r by reason of an absorbing discussion in which they were
engaged with the band about a tune for the next dance. The matter being
settled, they were about to stand up when an interruption came in the
shape of another knock at the door.

At sound of the same the man in the chimney-corner took up the poker and
began stirring the brands as if doing it thoroughly were the one aim of
his existence; and a second time the shepherd said, 'Walk in!' In a
moment another man stood upon the straw-woven door-mat. He too was a
stranger.

This individual was one of a type radically different from the first.
There was more of the commonplace in his manner, and a certain jovial
cosmopolitanism sat upon his features. He was several years older than
the first arrival, his hair being slightly frosted, his eyebrows bristly,
and his whiskers cut back from his cheeks. His face was rather full and
flabby, and yet it was not altogether a face without power. A few grog-
blossoms marked the neighbourhood of his nose. He flung back his long
drab greatcoat, revealing that beneath it he wore a suit of cinder-gray
shade throughout, large heavy seals, of some metal or other that would
take a polish, dangling from his fob as his only personal ornament.
Shaking the water-drops from his low-crowned glazed hat, he said, 'I must
ask for a few minutes' shelter, comrades, or I shall be wetted to my skin
before I get to Casterbridge.'

'Make yourself at home, master,' said the shepherd, perhaps a trifle less
heartily than on the first occasion. Not that Fennel had the least tinge
of niggardliness in his composition; but the room was far from large,
spare chairs were not numerous, and damp companions were not altogether
desirable at close quarters for the women and girls in their
bright-coloured gowns.

However, the second comer, after taking off his greatcoat, and hanging
his hat on a nail in one of the ceiling-beams as if he had been specially
invited to put it there, advanced and sat down at the table. This had
been pushed so closely into the chimney-corner, to give all available
room to the dancers, that its inner edge grazed the elbow of the man who
had ensconced himself by the fire; and thus the two strangers were
brought into close companionship. They nodded to each other by way of
breaking the ice of unacquaintance, and the first stranger handed his
neighbour the family mug--a huge vessel of brown ware, having its upper
edge worn away lik