hink the same as ever of you, Eustacia. Nothing of that sort can
degrade you--you ennoble the occupation of your husband."

"I wish I could feel it."

"Is there any chance of Mr. Yeobright getting better?"

"He thinks so. I doubt it."

"I was quite surprised to hear that he had taken a cottage. I thought,
in common with other people, that he would have taken you off to a home
in Paris immediately after you had married him. 'What a gay, bright
future she has before her!' I thought. He will, I suppose, return there
with you, if his sight gets strong again?"

Observing that she did not reply he regarded her more closely. She was
almost weeping. Images of a future never to be enjoyed, the revived
sense of her bitter disappointment, the picture of the neighbour's
suspended ridicule which was raised by Wildeve's words, had been too
much for proud Eustacia's equanimity.

Wildeve could hardly control his own too forward feelings when he saw
her silent perturbation. But he affected not to notice this, and she
soon recovered her calmness.

"You do not intend to walk home by yourself?" he asked.

"O yes," said Eustacia. "What could hurt me on this heath, who have
nothing?"

"By diverging a little I can make my way home the same as yours. I
shall be glad to keep you company as far as Throope Corner." Seeing that
Eustacia sat on in hesitation he added, "Perhaps you think it unwise to
be seen in the same road with me after the events of last summer?"

"Indeed I think no such thing," she said haughtily. "I shall accept
whose company I choose, for all that may be said by the miserable
inhabitants of Egdon."

"Then let us walk on--if you are ready. Our nearest way is towards that
holly bush with the dark shadow that you see down there."

Eustacia arose, and walked beside him in the direction signified,
brushing her way over the damping heath and fern, and followed by the
strains of the merrymakers, who still kept up the dance. The moon had
now waxed bright and silvery, but the heath was proof against such
illumination, and there was to be observed the striking scene of a dark,
rayless tract of country under an atmosphere charged from its zenith to
its extremities with whitest light. To an eye above them their two
faces would have appeared amid the expanse like two pearls on a table of
ebony.

On this account the irregularities of the path were not visible, and
Wildeve occasionally stumbled; whilst Eustacia found it neces