d been religiously and lovingly preserved by the former as a
testimony to her intentional respectability in spite of an untoward
subsequent circumstance, which will be mentioned. This relic was now as
dry as a brick, and seemed to belong to a pre-existent civilization. Till
quite recently, Selina had been in the habit of pausing before it daily,
and recalling the accident whose consequences had thrown a shadow over
her life ever since--that of which the water-drawers had spoken--the
sudden news one morning that the Route had come for the ---th Dragoons,
two days only being the interval before departure; the hurried
consultation as to what should be done, the second time of asking being
past but not the third; and the decision that it would be unwise to
solemnize matrimony in such haphazard circumstances, even if it were
possible, which was doubtful.

Before the fire the young woman in question was now seated on a low
stool, in the stillness of reverie, and a toddling boy played about the
floor around her.

'Ah, Mrs. Stone!' said Selina, rising slowly. 'How kind of you to come
in. You'll bide to supper? Mother has told you the strange news, of
course?'

'No. But I heard it outside, that is, that you'd had a letter from Mr.
Clark--Sergeant-Major Clark, as they say he is now--and that he's coming
to make it up with 'ee.'

'Yes; coming to-night--all the way from the north of England where he's
quartered. I don't know whether I'm happy or--frightened at it. Of
course I always believed that if he was alive he'd come and keep his
solemn vow to me. But when it is printed that a man is killed--what can
you think?'

'It was printed?'

'Why, yes. After the Battle of the Alma the book of the names of the
killed and wounded was nailed up against Casterbridge Town Hall door.
'Twas on a Saturday, and I walked there o' purpose to read and see for
myself; for I'd heard that his name was down. There was a crowd of
people round the book, looking for the names of relations; and I can mind
that when they saw me they made way for me--knowing that we'd been just
going to be married--and that, as you may say, I belonged to him. Well,
I reached up my arm, and turned over the farrels of the book, and under
the "killed" I read his surname, but instead of "John" they'd printed
"James," and I thought 'twas a mistake, and that it must be he. Who
could have guessed there were two nearly of one name in one regiment.'

'Well--he's