me
after all. The awning was set up again; the band was called out from its
shelter, and ordered to begin, and where the tables had stood a place
was cleared for dancing.

"But where are the folk?" said Henchard, after the lapse of
half-an-hour, during which time only two men and a woman had stood up to
dance. "The shops are all shut. Why don't they come?"

"They are at Farfrae's affair in the West Walk," answered a Councilman
who stood in the field with the Mayor.

"A few, I suppose. But where are the body o 'em?"

"All out of doors are there."

"Then the more fools they!"

Henchard walked away moodily. One or two young fellows gallantly came to
climb the poles, to save the hams from being wasted; but as there
were no spectators, and the whole scene presented the most melancholy
appearance Henchard gave orders that the proceedings were to be
suspended, and the entertainment closed, the food to be distributed
among the poor people of the town. In a short time nothing was left in
the field but a few hurdles, the tents, and the poles.

Henchard returned to his house, had tea with his wife and daughter, and
then walked out. It was now dusk. He soon saw that the tendency of all
promenaders was towards a particular spot in the Walks, and eventually
proceeded thither himself. The notes of a stringed band came from the
enclosure that Farfrae had erected--the pavilion as he called it--and
when the Mayor reached it he perceived that a gigantic tent had been
ingeniously constructed without poles or ropes. The densest point of the
avenue of sycamores had been selected, where the boughs made a closely
interlaced vault overhead; to these boughs the canvas had been hung, and
a barrel roof was the result. The end towards the wind was enclosed, the
other end was open. Henchard went round and saw the interior.

In form it was like the nave of a cathedral with one gable removed, but
the scene within was anything but devotional. A reel or fling of some
sort was in progress; and the usually sedate Farfrae was in the midst of
the other dancers in the costume of a wild Highlander, flinging himself
about and spinning to the tune. For a moment Henchard could not help
laughing. Then he perceived the immense admiration for the Scotchman
that revealed itself in the women's faces; and when this exhibition was
over, and a new dance proposed, and Donald had disappeared for a time to
return in his natural garments, he had an unlimited choice