after the hubbub we have been making."

"O, that's no inconvenience," said Clym, smiling rather sadly. And then
the party drove off and vanished in the night shades, and Yeobright
entered the house. The ticking of the clock was the only sound that
greeted him, for not a soul remained; Christian, who acted as cook,
valet, and gardener to Clym, sleeping at his father's house. Yeobright
sat down in one of the vacant chairs, and remained in thought a long
time. His mother's old chair was opposite; it had been sat in that
evening by those who had scarcely remembered that it ever was hers. But
to Clym she was almost a presence there, now as always. Whatever she
was in other people's memories, in his she was the sublime saint whose
radiance even his tenderness for Eustacia could not obscure. But his
heart was heavy, that Mother had NOT crowned him in the day of his
espousals and in the day of the gladness of his heart. And events had
borne out the accuracy of her judgment, and proved the devotedness of
her care. He should have heeded her for Eustacia's sake even more than
for his own. "It was all my fault," he whispered. "O, my mother, my
mother! would to God that I could live my life again, and endure for you
what you endured for me!"

On the Sunday after this wedding an unusual sight was to be seen on
Rainbarrow. From a distance there simply appeared to be a motionless
figure standing on the top of the tumulus, just as Eustacia had stood on
that lonely summit some two years and a half before. But now it was fine
warm weather, with only a summer breeze blowing, and early afternoon
instead of dull twilight. Those who ascended to the immediate
neighbourhood of the Barrow perceived that the erect form in the centre,
piercing the sky, was not really alone. Round him upon the slopes of the
Barrow a number of heathmen and women were reclining or sitting at their
ease. They listened to the words of the man in their midst, who was
preaching, while they abstractedly pulled heather, stripped ferns, or
tossed pebbles down the slope. This was the first of a series of moral
lectures or Sermons on the Mount, which were to be delivered from the
same place every Sunday afternoon as long as the fine weather lasted.

The commanding elevation of Rainbarrow had been chosen for two reasons:
first, that it occupied a central position among the remote cottages
around; secondly, that the preacher thereon could be seen from all
adjacent points as