crossed the shaded avenue on the
walls, slid down the green rampart, and stood amongst the stubble. The
"stitches" or shocks rose like tents about the yellow expanse, those in
the distance becoming lost in the moonlit hazes.

He had entered at a point removed from the scene of immediate
operations; but two others had entered at that place, and he could
see them winding among the shocks. They were paying no regard to the
direction of their walk, whose vague serpentining soon began to
bear down towards Henchard. A meeting promised to be awkward, and he
therefore stepped into the hollow of the nearest shock, and sat down.

"You have my leave," Lucetta was saying gaily. "Speak what you like."

"Well, then," replied Farfrae, with the unmistakable inflection of the
lover pure, which Henchard had never heard in full resonance of his lips
before, "you are sure to be much sought after for your position, wealth,
talents, and beauty. But will ye resist the temptation to be one of
those ladies with lots of admirers--ay--and be content to have only a
homely one?"

"And he the speaker?" said she, laughing. "Very well, sir, what next?"

"Ah! I'm afraid that what I feel will make me forget my manners!"

"Then I hope you'll never have any, if you lack them only for that
cause." After some broken words which Henchard lost she added, "Are you
sure you won't be jealous?"

Farfrae seemed to assure her that he would not, by taking her hand.

"You are convinced, Donald, that I love nobody else," she presently
said. "But I should wish to have my own way in some things."

"In everything! What special thing did you mean?"

"If I wished not to live always in Casterbridge, for instance, upon
finding that I should not be happy here?"

Henchard did not hear the reply; he might have done so and much more,
but he did not care to play the eavesdropper. They went on towards
the scene of activity, where the sheaves were being handed, a dozen a
minute, upon the carts and waggons which carried them away.

Lucetta insisted on parting from Farfrae when they drew near the
workpeople. He had some business with them, and, though he entreated
her to wait a few minutes, she was inexorable, and tripped off homeward
alone.

Henchard thereupon left the field and followed her. His state of mind
was such that on reaching Lucetta's door he did not knock but opened it,
and walked straight up to her sitting-room, expecting to find her
there. But the room