hink I should like to have my share--that is, if you don't mind."

"You shall, if necessary. But it is only proper that you should first
tell your husband distinctly that you are without any, and see what he
will do."

"Very well, I will... Aunt, I have heard about Clym. I know you are
in trouble about him, and that's why I have come."

Mrs. Yeobright turned away, and her features worked in her attempt to
conceal her feelings. Then she ceased to make any attempt, and said,
weeping, "O Thomasin, do you think he hates me? How can he bear to
grieve me so, when I have lived only for him through all these years?"

"Hate you--no," said Thomasin soothingly. "It is only that he loves
her too well. Look at it quietly--do. It is not so very bad of him.
Do you know, I thought it not the worst match he could have made.
Miss Vye's family is a good one on her mother's side; and her father
was a romantic wanderer--a sort of Greek Ulysses."

"It is no use, Thomasin; it is no use. Your intention is good; but
I will not trouble you to argue. I have gone through the whole that
can be said on either side times, and many times. Clym and I have
not parted in anger; we have parted in a worse way. It is not a
passionate quarrel that would have broken my heart; it is the steady
opposition and persistence in going wrong that he has shown. O
Thomasin, he was so good as a little boy--so tender and kind!"

"He was, I know."

"I did not think one whom I called mine would grow up to treat me like
this. He spoke to me as if I opposed him to injure him. As though I
could wish him ill!"

"There are worse women in the world than Eustacia Vye."

"There are too many better; that's the agony of it. It was she,
Thomasin, and she only, who led your husband to act as he did: I would
swear it!"

"No," said Thomasin eagerly. "It was before he knew me that he
thought of her, and it was nothing but a mere flirtation."

"Very well; we will let it be so. There is little use in unravelling
that now. Sons must be blind if they will. Why is it that a woman
can see from a distance what a man cannot see close? Clym must do as
he will--he is nothing more to me. And this is maternity--to give
one's best years and best love to ensure the fate of being despised!"

"You are too unyielding. Think how many mothers there are whose sons
have brought them to public shame by real crimes before you feel so
deeply a case like this."

"Thomasin, don't lecture me--I can