blushing, and lifting
her long-lashed eyelids as if to lift them were a work requiring
consideration. "But my grandfather calls it water enough. I'll show
you what I mean."

She moved away a few yards, and Clym followed. When she reached the
corner of the enclosure, where the steps were formed for mounting the
boundary bank, she sprang up with a lightness which seemed strange
after her listless movement towards the well. It incidentally showed
that her apparent languor did not arise from lack of force.

Clym ascended behind her, and noticed a circular burnt patch at the
top of the bank. "Ashes?" he said.

"Yes," said Eustacia. "We had a little bonfire here last Fifth of
November, and those are the marks of it."

On that spot had stood the fire she had kindled to attract Wildeve.

"That's the only kind of water we have," she continued, tossing a
stone into the pool, which lay on the outside of the bank like the
white of an eye without its pupil. The stone fell with a flounce,
but no Wildeve appeared on the other side, as on a previous occasion
there. "My grandfather says he lived for more than twenty years at
sea on water twice as bad as that," she went on, "and considers it
quite good enough for us here on an emergency."

"Well, as a matter of fact there are no impurities in the water of
these pools at this time of the year. It has only just rained into
them."

She shook her head. "I am managing to exist in a wilderness, but I
cannot drink from a pond," she said.

Clym looked towards the well, which was now deserted, the men having
gone home. "It is a long way to send for spring-water," he said,
after a silence. "But since you don't like this in the pond, I'll try
to get you some myself." He went back to the well. "Yes, I think I
could do it by tying on this pail."

"But, since I would not trouble the men to get it, I cannot in
conscience let you."

"I don't mind the trouble at all."

He made fast the pail to the long coil of rope, put it over the wheel,
and allowed it to descend by letting the rope slip through his hands.
Before it had gone far, however, he checked it.

"I must make fast the end first, or we may lose the whole," he said to
Eustacia, who had drawn near. "Could you hold this a moment, while I
do it--or shall I call your servant?"

"I can hold it," said Eustacia; and he placed the rope in her hands,
going then to search for the end.

"I suppose I may let it slip down?" she inquired.