, were not much higher than the between-decks of a
frigate, necessitating a sinking in the floor under the new clock-case
she brought from the inn, and the removal of the handsome brass knobs
on its head, before there was height for it to stand; but, such as the
rooms were, there were plenty of them, and the place was endeared to
her by every early recollection. Clym very gladly admitted her as a
tenant, confining his own existence to two rooms at the top of the
back staircase, where he lived on quietly, shut off from Thomasin and
the three servants she had thought fit to indulge in now that she
was a mistress of money, going his own ways, and thinking his own
thoughts.

His sorrows had made some change in his outward appearance; and yet
the alteration was chiefly within. It might have been said that he
had a wrinkled mind. He had no enemies, and he could get nobody to
reproach him, which was why he so bitterly reproached himself.

He did sometimes think he had been ill-used by fortune, so far as
to say that to be born is a palpable dilemma, and that instead of
men aiming to advance in life with glory they should calculate how
to retreat out of it without shame. But that he and his had been
sarcastically and pitilessly handled in having such irons thrust into
their souls he did not maintain long. It is usually so, except with
the sternest of men. Human beings, in their generous endeavour to
construct a hypothesis that shall not degrade a First Cause, have
always hesitated to conceive a dominant power of lower moral quality
than their own; and, even while they sit down and weep by the waters
of Babylon, invent excuses for the oppression which prompts their
tears.

Thus, though words of solace were vainly uttered in his presence, he
found relief in a direction of his own choosing when left to himself.
For a man of his habits the house and the hundred and twenty pounds a
year which he had inherited from his mother were enough to supply all
worldly needs. Resources do not depend upon gross amounts, but upon
the proportion of spendings to takings.

He frequently walked the heath alone, when the past seized upon
him with its shadowy hand, and held him there to listen to its
tale. His imagination would then people the spot with its ancient
inhabitants: forgotten Celtic tribes trod their tracks about him,
and he could almost live among them, look in their faces, and see
them standing beside the barrows which swelled around