in that frigid way that you wish
to consult with me whether it would not be better to marry Thomasin.
Better--of course it would be. Marry her: she is nearer to your own
position in life than I am!"

"Yes, yes; that's very well," said Wildeve peremptorily. "But we
must look at things as they are. Whatever blame may attach to me for
having brought it about, Thomasin's position is at present much worse
than yours. I simply tell you that I am in a strait."

"But you shall not tell me! You must see that it is only harassing me.
Damon, you have not acted well; you have sunk in my opinion. You have
not valued my courtesy--the courtesy of a lady in loving you--who used
to think of far more ambitious things. But it was Thomasin's fault.
She won you away from me, and she deserves to suffer for it. Where
is she staying now? Not that I care, nor where I am myself. Ah, if I
were dead and gone how glad she would be! Where is she, I ask?"

"Thomasin is now staying at her aunt's shut up in a bedroom, and
keeping out of everybody's sight," he said indifferently.

"I don't think you care much about her even now," said Eustacia with
sudden joyousness: "for if you did you wouldn't talk so coolly about
her. Do you talk so coolly to her about me? Ah, I expect you do! Why
did you originally go away from me? I don't think I can ever forgive
you, except on one condition, that whenever you desert me, you come
back again, sorry that you served me so."

"I never wish to desert you."

"I do not thank you for that. I should hate it to be all smooth.
Indeed, I think I like you to desert me a little once now and then.
Love is the dismallest thing where the lover is quite honest. O, it
is a shame to say so; but it is true!" She indulged in a little laugh.
"My low spirits begin at the very idea. Don't you offer me tame love,
or away you go!"

"I wish Tamsie were not such a confoundedly good little woman," said
Wildeve, "so that I could be faithful to you without injuring a worthy
person. It is I who am the sinner after all; I am not worth the
little finger of either of you."

"But you must not sacrifice yourself to her from any sense of
justice," replied Eustacia quickly. "If you do not love her it is the
most merciful thing in the long run to leave her as she is. That's
always the best way. There, now I have been unwomanly, I suppose.
When you have left me I am always angry with myself for things that I
have said to you."

Wildeve walked