een
seized upon by destiny and placed in the sunshine once more. Eleven
thousand pounds! From every Egdon point of view he was a rich man. In
Eustacia's eyes, too, it was an ample sum--one sufficient to supply
those wants of hers which had been stigmatized by Clym in his more
austere moods as vain and luxurious. Though she was no lover of
money she loved what money could bring; and the new accessories she
imagined around him clothed Wildeve with a great deal of interest. She
recollected now how quietly well-dressed he had been that morning: he
had probably put on his newest suit, regardless of damage by briars
and thorns. And then she thought of his manner towards herself.

"O I see it, I see it," she said. "How much he wishes he had me now,
that he might give me all I desire!"

In recalling the details of his glances and words--at the time
scarcely regarded--it became plain to her how greatly they had been
dictated by his knowledge of this new event. "Had he been a man to
bear a jilt ill-will he would have told me of his good fortune in
crowing tones; instead of doing that he mentioned not a word, in
deference to my misfortunes, and merely implied that he loved me
still, as one superior to him."

Wildeve's silence that day on what had happened to him was just the
kind of behaviour calculated to make an impression on such a woman.
Those delicate touches of good taste were, in fact, one of the strong
points in his demeanour towards the other sex. The peculiarity of
Wildeve was that, while at one time passionate, upbraiding, and
resentful towards a woman, at another he would treat her with
such unparalleled grace as to make previous neglect appear as
no discourtesy, injury as no insult, interference as a delicate
attention, and the ruin of her honour as excess of chivalry. This
man, whose admiration today Eustacia had disregarded, whose good
wishes she had scarcely taken the trouble to accept, whom she had
shown out of the house by the back door, was the possessor of eleven
thousand pounds--a man of fair professional education, and one who
had served his articles with a civil engineer.

So intent was Eustacia upon Wildeve's fortunes that she forgot how
much closer to her own course were those of Clym; and instead of
walking on to meet him at once she sat down upon a stone. She was
disturbed in her reverie by a voice behind, and turning her head
beheld the old lover and fortunate inheritor of wealth immediately
besid