hidden dwelling whom he presently
saw to be Manston and his wife. Manston was wearing his old garden-hat,
and carried one of the monthly magazines under his arm. Immediately
they had passed the gateway he branched off and went over the hill in a
direction away from the church, evidently intending to ramble along,
and read as the humour moved him. The lady meanwhile turned in the other
direction, and went into the church path.

Owen resolved to make something of this opportunity. He hurried along
towards the church, doubled round a sharp angle, and came back upon the
other path, by which Mrs. Manston must arrive.

In about three minutes she appeared in sight without a veil. He
discovered, as she drew nearer, a difficulty which had not struck him
at first--that it is not an easy matter to particularize the colour of
a stranger's eyes in a merely casual encounter on a path out of doors.
That Mrs. Manston must be brought close to him, and not only so, but to
look closely at him, if his purpose were to be accomplished.

He shaped a plan. It might by chance be effectual; if otherwise, it
would not reveal his intention to her. When Mrs. Manston was within
speaking distance, he went up to her and said--

'Will you kindly tell me which turning will take me to Casterbridge?'

'The second on the right,' said Mrs. Manston.

Owen put on a blank look: he held his hand to his ear--conveying to the
lady the idea that he was deaf.

She came closer and said more distinctly--

'The second turning on the right.'

Owen flushed a little. He fancied he had beheld the revelation he was in
search of. But had his eyes deceived him?

Once more he used the ruse, still drawing nearer and intimating by a
glance that the trouble he gave her was very distressing to him.

'How very deaf!' she murmured. She exclaimed loudly--

'_The second turning to the right_.'

She had advanced her face to within a foot of his own, and in speaking
mouthed very emphatically, fixing her eyes intently upon his. And now
his first suspicion was indubitably confirmed. Her eyes were as black as
midnight.

All this feigning was most distasteful to Graye. The riddle having
been solved, he unconsciously assumed his natural look before she had
withdrawn her face. She found him to be peering at her as if he would
read her very soul--expressing with his eyes the notification of which,
apart from emotion, the eyes are more capable than any other--inquiry.

Her fa