s not come, I can assure you he'll soon be here. He's
stopped to get a shave, to my thinking, seeing he wanted it. What he
said was that I could tell you he had heard the news in Ireland, and
would have come sooner, his hand being forced; but was hindered crossing
by the weather, having took passage in a sailing vessel. What news he
meant he didn't say.'

'Ah, yes,' she faltered. It was plain that the man knew nothing of her
intended re-marriage.

Mechanically rising and giving him a shilling, she answered to his 'good-
night,' and he withdrew, the beat of his footsteps lessening in the
distance. She was alone; but in what a solitude.

Christine stood in the middle of the hall, just as the man had left her,
in the gloomy silence of the stopped clock within the adjoining room,
till she aroused herself, and turning to the portmanteau and great-coat
brought them to the light of the candles, and examined them. The
portmanteau bore painted upon it the initials 'J. B.' in white
letters--the well-known initials of her husband.

She examined the great-coat. In the breast-pocket was an empty spirit
flask, which she firmly fancied she recognized as the one she had filled
many times for him when he was living at home with her.

She turned desultorily hither and thither, until she heard another tread
without, and there came a second knocking at the door. She did not
respond to it; and Nicholas--for it was he--thinking that he was not
heard by reason of a concentration on to-morrow's proceedings, opened the
door softly, and came on to the door of her room, which stood unclosed,
just as it had been left by the Casterbridge porter.

Nicholas uttered a blithe greeting, cast his eye round the parlour, which
with its tall candles, blazing fire, snow-white cloth, and
prettily-spread table, formed a cheerful spectacle enough for a man who
had been walking in the dark for an hour.

'My bride--almost, at last!' he cried, encircling her with his arms.

Instead of responding, her figure became limp, frigid, heavy; her head
fell back, and he found that she had fainted.

It was natural, he thought. She had had many little worrying matters to
attend to, and but slight assistance. He ought to have seen more
effectually to her affairs; the closeness of the event had over-excited
her. Nicholas kissed her unconscious face--more than once, little
thinking what news it was that had changed its aspect. Loth to call Mrs.
Wake, he ca