the solitary life he led during the years which followed. "I have
kept my oath for nineteen years," he went on; "I have risen to what you
see me now."

"Ay!"

"Well--no wife could I hear of in all that time; and being by nature
something of a woman-hater, I have found it no hardship to keep mostly
at a distance from the sex. No wife could I hear of, I say, till this
very day. And now--she has come back."

"Come back, has she!"

"This morning--this very morning. And what's to be done?"

"Can ye no' take her and live with her, and make some amends?"

"That's what I've planned and proposed. But, Farfrae," said Henchard
gloomily, "by doing right with Susan I wrong another innocent woman."

"Ye don't say that?"

"In the nature of things, Farfrae, it is almost impossible that a man
of my sort should have the good fortune to tide through twenty years o'
life without making more blunders than one. It has been my custom
for many years to run across to Jersey in the the way of business,
particularly in the potato and root season. I do a large trade wi' them
in that line. Well, one autumn when stopping there I fell quite ill, and
in my illness I sank into one of those gloomy fits I sometimes suffer
from, on account o' the loneliness of my domestic life, when the world
seems to have the blackness of hell, and, like Job, I could curse the
day that gave me birth."

"Ah, now, I never feel like it," said Farfrae.

"Then pray to God that you never may, young man. While in this state I
was taken pity on by a woman--a young lady I should call her, for she
was of good family, well bred, and well educated--the daughter of some
harum-scarum military officer who had got into difficulties, and had his
pay sequestrated. He was dead now, and her mother too, and she was as
lonely as I. This young creature was staying at the boarding-house where
I happened to have my lodging; and when I was pulled down she took upon
herself to nurse me. From that she got to have a foolish liking for me.
Heaven knows why, for I wasn't worth it. But being together in the same
house, and her feeling warm, we got naturally intimate. I won't go into
particulars of what our relations were. It is enough to say that we
honestly meant to marry. There arose a scandal, which did me no harm,
but was of course ruin to her. Though, Farfrae, between you and me, as
man and man, I solemnly declare that philandering with womankind
has neither been my vice nor my virtue