ist us, if we require assistance."

"We don't require it. If I go furze-cutting we shall be fairly well
off."

"In comparison with slaves, and the Israelites in Egypt, and such
people!" A bitter tear rolled down Eustacia's face, which he did not
see. There had been _nonchalance_ in his tone, showing her that he
felt no absolute grief at a consummation which to her was a positive
horror.

The very next day Yeobright went to Humphrey's cottage, and borrowed
of him leggings, gloves, a whet-stone, and a hook, to use till he
should be able to purchase some for himself. Then he sallied forth
with his new fellow-labourer and old acquaintance, and selecting a
spot where the furze grew thickest he struck the first blow in his
adopted calling. His sight, like the wings in "Rasselas," though
useless to him for his grand purpose, sufficed for this strait, and
he found that when a little practice should have hardened his palms
against blistering he would be able to work with ease.

Day after day he rose with the sun, buckled on his leggings, and went
off to the rendezvous with Humphrey. His custom was to work from four
o'clock in the morning till noon; then, when the heat of the day was
at its highest, to go home and sleep for an hour or two; afterwards
coming out again and working till dusk at nine.

This man from Paris was now so disguised by his leather accoutrements,
and by the goggles he was obliged to wear over his eyes, that his
closest friend might have passed by without recognizing him. He was
a brown spot in the midst of an expanse of olive-green gorse, and
nothing more. Though frequently depressed in spirit when not actually
at work, owing to thoughts of Eustacia's position and his mother's
estrangement, when in the full swing of labour he was cheerfully
disposed and calm.

His daily life was of a curious microscopic sort, his whole world
being limited to a circuit of a few feet from his person. His
familiars were creeping and winged things, and they seemed to enroll
him in their band. Bees hummed around his ears with an intimate
air, and tugged at the heath and furze-flowers at his side in such
numbers as to weigh them down to the sod. The strange amber-coloured
butterflies which Egdon produced, and which were never seen elsewhere,
quivered in the breath of his lips, alighted upon his bowed back, and
sported with the glittering point of his hook as he flourished it up
and down. Tribes of emerald-green grasshopper