FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150  
151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   >>   >|  
sfactory in every way as Elizabeth-Jane? Apart from her personal recommendations a reconciliation with his former friend Henchard would, in the natural course of things, flow from such a union. He therefore forgave the Mayor his curtness; and this morning on his way to the fair he had called at her house, where he learnt that she was staying at Miss Templeman's. A little stimulated at not finding her ready and waiting--so fanciful are men!--he hastened on to High-Place Hall to encounter no Elizabeth but its mistress herself. "The fair to-day seems a large one," she said when, by natural deviation, their eyes sought the busy scene without. "Your numerous fairs and markets keep me interested. How many things I think of while I watch from here!" He seemed in doubt how to answer, and the babble without reached them as they sat--voices as of wavelets on a looping sea, one ever and anon rising above the rest. "Do you look out often?" he asked. "Yes--very often." "Do you look for any one you know?" Why should she have answered as she did? "I look as at a picture merely. But," she went on, turning pleasantly to him, "I may do so now--I may look for you. You are always there, are you not? Ah--I don't mean it seriously! But it is amusing to look for somebody one knows in a crowd, even if one does not want him. It takes off the terrible oppressiveness of being surrounded by a throng, and having no point of junction with it through a single individual." "Ay! Maybe you'll be very lonely, ma'am?" "Nobody knows how lonely." "But you are rich, they say?" "If so, I don't know how to enjoy my riches. I came to Casterbridge thinking I should like to live here. But I wonder if I shall." "Where did ye come from, ma'am?" "The neighbourhood of Bath." "And I from near Edinboro'," he murmured. "It's better to stay at home, and that's true; but a man must live where his money is made. It is a great pity, but it's always so! Yet I've done very well this year. O yes," he went on with ingenuous enthusiasm. "You see that man with the drab kerseymere coat? I bought largely of him in the autumn when wheat was down, and then afterwards when it rose a little I sold off all I had! It brought only a small profit to me; while the farmers kept theirs, expecting higher figures--yes, though the rats were gnawing the ricks hollow. Just when I sold the markets went lower, and I bought up the corn of those who had been holding back a
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150  
151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
markets
 

lonely

 

bought

 

Elizabeth

 

things

 
natural
 
gnawing
 

Nobody

 
figures
 

expecting


riches

 

higher

 
throng
 

junction

 
surrounded
 

terrible

 
oppressiveness
 
holding
 

individual

 

single


hollow

 

kerseymere

 

autumn

 

ingenuous

 

enthusiasm

 

brought

 

neighbourhood

 

thinking

 

largely

 

farmers


profit

 
Edinboro
 

murmured

 

Casterbridge

 

fanciful

 
hastened
 

waiting

 
Templeman
 

stimulated

 
finding

encounter
 

deviation

 
sought
 
mistress
 

staying

 

reconciliation

 
friend
 

Henchard

 
recommendations
 

personal