n a little further
Henchard broke out impatiently, "Come--we don't want to hear any more of
them cust dees and bees! Say the words out like a man, and don't be so
modest, Stubberd; or else leave it alone!" Turning to the woman, "Now
then, have you any questions to ask him, or anything to say?"

"Yes," she replied with a twinkle in her eye; and the clerk dipped his
pen.

"Twenty years ago or thereabout I was selling of furmity in a tent at
Weydon Fair----"

"'Twenty years ago'--well, that's beginning at the beginning; suppose
you go back to the Creation!" said the clerk, not without satire.

But Henchard stared, and quite forgot what was evidence and what was
not.

"A man and a woman with a little child came into my tent," the woman
continued. "They sat down and had a basin apiece. Ah, Lord's my life! I
was of a more respectable station in the world then than I am now, being
a land smuggler in a large way of business; and I used to season my
furmity with rum for them who asked for't. I did it for the man; and
then he had more and more; till at last he quarrelled with his wife, and
offered to sell her to the highest bidder. A sailor came in and bid five
guineas, and paid the money, and led her away. And the man who sold his
wife in that fashion is the man sitting there in the great big chair."
The speaker concluded by nodding her head at Henchard and folding her
arms.

Everybody looked at Henchard. His face seemed strange, and in tint as if
it had been powdered over with ashes. "We don't want to hear your life
and adventures," said the second magistrate sharply, filling the pause
which followed. "You've been asked if you've anything to say bearing on
the case."

"That bears on the case. It proves that he's no better than I, and has
no right to sit there in judgment upon me."

"'Tis a concocted story," said the clerk. "So hold your tongue!"

"No--'tis true." The words came from Henchard. "'Tis as true as the
light," he said slowly. "And upon my soul it does prove that I'm no
better than she! And to keep out of any temptation to treat her hard for
her revenge, I'll leave her to you."

The sensation in the court was indescribably great. Henchard left the
chair, and came out, passing through a group of people on the steps
and outside that was much larger than usual; for it seemed that the old
furmity dealer had mysteriously hinted to the denizens of the lane in
which she had been lodging since her arrival, that s