The Return of the Native

Attempt at

ith the altitude of Rainbarrow, and when all the little hills in the lower levels were like an archipelago in a fog-formed Ae

ound elsewhere. A bustard haunted the spot, and not many years before this five and twenty might have been seen in Egdon at one time. Marsh-harriers looked up from the valley by Wildeve's. A cream-coloured courser had used to visit this hi

ved from the home of the north wind. The creature brought within him an amplitude of Northern knowledge. Glacial catastrophes, snowstorm episodes, glittering auroral effects, Polaris in the zenith, Franklin underfoot

ed upon the bold stroke of asking for an interview with Miss Vye-to attack her position as Thomasin's rival either by art or by storm, showing therein, somewhat too conspicuously, the want of gallantry characteristic of a certain astute sort of men, from clow

stacia was reserved, and lived very much to herself. Except the daughter of one of the cotters, who was their servant, and a lad who worked in the garden and stable, scarcely anyone but themselves ever entered the house. They were

stant landscape, the little anchors on his buttons twinkling in the sun. He recognized Venn as his companion on th

s was with Miss Vye. The captain surveyed him from cap to waistcoat and from

man waited in the window-bench of the kitchen, his hands hanging

is not up yet?" he prese

never call upon ladies

If she is willing to see me, will she

nce was brought. He was beginning to think that his scheme had failed, when he beheld the form of Eustacia herself coming

her close approach did not cause him to writhe uneasily, or shift his feet, or show any of those little signs which escape an ingenuous rustic at the ad

t he would have acted more wisely by appearing less unimpressionable, a

across and tell you some strange news w

what

the south-east-the dire

ckly to him. "Do yo

him, and I have come to let you know of it, becaus

is the

that he may refuse to marry T

her part in such a drama as this. She replied coldly, "I do not

you will hea

marriage, and even if I were I could n

in the case. This other woman is some person he has picked up with, and meets on the heath occasionally, I believe. He will never marry her, and yet through her he may never marry the woman who loves him dearly. Now, if you,

similar scarlet fire. "You think too much of my influence over men-folk indeed, reddleman. If I had such a power as you imagine I would

on't know of it-how much she

we live only two miles apart I have never

n that thus far he had utterly failed. He inwardly sigh

is in your power, I assure you, Miss Vye, t

ook he

sted, saying to himself, "God forgive a rascal for lying!" And she was handsomer, but the reddleman was far from thinking so. There was a certain obscurity in Eustacia's beauty, and Venn's eye was not traine

e endangered her dignity thereby. "Many women are lovelier

an who notices the looks of women, and you could twist h

s been so much with him I cannot

nd looked her in the fa

s quick. "The idea of your speaking in that tone to me!" she added, with a forced s

you don't know this man?-I know why, certain

taken. What

e meeting by Rainbarrow last night and heard every word," he said

daules' wife glowed in her. The moment had arrived when her lip would tr

-it is not that-I am not in a humour t

e is without doubt worse than yours. Your giving up Mr. Wildeve will be a real advantage to you, for how could you marry him? Now she cannot get off so

e beaten down-by an inferior woman like her. It is very well for you to come and plead for her, but is she not herself the cause of all her own trouble? Am I not to show favour to any perso

ask you to give him up. It will be better for her and you both. People will say bad th

back-because-because he liked me best!" she said wildly. "But I

f your meetings with him. There is but one thing more to speak of, and then I will be gon

l to me. The man you mention does not save me from that feeling, though he lives

ing. "As we have now opened our minds a bit, miss," he said, "I'll tell you what I have

t round so that her eyes rested

bending into the land like a bow-thousands of gentlepeople walking up and down-bands of music playing-offic

you. I was born there. My father came to be a military musician t

ou were, miss," he replied, "in a week's time you would think no more of Wildeve

with intense curiosi

y has become old and lame, and she wants a young company-keeper to read and sing to her, but can't get one to her mind to save her

ave to work

to do, such as reading and that. You w

k," she said, droopi

g people would call it play. Think of the company and the life you'd lead, miss; the gaiety you'd see, and the gentle

ve in a gay town as a lady should, and go my own ways, and do my own doin

, miss, and the chance shall b

going indoors. I have nothing more to say. Don't your horses want feeding, or your reddlebags wa

youth and situation had led him to expect a simplicity quite at the beck of his method. But a system of inducement which might have carried weaker country lasses along with it had merely repelled Eustacia. As a rule, the word Budmouth meant fascination on Egdon. That Royal port and watering place, if tru

oaked them from the day. There was no doubt that her mind was inclined thitherward; indefinitely, fancifully-twining and untwining about him as the single object within her horizon on which dreams might crystallize. The man who had begun by being merely her amusement, and would never have been more than her hobby but for his skill in deserting h

him up-never!" sh

ent shamelessness, but in her living too far from the world to feel the impact of public opinion. Zenobia in the desert could hardly have cared what was said about her at Rome. As far as social ethics were con