“My Eustacia!”
“Clym, dearest!”
Such a situation had less than three months brought forth.
“It has seemed sad.”
Your eyes seem heavy, Eustacia.”
“You need not.”
“In God’s mercy don’t talk so, Eustacia!”
“And she speaks against me?”
“Not I.”
“It is your only chance. Many a man’s love has been a curse to him.”
She started—then endeavoured to say calmly, “Cynics say that cures the anxiety by curing the love.”
“I must think,” Eustacia murmured. “At present speak of Paris to me. Is there any place like it on earth?”
“Yes, for the present.”
“And Versailles—the King’s Gallery is some such gorgeous room, is it not?”
It is laid out in English fashion.”
“I should hate to think that!”
“When used you to go to these places?”
“On Sundays.”
Clym shook his head, and looked at the eclipse.
“But you can go in some other capacity.”
Don’t press that, Eustacia. Will you marry me?”
“I cannot tell.”
“You are too mournful.”
There’s my too candid confession.”
“I cannot recollect a clear dream of you.”
5 - Sharp Words Are Spoken, and a Crisis Ensues
One afternoon his mother came home from a morning visit to Thomasin. He could see from a disturbance in the lines of her face that something had happened.
“I have been told an incomprehensible thing,” she said mournfully. “The captain has let out at the Woman that you and Eustacia Vye are engaged to be married.”
“We are,” said Yeobright. “But it may not be yet for a very long time.”
“I am not going back to Paris.”
“Keep a school in Budmouth, as I have told you.”
“I might have believed you if you had kept yourself free
“She is a good girl.”
“So you think. A Corfu bandmaster’s daughter! What has her life been? Her surname even is not her true one.”
“She is Captain Vye’s granddaughter, and her father merely took her mother’s name. And she is a lady by instinct.”
“They call him ‘captain,’ but anybody is captain.”
“Eustacia has told me. He did pay her a little attention a year ago; but there’s no harm in that. I like her all the better.”
“You are unnatural, Clym, and I did not expect it.”
“She has not come,” he replied in a subdued tone.
“It is indeed.”
“Poor Clym!” she continued, looking tenderly into his face.
“You are sad. Something has happened at your home.
“It is your mother!”
“I must part from you here, Clym,” said Eustacia.
“They cannot. Nobody dares to speak disrespectfully of you or of me.”
“O Clym!”
“Do you agree to it?”
“Which is not likely. Dearest, fix the exact day.”
6 - Yeobright Goes, and the Breach Is Complete
“Mother, I am going to leave you,” he said, holding out his hand.
“Certainly, Clym.”
“I do not think it likely I shall come to see you.”
Good-bye!”
“Pretty fairly.”
“Is that honestly said?”
“I think I should like to have my share—that is, if you don’t mind.”
“It is more noble in you that you did not.”
“Forget it, and be soothed, dear Aunt. And I shall not leave you alone for long. I shall come and see you every day.”
“You come from Mistover?” said Wildeve.
Wildeve had not received an inkling of the fact before, and a sudden expression of pain overspread his face. He turned for a moment into the passage to hide it.
Then he came back again.
“You don’t mean Mr. Yeobright?”
“It isn’t so very soon.”
“No; not so very soon.”
7 - The Morning and the Evening of a Day
“Not particularly. She casually dropped a remark about having arranged to fetch some article or other.”
“What d’ye mean?” said Christian.
“And the extra luck of being the last comer,” said another.
“What do you mean?” said Wildeve.
“Where are you going?” Wildeve asked.
“To Mistover Knap. I have to see Mrs. Thomasin there— that’s all.”
“So you have money to carry to Mrs. Wildeve?” said Christian’s companion, after a silence. “Don’t you think it very odd that it shouldn’t be given to me?”
“What are you rattling in there?” said Wildeve.
“They are a great deal in a small compass, You think?”
“Yes. Do ye suppose they really be the devil’s playthings, Mr. Wildeve? If so, ‘tis no good sign that I be such a lucky man.”
“Ha—ha—splendid!” exclaimed Christian. “Go on—go on!”
“Let us try four,” said Wildeve. They played for four.
“What! you have not put Mrs. Wildeve’s money there?”
“None at all.”
“Do? Live on just the same.”
are a—a----“
“A man sharper than my neighbour.”
“Yes, a man sharper than my neighbour; a regular sharper!”
“Poor chips-in-porridge, you are very unmannerly.”
“Because I had to gie fifty of ‘em to him. Mrs. Yeobright said so.”
“Or haven’t you pluck enough to go on?”
This encouraged Wildeve. He took the box; and his three casts amounted to forty-five.
“’Won back his coat,’” said Venn slily.
“’Won back his hat,’” continued Venn.
“Oh, oh!” said Wildeve.
“And three casts be hanged—one shall decide.”
“It is all over, then?” said Venn.
“No, no!” cried Wildeve. “I mean to have another chance yet.
I must!”
“Agreed,” said Venn.
“What’s that?” he suddenly exclaimed, hearing a rustle; and they both looked up.
“None,” said Venn.
We can continue the game.”
“No—go on,” said Venn.
“O!” said Wildeve. “Curse me!”
Here—take your money. Blank is less than one.”
“I beg pardon for stopping you, Mrs. Wildeve,” he said.
book four
THE CLOSED DOOR
1 - The Rencounter by the Pool
“What, is he going to keep them?” Mrs. Yeobright cried.
“A gift?”
“I mean money!”
“What—I myself?”
“I simply ask the question,” said Mrs. Yeobright.
“I have been----“
“You ought to have better opinions of me—I feared you
“Injure you? Do you think I am an evil-disposed person?”
“I did my duty.”
“And I’ll do mine.”
Mrs. Yeobright gave back heat for heat.
2 - He Is Set upon by Adversities but He Sings a Song
“Why is this?” he asked.
“I cannot tell—I cannot remember. I met your mother.
“Why?”
“She did.”
“Then there must have been some meaning in it. What did my mother say besides?”
“Yes.”
“Very much indeed?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t trouble about it, Clym. They may get to be friends.”
“One thing is cheerful in it—the guineas are not lost.”
“It arises from my having at last discovered something I can do, and get a living at, in this time of misfortune.”
“Yes?”
“I am going to be a furze- and turf-cutter.”
“Le point du jour
A nos bosquets rend toute leur parure;
Flore est plus belle a son retour;
L’oiseau reprend doux chant d’amour;
Tout celebre dans la nature
Le point du jour.
“Le point du jour
Cause parfois, cause douleur extreme;
Que l’espace des nuits est court
Pour le berger brulant d’amour,
Force de quitter ce qu’il aime
Au point du jour!”
“Dearest, you must not question me unpleasantly, or it may make me not love you.”
“What tone?”
“You are my husband. Does not that content you?”
“That your chances in life are ruined by marrying in haste an unfortunate man?”
“I have still some tenderness left for you.”
