undwork of the face was hopefulness; but
over it now lay like a foreign substance a film of anxiety and grief.
The grief had been there so shortly as to have abstracted nothing
of the bloom, and had as yet but given a dignity to what it might
eventually undermine. The scarlet of her lips had not had time to
abate, and just now it appeared still more intense by the absence of
the neighbouring and more transient colour of her cheek. The lips
frequently parted, with a murmur of words. She seemed to belong
rightly to a madrigal--to require viewing through rhyme and harmony.

One thing at least was obvious: she was not made to be looked at thus.
The reddleman had appeared conscious of as much, and, while Mrs.
Yeobright looked in upon her, he cast his eyes aside with a delicacy
which well became him. The sleeper apparently thought so too, for the
next moment she opened her own.

The lips then parted with something of anticipation, something more
of doubt; and her several thoughts and fractions of thoughts, as
signalled by the changes on her face, were exhibited by the light to
the utmost nicety. An ingenuous, transparent life was disclosed, as
if the flow of her existence could be seen passing within her. She
understood the scene in a moment.

"O yes, it is I, aunt," she cried. "I know how frightened you are,
and how you cannot believe it; but all the same, it is I who have come
home like this!"

"Tamsin, Tamsin!" said Mrs. Yeobright, stooping over the young woman
and kissing her. "O my dear girl!"

Thomasin was now on the verge of a sob, but by an unexpected
self-command she uttered no sound. With a gentle panting breath she
sat upright.

"I did not expect to see you in this state, any more than you me," she
went on quickly. "Where am I, aunt?"

"Nearly home, my dear. In Egdon Bottom. What dreadful thing is it?"

"I'll tell you in a moment. So near, are we? Then I will get out and
walk. I want to go home by the path."

"But this kind man who has done so much will, I am sure, take you
right on to my house?" said the aunt, turning to the reddleman, who
had withdrawn from the front of the van on the awakening of the girl,
and stood in the road.

"Why should you think it necessary to ask me? I will, of course,"
said he.

"He is indeed kind," murmured Thomasin. "I was once acquainted with
him, aunt, and when I saw him today I thought I should prefer his van
to any conveyance of a stranger. But I'll walk now. Reddle