e proceeded a very fugue of sounds.

The river here was deep and strong at all times, and the hatches on this
account were raised and lowered by cogs and a winch. A patch led
from the second bridge over the highway (so often mentioned) to these
Hatches, crossing the stream at their head by a narrow plank-bridge. But
after night-fall human beings were seldom found going that way, the path
leading only to a deep reach of the stream called Blackwater, and the
passage being dangerous.

Henchard, however, leaving the town by the east road, proceeded to the
second, or stone bridge, and thence struck into this path of solitude,
following its course beside the stream till the dark shapes of the Ten
Hatches cut the sheen thrown upon the river by the weak lustre that
still lingered in the west. In a second or two he stood beside the
weir-hole where the water was at its deepest. He looked backwards and
forwards, and no creature appeared in view. He then took off his coat
and hat, and stood on the brink of the stream with his hands clasped in
front of him.

While his eyes were bent on the water beneath there slowly became
visible a something floating in the circular pool formed by the wash of
centuries; the pool he was intending to make his death-bed. At first
it was indistinct by reason of the shadow from the bank; but it emerged
thence and took shape, which was that of a human body, lying stiff and
stark upon the surface of the stream.

In the circular current imparted by the central flow the form was
brought forward, till it passed under his eyes; and then he perceived
with a sense of horror that it was HIMSELF. Not a man somewhat
resembling him, but one in all respects his counterpart, his actual
double, was floating as if dead in Ten Hatches Hole.

The sense of the supernatural was strong in this unhappy man, and
he turned away as one might have done in the actual presence of an
appalling miracle. He covered his eyes and bowed his head. Without
looking again into the stream he took his coat and hat, and went slowly
away.

Presently he found himself by the door of his own dwelling. To his
surprise Elizabeth-Jane was standing there. She came forward, spoke,
called him "father" just as before. Newson, then, had not even yet
returned.

"I thought you seemed very sad this morning," she said, "so I have come
again to see you. Not that I am anything but sad myself. But everybody
and everything seem against you so, and I know