fair ones with lovelocks, fair
ones with braids, flew round and round; and a beholder might well have
wondered how such a prepossessing set of young women of like size, age,
and disposition, could have been collected together where there were
only one or two villages to choose from. In the background was one happy
man dancing by himself, with closed eyes, totally oblivious of all the
rest. A fire was burning under a pollard thorn a few paces off, over
which three kettles hung in a row. Hard by was a table where elderly
dames prepared tea, but Eustacia looked among them in vain for the
cattle-dealer's wife who had suggested that she should come, and had
promised to obtain a courteous welcome for her.

This unexpected absence of the only local resident whom Eustacia knew
considerably damaged her scheme for an afternoon of reckless gaiety.
Joining in became a matter of difficulty, notwithstanding that, were she
to advance, cheerful dames would come forward with cups of tea and make
much of her as a stranger of superior grace and knowledge to themselves.
Having watched the company through the figures of two dances, she
decided to walk a little further, to a cottage where she might get some
refreshment, and then return homeward in the shady time of evening.

This she did, and by the time that she retraced her steps towards the
scene of the gipsying, which it was necessary to repass on her way to
Alderworth, the sun was going down. The air was now so still that she
could hear the band afar off, and it seemed to be playing with more
spirit, if that were possible, than when she had come away. On reaching
the hill the sun had quite disappeared; but this made little difference
either to Eustacia or to the revellers, for a round yellow moon was
rising before her, though its rays had not yet outmastered those from
the west. The dance was going on just the same, but strangers had
arrived and formed a ring around the figure, so that Eustacia could
stand among these without a chance of being recognized.

A whole village-full of sensuous emotion, scattered abroad all the year
long, surged here in a focus for an hour. The forty hearts of those
waving couples were beating as they had not done since, twelve months
before, they had come together in similar jollity. For the time paganism
was revived in their hearts, the pride of life was all in all, and they
adored none other than themselves.

How many of those impassioned but temporary