not supposed to notice that."

"Christian, now listen to me."

"Yes, sure, Mr. Yeobright."

"Did you see my mother the day before she died?"

"No, I did not."

Yeobright's face expressed disappointment.

"But I zeed her the morning of the same day she died."

Clym's look lighted up. "That's nearer still to my meaning," he said.

"Yes, I know 'twas the same day; for she said, 'I be going to see him,
Christian; so I shall not want any vegetables brought in for dinner.'"

"See whom?"

"See you. She was going to your house, you understand."

Yeobright regarded Christian with intense surprise. "Why did you never
mention this?" he said. "Are you sure it was my house she was coming
to?"

"O yes. I didn't mention it because I've never zeed you lately. And as
she didn't get there it was all nought, and nothing to tell."

"And I have been wondering why she should have walked in the heath on
that hot day! Well, did she say what she was coming for? It is a thing,
Christian, I am very anxious to know."

"Yes, Mister Clym. She didn't say it to me, though I think she did to
one here and there."

"Do you know one person to whom she spoke of it?"

"There is one man, please, sir, but I hope you won't mention my name
to him, as I have seen him in strange places, particular in dreams. One
night last summer he glared at me like Famine and Sword, and it made
me feel so low that I didn't comb out my few hairs for two days. He was
standing, as it might be, Mister Yeobright, in the middle of the path to
Mistover, and your mother came up, looking as pale--"

"Yes, when was that?"

"Last summer, in my dream."

"Pooh! Who's the man?"

"Diggory, the reddleman. He called upon her and sat with her the evening
before she set out to see you. I hadn't gone home from work when he came
up to the gate."

"I must see Venn--I wish I had known it before," said Clym anxiously. "I
wonder why he has not come to tell me?"

"He went out of Egdon Heath the next day, so would not be likely to know
you wanted him."

"Christian," said Clym, "you must go and find Venn. I am otherwise
engaged, or I would go myself. Find him at once, and tell him I want to
speak to him."

"I am a good hand at hunting up folk by day," said Christian, looking
dubiously round at the declining light; "but as to night-time, never is
such a bad hand as I, Mister Yeobright."

"Search the heath when you will, so that you bring him soon. Bring him
tomorrow, if y