aid.
"However, I can do no less than thank 'ee."

They walked into the town together side by side, as they had done when
Henchard persuaded the young Scotchman to remain. "Will you come in
and have some supper?" said Farfrae when they reached the middle of the
town, where their paths diverged right and left.

"No, no."

"By-the-bye, I had nearly forgot. I bought a good deal of your
furniture.

"So I have heard."

"Well, it was no that I wanted it so very much for myself; but I wish ye
to pick out all that you care to have--such things as may be endeared to
ye by associations, or particularly suited to your use. And take them
to your own house--it will not be depriving me, we can do with less very
well, and I will have plenty of opportunities of getting more."

"What--give it to me for nothing?" said Henchard. "But you paid the
creditors for it!"

"Ah, yes; but maybe it's worth more to you than it is to me."

Henchard was a little moved. "I--sometimes think I've wronged 'ee!" he
said, in tones which showed the disquietude that the night shades hid in
his face. He shook Farfrae abruptly by the hand, and hastened away as
if unwilling to betray himself further. Farfrae saw him turn through the
thoroughfare into Bull Stake and vanish down towards the Priory Mill.

Meanwhile Elizabeth-Jane, in an upper room no larger than the Prophet's
chamber, and with the silk attire of her palmy days packed away in a
box, was netting with great industry between the hours which she devoted
to studying such books as she could get hold of.

Her lodgings being nearly opposite her stepfather's former residence,
now Farfrae's, she could see Donald and Lucetta speeding in and out
of their door with all the bounding enthusiasm of their situation. She
avoided looking that way as much as possible, but it was hardly in human
nature to keep the eyes averted when the door slammed.

While living on thus quietly she heard the news that Henchard had caught
cold and was confined to his room--possibly a result of standing about
the meads in damp weather. She went off to his house at once. This
time she was determined not to be denied admittance, and made her way
upstairs. He was sitting up in the bed with a greatcoat round him, and
at first resented her intrusion. "Go away--go away," he said. "I don't
like to see 'ee!"

"But, father--"

"I don't like to see 'ee," he repeated.

However, the ice was broken, and she remained. She made the roo