form was now distinct on the green; he was
moving about in a bowed attitude, evidently scanning the grass for the
precious missing article, walking in zigzags right and left till he
should have passed over every foot of the ground.

"How very ridiculous!" Thomasin murmured to herself, in a tone which
was intended to be satirical. "To think that a man should be so silly
as to go mooning about like that for a girl's glove! A respectable
dairyman, too, and a man of money as he is now. What a pity!"

At last Venn appeared to find it; whereupon he stood up and raised
it to his lips. Then placing it in his breast-pocket--the nearest
receptacle to a man's heart permitted by modern raiment--he ascended
the valley in a mathematically direct line towards his distant home in
the meadows.

II

Thomasin Walks in a Green Place by the Roman Road

Clym saw little of Thomasin for several days after this; and when they
met she was more silent than usual. At length he asked her what she
was thinking of so intently.

"I am thoroughly perplexed," she said candidly. "I cannot for my life
think who it is that Diggory Venn is so much in love with. None of
the girls at the Maypole were good enough for him, and yet she must
have been there."

Clym tried to imagine Venn's choice for a moment; but ceasing to be
interested in the question he went on again with his gardening.

No clearing up of the mystery was granted her for some time. But one
afternoon Thomasin was upstairs getting ready for a walk, when she had
occasion to come to the landing and call "Rachel." Rachel was a girl
about thirteen, who carried the baby out for airings; and she came
upstairs at the call.

"Have you seen one of my last new gloves about the house, Rachel?"
inquired Thomasin. "It is the fellow to this one."

Rachel did not reply.

"Why don't you answer?" said her mistress.

"I think it is lost, ma'am."

"Lost? Who lost it? I have never worn them but once."

Rachel appeared as one dreadfully troubled, and at last began to cry.
"Please, ma'am, on the day of the Maypole I had none to wear, and I
seed yours on the table, and I thought I would borrow 'em. I did not
mean to hurt 'em at all, but one of them got lost. Somebody gave me
some money to buy another pair for you, but I have not been able to
go anywhere to get 'em."

"Who's somebody?"

"Mr. Venn."

"Did he know it was my glove?"

"Yes. I told him."

Thomasin was so surprised by the e