the +contrast between her own state of life and that of the unmarried +young women present might be duly impressed upon the company: +occasionally stealing glances of admiration at her left hand, but +this quite privately; for her ostensible bearing concerning the +matter was intended to show that, though she undoubtedly occupied +the most wondrous position in the eyes of the world that had ever +been attained, she was almost unconscious of the circumstance, and +that the somewhat prominent position in which that wonderfully- +emblazoned left hand was continually found to be placed, when +handing cups and saucers, knives, forks, and glasses, was quite the +result of accident. As to wishing to excite envy in the bosoms of +her maiden companions, by the exhibition of the shining ring, every +one was to know it was quite foreign to the dignity of such an +experienced married woman. Dick's imagination in the meantime was +far less capable of drawing so much wontedness from his new +condition. He had been for two or three hours trying to feel +himself merely a newly-married man, but had been able to get no +further in the attempt than to realize that he was Dick Dewy, the +tranter's son, at a party given by Lord Wessex's head man-in-charge, +on the outlying Yalbury estate, dancing and chatting with Fancy Day. + +Five country dances, including 'Haste to the Wedding,' two reels, +and three fragments of horn-pipes, brought them to the time for +supper, which, on account of the dampness of the grass from the +immaturity of the summer season, was spread indoors. At the +conclusion of the meal Dick went out to put the horse in; and Fancy, +with the elder half of the four bridesmaids, retired upstairs to +dress for the journey to Dick's new cottage near Mellstock. + +"How long will you be putting on your bonnet, Fancy?" Dick inquired +at the foot of the staircase. Being now a man of business and +married, he was strong on the importance of time, and doubled the +emphasis of his words in conversing, and added vigour to his nods. + +"Only a minute." + +"How long is that?" + +"Well, dear, five." + +"Ah, sonnies!" said the tranter, as Dick retired, "'tis a talent of +the female race that low numbers should stand for high, more +especially in matters of waiting, matters of age, and matters of +money." + +"True, true, upon my body," said Geoffrey. + +"Ye spak with feeling, Geoffrey, seemingly." + +"Anybody that d'know my experience might guess that." + +"What's she doing now, Geoffrey?" + +"Claning out all the upstairs drawers and cupboards, and dusting the +second-best chainey--a thing that's only done once a year. 'If +there's work to be done I must do it,' says she, 'wedding or no.'" + +"'Tis my belief she's a very good woman at bottom." + +"She's terrible deep, then." + +Mrs. Penny turned round. "Well, 'tis humps and hollers with the +best of us; but still and for all that, Dick and Fancy stand as fair +a chance of having a bit of sunsheen as any married pair in the +land." + +"Ay, there's no gainsaying it." + +Mrs. Dewy came up, talking to one person and looking at another. +"Happy, yes," she said. "'Tis always so when a couple is so exactly +in tune with one another as Dick and she." + +"When they be'n't too poor to have time to sing," said grandfather +James. + +"I tell ye, neighbours, when the pinch comes," said the tranter: +"when the oldest daughter's boots be only a size less than her +mother's, and the rest o' the flock close behind her. A sharp time +for a man that, my sonnies; a very sharp time! Chanticleer's comb +is a-cut then, 'a believe." + +"That's about the form o't," said Mr. Penny. "That'll put the stuns +upon a man, when you must measure mother and daughter's lasts to +tell 'em apart." + +"You've no cause to complain, Reuben, of such a close-coming flock," +said Mrs. Dewy; "for ours was a straggling lot enough, God knows!" + +"I d'know it, I d'know it," said the tranter. "You be a well-enough +woman, Ann." + +Mrs. Dewy put her mouth in the form of a smile, and put it back +again without smiling. + +"And if they come together, they go together," said Mrs. Penny, +whose family had been the reverse of the tranter's; "and a little +money will make either fate tolerable. And money can be made by our +young couple, I know." + +"Yes, that it can!" said the impulsive voice of Leaf, who had +hitherto humbly admired the proceedings from a corner. "It can be +done--all that's wanted is a few pounds to begin with. That's all! +I know a story about it!" + +"Let's hear thy story, Leaf;" said the tranter. "I never knew you +were clever enough to tell a story. Silence, all of ye! Mr. Leaf +will tell a story." + +"Tell your story, Thomas Leaf," said grandfather William in the tone +of a schoolmaster. + +"Once," said the delighted Leaf; in an uncertain voice, "there was a +man who lived in a house! Well, this man went thinking and thinking +night and day. At last, he said to himself; as I might, 'If I had +only ten pound, I'd make a fortune.' At last by hook or by crook, +behold he got the ten pounds!" + +"Only think of that!" said Nat Callcome satirically. + +"Silence!" said the tranter. + +"Well, now comes the interesting part of the story! In a little +time he made that ten pounds twenty. Then a little time after that +he doubled it, and made it forty. Well, he went on, and a good +while after that he made it eighty, and on to a hundred. Well, by- +and-by he made it two hundred! Well, you'd never believe it, but-- +he went on and made it four hundred! He went on, and what did he +do? Why, he made it eight hundred! Yes, he did," continued Leaf; +in the highest pitch of excitement, bringing down his fist upon his +knee with such force that he quivered with the pain; "yes, and he +went on and made it A THOUSAND!" + +"Hear, hear!" said the tranter. "Better than the history of +England, my sonnies!" + +"Thank you for your story, Thomas Leaf," said grandfather William; +and then Leaf gradually sank into nothingness again. + +Amid a medley of laughter, old shoes, and elder-wine, Dick and his +bride took their departure, side by side in the excellent new +spring-cart which the young tranter now possessed. The moon was +just over the full, rendering any light from lamps or their own +beauties quite unnecessary to the pair. They drove slowly along +Yalbury Bottom, where the road passed between two copses. Dick was +talking to his companion. + +"Fancy," he said, "why we are so happy is because there is such full +confidence between us. Ever since that time you confessed to that +little flirtation with Shiner by the river (which was really no +flirtation at all), I have thought how artless and good you must be +to tell me o' such a trifling thing, and to be so frightened about +it as you were. It has won me to tell you my every deed and word +since then. We'll have no secrets from each other, darling, will we +ever?--no secret at all." + +"None from to-day," said Fancy. "Hark! what's that?" + +From a neighbouring thicket was suddenly heard to issue in a loud, +musical, and liquid voice - + +"Tippiwit! swe-e-et! ki-ki-ki! Come hither, come hither, come +hither!" + +"O, 'tis the nightingale," murmured she, and thought of a secret she +would never tell. + + + +Footnotes: + +{1} This, a local expression, must be a corruption of something less +questionable. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext Under the Greenwood Tree, by Hardy + diff --git a/old/ungwt10.zip b/old/ungwt10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4fc25db --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ungwt10.zip diff --git a/old/ungwt11.txt b/old/ungwt11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..425dfd3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ungwt11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7755 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Under the Greenwood Tree, by Hardy +#8 in our series by Thomas Hardy + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.08.01*END** +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + + + + +UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE +or +THE MELLSTOCK QUIRE +A RURAL PAINTING OF THE DUTCH SCHOOL + + + + +PREFACE + + + +This story of the Mellstock Quire and its old established west- +gallery musicians, with some supplementary descriptions of similar +officials in Two on a Tower, A Few Crusted Characters, and other +places, is intended to be a fairly true picture, at first hand, of +the personages, ways, and customs which were common among such +orchestral bodies in the villages of fifty or sixty years ago. + +One is inclined to regret the displacement of these ecclesiastical +bandsmen by an isolated organist (often at first a barrel-organist) +or harmonium player; and despite certain advantages in point of +control and accomplishment which were, no doubt, secured by +installing the single artist, the change has tended to stultify the +professed aims of the clergy, its direct result being to curtail and +extinguish the interest of parishioners in church doings. Under the +old plan, from half a dozen to ten full-grown players, in addition +to the numerous more or less grown-up singers, were officially +occupied with the Sunday routine, and concerned in trying their best +to make it an artistic outcome of the combined musical taste of the +congregation. With a musical executive limited, as it mostly is +limited now, to the parson's wife or daughter and the school- +children, or to the school-teacher and the children, an important +union of interests has disappeared. + +The zest of these bygone instrumentalists must have been keen and +staying to take them, as it did, on foot every Sunday after a +toilsome week, through all weathers, to the church, which often lay +at a distance from their homes. They usually received so little in +payment for their performances that their efforts were really a +labour of love. In the parish I had in my mind when writing the +present tale, the gratuities received yearly by the musicians at +Christmas were somewhat as follows: From the manor-house ten +shillings and a supper; from the vicar ten shillings; from the +farmers five shillings each; from each cottage-household one +shilling; amounting altogether to not more than ten shillings a head +annually--just enough, as an old executant told me, to pay for their +fiddle-strings, repairs, rosin, and music-paper (which they mostly +ruled themselves). Their music in those days was all in their own +manuscript, copied in the evenings after work, and their music-books +were home-bound. + +It was customary to inscribe a few jigs, reels, horn-pipes, and +ballads in the same book, by beginning it at the other end, the +insertions being continued from front and back till sacred and +secular met together in the middle, often with bizarre effect, the +words of some of the songs exhibiting that ancient and broad humour +which our grandfathers, and possibly grandmothers, took delight in, +and is in these days unquotable. + +The aforesaid fiddle-strings, rosin, and music-paper were supplied +by a pedlar, who travelled exclusively in such wares from parish to +parish, coming to each village about every six months. Tales are +told of the consternation once caused among the church fiddlers +when, on the occasion of their producing a new Christmas anthem, he +did not come to time, owing to being snowed up on the downs, and the +straits they were in through having to make shift with whipcord and +twine for strings. He was generally a musician himself, and +sometimes a composer in a small way, bringing his own new tunes, and +tempting each choir to adopt them for a consideration. Some of +these compositions which now lie before me, with their repetitions +of lines, half-lines, and half-words, their fugues and their +intermediate symphonies, are good singing still, though they would +hardly be admitted into such hymn-books as are popular in the +churches of fashionable society at the present time. + +August 1896. + +Under the Greenwood Tree was first brought out in the summer of 1872 +in two volumes. The name of the story was originally intended to +be, more appropriately, The Mellstock Quire, and this has been +appended as a sub-title since the early editions, it having been +thought unadvisable to displace for it the title by which the book +first became known. + +In rereading the narrative after a long interval there occurs the +inevitable reflection that the realities out of which it was spun +were material for another kind of study of this little group of +church musicians than is found in the chapters here penned so +lightly, even so farcically and flippantly at times. But +circumstances would have rendered any aim at a deeper, more +essential, more transcendent handling unadvisable at the date of +writing; and the exhibition of the Mellstock Quire in the following +pages must remain the only extant one, except for the few glimpses +of that perished band which I have given in verse elsewhere. + +T. H. + +April 1912. + + + + +PART THE FIRST--WINTER + + + + +CHAPTER I: MELLSTOCK-LANE + + + +To dwellers in a wood almost every species of tree has its voice as +well as its feature. At the passing of the breeze the fir-trees sob +and moan no less distinctly than they rock; the holly whistles as it +battles with itself; the ash hisses amid its quiverings; the beech +rustles while its flat boughs rise and fall. And winter, which +modifies the note of such trees as shed their leaves, does not +destroy its individuality. + +On a cold and starry Christmas-eve within living memory a man was +passing up a lane towards Mellstock Cross in the darkness of a +plantation that whispered thus distinctively to his intelligence. +All the evidences of his nature were those afforded by the spirit of +his footsteps, which succeeded each other lightly and quickly, and +by the liveliness of his voice as he sang in a rural cadence: + + +"With the rose and the lily +And the daffodowndilly, +The lads and the lasses a-sheep-shearing go." + + +The lonely lane he was following connected one of the hamlets of +Mellstock parish with Upper Mellstock and Lewgate, and to his eyes, +casually glancing upward, the silver and black-stemmed birches with +their characteristic tufts, the pale grey boughs of beech, the dark- +creviced elm, all appeared now as black and flat outlines upon the +sky, wherein the white stars twinkled so vehemently that their +flickering seemed like the flapping of wings. Within the woody +pass, at a level anything lower than the horizon, all was dark as +the grave. The copse-wood forming the sides of the bower interlaced +its branches so densely, even at this season of the year, that the +draught from the north-east flew along the channel with scarcely an +interruption from lateral breezes. + +After passing the plantation and reaching Mellstock Cross the white +surface of the lane revealed itself between the dark hedgerows like +a ribbon jagged at the edges; the irregularity being caused by +temporary accumulations of leaves extending from the ditch on either +side. + +The song (many times interrupted by flitting thoughts which took the +place of several bars, and resumed at a point it would have reached +had its continuity been unbroken) now received a more palpable +check, in the shape of "Ho-i-i-i-i-i!" from the crossing lane to +Lower Mellstock, on the right of the singer who had just emerged +from the trees. + +"Ho-i-i-i-i-i!" he answered, stopping and looking round, though with +no idea of seeing anything more than imagination pictured. + +"Is that thee, young Dick Dewy?" came from the darkness. + +"Ay, sure, Michael Mail." + +"Then why not stop for fellow-craters--going to thy own father's +house too, as we be, and knowen us so well?" + +Dick Dewy faced about and continued his tune in an under-whistle, +implying that the business of his mouth could not be checked at a +moment's notice by the placid emotion of friendship. + +Having come more into the open he could now be seen rising against +the sky, his profile appearing on the light background like the +portrait of a gentleman in black cardboard. It assumed the form of +a low-crowned hat, an ordinary-shaped nose, an ordinary chin, an +ordinary neck, and ordinary shoulders. What he consisted of further +down was invisible from lack of sky low enough to picture him on. + +Shuffling, halting, irregular footsteps of various kinds were now +heard coming up the hill, and presently there emerged from the shade +severally five men of different ages and gaits, all of them working +villagers of the parish of Mellstock. They, too, had lost their +rotundity with the daylight, and advanced against the sky in flat +outlines, which suggested some processional design on Greek or +Etruscan pottery. They represented the chief portion of Mellstock +parish choir. + +The first was a bowed and bent man, who carried a fiddle under his +arm, and walked as if engaged in studying some subject connected +with the surface of the road. He was Michael Mail, the man who had +hallooed to Dick. + +The next was Mr. Robert Penny, boot- and shoemaker; a little man, +who, though rather round-shouldered, walked as if that fact had not +come to his own knowledge, moving on with his back very hollow and +his face fixed on the north-east quarter of the heavens before him, +so that his lower waist-coat-buttons came first, and then the +remainder of his figure. His features were invisible; yet when he +occasionally looked round, two faint moons of light gleamed for an +instant from the precincts of his eyes, denoting that he wore +spectacles of a circular form. + +The third was Elias Spinks, who walked perpendicularly and +dramatically. The fourth outline was Joseph Bowman's, who had now +no distinctive appearance beyond that of a human being. Finally +came a weak lath-like form, trotting and stumbling along with one +shoulder forward and his head inclined to the left, his arms +dangling nervelessly in the wind as if they were empty sleeves. +This was Thomas Leaf. + +"Where be the boys?" said Dick to this somewhat indifferently- +matched assembly. + +The eldest of the group, Michael Mail, cleared his throat from a +great depth. + +"We told them to keep back at home for a time, thinken they wouldn't +be wanted yet awhile; and we could choose the tuens, and so on." + +"Father and grandfather William have expected ye a little sooner. I +have just been for a run round by Ewelease Stile and Hollow Hill to +warm my feet." + +"To be sure father did! To be sure 'a did expect us--to taste the +little barrel beyond compare that he's going to tap." + +"'Od rabbit it all! Never heard a word of it!" said Mr. Penny, +gleams of delight appearing upon his spectacle-glasses, Dick +meanwhile singing parenthetically--"The lads and the lasses a-sheep- +shearing go." + +"Neighbours, there's time enough to drink a sight of drink now afore +bedtime?" said Mail. + +"True, true--time enough to get as drunk as lords!" replied Bowman +cheerfully. + +This opinion being taken as convincing they all advanced between the +varying hedges and the trees dotting them here and there, kicking +their toes occasionally among the crumpled leaves. Soon appeared +glimmering indications of the few cottages forming the small hamlet +of Upper Mellstock for which they were bound, whilst the faint sound +of church-bells ringing a Christmas peal could be heard floating +over upon the breeze from the direction of Longpuddle and +Weatherbury parishes on the other side of the hills. A little +wicket admitted them to the garden, and they proceeded up the path +to Dick's house. + + + +CHAPTER II: THE TRANTER'S + + + +It was a long low cottage with a hipped roof of thatch, having +dormer windows breaking up into the eaves, a chimney standing in the +middle of the ridge and another at each end. The window-shutters +were not yet closed, and the fire- and candle-light within radiated +forth upon the thick bushes of box and laurestinus growing in clumps +outside, and upon the bare boughs of several codlin-trees hanging +about in various distorted shapes, the result of early training as +espaliers combined with careless climbing into their boughs in later +years. The walls of the dwelling were for the most part covered +with creepers, though these were rather beaten back from the +doorway--a feature which was worn and scratched by much passing in +and out, giving it by day the appearance of an old keyhole. Light +streamed through the cracks and joints of outbuildings a little way +from the cottage, a sight which nourished a fancy that the purpose +of the erection must be rather to veil bright attractions than to +shelter unsightly necessaries. The noise of a beetle and wedges and +the splintering of wood was periodically heard from this direction; +and at some little distance further a steady regular munching and +the occasional scurr of a rope betokened a stable, and horses +feeding within it. + +The choir stamped severally on the door-stone to shake from their +boots any fragment of earth or leaf adhering thereto, then entered +the house and looked around to survey the condition of things. +Through the open doorway of a small inner room on the right hand, of +a character between pantry and cellar, was Dick Dewy's father +Reuben, by vocation a "tranter," or irregular carrier. He was a +stout florid man about forty years of age, who surveyed people up +and down when first making their acquaintance, and generally smiled +at the horizon or other distant object during conversations with +friends, walking about with a steady sway, and turning out his toes +very considerably. Being now occupied in bending over a hogshead, +that stood in the pantry ready horsed for the process of broaching, +he did not take the trouble to turn or raise his eyes at the entry +of his visitors, well knowing by their footsteps that they were the +expected old comrades. + +The main room, on the left, was decked with bunches of holly and +other evergreens, and from the middle of the beam bisecting the +ceiling hung the mistletoe, of a size out of all proportion to the +room, and extending so low that it became necessary for a full-grown +person to walk round it in passing, or run the risk of entangling +his hair. This apartment contained Mrs. Dewy the tranter's wife, +and the four remaining children, Susan, Jim, Bessy, and Charley, +graduating uniformly though at wide stages from the age of sixteen +to that of four years--the eldest of the series being separated from +Dick the firstborn by a nearly equal interval. + +Some circumstance had apparently caused much grief to Charley just +previous to the entry of the choir, and he had absently taken down a +small looking-glass, holding it before his face to learn how the +human countenance appeared when engaged in crying, which survey led +him to pause at the various points in each wail that were more than +ordinarily striking, for a thorough appreciation of the general +effect. Bessy was leaning against a chair, and glancing under the +plaits about the waist of the plaid frock she wore, to notice the +original unfaded pattern of the material as there preserved, her +face bearing an expression of regret that the brightness had passed +away from the visible portions. Mrs. Dewy sat in a brown settle by +the side of the glowing wood fire--so glowing that with a heedful +compression of the lips she would now and then rise and put her hand +upon the hams and flitches of bacon lining the chimney, to reassure +herself that they were not being broiled instead of smoked--a +misfortune that had been known to happen now and then at Christmas- +time. + +"Hullo, my sonnies, here you be, then!" said Reuben Dewy at length, +standing up and blowing forth a vehement gust of breath. "How the +blood do puff up in anybody's head, to be sure, a-stooping like +that! I was just going out to gate to hark for ye." He then +carefully began to wind a strip of brown paper round a brass tap he +held in his hand. "This in the cask here is a drop o' the right +sort" (tapping the cask); "'tis a real drop o' cordial from the best +picked apples--Sansoms, Stubbards, Five-corners, and such--like--you +d'mind the sort, Michael?" (Michael nodded.) "And there's a +sprinkling of they that grow down by the orchard-rails--streaked +ones--rail apples we d'call 'em, as 'tis by the rails they grow, and +not knowing the right name. The water-cider from 'em is as good as +most people's best cider is." + +"Ay, and of the same make too," said Bowman. "'It rained when we +wrung it out, and the water got into it,' folk will say. But 'tis +on'y an excuse. Watered cider is too common among us." + +"Yes, yes; too common it is!" said Spinks with an inward sigh, +whilst his eyes seemed to be looking at the case in an abstract form +rather than at the scene before him. "Such poor liquor do make a +man's throat feel very melancholy--and is a disgrace to the name of +stimmilent." + +"Come in, come in, and draw up to the fire; never mind your shoes," +said Mrs. Dewy, seeing that all except Dick had paused to wipe them +upon the door-mat. "I am glad that you've stepped up-along at last; +and, Susan, you run down to Grammer Kaytes's and see if you can +borrow some larger candles than these fourteens. Tommy Leaf, don't +ye be afeard! Come and sit here in the settle." + +This was addressed to the young man before mentioned, consisting +chiefly of a human skeleton and a smock-frock, who was very awkward +in his movements, apparently on account of having grown so very fast +that before he had had time to get used to his height he was higher. + +"Hee--hee--ay!" replied Leaf, letting his mouth continue to smile +for some time after his mind had done smiling, so that his teeth +remained in view as the most conspicuous members of his body. + +"Here, Mr. Penny," resumed Mrs. Dewy, "you sit in this chair. And +how's your daughter, Mrs. Brownjohn?" + +"Well, I suppose I must say pretty fair." He adjusted his +spectacles a quarter of an inch to the right. "But she'll be worse +before she's better, 'a b'lieve." + +"Indeed--poor soul! And how many will that make in all, four or +five?" + +"Five; they've buried three. Yes, five; and she not much more than +a maid yet. She do know the multiplication table onmistakable well. +However, 'twas to be, and none can gainsay it." + +Mrs. Dewy resigned Mr. Penny. "Wonder where your grandfather James +is?" she inquired of one of the children. "He said he'd drop in to- +night." + +"Out in fuel-house with grandfather William," said Jimmy. + +"Now let's see what we can do," was heard spoken about this time by +the tranter in a private voice to the barrel, beside which he had +again established himself, and was stooping to cut away the cork. + +"Reuben, don't make such a mess o' tapping that barrel as is mostly +made in this house," Mrs. Dewy cried from the fireplace. "I'd tap a +hundred without wasting more than you do in one. Such a squizzling- +-and squirting job as 'tis in your hands! There, he always was such +a clumsy man indoors." + +"Ay, ay; I know you'd tap a hundred beautiful, Ann--I know you +would; two hundred, perhaps. But I can't promise. This is a' old +cask, and the wood's rotted away about the tap-hole. The husbird of +a feller Sam Lawson--that ever I should call'n such, now he's dead +and gone, poor heart!--took me in completely upon the feat of buying +this cask. 'Reub,' says he--'a always used to call me plain Reub, +poor old heart!--'Reub,' he said, says he, 'that there cask, Reub, +is as good as new; yes, good as new. 'Tis a wine-hogshead; the best +port-wine in the commonwealth have been in that there cask; and you +shall have en for ten shillens, Reub,'--'a said, says he--'he's +worth twenty, ay, five-and-twenty, if he's worth one; and an iron +hoop or two put round en among the wood ones will make en worth +thirty shillens of any man's money, if--'" + +"I think I should have used the eyes that Providence gave me to use +afore I paid any ten shillens for a jimcrack wine-barrel; a saint is +sinner enough not to be cheated. But 'tis like all your family was, +so easy to be deceived." + +"That's as true as gospel of this member," said Reuben. + +Mrs. Dewy began a smile at the answer, then altering her lips and +refolding them so that it was not a smile, commenced smoothing +little Bessy's hair; the tranter having meanwhile suddenly become +oblivious to conversation, occupying himself in a deliberate cutting +and arrangement of some more brown paper for the broaching +operation. + +"Ah, who can believe sellers!" said old Michael Mail in a carefully- +cautious voice, by way of tiding-over this critical point of +affairs. + +"No one at all," said Joseph Bowman, in the tone of a man fully +agreeing with everybody. + +"Ay," said Mail, in the tone of a man who did not agree with +everybody as a rule, though he did now; "I knowed a' auctioneering +feller once--a very friendly feller 'a was too. And so one hot day +as I was walking down the front street o' Casterbridge, jist below +the King's Arms, I passed a' open winder and see him inside, stuck +upon his perch, a-selling off. I jist nodded to en in a friendly +way as I passed, and went my way, and thought no more about it. +Well, next day, as I was oilen my boots by fuel-house door, if a +letter didn't come wi' a bill charging me with a feather--bed, +bolster, and pillers, that I had bid for at Mr. Taylor's sale. The +shim-faced martel had knocked 'em down to me because I nodded to en +in my friendly way; and I had to pay for 'em too. Now, I hold that +that was coming it very close, Reuben?" + +"'Twas close, there's no denying," said the general voice. + +"Too close, 'twas," said Reuben, in the rear of the rest. "And as +to Sam Lawson--poor heart! now he's dead and gone too!--I'll +warrant, that if so be I've spent one hour in making hoops for that +barrel, I've spent fifty, first and last. That's one of my hoops'-- +touching it with his elbow--'that's one of mine, and that, and that, +and all these." + +"Ah, Sam was a man," said Mr. Penny, contemplatively. + +"Sam was!" said Bowman. + +"Especially for a drap o' drink," said the tranter. + +"Good, but not religious--good," suggested Mr. Penny. + +The tranter nodded. Having at last made the tap and hole quite +ready, "Now then, Suze, bring a mug," he said. "Here's luck to us, +my sonnies!" + +The tap went in, and the cider immediately squirted out in a +horizontal shower over Reuben's hands, knees, and leggings, and into +the eyes and neck of Charley, who, having temporarily put off his +grief under pressure of more interesting proceedings, was squatting +down and blinking near his father. + +"There 'tis again!" said Mrs. Dewy. + +"Devil take the hole, the cask, and Sam Lawson too, that good cider +should be wasted like this!" exclaimed the tranter. "Your thumb! +Lend me your thumb, Michael! Ram it in here, Michael! I must get a +bigger tap, my sonnies." + +"Idd it cold inthide te hole?" inquired Charley of Michael, as he +continued in a stooping posture with his thumb in the cork-hole. + +"What wonderful odds and ends that chiel has in his head to be +sure!" Mrs. Dewy admiringly exclaimed from the distance. "I lay a +wager that he thinks more about how 'tis inside that barrel than in +all the other parts of the world put together." + +All persons present put on a speaking countenance of admiration for +the cleverness alluded to, in the midst of which Reuben returned. +The operation was then satisfactorily performed; when Michael arose +and stretched his head to the extremest fraction of height that his +body would allow of, to re-straighten his back and shoulders-- +thrusting out his arms and twisting his features to a mass of +wrinkles to emphasize the relief aquired. A quart or two of the +beverage was then brought to table, at which all the new arrivals +reseated themselves with wide-spread knees, their eyes meditatively +seeking out any speck or knot in the board upon which the gaze might +precipitate itself. + +"Whatever is father a-biding out in fuel-house so long for?" said +the tranter. "Never such a man as father for two things--cleaving +up old dead apple-tree wood and playing the bass-viol. 'A'd pass +his life between the two, that 'a would." He stepped to the door +and opened it. + +"Father!" + +"Ay!" rang thinly from round the corner. + +"Here's the barrel tapped, and we all a-waiting!" + +A series of dull thuds, that had been heard without for some time +past, now ceased; and after the light of a lantern had passed the +window and made wheeling rays upon the ceiling inside the eldest of +the Dewy family appeared. + + + +CHAPTER III: THE ASSEMBLED QUIRE + + + +William Dewy--otherwise grandfather William--was now about seventy; +yet an ardent vitality still preserved a warm and roughened bloom +upon his face, which reminded gardeners of the sunny side of a ripe +ribstone-pippin; though a narrow strip of forehead, that was +protected from the weather by lying above the line of his hat-brim, +seemed to belong to some town man, so gentlemanly was its whiteness. +His was a humorous and kindly nature, not unmixed with a frequent +melancholy; and he had a firm religious faith. But to his +neighbours he had no character in particular. If they saw him pass +by their windows when they had been bottling off old mead, or when +they had just been called long-headed men who might do anything in +the world if they chose, they thought concerning him, "Ah, there's +that good-hearted man--open as a child!" If they saw him just after +losing a shilling or half-a-crown, or accidentally letting fall a +piece of crockery, they thought, "There's that poor weak-minded man +Dewy again! Ah, he's never done much in the world either!" If he +passed when fortune neither smiled nor frowned on them, they merely +thought him old William Dewy. + +"Ah, so's--here you be!--Ah, Michael and Joseph and John--and you +too, Leaf! a merry Christmas all! We shall have a rare log-wood +fire directly, Reub, to reckon by the toughness of the job I had in +cleaving 'em." As he spoke he threw down an armful of logs which +fell in the chimney-corner with a rumble, and looked at them with +something of the admiring enmity he would have bestowed on living +people who had been very obstinate in holding their own. "Come in, +grandfather James." + +Old James (grandfather on the maternal side) had simply called as a +visitor. He lived in a cottage by himself, and many people +considered him a miser; some, rather slovenly in his habits. He now +came forward from behind grandfather William, and his stooping +figure formed a well-illuminated picture as he passed towards the +fire-place. Being by trade a mason, he wore a long linen apron +reaching almost to his toes, corduroy breeches and gaiters, which, +together with his boots, graduated in tints of whitish-brown by +constant friction against lime and stone. He also wore a very stiff +fustian coat, having folds at the elbows and shoulders as unvarying +in their arrangement as those in a pair of bellows: the ridges and +the projecting parts of the coat collectively exhibiting a shade +different from that of the hollows, which were lined with small +ditch-like accumulations of stone and mortar-dust. The extremely +large side-pockets, sheltered beneath wide flaps, bulged out +convexly whether empty or full; and as he was often engaged to work +at buildings far away--his breakfasts and dinners being eaten in a +strange chimney-corner, by a garden wall, on a heap of stones, or +walking along the road--he carried in these pockets a small tin +canister of butter, a small canister of sugar, a small canister of +tea, a paper of salt, and a paper of pepper; the bread, cheese, and +meat, forming the substance of his meals, hanging up behind him in +his basket among the hammers and chisels. If a passer-by looked +hard at him when he was drawing forth any of these, "My buttery," he +said, with a pinched smile. + +"Better try over number seventy-eight before we start, I suppose?" +said William, pointing to a heap of old Christmas-carol books on a +side table. + +"Wi' all my heart," said the choir generally. + +"Number seventy-eight was always a teaser--always. I can mind him +ever since I was growing up a hard boy-chap." + +"But he's a good tune, and worth a mint o' practice," said Michael. + +"He is; though I've been mad enough wi' that tune at times to seize +en and tear en all to linnit. Ay, he's a splendid carrel--there's +no denying that." + +"The first line is well enough," said Mr. Spinks; "but when you come +to 'O, thou man,' you make a mess o't." + +"We'll have another go into en, and see what we can make of the +martel. Half-an-hour's hammering at en will conquer the toughness +of en; I'll warn it." + +"'Od rabbit it all!" said Mr. Penny, interrupting with a flash of +his spectacles, and at the same time clawing at something in the +depths of a large side-pocket. "If so be I hadn't been as scatter- +brained and thirtingill as a chiel, I should have called at the +schoolhouse wi' a boot as I cam up along. Whatever is coming to me +I really can't estimate at all!" + +"The brain has its weaknesses," murmured Mr. Spinks, waving his head +ominously. Mr. Spinks was considered to be a scholar, having once +kept a night-school, and always spoke up to that level. + +"Well, I must call with en the first thing tomorrow. And I'll empt +my pocket o' this last too, if you don't mind, Mrs. Dewy." He drew +forth a last, and placed it on a table at his elbow. The eyes of +three or four followed it. + +"Well," said the shoemaker, seeming to perceive that the interest +the object had excited was greater than he had anticipated, and +warranted the last's being taken up again and exhibited; "now, whose +foot do ye suppose this last was made for? It was made for Geoffrey +Day's father, over at Yalbury Wood. Ah, many's the pair o' boots +he've had off the last! Well, when 'a died, I used the last for +Geoffrey, and have ever since, though a little doctoring was wanted +to make it do. Yes, a very queer natured last it is now, 'a +b'lieve," he continued, turning it over caressingly. "Now, you +notice that there" (pointing to a lump of leather bradded to the +toe), "that's a very bad bunion that he've had ever since 'a was a +boy. Now, this remarkable large piece" (pointing to a patch nailed +to the side), "shows a' accident he received by the tread of a +horse, that squashed his foot a'most to a pomace. The horseshoe cam +full-butt on this point, you see. And so I've just been over to +Geoffrey's, to know if he wanted his bunion altered or made bigger +in the new pair I'm making." + +During the hatter part of this speech, Mr. Penny's left hand +wandered towards the cider-cup, as if the hand had no connection +with the person speaking; and bringing his sentence to an abrupt +chose, all but the extreme margin of the bootmaker's face was +eclipsed by the circular brim of the vessel. + +"However, I was going to say," continued Penny, putting down the +cup, "I ought to have called at the school'--here he went groping +again in the depths of his pocket--'to leave this without fail, +though I suppose the first thing to-morrow will do." + +He now drew forth and placed upon the table a boot--small, light, +and prettily shaped--upon the heel of which he had been operating. + +"The new schoolmistress's!" + +"Ay, no less, Miss Fancy Day; as neat a little figure of fun as ever +I see, and just husband-high." + +"Never Geoffrey's daughter Fancy?" said Bowman, as all glances +present converged like wheel-spokes upon the boot in the centre of +them. + +"Yes, sure," resumed Mr. Penny, regarding the boot as if that alone +were his auditor; "'tis she that's come here schoolmistress. You +knowed his daughter was in training?" + +"Strange, isn't it, for her to be here Christmas night, Master +Penny?" + +"Yes; but here she is, 'a b'lieve." + +"I know how she comes here--so I do!" chirruped one of the children. + +"Why?" Dick inquired, with subtle interest. + +"Pa'son Maybold was afraid he couldn't manage us all to-morrow at +the dinner, and he talked o' getting her jist to come over and help +him hand about the plates, and see we didn't make pigs of ourselves; +and that's what she's come for!" + +"And that's the boot, then," continued its mender imaginatively, +"that she'll walk to church in tomorrow morning. I don't care to +mend boots I don't make; but there's no knowing what it may lead to, +and her father always comes to me." + +There, between the cider--mug and the candle, stood this interesting +receptacle of the little unknown's foot; and a very pretty boot it +was. A character, in fact--the flexible bend at the instep, the +rounded localities of the small nestling toes, scratches from +careless scampers now forgotten--all, as repeated in the tell-tale +leather, evidencing a nature and a bias. Dick surveyed it with a +delicate feeling that he had no right to do so without having first +asked the owner of the foot's permission. + +"Now, neighbours, though no common eye can see it," the shoemaker, +went on, "a man in the trade can see the likeness between this boot +and that last, although that is so deformed as hardly to recall one +of God's creatures, and this is one of as pretty a pair as you'd get +for ten-and-sixpence in Casterbridge. To you, nothing; but 'tis +father's voot and daughter's voot to me, as plain as houses." + +"I don't doubt there's a likeness, Master Penny--a mild likeness--a +fantastical likeness," said Spinks. "But _I_ han't got imagination +enough to see it, perhaps." + +Mr. Penny adjusted his spectacles. + +"Now, I'll tell ye what happened to me once on this very point. You +used to know Johnson the dairyman, William?" + +"Ay, sure; I did." + +"Well, 'twasn't opposite his house, but a little lower down--by his +paddock, in front o' Parkmaze Pool. I was a-bearing across towards +Bloom's End,--and ho and behold, there was a man just brought out o' +the Pool, dead; he had un'rayed for a dip, but not being able to +pitch it just there had gone in flop over his head. Men looked at +en; women looked at en; children looked at en; nobody knowed en. He +was covered wi' a sheet; but I catched sight of his voot, just +showing out as they carried en along. 'I don't care what name that +man went by,' I said, in my way, 'but he's John Woodward's brother; +I can swear to the family voot.' At that very moment up comes John +Woodward, weeping and teaving, 'I've lost my brother! I've lost my +brother!'" + +"Only to think of that!" said Mrs. Dewy. + +"'Tis well enough to know this foot and that foot," said Mr. Spinks. +"'Tis long-headed, in fact, as far as feet do go. I know little, +'tis true--I say no more; but show ME a man's foot, and I'll tell +you that man's heart." + +"You must be a cleverer feller, then, than mankind in jineral," said +the tranter. + +"Well, that's nothing for me to speak of," returned Mr. Spinks. "A +man hives and learns. Maybe I've read a leaf or two in my time. I +don't wish to say anything large, mind you; but nevertheless, maybe +I have." + +"Yes, I know," said Michael soothingly, "and all the parish knows, +that ye've read sommat of everything a'most, and have been a great +filler of young folks' brains. Learning's a worthy thing, and ye've +got it, Master Spinks." + +"I make no boast, though I may have read and thought a little; and I +know--it may be from much perusing, but I make no boast--that by the +time a man's head is finished, 'tis almost time for him to creep +underground. I am over forty-five." + +Mr. Spinks emitted a hook to signify that if his head was not +finished, nobody's head ever could be. + +"Talk of knowing people by their feet!" said Reuben. "Rot me, my +sonnies, then, if I can tell what a man is from all his members put +together, oftentimes." + +"But still, look is a good deal," observed grandfather William +absently, moving and balancing his head till the tip of grandfather +James's nose was exactly in a right line with William's eye and the +mouth of a miniature cavern he was discerning in the fire. "By the +way," he continued in a fresher voice, and looking up, "that young +crater, the schoolmis'ess, must be sung to to-night wi' the rest? +If her ear is as fine as her face, we shall have enough to do to be +up-sides with her." + +"What about her face?" said young Dewy. + +"Well, as to that," Mr. Spinks replied, "'tis a face you can hardly +gainsay. A very good pink face, as far as that do go. Still, only +a face, when all is said and done." + +"Come, come, Elias Spinks, say she's a pretty maid, and have done +wi' her," said the tranter, again preparing to visit the cider- +barrel. + + + +CHAPTER IV: GOING THE ROUNDS + + + +Shortly after ten o'clock the singing-boys arrived at the tranter's +house, which was invariably the place of meeting, and preparations +were made for the start. The older men and musicians wore thick +coats, with stiff perpendicular collars, and coloured handkerchiefs +wound round and round the neck till the end came to hand, over all +which they just showed their ears and noses, like people looking +over a wall. The remainder, stalwart ruddy men and boys, were +dressed mainly in snow-white smock-frocks, embroidered upon the +shoulders and breasts, in ornamental forms of hearts, diamonds, and +zigzags. The cider-mug was emptied for the ninth time, the music- +books were arranged, and the pieces finally decided upon. The boys +in the meantime put the old horn-lanterns in order, cut candles into +short lengths to fit the lanterns; and, a thin fleece of snow having +fallen since the early part of the evening, those who had no +leggings went to the stable and wound wisps of hay round their +ankles to keep the insidious flakes from the interior of their +boots. + +Mellstock was a parish of considerable acreage, the hamlets +composing it lying at a much greater distance from each other than +is ordinarily the case. Hence several hours were consumed in +playing and singing within hearing of every family, even if but a +single air were bestowed on each. There was Lower Mellstock, the +main village; half a mile from this were the church and vicarage, +and a few other houses, the spot being rather lonely now, though in +past centuries it had been the most thickly-populated quarter of the +parish. A mile north-east lay the hamlet of Upper Mellstock, where +the tranter lived; and at other points knots of cottages, besides +solitary farmsteads and dairies. + +Old William Dewy, with the violoncello, played the bass; his +grandson Dick the treble violin; and Reuben and Michael Mail the +tenor and second violins respectively. The singers consisted of +four men and seven boys, upon whom devolved the task of carrying and +attending to the lanterns, and holding the books open for the +players. Directly music was the theme, old William ever and +instinctively came to the front. + +"Now mind, neighbours," he said, as they all went out one by one at +the door, he himself holding it ajar and regarding them with a +critical face as they passed, like a shepherd counting out his +sheep. "You two counter-boys, keep your ears open to Michael's +fingering, and don't ye go straying into the treble part along o' +Dick and his set, as ye did last year; and mind this especially when +we be in "Arise, and hail." Billy Chimlen, don't you sing quite so +raving mad as you fain would; and, all o' ye, whatever ye do, keep +from making a great scuffle on the ground when we go in at people's +gates; but go quietly, so as to strike up all of a sudden, like +spirits." + +"Farmer Ledlow's first?" + +"Farmer Ledlow's first; the rest as usual." + +"And, Voss," said the tranter terminatively, "you keep house here +till about half-past two; then heat the metheglin and cider in the +warmer you'll find turned up upon the copper; and bring it wi' the +victuals to church-hatch, as th'st know." + + +Just before the clock struck twelve they lighted the lanterns and +started. The moon, in her third quarter, had risen since the +snowstorm; but the dense accumulation of snow-cloud weakened her +power to a faint twilight, which was rather pervasive of the +landscape than traceable to the sky. The breeze had gone down, and +the rustle of their feet and tones of their speech echoed with an +alert rebound from every post, boundary-stone, and ancient wall they +passed, even where the distance of the echo's origin was less than a +few yards. Beyond their own slight noises nothing was to be heard, +save the occasional bark of foxes in the direction of Yalbury Wood, +or the brush of a rabbit among the grass now and then, as it +scampered out of their way. + +Most of the outlying homesteads and hamlets had been visited by +about two o'clock; they then passed across the outskirts of a wooded +park toward the main village, nobody being at home at the Manor. +Pursuing no recognized track, great care was necessary in walking +lest their faces should come in contact with the low-hanging boughs +of the old lime-trees, which in many spots formed dense over-growths +of interlaced branches. + +"Times have changed from the times they used to be," said Mail, +regarding nobody can tell what interesting old panoramas with an +inward eye, and letting his outward glance rest on the ground, +because it was as convenient a position as any. "People don't care +much about us now! I've been thinking we must be almost the last +left in the county of the old string players? Barrel-organs, and +the things next door to 'em that you blow wi' your foot, have come +in terribly of late years." + +"Ay!" said Bowman, shaking his head; and old William, on seeing him, +did the same thing. + +"More's the pity," replied another. "Time was--long and merry ago +now!--when not one of the varmits was to be heard of; but it served +some of the quires right. They should have stuck to strings as we +did, and kept out clarinets, and done away with serpents. If you'd +thrive in musical religion, stick to strings, says I." + +"Strings be safe soul-lifters, as far as that do go," said Mr. +Spinks. + +"Yet there's worse things than serpents," said Mr. Penny. "Old +things pass away, 'tis true; but a serpent was a good old note: a +deep rich note was the serpent." + +"Clar'nets, however, be bad at all times," said Michael Mail. "One +Christmas--years agone now, years--I went the rounds wi' the +Weatherbury quire. 'Twas a hard frosty night, and the keys of all +the clar'nets froze--ah, they did freeze!--so that 'twas like +drawing a cork every time a key was opened; and the players o' 'em +had to go into a hedger-and-ditcher's chimley-corner, and thaw their +clar'nets every now and then. An icicle o' spet hung down from the +end of every man's clar'net a span long; and as to fingers--well, +there, if ye'll believe me, we had no fingers at all, to our +knowing." + +"I can well bring back to my mind," said Mr. Penny, "what I said to +poor Joseph Ryme (who took the treble part in Chalk-Newton Church +for two-and-forty year) when they thought of having clar'nets there. +"Joseph," I said, says I, "depend upon't, if so be you have them +tooting clar'nets you'll spoil the whole set-out. Clar'nets were +not made for the service of the Lard; you can see it by looking at +'em," I said. And what came o't? Why, souls, the parson set up a +barrel-organ on his own account within two years o' the time I +spoke, and the old quire went to nothing." + +"As far as look is concerned," said the tranter, "I don't for my +part see that a fiddle is much nearer heaven than a clar'net. 'Tis +further off. There's always a rakish, scampish twist about a +fiddle's looks that seems to say the Wicked One had a hand in making +o'en; while angels be supposed to play clar'nets in heaven, or +som'at like 'em, if ye may believe picters." + +"Robert Penny, you was in the right," broke in the eldest Dewy. +"They should ha' stuck to strings. Your brass-man is a rafting dog- +-well and good; your reed-man is a dab at stirring ye--well and +good; your drum-man is a rare bowel-shaker--good again. But I don't +care who hears me say it, nothing will spak to your heart wi' the +sweetness o' the man of strings!" + +"Strings for ever!" said little Jimmy. + +"Strings alone would have held their ground against all the new +comers in creation." ("True, true!" said Bowman.) "But clarinets +was death." ("Death they was!" said Mr. Penny.) "And harmonions," +William continued in a louder voice, and getting excited by these +signs of approval, "harmonions and barrel-organs" ("Ah!" and groans +from Spinks) "be miserable--what shall I call 'em?--miserable--" + +"Sinners," suggested Jimmy, who made large strides like the men, and +did not lag behind like the other little boys. + +"Miserable dumbledores!" + +"Right, William, and so they be--miserable dumbledores!" said the +choir with unanimity. + +By this time they were crossing to a gate in the direction of the +school, which, standing on a slight eminence at the junction of +three ways, now rose in unvarying and dark flatness against the sky. +The instruments were retuned, and all the band entered the school +enclosure, enjoined by old William to keep upon the grass. + +"Number seventy-eight," he softly gave out as they formed round in a +semicircle, the boys opening the lanterns to get a clearer light, +and directing their rays on the books. + +Then passed forth into the quiet night an ancient and time-worn +hymn, embodying a quaint Christianity in words orally transmitted +from father to son through several generations down to the present +characters, who sang them out right earnestly: + + +"Remember Adam's fall, +O thou Man: +Remember Adam's fall +From Heaven to Hell. +Remember Adam's fall +How he hath condemn'd all +In Hell perpetual +There for to dwell. + +Remember God's goodnesse, +O thou Man: +Remember God's goodnesse, +His promise made. +Remember God's goodnesse; +He sent His Son sinlesse +Our ails for to redress; +Be not afraid + +In Bethlehem He was born, +O thou Man: +In Bethlehem He was born, +For mankind's sake. + +In Bethlehem He was born, +Christmas-day i' the morn: +Our Saviour thought no scorn +Our faults to take. + +Give thanks to God alway, +O thou Man: +Give thanks to God alway +With heart-most joy. +Give thanks to God alway +On this our joyful day: +Let all men sing and say, +Holy, Holy!" + + +Having concluded the last note, they listened for a minute or two, +but found that no sound issued from the schoolhouse. + +"Four breaths, and then, "O, what unbounded goodness!" number fifty- +nine," said William. + +This was duly gone through, and no notice whatever seemed to be +taken of the performance. + +"Good guide us, surely 'tisn't a' empty house, as befell us in the +year thirty-nine and forty-three!" said old Dewy. + +"Perhaps she's jist come from some musical city, and sneers at our +doings?" the tranter whispered. + +"'Od rabbit her!" said Mr. Penny, with an annihilating look at a +corner of the school chimney, "I don't quite stomach her, if this is +it. Your plain music well done is as worthy as your other sort done +bad, a' b'lieve, souls; so say I." + +"Four breaths, and then the last," said the leader authoritatively. +"'Rejoice, ye Tenants of the Earth,' number sixty-four." + +At the close, waiting yet another minute, he said in a clear loud +voice, as he had said in the village at that hour and season for the +previous forty years--"A merry Christmas to ye!" + + + +CHAPTER V: THE LISTENERS + + + +When the expectant stillness consequent upon the exclamation had +nearly died out of them all, an increasing light made itself visible +in one of the windows of the upper floor. It came so close to the +blind that the exact position of the flame could be perceived from +the outside. Remaining steady for an instant, the blind went upward +from before it, revealing to thirty concentrated eyes a young girl, +framed as a picture by the window architrave, and unconsciously +illuminating her countenance to a vivid brightness by a candle she +held in her left hand, close to her face, her right hand being +extended to the side of the window. She was wrapped in a white robe +of some kind, whilst down her shoulders fell a twining profusion of +marvellously rich hair, in a wild disorder which proclaimed it to be +only during the invisible hours of the night that such a condition +was discoverable. Her bright eyes were looking into the grey world +outside with an uncertain expression, oscillating between courage +and shyness, which, as she recognized the semicircular group of dark +forms gathered before her, transformed itself into pleasant +resolution. + +Opening the window, she said lightly and warmly--"Thank you, +singers, thank you!" + +Together went the window quickly and quietly, and the blind started +downward on its return to its place. Her fair forehead and eyes +vanished; her little mouth; her neck and shoulders; all of her. +Then the spot of candlelight shone nebulously as before; then it +moved away. + +"How pretty!" exclaimed Dick Dewy. + +"If she'd been rale wexwork she couldn't ha' been comelier," said +Michael Mail. + +"As near a thing to a spiritual vision as ever I wish to see!" said +tranter Dewy. + +"O, sich I never, never see!" said Leaf fervently. + +All the rest, after clearing their throats and adjusting their hats, +agreed that such a sight was worth singing for. + +"Now to Farmer Shiner's, and then replenish our insides, father?" +said the tranter. + +"Wi' all my heart," said old William, shouldering his bass-viol. + +Farmer Shiner's was a queer lump of a house, standing at the corner +of a lane that ran into the principal thoroughfare. The upper +windows were much wider than they were high, and this feature, +together with a broad bay-window where the door might have been +expected, gave it by day the aspect of a human countenance turned +askance, and wearing a sly and wicked leer. To-night nothing was +visible but the outline of the roof upon the sky. + +The front of this building was reached, and the preliminaries +arranged as usual. + +"Four breaths, and number thirty-two, 'Behold the Morning Star,'" +said old William. + +They had reached the end of the second verse, and the fiddlers were +doing the up bow-stroke previously to pouring forth the opening +chord of the third verse, when, without a light appearing or any +signal being given, a roaring voice exclaimed - + +"Shut up, woll 'ee! Don't make your blaring row here! A feller wi' +a headache enough to split his skull likes a quiet night!" + +Slam went the window. + +"Hullo, that's a' ugly blow for we!" said the tranter, in a keenly +appreciative voice, and turning to his companions. + +"Finish the carrel, all who be friends of harmony!" commanded old +William; and they continued to the end. + +"Four breaths, and number nineteen!" said William firmly. "Give it +him well; the quire can't be insulted in this manner!" + +A light now flashed into existence, the window opened, and the +farmer stood revealed as one in a terrific passion. + +"Drown en!--drown en!" the tranter cried, fiddling frantically. +"Play fortissimy, and drown his spaking!" + +"Fortissimy!" said Michael Mail, and the music and singing waxed so +loud that it was impossible to know what Mr. Shiner had said, was +saying, or was about to say; but wildly flinging his arms and body +about in the forms of capital Xs and Ys, he appeared to utter enough +invectives to consign the whole parish to perdition. + +"Very onseemly--very!" said old William, as they retired. "Never +such a dreadful scene in the whole round o' my carrel practice-- +never! And he a churchwarden!" + +"Only a drap o' drink got into his head," said the tranter. "Man's +well enough when he's in his religious frame. He's in his worldly +frame now. Must ask en to our bit of a party to-morrow night, I +suppose, and so put en in humour again. We bear no mortal man ill- +will." + +They now crossed Mellstock Bridge, and went along an embowered path +beside the Froom towards the church and vicarage, meeting Voss with +the hot mead and bread-and-cheese as they were approaching the +churchyard. This determined them to eat and drink before proceeding +further, and they entered the church and ascended to the gallery. +The lanterns were opened, and the whole body sat round against the +walls on benches and whatever else was available, and made a hearty +meal. In the pauses of conversation there could be heard through +the floor overhead a little world of undertones and creaks from the +halting clockwork, which never spread further than the tower they +were born in, and raised in the more meditative minds a fancy that +here lay the direct pathway of Time. + +Having done eating and drinking, they again tuned the instruments, +and once more the party emerged into the night air. + +"Where's Dick?" said old Dewy. + +Every man looked round upon every other man, as if Dick might have +been transmuted into one or the other; and then they said they +didn't know. + +"Well now, that's what I call very nasty of Master Dicky, that I +do," said Michael Mail. + +"He've clinked off home-along, depend upon't," another suggested, +though not quite believing that he had. + +"Dick!" exclaimed the tranter, and his voice rolled sonorously forth +among the yews. + +He suspended his muscles rigid as stone whilst listening for an +answer, and finding he listened in vain, turned to the assemblage. + +"The treble man too! Now if he'd been a tenor or counter chap, we +might ha' contrived the rest o't without en, you see. But for a +quire to lose the treble, why, my sonnies, you may so well lose your +. . . " The tranter paused, unable to mention an image vast enough +for the occasion. + +"Your head at once," suggested Mr. Penny. + +The tranter moved a pace, as if it were puerile of people to +complete sentences when there were more pressing things to be done. + +"Was ever heard such a thing as a young man leaving his work half +done and turning tail like this!" + +"Never," replied Bowman, in a tone signifying that he was the last +man in the world to wish to withhold the formal finish required of +him. + +"I hope no fatal tragedy has overtook the lad!" said his +grandfather. + +"O no," replied tranter Dewy placidly. "Wonder where he's put that +there fiddle of his. Why that fiddle cost thirty shillings, and +good words besides. Somewhere in the damp, without doubt; that +instrument will be unglued and spoilt in ten minutes--ten! ay, two." + +"What in the name o' righteousness can have happened?" said old +William, more uneasily. "Perhaps he's drownded!" + +"Leaving their lanterns and instruments in the belfry they retraced +their steps along the waterside track. "A strapping lad like Dick +d'know better than let anything happen onawares," Reuben remarked. +"There's sure to be some poor little scram reason for't staring us +in the face all the while." He lowered his voice to a mysterious +tone: 'Neighbours, have ye noticed any sign of a scornful woman in +his head, or suchlike?" + +"Not a glimmer of such a body. He's as clear as water yet." + +"And Dicky said he should never marry," cried Jimmy, "but live at +home always along wi' mother and we!" + +"Ay, ay, my sonny; every lad has said that in his time." + +They had now again reached the precincts of Mr. Shiner's, but +hearing nobody in that direction, one or two went across to the +schoolhouse. A light was still burning in the bedroom, and though +the blind was down, the window had been slightly opened, as if to +admit the distant notes of the carollers to the ears of the occupant +of the room. + +Opposite the window, leaning motionless against a beech tree, was +the lost man, his arms folded, his head thrown back, his eyes fixed +upon the illuminated lattice. + +"Why, Dick, is that thee? What b'st doing here?" + +Dick's body instantly flew into a more rational attitude, and his +head was seen to turn east and west in the gloom, as if endeavouring +to discern some proper answer to that question; and at last he said +in rather feeble accents--"Nothing, father." + +"Th'st take long enough time about it then, upon my body," said the +tranter, as they all turned anew towards the vicarage. + +"I thought you hadn't done having snap in the gallery," said Dick. + +"Why, we've been traypsing and rambling about, looking everywhere, +and thinking you'd done fifty deathly things, and here have you been +at nothing at all!" + +"The stupidness lies in that point of it being nothing at all," +murmured Mr. Spinks. + +The vicarage front was their next field of operation, and Mr. +Maybold, the lately-arrived incumbent, duly received his share of +the night's harmonies. It was hoped that by reason of his +profession he would have been led to open the window, and an extra +carol in quick time was added to draw him forth. But Mr. Maybold +made no stir. + +"A bad sign!" said old William, shaking his head. + +However, at that same instant a musical voice was heard exclaiming +from inner depths of bedclothes--"Thanks, villagers!" + +"What did he say?" asked Bowman, who was rather dull of hearing. +Bowman's voice, being therefore loud, had been heard by the vicar +within. + +"I said, 'Thanks, villagers!'" cried the vicar again. + +"Oh, we didn't hear 'ee the first time!" cried Bowman. + +"Now don't for heaven's sake spoil the young man's temper by +answering like that!" said the tranter. + +"You won't do that, my friends!" the vicar shouted. + +"Well to be sure, what ears!" said Mr. Penny in a whisper. "Beats +any horse or dog in the parish, and depend upon't, that's a sign +he's a proper clever chap." + +"We shall see that in time," said the tranter. + +Old William, in his gratitude for such thanks from a comparatively +new inhabitant, was anxious to play all the tunes over again; but +renounced his desire on being reminded by Reuben that it would be +best to leave well alone. + +"Now putting two and two together," the tranter continued, as they +went their way over the hill, and across to the last remaining +houses; "that is, in the form of that young female vision we zeed +just now, and this young tenor-voiced parson, my belief is she'll +wind en round her finger, and twist the pore young feller about like +the figure of 8--that she will so, my sonnies." + + + +CHAPTER VI: CHRISTMAS MORNING + + + +The choir at last reached their beds, and slept like the rest of the +parish. Dick's slumbers, through the three or four hours remaining +for rest, were disturbed and slight; an exhaustive variation upon +the incidents that had passed that night in connection with the +school-window going on in his brain every moment of the time. + +In the morning, do what he would--go upstairs, downstairs, out of +doors, speak of the wind and weather, or what not--he could not +refrain from an unceasing renewal, in imagination, of that +interesting enactment. Tilted on the edge of one foot he stood +beside the fireplace, watching his mother grilling rashers; but +there was nothing in grilling, he thought, unless the Vision +grilled. The limp rasher hung down between the bars of the gridiron +like a cat in a child's arms; but there was nothing in similes, +unless She uttered them. He looked at the daylight shadows of a +yellow hue, dancing with the firelight shadows in blue on the +whitewashed chimney corner, but there was nothing in shadows. +"Perhaps the new young wom--sch--Miss Fancy Day will sing in church +with us this morning," he said. + +The tranter looked a long time before he replied, "I fancy she will; +and yet I fancy she won't." + +Dick implied that such a remark was rather to be tolerated than +admired; though deliberateness in speech was known to have, as a +rule, more to do with the machinery of the tranter's throat than +with the matter enunciated. + +They made preparations for going to church as usual; Dick with +extreme alacrity, though he would not definitely consider why he was +so religious. His wonderful nicety in brushing and cleaning his +best light boots had features which elevated it to the rank of an +art. Every particle and speck of last week's mud was scraped and +brushed from toe and heel; new blacking from the packet was +carefully mixed and made use of, regardless of expense. A coat was +laid on and polished; then another coat for increased blackness; and +lastly a third, to give the perfect and mirror-like jet which the +hoped-for rencounter demanded. + +It being Christmas-day, the tranter prepared himself with Sunday +particularity. Loud sousing and snorting noises were heard to +proceed from a tub in the back quarters of the dwelling, proclaiming +that he was there performing his great Sunday wash, lasting half-an- +hour, to which his washings on working-day mornings were mere +flashes in the pan. Vanishing into the outhouse with a large brown +towel, and the above-named bubblings and snortings being carried on +for about twenty minutes, the tranter would appear round the edge of +the door, smelling like a summer fog, and looking as if he had just +narrowly escaped a watery grave with the loss of much of his +clothes, having since been weeping bitterly till his eyes were red; +a crystal drop of water hanging ornamentally at the bottom of each +ear, one at the tip of his nose, and others in the form of spangles +about his hair. + +After a great deal of crunching upon the sanded stone floor by the +feet of father, son, and grandson as they moved to and fro in these +preparations, the bass-viol and fiddles were taken from their nook, +and the strings examined and screwed a little above concert-pitch, +that they might keep their tone when the service began, to obviate +the awkward contingency of having to retune them at the back of the +gallery during a cough, sneeze, or amen--an inconvenience which had +been known to arise in damp wintry weather. + +The three left the door and paced down Mellstock-lane and across the +ewe-lease, bearing under their arms the instruments in faded green- +baize bags, and old brown music-books in their hands; Dick +continually finding himself in advance of the other two, and the +tranter moving on with toes turned outwards to an enormous angle. + +At the foot of an incline the church became visible through the +north gate, or 'church hatch,' as it was called here. Seven agile +figures in a clump were observable beyond, which proved to be the +choristers waiting; sitting on an altar-tomb to pass the time, and +letting their heels dangle against it. The musicians being now in +sight, the youthful party scampered off and rattled up the old +wooden stairs of the gallery like a regiment of cavalry; the other +boys of the parish waiting outside and observing birds, cats, and +other creatures till the vicar entered, when they suddenly subsided +into sober church-goers, and passed down the aisle with echoing +heels. + +The gallery of Mellstock Church had a status and sentiment of its +own. A stranger there was regarded with a feeling altogether +differing from that of the congregation below towards him. Banished +from the nave as an intruder whom no originality could make +interesting, he was received above as a curiosity that no unfitness +could render dull. The gallery, too, looked down upon and knew the +habits of the nave to its remotest peculiarity, and had an extensive +stock of exclusive information about it; whilst the nave knew +nothing of the gallery folk, as gallery folk, beyond their loud- +sounding minims and chest notes. Such topics as that the clerk was +always chewing tobacco except at the moment of crying amen; that he +had a dust-hole in his pew; that during the sermon certain young +daughters of the village had left off caring to read anything so +mild as the marriage service for some years, and now regularly +studied the one which chronologically follows it; that a pair of +lovers touched fingers through a knot-hole between their pews in the +manner ordained by their great exemplars, Pyramus and Thisbe; that +Mrs. Ledlow, the farmer's wife, counted her money and reckoned her +week's marketing expenses during the first lesson--all news to those +below--were stale subjects here. + +Old William sat in the centre of the front row, his violoncello +between his knees and two singers on each hand. Behind him, on the +left, came the treble singers and Dick; and on the right the tranter +and the tenors. Farther back was old Mail with the altos and +supernumeraries. + +But before they had taken their places, and whilst they were +standing in a circle at the back of the gallery practising a psalm +or two, Dick cast his eyes over his grandfather's shoulder, and saw +the vision of the past night enter the porch-door as methodically as +if she had never been a vision at all. A new atmosphere seemed +suddenly to be puffed into the ancient edifice by her movement, +which made Dick's body and soul tingle with novel sensations. +Directed by Shiner, the churchwarden, she proceeded to the small +aisle on the north side of the chancel, a spot now allotted to a +throng of Sunday-school girls, and distinctly visible from the +gallery-front by looking under the curve of the furthermost arch on +that side. + +Before this moment the church had seemed comparatively empty--now it +was thronged; and as Miss Fancy rose from her knees and looked +around her for a permanent place in which to deposit herself-- +finally choosing the remotest corner--Dick began to breathe more +freely the warm new air she had brought with her; to feel rushings +of blood, and to have impressions that there was a tie between her +and himself visible to all the congregation. + +Ever afterwards the young man could recollect individually each part +of the service of that bright Christmas morning, and the trifling +occurrences which took place as its minutes slowly drew along; the +duties of that day dividing themselves by a complete line from the +services of other times. The tunes they that morning essayed +remained with him for years, apart from all others; also the text; +also the appearance of the layer of dust upon the capitals of the +piers; that the holly-bough in the chancel archway was hung a little +out of the centre--all the ideas, in short, that creep into the mind +when reason is only exercising its lowest activity through the eye. + +By chance or by fate, another young man who attended Mellstock +Church on that Christmas morning had towards the end of the service +the same instinctive perception of an interesting presence, in the +shape of the same bright maiden, though his emotion reached a far +less developed stage. And there was this difference, too, that the +person in question was surprised at his condition, and sedulously +endeavoured to reduce himself to his normal state of mind. He was +the young vicar, Mr. Maybold. + +The music on Christmas mornings was frequently below the standard of +church-performances at other times. The boys were sleepy from the +heavy exertions of the night; the men were slightly wearied; and +now, in addition to these constant reasons, there was a dampness in +the atmosphere that still further aggravated the evil. Their +strings, from the recent long exposure to the night air, rose whole +semitones, and snapped with a loud twang at the most silent moment; +which necessitated more retiring than ever to the back of the +gallery, and made the gallery throats quite husky with the quantity +of coughing and hemming required for tuning in. The vicar looked +cross. + +When the singing was in progress there was suddenly discovered to be +a strong and shrill reinforcement from some point, ultimately found +to be the school-girls' aisle. At every attempt it grew bolder and +more distinct. At the third time of singing, these intrusive +feminine voices were as mighty as those of the regular singers; in +fact, the flood of sound from this quarter assumed such an +individuality, that it had a time, a key, almost a tune of its own, +surging upwards when the gallery plunged downwards, and the reverse. + +Now this had never happened before within the memory of man. The +girls, like the rest of the congregation, had always been humble and +respectful followers of the gallery; singing at sixes and sevens if +without gallery leaders; never interfering with the ordinances of +these practised artists--having no will, union, power, or proclivity +except it was given them from the established choir enthroned above +them. + +A good deal of desperation became noticeable in the gallery throats +and strings, which continued throughout the musical portion of the +service. Directly the fiddles were laid down, Mr. Penny's +spectacles put in their sheath, and the text had been given out, an +indignant whispering began. + +"Did ye hear that, souls?" Mr. Penny said, in a groaning breath. + +"Brazen-faced hussies!" said Bowman. + +"True; why, they were every note as loud as we, fiddles and all, if +not louder!" + +"Fiddles and all!" echoed Bowman bitterly. + +"Shall anything saucier be found than united 'ooman?" Mr. Spinks +murmured. + +"What I want to know is," said the tranter (as if he knew already, +but that civilization required the form of words), "what business +people have to tell maidens to sing like that when they don't sit in +a gallery, and never have entered one in their lives? That's the +question, my sonnies." + +"'Tis the gallery have got to sing, all the world knows," said Mr. +Penny. "Why, souls, what's the use o' the ancients spending scores +of pounds to build galleries if people down in the lowest depths of +the church sing like that at a moment's notice?" + +"Really, I think we useless ones had better march out of church, +fiddles and all!" said Mr. Spinks, with a laugh which, to a +stranger, would have sounded mild and real. Only the initiated body +of men he addressed could understand the horrible bitterness of +irony that lurked under the quiet words 'useless ones,' and the +ghastliness of the laughter apparently so natural. + +"Never mind! Let 'em sing too--'twill make it all the louder--hee, +hee!" said Leaf. + +"Thomas Leaf, Thomas Leaf! Where have you lived all your life?" +said grandfather William sternly. + +The quailing Leaf tried to look as if he had lived nowhere at all. + +"When all's said and done, my sonnies," Reuben said, "there'd have +been no real harm in their singing if they had let nobody hear 'em, +and only jined in now and then." + +"None at all," said Mr. Penny. "But though I don't wish to accuse +people wrongfully, I'd say before my lord judge that I could hear +every note o' that last psalm come from 'em as much as from us-- +every note as if 'twas their own." + +"Know it! ah, I should think I did know it!" Mr. Spinks was heard +to observe at this moment, without reference to his fellow players-- +shaking his head at some idea he seemed to see floating before him, +and smiling as if he were attending a funeral at the time. "Ah, do +I or don't I know it!" + +No one said "Know what?" because all were aware from experience that +what he knew would declare itself in process of time. + +"I could fancy last night that we should have some trouble wi' that +young man," said the tranter, pending the continuance of Spinks's +speech, and looking towards the unconscious Mr. Maybold in the +pulpit. + +"_I_ fancy," said old William, rather severely, "I fancy there's too +much whispering going on to be of any spiritual use to gentle or +simple." Then folding his lips and concentrating his glance on the +vicar, he implied that none but the ignorant would speak again; and +accordingly there was silence in the gallery, Mr. Spinks's telling +speech remaining for ever unspoken. + +Dick had said nothing, and the tranter little, on this episode of +the morning; for Mrs. Dewy at breakfast expressed it as her +intention to invite the youthful leader of the culprits to the small +party it was customary with them to have on Christmas night--a piece +of knowledge which had given a particular brightness to Dick's +reflections since he had received it. And in the tranter's +slightly-cynical nature, party feeling was weaker than in the other +members of the choir, though friendliness and faithful partnership +still sustained in him a hearty earnestness on their account. + + + +CHAPTER VII: THE TRANTER'S PARTY + + + +During the afternoon unusual activity was seen to prevail about the +precincts of tranter Dewy's house. The flagstone floor was swept of +dust, and a sprinkling of the finest yellow sand from the innermost +stratum of the adjoining sand-pit lightly scattered thereupon. Then +were produced large knives and forks, which had been shrouded in +darkness and grease since the last occasion of the kind, and bearing +upon their sides, "Shear-steel, warranted," in such emphatic letters +of assurance, that the warranter's name was not required as further +proof, and not given. The key was left in the tap of the cider- +barrel, instead of being carried in a pocket. And finally the +tranter had to stand up in the room and let his wife wheel him round +like a turnstile, to see if anything discreditable was visible in +his appearance. + +"Stand still till I've been for the scissors," said Mrs. Dewy. + +The tranter stood as still as a sentinel at the challenge. + +The only repairs necessary were a trimming of one or two whiskers +that had extended beyond the general contour of the mass; a like +trimming of a slightly-frayed edge visible on his shirt-collar; and +a final tug at a grey hair--to all of which operations he submitted +in resigned silence, except the last, which produced a mild "Come, +come, Ann," by way of expostulation. + +"Really, Reuben, 'tis quite a disgrace to see such a man," said Mrs. +Dewy, with the severity justifiable in a long-tried companion, +giving him another turn round, and picking several of Smiler's hairs +from the shoulder of his coat. Reuben's thoughts seemed engaged +elsewhere, and he yawned. "And the collar of your coat is a shame +to behold--so plastered with dirt, or dust, or grease, or something. +Why, wherever could you have got it?" + +"'Tis my warm nater in summer-time, I suppose. I always did get in +such a heat when I bustle about." + +"Ay, the Dewys always were such a coarse-skinned family. There's +your brother Bob just as bad--as fat as a porpoise--wi' his how, +mean, "How'st do, Ann?" whenever he meets me. I'd "How'st do" him +indeed! If the sun only shines out a minute, there be you all +streaming in the face--I never see!" + +"If I be hot week-days, I must be hot Sundays." + +"If any of the girls should turn after their father 'twill be a bad +look-out for 'em, poor things! None of my family were sich vulgar +sweaters, not one of 'em. But, Lord-a-mercy, the Dewys! I don't +know how ever I cam' into such a family!" + +"Your woman's weakness when I asked ye to jine us. That's how it +was I suppose." But the tranter appeared to have heard some such +words from his wife before, and hence his answer had not the energy +it might have shown if the inquiry had possessed the charm of +novelty. + +"You never did look so well in a pair o' trousers as in them," she +continued in the same unimpassioned voice, so that the unfriendly +criticism of the Dewy family seemed to have been more normal than +spontaneous. "Such a cheap pair as 'twas too. As big as any man +could wish to have, and lined inside, and double-lined in the lower +parts, and an extra piece of stiffening at the bottom. And 'tis a +nice high cut that comes up right under your armpits, and there's +enough turned down inside the seams to make half a pair more, +besides a piece of cloth left that will make an honest waistcoat-- +all by my contriving in buying the stuff at a bargain, and having it +made up under my eye. It only shows what may be done by taking a +little trouble, and not going straight to the rascally tailors." + +The discourse was cut short by the sudden appearance of Charley on +the scene, with a face and hands of hideous blackness, and a nose +like a guttering candle. Why, on that particularly cleanly +afternoon, he should have discovered that the chimney-crook and +chain from which the hams were suspended should have possessed more +merits and general interest as playthings than any other articles in +the house, is a question for nursing mothers to decide. However, +the humour seemed to lie in the result being, as has been seen, that +any given player with these articles was in the long-run daubed with +soot. The last that was seen of Charley by daylight after this +piece of ingenuity was when in the act of vanishing from his +father's presence round the corner of the house--looking back over +his shoulder with an expression of great sin on his face, like Cain +as the Outcast in Bible pictures. + + +The guests had all assembled, and the tranter's party had reached +that degree of development which accords with ten o'clock P.M. in +rural assemblies. At that hour the sound of a fiddle in process of +tuning was heard from the inner pantry. + +"That's Dick," said the tranter. "That lad's crazy for a jig." + +"Dick! Now I cannot--really, I cannot have any dancing at all till +Christmas-day is out," said old William emphatically. "When the +clock ha' done striking twelve, dance as much as ye like." + +"Well, I must say there's reason in that, William," said Mrs. Penny. +"If you do have a party on Christmas-night, 'tis only fair and +honourable to the sky-folk to have it a sit-still party. Jigging +parties be all very well on the Devil's holidays; but a jigging +party looks suspicious now. O yes; stop till the clock strikes, +young folk--so say I." + +It happened that some warm mead accidentally got into Mr. Spinks's +head about this time. + +"Dancing," he said, "is a most strengthening, livening, and courting +movement, 'specially with a little beverage added! And dancing is +good. But why disturb what is ordained, Richard and Reuben, and the +company zhinerally? Why, I ask, as far as that do go?" + +"Then nothing till after twelve," said William. + +Though Reuben and his wife ruled on social points, religious +questions were mostly disposed of by the old man, whose firmness on +this head quite counterbalanced a certain weakness in his handling +of domestic matters. The hopes of the younger members of the +household were therefore relegated to a distance of one hour and +three-quarters--a result that took visible shape in them by a remote +and listless look about the eyes--the singing of songs being +permitted in the interim. + +At five minutes to twelve the soft tuning was again heard in the +back quarters; and when at length the clock had whizzed forth the +last stroke, Dick appeared ready primed, and the instruments were +boldly handled; old William very readily taking the bass-viol from +its accustomed nail, and touching the strings as irreligiously as +could be desired. + +The country-dance called the 'Triumph, or Follow my Lover,' was the +figure with which they opened. The tranter took for his partner +Mrs. Penny, and Mrs. Dewy was chosen by Mr. Penny, who made so much +of his limited height by a judicious carriage of the head, +straightening of the back, and important flashes of his spectacle- +glasses, that he seemed almost as tall as the tranter. Mr. Shiner, +age about thirty-five, farmer and church-warden, a character +principally composed of a crimson stare, vigorous breath, and a +watch-chain, with a mouth hanging on a dark smile but never smiling, +had come quite willingly to the party, and showed a wondrous +obliviousness of all his antics on the previous night. But the +comely, slender, prettily-dressed prize Fancy Day fell to Dick's +lot, in spite of some private machinations of the farmer, for the +reason that Mr. Shiner, as a richer man, had shown too much +assurance in asking the favour, whilst Dick had been duly courteous. + +We gain a good view of our heroine as she advances to her place in +the ladies' line. She belonged to the taller division of middle +height. Flexibility was her first characteristic, by which she +appeared to enjoy the most easeful rest when she was in gliding +motion. Her dark eyes--arched by brows of so keen, slender, and +soft a curve, that they resembled nothing so much as two slurs in +music--showed primarily a bright sparkle each. This was softened by +a frequent thoughtfulness, yet not so frequent as to do away, for +more than a few minutes at a time, with a certain coquettishness; +which in its turn was never so decided as to banish honesty. Her +lips imitated her brows in their clearly-cut outline and softness of +bend; and her nose was well shaped--which is saying a great deal, +when it is remembered that there are a hundred pretty mouths and +eyes for one pretty nose. Add to this, plentiful knots of dark- +brown hair, a gauzy dress of white, with blue facings; and the +slightest idea may be gained of the young maiden who showed, amidst +the rest of the dancing-ladies, like a flower among vegetables. And +so the dance proceeded. Mr. Shiner, according to the interesting +rule laid down, deserted his own partner, and made off down the +middle with this fair one of Dick's--the pair appearing from the top +of the room like two persons tripping down a lane to be married. +Dick trotted behind with what was intended to be a look of +composure, but which was, in fact, a rather silly expression of +feature--implying, with too much earnestness, that such an elopement +could not be tolerated. Then they turned and came back, when Dick +grew more rigid around his mouth, and blushed with ingenuous ardour +as he joined hands with the rival and formed the arch over his +lady's head; which presumably gave the figure its name; +relinquishing her again at setting to partners, when Mr. Shiner's +new chain quivered in every link, and all the loose flesh upon the +tranter--who here came into action again--shook like jelly. Mrs. +Penny, being always rather concerned for her personal safety when +she danced with the tranter, fixed her face to a chronic smile of +timidity the whole time it lasted--a peculiarity which filled her +features with wrinkles, and reduced her eyes to little straight +lines like hyphens, as she jigged up and down opposite him; +repeating in her own person not only his proper movements, but also +the minor flourishes which the richness of the tranter's imagination +led him to introduce from time to time--an imitation which had about +it something of slavish obedience, not unmixed with fear. + +The ear-rings of the ladies now flung themselves wildly about, +turning violent summersaults, banging this way and that, and then +swinging quietly against the ears sustaining them. Mrs. Crumpler--a +heavy woman, who, for some reason which nobody ever thought worth +inquiry, danced in a clean apron--moved so smoothly through the +figure that her feet were never seen; conveying to imaginative minds +the idea that she rolled on castors. + +Minute after minute glided by, and the party reached the period when +ladies' back-hair begins to look forgotten and dissipated; when a +perceptible dampness makes itself apparent upon the faces even of +delicate girls--a ghastly dew having for some time rained from the +features of their masculine partners; when skirts begin to be torn +out of their gathers; when elderly people, who have stood up to +please their juniors, begin to feel sundry small tremblings in the +region of the knees, and to wish the interminable dance was at +Jericho; when (at country parties of the thorough sort)waistcoats +begin to be unbuttoned, and when the fiddlers' chairs have been +wriggled, by the frantic bowing of their occupiers, to a distance of +about two feet from where they originally stood. + +Fancy was dancing with Mr. Shiner. Dick knew that Fancy, by the law +of good manners, was bound to dance as pleasantly with one partner +as with another; yet he could not help suggesting to himself that +she need not have put QUITE so much spirit into her steps, nor +smiled QUITE so frequently whilst in the farmer's hands. + +"I'm afraid you didn't cast off," said Dick mildly to Mr. Shiner, +before the latter man's watch-chain had done vibrating from a recent +whirl. + +Fancy made a motion of accepting the correction; but her partner +took no notice, and proceeded with the next movement, with an +affectionate bend towards her. + +"That Shiner's too fond of her," the young man said to himself as he +watched them. They came to the top again, Fancy smiling warmly +towards her partner, and went to their places. + +"Mr. Shiner, you didn't cast off," said Dick, for want of something +else to demolish him with; casting off himself, and being put out at +the farmer's irregularity. + +"Perhaps I sha'n't cast off for any man," said Mr. Shiner. + +"I think you ought to, sir." + +Dick's partner, a young lady of the name of Lizzy--called Lizz for +short--tried to mollify. + +"I can't say that I myself have much feeling for casting off," she +said. + +"Nor I," said Mrs. Penny, following up the argument, "especially if +a friend and neighbour is set against it. Not but that 'tis a +terrible tasty thing in good hands and well done; yes, indeed, so +say I." + +"All I meant was," said Dick, rather sorry that he had spoken +correctingly to a guest, "that 'tis in the dance; and a man has +hardly any right to hack and mangle what was ordained by the regular +dance-maker, who, I daresay, got his living by making 'em, and +thought of nothing else all his life." + +"I don't like casting off: then very well; I cast off for no dance- +maker that ever lived." + +Dick now appeared to be doing mental arithmetic, the act being +really an effort to present to himself, in an abstract form, how far +an argument with a formidable rival ought to be carried, when that +rival was his mother's guest. The dead-lock was put an end to by +the stamping arrival up the middle of the tranter, who, despising +minutiae on principle, started a theme of his own. + +"I assure you, neighbours," he said, "the heat of my frame no tongue +can tell!" He looked around and endeavoured to give, by a forcible +gaze of self-sympathy, some faint idea of the truth. + +Mrs. Dewy formed one of the next couple. + +"Yes," she said, in an auxiliary tone, "Reuben always was such a hot +man." + +Mrs. Penny implied the species of sympathy that such a class of +affliction required, by trying to smile and to look grieved at the +same time. + +"If he only walk round the garden of a Sunday morning, his shirt- +collar is as limp as no starch at all," continued Mrs. Dewy, her +countenance lapsing parenthetically into a housewifely expression of +concern at the reminiscence. + +"Come, come, you women-folk; 'tis hands across--come, come!" said +the tranter; and the conversation ceased for the present. + + + +CHAPTER VIII: THEY DANCE MORE WILDLY + + + +Dick had at length secured Fancy for that most delightful of +country-dances, opening with six-hands-round. + +"Before we begin," said the tranter, "my proposal is, that 'twould +be a right and proper plan for every mortal man in the dance to pull +off his jacket, considering the heat." + +"Such low notions as you have, Reuben! Nothing but strip will go +down with you when you are a-dancing. Such a hot man as he is!" + +"Well, now, look here, my sonnies," he argued to his wife, whom he +often addressed in the plural masculine for economy of epithet +merely; "I don't see that. You dance and get hot as fire; therefore +you lighten your clothes. Isn't that nature and reason for gentle +and simple? If I strip by myself and not necessary, 'tis rather +pot-housey I own; but if we stout chaps strip one and all, why, 'tis +the native manners of the country, which no man can gainsay? Hey-- +what did you say, my sonnies?" + +"Strip we will!" said the three other heavy men who were in the +dance; and their coats were accordingly taken off and hung in the +passage, whence the four sufferers from heat soon reappeared, +marching in close column, with flapping shirt-sleeves, and having, +as common to them all, a general glance of being now a match for any +man or dancer in England or Ireland. Dick, fearing to lose ground +in Fancy's good opinion, retained his coat like the rest of the +thinner men; and Mr. Shiner did the same from superior knowledge. + +And now a further phase of revelry had disclosed itself. It was the +time of night when a guest may write his name in the dust upon the +tables and chairs, and a bluish mist pervades the atmosphere, +becoming a distinct halo round the candles; when people's nostrils, +wrinkles, and crevices in general, seem to be getting gradually +plastered up; when the very fiddlers as well as the dancers get red +in the face, the dancers having advanced further still towards +incandescence, and entered the cadaverous phase; the fiddlers no +longer sit down, but kick back their chairs and saw madly at the +strings, with legs firmly spread and eyes closed, regardless of the +visible world. Again and again did Dick share his Love's hand with +another man, and wheel round; then, more delightfully, promenade in +a circle with her all to himself, his arm holding her waist more +firmly each time, and his elbow getting further and further behind +her back, till the distance reached was rather noticeable; and, most +blissful, swinging to places shoulder to shoulder, her breath +curling round his neck like a summer zephyr that had strayed from +its proper date. Threading the couples one by one they reached the +bottom, when there arose in Dick's mind a minor misery lest the tune +should end before they could work their way to the top again, and +have anew the same exciting run down through. Dick's feelings on +actually reaching the top in spite of his doubts were supplemented +by a mortal fear that the fiddling might even stop at this supreme +moment; which prompted him to convey a stealthy whisper to the far- +gone musicians, to the effect that they were not to leave off till +he and his partner had reached the bottom of the dance once more, +which remark was replied to by the nearest of those convulsed and +quivering men by a private nod to the anxious young man between two +semiquavers of the tune, and a simultaneous "All right, ay, ay," +without opening the eyes. Fancy was now held so closely that Dick +and she were practically one person. The room became to Dick like a +picture in a dream; all that he could remember of it afterwards +being the look of the fiddlers going to sleep, as humming-tops +sleep, by increasing their motion and hum, together with the figures +of grandfather James and old Simon Crumpler sitting by the chimney- +corner, talking and nodding in dumb-show, and beating the air to +their emphatic sentences like people near a threshing machine. + +The dance ended. "Piph-h-h-h!" said tranter Dewy, blowing out his +breath in the very finest stream of vapour that a man's lips could +form. "A regular tightener, that one, sonnies!" He wiped his +forehead, and went to the cider and ale mugs on the table. + +"Well!" said Mrs. Penny, flopping into a chair, "my heart haven't +been in such a thumping state of uproar since I used to sit up on +old Midsummer-eves to see who my husband was going to be." + +"And that's getting on for a good few years ago now, from what I've +heard you tell," said the tranter, without lifting his eyes from the +cup he was filling. Being now engaged in the business of handing +round refreshments, he was warranted in keeping his coat off still, +though the other heavy men had resumed theirs. + +"And a thing I never expected would come to pass, if you'll believe +me, came to pass then," continued Mrs. Penny. "Ah, the first spirit +ever I see on a Midsummer-eve was a puzzle to me when he appeared, a +hard puzzle, so say I!" + +"So I should have fancied," said Elias Spinks. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Penny, throwing her glance into past times, and +talking on in a running tone of complacent abstraction, as if a +listener were not a necessity. "Yes; never was I in such a taking +as on that Midsummer-eve! I sat up, quite determined to see if John +Wildway was going to marry me or no. I put the bread-and-cheese and +beer quite ready, as the witch's book ordered, and I opened the +door, and I waited till the clock struck twelve, my nerves all alive +and so strained that I could feel every one of 'em twitching like +bell-wires. Yes, sure! and when the clock had struck, ho and +behold, I could see through the door a LITTLE SMALL man in the lane +wi' a shoemaker's apron on." + +Here Mr. Penny stealthily enlarged himself half an inch. + +"Now, John Wildway," Mrs. Penny continued, "who courted me at that +time, was a shoemaker, you see, but he was a very fair-sized man, +and I couldn't believe that any such a little small man had anything +to do wi' me, as anybody might. But on he came, and crossed the +threshold--not John, but actually the same little small man in the +shoemaker's apron--" + +"You needn't be so mighty particular about little and small!" said +her husband. + +"In he walks, and down he sits, and O my goodness me, didn't I flee +upstairs, body and soul hardly hanging together! Well, to cut a +long story short, by-long and by-late. John Wildway and I had a +miff and parted; and lo and behold, the coming man came! Penny +asked me if I'd go snacks with him, and afore I knew what I was +about a'most, the thing was done." + +"I've fancied you never knew better in your life; but I mid be +mistaken," said Mr. Penny in a murmur. + +After Mrs. Penny had spoken, there being no new occupation for her +eyes, she still let them stay idling on the past scenes just +related, which were apparently visible to her in the centre of the +room Mr. Penny's remark received no reply. + +During this discourse the tranter and his wife might have been +observed standing in an unobtrusive corner, in mysterious closeness +to each other, a just perceptible current of intelligence passing +from each to each, which had apparently no relation whatever to the +conversation of their guests, but much to their sustenance. A +conclusion of some kind having at length been drawn, the palpable +confederacy of man and wife was once more obliterated, the tranter +marching off into the pantry, humming a tune that he couldn't quite +recollect, and then breaking into the words of a song of which he +could remember about one line and a quarter. Mrs. Dewy spoke a few +words about preparations for a bit of supper. + +That elder portion of the company which loved eating and drinking +put on a look to signify that till this moment they had quite +forgotten that it was customary to expect suppers on these +occasions; going even further than this politeness of feature, and +starting irrelevant subjects, the exceeding flatness and forced tone +of which rather betrayed their object. The younger members said +they were quite hungry, and that supper would be delightful though +it was so late. + +Good luck attended Dick's love-passes during the meal. He sat next +Fancy, and had the thrilling pleasure of using permanently a glass +which had been taken by Fancy in mistake; of letting the outer edge +of the sole of his boot touch the lower verge of her skirt; and to +add to these delights the cat, which had lain unobserved in her lap +for several minutes, crept across into his own, touching him with +fur that had touched her hand a moment before. There were, besides, +some little pleasures in the shape of helping her to vegetable she +didn't want, and when it had nearly alighted on her plate taking it +across for his own use, on the plea of waste not, want not. He +also, from time to time, sipped sweet sly glances at her profile; +noticing the set of her head, the curve of her throat, and other +artistic properties of the lively goddess, who the while kept up a +rather free, not to say too free, conversation with Mr. Shiner +sitting opposite; which, after some uneasy criticism, and much +shifting of argument backwards and forwards in Dick's mind, he +decided not to consider of alarming significance. + +"A new music greets our ears now," said Miss Fancy, alluding, with +the sharpness that her position as village sharpener demanded, to +the contrast between the rattle of knives and forks and the late +notes of the fiddlers. + +"Ay; and I don't know but what 'tis sweeter in tone when you get +above forty," said the tranter; "except, in faith, as regards father +there. Never such a mortal man as he for tunes. They do move his +soul; don't 'em, father?" + +The eldest Dewy smiled across from his distant chair an assent to +Reuben's remark. + +"Spaking of being moved in soul," said Mr. Penny, "I shall never +forget the first time I heard the "Dead March." 'Twas at poor +Corp'l Nineman's funeral at Casterbridge. It fairly made my hair +creep and fidget about like a vlock of sheep--ah, it did, souls! +And when they had done, and the last trump had sounded, and the guns +was fired over the dead hero's grave, a' icy-cold drop o' moist +sweat hung upon my forehead, and another upon my jawbone. Ah, 'tis +a very solemn thing!" + +"Well, as to father in the corner there," the tranter said, pointing +to old William, who was in the act of filling his mouth; "he'd +starve to death for music's sake now, as much as when he was a boy- +chap of fifteen." + +"Truly, now," said Michael Mail, clearing the corner of his throat +in the manner of a man who meant to be convincing; 'there's a +friendly tie of some sort between music and eating." He lifted the +cup to his mouth, and drank himself gradually backwards from a +perpendicular position to a slanting one, during which time his +looks performed a circuit from the wall opposite him to the ceiling +overhead. Then clearing the other corner of his throat: 'Once I +was a-setting in the little kitchen of the Dree Mariners at +Casterbridge, having a bit of dinner, and a brass band struck up in +the street. Such a beautiful band as that were! I was setting +eating fried liver and lights, I well can mind--ah, I was! and to +save my life, I couldn't help chawing to the tune. Band played six- +eight time; six-eight chaws I, willynilly. Band plays common; +common time went my teeth among the liver and lights as true as a +hair. Beautiful 'twere! Ah, I shall never forget that there band!" + +"That's as tuneful a thing as ever I heard of," said grandfather +James, with the absent gaze which accompanies profound criticism. + +"I don't like Michael's tuneful stories then," said Mrs. Dewy. +"They are quite coarse to a person o' decent taste." + +Old Michael's mouth twitched here and there, as if he wanted to +smile but didn't know where to begin, which gradually settled to an +expression that it was not displeasing for a nice woman like the +tranter's wife to correct him. + +"Well, now," said Reuben, with decisive earnestness, "that sort o' +coarse touch that's so upsetting to Ann's feelings is to my mind a +recommendation; for it do always prove a story to be true. And for +the same reason, I like a story with a bad moral. My sonnies, all +true stories have a coarse touch or a bad moral, depend upon't. If +the story-tellers could ha' got decency and good morals from true +stories, who'd ha' troubled to invent parables?" Saying this the +tranter arose to fetch a new stock of cider, ale, mead, and home- +made wines. + +Mrs. Dewy sighed, and appended a remark (ostensibly behind her +husband's back, though that the words should reach his ears +distinctly was understood by both): "Such a man as Dewy is! Nobody +do know the trouble I have to keep that man barely respectable. And +did you ever hear too--just now at supper-time--talking about +"taties" with Michael in such a work-folk way. Well, 'tis what I +was never brought up to! With our family 'twas never less than +"taters," and very often "pertatoes" outright; mother was so +particular and nice with us girls there was no family in the parish +that kept them selves up more than we." + +The hour of parting came. Fancy could not remain for the night, +because she had engaged a woman to wait up for her. She disappeared +temporarily from the flagging party of dancers, and then came +downstairs wrapped up and looking altogether a different person from +whom she had been hitherto, in fact (to Dick's sadness and +disappointment), a woman somewhat reserved and of a phlegmatic +temperament--nothing left in her of the romping girl that she had +seemed but a short quarter-hour before, who had not minded the +weight of Dick's hand upon her waist, nor shirked the purlieus of +the mistletoe. + +"What a difference!" thought the young man--hoary cynic pro tem. +"What a miserable deceiving difference between the manners of a +maid's life at dancing times and at others! Look at this lovely +Fancy! Through the whole past evening touchable, squeezeable--even +kissable! For whole half-hours I held her so chose to me that not a +sheet of paper could have been shipped between us; and I could feel +her heart only just outside my own, her life beating on so close to +mine, that I was aware of every breath in it. A flit is made +upstairs--a hat and a cloak put on--and I no more dare to touch her +than--" Thought failed him, and he returned to realities. + +But this was an endurable misery in comparison with what followed. +Mr. Shiner and his watch-chain, taking the intrusive advantage that +ardent bachelors who are going homeward along the same road as a +pretty young woman always do take of that circumstance, came forward +to assure Fancy--with a total disregard of Dick's emotions, and in +tones which were certainly not frigid--that he (Shiner) was not the +man to go to bed before seeing his Lady Fair safe within her own +door--not he, nobody should say he was that;--and that he would not +leave her side an inch till the thing was done--drown him if he +would. The proposal was assented to by Miss Day, in Dick's +foreboding judgment, with one degree--or at any rate, an appreciable +fraction of a degree--of warmth beyond that required by a +disinterested desire for protection from the dangers of the night. + +All was over; and Dick surveyed the chair she had last occupied, +looking now like a setting from which the gem has been torn. There +stood her glass, and the romantic teaspoonful of elder wine at the +bottom that she couldn't drink by trying ever so hard, in obedience +to the mighty arguments of the tranter (his hand coming down upon +her shoulder the while, like a Nasmyth hammer); but the drinker was +there no longer. There were the nine or ten pretty little crumbs +she had left on her plate; but the eater was no more seen. + +There seemed a disagreeable closeness of relationship between +himself and the members of his family, now that they were left alone +again face to face. His father seemed quite offensive for appearing +to be in just as high spirits as when the guests were there; and as +for grandfather James (who had not yet left), he was quite fiendish +in being rather glad they were gone. + +"Really," said the tranter, in a tone of placid satisfaction, "I've +had so little time to attend to myself all the evenen, that I mean +to enjoy a quiet meal now! A slice of this here ham--neither too +fat nor too lean--so; and then a drop of this vinegar and pickles-- +there, that's it--and I shall be as fresh as a lark again! And to +tell the truth, my sonny, my inside has been as dry as a lime-basket +all night." + +"I like a party very well once in a while," said Mrs. Dewy, leaving +off the adorned tones she had been bound to use throughout the +evening, and returning to the natural marriage voice; "but, Lord, +'tis such a sight of heavy work next day! What with the dirty +plates, and knives and forks, and dust and smother, and bits kicked +off your furniture, and I don't know what all, why a body could +a'most wish there were no such things as Christmases . . . Ah-h +dear!" she yawned, till the clock in the corner had ticked several +beats. She cast her eyes round upon the displaced, dust-laden +furniture, and sank down overpowered at the sight. + +"Well, I be getting all right by degrees, thank the Lord for't!" +said the tranter cheerfully through a mangled mass of ham and bread, +without lifting his eyes from his plate, and chopping away with his +knife and fork as if he were felling trees. "Ann, you may as well +go on to bed at once, and not bide there making such sleepy faces; +you look as long-favoured as a fiddle, upon my life, Ann. There, +you must be wearied out, 'tis true. I'll do the doors and draw up +the clock; and you go on, or you'll be as white as a sheet to- +morrow." + +"Ay; I don't know whether I shan't or no." The matron passed her +hand across her eyes to brush away the film of sleep till she got +upstairs. + +Dick wondered how it was that when people were married they could be +so blind to romance; and was quite certain that if he ever took to +wife that dear impossible Fancy, he and she would never be so +dreadfully practical and undemonstrative of the Passion as his +father and mother were. The most extraordinary thing was, that all +the fathers and mothers he knew were just as undemonstrative as his +own. + + + +CHAPTER IX: DICK CALLS AT THE SCHOOL + + + +The early days of the year drew on, and Fancy, having spent the +holiday weeks at home, returned again to Mellstock. + +Every spare minute of the week following her return was used by Dick +in accidentally passing the schoolhouse in his journeys about the +neighbourhood; but not once did she make herself visible. A +handkerchief belonging to her had been providentially found by his +mother in clearing the rooms the day after that of the dance; and by +much contrivance Dick got it handed over to him, to leave with her +at any time he should be near the school after her return. But he +delayed taking the extreme measure of calling with it lest, had she +really no sentiment of interest in him, it might be regarded as a +slightly absurd errand, the reason guessed; and the sense of the +ludicrous, which was rather keen in her, do his dignity considerable +injury in her eyes; and what she thought of him, even apart from the +question of her loving, was all the world to him now. + +But the hour came when the patience of love at twenty-one could +endure no longer. One Saturday he approached the school with a mild +air of indifference, and had the satisfaction of seeing the object +of his quest at the further end of her garden, trying, by the aid of +a spade and gloves, to root a bramble that had intruded itself +there. + +He disguised his feelings from some suspicious-looking cottage- +windows opposite by endeavouring to appear like a man in a great +hurry of business, who wished to leave the handkerchief and have +done with such trifling errands. + +This endeavour signally failed; for on approaching the gate he found +it locked to keep the children, who were playing 'cross-dadder' in +the front, from running into her private grounds. + +She did not see him; and he could only think of one thing to be +done, which was to shout her name. + +"Miss Day!" + +The words were uttered with a jerk and a look meant to imply to the +cottages opposite that he was now simply one who liked shouting as a +pleasant way of passing his time, without any reference to persons +in gardens. The name died away, and the unconscious Miss Day +continued digging and pulling as before. + +He screwed himself up to enduring the cottage-windows yet more +stoically, and shouted again. Fancy took no notice whatever. + +He shouted the third time, with desperate vehemence, turning +suddenly about and retiring a little distance, as if it were by no +means for his own pleasure that he had come. + +This time she heard him, came down the garden, and entered the +school at the back. Footsteps echoed across the interior, the door +opened, and three-quarters of the blooming young schoolmistress's +face and figure stood revealed before him; a slice on her left-hand +side being cut off by the edge of the door. Having surveyed and +recognized him, she came to the gate. + +At sight of him had the pink of her cheeks increased, lessened, or +did it continue to cover its normal area of ground? It was a +question meditated several hundreds of times by her visitor in +after-hours--the meditation, after wearying involutions, always +ending in one way, that it was impossible to say. + +"Your handkerchief: Miss Day: I called with." He held it out +spasmodically and awkwardly. "Mother found it: under a chair." + +"O, thank you very much for bringing it, Mr. Dewy. I couldn't think +where I had dropped it." + +Now Dick, not being an experienced lover--indeed, never before +having been engaged in the practice of love-making at all, except in +a small schoolboy way--could not take advantage of the situation; +and out came the blunder, which afterwards cost him so many bitter +moments and a sleepless night:- + +"Good morning, Miss Day." + +"Good morning, Mr. Dewy." + +The gate was closed; she was gone; and Dick was standing outside, +unchanged in his condition from what he had been before he called. +Of course the Angel was not to blame--a young woman living alone in +a house could not ask him indoors unless she had known him better-- +he should have kept her outside before floundering into that fatal +farewell. He wished that before he called he had realized more +fully than he did the pleasure of being about to call; and turned +away. + + + + +PART THE SECOND--SPRING + + + + +CHAPTER I: PASSING BY THE SCHOOL + + + +It followed that, as the spring advanced, Dick walked abroad much +more frequently than had hitherto been usual with him, and was +continually finding that his nearest way to or from home lay by the +road which skirted the garden of the school. The first-fruits of +his perseverance were that, on turning the angle on the nineteenth +journey by that track, he saw Miss Fancy's figure, clothed in a +dark-gray dress, looking from a high open window upon the crown of +his hat. The friendly greeting resulting from this rencounter was +considered so valuable an elixir that Dick passed still oftener; and +by the time he had almost trodden a little path under the fence +where never a path was before, he was rewarded with an actual +meeting face to face on the open road before her gate. This brought +another meeting, and another, Fancy faintly showing by her bearing +that it was a pleasure to her of some kind to see him there but the +sort of pleasure she derived, whether exultation at the hope her +exceeding fairness inspired, or the true feeling which was alone +Dick's concern, he could not anyhow decide, although he meditated on +her every little movement for hours after it was made. + + + +CHAPTER II: A MEETING OF THE QUIRE + + + +It was the evening of a fine spring day. The descending sun +appeared as a nebulous blaze of amber light, its outline being lost +in cloudy masses hanging round it, like wild locks of hair. + +The chief members of Mellstock parish choir were standing in a group +in front of Mr. Penny's workshop in the lower village. They were +all brightly illuminated, and each was backed up by a shadow as long +as a steeple the lowness of the source of light rendering the brims +of their hats of no use at all as a protection to the eyes. + +Mr. Penny's was the last house in that part of the parish, and stood +in a hollow by the roadside so that cart-wheels and horses' legs +were about level with the sill of his shop-window. This was low and +wide, and was open from morning till evening, Mr. Penny himself +being invariably seen working inside, like a framed portrait of a +shoemaker by some modern Moroni. He sat facing the road, with a +boot on his knees and the awl in his hand, only looking up for a +moment as he stretched out his arms and bent forward at the pull, +when his spectacles flashed in the passer's face with a shine of +flat whiteness, and then returned again to the boot as usual. Rows +of lasts, small and large, stout and slender, covered the wall which +formed the background, in the extreme shadow of which a kind of +dummy was seen sitting, in the shape of an apprentice with a string +tied round his hair (probably to keep it out of his eyes). He +smiled at remarks that floated in from without, but was never known +to answer them in Mr. Penny's presence. Outside the window the +upper-leather of a Wellington-boot was usually hung, pegged to a +board as if to dry. No sign was over his door; in fact--as with old +banks and mercantile houses--advertising in any shape was scorned, +and it would have been felt as beneath his dignity to paint up, for +the benefit of strangers, the name of an establishment whose trade +came solely by connection based on personal respect. + +His visitors now came and stood on the outside of his window, +sometimes leaning against the sill, sometimes moving a pace or two +backwards and forwards in front of it. They talked with deliberate +gesticulations to Mr. Penny, enthroned in the shadow of the +interior. + +"I do like a man to stick to men who be in the same line o' life--o' +Sundays, anyway--that I do so." + +"'Tis like all the doings of folk who don't know what a day's work +is, that's what I say." + +"My belief is the man's not to blame; 'tis SHE--she's the bitter +weed!" + +"No, not altogether. He's a poor gawk-hammer. Look at his sermon +yesterday." + +"His sermon was well enough, a very good guessable sermon, only he +couldn't put it into words and speak it. That's all was the matter +wi' the sermon. He hadn't been able to get it past his pen." + +"Well--ay, the sermon might have been good; for, 'tis true, the +sermon of Old Eccl'iastes himself lay in Eccl'iastes's ink-bottle +afore he got it out." + +Mr. Penny, being in the act of drawing the last stitch tight, could +afford time to look up and throw in a word at this point. + +"He's no spouter--that must be said, 'a b'lieve." + +"'Tis a terrible muddle sometimes with the man, as far as spout do +go," said Spinks. + +"Well, we'll say nothing about that," the tranter answered; "for I +don't believe 'twill make a penneth o' difference to we poor martels +here or hereafter whether his sermons be good or bad, my sonnies." + +Mr. Penny made another hole with his awl, pushed in the thread, and +looked up and spoke again at the extension of arms. + +"'Tis his goings-on, souls, that's what it is." He clenched his +features for an Herculean addition to the ordinary pull, and +continued, "The first thing he done when he came here was to be hot +and strong about church business." + +"True," said Spinks; "that was the very first thing he done." + +Mr. Penny, having now been offered the ear of the assembly, accepted +it, ceased stitching, swallowed an unimportant quantity of air as if +it were a pill, and continued: + +"The next thing he do do is to think about altering the church, +until he found 'twould be a matter o' cost and what not, and then +not to think no more about it." + +"True: that was the next thing he done." + +"And the next thing was to tell the young chaps that they were not +on no account to put their hats in the christening font during +service." + +"True." + +"And then 'twas this, and then 'twas that, and now 'tis--" + +Words were not forcible enough to conclude the sentence, and Mr. +Penny gave a huge pull to signify the concluding word. + +"Now 'tis to turn us out of the quire neck and crop," said the +tranter after an interval of half a minute, not by way of explaining +the pause and pull, which had been quite understood, but as a means +of keeping the subject well before the meeting. + +Mrs. Penny came to the door at this point in the discussion. Like +all good wives, however much she was inclined to play the Tory to +her husband's Whiggism, and vice versa, in times of peace, she +coalesced with him heartily enough in time of war. + +"It must be owned he's not all there," she replied in a general way +to the fragments of talk she had heard from indoors. "Far below +poor Mr. Grinham" (the late vicar). + +"Ay, there was this to be said for he, that you were quite sure he'd +never come mumbudgeting to see ye, just as you were in the middle of +your work, and put you out with his fuss and trouble about ye." + +"Never. But as for this new Mr. Maybold, though he mid be a very +well-intending party in that respect, he's unbearable; for as to +sifting your cinders, scrubbing your floors, or emptying your slops, +why, you can't do it. I assure you I've not been able to empt them +for several days, unless I throw 'em up the chimley or out of +winder; for as sure as the sun you meet him at the door, coming to +ask how you are, and 'tis such a confusing thing to meet a gentleman +at the door when ye are in the mess o' washing." + +"'Tis only for want of knowing better, poor gentleman," said the +tranter. "His meaning's good enough. Ay, your pa'son comes by +fate: 'tis heads or tails, like pitch-halfpenny, and no choosing; +so we must take en as he is, my sonnies, and thank God he's no +worse, I suppose." + +"I fancy I've seen him look across at Miss Day in a warmer way than +Christianity asked for," said Mrs. Penny musingly; "but I don't +quite like to say it." + +"O no; there's nothing in that," said grandfather William. + +"If there's nothing, we shall see nothing," Mrs. Penny replied, in +the tone of a woman who might possibly have private opinions still. + +"Ah, Mr. Grinham was the man!" said Bowman. "Why, he never troubled +us wi' a visit from year's end to year's end. You might go +anywhere, do anything: you'd be sure never to see him." + +"Yes, he was a right sensible pa'son," said Michael. "He never +entered our door but once in his life, and that was to tell my poor +wife--ay, poor soul, dead and gone now, as we all shall I--that as +she was such a' old aged person, and lived so far from the church, +he didn't at all expect her to come any more to the service." + +"And 'a was a very jinerous gentleman about choosing the psalms and +hymns o' Sundays. 'Confound ye,' says he, 'blare and scrape what ye +will, but don't bother me!'" + +"And he was a very honourable man in not wanting any of us to come +and hear him if we were all on-end for a jaunt or spree, or to bring +the babies to be christened if they were inclined to squalling. +There's good in a man's not putting a parish to unnecessary +trouble." + +"And there's this here man never letting us have a bit o' peace; but +keeping on about being good and upright till 'tis carried to such a +pitch as I never see the like afore nor since!" + +"No sooner had he got here than he found the font wouldn't hold +water, as it hadn't for years off and on; and when I told him that +Mr. Grinham never minded it, but used to spet upon his vinger and +christen 'em just as well, 'a said, 'Good Heavens! Send for a +workman immediate. What place have I come to!' Which was no +compliment to us, come to that." + +"Still, for my part," said old William, "though he's arrayed against +us, I like the hearty borussnorus ways of the new pa'son." + +"You, ready to die for the quire," said Bowman reproachfully, "to +stick up for the quire's enemy, William!" + +"Nobody will feel the loss of our church-work so much as I," said +the old man firmly; "that you d'all know. I've a-been in the quire +man and boy ever since I was a chiel of eleven. But for all that +'tisn't in me to call the man a bad man, because I truly and +sincerely believe en to be a good young feller." + +Some of the youthful sparkle that used to reside there animated +William's eye as he uttered the words, and a certain nobility of +aspect was also imparted to him by the setting sun, which gave him a +Titanic shadow at least thirty feet in length, stretching away to +the east in outlines of imposing magnitude, his head finally +terminating upon the trunk of a grand old oak-tree. + +"Mayble's a hearty feller enough," the tranter replied, "and will +spak to you be you dirty or be you clane. The first time I met en +was in a drong, and though 'a didn't know me no more than the dead, +'a passed the time of day. 'D'ye do?' he said, says he, nodding his +head. 'A fine day.' Then the second time I met en was full-buff in +town street, when my breeches were tore into a long strent by +getting through a copse of thorns and brimbles for a short cut home- +along; and not wanting to disgrace the man by spaking in that state, +I fixed my eye on the weathercock to let en pass me as a stranger. +But no: 'How d'ye do, Reuben?' says he, right hearty, and shook my +hand. If I'd been dressed in silver spangles from top to toe, the +man couldn't have been civiller." + +At this moment Dick was seen coming up the village-street, and they +turned and watched him. + + + +CHAPTER III: A TURN IN THE DISCUSSION + + + +"I'm afraid Dick's a lost man," said the tranter. + +"What?--no!" said Mail, implying by his manner that it was a far +commoner thing for his ears to report what was not said than that +his judgment should be at fault. + +"Ay," said the tranter, still gazing at Dick's unconscious advance. +"I don't at all like what I see! There's too many o' them looks out +of the winder without noticing anything; too much shining of boots; +too much peeping round corners; too much looking at the clock; +telling about clever things SHE did till you be sick of it; and then +upon a hint to that effect a horrible silence about her. I've +walked the path once in my life and know the country, neighbours; +and Dick's a lost man!" The tranter turned a quarter round and +smiled a smile of miserable satire at the setting new moon, which +happened to catch his eye. + +The others became far too serious at this announcement to allow them +to speak; and they still regarded Dick in the distance. + +"'Twas his mother's fault," the tranter continued, "in asking the +young woman to our party last Christmas. When I eyed the blue frock +and light heels o' the maid, I had my thoughts directly. 'God bless +thee, Dicky my sonny,' I said to myself; 'there's a delusion for +thee!'" + +"They seemed to be rather distant in manner last Sunday, I thought?" +Mail tentatively observed, as became one who was not a member of the +family. + +"Ay, that's a part of the zickness. Distance belongs to it, slyness +belongs to it, queerest things on earth belongs to it! There, 'tmay +as well come early as late s'far as I know. The sooner begun, the +sooner over; for come it will." + +"The question I ask is," said Mr. Spinks, connecting into one thread +the two subjects of discourse, as became a man learned in rhetoric, +and beating with his hand in a way which signified that the manner +rather than the matter of his speech was to be observed, "how did +Mr. Maybold know she could play the organ? You know we had it from +her own lips, as far as lips go, that she has never, first or last, +breathed such a thing to him; much less that she ever would play." + +In the midst of this puzzle Dick joined the party, and the news +which had caused such a convulsion among the ancient musicians was +unfolded to him. "Well," he said, blushing at the allusion to Miss +Day, "I know by some words of hers that she has a particular wish +not to play, because she is a friend of ours; and how the alteration +comes, I don't know." + +"Now, this is my plan," said the tranter, reviving the spirit of the +discussion by the infusion of new ideas, as was his custom--"this is +my plan; if you don't like it, no harm's done. We all know one +another very well, don't we, neighbours?" + +That they knew one another very well was received as a statement +which, though familiar, should not be omitted in introductory +speeches. + +"Then I say this"--and the tranter in his emphasis slapped down his +hand on Mr. Spinks's shoulder with a momentum of several pounds, +upon which Mr. Spinks tried to look not in the least startled--"I +say that we all move down-along straight as a line to Pa'son +Mayble's when the clock has gone six to-morrow night. There we one +and all stand in the passage, then one or two of us go in and spak +to en, man and man; and say, 'Pa'son Mayble, every tradesman d'like +to have his own way in his workshop, and Mellstock Church is yours. +Instead of turning us out neck and crop, let us stay on till +Christmas, and we'll gie way to the young woman, Mr. Mayble, and +make no more ado about it. And we shall always be quite willing to +touch our hats when we meet ye, Mr. Mayble, just as before.' That +sounds very well? Hey?" + +"Proper well, in faith, Reuben Dewy." + +"And we won't sit down in his house; 'twould be looking too familiar +when only just reconciled?" + +"No need at all to sit down. Just do our duty man and man, turn +round, and march out--he'll think all the more of us for it." + +"I hardly think Leaf had better go wi' us?" said Michael, turning to +Leaf and taking his measure from top to bottom by the eye. "He's so +terrible silly that he might ruin the concern." + +"He don't want to go much; do ye, Thomas Leaf?" said William. + +"Hee-hee! no; I don't want to. Only a teeny bit!" + +"I be mortal afeard, Leaf; that you'll never be able to tell how +many cuts d'take to sharpen a spar," said Mail. + +"I never had no head, never! that's how it happened to happen, hee- +hee!" + +They all assented to this, not with any sense of humiliating Leaf by +disparaging him after an open confession, but because it was an +accepted thing that Leaf didn't in the least mind having no head, +that deficiency of his being an unimpassioned matter of parish +history. + +"But I can sing my treble!" continued Thomas Leaf; quite delighted +at being called a fool in such a friendly way; "I can sing my treble +as well as any maid, or married woman either, and better! And if +Jim had lived, I should have had a clever brother! To-morrow is +poor Jim's birthday. He'd ha' been twenty-six if he'd lived till +to-morrow." + +"You always seem very sorry for Jim," said old William musingly. + +"Ah! I do. Such a stay to mother as he'd always ha' been! She'd +never have had to work in her old age if he had continued strong, +poor Jim!" + +"What was his age when 'a died?" + +"Four hours and twenty minutes, poor Jim. 'A was born as might be +at night; and 'a didn't last as might be till the morning. No, 'a +didn't last. Mother called en Jim on the day that would ha' been +his christening day if he had lived; and she's always thinking about +en. You see he died so very young." + +"Well, 'twas rather youthful," said Michael. + +"Now to my mind that woman is very romantical on the matter o' +children?" said the tranter, his eye sweeping his audience. + +"Ah, well she mid be," said Leaf. "She had twelve regular one after +another, and they all, except myself; died very young; either before +they was born or just afterwards." + +"Pore feller, too. I suppose th'st want to come wi' us?" the +tranter murmured. + +"Well, Leaf; you shall come wi' us as yours is such a melancholy +family," said old William rather sadly. + +"I never see such a melancholy family as that afore in my life," +said Reuben. "There's Leaf's mother, poor woman! Every morning I +see her eyes mooning out through the panes of glass like a pot-sick +winder-flower; and as Leaf sings a very high treble, and we don't +know what we should do without en for upper G, we'll let en come as +a trate, poor feller." + +"Ay, we'll let en come, 'a b'lieve," said Mr. Penny, looking up, as +the pull happened to be at that moment. + +"Now," continued the tranter, dispersing by a new tone of voice +these digressions about Leaf; "as to going to see the pa'son, one of +us might call and ask en his meaning, and 'twould be just as well +done; but it will add a bit of flourish to the cause if the quire +waits on him as a body. Then the great thing to mind is, not for +any of our fellers to be nervous; so before starting we'll one and +all come to my house and have a rasher of bacon; then every man-jack +het a pint of cider into his inside; then we'll warm up an extra +drop wi' some mead and a bit of ginger; every one take a thimbleful- +-just a glimmer of a drop, mind ye, no more, to finish off his inner +man--and march off to Pa'son Mayble. Why, sonnies, a man's not +himself till he is fortified wi' a bit and a drop? We shall be able +to look any gentleman in the face then without shrink or shame." + +Mail recovered from a deep meditation and downward glance into the +earth in time to give a cordial approval to this line of action, and +the meeting adjourned. + + + +CHAPTER IV: INTERVIEW WITH THE VICAR + + + +At six o'clock the next day, the whole body of men in the choir +emerged from the tranter's door, and advanced with a firm step down +the lane. This dignity of march gradually became obliterated as +they went on, and by the time they reached the hill behind the +vicarage a faint resemblance to a flock of sheep might have been +discerned in the venerable party. A word from the tranter, however, +set them right again; and as they descended the hill, the regular +tramp, tramp, tramp of the united feet was clearly audible from the +vicarage garden. At the opening of the gate there was another short +interval of irregular shuffling, caused by a rather peculiar habit +the gate had, when swung open quickly, of striking against the bank +and slamming back into the opener's face. + +"Now keep step again, will ye?" said the tranter. "It looks better, +and more becomes the high class of arrant which has brought us +here." Thus they advanced to the door. + +At Reuben's ring the more modest of the group turned aside, adjusted +their hats, and looked critically at any shrub that happened to lie +in the line of vision; endeavouring thus to give a person who +chanced to look out of the windows the impression that their +request, whatever it was going to be, was rather a casual thought +occurring whilst they were inspecting the vicar's shrubbery and +grass-plot than a predetermined thing. The tranter, who, coming +frequently to the vicarage with luggage, coals, firewood, etc., had +none of the awe for its precincts that filled the breasts of most of +the others, fixed his eyes firmly on the knocker during this +interval of waiting. The knocker having no characteristic worthy of +notice, he relinquished it for a knot in one of the door-panels, and +studied the winding lines of the grain. + +"O, sir, please, here's Tranter Dewy, and old William Dewy, and +young Richard Dewy, O, and all the quire too, sir, except the boys, +a-come to see you!" said Mr. Maybold's maid-servant to Mr. Maybold, +the pupils of her eyes dilating like circles in a pond. + +"All the choir?" said the astonished vicar (who may be shortly +described as a good-looking young man with courageous eyes, timid +mouth, and neutral nose), abandoning his writing and looking at his +parlour-maid after speaking, like a man who fancied he had seen her +face before but couldn't recollect where. + +"And they looks very firm, and Tranter Dewy do turn neither to the +right hand nor to the left, but stares quite straight and solemn +with his mind made up!" + +"O, all the choir," repeated the vicar to himself; trying by that +simple device to trot out his thoughts on what the choir could come +for. + +"Yes; every man-jack of 'em, as I be alive!" (The parlour-maid was +rather local in manner, having in fact been raised in the same +village.) "Really, sir, 'tis thoughted by many in town and country +that--" + +"Town and country!--Heavens, I had no idea that I was public +property in this way!" said the vicar, his face acquiring a hue +somewhere between that of the rose and the peony. "Well, 'It is +thought in town and country that--'" + +"It is thought that you be going to get it hot and strong--excusen +my incivility, sir." + +The vicar suddenly recalled to his recollection that he had long ago +settled it to be decidedly a mistake to encourage his servant Jane +in giving personal opinions. The servant Jane saw by the vicar's +face that he recalled this fact to his mind; and removing her +forehead from the edge of the door, and rubbing away the indent that +edge had made, vanished into the passage as Mr. Maybold remarked, +"Show them in, Jane." + +A few minutes later a shuffling and jostling (reduced to as refined +a form as was compatible with the nature of shuffles and jostles) +was heard in the passage; then an earnest and prolonged wiping of +shoes, conveying the notion that volumes of mud had to be removed; +but the roads being so clean that not a particle of dirt appeared on +the choir's boots (those of all the elder members being newly oiled, +and Dick's brightly polished), this wiping might have been set down +simply as a desire to show that respectable men had no wish to take +a mean advantage of clean roads for curtailing proper ceremonies. +Next there came a powerful whisper from the same quarter:- + +"Now stand stock-still there, my sonnies, one and all! And don't +make no noise; and keep your backs close to the wall, that company +may pass in and out easy if they want to without squeezing through +ye: and we two are enough to go in." . . . The voice was the +tranter's. + +"I wish I could go in too and see the sight!" said a reedy voice-- +that of Leaf. + +"'Tis a pity Leaf is so terrible silly, or else he might," said +another. + +"I never in my life seed a quire go into a study to have it out +about the playing and singing," pleaded Leaf; "and I should like to +see it just once!" + +"Very well; we'll let en come in," said the tranter. "You'll be +like chips in porridge, {1} Leaf--neither good nor hurt. All right, +my sonny, come along;" and immediately himself, old William, and +Leaf appeared in the room. + +"We took the liberty to come and see 'ee, sir," said Reuben, letting +his hat hang in his left hand, and touching with his right the brim +of an imaginary one on his head. "We've come to see 'ee, sir, man +and man, and no offence, I hope?" + +"None at all," said Mr. Maybold. + +"This old aged man standing by my side is father; William Dewy by +name, sir." + +"Yes; I see it is," said the vicar, nodding aside to old William, +who smiled. + +"I thought you mightn't know en without his bass-viol," the tranter +apologized. "You see, he always wears his best clothes and his +bass-viol a-Sundays, and it do make such a difference in a' old +man's look." + +"And who's that young man?" the vicar said. + +"Tell the pa'son yer name," said the tranter, turning to Leaf; who +stood with his elbows nailed back to a bookcase. + +"Please, Thomas Leaf, your holiness!" said Leaf; trembling. + +"I hope you'll excuse his looks being so very thin," continued the +tranter deprecatingly, turning to the vicar again. "But 'tisn't his +fault, poor feller. He's rather silly by nature, and could never +get fat; though he's a' excellent treble, and so we keep him on." + +"I never had no head, sir," said Leaf; eagerly grasping at this +opportunity for being forgiven his existence. + +"Ah, poor young man!" said Mr. Maybold. + +"Bless you, he don't mind it a bit, if you don't, sir," said the +tranter assuringly. "Do ye, Leaf?" + +"Not I--not a morsel--hee, hee! I was afeard it mightn't please +your holiness, sir, that's all." + +The tranter, finding Leaf get on so very well through his negative +qualities, was tempted in a fit of generosity to advance him still +higher, by giving him credit for positive ones. "He's very clever +for a silly chap, good-now, sir. You never knowed a young feller +keep his smock-frocks so clane; very honest too. His ghastly looks +is all there is against en, poor feller; but we can't help our +looks, you know, sir." + +"True: we cannot. You live with your mother, I think, Leaf?" + +The tranter looked at Leaf to express that the most friendly +assistant to his tongue could do no more for him now, and that he +must be left to his own resources. + +"Yes, sir: a widder, sir. Ah, if brother Jim had lived she'd have +had a clever son to keep her without work!" + +"Indeed! poor woman. Give her this half-crown. I'll call and see +your mother." + +"Say, 'Thank you, sir,'" the tranter whispered imperatively towards +Leaf. + +"Thank you, sir!" said Leaf. + +"That's it, then; sit down, Leaf;" said Mr. Maybold. + +"Y-yes, sir!" + +The tranter cleared his throat after this accidental parenthesis +about Leaf; rectified his bodily position, and began his speech. + +"Mr. Mayble," he said, "I hope you'll excuse my common way, but I +always like to look things in the face." + +Reuben made a point of fixing this sentence in the vicar's mind by +gazing hard at him at the conclusion of it, and then out of the +window. + +Mr. Maybold and old William looked in the same direction, apparently +under the impression that the things' faces alluded to were there +visible. + +"What I have been thinking"--the tranter implied by this use of the +past tense that he was hardly so discourteous as to be positively +thinking it then--"is that the quire ought to be gie'd a little +time, and not done away wi' till Christmas, as a fair thing between +man and man. And, Mr. Mayble, I hope you'll excuse my common way?" + +"I will, I will. Till Christmas," the vicar murmured, stretching +the two words to a great length, as if the distance to Christmas +might be measured in that way. "Well, I want you all to understand +that I have no personal fault to find, and that I don't wish to +change the church music by forcible means, or in a way which should +hurt the feelings of any parishioners. Why I have at last spoken +definitely on the subject is that a player has been brought under--I +may say pressed upon--my notice several times by one of the +churchwardens. And as the organ I brought with me is here waiting" +(pointing to a cabinet-organ standing in the study), "there is no +reason for longer delay." + +"We made a mistake I suppose then, sir? But we understood the young +woman didn't want to play particularly?" The tranter arranged his +countenance to signify that he did not want to be inquisitive in the +least. + +"No, nor did she. Nor did I definitely wish her to just yet; for +your playing is very good. But, as I said, one of the churchwardens +has been so anxious for a change, that, as matters stand, I couldn't +consistently refuse my consent." + +Now for some reason or other, the vicar at this point seemed to have +an idea that he had prevaricated; and as an honest vicar, it was a +thing he determined not to do. He corrected himself; blushing as he +did so, though why he should blush was not known to Reuben. + +"Understand me rightly," he said: "the church-warden proposed it to +me, but I had thought myself of getting--Miss Day to play." + +"Which churchwarden might that be who proposed her, sir?--excusing +my common way." The tranter intimated by his tone that, so far from +being inquisitive, he did not even wish to ask a single question. + +"Mr. Shiner, I believe." + +"Clk, my sonny!--beg your pardon, sir, that's only a form of words +of mine, and slipped out accidental--he nourishes enmity against us +for some reason or another; perhaps because we played rather hard +upon en Christmas night. Anyhow 'tis certain sure that Mr. Shiner's +real love for music of a particular kind isn't his reason. He've no +more ear than that chair. But let that be." + +"I don't think you should conclude that, because Mr. Shiner wants a +different music, he has any ill-feeling for you. I myself; I must +own, prefer organ-music to any other. I consider it most proper, +and feel justified in endeavouring to introduce it; but then, +although other music is better, I don't say yours is not good." + +"Well then, Mr. Mayble, since death's to be, we'll die like men any +day you name (excusing my common way)." + +Mr. Maybold bowed his head. + +"All we thought was, that for us old ancient singers to be choked +off quiet at no time in particular, as now, in the Sundays after +Easter, would seem rather mean in the eyes of other parishes, sir. +But if we fell glorious with a bit of a flourish at Christmas, we +should have a respectable end, and not dwindle away at some nameless +paltry second-Sunday-after or Sunday-next-before something, that's +got no name of his own." + +"Yes, yes, that's reasonable; I own it's reasonable." + +"You see, Mr. Mayble, we've got--do I keep you inconvenient long, +sir?" + +"No, no." + +"We've got our feelings--father there especially." + +The tranter, in his earnestness, had advanced his person to within +six inches of the vicar's. + +"Certainly, certainly!" said Mr. Maybold, retreating a little for +convenience of seeing. "You are all enthusiastic on the subject, +and I am all the more gratified to find you so. A Laodicean +lukewarmness is worse than wrongheadedness itself." + +"Exactly, sir. In fact now, Mr. Mayble," Reuben continued, more +impressively, and advancing a little closer still to the vicar, +"father there is a perfect figure o' wonder, in the way of being +fond of music!" + +The vicar drew back a little further, the tranter suddenly also +standing back a foot or two, to throw open the view of his father, +and pointing to him at the same time. + +Old William moved uneasily in the large chair, and with a minute +smile on the mere edge of his lips, for good-manners, said he was +indeed very fond of tunes. + +"Now, you see exactly how it is," Reuben continued, appealing to Mr. +Maybold's sense of justice by looking sideways into his eyes. The +vicar seemed to see how it was so well that the gratified tranter +walked up to him again with even vehement eagerness, so that his +waistcoat-buttons almost rubbed against the vicar's as he continued: +"As to father, if you or I, or any man or woman of the present +generation, at the time music is a-playing, was to shake your fist +in father's face, as may be this way, and say, "Don't you be +delighted with that music!--the tranter went back to where Leaf was +sitting, and held his fist so close to Leaf's face that the latter +pressed his head back against the wall: "All right, Leaf; my sonny, +I won't hurt you; 'tis just to show my meaning to Mr. Mayble.--As I +was saying, if you or I, or any man, was to shake your fist in +father's face this way, and say, "William, your life or your music!" +he'd say, "My life!" Now that's father's nature all over; and you +see, sir, it must hurt the feelings of a man of that kind for him +and his bass-viol to be done away wi' neck and crop." + +The tranter went back to the vicar's front and again looked +earnestly at his face. + +"True, true, Dewy," Mr. Maybold answered, trying to withdraw his +head and shoulders without moving his feet; but finding this +impracticable, edging back another inch. These frequent retreats +had at last jammed Mr. Maybold between his easy-chair and the edge +of the table. + +And at the moment of the announcement of the choir, Mr. Maybold had +just re-dipped the pen he was using; at their entry, instead of +wiping it, he had laid it on the table with the nib overhanging. At +the last retreat his coat-tails came in contact with the pen, and +down it rolled, first against the back of the chair, thence turning +a summersault into the seat, thence falling to the floor with a +rattle. + +The vicar stooped for his pen, and the tranter, wishing to show +that, however great their ecclesiastical differences, his mind was +not so small as to let this affect his social feelings, stooped +also. + +"And have you anything else you want to explain to me, Dewy?" said +Mr. Maybold from under the table. + +"Nothing, sir. And, Mr. Mayble, you be not offended? I hope you +see our desire is reason?" said the tranter from under the chair. + +"Quite, quite; and I shouldn't think of refusing to listen to such a +reasonable request," the vicar replied. Seeing that Reuben had +secured the pen, he resumed his vertical position, and added, "You +know, Dewy, it is often said how difficult a matter it is to act up +to our convictions and please all parties. It may be said with +equal truth, that it is difficult for a man of any appreciativeness +to have convictions at all. Now in my case, I see right in you, and +right in Shiner. I see that violins are good, and that an organ is +good; and when we introduce the organ, it will not be that fiddles +were bad, but that an organ was better. That you'll clearly +understand, Dewy?" + +"I will; and thank you very much for such feelings, sir. Piph-h-h- +h! How the blood do get into my head, to be sure, whenever I quat +down like that!" said Reuben, who having also risen to his feet +stuck the pen vertically in the inkstand and almost through the +bottom, that it might not roll down again under any circumstances +whatever. + +Now the ancient body of minstrels in the passage felt their +curiosity surging higher and higher as the minutes passed. Dick, +not having much affection for this errand, soon grew tired, and went +away in the direction of the school. Yet their sense of propriety +would probably have restrained them from any attempt to discover +what was going on in the study had not the vicar's pen fallen to the +floor. The conviction that the movement of chairs, etc., +necessitated by the search, could only have been caused by the +catastrophe of a bloody fight beginning, overpowered all other +considerations; and they advanced to the door, which had only just +fallen to. Thus, when Mr. Maybold raised his eyes after the +stooping he beheld glaring through the door Mr. Penny in full-length +portraiture, Mail's face and shoulders above Mr. Penny's head, +Spinks's forehead and eyes over Mail's crown, and a fractional part +of Bowman's countenance under Spinks's arm--crescent shaped portions +of other heads and faces being visible behind these--the whole dozen +and odd eyes bristling with eager inquiry. + +Mr. Penny, as is the case with excitable boot-makers and men, seeing +the vicar look at him and hearing no word spoken, thought it +incumbent upon himself to say something of any kind. Nothing +suggested itself till he had looked for about half a minute at the +vicar. + +"You'll excuse my naming of it, sir," he said, regarding with much +commiseration the mere surface of the vicar's face; "but perhaps you +don't know that your chin have bust out a-bleeding where you cut +yourself a-shaving this morning, sir." + +"Now, that was the stooping, depend upon't," the tranter suggested, +also looking with much interest at the vicar's chin. "Blood always +will bust out again if you hang down the member that's been +bleeding." + +Old William raised his eyes and watched the vicar's bleeding chin +likewise; and Leaf advanced two or three paces from the bookcase, +absorbed in the contemplation of the same phenomenon, with parted +lips and delighted eyes. + +"Dear me, dear me!" said Mr. Maybold hastily, looking very red, and +brushing his chin with his hand, then taking out his handkerchief +and wiping the place. + +"That's it, sir; all right again now, 'a b'lieve--a mere nothing," +said Mr. Penny. "A little bit of fur off your hat will stop it in a +minute if it should bust out again." + +"I'll let 'ee have a bit off mine," said Reuben, to show his good +feeling; "my hat isn't so new as yours, sir, and 'twon't hurt mine a +bit." + +"No, no; thank you, thank you," Mr. Maybold again nervously replied. + +"'Twas rather a deep cut seemingly?" said Reuben, feeling these to +be the kindest and best remarks he could make. + +"O, no; not particularly." + +"Well, sir, your hand will shake sometimes a-shaving, and just when +it comes into your head that you may cut yourself; there's the +blood." + +"I have been revolving in my mind that question of the time at which +we make the change," said Mr. Maybold, "and I know you'll meet me +half-way. I think Christmas-day as much too late for me as the +present time is too early for you. I suggest Michaelmas or +thereabout as a convenient time for both parties; for I think your +objection to a Sunday which has no name is not one of any real +weight." + +"Very good, sir. I suppose mortal men mustn't expect their own way +entirely; and I express in all our names that we'll make shift and +be satisfied with what you say." The tranter touched the brim of +his imaginary hat again, and all the choir did the same. "About +Michaelmas, then, as far as you are concerned, sir, and then we make +room for the next generation." + +"About Michaelmas," said the vicar. + + + +CHAPTER V: RETURNING HOME WARD + + + +"'A took it very well, then?" said Mail, as they all walked up the +hill. + +"He behaved like a man, 'a did so," said the tranter. "And I'm glad +we've let en know our minds. And though, beyond that, we ha'n't got +much by going, 'twas worth while. He won't forget it. Yes, he took +it very well. Supposing this tree here was Pa'son Mayble, and I +standing here, and thik gr't stone is father sitting in the easy- +chair. 'Dewy,' says he, 'I don't wish to change the church music in +a forcible way.'" + +"That was very nice o' the man, even though words be wind." + +"Proper nice--out and out nice. The fact is," said Reuben +confidentially, "'tis how you take a man. Everybody must be +managed. Queens must be managed: kings must be managed; for men +want managing almost as much as women, and that's saying a good +deal." + +"'Tis truly!" murmured the husbands. + +"Pa'son Mayble and I were as good friends all through it as if we'd +been sworn brothers. Ay, the man's well enough; 'tis what's put in +his head that spoils him, and that's why we've got to go." + +"There's really no believing half you hear about people nowadays." + +"Bless ye, my sonnies! 'tisn't the pa'son's move at all. That +gentleman over there" (the tranter nodded in the direction of +Shiner's farm) "is at the root of the mischty." + +"What! Shiner?" + +"Ay; and I see what the pa'son don't see. Why, Shiner is for +putting forward that young woman that only last night I was saying +was our Dick's sweet-heart, but I suppose can't be, and making much +of her in the sight of the congregation, and thinking he'll win her +by showing her off. Well, perhaps 'a woll." + +"Then the music is second to the woman, the other churchwarden is +second to Shiner, the pa'son is second to the churchwardens, and God +A'mighty is nowhere at all." + +"That's true; and you see," continued Reuben, "at the very beginning +it put me in a stud as to how to quarrel wi' en. In short, to save +my soul, I couldn't quarrel wi' such a civil man without belying my +conscience. Says he to father there, in a voice as quiet as a +lamb's, "William, you are a' old aged man, as all shall be, so sit +down in my easy-chair, and rest yourself." And down father zot. I +could fain ha' laughed at thee, father; for thou'st take it so +unconcerned at first, and then looked so frightened when the chair- +bottom sunk in." + +"You see," said old William, hastening to explain, "I was scared to +find the bottom gie way--what should I know o' spring bottoms?--and +thought I had broke it down: and of course as to breaking down a +man's chair, I didn't wish any such thing." + +"And, neighbours, when a feller, ever so much up for a miff, d'see +his own father sitting in his enemy's easy-chair, and a poor chap +like Leaf made the best of; as if he almost had brains--why, it +knocks all the wind out of his sail at once: it did out of mine." + +"If that young figure of fun--Fance Day, I mean," said Bowman, +"hadn't been so mighty forward wi' showing herself off to Shiner and +Dick and the rest, 'tis my belief we should never ha' left the +gallery." + +"'Tis my belief that though Shiner fired the bullets, the parson +made 'em," said Mr. Penny. "My wife sticks to it that he's in love +wi' her." + +"That's a thing we shall never know. I can't onriddle her, nohow." + +"Thou'st ought to be able to onriddle such a little chiel as she," +the tranter observed. + +"The littler the maid, the bigger the riddle, to my mind. And +coming of such a stock, too, she may well be a twister." + +"Yes; Geoffrey Day is a clever man if ever there was one. Never +says anything: not he." + +"Never." + +"You might live wi' that man, my sonnies, a hundred years, and never +know there was anything in him." + +"Ay; one o' these up-country London ink-bottle chaps would call +Geoffrey a fool." + +"Ye never find out what's in that man: never," said Spinks. +"Close? ah, he is close! He can hold his tongue well. That man's +dumbness is wonderful to listen to." + +"There's so much sense in it. Every moment of it is brimmen over +wi' sound understanding." + +"'A can hold his tongue very clever--very clever truly," echoed +Leaf. "A do look at me as if 'a could see my thoughts running round +like the works of a clock." + +"Well, all will agree that the man can halt well in his talk, be it +a long time or be it a short time. And though we can't expect his +daughter to inherit his closeness, she may have a few dribblets from +his sense." + +"And his pocket, perhaps." + +"Yes; the nine hundred pound that everybody says he's worth; but I +call it four hundred and fifty; for I never believe more than half I +hear." + +"Well, he've made a pound or two, and I suppose the maid will have +it, since there's nobody else. But 'tis rather sharp upon her, if +she's been born to fortune, to bring her up as if not born for it, +and letting her work so hard." + +"'Tis all upon his principle. A long--headed feller!" + +"Ah," murmured Spinks, "'twould be sharper upon her if she were born +for fortune, and not to it! I suffer from that affliction." + + + +CHAPTER VI: YALBURY WOOD AND THE KEEPER'S HOUSE + + + +A mood of blitheness rarely experienced even by young men was Dick's +on the following Monday morning. It was the week after the Easter +holidays, and he was journeying along with Smart the mare and the +light spring-cart, watching the damp slopes of the hill-sides as +they streamed in the warmth of the sun, which at this unsettled +season shone on the grass with the freshness of an occasional +inspector rather than as an accustomed proprietor. His errand was +to fetch Fancy, and some additional household goods, from her +father's house in the neighbouring parish to her dwelling at +Mellstock. The distant view was darkly shaded with clouds; but the +nearer parts of the landscape were whitely illumined by the visible +rays of the sun streaming down across the heavy gray shade behind. + +The tranter had not yet told his son of the state of Shiner's heart +that had been suggested to him by Shiner's movements. He preferred +to let such delicate affairs right themselves; experience having +taught him that the uncertain phenomenon of love, as it existed in +other people, was not a groundwork upon which a single action of his +own life could be founded. + +Geoffrey Day lived in the depths of Yalbury Wood, which formed +portion of one of the outlying estates of the Earl of Wessex, to +whom Day was head game-keeper, timber-steward, and general +overlooker for this district. The wood was intersected by the +highway from Casterbridge to London at a place not far from the +house, and some trees had of late years been felled between its +windows and the ascent of Yalbury Hill, to give the solitary +cottager a glimpse of the passers-by. + +It was a satisfaction to walk into the keeper's house, even as a +stranger, on a fine spring morning like the present. A curl of +wood-smoke came from the chimney, and drooped over the roof like a +blue feather in a lady's hat; and the sun shone obliquely upon the +patch of grass in front, which reflected its brightness through the +open doorway and up the staircase opposite, lighting up each riser +with a shiny green radiance, and leaving the top of each step in +shade. + +The window-sill of the front room was between four and five feet +from the floor, dropping inwardly to a broad low bench, over which, +as well as over the whole surface of the wall beneath, there always +hung a deep shade, which was considered objectionable on every +ground save one, namely, that the perpetual sprinkling of seeds and +water by the caged canary above was not noticed as an eyesore by +visitors. The window was set with thickly-leaded diamond glazing, +formed, especially in the lower panes, of knotty glass of various +shades of green. Nothing was better known to Fancy than the +extravagant manner in which these circular knots or eyes distorted +everything seen through them from the outside--lifting hats from +heads, shoulders from bodies; scattering the spokes of cart-wheels, +and bending the straight fir-trunks into semicircles. The ceiling +was carried by a beam traversing its midst, from the side of which +projected a large nail, used solely and constantly as a peg for +Geoffrey's hat; the nail was arched by a rainbow--shaped stain, +imprinted by the brim of the said hat when it was hung there +dripping wet. + +The most striking point about the room was the furniture. This was +a repetition upon inanimate objects of the old principle introduced +by Noah, consisting for the most part of two articles of every sort. +The duplicate system of furnishing owed its existence to the +forethought of Fancy's mother, exercised from the date of Fancy's +birthday onwards. The arrangement spoke for itself: nobody who +knew the tone of the household could look at the goods without being +aware that the second set was a provision for Fancy, when she should +marry and have a house of her own. The most noticeable instance was +a pair of green-faced eight-day clocks, ticking alternately, which +were severally two and half minutes and three minutes striking the +hour of twelve, one proclaiming, in Italian flourishes, Thomas Wood +as the name of its maker, and the other--arched at the top, and +altogether of more cynical appearance--that of Ezekiel Saunders. +They were two departed clockmakers of Casterbridge, whose desperate +rivalry throughout their lives was nowhere more emphatically +perpetuated than here at Geoffrey's. These chief specimens of the +marriage provision were supported on the right by a couple of +kitchen dressers, each fitted complete with their cups, dishes, and +plates, in their turn followed by two dumb-waiters, two family +Bibles, two warming-pans, and two intermixed sets of chairs. + +But the position last reached--the chimney-corner--was, after all, +the most attractive side of the parallelogram. It was large enough +to admit, in addition to Geoffrey himself; Geoffrey's wife, her +chair, and her work-table, entirely within the line of the mantel, +without danger or even inconvenience from the heat of the fire; and +was spacious enough overhead to allow of the insertion of wood poles +for the hanging of bacon, which were cloaked with long shreds of +soot, floating on the draught like the tattered banners on the walls +of ancient aisles. + +These points were common to most chimney corners of the +neighbourhood; but one feature there was which made Geoffrey's +fireside not only an object of interest to casual aristocratic +visitors--to whom every cottage fireside was more or less a +curiosity--but the admiration of friends who were accustomed to +fireplaces of the ordinary hamlet model. This peculiarity was a +little window in the chimney-back, almost over the fire, around +which the smoke crept caressingly when it left the perpendicular +course. The window-board was curiously stamped with black circles, +burnt thereon by the heated bottoms of drinking-cups, which had +rested there after previously standing on the hot ashes of the +hearth for the purpose of warming their contents, the result giving +to the ledge the look of an envelope which has passed through +innumerable post-offices. + +Fancy was gliding about the room preparing dinner, her head +inclining now to the right, now to the left, and singing the tips +and ends of tunes that sprang up in her mind like mushrooms. The +footsteps of Mrs. Day could be heard in the room overhead. Fancy +went finally to the door. + +"Father! Dinner." + +A tall spare figure was seen advancing by the window with periodical +steps, and the keeper entered from the garden. He appeared to be a +man who was always looking down, as if trying to recollect something +he said yesterday. The surface of his face was fissured rather than +wrinkled, and over and under his eyes were folds which seemed as a +kind of exterior eyelids. His nose had been thrown backwards by a +blow in a poaching fray, so that when the sun was low and shining in +his face, people could see far into his head. There was in him a +quiet grimness, which would in his moments of displeasure have +become surliness, had it not been tempered by honesty of soul, and +which was often wrongheadedness because not allied with subtlety. + +Although not an extraordinarily taciturn man among friends slightly +richer than himself, he never wasted words upon outsiders, and to +his trapper Enoch his ideas were seldom conveyed by any other means +than nods and shakes of the head. Their long acquaintance with each +other's ways, and the nature of their labours, rendered words +between them almost superfluous as vehicles of thought, whilst the +coincidence of their horizons, and the astonishing equality of their +social views, by startling the keeper from time to time as very +damaging to the theory of master and man, strictly forbade any +indulgence in words as courtesies. + +Behind the keeper came Enoch (who had been assisting in the garden) +at the well-considered chronological distance of three minutes--an +interval of non-appearance on the trapper's part not arrived at +without some reflection. Four minutes had been found to express +indifference to indoor arrangements, and simultaneousness had +implied too great an anxiety about meals. + +"A little earlier than usual, Fancy," the keeper said, as he sat +down and looked at the clocks. "That Ezekiel Saunders o' thine is +tearing on afore Thomas Wood again." + +"I kept in the middle between them," said Fancy, also looking at the +two clocks. + +"Better stick to Thomas," said her father. "There's a healthy beat +in Thomas that would lead a man to swear by en offhand. He is as +true as the town time. How is it your stap-mother isn't here?" + +As Fancy was about to reply, the rattle of wheels was heard, and +"Weh-hey, Smart!" in Mr. Richard Dewy's voice rolled into the +cottage from round the corner of the house. + +"Hullo! there's Dewy's cart come for thee, Fancy--Dick driving-- +afore time, too. Well, ask the lad to have pot-luck with us." + +Dick on entering made a point of implying by his general bearing +that he took an interest in Fancy simply as in one of the same race +and country as himself; and they all sat down. Dick could have +wished her manner had not been so entirely free from all apparent +consciousness of those accidental meetings of theirs: but he let +the thought pass. Enoch sat diagonally at a table afar off; under +the corner cupboard, and drank his cider from a long perpendicular +pint cup, having tall fir-trees done in brown on its sides, He threw +occasional remarks into the general tide of conversation, and with +this advantage to himself; that he participated in the pleasures of +a talk (slight as it was) at meal-times, without saddling himself +with the responsibility of sustaining it. + +"Why don't your stap-mother come down, Fancy?" said Geoffrey. +"You'll excuse her, Mister Dick, she's a little queer sometimes." + +"O yes,--quite," said Richard, as if he were in the habit of +excusing people every day. + +"She d'belong to that class of womankind that become second wives: +a rum class rather." + +"Indeed," said Dick, with sympathy for an indefinite something. + +"Yes; and 'tis trying to a female, especially if you've been a first +wife, as she hey." + +"Very trying it must be." + +"Yes: you see her first husband was a young man, who let her go too +far; in fact, she used to kick up Bob's-a-dying at the least thing +in the world. And when I'd married her and found it out, I thought, +thinks I, "'Tis too late now to begin to cure 'e;" and so I let her +bide. But she's queer,--very queer, at times!" + +"I'm sorry to hear that." + +"Yes: there; wives be such a provoking class o' society, because +though they be never right, they be never more than half wrong." + +Fancy seemed uneasy under the infliction of this household +moralizing, which might tend to damage the airy-fairy nature that +Dick, as maiden shrewdness told her, had accredited her with. Her +dead silence impressed Geoffrey with the notion that something in +his words did not agree with her educated ideas, and he changed the +conversation. + +"Did Fred Shiner send the cask o' drink, Fancy?" + +"I think he did: O yes, he did." + +"Nice solid feller, Fred Shiner!" said Geoffrey to Dick as he helped +himself to gravy, bringing the spoon round to his plate by way of +the potato-dish, to obviate a stain on the cloth in the event of a +spill. + +Now Geoffrey's eyes had been fixed upon his plate for the previous +four or five minutes, and in removing them he had only carried them +to the spoon, which, from its fulness and the distance of its +transit, necessitated a steady watching through the whole of the +route. Just as intently as the keeper's eyes had been fixed on the +spoon, Fancy's had been fixed on her father's, without premeditation +or the slightest phase of furtiveness; but there they were fastened. +This was the reason why: + +Dick was sitting next to her on the right side, and on the side of +the table opposite to her father. Fancy had laid her right hand +lightly down upon the table-cloth for an instant, and to her alarm +Dick, after dropping his fork and brushing his forehead as a reason, +flung down his own left hand, overlapping a third of Fancy's with +it, and keeping it there. So the innocent Fancy, instead of pulling +her hand from the trap, settled her eyes on her father's, to guard +against his discovery of this perilous game of Dick's. Dick +finished his mouthful; Fancy finished, her crumb, and nothing was +done beyond watching Geoffrey's eyes. Then the hands slid apart; +Fancy's going over six inches of cloth, Dick's over one. Geoffrey's +eye had risen. + +"I said Fred Shiner is a nice solid feller," he repeated, more +emphatically. + +"He is; yes, he is," stammered Dick; "but to me he is little more +than a stranger." + +"O, sure. Now I know en as well as any man can be known. And you +know en very well too, don't ye, Fancy?" + +Geoffrey put on a tone expressing that these words signified at +present about one hundred times the amount of meaning they conveyed +literally. + +Dick looked anxious. + +"Will you pass me some bread?" said Fancy in a flurry, the red of +her face becoming slightly disordered, and looking as solicitous as +a human being could look about a piece of bread. + +"Ay, that I will," replied the unconscious Geoffrey. "Ay," he +continued, returning to the displaced idea, "we are likely to remain +friendly wi' Mr. Shiner if the wheels d'run smooth." + +"An excellent thing--a very capital thing, as I should say," the +youth answered with exceeding relevance, considering that his +thoughts, instead of following Geoffrey's remark, were nestling at a +distance of about two feet on his left the whole time. + +"A young woman's face will turn the north wind, Master Richard: my +heart if 'twon't." Dick looked more anxious and was attentive in +earnest at these words. "Yes; turn the north wind," added Geoffrey +after an impressive pause. "And though she's one of my own flesh +and blood . . . " + +"Will you fetch down a bit of raw-mil' cheese from pantry-shelf?" +Fancy interrupted, as if she were famishing. + +"Ay, that I will, chiel; chiel, says I, and Mr. Shiner only asking +last Saturday night . . . cheese you said, Fancy?" + +Dick controlled his emotion at these mysterious allusions to Mr. +Shiner,--the better enabled to do so by perceiving that Fancy's +heart went not with her father's--and spoke like a stranger to the +affairs of the neighbourhood. "Yes, there's a great deal to be said +upon the power of maiden faces in settling your courses," he +ventured, as the keeper retreated for the cheese. + +"The conversation is taking a very strange turn: nothing that _I_ +have ever done warrants such things being said!" murmured Fancy with +emphasis, just loud enough to reach Dick's ears. + +"You think to yourself; 'twas to be," cried Enoch from his distant +corner, by way of filling up the vacancy caused by Geoffrey's +momentary absence. "And so you marry her, Master Dewy, and there's +an end o't." + +"Pray don't say such things, Enoch," came from Fancy severely, upon +which Enoch relapsed into servitude. + +"If we be doomed to marry, we marry; if we be doomed to remain +single, we do," replied Dick. + +Geoffrey had by this time sat down again, and he now made his lips +thin by severely straining them across his gums, and looked out of +the window along the vista to the distant highway up Yalbury Hill. +"That's not the case with some folk," he said at length, as if he +read the words on a board at the further end of the vista. + +Fancy looked interested, and Dick said, "No?" + +"There's that wife o' mine. It was her doom to be nobody's wife at +all in the wide universe. But she made up her mind that she would, +and did it twice over. Doom? Doom is nothing beside a elderly +woman--quite a chiel in her hands!" + +A movement was now heard along the upstairs passage, and footsteps +descending. The door at the foot of the stairs opened, and the +second Mrs. Day appeared in view, looking fixedly at the table as +she advanced towards it, with apparent obliviousness of the presence +of any other human being than herself. In short, if the table had +been the personages, and the persons the table, her glance would +have been the most natural imaginable. + +She showed herself to possess an ordinary woman's face, iron-grey +hair, hardly any hips, and a great deal of cleanliness in a broad +white apron-string, as it appeared upon the waist of her dark stuff +dress. + +"People will run away with a story now, I suppose," she began +saying, "that Jane Day's tablecloths are as poor and ragged as any +union beggar's!" + +Dick now perceived that the tablecloth was a little the worse for +wear, and reflecting for a moment, concluded that 'people' in step- +mother language probably meant himself. On lifting his eyes he +found that Mrs. Day had vanished again upstairs, and presently +returned with an armful of new damask-linen tablecloths, folded +square and hard as boards by long compression. These she flounced +down into a chair; then took one, shook it out from its folds, and +spread it on the table by instalments, transferring the plates and +dishes one by one from the old to the new cloth. + +"And I suppose they'll say, too, that she ha'n't a decent knife and +fork in her house!" + +"I shouldn't say any such ill-natured thing, I am sure--" began +Dick. But Mrs. Day had vanished into the next room. Fancy appeared +distressed. + +"Very strange woman, isn't she?" said Geoffrey, quietly going on +with his dinner. "But 'tis too late to attempt curing. My heart! +'tis so growed into her that 'twould kill her to take it out. Ay, +she's very queer: you'd be amazed to see what valuable goods we've +got stowed away upstairs." + +Back again came Mrs. Day with a box of bright steel horn-handled +knives, silver-plated forks, carver, and all complete. These were +wiped of the preservative oil which coated them, and then a knife +and fork were laid down to each individual with a bang, the carving +knife and fork thrust into the meat dish, and the old ones they had +hitherto used tossed away. + +Geoffrey placidly cut a slice with the new knife and fork, and asked +Dick if he wanted any more. + +The table had been spread for the mixed midday meal of dinner and +tea, which was common among frugal countryfolk. "The parishioners +about here," continued Mrs. Day, not looking at any living being, +but snatching up the brown delf tea-things, "are the laziest, +gossipest, poachest, jailest set of any ever I came among. And +they'll talk about my teapot and tea-things next, I suppose!" She +vanished with the teapot, cups, and saucers, and reappeared with a +tea-service in white china, and a packet wrapped in brown paper. +This was removed, together with folds of tissue-paper underneath; +and a brilliant silver teapot appeared. + +"I'll help to put the things right," said Fancy soothingly, and +rising from her seat. "I ought to have laid out better things, I +suppose. But" (here she enlarged her looks so as to include Dick) +"I have been away from home a good deal, and I make shocking +blunders in my housekeeping." Smiles and suavity were then +dispensed all around by this bright little bird. + +After a little more preparation and modification, Mrs. Day took her +seat at the head of the table, and during the latter or tea division +of the meal, presided with much composure. It may cause some +surprise to learn that, now her vagary was over, she showed herself +to be an excellent person with much common sense, and even a +religious seriousness of tone on matters pertaining to her +afflictions. + + + +CHAPTER VII: DICK MAKES HIMSELF USEFUL + + + +The effect of Geoffrey's incidental allusions to Mr. Shiner was to +restrain a considerable flow of spontaneous chat that would +otherwise have burst from young Dewy along the drive homeward. And +a certain remark he had hazarded to her, in rather too blunt and +eager a manner, kept the young lady herself even more silent than +Dick. On both sides there was an unwillingness to talk on any but +the most trivial subjects, and their sentences rarely took a larger +form than could be expressed in two or three words. + +Owing to Fancy being later in the day than she had promised, the +charwoman had given up expecting her; whereupon Dick could do no +less than stay and see her comfortably tided over the disagreeable +time of entering and establishing herself in an empty house after an +absence of a week. The additional furniture and utensils that had +been brought (a canary and cage among the rest) were taken out of +the vehicle, and the horse was unharnessed and put in the plot +opposite, where there was some tender grass. Dick lighted the fire +already laid; and activity began to loosen their tongues a little. + +"There!" said Fancy, "we forgot to bring the fire-irons!" + +She had originally found in her sitting-room, to bear out the +expression 'nearly furnished' which the school-manager had used in +his letter to her, a table, three chairs, a fender, and a piece of +carpet. This 'nearly' had been supplemented hitherto by a kind +friend, who had lent her fire-irons and crockery until she should +fetch some from home. + +Dick attended to the young lady's fire, using his whip-handle for a +poker till it was spoilt, and then flourishing a hurdle stick for +the remainder of the time. + +"The kettle boils; now you shall have a cup of tea," said Fancy, +diving into the hamper she had brought. + +"Thank you," said Dick, whose drive had made him ready for some, +especially in her company. + +"Well, here's only one cup-and-saucer, as I breathe! Whatever could +mother be thinking about? Do you mind making shift, Mr. Dewy?" + +"Not at all, Miss Day," said that civil person. + +"--And only having a cup by itself? or a saucer by itself?" + +"Don't mind in the least." + +"Which do you mean by that?" + +"I mean the cup, if you like the saucer." + +"And the saucer, if I like the cup?" + +"Exactly, Miss Day." + +"Thank you, Mr. Dewy, for I like the cup decidedly. Stop a minute; +there are no spoons now!" She dived into the hamper again, and at +the end of two or three minutes looked up and said, "I suppose you +don't mind if I can't find a spoon?" + +"Not at all," said the agreeable Richard. + +"The fact is, the spoons have slipped down somewhere; right under +the other things. O yes, here's one, and only one. You would +rather have one than not, I suppose, Mr. Dewy?" + +"Rather not. I never did care much about spoons." + +"Then I'll have it. I do care about them. You must stir up your +tea with a knife. Would you mind lifting the kettle off, that it +may not boil dry?" + +Dick leapt to the fireplace, and earnestly removed the kettle. + +"There! you did it so wildly that you have made your hand black. We +always use kettle-holders; didn't you learn housewifery as far as +that, Mr. Dewy? Well, never mind the soot on your hand. Come here. +I am going to rinse mine, too." + +They went' to a basin she had placed in the back room. "This is the +only basin I have," she said. "Turn up your sleeves, and by that +time my hands will be washed, and you can come." + +Her hands were in the water now. "O, how vexing!" she exclaimed. +"There's not a drop of water left for you, unless you draw it, and +the well is I don't know how many furlongs deep; all that was in the +pitcher I used for the kettle and this basin. Do you mind dipping +the tips of your fingers in the same?" + +"Not at all. And to save time I won't wait till you have done, if +you have no objection?" + +Thereupon he plunged in his hands, and they paddled together. It +being the first time in his life that he had touched female fingers +under water, Dick duly registered the sensation as rather a nice +one. + +"Really, I hardly know which are my own hands and which are yours, +they have got so mixed up together," she said, withdrawing her own +very suddenly. + +"It doesn't matter at all," said Dick, "at least as far as I am +concerned." + +"There! no towel! Whoever thinks of a towel till the hands are +wet?" + +"Nobody." + +"'Nobody.' How very dull it is when people are so friendly! Come +here, Mr. Dewy. Now do you think you could lift the lid of that box +with your elbow, and then, with something or other, take out a towel +you will find under the clean clothes? Be SURE don't touch any of +them with your wet hands, for the things at the top are all Starched +and Ironed." + +Dick managed, by the aid of a knife and fork, to extract a towel +from under a muslin dress without wetting the latter; and for a +moment he ventured to assume a tone of criticism. + +"I fear for that dress," he said, as they wiped their hands +together. + +"What?" said Miss Day, looking into the box at the dress alluded to. +"O, I know what you mean--that the vicar will never let me wear +muslin?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, I know it is condemned by all orders in the church as +flaunting, and unfit for common wear for girls who've their living +to get; but we'll see." + +"In the interest of the church, I hope you don't speak seriously." + +"Yes, I do; but we'll see." There was a comely determination on her +lip, very pleasant to a beholder who was neither bishop, priest, nor +deacon. "I think I can manage any vicar's views about me if he's +under forty." + +Dick rather wished she had never thought of managing vicars. + +"I certainly shall be glad to get some of your delicious tea," he +said in rather a free way, yet modestly, as became one in a position +between that of visitor and inmate, and looking wistfully at his +lonely saucer. + +"So shall I. Now is there anything else we want, Mr Dewy?" + +"I really think there's nothing else, Miss Day." + +She prepared to sit down, looking musingly out of the window at +Smart's enjoyment of the rich grass. "Nobody seems to care about +me," she murmured, with large lost eyes fixed upon the sky beyond +Smart. + +"Perhaps Mr. Shiner does," said Dick, in the tone of a slightly +injured man. + +"Yes, I forgot--he does, I know." Dick precipitately regretted that +he had suggested Shiner, since it had produced such a miserable +result as this. + +"I'll warrant you'll care for somebody very much indeed another day, +won't you, Mr. Dewy?" she continued, looking very feelingly into the +mathematical centre of his eyes. + +"Ah, I'll warrant I shall," said Dick, feelingly too, and looking +back into her dark pupils, whereupon they were turned aside. + +"I meant," she went on, preventing him from speaking just as he was +going to narrate a forcible story about his feelings; "I meant that +nobody comes to see if I have returned--not even the vicar." + +"If you want to see him, I'll call at the vicarage directly we have +had some tea." + +"No, no! Don't let him come down here, whatever you do, whilst I am +in such a state of disarrangement. Parsons look so miserable and +awkward when one's house is in a muddle; walking about, and making +impossible suggestions in quaint academic phrases till your flesh +creeps and you wish them dead. Do you take sugar?" + +Mr. Maybold was at this instant seen coming up the path. + +"There! That's he coming! How I wish you were not here I--that is, +how awkward--dear, dear!" she exclaimed, with a quick ascent of +blood to her face, and irritated with Dick rather than the vicar, as +it seemed. + +"Pray don't be alarmed on my account, Miss Day--good-afternoon!" +said Dick in a huff, putting on his hat, and leaving the room +hastily by the back-door. + +The horse was caught and put in, and on mounting the shafts to start +he saw through the window the vicar, standing upon some books piled +in a chair, and driving a nail into the wall; Fancy, with a demure +glance, holding the canary-cage up to him, as if she had never in +her life thought of anything but vicars and canaries. + + + +CHAPTER VIII: DICK MEETS HIS FATHER + + + +For several minutes Dick drove along homeward, with the inner eye of +reflection so anxiously set on his passages at arms with Fancy, that +the road and scenery were as a thin mist over the real pictures of +his mind. Was she a coquette? The balance between the evidence +that she did love him and that she did not was so nicely struck, +that his opinion had no stability. She had let him put his hand +upon hers; she had allowed her gaze to drop plumb into the depths of +his--his into hers--three or four times; her manner had been very +free with regard to the basin and towel; she had appeared vexed at +the mention of Shiner. On the other hand, she had driven him about +the house like a quiet dog or cat, said Shiner cared for her, and +seemed anxious that Mr. Maybold should do the same. + +Thinking thus as he neared the handpost at Mellstock Cross, sitting +on the front board of the spring cart--his legs on the outside, and +his whole frame jigging up and down like a candle-flame to the time +of Smart's trotting--who should he see coming down the hill but his +father in the light wagon, quivering up and down on a smaller scale +of shakes, those merely caused by the stones in the road. They were +soon crossing each other's front. + +"Weh-hey!" said the tranter to Smiler. + +"Weh-hey!" said Dick to Smart, in an echo of the same voice. + +"Th'st hauled her back, I suppose?" Reuben inquired peaceably. + +"Yes," said Dick, with such a clinching period at the end that it +seemed he was never going to add another word. Smiler, thinking +this the close of the conversation, prepared to move on. + +"Weh-hey!" said the tranter. "I tell thee what it is, Dick. That +there maid is taking up thy thoughts more than's good for thee, my +sonny. Thou'rt never happy now unless th'rt making thyself +miserable about her in one way or another." + +"I don't know about that, father," said Dick rather stupidly. + +"But I do--Wey, Smiler!--'Od rot the women, 'tis nothing else wi' +'em nowadays but getting young men and leading 'em astray." + +"Pooh, father! you just repeat what all the common world says; +that's all you do." + +"The world's a very sensible feller on things in jineral, Dick; very +sensible indeed." + +Dick looked into the distance at a vast expanse of mortgaged estate. +"I wish I was as rich as a squire when he's as poor as a crow," he +murmured; "I'd soon ask Fancy something." + +"I wish so too, wi' all my heart, sonny; that I do. Well, mind what +beest about, that's all." + +Smart moved on a step or two. "Supposing now, father,--We-hey, +Smart!--I did think a little about her, and I had a chance, which I +ha'n't; don't you think she's a very good sort of--of--one?" + +"Ay, good; she's good enough. When you've made up your mind to +marry, take the first respectable body that comes to hand--she's as +good as any other; they be all alike in the groundwork; 'tis only in +the flourishes there's a difference. She's good enough; but I can't +see what the nation a young feller like you--wi a comfortable house +and home, and father and mother to take care o' thee, and who sent +'ee to a school so good that 'twas hardly fair to the other +children--should want to go hollering after a young woman for, when +she's quietly making a husband in her pocket, and not troubled by +chick nor chiel, to make a poverty-stric' wife and family of her, +and neither hat, cap, wig, nor waistcoat to set 'em up with: be +drowned if I can see it, and that's the long and the short o't, my +sonny." + +Dick looked at Smart's ears, then up the hill; but no reason was +suggested by any object that met his gaze. + +"For about the same reason that you did, father, I suppose." + +"Dang it, my sonny, thou'st got me there!" And the tranter gave +vent to a grim admiration, with the mien of a man who was too +magnanimous not to appreciate artistically a slight rap on the +knuckles, even if they were his own. + +"Whether or no," said Dick, "I asked her a thing going along the +road." + +"Come to that, is it? Turk! won't thy mother be in a taking! Well, +she's ready, I don't doubt?" + +"I didn't ask her anything about having me; and if you'll let me +speak, I'll tell 'ee what I want to know. I just said, Did she care +about me?" + +"Piph-ph-ph!" + +"And then she said nothing for a quarter of a mile, and then she +said she didn't know. Now, what I want to know is, what was the +meaning of that speech?" The latter words were spoken resolutely, +as if he didn't care for the ridicule of all the fathers in +creation. + +"The meaning of that speech is," the tranter replied deliberately, +"that the meaning is meant to be rather hid at present. Well, Dick, +as an honest father to thee, I don't pretend to deny what you d'know +well enough; that is, that her father being rather better in the +pocket than we, I should welcome her ready enough if it must be +somebody." + +"But what d'ye think she really did mean?" said the unsatisfied +Dick. + +"I'm afeard I am not o' much account in guessing, especially as I +was not there when she said it, and seeing that your mother was the +only 'ooman I ever cam' into such close quarters as that with." + +"And what did mother say to you when you asked her?" said Dick +musingly. + +"I don't see that that will help 'ee." + +"The principle is the same." + +"Well--ay: what did she say? Let's see. I was oiling my working- +day boots without taking 'em off, and wi' my head hanging down, when +she just brushed on by the garden hatch like a flittering leaf. +"Ann," I said, says I, and then,--but, Dick I'm afeard 'twill be no +help to thee; for we were such a rum couple, your mother and I, +leastways one half was, that is myself--and your mother's charms was +more in the manner than the material." + +"Never mind! 'Ann,' said you." + +"'Ann,' said I, as I was saying . . . 'Ann,' I said to her when I +was oiling my working-day boots wi' my head hanging down, 'Woot hae +me?' . . . What came next I can't quite call up at this distance o' +time. Perhaps your mother would know,--she's got a better memory +for her little triumphs than I. However, the long and the short o' +the story is that we were married somehow, as I found afterwards. +'Twas on White Tuesday,--Mellstock Club walked the same day, every +man two and two, and a fine day 'twas,--hot as fire,--how the sun +did strike down upon my back going to church! I well can mind what +a bath o' sweating I was in, body and soul! But Fance will ha' +thee, Dick--she won't walk with another chap--no such good luck." + +"I don't know about that," said Dick, whipping at Smart's flank in a +fanciful way, which, as Smart knew, meant nothing in connection with +going on. "There's Pa'son Maybold, too--that's all against me." + +"What about he? She's never been stuffing into thy innocent heart +that he's in hove with her? Lord, the vanity o' maidens!" + +"No, no. But he called, and she looked at him in such a way, and at +me in such a way--quite different the ways were,--and as I was +coming off, there was he hanging up her birdcage." + +"Well, why shouldn't the man hang up her bird-cage? Turk seize it +all, what's that got to do wi' it? Dick, that thou beest a white- +lyvered chap I don't say, but if thou beestn't as mad as a cappel- +faced bull, let me smile no more." + +"O, ay." + +"And what's think now, Dick?" + +"I don't know." + +"Here's another pretty kettle o' fish for thee. Who d'ye think's +the bitter weed in our being turned out? Did our party tell 'ee?" + +"No. Why, Pa'son Maybold, I suppose." + +"Shiner,--because he's in love with thy young woman, and d'want to +see her young figure sitting up at that queer instrument, and her +young fingers rum-strumming upon the keys." + +A sharp ado of sweet and bitter was going on in Dick during this +communication from his father. "Shiner's a fool!--no, that's not +it; I don't believe any such thing, father. Why, Shiner would never +take a bold step like that, unless she'd been a little made up to, +and had taken it kindly. Pooh!" + +"Who's to say she didn't?" + +"I do." + +"The more fool you." + +"Why, father of me?" + +"Has she ever done more to thee?" + +"No." + +"Then she has done as much to he--rot 'em! Now, Dick, this is how a +maid is. She'll swear she's dying for thee, and she is dying for +thee, and she will die for thee; but she'll fling a look over +t'other shoulder at another young feller, though never leaving off +dying for thee just the same." + +"She's not dying for me, and so she didn't fling a look at him." + +"But she may be dying for him, for she looked at thee." + +"I don't know what to make of it at all," said Dick gloomily. + +"All I can make of it is," the tranter said, raising his whip, +arranging his different joints and muscles, and motioning to the +horse to move on, "that if you can't read a maid's mind by her +motions, nature d'seem to say thou'st ought to be a bachelor. Clk, +clk! Smiler!" And the tranter moved on. + +Dick held Smart's rein firmly, and the whole concern of horse, cart, +and man remained rooted in the lane. Hew long this condition would +have lasted is unknown, had not Dick's thoughts, after adding up +numerous items of misery, gradually wandered round to the fact that +as something must be done, it could not be done by staying there all +night. + +Reaching home he went up to his bedroom, shut the door as if he were +going to be seen no more in this life, and taking a sheet of paper +and uncorking the ink-bottle, he began a letter. The dignity of the +writer's mind was so powerfully apparent in every line of this +effusion that it obscured the logical sequence of facts and +intentions to an appreciable degree; and it was not at all clear to +a reader whether he there and then left off loving Miss Fancy Day; +whether he had never loved her seriously, and never meant to; +whether he had been dying up to the present moment, and now intended +to get well again; or whether he had hitherto been in good health, +and intended to die for her forthwith. + +He put this letter in an envelope, sealed it up, directed it in a +stern handwriting of straight dashes--easy flourishes being +rigorously excluded. He walked with it in his pocket down the lane +in strides not an inch less than three feet long. Reaching her gate +he put on a resolute expression--then put it off again, turned back +homeward, tore up his letter, and sat down. + +That letter was altogether in a wrong tone--that he must own. A +heartless man-of-the-world tone was what the juncture required. +That he rather wanted her, and rather did not want her--the latter +for choice; but that as a member of society he didn't mind making a +query in jaunty terms, which could only be answered in the same way: +did she mean anything by her bearing towards him, or did she not? + +This letter was considered so satisfactory in every way that, being +put into the hands of a little boy, and the order given that he was +to run with it to the school, he was told in addition not to look +behind him if Dick called after him to bring it hack, but to run +along with it just the same. Having taken this precaution against +vacillation, Dick watched his messenger down the road, and turned +into the house whistling an air in such ghastly jerks and starts, +that whistling seemed to be the act the very furthest removed from +that which was instinctive in such a youth. + +The letter was left as ordered: the next morning came and passed-- +and no answer. The next. The next. Friday night came. Dick +resolved that if no answer or sign were given by her the next day, +on Sunday he would meet her face to face, and have it all out by +word of mouth. + +"Dick," said his father, coming in from the garden at that moment-- +in each hand a hive of bees tied in a cloth to prevent their egress- +-"I think you'd better take these two swarms of bees to Mrs. +Maybold's to-morrow, instead o' me, and I'll go wi' Smiler and the +wagon." + +It was a relief; for Mrs. Maybold, the vicar's mother, who had just +taken into her head a fancy for keeping bees (pleasantly disguised +under the pretence of its being an economical wish to produce her +own honey), lived near the watering-place of Budmouth-Regis, ten +miles off, and the business of transporting the hives thither would +occupy the whole day, and to some extent annihilate the vacant time +between this evening and the coming Sunday. The best spring-cart +was washed throughout, the axles oiled, and the bees placed therein +for the journey. + + + + +PART THE THIRD--SUMMER + + + + +CHAPTER I: DRIVING OUT OF BUDMOUTH + + + +An easy bend of neck and graceful set of head; full and wavy bundles +of dark-brown hair; light fall of little feet; pretty devices on the +skirt of the dress; clear deep eyes; in short, a bunch of sweets: +it was Fancy! Dick's heart went round to her with a rush. + +The scene was the corner of Mary Street in Budmouth-Regis, near the +King's statue, at which point the white angle of the last house in +the row cut perpendicularly an embayed and nearly motionless expanse +of salt water projected from the outer ocean--to-day lit in bright +tones of green and opal. Dick and Smart had just emerged from the +street, and there on the right, against the brilliant sheet of +liquid colour, stood Fancy Day; and she turned and recognized him. + +Dick suspended his thoughts of the letter and wonder at how she came +there by driving close to the chains of the Esplanade--incontinently +displacing two chairmen, who had just come to life for the summer in +new clean shirts and revivified clothes, and being almost displaced +in turn by a rigid boy rattling along with a baker's cart, and +looking neither to the right nor the left. He asked if she were +going to Mellstock that night. + +"Yes, I'm waiting for the carrier," she replied, seeming, too, to +suspend thoughts of the letter. + +"Now I can drive you home nicely, and you save half an hour. Will +ye come with me?" + +As Fancy's power to will anything seemed to have departed in some +mysterious manner at that moment, Dick settled the matter by getting +out and assisting her into the vehicle without another word. + +The temporary flush upon her cheek changed to a lesser hue, which +was permanent, and at length their eyes met; there was present +between them a certain feeling of embarrassment, which arises at +such moments when all the instinctive acts dictated by the position +have been performed. Dick, being engaged with the reins, thought +less of this awkwardness than did Fancy, who had nothing to do but +to feel his presence, and to be more and more conscious of the fact, +that by accepting a seat beside him in this way she succumbed to the +tone of his note. Smart jogged along, and Dick jogged, and the +helpless Fancy necessarily jogged, too; and she felt that she was in +a measure capture I and made a prisoner. + +"I am so much obliged to you for your company, Miss Day," he +observed, as they drove past the two semicircular bays of the Old +Royal Hotel, where His Majesty King George the Third had many a time +attended the balls of the burgesses. + +To Miss Day, crediting him with the same consciousness of mastery--a +consciousness of which he was perfectly innocent--this remark +sounded like a magnanimous intention to soothe her, the captive. + +"I didn't come for the pleasure of obliging you with my company," +she said. + +The answer had an unexpected manner of incivility in it that must +have been rather surprising to young Dewy. At the same time it may +be observed, that when a young woman returns a rude answer to a +young man's civil remark, her heart is in a state which argues +rather hopefully for his case than otherwise. + +There was silence between them till they had left the sea-front and +passed about twenty of the trees that ornamented the road leading up +out of the town towards Casterbridge and Mellstock. + +"Though I didn't come for that purpose either, I would have done +it," said Dick at the twenty-first tree. + +"Now, Mr. Dewy, no flirtation, because it's wrong, and I don't wish +it." + +Dick seated himself afresh just as he had been sitting before, +arranged his looks very emphatically, and cleared his throat. + +"Really, anybody would think you had met me on business and were +just going to commence," said the lady intractably. + +"Yes, they would." + +"Why, you never have, to be sure!" + +This was a shaky beginning. He chopped round, and said cheerily, as +a man who had resolved never to spoil his jollity by loving one of +womankind--"Well, how are you getting on, Miss Day, at the present +time? Gaily, I don't doubt for a moment." + +"I am not gay, Dick; you know that." + +"Gaily doesn't mean decked in gay dresses." + +"I didn't suppose gaily was gaily dressed. Mighty me, what a +scholar you've grown!" + +"Lots of things have happened to you this spring, I see." + +"What have you seen?" + +"O, nothing; I've heard, I mean!" + +"What have you heard?" + +"The name of a pretty man, with brass studs and a copper ring and a +tin watch-chain, a little mixed up with your own. That's all." + +"That's a very unkind picture of Mr. Shiner, for that's who you +mean! The studs are gold, as you know, and it's a real silver +chain; the ring I can't conscientiously defend, and he only wore it +once." + +"He might have worn it a hundred times without showing it half so +much." + +"Well, he's nothing to me," she serenely observed. + +"Not any more than I am?" + +"Now, Mr. Dewy," said Fancy severely, "certainly he isn't any more +to me than you are!" + +"Not so much?" + +She looked aside to consider the precise compass of that question. +"That I can't exactly answer," she replied with soft archness. + +As they were going rather slowly, another spring-cart, containing a +farmer, farmer's wife, and farmer's man, jogged past them; and the +farmer's wife and farmer's man eyed the couple very curiously. The +farmer never looked up from the horse's tail. + +"Why can't you exactly answer?" said Dick, quickening Smart a +little, and jogging on just behind the farmer and farmer's wife and +man. + +As no answer came, and as their eyes had nothing else to do, they +both contemplated the picture presented in front, and noticed how +the farmer's wife sat flattened between the two men, who bulged over +each end of the seat to give her room, till they almost sat upon +their respective wheels; and they looked too at the farmer's wife's +silk mantle, inflating itself between her shoulders like a balloon +and sinking flat again, at each jog of the horse. The farmer's +wife, feeling their eyes sticking into her back, looked over her +shoulder. Dick dropped ten yards further behind. + +"Fancy, why can't you answer?" he repeated. + +"Because how much you are to me depends upon how much I am to you," +said she in low tones. + +"Everything," said Dick, putting his hand towards hers, and casting +emphatic eyes upon the upper curve of her cheek. + +"Now, Richard Dewy, no touching me! I didn't say in what way your +thinking of me affected the question--perhaps inversely, don't you +see? No touching, sir! Look; goodness me, don't, Dick!" + +The cause of her sudden start was the unpleasant appearance over +Dick's right shoulder of an empty timber-wagon and four journeymen- +carpenters reclining in lazy postures inside it, their eyes directed +upwards at various oblique angles into the surrounding world, the +chief object of their existence being apparently to criticize to the +very backbone and marrow every animate object that came within the +compass of their vision. This difficulty of Dick's was overcome by +trotting on till the wagon and carpenters were beginning to look +rather misty by reason of a film of dust that accompanied their +wagon-wheels, and rose around their heads like a fog. + +"Say you love me, Fancy." + +"No, Dick, certainly not; 'tisn't time to do that yet." + +"Why, Fancy?" + +"'Miss Day' is better at present--don't mind my saying so; and I +ought not to have called you Dick." + +"Nonsense! when you know that I would do anything on earth for your +love. Why, you make any one think that loving is a thing that can +be done and undone, and put on and put off at a mere whim." + +"No, no, I don't," she said gently; "but there are things which tell +me I ought not to give way to much thinking about you, even if--" + +"But you want to, don't you? Yes, say you do; it is best to be +truthful. Whatever they may say about a woman's right to conceal +where her love lies, and pretend it doesn't exist, and things like +that, it is not best; I do know it, Fancy. And an honest woman in +that, as well as in all her daily concerns, shines most brightly, +and is thought most of in the long-run." + +"Well then, perhaps, Dick, I do love you a little," she whispered +tenderly; "but I wish you wouldn't say any more now." + +"I won't say any more now, then, if you don't like it, dear. But +you do love me a little, don't you?" + +"Now you ought not to want me to keep saying things twice; I can't +say any more now, and you must be content with what you have." + +"I may at any rate call you Fancy? There's no harm in that." + +"Yes, you may." + +"And you'll not call me Mr. Dewy any more?" + +"Very well." + + + +CHAPTER II: FURTHER ALONG THE ROAD + + + +Dick's spirits having risen in the course of these admissions of his +sweetheart, he now touched Smart with the whip; and on Smart's neck, +not far behind his ears. Smart, who had been lost in thought for +some time, never dreaming that Dick could reach so far with a whip +which, on this particular journey, had never been extended further +than his flank, tossed his head, and scampered along with exceeding +briskness, which was very pleasant to the young couple behind him +till, turning a bend in the road, they came instantly upon the +farmer, farmer's man, and farmer's wife with the flapping mantle, +all jogging on just the same as ever. + +"Bother those people! Here we are upon them again." + +"Well, of course. They have as much right to the road as we." + +"Yes, but it is provoking to be overlooked so. I like a road all to +myself. Look what a lumbering affair theirs is!" The wheels of the +farmer's cart, just at that moment, jogged into a depression running +across the road, giving the cart a twist, whereupon all three nodded +to the left, and on coming out of it all three nodded to the right, +and went on jerking their backs in and out as usual. "We'll pass +them when the road gets wider." + +When an opportunity seemed to offer itself for carrying this +intention into effect, they heard light flying wheels behind, and on +their quartering there whizzed along past them a brand-new gig, so +brightly polished that the spokes of the wheels sent forth a +continual quivering light at one point in their circle, and all the +panels glared like mirrors in Dick and Fancy's eyes. The driver, +and owner as it appeared, was really a handsome man; his companion +was Shiner. Both turned round as they passed Dick and Fancy, and +stared with bold admiration in her face till they were obliged to +attend to the operation of passing the farmer. Dick glanced for an +instant at Fancy while she was undergoing their scrutiny; then +returned to his driving with rather a sad countenance. + +"Why are you so silent?" she said, after a while, with real concern. + +"Nothing." + +"Yes, it is, Dick. I couldn't help those people passing." + +"I know that." + +"You look offended with me. What have I done?" + +"I can't tell without offending you." + +"Better out." + +"Well," said Dick, who seemed longing to tell, even at the risk of +offending her, "I was thinking how different you in love are from me +in love. Whilst those men were staring, you dismissed me from your +thoughts altogether, and--" + +"You can't offend me further now; tell all!" + +"And showed upon your face a pleased sense of being attractive to +'em." + +"Don't be silly, Dick! You know very well I didn't." + +Dick shook his head sceptically, and smiled. + +"Dick, I always believe flattery IF POSSIBLE--and it was possible +then. Now there's an open confession of weakness. But I showed no +consciousness of it." + +Dick, perceiving by her look that she would adhere to her statement, +charitably forbore saying anything that could make her prevaricate. +The sight of Shiner, too, had recalled another branch of the subject +to his mind; that which had been his greatest trouble till her +company and words had obscured its probability. + +"By the way, Fancy, do you know why our quire is to be dismissed?" + +"No: except that it is Mr. Maybold's wish for me to play the +organ." + +"Do you know how it came to be his wish?" + +"That I don't." + +"Mr. Shiner, being churchwarden, has persuaded the vicar; who, +however, was willing enough before. Shiner, I know, is crazy to see +you playing every Sunday; I suppose he'll turn over your music, for +the organ will be close to his pew. But--I know you have never +encouraged him?" + +"Never once!" said Fancy emphatically, and with eyes full of earnest +truth. "I don't like him indeed, and I never heard of his doing +this before! I have always felt that I should like to play in a +church, but I never wished to turn you and your choir out; and I +never even said that I could play till I was asked. You don't think +for a moment that I did, surely, do you?" + +"I know you didn't, dear." + +"Or that I care the least morsel of a bit for him?" + +"I know you don't." + +The distance between Budmouth and Mellstock was ten or eleven miles, +and there being a good inn, "The Ship," four miles out of Budmouth, +with a mast and cross-trees in front, Dick's custom in driving +thither was to divide the journey into three stages by resting at +this inn going and coming, and not troubling the Budmouth stables at +all, whenever his visit to the town was a mere call and deposit, as +to-day. + +Fancy was ushered into a little tea-room, and Dick went to the +stables to see to the feeding of Smart. In face of the significant +twitches of feature that were visible in the ostler and labouring +men idling around, Dick endeavoured to look unconscious of the fact +that there was any sentiment between him and Fancy beyond a +tranter's desire to carry a passenger home. He presently entered +the inn and opened the door of Fancy's room. + +"Dick, do you know, it has struck me that it is rather awkward, my +being here alone with you like this. I don't think you had better +come in with me." + +"That's rather unpleasant, dear." + +"Yes, it is, and I wanted you to have some tea as well as myself +too, because you must be tired." + +"Well, let me have some with you, then. I was denied once before, +if you recollect, Fancy." + +"Yes, yes, never mind! And it seems unfriendly of me now, but I +don't know what to do." + +"It shall be as you say, then." Dick began to retreat with a +dissatisfied wrinkling of face, and a farewell glance at the cosy +tea-tray. + +"But you don't see how it is, Dick, when you speak like that," she +said, with more earnestness than she had ever shown before. "You do +know, that even if I care very much for you, I must remember that I +have a difficult position to maintain. The vicar would not like me, +as his schoolmistress, to indulge in a tete-a-tete anywhere with +anybody." + +"But I am not ANY body!" exclaimed Dick. + +"No, no, I mean with a young man;" and she added softly, "unless I +were really engaged to be married to him." + +"Is that all? Then, dearest, dearest, why we'll be engaged at once, +to be sure we will, and down I sit! There it is, as easy as a +glove!" + +"Ah! but suppose I won't! And, goodness me, what have I done!" she +faltered, getting very red. "Positively, it seems as if I meant you +to say that!" + +"Let's do it! I mean get engaged," said Dick. "Now, Fancy, will +you be my wife?" + +"Do you know, Dick, it was rather unkind of you to say what you did +coming along the road," she remarked, as if she had not heard the +latter part of his speech; though an acute observer might have +noticed about her breast, as the word 'wife' fell from Dick's lips, +a soft silent escape of breaths, with very short rests between each. + +"What did I say?" + +"About my trying to look attractive to those men in the gig." + +"You couldn't help looking so, whether you tried or no. And, Fancy, +you do care for me?" + +"Yes." + +"Very much?" + +"Yes." + +"And you'll be my own wife?" + +Her heart quickened, adding to and withdrawing from her cheek +varying tones of red to match each varying thought. Dick looked +expectantly at the ripe tint of her delicate mouth, waiting for what +was coming forth. + +"Yes--if father will let me." + +Dick drew himself close to her, compressing his lips and pouting +them out, as if he were about to whistle the softest melody known. + +"O no!" said Fancy solemnly. + +The modest Dick drew back a little. + +"Dick, Dick, kiss me and let me go instantly!--here's somebody +coming!" she whisperingly exclaimed. + +* * * + +Half an hour afterwards Dick emerged from the inn, and if Fancy's +lips had been real cherries probably Dick's would have appeared +deeply stained. The landlord was standing in the yard. + +"Heu-heu! hay-hay, Master Dewy! Ho-ho!" he laughed, letting the +laugh slip out gently and by degrees that it might make little noise +in its exit, and smiting Dick under the fifth rib at the same time. +"This will never do, upon my life, Master Dewy! calling for tay for +a feymel passenger, and then going in and sitting down and having +some too, and biding such a fine long time!" + +"But surely you know?" said Dick, with great apparent surprise. +"Yes, yes! Ha-ha!" smiting the landlord under the ribs in return. + +"Why, what? Yes, yes; ha-ha!" + +"You know, of course!" + +"Yes, of course! But--that is--I don't." + +"Why about--between that young lady and me?" nodding to the window +of the room that Fancy occupied. + +"No; not I!" said the innkeeper, bringing his eyes into circles. + +"And you don't!" + +"Not a word, I'll take my oath!" + +"But you laughed when I laughed." + +"Ay, that was me sympathy; so did you when I laughed!" + +"Really, you don't know? Goodness--not knowing that!" + +"I'll take my oath I don't!" + +"O yes," said Dick, with frigid rhetoric of pitying astonishment, +"we're engaged to be married, you see, and I naturally look after +her." + +"Of course, of course! I didn't know that, and I hope ye'll excuse +any little freedom of mine, Mr. Dewy. But it is a very odd thing; I +was talking to your father very intimate about family matters only +last Friday in the world, and who should come in but Keeper Day, and +we all then fell a-talking o' family matters; but neither one o' +them said a mortal word about it; knowen me too so many years, and I +at your father's own wedding. 'Tisn't what I should have expected +from an old neighbour!" + +"Well, to say the truth, we hadn't told father of the engagement at +that time; in fact, 'twasn't settled." + +"Ah! the business was done Sunday. Yes, yes, Sunday's the courting +day. Heu-heu!" + +"No, 'twasn't done Sunday in particular." + +"After school-hours this week? Well, a very good time, a very +proper good time." + +"O no, 'twasn't done then." + +"Coming along the road to-day then, I suppose?" + +"Not at all; I wouldn't think of getting engaged in a dog-cart." + +"Dammy--might as well have said at once, the WHEN be blowed! +Anyhow, 'tis a fine day, and I hope next time you'll come as one." + +Fancy was duly brought out and assisted into the vehicle, and the +newly affianced youth and maiden passed up the steep hill to the +Ridgeway, and vanished in the direction of Mellstock. + + + +CHAPTER III: A CONFESSION + + + +It was a morning of the latter summer-time; a morning of lingering +dews, when the grass is never dry in the shade. Fuchsias and +dahlias were laden till eleven o'clock with small drops and dashes +of water, changing the colour of their sparkle at every movement of +the air; and elsewhere hanging on twigs like small silver fruit. +The threads of garden spiders appeared thick and polished. In the +dry and sunny places, dozens of long-legged crane-flies whizzed off +the grass at every step the passer took. + +Fancy Day and her friend Susan Dewy the tranter's daughter, were in +such a spot as this, pulling down a bough laden with early apples. +Three months had elapsed since Dick and Fancy had journeyed together +from Budmouth, and the course of their love had run on vigorously +during the whole time. There had been just enough difficulty +attending its development, and just enough finesse required in +keeping it private, to lend the passion an ever-increasing freshness +on Fancy's part, whilst, whether from these accessories or not, +Dick's heart had been at all times as fond as could be desired. But +there was a cloud on Fancy's horizon now. + +"She is so well off--better than any of us," Susan Dewy was saying. +"Her father farms five hundred acres, and she might marry a doctor +or curate or anything of that kind if she contrived a little." + +"I don't think Dick ought to have gone to that gipsy-party at all +when he knew I couldn't go," replied Fancy uneasily. + +"He didn't know that you would not be there till it was too late to +refuse the invitation," said Susan. + +"And what was she like? Tell me." + +"Well, she was rather pretty, I must own." + +"Tell straight on about her, can't you! Come, do, Susan. How many +times did you say he danced with her?" + +"Once." + +"Twice, I think you said?" + +"Indeed I'm sure I didn't." + +"Well, and he wanted to again, I expect." + +"No; I don't think he did. She wanted to dance with him again bad +enough, I know. Everybody does with Dick, because he's so handsome +and such a clever courter." + +"O, I wish!--How did you say she wore her hair?" + +"In long curls,--and her hair is light, and it curls without being +put in paper: that's how it is she's so attractive." + +"She's trying to get him away! yes, yes, she is! And through +keeping this miserable school I mustn't wear my hair in curls! But +I will; I don't care if I leave the school and go home, I will wear +my curls! Look, Susan, do! is her hair as soft and long as this?" +Fancy pulled from its coil under her hat a twine of her own hair, +and stretched it down her shoulder to show its length, looking at +Susan to catch her opinion from her eyes. + +"It is about the same length as that, I think," said Miss Dewy. + +Fancy paused hopelessly. "I wish mine was lighter, like hers!" she +continued mournfully. "But hers isn't so soft, is it? Tell me, +now." + +"I don't know." + +Fancy abstractedly extended her vision to survey a yellow butterfly +and a red-and-black butterfly that were flitting along in company, +and then became aware that Dick was advancing up the garden. + +"Susan, here's Dick coming; I suppose that's because we've been +talking about him." + +"Well, then, I shall go indoors now--you won't want me;" and Susan +turned practically and walked off. + +Enter the single-minded Dick, whose only fault at the gipsying, or +picnic, had been that of loving Fancy too exclusively, and depriving +himself of the innocent pleasure the gathering might have afforded +him, by sighing regretfully at her absence,--who had danced with the +rival in sheer despair of ever being able to get through that stale, +flat, and unprofitable afternoon in any other way; but this she +would not believe. + +Fancy had settled her plan of emotion. To reproach Dick? O no, no. +"I am in great trouble," said she, taking what was intended to be a +hopelessly melancholy survey of a few small apples lying under the +tree; yet a critical ear might have noticed in her voice a tentative +tone as to the effect of the words upon Dick when she uttered them. + +"What are you in trouble about? Tell me of it," said Dick +earnestly. "Darling, I will share it with 'ee and help 'ee." + +"No, no: you can't! Nobody can!" + +"Why not? You don't deserve it, whatever it is. Tell me, dear." + +"O, it isn't what you think! It is dreadful: my own sin!" + +"Sin, Fancy! as if you could sin! I know it can't be." + +"'Tis, 'tis!" said the young lady, in a pretty little frenzy of +sorrow. "I have done wrong, and I don't like to tell it! Nobody +will forgive me, nobody! and you above all will not! . . . I have +allowed myself to--to--fl--" + +"What,--not flirt!" he said, controlling his emotion as it were by a +sudden pressure inward from his surface. "And you said only the day +before yesterday that you hadn't flirted in your life!" + +"Yes, I did; and that was a wicked story! I have let another love +me, and--" + +"Good G--! Well, I'll forgive you,--yes, if you couldn't help it,-- +yes, I will!" said the now dismal Dick. "Did you encourage him?" + +"O,--I don't know,--yes--no. O, I think so!" + +"Who was it?" A pause. "Tell me!" + +"Mr. Shiner." + +After a silence that was only disturbed by the fall of an apple, a +long-checked sigh from Dick, and a sob from Fancy, he said with real +austerity - + +"Tell it all;--every word!" + +"He looked at me, and I looked at him, and he said, "Will you let me +show you how to catch bullfinches down here by the stream?" And I-- +wanted to know very much--I did so long to have a bullfinch! I +couldn't help that and I said, "Yes!" and then he said, "Come here." +And I went with him down to the lovely river, and then he said to +me, "Look and see how I do it, and then you'll know: I put this +birdlime round this twig, and then I go here," he said, "and hide +away under a hush; and presently clever Mister Bird comes and +perches upon the twig, and flaps his wings, and you've got him +before you can say Jack"--something; O, O, O, I forget what!" + +"Jack Sprat," mournfully suggested Dick through the cloud of his +misery. + +"No, not Jack Sprat," she sobbed. + +"Then 'twas Jack Robinson!" he said, with the emphasis of a man who +had resolved to discover every iota of the truth, or die. + +"Yes, that was it! And then I put my hand upon the rail of the +bridge to get across, and--That's all." + +"Well, that isn't much, either," said Dick critically, and more +cheerfully. "Not that I see what business Shiner has to take upon +himself to teach you anything. But it seems--it do seem there must +have been more than that to set you up in such a dreadful taking?" + +He looked into Fancy's eyes. Misery of miseries!--guilt was written +there still. + +"Now, Fancy, you've not told me all!" said Dick, rather sternly for +a quiet young man. + +"O, don't speak so cruelly! I am afraid to tell now! If you hadn't +been harsh, I was going on to tell all; now I can't!" + +"Come, dear Fancy, tell: come. I'll forgive; I must,--by heaven +and earth, I must, whether I will or no; I love you so!" + +"Well, when I put my hand on the bridge, he touched it--" + +"A scamp!" said Dick, grinding an imaginary human frame to powder. + +"And then he looked at me, and at last he said, 'Are you in love +with Dick Dewy?' And I said, 'Perhaps I am!' and then he said, 'I +wish you weren't then, for I want to marry you, with all my soul.'" + +"There's a villain now! Want to marry you!" And Dick quivered with +the bitterness of satirical laughter. Then suddenly remembering +that he might be reckoning without his host: "Unless, to he sure, +you are willing to have him,--perhaps you are," he said, with the +wretched indifference of a castaway. + +"No, indeed I am not!" she said, her sobs just beginning to take a +favourable turn towards cure. + +"Well, then," said Dick, coming a little to his senses, "you've been +stretching it very much in giving such a dreadful beginning to such +a mere nothing. And I know what you've done it for,--just because +of that gipsy-party!" He turned away from her and took five paces +decisively, as if he were tired of an ungrateful country, including +herself "You did it to make me jealous, and I won't stand it!" He +flung the words to her over his shoulder and then stalked on, +apparently very anxious to walk to the remotest of the Colonies that +very minute. + +"O, O, O, Dick--Dick!" she cried, trotting after him like a pet +lamb, and really seriously alarmed at last, "you'll kill me! My +impulses are bad--miserably wicked,--and I can't help it; forgive +me, Dick! And I love you always; and those times when you look +silly and don't seem quite good enough for me,--just the same, I do, +Dick! And there is something more serious, though not concerning +that walk with him." + +"Well, what is it?" said Dick, altering his mind about walking to +the Colonies in fact, passing to the other extreme, and standing so +rooted to the road that he was apparently not even going home. + +"Why this," she said, drying the beginning of a new flood of tears +she had been going to shed, "this is the serious part. Father has +told Mr. Shiner that he would like him for a son-in-law, if he could +get me;--that he has his right hearty consent to come courting me!" + + + +CHAPTER IV: AN ARRANGEMENT + + + +"That IS serious," said Dick, more intellectually than he had spoken +for a long time. + +The truth was that Geoffrey knew nothing about his daughter's +continued walks and meetings with Dick. When a hint that there were +symptoms of an attachment between them had first reached Geoffrey's +ears, he stated so emphatically that he must think the matter over +before any such thing could be allowed that, rather unwisely on +Dick's part, whatever it might have been on the lady's, the lovers +were careful to be seen together no more in public; and Geoffrey, +forgetting the report, did not think over the matter at all. So Mr. +Shiner resumed his old position in Geoffrey's brain by mere flux of +time. Even Shiner began to believe that Dick existed for Fancy no +more,--though that remarkably easy-going man had taken no active +steps on his own account as yet. + +"And father has not only told Mr. Shiner that," continued Fancy, +"but he has written me a letter, to say he should wish me to +encourage Mr. Shiner, if 'twas convenient!" + +"I must start off and see your father at once!" said Dick, taking +two or three vehement steps to the south, recollecting that Mr. Day +lived to the north, and coming back again. + +"I think we had better see him together. Not tell him what you come +for, or anything of the kind, until he likes you, and so win his +brain through his heart, which is always the way to manage people. +I mean in this way: I am going home on Saturday week to help them +in the honey-taking. You might come there to me, have something to +eat and drink, and let him guess what your coming signifies, without +saying it in so many words." + +"We'll do it, dearest. But I shall ask him for you, flat and plain; +not wait for his guessing." And the lover then stepped close to +her, and attempted to give her one little kiss on the cheek, his +lips alighting however, on an outlying tract of her back hair by +reason of an impulse that had caused her to turn her head with a +jerk. "Yes, and I'll put on my second-best suit and a clean shirt +and collar, and black my boots as if 'twas a Sunday. 'Twill have a +good appearance, you see, and that's a great deal to start with." + +"You won't wear that old waistcoat, will you, Dick?" + +"Bless you, no! Why I--" + +"I didn't mean to be personal, dear Dick," she said, fearing she had +hurt his feelings. "'Tis a very nice waistcoat, but what I meant +was, that though it is an excellent waistcoat for a settled-down +man, it is not quite one for" (she waited, and a blush expanded over +her face, and then she went on again)--"for going courting in." + +"No, I'll wear my best winter one, with the leather lining, that +mother made. It is a beautiful, handsome waistcoat inside, yes, as +ever anybody saw. In fact, only the other day, I unbuttoned it to +show a chap that very lining, and he said it was the strongest, +handsomest lining you could wish to see on the king's waistcoat +himself." + +"_I_ don't quite know what to wear," she said, as if her habitual +indifference alone to dress had kept back so important a subject +till now. + +"Why, that blue frock you wore last week." + +"Doesn't set well round the neck. I couldn't wear that." + +"But I shan't care." + +"No, you won't mind." + +"Well, then it's all right. Because you only care how you look to +me, do you, dear? I only dress for you, that's certain." + +"Yes, but you see I couldn't appear in it again very well." + +"Any strange gentleman you mid meet in your journey might notice the +set of it, I suppose. Fancy, men in love don't think so much about +how they look to other women." It is difficult to say whether a +tone of playful banter or of gentle reproach prevailed in the +speech. + +"Well then, Dick," she said, with good-humoured frankness, "I'll own +it. I shouldn't like a stranger to see me dressed badly, even +though I am in love. 'Tis our nature, I suppose." + +"You perfect woman!" + +"Yes; if you lay the stress on 'woman,'" she murmured, looking at a +group of hollyhocks in flower, round which a crowd of butterflies +had gathered like female idlers round a bonnet-shop. + +"But about the dress. Why not wear the one you wore at our party?" + +"That sets well, but a girl of the name of Bet Tallor, who lives +near our house, has had one made almost like it (only in pattern, +though of miserably cheap stuff), and I couldn't wear it on that +account. Dear me, I am afraid I can't go now." + +"O yes, you must; I know you will!" said Dick, with dismay. "Why +not wear what you've got on?" + +"What! this old one! After all, I think that by wearing my gray one +Saturday, I can make the blue one do for Sunday. Yes, I will. A +hat or a bonnet, which shall it be? Which do I look best in?" + +"Well, I think the bonnet is nicest, more quiet and matronly." + +"What's the objection to the hat? Does it make me look old?" + +"O no; the hat is well enough; but it makes you look rather too--you +won't mind me saying it, dear?" + +"Not at all, for I shall wear the bonnet." + +"--Rather too coquettish and flirty for an engaged young woman." + +She reflected a minute. "Yes; yes. Still, after all, the hat would +do best; hats ARE best, you see. Yes, I must wear the hat, dear +Dicky, because I ought to wear a hat, you know." + + + + +PART THE FOURTH--AUTUMN + + + + +CHAPTER I: GOING NUTTING + + +Dick, dressed in his 'second-best' suit, burst into Fancy's sitting- +room with a glow of pleasure on his face. + +It was two o'clock on Friday, the day before her contemplated visit +to her father, and for some reason connected with cleaning the +school the children had been given this Friday afternoon for +pastime, in addition to the usual Saturday. + +"Fancy! it happens just right that it is a leisure half day with +you. Smart is lame in his near-foot-afore, and so, as I can't do +anything, I've made a holiday afternoon of it, and am come for you +to go nutting with me!" + +She was sitting by the parlour window, with a blue frock lying +across her lap and scissors in her hand. + +"Go nutting! Yes. But I'm afraid I can't go for an hour or so." + +"Why not? 'Tis the only spare afternoon we may both have together +for weeks." + +"This dress of mine, that I am going to wear on Sunday at Yalbury;-- +I find it fits so badly that I must alter it a little, after all. I +told the dressmaker to make it by a pattern I gave her at the time; +instead of that, she did it her own way, and made me look a perfect +fright." + +"How long will you be?" he inquired, looking rather disappointed. + +"Not long. Do wait and talk to me; come, do, dear." + +Dick sat down. The talking progressed very favourably, amid the +snipping and sewing, till about half-past two, at which time his +conversation began to be varied by a slight tapping upon his toe +with a walking-stick he had cut from the hedge as he came along. +Fancy talked and answered him, but sometimes the answers were so +negligently given, that it was evident her thoughts lay for the +greater part in her lap with the blue dress. + +The clock struck three. Dick arose from his seat, walked round the +room with his hands behind him, examined all the furniture, then +sounded a few notes on the harmonium, then looked inside all the +books he could find, then smoothed Fancy's head with his hand. +Still the snipping and sewing went on. + +The clock struck four. Dick fidgeted about, yawned privately; +counted the knots in the table, yawned publicly; counted the flies +on the ceiling, yawned horribly; went into the kitchen and scullery, +and so thoroughly studied the principle upon which the pump was +constructed that he could have delivered a lecture on the subject. +Stepping back to Fancy, and finding still that she had not done, he +went into her garden and looked at her cabbages and potatoes, and +reminded himself that they seemed to him to wear a decidedly +feminine aspect; then pulled up several weeds, and came in again. +The clock struck five, and still the snipping and sewing went on. + +Dick attempted to kill a fly, peeled all the rind off his walking- +stick, then threw the stick into the scullery because it was spoilt, +produced hideous discords from the harmonium, and accidentally +overturned a vase of flowers, the water from which ran in a rill +across the table and dribbled to the floor, where it formed a lake, +the shape of which, after the lapse of a few minutes, he began to +modify considerably with his foot, till it was like a map of England +and Wales. + +"Well, Dick, you needn't have made quite such a mess." + +"Well, I needn't, I suppose." He walked up to the blue dress, and +looked at it with a rigid gaze. Then an idea seemed to cross his +brain. + +"Fancy." + +"Yes." + +"I thought you said you were going to wear your gray gown all day +to-morrow on your trip to Yalbury, and in the evening too, when I +shall be with you, and ask your father for you?" + +"So I am." + +"And the blue one only on Sunday?" + +"And the blue one Sunday." + +"Well, dear, I sha'n't be at Yalbury Sunday to see it." + +"No, but I shall walk to Longpuddle church in the afternoon with +father, and such lots of people will be looking at me there, you +know; and it did set so badly round the neck." + +"I never noticed it, and 'tis like nobody else would." + +"They might." + +"Then why not wear the gray one on Sunday as well? 'Tis as pretty +as the blue one." + +"I might make the gray one do, certainly. But it isn't so good; it +didn't cost half so much as this one, and besides, it would be the +same I wore Saturday." + +"Then wear the striped one, dear." + +"I might." + +"Or the dark one." + +"Yes, I might; but I want to wear a fresh one they haven't seen." + +"I see, I see," said Dick, in a voice in which the tones of love +were decidedly inconvenienced by a considerable emphasis, his +thoughts meanwhile running as follows: "I, the man she loves best +in the world, as she says, am to understand that my poor half- +holiday is to be lost, because she wants to wear on Sunday a gown +there is not the slightest necessity for wearing, simply, in fact, +to appear more striking than usual in the eyes of Longpuddle young +men; and I not there, either." + +"Then there are three dresses good enough for my eyes, but neither +is good enough for the youths of Longpuddle," he said. + +"No, not that exactly, Dick. Still, you see, I do want--to look +pretty to them--there, that's honest! But I sha'n't be much +longer." + +"How much?" + +"A quarter of an hour." + +"Very well; I'll come in in a quarter of an hour." + +"Why go away?" + +"I mid as well." + +He went out, walked down the road, and sat upon a gate. Here he +meditated and meditated, and the more he meditated the more +decidedly did he begin to fume, and the more positive was he that +his time had been scandalously trifled with by Miss Fancy Day--that, +so far from being the simple girl who had never had a sweetheart +before, as she had solemnly assured him time after time, she was, if +not a flirt, a woman who had had no end of admirers; a girl most +certainly too anxious about her frocks; a girl, whose feelings, +though warm, were not deep; a girl who cared a great deal too much +how she appeared in the eyes of other men. "What she loves best in +the world," he thought, with an incipient spice of his father's +grimness, "is her hair and complexion. What she loves next best, +her gowns and hats; what she loves next best, myself, perhaps!" + +Suffering great anguish at this disloyalty in himself and harshness +to his darling, yet disposed to persevere in it, a horribly cruel +thought crossed his mind. He would not call for her, as he had +promised, at the end of a quarter of an hour! Yes, it would be a +punishment she well deserved. Although the best part of the +afternoon had been wasted he would go nutting as he had intended, +and go by himself. + +He leaped over the gate, and pushed up the lane for nearly two +miles, till a winding path called Snail-Creep sloped up a hill and +entered a hazel copse by a hole hike a rabbit's burrow. In he +plunged, vanished among the bushes, and in a short time there was no +sign of his existence upon earth, save an occasional rustling of +boughs and snapping of twigs in divers points of Grey's Wood. + +Never man nutted as Dick nutted that afternoon. He worked like a +galley slave. Half-hour after half-hour passed away, and still he +gathered without ceasing. At last, when the sun had set, and +bunches of nuts could not be distinguished from the leaves which +nourished them, he shouldered his bag, containing quite two pecks of +the finest produce of the wood, about as much use to him as two +pecks of stones from the road, strolled down the woodland track, +crossed the highway and entered the homeward lane, whistling as be +went. + +Probably, Miss Fancy Day never before or after stood so low in Mr. +Dewy's opinion as on that afternoon. In fact, it is just possible +that a few more blue dresses on the Longpuddle young men's account +would have clarified Dick's brain entirely, and made him once more a +free man. + +But Venus had planned other developments, at any rate for the +present. Cuckoo-Lane, the way he pursued, passed over a ridge which +rose keenly against the sky about fifty yards in his van. Here, +upon the bright after-glow about the horizon, was now visible an +irregular shape, which at first he conceived to be a bough standing +a little beyond the line of its neighbours. Then it seemed to move, +and, as he advanced still further, there was no doubt that it was a +living being sitting in the bank, head bowed on hand. The grassy +margin entirely prevented his footsteps from being heard, and it was +not till he was close that the figure recognized him. Up it sprang, +and he was face to face with Fancy. + +"Dick, Dick! O, is it you, Dick!" + +"Yes, Fancy," said Dick, in a rather repentant tone, and lowering +his nuts. + +She ran up to him, flung her parasol on the grass, put her little +head against his breast, and then there began a narrative, +disjointed by such a hysterical weeping as was never surpassed for +intensity in the whole history of love. + +"O Dick," she sobbed out, "where have you been away from me? O, I +have suffered agony, and thought you would never come any more! +'Tis cruel, Dick; no 'tisn't, it is justice! I've been walking +miles and miles up and down Grey's Wood, trying to find you, till I +was wearied and worn out, and I could walk no further, and had come +back this far! O Dick, directly you were gone, I thought I had +offended you and I put down the dress; 'tisn't finished now, and I +never will finish, it, and I'll wear an old one Sunday! Yes, Dick, +I will, because I don't care what I wear when you are not by my +side--ha, you think I do, but I don't!--and I ran after you, and I +saw you go up Snail-Creep and not look back once, and then you +plunged in, and I after you; but I was too far behind. O, I did +wish the horrid bushes had been cut down, so that I could see your +dear shape again! And then I called out to you, and nobody +answered, and I was afraid to call very loud, lest anybody else +should hear me. Then I kept wandering and wandering about, and it +was dreadful misery, Dick. And then I shut my eyes and fell to +picturing you looking at some other woman, very pretty and nice, but +with no affection or truth in her at all, and then imagined you +saying to yourself, "Ah, she's as good as Fancy, for Fancy told me a +story, and was a flirt, and cared for herself more than me, so now +I'll have this one for my sweetheart." O, you won't, will you, +Dick, for I do love you so!" + +It is scarcely necessary to add that Dick renounced his freedom +there and then, and kissed her ten times over, and promised that no +pretty woman of the kind alluded to should ever engross his +thoughts; in short, that though he had been vexed with her, all such +vexation was past, and that henceforth and for ever it was simply +Fancy or death for him. And then they set about proceeding +homewards, very slowly on account of Fancy's weariness, she leaning +upon his shoulder, and in addition receiving support from his arm +round her waist; though she had sufficiently recovered from her +desperate condition to sing to him, "Why are you wandering here, I +pray?" during the latter part of their walk. Nor is it necessary to +describe in detail how the bag of nuts was quite forgotten until +three days later, when it was found among the brambles and restored +empty to Mrs. Dewy, her initials being marked thereon in red cotton; +and how she puzzled herself till her head ached upon the question of +how on earth her meal-bag could have got into Cuckoo-Lane. + + + +CHAPTER II: HONEY-TAKING, AND AFTERWARDS + + + +Saturday evening saw Dick Dewy journeying on foot to Yalbury Wood, +according to the arrangement with Fancy. + +The landscape being concave, at the going down of the sun everything +suddenly assumed a uniform robe of shade. The evening advanced from +sunset to dusk long before Dick's arrival, and his progress during +the latter portion of his walk through the trees was indicated by +the flutter of terrified birds that had been roosting over the path. +And in crossing the glades, masses of hot dry air, that had been +formed on the hills during the day, greeted his cheeks alternately +with clouds of damp night air from the valleys. He reached the +keeper-steward's house, where the grass-plot and the garden in front +appeared light and pale against the unbroken darkness of the grove +from which he had emerged, and paused at the garden gate. + +He had scarcely been there a minute when he beheld a sort of +procession advancing from the door in his front. It consisted first +of Enoch the trapper, carrying a spade on his shoulder and a lantern +dangling in his hand; then came Mrs. Day, the light of the lantern +revealing that she bore in her arms curious objects about a foot +long, in the form of Latin crosses (made of lath and brown paper +dipped in brimstone--called matches by bee-masters); next came Miss +Day, with a shawl thrown over her head; and behind all, in the +gloom, Mr. Frederic Shiner. + +Dick, in his consternation at finding Shiner present, was at a loss +how to proceed, and retired under a tree to collect his thoughts. + +"Here I be, Enoch," said a voice; and the procession advancing +farther, the lantern's rays illuminated the figure of Geoffrey, +awaiting their arrival beside a row of bee-hives, in front of the +path. Taking the spade from Enoch, he proceeded to dig two holes in +the earth beside the hives, the others standing round in a circle, +except Mrs. Day, who deposited her matches in the fork of an apple- +tree and returned to the house. The party remaining were now lit up +in front by the lantern in their midst, their shadows radiating each +way upon the garden-plot like the spokes of a wheel. An apparent +embarrassment of Fancy at the presence of Shiner caused a silence in +the assembly, during which the preliminaries of execution were +arranged, the matches fixed, the stake kindled, the two hives placed +over the two holes, and the earth stopped round the edges. Geoffrey +then stood erect, and rather more, to straighten his backbone after +the digging. + +"They were a peculiar family," said Mr. Shiner, regarding the hives +reflectively. + +Geoffrey nodded. + +"Those holes will be the grave of thousands!" said Fancy. "I think +'tis rather a cruel thing to do." + +Her father shook his head. "No," he said, tapping the hives to +shake the dead bees from their cells, "if you suffocate 'em this +way, they only die once: if you fumigate 'em in the new way, they +come to life again, and die o' starvation; so the pangs o' death be +twice upon 'em." + +"I incline to Fancy's notion," said Mr. Shiner, laughing lightly. + +"The proper way to take honey, so that the bees be neither starved +nor murdered, is a puzzling matter," said the keeper steadily. + +"I should like never to take it from them," said Fancy. + +"But 'tis the money," said Enoch musingly. "For without money man +is a shadder!" + +The lantern-light had disturbed many bees that had escaped from +hives destroyed some days earlier, and, demoralized by affliction, +were now getting a living as marauders about the doors of other +hives. Several flew round the head and neck of Geoffrey; then +darted upon him with an irritated bizz. + +Enoch threw down the lantern, and ran off and pushed his head into a +currant bush; Fancy scudded up the path; and Mr. Shiner floundered +away helter-skelter among the cabbages. Geoffrey stood his ground, +unmoved and firm as a rock. Fancy was the first to return, followed +by Enoch picking up the lantern. Mr. Shiner still remained +invisible. + +"Have the craters stung ye?" said Enoch to Geoffrey. + +"No, not much--on'y a little here and there," he said with leisurely +solemnity, shaking one bee out of his shirt sleeve, pulling another +from among his hair, and two or three more from his neck. The rest +looked on during this proceeding with a complacent sense of being +out of it,--much as a European nation in a state of internal +commotion is watched by its neighbours. + +"Are those all of them, father?" said Fancy, when Geoffrey had +pulled away five. + +"Almost all,--though I feel one or two more sticking into my +shoulder and side. Ah! there's another just begun again upon my +backbone. You lively young mortals, how did you get inside there? +However, they can't sting me many times more, poor things, for they +must be getting weak. They mid as well stay in me till bedtime now, +I suppose." + +As he himself was the only person affected by this arrangement, it +seemed satisfactory enough; and after a noise of feet kicking +against cabbages in a blundering progress among them, the voice of +Mr. Shiner was heard from the darkness in that direction. + +"Is all quite safe again?" + +No answer being returned to this query, he apparently assumed that +he might venture forth, and gradually drew near the lantern again. +The hives were now removed from their position over the holes, one +being handed to Enoch to carry indoors, and one being taken by +Geoffrey himself. + +"Bring hither the lantern, Fancy: the spade can bide." + +Geoffrey and Enoch then went towards the house, leaving Shiner and +Fancy standing side by side on the garden-plot. + +"Allow me," said Shiner, stooping for the lantern and seizing it at +the same time with Fancy. + +"I can carry it," said Fancy, religiously repressing all inclination +to trifle. She had thoroughly considered that subject after the +tearful explanation of the bird-catching adventure to Dick, and had +decided that it would be dishonest in her, as an engaged young +woman, to trifle with men's eyes and hands any more. Finding that +Shiner still retained his hold of the lantern, she relinquished it, +and he, having found her retaining it, also let go. The lantern +fell, and was extinguished. Fancy moved on. + +"Where is the path?" said Mr. Shiner. + +"Here," said Fancy. "Your eyes will get used to the dark in a +minute or two." + +"Till that time will ye lend me your hand?" Fancy gave him the +extreme tips of her fingers, and they stepped from the plot into the +path. + +"You don't accept attentions very freely." + +"It depends upon who offers them." + +"A fellow like me, for instance." A dead silence. + +"Well, what do you say, Missie?" + +"It then depends upon how they are offered." + +"Not wildly, and yet not careless-like; not purposely, and yet not +by chance; not too quick nor yet too slow." + +"How then?" said Fancy. + +"Coolly and practically," he said. "How would that kind of love be +taken?" + +"Not anxiously, and yet not indifferently; neither blushing nor +pale; nor religiously nor yet quite wickedly." + +"Not at all." + +Geoffrey Day's storehouse at the back of his dwelling was hung with +bunches of dried horehound, mint, and sage; brown-paper bags of +thyme and lavender; and long ropes of clean onions. On shelves were +spread large red and yellow apples, and choice selections of early +potatoes for seed next year;--vulgar crowds of commoner kind lying +beneath in heaps. A few empty beehives were clustered around a nail +in one corner, under which stood two or three barrels of new cider +of the first crop, each bubbling and squirting forth from the yet +open bunghole. + +Fancy was now kneeling beside the two inverted hives, one of which +rested against her lap, for convenience in operating upon the +contents. She thrust her sleeves above her elbows, and inserted her +small pink hand edgewise between each white lobe of honeycomb, +performing the act so adroitly and gently as not to unseal a single +cell. Then cracking the piece off at the crown of the hive by a +slight backward and forward movement, she lifted each portion as it +was loosened into a large blue platter, placed on a bench at her +side. + +"Bother these little mortals!" said Geoffrey, who was holding the +light to her, and giving his back an uneasy twist. "I really think +I may as well go indoors and take 'em out, poor things! for they +won't let me alone. There's two a stinging wi' all their might now. +I'm sure I wonder their strength can last so long." + +"All right, friend; I'll hold the candle whilst you are gone," said +Mr. Shiner, leisurely taking the light, and allowing Geoffrey to +depart, which he did with his usual long paces. + +He could hardly have gone round to the house-door when other +footsteps were heard approaching the outbuilding; the tip of a +finger appeared in the hole through which the wood latch was lifted, +and Dick Dewy came in, having been all this time walking up and down +the wood, vainly waiting for Shiner's departure. + +Fancy looked up and welcomed him rather confusedly. Shiner grasped +the candlestick more firmly, and, lest doing this in silence should +not imply to Dick with sufficient force that he was quite at home +and cool, he sang invincibly - + + +"'King Arthur he had three sons.'" + + +"Father here?" said Dick. + +"Indoors, I think," said Fancy, looking pleasantly at him. + +Dick surveyed the scene, and did not seem inclined to hurry off just +at that moment. Shiner went on singing + + +"'The miller was drown'd in his pond, +The weaver was hung in his yarn, +And the d- ran away with the little tail-or, +With the broadcloth under his arm.'" + + +"That's a terrible crippled rhyme, if that's your rhyme!" said Dick, +with a grain of superciliousness in his tone. + +"It's no use your complaining to me about the rhyme!" said Mr. +Shiner. "You must go to the man that made it." + +Fancy by this time had acquired confidence. + +"Taste a bit, Mr. Dewy," she said, holding up to him a small +circular piece of honeycomb that had been the last in the row of +layers, remaining still on her knees and flinging back her head to +look in his face; "and then I'll taste a bit too." + +"And I, if you please," said Mr. Shiner. Nevertheless the farmer +looked superior, as if he could even now hardly join the trifling +from very importance of station; and after receiving the honeycomb +from Fancy, he turned it over in his hand till the cells began to be +crushed, and the liquid honey ran down from his fingers in a thin +string. + +Suddenly a faint cry from Fancy caused them to gaze at her. + +"What's the matter, dear?" said Dick. + +"It is nothing, but O-o! a bee has stung the inside of my lip! He +was in one of the cells I was eating!" + +"We must keep down the swelling, or it may be serious!" said Shiner, +stepping up and kneeling beside her. "Let me see it." + +"No, no!" + +"Just let ME see it," said Dick, kneeling on the other side: and +after some hesitation she pressed down her lip with one finger to +show the place. "O, I hope 'twill soon be better! I don't mind a +sting in ordinary places, but it is so bad upon your lip," she added +with tears in her eyes, and writhing a little from the pain. + +Shiner held the light above his head and pushed his face close to +Fancy's, as if the lip had been shown exclusively to himself, upon +which Dick pushed closer, as if Shiner were not there at all. + +"It is swelling," said Dick to her right aspect. + +"It isn't swelling," said Shiner to her left aspect. + +"Is it dangerous on the lip?" cried Fancy. "I know it is dangerous +on the tongue." + +"O no, not dangerous!" answered Dick. + +"Rather dangerous," had answered Shiner simultaneously. + +"I must try to bear it!" said Fancy, turning again to the hives. + +"Hartshorn-and-oil is a good thing to put to it, Miss Day," said +Shiner with great concern. + +"Sweet-oil-and-hartshorn I've found to be a good thing to cure +stings, Miss Day," said Dick with greater concern. + +"We have some mixed indoors; would you kindly run and get it for +me?" she said. + +Now, whether by inadvertence, or whether by mischievous intention, +the individuality of the YOU was so carelessly denoted that both +Dick and Shiner sprang to their feet like twin acrobats, and marched +abreast to the door; both seized the latch and lifted it, and +continued marching on, shoulder to shoulder, in the same manner to +the dwelling-house. Not only so, but entering the room, they +marched as before straight up to Mrs. Day's chair, letting the door +in the oak partition slam so forcibly, that the rows of pewter on +the dresser rang like a bell. + +"Mrs. Day, Fancy has stung her lip, and wants you to give me the +hartshorn, please," said Mr. Shiner, very close to Mrs. Day's face. + +"O, Mrs. Day, Fancy has asked me to bring out the hartshorn, please, +because she has stung her lip!" said Dick, a little closer to Mrs. +Day's face. + +"Well, men alive! that's no reason why you should eat me, I +suppose!" said Mrs. Day, drawing back. + +She searched in the corner-cupboard, produced the bottle, and began +to dust the cork, the rim, and every other part very carefully, +Dick's hand and Shiner's hand waiting side by side. + +"Which is head man?" said Mrs. Day. "Now, don't come mumbudgeting +so close again. Which is head man?" + +Neither spoke; and the bottle was inclined towards Shiner. Shiner, +as a high-class man, would not look in the least triumphant, and +turned to go off with it as Geoffrey came downstairs after the +search in his linen for concealed bees. + +"O--that you, Master Dewy?" + +Dick assured the keeper that it was; and the young man then +determined upon a bold stroke for the attainment of his end, +forgetting that the worst of bold strokes is the disastrous +consequences they involve if they fail. + +"I've come on purpose to speak to you very particular, Mr. Day," he +said, with a crushing emphasis intended for the ears of Mr. Shiner, +who was vanishing round the door-post at that moment. + +"Well, I've been forced to go upstairs and unrind myself, and shake +some bees out o' me" said Geoffrey, walking slowly towards the open +door, and standing on the threshold. "The young rascals got into my +shirt and wouldn't be quiet nohow." + +Dick followed him to the door. + +"I've come to speak a word to you," he repeated, looking out at the +pale mist creeping up from the gloom of the valley. "You may +perhaps guess what it is about." + +The keeper lowered his hands into the depths of his pockets, twirled +his eyes, balanced himself on his toes, looked as perpendicularly +downward as if his glance were a plumb-line, then horizontally, +collecting together the cracks that lay about his face till they +were all in the neighbourhood of his eyes. + +"Maybe I don't know," he replied. + +Dick said nothing; and the stillness was disturbed only by some +small bird that was being killed by an owl in the adjoining wood, +whose cry passed into the silence without mingling with it. + +"I've left my hat up in chammer," said Geoffrey; "wait while I step +up and get en." + +"I'll be in the garden," said Dick. + +He went round by a side wicket into the garden, and Geoffrey went +upstairs. It was the custom in Mellstock and its vicinity to +discuss matters of pleasure and ordinary business inside the house, +and to reserve the garden for very important affairs: a custom +which, as is supposed, originated in the desirability of getting +away at such times from the other members of the family when there +was only one room for living in, though it was now quite as +frequently practised by those who suffered from no such limitation +to the size of their domiciles. + +The head-keeper's form appeared in the dusky garden, and Dick walked +towards him. The elder paused and leant over the rail of a piggery +that stood on the left of the path, upon which Dick did the same; +and they both contemplated a whitish shadowy shape that was moving +about and grunting among the straw of the interior. + +"I've come to ask for Fancy," said Dick. + +"I'd as lief you hadn't." + +"Why should that be, Mr. Day?" + +"Because it makes me say that you've come to ask what ye be'n't +likely to have. Have ye come for anything else?" + +"Nothing." + +"Then I'll just tell 'ee you've come on a very foolish errand. D'ye +know what her mother was?" + +"No." + +"A teacher in a landed family's nursery, who was foolish enough to +marry the keeper of the same establishment; for I was only a keeper +then, though now I've a dozen other irons in the fire as steward +here for my lord, what with the timber sales and the yearly +fellings, and the gravel and sand sales and one thing and 'tother. +However, d'ye think Fancy picked up her good manners, the smooth +turn of her tongue, her musical notes, and her knowledge of books, +in a homely hole like this?" + +"No." + +"D'ye know where?" + +"No." + +"Well, when I went a-wandering after her mother's death, she lived +with her aunt, who kept a boarding-school, till her aunt married +Lawyer Green--a man as sharp as a needle--and the school was broke +up. Did ye know that then she went to the training-school, and that +her name stood first among the Queen's scholars of her year?" + +"I've heard so." + +"And that when she sat for her certificate as Government teacher, +she had the highest of the first class?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, and do ye know what I live in such a miserly way for when +I've got enough to do without it, and why I make her work as a +schoolmistress instead of living here?" + +"No." + +"That if any gentleman, who sees her to be his equal in polish, +should want to marry her, and she want to marry him, he sha'n't be +superior to her in pocket. Now do ye think after this that you be +good enough for her?" + +"No." + +"Then good-night t'ee, Master Dewy." + +"Good-night, Mr. Day." + +Modest Dick's reply had faltered upon his tongue, and he turned away +wondering at his presumption in asking for a woman whom he had seen +from the beginning to be so superior to him. + + + +CHAPTER III: FANCY IN THE RAIN + + + +The next scene is a tempestuous afternoon in the following month, +and Fancy Day is discovered walking from her father's home towards +Mellstock. + +A single vast gray cloud covered the country, from which the small +rain and mist had just begun to blow down in wavy sheets, +alternately thick and thin. The trees of the fields and plantations +writhed like miserable men as the air wound its way swiftly among +them: the lowest portions of their trunks, that had hardly ever +been known to move, were visibly rocked by the fiercer gusts, +distressing the mind by its painful unwontedness, as when a strong +man is seen to shed tears. Low-hanging boughs went up and down; +high and erect boughs went to and fro; the blasts being so +irregular, and divided into so many cross--currents, that +neighbouring branches of the same tree swept the skies in +independent motions, crossed each other, or became entangled. +Across the open spaces flew flocks of green and yellowish leaves, +which, after travelling a long distance from their parent trees, +reached the ground, and lay there with their under-sides upward. + +As the rain and wind increased, and Fancy's bonnet-ribbons leapt +more and more snappishly against her chin, she paused on entering +Mellstock Lane to consider her latitude, and the distance to a place +of shelter. The nearest house was Elizabeth Endorfield's, in Higher +Mellstock, whose cottage and garden stood not far from the junction +of that hamlet with the road she followed. Fancy hastened onward, +and in five minutes entered a gate, which shed upon her toes a flood +of water-drops as she opened it. + +"Come in, chiel!" a voice exclaimed, before Fancy had knocked: a +promptness that would have surprised her had she not known that Mrs. +Endorfield was an exceedingly and exceptionally sharp woman in the +use of her eyes and ears. + +Fancy went in and sat down. Elizabeth was paring potatoes for her +husband's supper. + +Scrape, scrape, scrape; then a toss, and splash went a potato into a +bucket of water. + +Now, as Fancy listlessly noted these proceedings of the dame, she +began to reconsider an old subject that lay uppermost in her heart. +Since the interview between her father and Dick, the days had been +melancholy days for her. Geoffrey's firm opposition to the notion +of Dick as a son-in-law was more than she had expected. She had +frequently seen her lover since that time, it is true, and had loved +him more for the opposition than she would have otherwise dreamt of +doing--which was a happiness of a certain kind. Yet, though love is +thus an end in itself, it must be believed to be the means to +another end if it is to assume the rosy hues of an unalloyed +pleasure. And such a belief Fancy and Dick were emphatically denied +just now. + +Elizabeth Endorfield had a repute among women which was in its +nature something between distinction and notoriety. It was founded +on the following items of character. She was shrewd and +penetrating; her house stood in a lonely place; she never went to +church; she wore a red cloak; she always retained her bonnet indoors +and she had a pointed chin. Thus far her attributes were distinctly +Satanic; and those who looked no further called her, in plain terms +a witch. But she was not gaunt, nor ugly in the upper part of her +face, nor particularly strange in manner; so that, when her more +intimate acquaintances spoke of her the term was softened, and she +became simply a Deep Body, who was as long-headed as she was high. +It may be stated that Elizabeth, belonged to a class of suspects who +were gradually losing their mysterious characteristics under the +administration of the young vicar; though, during the long reign of +Mr. Grinham, the parish of Mellstock had proved extremely favourable +to the growth of witches. + +While Fancy was revolving all this in her mind, and putting it to +herself whether it was worth while to tell her troubles to +Elizabeth, and ask her advice in getting out of them, the witch +spoke. + +"You be down--proper down," she said suddenly, dropping another +potato into the bucket. + +Fancy took no notice. + +"About your young man." + +Fancy reddened. Elizabeth seemed to be watching her thoughts. +Really, one would almost think she must have the powers people +ascribed to her. + +"Father not in the humour for't, hey?" Another potato was finished +and flung in. "Ah, I know about it. Little birds tell me things +that people don't dream of my knowing." + +Fancy was desperate about Dick, and here was a chance--O, such a +wicked chance--of getting help; and what was goodness beside love! + +"I wish you'd tell me how to put him in the humour for it?" she +said. + +"That I could soon do," said the witch quietly. + +"Really? O, do; anyhow--I don't care--so that it is done! How +could I do it, Mrs. Endorfield?" + +"Nothing so mighty wonderful in it." + +"Well, but how?" + +"By witchery, of course!" said Elizabeth. + +"No!" said Fancy. + +"'Tis, I assure ye. Didn't you ever hear I was a witch?" + +"Well," hesitated Fancy, "I have heard you called so." + +"And you believed it?" + +"I can't say that I did exactly believe it, for 'tis very horrible +and wicked; but, O, how I do wish it was possible for you to be +one!" + +"So I am. And I'll tell you how to bewitch your father to let you +marry Dick Dewy." + +"Will it hurt him, poor thing?" + +"Hurt who?" + +"Father." + +"No; the charm is worked by common sense, and the spell can only be +broke by your acting stupidly." + +Fancy looked rather perplexed, and Elizabeth went on: + + +"This fear of Lizz--whatever 'tis - +By great and small; +She makes pretence to common sense, +And that's all. + + +"You must do it like this." The witch laid down her knife and +potato, and then poured into Fancy's ear a long and detailed list of +directions, glancing up from the corner of her eye into Fancy's face +with an expression of sinister humour. Fancy's face brightened, +clouded, rose and sank, as the narrative proceeded. "There," said +Elizabeth at length, stooping for the knife and another potato, "do +that, and you'll have him by-long and by-late, my dear." + +"And do it I will!" said Fancy. + +She then turned her attention to the external world once more. The +rain continued as usual, but the wind had abated considerably during +the discourse. Judging that it was now possible to keep an umbrella +erect, she pulled her hood again over her bonnet, bade the witch +good-bye, and went her way. + + + +CHAPTER IV: THE SPELL + + + +Mrs. Endorfield's advice was duly followed. + +"I be proper sorry that your daughter isn't so well as she might +be," said a Mellstock man to Geoffrey one morning. + +"But is there anything in it?" said Geoffrey uneasily, as he shifted +his hat to the right. "I can't understand the report. She didn't +complain to me a bit when I saw her." + +"No appetite at all, they say." + +Geoffrey crossed to Mellstock and called at the school that +afternoon. Fancy welcomed him as usual, and asked him to stay and +take tea with her. + +"I be'n't much for tea, this time o' day," he said, but stayed. + +During the meal he watched her narrowly. And to his great +consternation discovered the following unprecedented change in the +healthy girl--that she cut herself only a diaphanous slice of bread- +and-butter, and, laying it on her plate, passed the meal-time in +breaking it into pieces, but eating no more than about one-tenth of +the slice. Geoffrey hoped she would say something about Dick, and +finish up by weeping, as she had done after the decision against him +a few days subsequent to the interview in the garden. But nothing +was said, and in due time Geoffrey departed again for Yalbury Wood. + +"'Tis to be hoped poor Miss Fancy will be able to keep on her +school," said Geoffrey's man Enoch to Geoffrey the following week, +as they were shovelling up ant-hills in the wood. + +Geoffrey stuck in the shovel, swept seven or eight ants from his +sleeve, and killed another that was prowling round his ear, then +looked perpendicularly into the earth as usual, waiting for Enoch to +say more. "Well, why shouldn't she?" said the keeper at last. + +"The baker told me yesterday," continued Enoch, shaking out another +emmet that had run merrily up his thigh, "that the bread he've left +at that there school-house this last month would starve any mouse in +the three creations; that 'twould so! And afterwards I had a pint +o' small down at Morrs's, and there I heard more." + +"What might that ha' been?" + +"That she used to have a pound o' the best rolled butter a week, +regular as clockwork, from Dairyman Viney's for herself, as well as +just so much salted for the helping girl, and the 'ooman she calls +in; but now the same quantity d'last her three weeks, and then 'tis +thoughted she throws it away sour." + +"Finish doing the emmets, and carry the bag home-along." The keeper +resumed his gun, tucked it under his arm, and went on without +whistling to the dogs, who however followed, with a bearing meant to +imply that they did not expect any such attentions when their master +was reflecting. + +On Saturday morning a note came from Fancy. He was not to trouble +about sending her the couple of rabbits, as was intended, because +she feared she should not want them. Later in the day Geoffrey went +to Casterbridge and called upon the butcher who served Fancy with +fresh meat, which was put down to her father's account. + +"I've called to pay up our little bill, Neighbour Haylock, and you +can gie me the chiel's account at the same time." + +Mr. Haylock turned round three quarters of a circle in the midst of +a heap of joints, altered the expression of his face from meat to +money, went into a little office consisting only of a door and a +window, looked very vigorously into a book which possessed length +but no breadth; and then, seizing a piece of paper and scribbling +thereupon, handed the bill. + +Probably it was the first time in the history of commercial +transactions that the quality of shortness in a butcher's bill was a +cause of tribulation to the debtor. "Why, this isn't all she've had +in a whole month!" said Geoffrey. + +"Every mossel," said the butcher--"(now, Dan, take that leg and +shoulder to Mrs. White's, and this eleven pound here to Mr. +Martin's)--you've been treating her to smaller joints lately, to my +thinking, Mr. Day?" + +"Only two or three little scram rabbits this last week, as I am +alive--I wish I had!" + +"Well, my wife said to me--(Dan! not too much, not too much on that +tray at a time; better go twice)--my wife said to me as she posted +up the books: she says, "Miss Day must have been summer during that +hot muggy weather much for us; for depend upon't," she says, "she've +been trying John Grimmett unknown to us: see her account else." +'Tis little, of course, at the best of times, being only for one, +but now 'tis next kin to nothing." + +"I'll inquire," said Geoffrey despondingly. + +He returned by way of Mellstock, and called upon Fancy, in +fulfilment of a promise. It being Saturday, the children were +enjoying a holiday, and on entering the residence Fancy was nowhere +to be seen. Nan, the charwoman, was sweeping the kitchen. + +"Where's my da'ter?" said the keeper. + +"Well, you see she was tired with the week's teaching, and this +morning she said, "Nan, I sha'n't get up till the evening." You +see, Mr. Day, if people don't eat, they can't work; and as she've +gie'd up eating, she must gie up working." + +"Have ye carried up any dinner to her?" + +"No; she don't want any. There, we all know that such things don't +come without good reason--not that I wish to say anything about a +broken heart, or anything of the kind." + +Geoffrey's own heart felt inconveniently large just then. He went +to the staircase and ascended to his daughter's door. + +"Fancy!" + +"Come in, father." + +To see a person in bed from any cause whatever, on a fine afternoon, +is depressing enough; and here was his only child Fancy, not only in +bed, but looking very pale. Geoffrey was visibly disturbed. + +"Fancy, I didn't expect to see thee here, chiel," he said. "What's +the matter?" + +"I'm not well, father." + +"How's that?" + +"Because I think of things." + +"What things can you have to think o' so mortal much?" + +"You know, father." + +"You think I've been cruel to thee in saying that that penniless +Dick o' thine sha'n't marry thee, I suppose?" + +No answer. + +"Well, you know, Fancy, I do it for the best, and he isn't good +enough for thee. You know that well enough." Here he again looked +at her as she lay. "Well, Fancy, I can't let my only chiel die; and +if you can't live without en, you must ha' en, I suppose." + +"O, I don't want him like that; all against your will, and +everything so disobedient!" sighed the invalid. + +"No, no, 'tisn't against my will. My wish is, now I d'see how 'tis +hurten thee to live without en, that he shall marry thee as soon as +we've considered a little. That's my wish flat and plain, Fancy. +There, never cry, my little maid! You ought to ha' cried afore; no +need o' crying now 'tis all over. Well, howsoever, try to step over +and see me and mother-law to-morrow, and ha' a bit of dinner wi' +us." + +"And--Dick too?" + +"Ay, Dick too, 'far's I know." + +"And WHEN do you think you'll have considered, father, and he may +marry me?" she coaxed. + +"Well, there, say next Midsummer; that's not a day too long to +wait." + +On leaving the school Geoffrey went to the tranter's. Old William +opened the door. + +"Is your grandson Dick in 'ithin, William?" + +"No, not just now, Mr. Day. Though he've been at home a good deal +lately." + +"O, how's that?" + +"What wi' one thing, and what wi' t'other, he's all in a mope, as +might be said. Don't seem the feller he used to. Ay, 'a will sit +studding and thinking as if 'a were going to turn chapel-member, and +then do nothing but traypse and wamble about. Used to be such a +chatty boy, too, Dick did; and now 'a don't speak at all. But won't +ye step inside? Reuben will be home soon, 'a b'lieve." + +"No, thank you, I can't stay now. Will ye just ask Dick if he'll do +me the kindness to step over to Yalbury to-morrow with my da'ter +Fancy, if she's well enough? I don't like her to come by herself, +now she's not so terrible topping in health." + +"So I've heard. Ay, sure, I'll tell him without fail." + + + +CHAPTER V: AFTER GAINING HER POINT + + + +The visit to Geoffrey passed off as delightfully as a visit might +have been expected to pass off when it was the first day of smooth +experience in a hitherto obstructed love-course. And then came a +series of several happy days, of the same undisturbed serenity. +Dick could court her when he chose; stay away when he chose,--which +was never; walk with her by winding streams and waterfalls and +autumn scenery till dews arid twilight sent them home. And thus +they drew near the day of the Harvest Thanksgiving, which was also +the time chosen for opening the organ in Mellstock Church. + +It chanced that Dick on that very day was called away from +Mellstock. A young acquaintance had died of consumption at +Charmley, a neighbouring village, on the previous Monday, and Dick, +in fulfilment of a long-standing promise, was to assist in carrying +him to the grave. When on Tuesday, Dick went towards the school to +acquaint Fancy with the fact, it is difficult to say whether his own +disappointment at being denied the sight of her triumphant debut as +organist, was greater than his vexation that his pet should on this +great occasion be deprived of the pleasure of his presence. +However, the intelligence was communicated. She bore it as she best +could, not without many expressions of regret, and convictions that +her performance would be nothing to her now. + +Just before eleven o'clock on Sunday he set out upon his sad errand. +The funeral was to be immediately after the morning service, and as +there were four good miles to walk, driving being inconvenient, it +became necessary to start comparatively early. Half an hour later +would certainly have answered his purpose quite as well, yet at the +last moment nothing would content his ardent mind but that he must +go a mile out of his way in the direction of the school, in the hope +of getting a glimpse of his Love as she started for church. + +Striking, therefore, into the lane towards the school, instead of +across the ewelease direct to Charmley, he arrived opposite her door +as his goddess emerged. + +If ever a woman looked a divinity, Fancy Day appeared one that +morning as she floated down those school steps, in the form of a +nebulous collection of colours inclining to blue. With an audacity +unparalleled in the whole history of village-school-mistresses at +this date--partly owing, no doubt, to papa's respectable +accumulation of cash, which rendered her profession not altogether +one of necessity--she had actually donned a hat and feather, and +lowered her hitherto plainly looped-up hair, which now fell about +her shoulders in a profusion of curls. Poor Dick was astonished: +he had never seen her look so distractingly beautiful before, save +on Christmas-eve, when her hair was in the same luxuriant condition +of freedom. But his first burst of delighted surprise was followed +by less comfortable feelings, as soon as his brain recovered its +power to think. + +Fancy had blushed;--was it with confusion? She had also +involuntarily pressed back her curls. She had not expected him. + +"Fancy, you didn't know me for a moment in my funeral clothes, did +you?" + +"Good-morning, Dick--no, really, I didn't know you for an instant in +such a sad suit." + +He looked again at the gay tresses and hat. "You've never dressed +so charming before, dearest." + +"I like to hear you praise me in that way, Dick," she said, smiling +archly. "It is meat and drink to a woman. Do I look nice really?" + +"Fie! you know it. Did you remember,--I mean didn't you remember +about my going away to-day?" + +"Well, yes, I did, Dick; but, you know, I wanted to look well;-- +forgive me." + +"Yes, darling; yes, of course,--there's nothing to forgive. No, I +was only thinking that when we talked on Tuesday and Wednesday and +Thursday and Friday about my absence to-day, and I was so sorry for +it, you said, Fancy, so were you sorry, and almost cried, and said +it would be no pleasure to you to be the attraction of the church +to-day, since I could not be there." + +"My dear one, neither will it be so much pleasure to me . . . But I +do take a little delight in my life, I suppose," she pouted. + +"Apart from mine?" + +She looked at him with perplexed eyes. "I know you are vexed with +me, Dick, and it is because the first Sunday I have curls and a hat +and feather since I have been here happens to be the very day you +are away and won't be with me. Yes, say it is, for that is it! And +you think that all this week I ought to have remembered you wouldn't +be here to-day, and not have cared to be better dressed than usual. +Yes, you do, Dick, and it is rather unkind!" + +"No, no," said Dick earnestly and simply, "I didn't think so badly +of you as that. I only thought that--if YOU had been going away, I +shouldn't have tried new attractions for the eyes of other people. +But then of course you and I are different, naturally." + +"Well, perhaps we are." + +"Whatever will the vicar say, Fancy?" + +"I don't fear what he says in the least!" she answered proudly. +"But he won't say anything of the sort you think. No, no." + +"He can hardly have conscience to, indeed." + +"Now come, you say, Dick, that you quite forgive me, for I must go," +she said with sudden gaiety, and skipped backwards into the porch. +"Come here, sir;--say you forgive me, and then you shall kiss me;-- +you never have yet when I have worn curls, you know. Yes, just +where you want to so much,--yes, you may!" + +Dick followed her into the inner corner, where he was probably not +slow in availing himself of the privilege offered. + +"Now that's a treat for you, isn't it?" she continued. "Good-bye, +or I shall be late. Come and see me to-morrow: you'll be tired to- +night." + +Thus they parted, and Fancy proceeded to the church. The organ +stood on one side of the chancel, close to and under the immediate +eye of the vicar when he was in the pulpit, and also in full view of +the congregation. Here she sat down, for the first time in such a +conspicuous position, her seat having previously been in a remote +spot in the aisle. + +"Good heavens--disgraceful! Curls and a hat and feather!" said the +daughters of the small gentry, who had either only curly hair +without a hat and feather, or a hat and feather without curly hair. +"A bonnet for church always," said sober matrons. + +That Mr. Maybold was conscious of her presence close beside him +during the sermon; that he was not at all angry at her development +of costume; that he admired her, she perceived. But she did not see +that he loved her during that sermon-time as he had never loved a +woman before; that her proximity was a strange delight to him; and +that he gloried in her musical success that morning in a spirit +quite beyond a mere cleric's glory at the inauguration of a new +order of things. + +The old choir, with humbled hearts, no longer took their seats in +the gallery as heretofore (which was now given up to the school- +children who were not singers, and a pupil-teacher), but were +scattered about with their wives in different parts of the church. +Having nothing to do with conducting the service for almost the +first time in their lives, they all felt awkward, out of place, +abashed, and inconvenienced by their hands. The tranter had +proposed that they should stay away to-day and go nutting, but +grandfather William would not hear of such a thing for a moment. +"No," he replied reproachfully, and quoted a verse "Though this has +come upon us, let not our hearts be turned back, or our steps go out +of the way." + +So they stood and watched the curls of hair trailing down the back +of the successful rival, and the waving of her feather, as she +swayed her head. After a few timid notes and uncertain touches her +playing became markedly correct, and towards the end full and free. +But, whether from prejudice or unbiassed judgment, the venerable +body of musicians could not help thinking that the simpler notes +they had been wont to bring forth were more in keeping with the +simplicity of their old church than the crowded chords and +interludes it was her pleasure to produce. + + + +CHAPTER VI: INTO TEMPTATION + + + +The day was done, and Fancy was again in the school-house. About +five o'clock it began to rain, and in rather a dull frame of mind +she wandered into the schoolroom, for want of something better to +do. She was thinking--of her lover Dick Dewy? Not precisely. Of +how weary she was of living alone: how unbearable it would be to +return to Yalbury under the rule of her strange-tempered step- +mother; that it was far better to be married to anybody than do +that; that eight or nine long months had yet to be lived through ere +the wedding could take place. + +At the side of the room were high windows of Ham-hill stone, upon +either sill of which she could sit by first mounting a desk and +using it as a footstool. As the evening advanced here she perched +herself, as was her custom on such wet and gloomy occasions, put on +a light shawl and bonnet, opened the window, and looked out at the +rain. + +The window overlooked a field called the Grove, and it was the +position from which she used to survey the crown of Dick's passing +hat in the early days of their acquaintance and meetings. Not a +living soul was now visible anywhere; the rain kept all people +indoors who were not forced abroad by necessity, and necessity was +less importunate on Sundays than during the week. + +Sitting here and thinking again--of her lover, or of the sensation +she had created at church that day?--well, it is unknown--thinking +and thinking she saw a dark masculine figure arising into +distinctness at the further end of the Grove--a man without an +umbrella. Nearer and nearer he came, and she perceived that he was +in deep mourning, and then that it was Dick. Yes, in the fondness +and foolishness of his young heart, after walking four miles, in a +drizzling rain without overcoat or umbrella, and in face of a remark +from his love that he was not to come because he would be tired, he +had made it his business to wander this mile out of his way again, +from sheer wish of spending ten minutes in her presence. + +"O Dick, how wet you are!" she said, as he drew up under the window. +"Why, your coat shines as if it had been varnished, and your hat--my +goodness, there's a streaming hat!" + +"O, I don't mind, darling!" said Dick cheerfully. "Wet never hurts +me, though I am rather sorry for my best clothes. However, it +couldn't be helped; we lent all the umbrellas to the women. I don't +know when I shall get mine back!" + +"And look, there's a nasty patch of something just on your +shoulder." + +"Ah, that's japanning; it rubbed off the clamps of poor Jack's +coffin when we lowered him from our shoulders upon the bier! I +don't care about that, for 'twas the last deed I could do for him; +and 'tis hard if you can't afford a coat for an old friend." + +Fancy put her hand to her mouth for half a minute. Underneath the +palm of that little hand there existed for that half-minute a little +yawn. + +"Dick, I don't like you to stand there in the wet. And you mustn't +sit down. Go home and change your things. Don't stay another +minute." + +"One kiss after coming so far," he pleaded. + +"If I can reach, then." + +He looked rather disappointed at not being invited round to the +door. She twisted from her seated position and bent herself +downwards, but not even by standing on the plinth was it possible +for Dick to get his lips into contact with hers as she held them. +By great exertion she might have reached a little lower; but then +she would have exposed her head to the rain. + +"Never mind, Dick; kiss my hand," she said, flinging it down to him. +"Now, good-bye." + +"Good-bye." + +He walked slowly away, turning and turning again to look at her till +he was out of sight. During the retreat she said to herself, almost +involuntarily, and still conscious of that morning's triumph--"I +like Dick, and I love him; but how plain and sorry a man looks in +the rain, with no umbrella, and wet through!" + +As he vanished, she made as if to descend from her seat; but +glancing in the other direction she saw another form coming along +the same track. It was also that of a man. He, too, was in black +from top to toe; but he carried an umbrella. + +He drew nearer, and the direction of the rain caused him so to slant +his umbrella that from her height above the ground his head was +invisible, as she was also to him. He passed in due time directly +beneath her, and in looking down upon the exterior of his umbrella +her feminine eyes perceived it to be of superior silk--less common +at that date than since--and of elegant make. He reached the +entrance to the building, and Fancy suddenly lost sight of him. +Instead of pursuing the roadway as Dick had done he had turned +sharply round into her own porch. + +She jumped to the floor, hastily flung off her shawl and bonnet, +smoothed and patted her hair till the curls hung in passable +condition, and listened. No knock. Nearly a minute passed, and +still there was no knock. Then there arose a soft series of raps, +no louder than the tapping of a distant woodpecker, and barely +distinct enough to reach her ears. She composed herself and flung +open the door. + +In the porch stood Mr. Maybold. + +There was a warm flush upon his face, and a bright flash in his +eyes, which made him look handsomer than she had ever seen him +before. + +"Good-evening, Miss Day." + +"Good-evening, Mr. Maybold," she said, in a strange state of mind. +She had noticed, beyond the ardent hue of his face, that his voice +had a singular tremor in it, and that his hand shook like an aspen +leaf when he laid his umbrella in the corner of the porch. Without +another word being spoken by either, he came into the schoolroom, +shut the door, and moved close to her. Once inside, the expression +of his face was no more discernible, by reason of the increasing +dusk of evening. + +"I want to speak to you," he then said; "seriously--on a perhaps +unexpected subject, but one which is all the world to me--I don't +know what it may be to you, Miss Day." + +No reply. + +"Fancy, I have come to ask you if you will be my wife?" + +As a person who has been idly amusing himself with rolling a +snowball might start at finding he had set in motion an avalanche, +so did Fancy start at these words from the vicar. And in the dead +silence which followed them, the breathings of the man and of the +woman could be distinctly and separately heard; and there was this +difference between them--his respirations gradually grew quieter and +less rapid after the enunciation hers, from having been low and +regular, increased in quickness and force, till she almost panted. + +"I cannot, I cannot, Mr. Maybold--I cannot! Don't ask me!" she +said. + +"Don't answer in a hurry!" he entreated. "And do listen to me. +This is no sudden feeling on my part. I have loved you for more +than six months! Perhaps my late interest in teaching the children +here has not been so single-minded as it seemed. You will +understand my motive--like me better, perhaps, for honestly telling +you that I have struggled against my emotion continually, because I +have thought that it was not well for me to love you! But I +resolved to struggle no longer; I have examined the feeling; and the +love I bear you is as genuine as that I could bear any woman! I see +your great charm; I respect your natural talents, and the refinement +they have brought into your nature--they are quite enough, and more +than enough for me! They are equal to anything ever required of the +mistress of a quiet parsonage-house--the place in which I shall pass +my days, wherever it may be situated. O Fancy, I have watched you, +criticized you even severely, brought my feelings to the light of +judgment, and still have found them rational, and such as any man +might have expected to be inspired with by a woman like you! So +there is nothing hurried, secret, or untoward in my desire to do +this. Fancy, will you marry me?" + +No answer was returned. + +"Don't refuse; don't," he implored. "It would be foolish of you--I +mean cruel! Of course we would not live here, Fancy. I have had +for a long time the offer of an exchange of livings with a friend in +Yorkshire, but I have hitherto refused on account of my mother. +There we would go. Your musical powers shall be still further +developed; you shall have whatever pianoforte you like; you shall +have anything, Fancy, anything to make you happy--pony-carriage, +flowers, birds, pleasant society; yes, you have enough in you for +any society, after a few months of travel with me! Will you, Fancy, +marry me?" + +Another pause ensued, varied only by the surging of the rain against +the window-panes, and then Fancy spoke, in a faint and broken voice. + +"Yes, I will," she said. + +"God bless you, my own!" He advanced quickly, and put his arm out +to embrace her. She drew back hastily. "No no, not now!" she said +in an agitated whisper. "There are things;--but the temptation is, +O, too strong, and I can't resist it I can't tell you now, but I +must tell you! Don't, please, don't come near me now! I want to +think, I can scarcely get myself used to the idea of what I have +promised yet." The next minute she turned to a desk, buried her +face in her hands, and burst into a hysterical fit of weeping. "O, +leave me to myself!" she sobbed; "leave me! O, leave me!" + +"Don't be distressed; don't, dearest!" It was with visible +difficulty that he restrained himself from approaching her. "You +shall tell me at your leisure what it is that grieves you so; I am +happy--beyond all measure happy!--at having your simple promise." + +"And do go and leave me now!" + +"But I must not, in justice to you, leave for a minute, until you +are yourself again." + +"There then," she said, controlling her emotion, and standing up; "I +am not disturbed now." + +He reluctantly moved towards the door. "Good-bye!" he murmured +tenderly. "I'll come to-morrow about this time." + + + +CHAPTER VII: SECOND THOUGHTS + + + +The next morning the vicar rose early. The first thing he did was +to write a long and careful letter to his friend in Yorkshire. +Then, eating a little breakfast, he crossed the meadows in the +direction of Casterbridge, bearing his letter in his pocket, that he +might post it at the town office, and obviate the loss of one day in +its transmission that would have resulted had he left it for the +foot-post through the village. + +It was a foggy morning, and the trees shed in noisy water-drops the +moisture they had collected from the thick air, an acorn +occasionally falling from its cup to the ground, in company with the +drippings. In the meads, sheets of spiders'-web, almost opaque with +wet, hung in folds over the fences, and the falling leaves appeared +in every variety of brown, green, and yellow hue. + +A low and merry whistling was heard on the highway he was +approaching, then the light footsteps of a man going in the same +direction as himself. On reaching the junction of his path with the +road, the vicar beheld Dick Dewy's open and cheerful face. Dick +lifted his hat, and the vicar came out into the highway that Dick +was pursuing. + +"Good-morning, Dewy. How well you are looking!" said Mr. Maybold. + +"Yes, sir, I am well--quite well! I am going to Casterbridge now, +to get Smart's collar; we left it there Saturday to be repaired." + +"I am going to Casterbridge, so we'll walk together," the vicar +said. Dick gave a hop with one foot to put himself in step with Mr. +Maybold, who proceeded: "I fancy I didn't see you at church +yesterday, Dewy. Or were you behind the pier?" + +"No; I went to Charmley. Poor John Dunford chose me to be one of +his bearers a long time before he died, and yesterday was the +funeral. Of course I couldn't refuse, though I should have liked +particularly to have been at home as 'twas the day of the new +music." + +"Yes, you should have been. The musical portion of the service was +successful--very successful indeed; and what is more to the purpose, +no ill-feeling whatever was evinced by any of the members of the old +choir. They joined in the singing with the greatest good-will." + +"'Twas natural enough that I should want to be there, I suppose," +said Dick, smiling a private smile; "considering who the organ- +player was." + +At this the vicar reddened a little, and said, "Yes, yes," though +not at all comprehending Dick's true meaning, who, as he received no +further reply, continued hesitatingly, and with another smile +denoting his pride as a lover - + + "I suppose you know what I mean, sir? You've heard about me and-- +Miss Day?" + +The red in Maybold's countenance went away: he turned and looked +Dick in the face. + +"No," he said constrainedly, "I've heard nothing whatever about you +and Miss Day." + +"Why, she's my sweetheart, and we are going to be married next +Midsummer. We are keeping it rather close just at present, because +'tis a good many months to wait; but it is her father's wish that we +don't marry before, and of course we must submit. But the time 'ill +soon slip along." + +"Yes, the time will soon slip along--Time glides away every day-- +yes." + +Maybold said these words, but he had no idea of what they were. He +was conscious of a cold and sickly thrill throughout him; and all he +reasoned was this that the young creature whose graces had +intoxicated him into making the most imprudent resolution of his +life, was less an angel than a woman. + +"You see, sir," continued the ingenuous Dick, "'twill be better in +one sense. I shall by that time be the regular manager of a branch +o' father's business, which has very much increased lately, and +business, which we think of starting elsewhere. It has very much +increased lately, and we expect next year to keep a' extra couple of +horses. We've already our eye on one--brown as a berry, neck like a +rainbow, fifteen hands, and not a gray hair in her--offered us at +twenty-five want a crown. And to kip pace with the times I have had +some cards prented and I beg leave to hand you one, sir." + +"Certainly," said the vicar, mechanically taking the card that Dick +offered him. + +"I turn in here by Grey's Bridge," said Dick. "I suppose you go +straight on and up town?" + +"Yes." + +"Good-morning, sir." + +"Good-morning, Dewy." + +Maybold stood still upon the bridge, holding the card as it had been +put into his hand, and Dick's footsteps died away towards Durnover +Mill. The vicar's first voluntary action was to read the card + + +DEWY AND SON, +TRANTERS AND HAULIERS, +MELLSTOCK. + +NB.--Furniture, Coals, Potatoes, Live and Dead Stock, removed to any +distance on the shortest notice. + + +Mr. Maybold leant over the parapet of the bridge and looked into the +river. He saw--without heeding--how the water came rapidly from +beneath the arches, glided down a little steep, then spread itself +over a pool in which dace, trout, and minnows sported at ease among +the long green locks of weed that lay heaving and sinking with their +roots towards the current. At the end of ten minutes spent leaning +thus, he drew from his pocket the letter to his friend, tore it +deliberately into such minute fragments that scarcely two syllables +remained in juxtaposition, and sent the whole handful of shreds +fluttering into the water. Here he watched them eddy, dart, and +turn, as they were carried downwards towards the ocean and gradually +disappeared from his view. Finally he moved off, and pursued his +way at a rapid pace back again to Mellstock Vicarage. + +Nerving himself by a long and intense effort, he sat down in his +study and wrote as follows: + + +"DEAR MISS DAY,--The meaning of your words, 'the temptation is too +strong,' of your sadness and your tears, has been brought home to me +by an accident. I know to-day what I did not know yesterday--that +you are not a free woman. + +"Why did you not tell me--why didn't you? Did you suppose I knew? +No. Had I known, my conduct in coming to you as I did would have +been reprehensible. + +"But I don't chide you! Perhaps no blame attaches to you--I can't +tell. Fancy, though my opinion of you is assailed and disturbed in +a way which cannot be expressed, I love you still, and my word to +you holds good yet. But will you, in justice to an honest man who +relies upon your word to him, consider whether, under the +circumstances, you can honourably forsake him?--Yours ever +sincerely, + +"ARTHUR MAYBOLD." + + +He rang the bell. "Tell Charles to take these copybooks and this +note to the school at once." + +The maid took the parcel and the letter, and in a few minutes a boy +was seen to leave the vicarage gate, with the one under his arm, and +the other in his hand. The vicar sat with his hand to his brow, +watching the lad as he descended Church Lane and entered the +waterside path which intervened between that spot and the school. + +Here he was met by another boy, and after a free salutation and +pugilistic frisk had passed between the two, the second boy came on +his way to the vicarage, and the other vanished out of sight. + +The boy came to the door, and a note for Mr. Maybold was brought in. + +He knew the writing. Opening the envelope with an unsteady hand, he +read the subjoined words: + + +"DEAR MR. MAYBOLD,--I have been thinking seriously and sadly through +the whole of the night of the question you put to me last evening +and of my answer. That answer, as an honest woman, I had no right +to give. + +"It is my nature--perhaps all women's--to love refinement of mind +and manners; but even more than this, to be ever fascinated with the +idea of surroundings more elegant and pleasing than those which have +been customary. And you praised me, and praise is life to me. It +was alone my sensations at these things which prompted my reply. +Ambition and vanity they would be called; perhaps they are so. + +"After this explanation I hope you will generously allow me to +withdraw the answer I too hastily gave. + +"And one more request. To keep the meeting of last night, and all +that passed between us there, for ever a secret. Were it to become +known, it would utterly blight the happiness of a trusting and +generous man, whom I love still, and shall love always.--Yours +sincerely, + +"FANCY DAY. + + +The last written communication that ever passed from the vicar to +Fancy, was a note containing these words only: + +"Tell him everything; it is best. He will forgive you." + + + + +PART THE FIFTH: CONCLUSION + + + + +CHAPTER I: 'THE KNOT THERE'S NO UNTYING' + + + +The last day of the story is dated just subsequent to that point in +the development of the seasons when country people go to bed among +nearly naked trees, are lulled to sleep by a fall of rain, and awake +next morning among green ones; when the landscape appears +embarrassed with the sudden weight and brilliancy of its leaves; +when the night-jar comes and strikes up for the summer his tune of +one note; when the apple-trees have bloomed, and the roads and +orchard-grass become spotted with fallen petals; when the faces of +the delicate flowers are darkened, and their heads weighed down, by +the throng of honey-bees, which increase their humming till humming +is too mild a term for the all-pervading sound; and when cuckoos, +blackbirds, and sparrows, that have hitherto been merry and +respectful neighbours, become noisy and persistent intimates. + +The exterior of Geoffrey Day's house in Yalbury Wood appeared +exactly as was usual at that season, but a frantic barking of the +dogs at the back told of unwonted movements somewhere within. +Inside the door the eyes beheld a gathering, which was a rarity +indeed for the dwelling of the solitary wood-steward and keeper. + +About the room were sitting and standing, in various gnarled +attitudes, our old acquaintance, grandfathers James and William, the +tranter, Mr. Penny, two or three children, including Jimmy and +Charley, besides three or four country ladies and gentlemen from a +greater distance who do not require any distinction by name. +Geoffrey was seen and heard stamping about the outhouse and among +the bushes of the garden, attending to details of daily routine +before the proper time arrived for their performance, in order that +they might be off his hands for the day. He appeared with his +shirt-sleeves rolled up; his best new nether garments, in which he +had arrayed himself that morning, being temporarily disguised under +a weekday apron whilst these proceedings were in operation. He +occasionally glanced at the hives in passing, to see if his wife's +bees were swarming, ultimately rolling down his shirt-sleeves and +going indoors, talking to tranter Dewy whilst buttoning the +wristbands, to save time; next going upstairs for his best +waistcoat, and coming down again to make another remark whilst +buttoning that, during the time looking fixedly in the tranter's +face as if he were a looking-glass. + +The furniture had undergone attenuation to an alarming extent, every +duplicate piece having been removed, including the clock by Thomas +Wood; Ezekiel Saunders being at last left sole referee in matters of +time. + +Fancy was stationary upstairs, receiving her layers of clothes and +adornments, and answering by short fragments of laughter which had +more fidgetiness than mirth in them, remarks that were made from +time to time by Mrs. Dewy and Mrs. Penny, who were assisting her at +the toilet, Mrs. Day having pleaded a queerness in her head as a +reason for shutting herself up in an inner bedroom for the whole +morning. Mrs. Penny appeared with nine corkscrew curls on each side +of her temples, and a back comb stuck upon her crown like a castle +on a steep. + +The conversation just now going on was concerning the banns, the +last publication of which had been on the Sunday previous. + +"And how did they sound?" Fancy subtly inquired. + +"Very beautiful indeed," said Mrs. Penny. "I never heard any sound +better." + +"But HOW?" + +"O, SO natural and elegant, didn't they, Reuben!" she cried, through +the chinks of the unceiled floor, to the tranter downstairs. + +"What's that?" said the tranter, looking up inquiringly at the floor +above him for an answer. + +"Didn't Dick and Fancy sound well when they were called home in +church last Sunday?" came downwards again in Mrs. Penny's voice. + +"Ay, that they did, my sonnies!--especially the first time. There +was a terrible whispering piece of work in the congregation, wasn't +there, neighbour Penny?" said the tranter, taking up the thread of +conversation on his own account and, in order to be heard in the +room above, speaking very loud to Mr. Penny, who sat at the distance +of three feet from him, or rather less. + +"I never can mind seeing such a whispering as there was," said Mr. +Penny, also loudly, to the room above. "And such sorrowful envy on +the maidens' faces; really, I never did see such envy as there was!" + +Fancy's lineaments varied in innumerable little flushes, and her +heart palpitated innumerable little tremors of pleasure. "But +perhaps," she said, with assumed indifference, "it was only because +no religion was going on just then?" + +"O, no; nothing to do with that. 'Twas because of your high +standing in the parish. It was just as if they had one and all +caught Dick kissing and coling ye to death, wasn't it, Mrs. Dewy?" + +"Ay; that 'twas." + +"How people will talk about one's doings!" Fancy exclaimed. + +"Well, if you make songs about yourself, my dear, you can't blame +other people for singing 'em." + +"Mercy me! how shall I go through it?" said the young lady again, +but merely to those in the bedroom, with a breathing of a kind +between a sigh and a pant, round shining eyes, and warm face. + +"O, you'll get through it well enough, child," said Mrs. Dewy +placidly. "The edge of the performance is took off at the calling +home; and when once you get up to the chancel end o' the church, you +feel as saucy as you please. I'm sure I felt as brave as a sodger +all through the deed--though of course I dropped my face and looked +modest, as was becoming to a maid. Mind you do that, Fancy." + +"And I walked into the church as quiet as a lamb, I'm sure," +subjoined Mrs. Penny. "There, you see Penny is such a little small +man, But certainly, I was flurried in the inside o' me. Well, +thinks I, 'tis to be, and here goes! And do you do the same: say, +''Tis to be, and here goes!'" + +"Is there such wonderful virtue in ''Tis to be, and here goes!'" +inquired Fancy. + +"Wonderful! 'Twill carry a body through it all from wedding to +churching, if you only let it out with spirit enough." + +"Very well, then," said Fancy, blushing. "'Tis to be, and here +goes!" + +"That's a girl for a husband!" said Mrs. Dewy. + +"I do hope he'll come in time!" continued the bride-elect, inventing +a new cause of affright, now that the other was demolished. + +"'Twould be a thousand pities if he didn't come, now you be so +brave," said Mrs. Penny. + +Grandfather James, having overheard some of these remarks, said +downstairs with mischievous loudness--"I've known some would-be +weddings when the men didn't come." + +"They've happened not to come, before now, certainly," said Mr. +Penny, cleaning one of the glasses of his spectacles. + +"O, do hear what they are saying downstairs," whispered Fancy. +"Hush, hush!" + +She listened. + +"They have, haven't they, Geoffrey?" continued grandfather James, as +Geoffrey entered. + +"Have what?" said Geoffrey. + +"The men have been known not to come." + +"That they have," said the keeper. + +"Ay; I've knowed times when the wedding had to be put off through +his not appearing, being tired of the woman. And another case I +knowed was when the man was catched in a man-trap crossing Oaker's +Wood, and the three months had run out before he got well, and the +banns had to be published over again." + +"How horrible!" said Fancy. + +"They only say it on purpose to tease 'ee, my dear," said Mrs. Dewy. + +"'Tis quite sad to think what wretched shifts poor maids have been +put to," came again from downstairs. "Ye should hear Clerk Wilkins, +my brother-law, tell his experiences in marrying couples these last +thirty year: sometimes one thing, sometimes another--'tis quite +heart-rending--enough to make your hair stand on end." + +"Those things don't happen very often, I know," said Fancy, with +smouldering uneasiness. + +"Well, really 'tis time Dick was here," said the tranter. + +"Don't keep on at me so, grandfather James and Mr. Dewy, and all you +down there!" Fancy broke out, unable to endure any longer. "I am +sure I shall die, or do something, if you do!" + +"Never you hearken to these old chaps, Miss Day!" cried Nat +Callcome, the best man, who had just entered, and threw his voice +upward through the chinks of the floor as the others had done. +"'Tis all right; Dick's coming on like a wild feller; he'll be here +in a minute. The hive o' bees his mother gie'd en for his new +garden swarmed jist as he was starting, and he said, "I can't afford +to lose a stock o' bees; no, that I can't, though I fain would; and +Fancy wouldn't wish it on any account." So he jist stopped to ting +to 'em and shake 'em." + +"A genuine wise man," said Geoffrey. + +"To be sure, what a day's work we had yesterday!" Mr. Callcome +continued, lowering his voice as if it were not necessary any longer +to include those in the room above among his audience, and selecting +a remote corner of his best clean handkerchief for wiping his face. +"To be sure!" + +"Things so heavy, I suppose," said Geoffrey, as if reading through +the chimney-window from the far end of the vista. + +"Ay," said Nat, looking round the room at points from which +furniture had been removed. "And so awkward to carry, too. 'Twas +ath'art and across Dick's garden; in and out Dick's door; up and +down Dick's stairs; round and round Dick's chammers till legs were +worn to stumps: and Dick is so particular, too. And the stores of +victuals and drink that lad has laid in: why, 'tis enough for +Noah's ark! I'm sure I never wish to see a choicer half-dozen of +hams than he's got there in his chimley; and the cider I tasted was +a very pretty drop, indeed;--none could desire a prettier cider." + +"They be for the love and the stalled ox both, Ah, the greedy +martels!" said grandfather James. + +"Well, may-be they be. Surely," says I, "that couple between 'em +have heaped up so much furniture and victuals, that anybody would +think they were going to take hold the big end of married life +first, and begin wi' a grown-up family. Ah, what a bath of heat we +two chaps were in, to be sure, a-getting that furniture in order!" + +"I do so wish the room below was ceiled," said Fancy, as the +dressing went on; "we can hear all they say and do down there." + +"Hark! Who's that?" exclaimed a small pupil-teacher, who also +assisted this morning, to her great delight. She ran half-way down +the stairs, and peeped round the banister. "O, you should, you +should, you should!" she exclaimed, scrambling up to the room again. + +"What?" said Fancy. + +"See the bridesmaids! They've just a come! 'Tis wonderful, really! +'tis wonderful how muslin can be brought to it. There, they don't +look a bit like themselves, but like some very rich sisters o' +theirs that nobody knew they had!" + +"Make 'em come up to me, make 'em come up!" cried Fancy +ecstatically; and the four damsels appointed, namely, Miss Susan +Dewy, Miss Bessie Dewy, Miss Vashti Sniff, and Miss Mercy Onmey, +surged upstairs, and floated along the passage. + +"I wish Dick would come!" was again the burden of Fancy. + +The same instant a small twig and flower from the creeper outside +the door flew in at the open window, and a masculine voice said, +"Ready, Fancy dearest?" + +"There he is, he is!" cried Fancy, tittering spasmodically, and +breathing as it were for the first time that morning. + +The bridesmaids crowded to the window and turned their heads in the +direction pointed out, at which motion eight earrings all swung as +one: --not looking at Dick because they particularly wanted to see +him, but with an important sense of their duty as obedient ministers +of the will of that apotheosised being--the Bride. + +"He looks very taking!" said Miss Vashti Sniff, a young lady who +blushed cream-colour and wore yellow bonnet ribbons. + +Dick was advancing to the door in a painfully new coat of shining +cloth, primrose-coloured waistcoat, hat of the same painful style of +newness, and with an extra quantity of whiskers shaved off his face, +and hair cut to an unwonted shortness in honour of the occasion. + +"Now, I'll run down," said Fancy, looking at herself over her +shoulder in the glass, and flitting off. + +"O Dick!" she exclaimed, "I am so glad you are come! I knew you +would, of course, but I thought, Oh if you shouldn't!" + +"Not come, Fancy! Het or wet, blow or snow, here come I to-day! +Why, what's possessing your little soul? You never used to mind +such things a bit." + +"Ah, Mr. Dick, I hadn't hoisted my colours and committed myself +then!" said Fancy. + +"'Tis a pity I can't marry the whole five of ye!" said Dick, +surveying them all round. + +"Heh-heh-heh!" laughed the four bridesmaids, and Fancy privately +touched Dick and smoothed him down behind his shoulder, as if to +assure herself that he was there in flesh and blood as her own +property. + +"Well, whoever would have thought such a thing?" said Dick, taking +off his hat, sinking into a chair, and turning to the elder members +of the company. + +The latter arranged their eyes and lips to signify that in their +opinion nobody could have thought such a thing, whatever it was. + +"That my bees should ha' swarmed just then, of all times and +seasons!" continued Dick, throwing a comprehensive glance like a net +over the whole auditory. "And 'tis a fine swarm, too: I haven't +seen such a fine swarm for these ten years." + +"A' excellent sign," said Mrs. Penny, from the depths of experience. +"A' excellent sign." + +"I am glad everything seems so right," said Fancy with a breath of +relief. + +"And so am I," said the four bridesmaids with much sympathy. + +"Well, bees can't be put off," observed the inharmonious grandfather +James. "Marrying a woman is a thing you can do at any moment; but a +swarm o' bees won't come for the asking." + +Dick fanned himself with his hat. "I can't think," he said +thoughtfully, "whatever 'twas I did to offend Mr. Maybold, a man I +like so much too. He rather took to me when he came first, and used +to say he should like to see me married, and that he'd marry me, +whether the young woman I chose lived in his parish or no. I just +hinted to him of it when I put in the banns, but he didn't seem to +take kindly to the notion now, and so I said no more. I wonder how +it was." + +"I wonder!" said Fancy, looking into vacancy with those beautiful +eyes of hers--too refined and beautiful for a tranter's wife; but, +perhaps, not too good. + +"Altered his mind, as folks will, I suppose," said the tranter. +"Well, my sonnies, there'll he a good strong party looking at us to- +day as we go along." + +"And the body of the church," said Geoffrey, "will be lined with +females, and a row of young fellers' heads, as far down as the eyes, +will be noticed just above the sills of the chancel-winders." + +"Ay, you've been through it twice," said Reuben, "and well mid +know." + +"I can put up with it for once," said Dick, "or twice either, or a +dozen times." + +"O Dick!" said Fancy reproachfully. + +"Why, dear, that's nothing,--only just a bit of a flourish. You be +as nervous as a cat to-day." + +"And then, of course, when 'tis all over," continued the tranter, +"we shall march two and two round the parish." + +"Yes, sure," said Mr. Penny: "two and two: every man hitched up to +his woman, 'a b'lieve." + +"I never can make a show of myself in that way!" said Fancy, looking +at Dick to ascertain if he could. + +"I'm agreed to anything you and the company like, my dear!" said Mr. +Richard Dewy heartily. + +"Why, we did when we were married, didn't we, Ann?" said the +tranter; "and so do everybody, my sonnies." + +"And so did we," said Fancy's father. + +"And so did Penny and I," said Mrs. Penny: "I wore my best Bath +clogs, I remember, and Penny was cross because it made me look so +tall." + +"And so did father and mother," said Miss Mercy Onmey. + +"And I mean to, come next Christmas!" said Nat the groomsman +vigorously, and looking towards the person of Miss Vashti Sniff. + +"Respectable people don't nowadays," said Fancy. "Still, since poor +mother did, I will." + +"Ay," resumed the tranter, "'twas on a White Tuesday when I +committed it. Mellstock Club walked the same day, and we new- +married folk went a-gaying round the parish behind 'em. Everybody +used to wear something white at Whitsuntide in them days. My +sonnies, I've got the very white trousers that I wore, at home in +box now, Ha'n't I, Ann?" + +"You had till I cut 'em up for Jimmy," said Mrs. Dewy. + +"And we ought, by rights, after doing this parish, to go round +Higher and Lower Mellstock, and call at Viney's, and so work our way +hither again across He'th," said Mr. Penny, recovering scent of the +matter in hand. "Dairyman Viney is a very respectable man, and so +is Farmer Kex, and we ought to show ourselves to them." + +"True," said the tranter, "we ought to go round Mellstock to do the +thing well. We shall form a very striking object walking along in +rotation, good-now, neighbours?" + +"That we shall: a proper pretty sight for the nation," said Mrs. +Penny. + +"Hullo!" said the tranter, suddenly catching sight of a singular +human figure standing in the doorway, and wearing a long smock-frock +of pillow-case cut and of snowy whiteness. "Why, Leaf! whatever +dost thou do here?" + +"I've come to know if so be I can come to the wedding--hee-hee!" +said Leaf in a voice of timidity. + +"Now, Leaf," said the tranter reproachfully, "you know we don't want +'ee here to-day: we've got no room for ye, Leaf." + +"Thomas Leaf, Thomas Leaf, fie upon ye for prying!" said old +William. + +"I know I've got no head, but I thought, if I washed and put on a +clane shirt and smock-frock, I might just call," said Leaf; turning +away disappointed and trembling. + +"Poor feller!" said the tranter, turning to Geoffrey. "Suppose we +must let en come? His looks are rather against en, and he is +terrible silly; but 'a have never been in jail, and 'a won't do no +harm." + +Leaf looked with gratitude at the tranter for these praises, and +then anxiously at Geoffrey, to see what effect they would have in +helping his cause. + +"Ay, let en come," said Geoffrey decisively. "Leaf, th'rt welcome, +'st know;" and Leaf accordingly remained. + +They were now all ready for leaving the house, and began to form a +procession in the following order: Fancy and her father, Dick and +Susan Dewy, Nat Callcome and Vashti Sniff, Ted Waywood and Mercy +Onmey, and Jimmy and Bessie Dewy. These formed the executive, and +all appeared in strict wedding attire. Then came the tranter and +Mrs. Dewy, and last of all Mr. and Mrs. Penny;--the tranter +conspicuous by his enormous gloves, size eleven and three-quarters, +which appeared at a distance like boxing gloves bleached, and sat +rather awkwardly upon his brown hands; this hall-mark of +respectability having been set upon himself to-day (by Fancy's +special request) for the first time in his life. + +"The proper way is for the bridesmaids to walk together," suggested +Fancy. + +"What? 'Twas always young man and young woman, arm in crook, in my +time!" said Geoffrey, astounded. + +"And in mine!" said the tranter. + +"And in ours!" said Mr. and Mrs. Penny. + +"Never heard o' such a thing as woman and woman!" said old William; +who, with grandfather James and Mrs. Day, was to stay at home. + +"Whichever way you and the company like, my dear!" said Dick, who, +being on the point of securing his right to Fancy, seemed willing to +renounce all other rights in the world with the greatest pleasure +The decision was left to Fancy. + +"Well, I think I'd rather have it the way mother had it," she said, +and the couples moved along under the trees, every man to his maid. + +"Ah!" said grandfather James to grandfather William as they retired, +"I wonder which she thinks most about, Dick or her wedding raiment!" + +"Well, 'tis their nature," said grandfather William. "Remember the +words of the prophet Jeremiah: 'Can a maid forget her ornaments, or +a bride her attire?'" + +Now among dark perpendicular firs, like the shafted columns of a +cathedral; now through a hazel copse, matted with primroses and wild +hyacinths; now under broad beeches in bright young leaves they +threaded their way into the high road over Yalbury Hill, which +dipped at that point directly into the village of Geoffrey Day's +parish; and in the space of a quarter of an hour Fancy found herself +to be Mrs. Richard Dewy, though, much to her surprise, feeling no +other than Fancy Day still. + +On the circuitous return walk through the lanes and fields, amid +much chattering and laughter, especially when they came to stiles, +Dick discerned a brown spot far up a turnip field. + +"Why, 'tis Enoch!" he said to Fancy. "I thought I missed him at the +house this morning. How is it he's left you?" + +"He drank too much cider, and it got into his head, and they put him +in Weatherbury stocks for it. Father was obliged to get somebody +else for a day or two, and Enoch hasn't had anything to do with the +woods since." + +"We might ask him to call down to-night. Stocks are nothing for +once, considering 'tis our wedding day." The bridal party was +ordered to halt. + +"Eno-o-o-o-ch!" cried Dick at the top of his voice. + +"Y-a-a-a-a-a-as!" said Enoch from the distance. + +"D'ye know who I be-e-e-e-e-e?" + +"No-o-o-o-o-o-o!" + +"Dick Dew-w-w-w-wy!" + +"O-h-h-h-h-h!" + +"Just a-ma-a-a-a-a-arried!" + +"O-h-h-h-h-h!" + +"This is my wife, Fa-a-a-a-a-ancy!" (holding her up to Enoch's view +as if she had been a nosegay.) + +"O-h-h-h-h-h!" + +"Will ye come across to the party to-ni-i-i-i-i-i-ight!" + +"Ca-a-a-a-a-an't!" + +"Why n-o-o-o-o-ot?" + +"Don't work for the family no-o-o-o-ow!" + +"Not nice of Master Enoch," said Dick, as they resumed their walk. + +"You mustn't blame en," said Geoffrey; "the man's not hisself now; +he's in his morning frame of mind. When he's had a gallon o' cider +or ale, or a pint or two of mead, the man's well enough, and his +manners be as good as anybody's in the kingdom." + + + +CHAPTER II: UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE + + + +The point in Yalbury Wood which abutted on the end of Geoffrey Day's +premises was closed with an ancient tree, horizontally of enormous +extent, though having no great pretensions to height. Many hundreds +of birds had been born amidst the boughs of this single tree; tribes +of rabbits and hares had nibbled at its bark from year to year; +quaint tufts of fungi had sprung from the cavities of its forks; and +countless families of moles and earthworms had crept about its +roots. Beneath and beyond its shade spread a carefully-tended +grass-plot, its purpose being to supply a healthy exercise-ground +for young chickens and pheasants; the hens, their mothers, being +enclosed in coops placed upon the same green flooring. + +All these encumbrances were now removed, and as the afternoon +advanced, the guests gathered on the spot, where music, dancing, and +the singing of songs went forward with great spirit throughout the +evening. The propriety of every one was intense by reason of the +influence of Fancy, who, as an additional precaution in this +direction, had strictly charged her father and the tranter to +carefully avoid saying 'thee' and 'thou' in their conversation, on +the plea that those ancient words sounded so very humiliating to +persons of newer taste; also that they were never to be seen drawing +the back of the hand across the mouth after drinking--a local +English custom of extraordinary antiquity, but stated by Fancy to be +decidedly dying out among the better classes of society. + +In addition to the local musicians present, a man who had a thorough +knowledge of the tambourine was invited from the village of Tantrum +Clangley,--a place long celebrated for the skill of its inhabitants +as performers on instruments of percussion. These important members +of the assembly were relegated to a height of two or three feet from +the ground, upon a temporary erection of planks supported by +barrels. Whilst the dancing progressed the older persons sat in a +group under the trunk of the tree,--the space being allotted to them +somewhat grudgingly by the young ones, who were greedy of +pirouetting room,--and fortified by a table against the heels of the +dancers. Here the gaffers and gammers, whose dancing days were +over, told stories of great impressiveness, and at intervals +surveyed the advancing and retiring couples from the same retreat, +as people on shore might be supposed to survey a naval engagement in +the bay beyond; returning again to their tales when the pause was +over. Those of the whirling throng, who, during the rests between +each figure, turned their eyes in the direction of these seated +ones, were only able to discover, on account of the music and +bustle, that a very striking circumstance was in course of +narration--denoted by an emphatic sweep of the hand, snapping of the +fingers, close of the lips, and fixed look into the centre of the +listener's eye for the space of a quarter of a minute, which raised +in that listener such a reciprocating working of face as to +sometimes make the distant dancers half wish to know what such an +interesting tale could refer to. + +Fancy caused her looks to wear as much matronly expression as was +obtainable out of six hours' experience as a wife, in order that the +contrast between her own state of life and that of the unmarried +young women present might be duly impressed upon the company: +occasionally stealing glances of admiration at her left hand, but +this quite privately; for her ostensible bearing concerning the +matter was intended to show that, though she undoubtedly occupied +the most wondrous position in the eyes of the world that had ever +been attained, she was almost unconscious of the circumstance, and +that the somewhat prominent position in which that wonderfully- +emblazoned left hand was continually found to be placed, when +handing cups and saucers, knives, forks, and glasses, was quite the +result of accident. As to wishing to excite envy in the bosoms of +her maiden companions, by the exhibition of the shining ring, every +one was to know it was quite foreign to the dignity of such an +experienced married woman. Dick's imagination in the meantime was +far less capable of drawing so much wontedness from his new +condition. He had been for two or three hours trying to feel +himself merely a newly-married man, but had been able to get no +further in the attempt than to realize that he was Dick Dewy, the +tranter's son, at a party given by Lord Wessex's head man-in-charge, +on the outlying Yalbury estate, dancing and chatting with Fancy Day. + +Five country dances, including 'Haste to the Wedding,' two reels, +and three fragments of horn-pipes, brought them to the time for +supper, which, on account of the dampness of the grass from the +immaturity of the summer season, was spread indoors. At the +conclusion of the meal Dick went out to put the horse in; and Fancy, +with the elder half of the four bridesmaids, retired upstairs to +dress for the journey to Dick's new cottage near Mellstock. + +"How long will you be putting on your bonnet, Fancy?" Dick inquired +at the foot of the staircase. Being now a man of business and +married, he was strong on the importance of time, and doubled the +emphasis of his words in conversing, and added vigour to his nods. + +"Only a minute." + +"How long is that?" + +"Well, dear, five." + +"Ah, sonnies!" said the tranter, as Dick retired, "'tis a talent of +the female race that low numbers should stand for high, more +especially in matters of waiting, matters of age, and matters of +money." + +"True, true, upon my body," said Geoffrey. + +"Ye spak with feeling, Geoffrey, seemingly." + +"Anybody that d'know my experience might guess that." + +"What's she doing now, Geoffrey?" + +"Claning out all the upstairs drawers and cupboards, and dusting the +second-best chainey--a thing that's only done once a year. 'If +there's work to be done I must do it,' says she, 'wedding or no.'" + +"'Tis my belief she's a very good woman at bottom." + +"She's terrible deep, then." + +Mrs. Penny turned round. "Well, 'tis humps and hollers with the +best of us; but still and for all that, Dick and Fancy stand as fair +a chance of having a bit of sunsheen as any married pair in the +land." + +"Ay, there's no gainsaying it." + +Mrs. Dewy came up, talking to one person and looking at another. +"Happy, yes," she said. "'Tis always so when a couple is so exactly +in tune with one another as Dick and she." + +"When they be'n't too poor to have time to sing," said grandfather +James. + +"I tell ye, neighbours, when the pinch comes," said the tranter: +"when the oldest daughter's boots be only a size less than her +mother's, and the rest o' the flock close behind her. A sharp time +for a man that, my sonnies; a very sharp time! Chanticleer's comb +is a-cut then, 'a believe." + +"That's about the form o't," said Mr. Penny. "That'll put the stuns +upon a man, when you must measure mother and daughter's lasts to +tell 'em apart." + +"You've no cause to complain, Reuben, of such a close-coming flock," +said Mrs. Dewy; "for ours was a straggling lot enough, God knows!" + +"I d'know it, I d'know it," said the tranter. "You be a well-enough +woman, Ann." + +Mrs. Dewy put her mouth in the form of a smile, and put it back +again without smiling. + +"And if they come together, they go together," said Mrs. Penny, +whose family had been the reverse of the tranter's; "and a little +money will make either fate tolerable. And money can be made by our +young couple, I know." + +"Yes, that it can!" said the impulsive voice of Leaf, who had +hitherto humbly admired the proceedings from a corner. "It can be +done--all that's wanted is a few pounds to begin with. That's all! +I know a story about it!" + +"Let's hear thy story, Leaf;" said the tranter. "I never knew you +were clever enough to tell a story. Silence, all of ye! Mr. Leaf +will tell a story." + +"Tell your story, Thomas Leaf," said grandfather William in the tone +of a schoolmaster. + +"Once," said the delighted Leaf; in an uncertain voice, "there was a +man who lived in a house! Well, this man went thinking and thinking +night and day. At last, he said to himself; as I might, 'If I had +only ten pound, I'd make a fortune.' At last by hook or by crook, +behold he got the ten pounds!" + +"Only think of that!" said Nat Callcome satirically. + +"Silence!" said the tranter. + +"Well, now comes the interesting part of the story! In a little +time he made that ten pounds twenty. Then a little time after that +he doubled it, and made it forty. Well, he went on, and a good +while after that he made it eighty, and on to a hundred. Well, by- +and-by he made it two hundred! Well, you'd never believe it, but-- +he went on and made it four hundred! He went on, and what did he +do? Why, he made it eight hundred! Yes, he did," continued Leaf; +in the highest pitch of excitement, bringing down his fist upon his +knee with such force that he quivered with the pain; "yes, and he +went on and made it A THOUSAND!" + +"Hear, hear!" said the tranter. "Better than the history of +England, my sonnies!" + +"Thank you for your story, Thomas Leaf," said grandfather William; +and then Leaf gradually sank into nothingness again. + +Amid a medley of laughter, old shoes, and elder-wine, Dick and his +bride took their departure, side by side in the excellent new +spring-cart which the young tranter now possessed. The moon was +just over the full, rendering any light from lamps or their own +beauties quite unnecessary to the pair. They drove slowly along +Yalbury Bottom, where the road passed between two copses. Dick was +talking to his companion. + +"Fancy," he said, "why we are so happy is because there is such full +confidence between us. Ever since that time you confessed to that +little flirtation with Shiner by the river (which was really no +flirtation at all), I have thought how artless and good you must be +to tell me o' such a trifling thing, and to be so frightened about +it as you were. It has won me to tell you my every deed and word +since then. We'll have no secrets from each other, darling, will we +ever?--no secret at all." + +"None from to-day," said Fancy. "Hark! what's that?" + +From a neighbouring thicket was suddenly heard to issue in a loud, +musical, and liquid voice - + +"Tippiwit! swe-e-et! ki-ki-ki! Come hither, come hither, come +hither!" + +"O, 'tis the nightingale," murmured she, and thought of a secret she +would never tell. + + + +Footnotes: + +{1} This, a local expression, must be a corruption of something less +questionable. + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg eText Under the Greenwood Tree diff --git a/old/ungwt11.zip b/old/ungwt11.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d874a9d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ungwt11.zip |