eared when I first met him, though it is such a little
while ago. His hands were as white and soft as mine; and look at them
now, how rough and brown they are! His complexion is by nature fair, and
that rusty look he has now, all of a colour with his leather clothes, is
caused by the burning of the sun."

"Why does he go out at all!" Wildeve whispered.

"Because he hates to be idle; though what he earns doesn't add much to
our exchequer. However, he says that when people are living upon their
capital they must keep down current expenses by turning a penny where
they can."

"The fates have not been kind to you, Eustacia Yeobright."

"I have nothing to thank them for."

"Nor has he--except for their one great gift to him."

"What's that?"

Wildeve looked her in the eyes.

Eustacia blushed for the first time that day. "Well, I am a questionable
gift," she said quietly. "I thought you meant the gift of content--which
he has, and I have not."

"I can understand content in such a case--though how the outward
situation can attract him puzzles me."

"That's because you don't know him. He's an enthusiast about ideas, and
careless about outward things. He often reminds me of the Apostle Paul."

"I am glad to hear that he's so grand in character as that."

"Yes; but the worst of it is that though Paul was excellent as a man in
the Bible he would hardly have done in real life."

Their voices had instinctively dropped lower, though at first they had
taken no particular care to avoid awakening Clym. "Well, if that means
that your marriage is a misfortune to you, you know who is to blame,"
said Wildeve.

"The marriage is no misfortune in itself," she retorted with some little
petulance. "It is simply the accident which has happened since that has
been the cause of my ruin. I have certainly got thistles for figs in a
worldly sense, but how could I tell what time would bring forth?"

"Sometimes, Eustacia, I think it is a judgment upon you. You rightly
belonged to me, you know; and I had no idea of losing you."

"No, it was not my fault! Two could not belong to you; and remember
that, before I was aware, you turned aside to another woman. It was
cruel levity in you to do that. I never dreamt of playing such a game on
my side till you began it on yours."

"I meant nothing by it," replied Wildeve. "It was a mere interlude. Men
are given to the trick of having a passing fancy for somebody else in
the midst of a permanen