ther, and until you
can take all the expenditure upon your shoulders, I'll be a sleeping
partner in the stock. Then, if I marry her--and I hope--I feel I
shall, why--"

"Pray don't speak of it, sir," said Oak, hastily. "We don't know
what may happen. So many upsets may befall 'ee. There's many a
slip, as they say--and I would advise you--I know you'll pardon me
this once--not to be TOO SURE."

"I know, I know. But the feeling I have about increasing your share
is on account of what I know of you. Oak, I have learnt a little
about your secret: your interest in her is more than that of bailiff
for an employer. But you have behaved like a man, and I, as a sort
of successful rival--successful partly through your goodness of
heart--should like definitely to show my sense of your friendship
under what must have been a great pain to you."

"O that's not necessary, thank 'ee," said Oak, hurriedly. "I must get
used to such as that; other men have, and so shall I."

Oak then left him. He was uneasy on Boldwood's account, for he saw
anew that this constant passion of the farmer made him not the man
he once had been.

As Boldwood continued awhile in his room alone--ready and dressed to
receive his company--the mood of anxiety about his appearance seemed
to pass away, and to be succeeded by a deep solemnity. He looked out
of the window, and regarded the dim outline of the trees upon the
sky, and the twilight deepening to darkness.

Then he went to a locked closet, and took from a locked drawer
therein a small circular case the size of a pillbox, and was about to
put it into his pocket. But he lingered to open the cover and take
a momentary glance inside. It contained a woman's finger-ring, set
all the way round with small diamonds, and from its appearance had
evidently been recently purchased. Boldwood's eyes dwelt upon its
many sparkles a long time, though that its material aspect concerned
him little was plain from his manner and mien, which were those of
a mind following out the presumed thread of that jewel's future
history.

The noise of wheels at the front of the house became audible.
Boldwood closed the box, stowed it away carefully in his pocket, and
went out upon the landing. The old man who was his indoor factotum
came at the same moment to the foot of the stairs.

"They be coming, sir--lots of 'em--a-foot and a-driving!"

"I was coming down this moment. Those wheels I heard--is it Mrs.
Troy?"