, that of the unconscious kind; but a superiority which recognizes itself may

made appreciable inroads upon the emot

itive as the money-market in calculations upon his chances. His dog waited for his meals in a way so like that in which Oak waited for the girl's presence, that the farmer was quite struck with the resemblance, felt it lowering, and would not look at the dog. However, he continued to watch

sound a

fying

no wor

was Bathsheba Everdene, and that the cow would go

tead of whistling; turned over his taste to black hair, though he had sworn by brown ever since he was a boy, isolated himself till the space he filled in the public eye was contemptibly small. Love is a possible strength in an actual weakness. Marriage transforms a distra

bout an errand on which he might consisten

ugh blue sky visible to make cheerfully-disposed people wish for more, and an occasional gleam of silvery sunshine, Oak put the lamb into a respectable Sunday basket, and stalked

its origin-seen the hearth and Bathsheba beside it-beside it in her out-door dress; for the clothes she had worn on the hill were by association equally with her

nt to the inmost heart of the plantation for a new walking-stick, and trimmed it vigorously on his way back; took a new handkerchief from the bottom of his clothes-box, put on the light waistcoat patterned all over with sprigs of an elegant flower uniting the beauties of both rose and lily without the de

er untoward commencement of Oak's overtures, just as he arrived by the garden gate, he saw a cat inside, going into various arched shapes and fiendish convulsions at the sight of his dog George. The dog took no notice, for he had arrived at an age at which all superfluous barking was cynica

d some laurel-bushes in

rute of a dog want to kil

voice, "but George was walking on beh

isgiving as to whose ear was the recipient of his answer. Nob

erview is as likely to be a vast change for the worse as for the better, any initial difference from expectation causes nipping sensa

ling one's self merely Somebody, without giving a name, is not to be taken as an example of the ill-breeding of the rural w

. The voice had e

come in,

e fireplace. "I've brought a lamb for Miss Everden

though she's only a visitor here. If you

isn't really the business I came about, Mrs. Hurst. In s

re you

glad to marry her. D'ye know if she's got a

armer Oak, she's so good-looking, and an excellent scholar besides-she was going to be a governess once, you know, o

only an every-day sort of man, and my only chance was in being the first comer ... Well, there's n

in a piping note of more treble quality than that in which the exclamation usually embodies itself whe

eba Everdene. Gabriel's colour deepened: hers was already

f breath pulling up in front of him with a s

ee you," said Gabriel, p

before the sun dries off the dew. "I didn't know you had come to ask to have me, or I should have come in from

ast, my dear," he said, with a grateful sense of favou

nt on. "I haven't a sweetheart at all-and I never had one, and I thought that, as ti

He held out his hand to take hers, which, when she had eased her side by pressing it there, was prettily extended upon her bosom

Gabriel, with half a degree less assu

you

of man, I have got on a little since I was a boy." Gabriel uttered "a little" in a tone to show her that it was the comp

tood a low stunted holly bush, now laden with red berries. Seeing his advance take the form of an atti

op, looking at him with rounded eyes, "

dismay. "To run after anybody like t

sweetheart, instead of my having a dozen, as my aunt said; I hate to be thought men's property in that way, though possibly I shall be had some day. Why, if I'd wanted you

expressing a judgment impulsively, and Oak added with a more appreciative

tarting whether I wanted to marry or not

or two. I'll wait a while, Miss Everdene. Will you mar

her more timorously; "if I can think o

can give

houghtfully into the distance, away fro

shall have a piano in a year or two-farmers' wives are getting to have pianos n

should l

lowers, and birds-cocks and hens I mean, because they be useful,"

like it

ucumbers-like a ge

es

er, we'd have it put in the

should l

And at home by the fire, whenever you look up, there

and don't b

n them over and over again, to such an extent, that holly seemed in his after life

she said. "I don't

ry

be very nice in one sense. People would talk about me, and think I had

el

e, as you say; whenever I

he would-

ing, if I could be one without having a husband. But since a woman

errible woo

athsheba made an addition to her dig

voice, "don't be like it!" Oak sighed a deep honest sigh-none the less so in that, being like the sigh of a pine plantation, it was r

she said,

till at last in despair of ever rea

I don't l

s,

mallness, so that it was hardly ill-manne

as for myself, I am

very fine! You'd

sh and into her arms. "I shall do one thing in this life-one thing certain-that is, love you, and long for you, an

escape from her moral dilemma. "How I wish I hadn't run after you!" However she seemed to have a short cut for getting back to cheerfulness, and s

ld in a way implying that it w

stenance. I am better educated than you-and I don't love you a bit: that's my side of the case. Now yours: you are a farmer just beginning; and you ought in common prude

with a little surpri

I had been thinking m

many to succeed with Bathsheba: his humility, and a superflu

e?" she said, almost angrily, if not quite,

at I think wou

ig

: w

th even more hauteur, and rocking her head disdainfully. "Af

and get crabbed with me. That about your not being good enough for me is nonsense. You speak like a lady-all the parish notice it, and your uncle at Weatherbury is, I have heerd, a l

re-don't. I don't love you-so 'twould

s. "Very well," said Oak, firmly, with the bearing of one who was going to gi