e walked beside her lover, and when they reached the Crossways, or
Bow, turned with him into Corn Street instead of going straight on to
her own door. At Farfrae's house they stopped and went in.

Farfrae flung open the door of the ground-floor sitting-room, saying,
"There he is waiting for you," and Elizabeth entered. In the arm-chair
sat the broad-faced genial man who had called on Henchard on a memorable
morning between one and two years before this time, and whom the latter
had seen mount the coach and depart within half-an-hour of his arrival.
It was Richard Newson. The meeting with the light-hearted father from
whom she had been separated half-a-dozen years, as if by death, need
hardly be detailed. It was an affecting one, apart from the question of
paternity. Henchard's departure was in a moment explained. When the
true facts came to be handled the difficulty of restoring her to her
old belief in Newson was not so great as might have seemed likely,
for Henchard's conduct itself was a proof that those facts were true.
Moreover, she had grown up under Newson's paternal care; and even had
Henchard been her father in nature, this father in early domiciliation
might almost have carried the point against him, when the incidents of
her parting with Henchard had a little worn off.

Newson's pride in what she had grown up to be was more than he could
express. He kissed her again and again.

"I've saved you the trouble to come and meet me--ha-ha!" said Newson.
"The fact is that Mr. Farfrae here, he said, 'Come up and stop with me
for a day or two, Captain Newson, and I'll bring her round.' 'Faith,'
says I, 'so I will'; and here I am."

"Well, Henchard is gone," said Farfrae, shutting the door. "He has done
it all voluntarily, and, as I gather from Elizabeth, he has been very
nice with her. I was got rather uneasy; but all is as it should be, and
we will have no more deefficulties at all."

"Now, that's very much as I thought," said Newson, looking into the face
of each by turns. "I said to myself, ay, a hundred times, when I tried
to get a peep at her unknown to herself--'Depend upon it, 'tis best that
I should live on quiet for a few days like this till something turns up
for the better.' I now know you are all right, and what can I wish for
more?"

"Well, Captain Newson, I will be glad to see ye here every day now,
since it can do no harm," said Farfrae. "And what I've been thinking is
that the wedding may as well