passing by the corn-stores and hay-barns which had
been the headquarters of his business. She knew that he ruled there
no longer; but it was with amazement that she regarded the familiar
gateway. A smear of decisive lead-coloured paint had been laid on to
obliterate Henchard's name, though its letters dimly loomed through like
ships in a fog. Over these, in fresh white, spread the name of Farfrae.

Abel Whittle was edging his skeleton in at the wicket, and she said,
"Mr. Farfrae is master here?"

"Yaas, Miss Henchet," he said, "Mr. Farfrae have bought the concern and
all of we work-folk with it; and 'tis better for us than 'twas--though
I shouldn't say that to you as a daughter-law. We work harder, but we
bain't made afeard now. It was fear made my few poor hairs so thin! No
busting out, no slamming of doors, no meddling with yer eternal soul and
all that; and though 'tis a shilling a week less I'm the richer man; for
what's all the world if yer mind is always in a larry, Miss Henchet?"

The intelligence was in a general sense true; and Henchard's stores,
which had remained in a paralyzed condition during the settlement of
his bankruptcy, were stirred into activity again when the new tenant had
possession. Thenceforward the full sacks, looped with the shining chain,
went scurrying up and down under the cat-head, hairy arms were thrust
out from the different door-ways, and the grain was hauled in; trusses
of hay were tossed anew in and out of the barns, and the wimbles
creaked; while the scales and steel-yards began to be busy where
guess-work had formerly been the rule.

32.

Two bridges stood near the lower part of Casterbridge town. The first,
of weather-stained brick, was immediately at the end of High Street,
where a diverging branch from that thoroughfare ran round to the
low-lying Durnover lanes; so that the precincts of the bridge formed
the merging point of respectability and indigence. The second bridge, of
stone, was further out on the highway--in fact, fairly in the meadows,
though still within the town boundary.

These bridges had speaking countenances. Every projection in each
was worn down to obtuseness, partly by weather, more by friction from
generations of loungers, whose toes and heels had from year to year
made restless movements against these parapets, as they had stood there
meditating on the aspect of affairs. In the case of the more friable
bricks and stones even the flat faces were