here and thus they would muse; if their grief were the grief of
oppression they would wish themselves kings; if their grief were
poverty, wish themselves millionaires; if sin, they would wish they were
saints or angels; if despised love, that they were some much-courted
Adonis of county fame. Some had been known to stand and think so long
with this fixed gaze downward that eventually they had allowed their
poor carcases to follow that gaze; and they were discovered the next
morning out of reach of their troubles, either here or in the deep pool
called Blackwater, a little higher up the river.

To this bridge came Henchard, as other unfortunates had come before him,
his way thither being by the riverside path on the chilly edge of the
town. Here he was standing one windy afternoon when Durnover church
clock struck five. While the gusts were bringing the notes to his ears
across the damp intervening flat a man passed behind him and greeted
Henchard by name. Henchard turned slightly and saw that the corner was
Jopp, his old foreman, now employed elsewhere, to whom, though he
hated him, he had gone for lodgings because Jopp was the one man in
Casterbridge whose observation and opinion the fallen corn-merchant
despised to the point of indifference.

Henchard returned him a scarcely perceptible nod, and Jopp stopped.

"He and she are gone into their new house to-day," said Jopp.

"Oh," said Henchard absently. "Which house is that?"

"Your old one."

"Gone into my house?" And starting up Henchard added, "MY house of all
others in the town!"

"Well, as somebody was sure to live there, and you couldn't, it can do
'ee no harm that he's the man."

It was quite true: he felt that it was doing him no harm. Farfrae, who
had already taken the yards and stores, had acquired possession of the
house for the obvious convenience of its contiguity. And yet this act
of his taking up residence within those roomy chambers while he, their
former tenant, lived in a cottage, galled Henchard indescribably.

Jopp continued: "And you heard of that fellow who bought all the best
furniture at your sale? He was bidding for no other than Farfrae all the
while! It has never been moved out of the house, as he'd already got the
lease."

"My furniture too! Surely he'll buy my body and soul likewise!"

"There's no saying he won't, if you be willing to sell." And having
planted these wounds in the heart of his once imperious master Jopp went
on h