be
relieved to hear that he gave away his pot and all, on second thoughts;
and a blessed thing for ye, Mis'ess Yeobright, considering the wind o'
nights."

"Gave it away?"

"Yes. To Miss Vye. She has a cannibal taste for such churchyard
furniture seemingly."

"Miss Vye was there too?"

"Ay, 'a b'lieve she was."

When Clym came home, which was shortly after, his mother said, in a
curious tone, "The urn you had meant for me you gave away."

Yeobright made no reply; the current of her feeling was too pronounced
to admit it.

The early weeks of the year passed on. Yeobright certainly studied at
home, but he also walked much abroad, and the direction of his walk was
always towards some point of a line between Mistover and Rainbarrow.

The month of March arrived, and the heath showed its first signs of
awakening from winter trance. The awakening was almost feline in its
stealthiness. The pool outside the bank by Eustacia's dwelling, which
seemed as dead and desolate as ever to an observer who moved and made
noises in his observation, would gradually disclose a state of great
animation when silently watched awhile. A timid animal world had come to
life for the season. Little tadpoles and efts began to bubble up through
the water, and to race along beneath it; toads made noises like very
young ducks, and advanced to the margin in twos and threes; overhead,
bumblebees flew hither and thither in the thickening light, their drone
coming and going like the sound of a gong.

On an evening such as this Yeobright descended into the Blooms-End
valley from beside that very pool, where he had been standing with
another person quite silently and quite long enough to hear all this
puny stir of resurrection in nature; yet he had not heard it. His walk
was rapid as he came down, and he went with a springy trend. Before
entering upon his mother's premises he stopped and breathed. The light
which shone forth on him from the window revealed that his face was
flushed and his eye bright. What it did not show was something which
lingered upon his lips like a seal set there. The abiding presence of
this impress was so real that he hardly dared to enter the house, for it
seemed as if his mother might say, "What red spot is that glowing upon
your mouth so vividly?"

But he entered soon after. The tea was ready, and he sat down opposite
his mother. She did not speak many words; and as for him, something
had been just done and some words