y that
stood on the left of the path, upon which Dick did the same; and they
both contemplated a whitish shadowy shape that was moving about and
grunting among the straw of the interior.

"I've come to ask for Fancy," said Dick.

"I'd as lief you hadn't."

"Why should that be, Mr. Day?"

"Because it makes me say that you've come to ask what ye be'n't likely to
have. Have ye come for anything else?"

"Nothing."

"Then I'll just tell 'ee you've come on a very foolish errand. D'ye know
what her mother was?"

"No."

"A teacher in a landed family's nursery, who was foolish enough to marry
the keeper of the same establishment; for I was only a keeper then,
though now I've a dozen other irons in the fire as steward here for my
lord, what with the timber sales and the yearly fellings, and the gravel
and sand sales and one thing and 'tother. However, d'ye think Fancy
picked up her good manners, the smooth turn of her tongue, her musical
notes, and her knowledge of books, in a homely hole like this?"

"No."

"D'ye know where?"

"No."

"Well, when I went a-wandering after her mother's death, she lived with
her aunt, who kept a boarding-school, till her aunt married Lawyer
Green--a man as sharp as a needle--and the school was broke up. Did ye
know that then she went to the training-school, and that her name stood
first among the Queen's scholars of her year?"

"I've heard so."

"And that when she sat for her certificate as Government teacher, she had
the highest of the first class?"

"Yes."

"Well, and do ye know what I live in such a miserly way for when I've got
enough to do without it, and why I make her work as a schoolmistress
instead of living here?"

"No."

"That if any gentleman, who sees her to be his equal in polish, should
want to marry her, and she want to marry him, he sha'n't be superior to
her in pocket. Now do ye think after this that you be good enough for
her?"

"No."

"Then good-night t'ee, Master Dewy."

"Good-night, Mr. Day."

Modest Dick's reply had faltered upon his tongue, and he turned away
wondering at his presumption in asking for a woman whom he had seen from
the beginning to be so superior to him.

CHAPTER III: FANCY IN THE RAIN

The next scene is a tempestuous afternoon in the following month, and
Fancy Day is discovered walking from her father's home towards Mellstock.

A single vast gray cloud covered the country, from which the small rain
and mist had