the wedding was going to be. He will
never forgive you for your secrecy."

"Yes, he will, when he knows it was because I wished to spare him, and
that I did not expect him home so soon. And you must not let me stand
in the way of your Christmas party. Putting it off would only make
matters worse."

"Of course I shall not. I do not wish to show myself beaten before
all Egdon, and the sport of a man like Wildeve. We have enough
berries now, I think, and we had better take them home. By the time
we have decked the house with this and hung up the mistletoe, we must
think of starting to meet him."

Thomasin came out of the tree, shook from her hair and dress the loose
berries which had fallen thereon, and went down the hill with her
aunt, each woman bearing half the gathered boughs. It was now nearly
four o'clock, and the sunlight was leaving the vales. When the west
grew red the two relatives came again from the house and plunged into
the heath in a different direction from the first, towards a point in
the distant highway along which the expected man was to return.

III

How a Little Sound Produced a Great Dream

Eustacia stood just within the heath, straining her eyes in the
direction of Mrs. Yeobright's house and premises. No light, sound, or
movement was perceptible there. The evening was chilly; the spot was
dark and lonely. She inferred that the guest had not yet come; and
after lingering ten or fifteen minutes she turned again towards home.

She had not far retraced her steps when sounds in front of her
betokened the approach of persons in conversation along the same path.
Soon their heads became visible against the sky. They were walking
slowly; and though it was too dark for much discovery of character
from aspect, the gait of them showed that they were not workers on the
heath. Eustacia stepped a little out of the foot-track to let them
pass. They were two women and a man; and the voices of the women were
those of Mrs. Yeobright and Thomasin.

They went by her, and at the moment of passing appeared to discern her
dusky form. There came to her ears in a masculine voice, "Good
night!"

She murmured a reply, glided by them, and turned round. She could
not, for a moment, believe that chance, unrequested, had brought into
her presence the soul of the house she had gone to inspect, the man
without whom her inspection would not have been thought of.

She strained her eyes to see them, but was unable.