but too much absorbed in justifying you.--Your
husband as ever,

CLYM.

"There," he said, as he laid it in his desk, "that's a good thing done.
If she does not come before tomorrow night I will send it to her."

Meanwhile, at the house he had just left Thomasin sat sighing uneasily.
Fidelity to her husband had that evening induced her to conceal all
suspicion that Wildeve's interest in Eustacia had not ended with
his marriage. But she knew nothing positive; and though Clym was her
well-beloved cousin there was one nearer to her still.

When, a little later, Wildeve returned from his walk to Mistover,
Thomasin said, "Damon, where have you been? I was getting quite
frightened, and thought you had fallen into the river. I dislike being
in the house by myself."

"Frightened?" he said, touching her cheek as if she were some domestic
animal. "Why, I thought nothing could frighten you. It is that you are
getting proud, I am sure, and don't like living here since we have risen
above our business. Well, it is a tedious matter, this getting a new
house; but I couldn't have set about it sooner, unless our ten thousand
pounds had been a hundred thousand, when we could have afforded to
despise caution."

"No--I don't mind waiting--I would rather stay here twelve months longer
than run any risk with baby. But I don't like your vanishing so in the
evenings. There's something on your mind--I know there is, Damon. You go
about so gloomily, and look at the heath as if it were somebody's gaol
instead of a nice wild place to walk in."

He looked towards her with pitying surprise. "What, do you like Egdon
Heath?" he said.

"I like what I was born near to; I admire its grim old face."

"Pooh, my dear. You don't know what you like."

"I am sure I do. There's only one thing unpleasant about Egdon."

"What's that?"

"You never take me with you when you walk there. Why do you wander so
much in it yourself if you so dislike it?"

The inquiry, though a simple one, was plainly disconcerting, and he sat
down before replying. "I don't think you often see me there. Give an
instance."

"I will," she answered triumphantly. "When you went out this evening I
thought that as baby was asleep I would see where you were going to so
mysteriously without telling me. So I ran out and followed behind you.
You stopped at the place where the road forks, looked round at the
bonfires, and then said, 'Damn it, I'll go!' And you went quickly up the