find out that a lady secretly meets a man who has ill-used another

woman.'

I have not injured her: he was mine before he was hers! He came back-because-he liked me best!' she said wildly. 'But I lose all self-respect in talking to you. What am I giving way to!'

'I can keep secrets,' said Venn gently. You need not fear. I am the only man who knows of your meetings with him. There is but one thing more to speak of, and then I will be gone. I heard you say to him that you hated living here-that Egdon Heath was a gaol to you.'

'I did say so. It is a gaol to me. The man you mention does not save me from that feeling, though he lives here. I should have cared nothing for him had there been a better person near.'

The reddleman looked hopeful: after these words from her, his third attempt seemed promising. As we have now opened our minds a bit, Miss,' he said, 'I'll tell you what I have got to propose. Since I have taken to the reddle trade I travel a good deal, as you know.'

She inclined her head, and swept round so that her eyes rested in the misty vale beneath them.

'And in my travels I go near Budmouth. Now, Budmouth is a wonderful place, wonderful-a great salt sheening sea bending into the land like a bow-thousands of gentlepeople walking up and down-bands of music playing-officers by sea and officers by land walking among the rest-out of every ten folk you meet, nine of 'em in love."

'I know it,' she said disdainfully. I know Budmouth better than you. I was born there. My father was a great musician there, and used to lead the very band you speak of. Ah, my soul, Budmouth! I wish I was there now!'

6

The reddleman was surprised to see how a slow fire could blaze on occasion. If you were, Miss,' he replied,' in a week's time you would think no more of Wildeve than of one of those he'thcroppers that we see yond. Now, I could get you there.'

eyes.

How?' said Eustacia with intense curiosity in her heavy

My uncle has been for five-and-twenty years the trusty man of a rich widow-lady who has a beautiful house facing the sea. This lady has become old and lame, and she wants a young companykeeper to read and sing to her, but can't get one to her mind to save her life, though she've advertised in the papers, and tried half-a-dozen. She would jump to get you, and uncle would make it all easy.'

'I should have to work, perhaps?'

No, not real work: you'd have a little to do. You would not be wanted till New Year's Day.'

'I knew it meant work,' she said, drooping to languor again.

'I confess there would be a little to do in the way of amusing her; but though idle people might call it work, working people would call it play. Think of the company and the life you'd lead, Miss; the gaiety you'd see, and the gentleman you'd marry. My uncle is to inquire for a trustworthy young lady from the country, as she don't like town girls.'

It is to wear myself out to please her! and I won't go. O, if I could live in Budmouth as a lady should, and go my own ways, and do my own doings, I'd give the wrinkled half of my life. Yes, reddleman, that would I.'

'Help me to get Thomasin happy, Miss, and the chance shall be yours,' urged her companion.

What can a poor indoors. I have

'Chance-'tis no chance,' she said proudly. man like you offer me, indeed?—I am going nothing more to say. Don't your horses want feeding, or your reddlebags want mending, or don't you want to find buyers for your goods, that you stay idling here like this?"

Venn spoke not another word. With his hands behind him he turned away that she might not see the hopeless disappointment in his face. The mental clearness and power he had found in this lonely girl had indeed filled his manner with misgiving even from the first few minutes of close quarters with her. Her youth and situation had led him to expect a simplicity quite at the beck of his method. But a system of inducement which might have carried weaker country lasses along with it had merely repelled Eustacia. The word Budmouth meant fascination on Egdon. That rising port and watering-place, if truly mirrored in the minds of the heath-folk, must have combined, in a charming and indescribable manner, a Carthaginian bustle of building with Tarentine luxuriousness and Baian health and beauty. Eustacia felt little less extravagantly about the place; but she would not sink her independence to get there.

When Diggory Venn had gone quite away, Eustacia walked to the bank and looked down the vale towards the sun, which was also in the direction of Wildeve's. The mist had now so far collapsed that the tips of the trees and bushes around his house could just be discerned as if boring upwards through a vast white cobweb which cloaked them from the day. There was no doubt that her mind was inclined thitherward; indefinitely, fancifullytwining and untwining about him as the single object within her

horizon on which dreams might crystallise. The man who had begun by being merely her amusement, and would never have been more than her hobby but for his skill in deserting her at the right moment, was now her desire. Cessation in his love-making had made her love. Such feeling as Eustacia had idly given to Wildeve was dammed into a flood by Thomasin. She had used to tease Wildeve, but that was before another had favoured him. Often a drop of irony into an indifferent situation renders the whole piquant.

'I will never give him up-never!' she said impetuously.

The reddleman's hint that rumour might show her to disadvantage had no permanent terror for Eustacia. She was as unconcerned at that contingency as a goddess at a lack of linen. This did not originate in inherent shamelessness, but in her living too far from the world to feel the impact of public opinion. Zenobia in the desert could hardly have cared what was said about her at Rome. As far as intersocial ethics were concerned Eustacia approached the savage state, though in emotion she was all the while an epicure. She had advanced to the penetralia of sensuousness, yet had hardly crossed the threshold of conventionality.

CHAPTER XI.

THE DISHONESTY OF AN HONEST WOMAN.

THE reddleman had left Eustacia's presence with desponding views on Thomasin's future happiness; but he was awakened to the fact that one other channel remained untried by seeing, as he followed the way to his van, the form of Mrs. Yeobright slowly walking towards the Quiet Woman.' He went across to her; and could almost perceive in her anxious face that this journey of hers to Wildeve was undertaken with the same object as his own to Eustacia.

She did not conceal the fact. Then,' said the reddleman, 'you may as well leave it alone, Mrs. Yeobright.'

I half think so myself,' she said. But nothing else remains to be done besides pressing the question upon him.'

I should like to say a word first,' said Venn firmly. Mr. Wildeve is not the only man who has asked Thomasin to marry him; and why should not another have a chance? Mrs. Yeobright, I would be glad to marry your niece, and would have done it any time these last two years. There, now it is out! and I have never told anybody before, but herself.'

Mrs. Yeobright was not demonstrative, but her eyes involuntarily glanced towards his singular though shapely figure.

'Looks be not everything,' said the reddleman, noticing the glance. There's many a calling that don't bring in so much as mine, if it comes to money; and perhaps I am not so much worse off than Wildeve. There is nobody so poor as these professional fellows who have failed; and if you shouldn't like my redness— well, I am not red by birth, you know; and I might turn my hand to something else in good time.'

'I am much obliged to you for your interest in my niece; but I fear there would be objections. More than that, she is devoted to this man.'

6

True; or I shouldn't have done what I have this morning.' 'Otherwise there would be no pain in the case, and you would not see me going to his house now. What was Thomasin's answer when you told her of your feelings?'

She wrote that you would object to me; and other things.' 'She was in a measure right. You must not take this unkindly I merely state it as a truth. You have been good to her, and we do not forget it. But as she was unwilling on her own account to be your wife, that settles the point without my wishes being concerned.'

'Yes.

But there is a difference between then and now, ma'am. She is distressed now, and I have thought that if you were to talk to her about me, and think favourably of me yourself, there might be a chance of winning her round, and getting her quite independent of this Wildeve's backward and forward play, and his not knowing whether he'll have her or no.'

If they

Mrs. Yeobright shook her head. Thomasin thinks, and I think with her, that she ought to be Wildeve's wife if she means to appear before the world without a slur upon her name. marry soon, everybody will believe that an accident did really prevent the wedding. If not, it may cast a shade upon her character at any rate make her ridiculous. In short, if it is anyhow possible, they must marry now.'

'I thought that till half an hour ago. But, after all, why should her going off with him to Southerton for a few hours do her any harm? Anybody who knows how pure she is will feel any such thought to be quite unjust. I have been trying this morning to help on this marriage with Wildeve-Yes, I, ma'am-in the belief that I ought to do it because she was so wrapped up in him. But I much question if I was right, after all. However, nothing. came of it. And now I offer myself.'

Mrs. Yeobright appeared disinclined to enter further into the

question. I fear I must go on,' she said. anything else can be done.'

'I do not see that

And she went on. But though this conversation did not divert Thomasin's aunt from her purposed interview with Wildeve, it made a considerable difference in her mode of conducting that interview. She knew enough of the male heart to see that with Wildeve, and indeed with the majority of men, the being able to state, at such a critical juncture, that another lover had eagerly bid for the hand that he was disposed to decline, would immensely alter the situation. How few are the engagements which would be ruptured could the man be surprised by the discovery that another is ready to jump at what he is inclined to throw away! Mrs. Yeobright accordingly resolved that her system of procedure should be changed. She had left home intent upon straightforwardness; she reached the inn determined to finesse. To influence Wildeve by piquing him rather than by appealing to his generosity was obviously the wise course with such a man. She thanked God for the weapon which the reddleman had put into her hands.

Wildeve was at home when she reached the inn. He showed her silently into the parlour, and closed the door. Mrs. Yeobright began.

'I have thought it my duty to call to-day. A new proposal has been made to me, which has rather astonished me. It will affect Thomasin greatly; and I have decided that it should at least be mentioned to you.'

"Yes? What is it?' he said civilly.

'It is of course in reference to her future. You may not be aware that another man has shown himself anxious to marry Thomasin. Now, though I have not encouraged him yet, I cannot conscientiously refuse him a chance any longer. I don't wish to be short with you; but I must be fair to him and to her.'

6 Who is the man?' said Wildeve with surprise.

'One who has been devotedly in love with her longer than she has with you. He proposed to her two years ago. At that time she refused him.'

'Well?'

'He has seen her lately, and has asked me for permission to pay his addresses to her. She may not refuse him twice.'

'What is his name?'

"That I decline to say at present. He is a man she likes, and one whose constancy she respects at least. It seems to me that what she refused then she would be glad to get now. She is much annoyed at her awkward position.'