People began to say "Who are they?" but no invidious inquiries were made.Had Eustacia mingled with the other girls in their ordinary daily walks the case would have been different: here she was not inconvenienced by excessive inspection, for all were wrought to their brightest grace by the occasion.Like the planet Mercury surrounded by the lustre of sunset, her permanent brilliancy passed without much notice in the temporary glory of the situation.
As for Wildeve, his feelings are easy to guess.
Obstacles were a ripening sun to his love, and he was at this moment in a delirium of exquisite misery.
To clasp as his for five minutes what was another man's through all the rest of the year was a kind of thing he of all men could appreciate.He had long since begun to sigh again for Eustacia; indeed, it may be asserted that signing the marriage register with Thomasin was the natural signal to his heart to return to its first quarters, and that the extra complication of Eustacia's marriage was the one addition required to make that return compulsory.
Thus, for different reasons, what was to the rest an exhilarating movement was to these two a riding upon the whirlwind.
The dance had come like an irresistible attack upon whatever sense of social order there was in their minds, to drive them back into old paths which were now doubly irregular.
Through three dances in succession they spun their way;and then, fatigued with the incessant motion, Eustacia turned to quit the circle in which she had already remained too long.
Wildeve led her to a grassy mound a few yards distant, where she sat down, her partner standing beside her.
From the time that he addressed her at the beginning of the dance till now they had not exchanged a word.
"The dance and the walking have tired you?" he said tenderly.
"No; not greatly."
"It is strange that we should have met here of all places, after missing each other so long.""We have missed because we tried to miss, I suppose.""Yes.But you began that proceeding--by breaking a promise.""It is scarcely worth while to talk of that now.
We have formed other ties since then--you no less than I.""I am sorry to hear that your husband is ill.""He is not ill--only incapacitated."
"Yes--that is what I mean.I sincerely sympathize with you in your trouble.Fate has treated you cruelly."She was silent awhile."Have you heard that he has chosen to work as a furze-cutter?" she said in a low, mournful voice.
"It has been mentioned to me," answered Wildeve hesitatingly.
"But I hardly believed it."
"It is true.What do you think of me as a furze-cutter's wife?"
"I think the same as ever of you, Eustacia.Nothing of that sort can degrade you--you ennoble the occupation of your husband.""I wish I could feel it."
"Is there any chance of Mr.Yeobright getting better?""He thinks so.I doubt it."
"I was quite surprised to hear that he had taken a cottage.
I thought, in common with other people, that he would have taken you off to a home in Paris immediately after you had married him.'What a gay, bright future she has before her!'
I thought.He will, I suppose, return there with you, if his sight gets strong again?"Observing that she did not reply he regarded her more closely.She was almost weeping.Images of a future never to be enjoyed, the revived sense of her bitter disappointment, the picture of the neighbour's suspended ridicule which was raised by Wildeve's words, had been too much for proud Eustacia's equanimity.
Wildeve could hardly control his own too forward feelings when he saw her silent perturbation.But he affected not to notice this, and she soon recovered her calmness.
"You do not intend to walk home by yourself?" he asked.
"O yes," said Eustacia."What could hurt me on this heath, who have nothing?""By diverging a little I can make my way home the same as yours.I shall be glad to keep you company as far as Throope Corner." Seeing that Eustacia sat on in hesitation he added, "Perhaps you think it unwise to be seen in the same road with me after the events of last summer?""Indeed I think no such thing," she said haughtily.
"I shall accept whose company I choose, for all that may be said by the miserable inhabitants of Egdon.""Then let us walk on--if you are ready.Our nearest way is towards that holly bush with the dark shadow that you see down there."Eustacia arose, and walked beside him in the direction signified, brushing her way over the damping heath and fern, and followed by the strains of the merrymakers, who still kept up the dance.The moon had now waxed bright and silvery, but the heath was proof against such illumination, and there was to be observed the striking scene of a dark, rayless tract of country under an atmosphere charged from its zenith to its extremities with whitest light.
To an eye above them their two faces would have appeared amid the expanse like two pearls on a table of ebony.
On this account the irregularities of the path were not visible, and Wildeve occasionally stumbled; whilst Eustacia found it necessary to perform some graceful feats of balancing whenever a small tuft of heather or root of furze protruded itself through the grass of the narrow track and entangled her feet.At these junctures in her progress a hand was invariably stretched forward to steady her, holding her firmly until smooth ground was again reached, when the hand was again withdrawn to a respectful distance.
They performed the journey for the most part in silence, and drew near to Throope Corner, a few hundred yards from which a short path branched away to Eustacia's house.
By degrees they discerned coming towards them a pair of human figures, apparently of the male sex.
When they came a little nearer Eustacia broke the silence by saying, "One of those men is my husband.He promised to come to meet me.""And the other is my greatest enemy," said Wildeve.
"It looks like Diggory Venn."
"That is the man."
"It is an awkward meeting," said she; "but such is my fortune.
