t right to my affections.

Seriously, mon ami, I am not so light-hearted as I may seem to be from
this. I have come here in consequence of hearing of the death of your
wife--whom you used to think of as dead so many years before! Poor
woman, she seems to have been a sufferer, though uncomplaining, and
though weak in intellect not an imbecile. I am glad you acted fairly by
her. As soon as I knew she was no more, it was brought home to me very
forcibly by my conscience that I ought to endeavour to disperse the
shade which my etourderie flung over my name, by asking you to carry out
your promise to me. I hope you are of the same mind, and that you
will take steps to this end. As, however, I did not know how you were
situated, or what had happened since our separation, I decided to come
and establish myself here before communicating with you.

You probably feel as I do about this. I shall be able to see you in a
day or two. Till then, farewell.--Yours,

LUCETTA.

P.S.--I was unable to keep my appointment to meet you for a moment or
two in passing through Casterbridge the other day. My plans were altered
by a family event, which it will surprise you to hear of.

Henchard had already heard that High-Place Hall was being prepared for
a tenant. He said with a puzzled air to the first person he encountered,
"Who is coming to live at the Hall?"

"A lady of the name of Templeman, I believe, sir," said his informant.

Henchard thought it over. "Lucetta is related to her, I suppose,"
he said to himself. "Yes, I must put her in her proper position,
undoubtedly."

It was by no means with the oppression that would once have accompanied
the thought that he regarded the moral necessity now; it was, indeed,
with interest, if not warmth. His bitter disappointment at finding
Elizabeth-Jane to be none of his, and himself a childless man, had left
an emotional void in Henchard that he unconsciously craved to fill. In
this frame of mind, though without strong feeling, he had strolled up
the alley and into High-Place Hall by the postern at which Elizabeth
had so nearly encountered him. He had gone on thence into the court, and
inquired of a man whom he saw unpacking china from a crate if Miss Le
Sueur was living there. Miss Le Sueur had been the name under which he
had known Lucetta--or "Lucette," as she had called herself at that time.

The man replied in the negative; that Miss Templeman only had come.
Henchard went away, concludi