allen apples on the ground beneath were wasps
rolling drunk with the juice, or creeping about the little caves in
each fruit which they had eaten out before stupefied by its sweetness.
By the door lay Clym's furze-hook and the last handful of faggot-bonds
she had seen him gather; they had plainly been thrown down there as he
entered the house.

VI

A Conjuncture, and Its Result upon the Pedestrian

Wildeve, as has been stated, was determined to visit Eustacia boldly,
by day, and on the easy terms of a relation, since the reddleman
had spied out and spoilt his walks to her by night. The spell that
she had thrown over him in the moonlight dance made it impossible
for a man having no strong puritanic force within him to keep away
altogether. He merely calculated on meeting her and her husband in an
ordinary manner, chatting a little while, and leaving again. Every
outward sign was to be conventional; but the one great fact would be
there to satisfy him: he would see her. He did not even desire Clym's
absence, since it was just possible that Eustacia might resent any
situation which could compromise her dignity as a wife, whatever the
state of her heart towards him. Women were often so.

He went accordingly; and it happened that the time of his arrival
coincided with that of Mrs. Yeobright's pause on the hill near the
house. When he had looked round the premises in the manner she had
noticed he went and knocked at the door. There was a few minutes'
interval, and then the key turned in the lock, the door opened, and
Eustacia herself confronted him.

Nobody could have imagined from her bearing now that here stood the
woman who had joined with him in the impassioned dance of the week
before, unless indeed he could have penetrated below the surface and
gauged the real depth of that still stream.

"I hope you reached home safely?" said Wildeve.

"O yes," she carelessly returned.

"And were you not tired the next day? I feared you might be."

"I was rather. You need not speak low--nobody will overhear us. My
small servant is gone on an errand to the village."

"Then Clym is not at home?"

"Yes, he is."

"O! I thought that perhaps you had locked the door because you were
alone and were afraid of tramps."

"No--here is my husband."

They had been standing in the entry. Closing the front door and
turning the key, as before, she threw open the door of the adjoining
room and asked him to walk in. Wildeve ent