 Chapter 9 When Elizabeth Jane opened the hinged casement next morning, the mellow air brought in a field of imminent autumn almost as distinctly as if she had been in the remotest hamlet. Caster Bridge was the complement of the rural life around, not its urban opposite. Bees and butterflies in the cornfields at the top of the town, who desired to get to the meads at the bottom, took no circuitous course but flew straight down High Street without any apparent consciousness that they were traversing strange latitudes. And in autumn, airy spheres of thistle down floated into the same street, lodged upon the shop fronts, blew into drains, and innumerable tawny and yellow leaves skimmed along the pavement, and stole through people's doorways into their passages with a hesitating scratch on the floor like the skirts of timid visitors. Hearing voices, one of which was close at hand, she withdrew her head and glanced from behind the window curtains. Mr. Henschard, now habited no longer as a great personage, but as a thriving man of business, was pausing on his way up the middle of the street, and the Scotchman was looking from the window adjoining her own. Henschard, it appeared, had gone a little way past the inn before he had noticed his acquaintance of the previous evening. He came back a few steps, Donald Farfray opening the window further. And you are off soon, I suppose, said Henschard upwards. Yes, almost this moment, sir, said the other. Maybe I'll walk on till the coach makes up on me. Which way? The way ye are going. Then shall we walk together to the top of town? If ye'll wait a minute, said the Scotchman. In a few minutes the latter emerged, bag in hand. Henschard looked at the bag as at an enemy. It showed there was no mistake about the young man's departure. Ah, my lad, he said, you should have been a wise man and have stayed with me. Yes, yes, it might have been wiser, said Donald, looking microscopically at the houses that were furthest off. It is only telling you the truth when I say my plans are vague. They had by this time passed on from the precincts of the inn, and Elizabeth Jane heard no more. She saw that they continued in conversation, Henschard turning to the other occasionally, and emphasizing some remark with a gesture. Thus they passed the King's Arms Hotel, the Market House, St. Peter's Churchyard Wall ascending to the upper end of the Long Street, till they were small as two grains of corn. When they bent suddenly to the right into the Bristol Road and were out of view, he was a good man, and he's gone, she said to herself. I was nothing to him, and there was no reason why he should have wished me good-bye. The simple thought with its latent sense of slight had molded itself out of the following little fact. When the Scotchman came out at the door, he had by accident glanced up at her, and then he had looked away again without nodding or smiling or saying a word. You are still thinking, Mother, she said when she turned inwards. Yes, I am thinking of Mr. Henschard's sudden liking for that young man. He was always so. Now surely if he takes so warmly to people who are not related to him at all, may he not take us warmly to his own kin? While they debated this question, a procession of five large wagons went past, laden with hay up to the bedroom windows. They came in from the country, and the steaming horses had probably been traveling a great part of the night. To the shaft of each hung a little board on which was painted in white letters, Henschard, Corn Factor, and Hay Merchant. The spectacle renewed his wife's conviction that, for her daughter's sake, she should strain a point to rejoin him. The discussion was continued during breakfast, and the end of it was that Mrs. Henschard decided, for good or for ill, to send Elizabeth Jane with a message to Henschard, to the effect that his relative Susan, a sailor's widow, was in the town, leaving it to him to say whether or not he would recognize her. What had brought her to this determination were chiefly two things. He had been described as a lonely widower, and he had expressed shame for a past transaction of his life. There was promise in both. If he says no, she enjoined, as Elizabeth Jane stood, boned on, ready to depart. If he thinks it does not become the good position he has reached to in the town, to own, to let us call on him as his distant kinfolk, say, then, sir, we would rather not intrude. We will leave Casterbridge as quietly as we have come, and go back to our own country. I almost feel that I would rather he did say so, as I have not seen him for so many years, and we are so little allied to him. And if he say yes, inquired the more sanguine one. In that case, answered Mrs. Henschard cautiously, asked him to write me a note, saying when and how he will see us, or me. Elizabeth Jane went a few steps towards the landing, and tell him, continued her mother, that I fully know I have no claim upon him, that I am glad to find he is thriving, that I hope his life may be long and happy. There, go. Thus, with a half-hearted willingness, a smothered reluctance, did the poor forgiving woman start her unconscious daughter on this errand. It was about ten o'clock, and market day, when Elizabeth paced up the high street in no great hurry. For to herself, her position was only that of a poor relation deputed to hunt up a rich one. The front doors of the private houses were mostly left open at this warm autumn time, no thought of umbrella-stealers disturbing the minds of the placid burgesses. Hence, through the long straight entrance, passages thus unclosed could be seen as through tunnels. The mossy gardens at the back, glowing with nasturtiums, fuchsias, scarlet geraniums, bloody warriors, snap-dragons, and dahlias, this floral blaze being backed by crusted-gray stonework remaining from a yet-remotor castor bridge than the venerable one visible in the street. The old-fashioned fronts of these houses, which had older than old-fashioned backs, rose sheer from the pavement, into which the bow-windows protruded like bastions, necessitating a pleasant chaise-de-chaise movement to the time-pressed pedestrian at every few yards. He was bound also to evolve other Terpsicorean figures in respective doorsteps, scrapers, cellar hatches, church buttresses, and the overhanging angles of walls, which originally unobtrusive had become bow-legged and knock-need. In addition to these fixed obstacles, which spoke so cheerfully of individual unrestraint as to boundaries, movables occupied the path and roadway to a perplexing extent. First, the vans of the carriers in and out of castor bridge, who hailed from Melstock, Weatherbury, the Hintex, Shirt and Abbots, Kingsborough, Overcomb, and many other towns and villages round. Their owners were numerous enough to be regarded as a tribe, and had almost distinctiveness enough to be regarded as a race. Their vans had just arrived and were drawn up on each side of the street in close file, so as to form at place as a wall between the pavement and the roadway. Moreover, every shop pitched out half its contents upon trestles and boxes on the curb, extending the display each week a little further and further into the roadway, despite the expostulations of the two feeble old constables, until there remained but a tortuous defile for carriages down the center of the street, which afforded fine opportunities for skill with the rains. Over the pavement on the sunny side of the way hung shop blinds, so constructed as to give the passengers had a smart buffet off his head, as from the unseen hands of Cranston's goblin page, celebrated in romantic lore. Horses for sale were tied in rows, their forelegs on the pavement, their hind legs in the street, in which position they occasionally nipped little boys by the shoulder who were passing to school. And any inviting recess in front of a house that had been modestly kept back from the general line was utilized by pig dealers as a pen for their stock. The yeoman farmers, dairymen, and townsfolk who came to transact business in these ancient streets spoke in other ways than by articulation. Not to hear the words of your interlocutor and metropolitan centers is to know nothing of his meaning. Here the face, the arms, the hat, the stick, the body throughout spoke equally with the tongue. To express satisfaction, the Casterbridge market man added to his utterance a broadening of the cheeks, a crevicing of the eyes, a throwing back of the shoulders, which was intelligible from the other end of the street. If he wondered though all henchards, carts, and wagons were rattling past him, you knew it from perceiving the inside of his crimson mouth, and a target-like circling of his eyes. Deliberation caused sundry attacks on the moss of adjoining walls with the end of his stick. A change of his hat from the horizontal to the less so, a sense of tediousness announced itself in a lowering of the person by spreading the knees to a lozen-shaped aperture and contorting the arms. Chicanery, subterfuge, had hardly a place in the streets of this honest borough to all appearance, and it was said that the lawyers in the courthouse, hard-by, occasionally threw in strong arguments for the other side out of pure generosity, though apparently by mischance, when advancing their own. Thus, Casterbridge was in most respects but the pole, focus, or nerve-nod of the surrounding country life, differing from the many manufacturing towns, which are as foreign bodies set down like boulders on a plane in a green world with which they have nothing in common. Casterbridge lived by agriculture at one removed further from the fountainhead than the adjoining villages, no more. The town's folk understood every fluctuation in the rustic's condition, for it affected their receipts as much as the laborers. They entered into the troubles and joys which moved the aristocratic families 10 miles round for the same reason, and even at the dinner parties of the professional families, the subjects of discussion were corn, cattle disease, sowing and reaping, fencing and planting, while politics were viewed by them less from their own standpoint of burgesses with rights and privileges than from the standpoint of their country neighbors. All the venerable contrivances and confusions which delighted the eye by their quaintness and in a measure reasonableness in this rare old market town were metropolitan novelties to the unpracticed eyes of Elizabeth Jane, fresh from netting fish sains in a seaside cottage. Very little inquiry was necessary to guide her footsteps. Hensherd's house was one of the best, faced with dull red and gray old brick. The front door was open, and as in other houses she could see through the passage to the end of the garden, nearly a quarter of a mile off. Mr. Henschard was not in the house, but in the story yard. She was conducted into the mossy garden and through a door in the wall, which was studded with rusty nails, speaking of generations of fruit trees that had been trained there. The door opened upon the yard, and here she was left to find him as she could. It was a place flanked by hay barns into which tons of fodder, all in trusses, were being packed from the wagon she had seen past the inn that morning. On other sides of the yard were wooden granaries on stone planks, to which access was given by Flemish ladders, and a storehouse several floors high. Wherever the doors of these places were open, a closely packed throng of bursting wheat sacks could be seen standing inside with the air of awaiting a famine that would not come. She wandered about this place, uncomfortably conscious of the impending interview, till she was quite weary of searching. She ventured to inquire of a boy in what quarter Mr. Henschard could be found. He directed her to an office which she had not seen before, and knocking at the door she was answered by a cry of, Come in. Elizabeth turned to the handle, and there stood before her, bending over some sample bags on a table, not the corn merchant, but the young Scotchman, Mr. Farfray, in the act of pouring some grains of wheat from one hand to the other. His hat hung on a peg behind him, and the roses of his carpet bag glowed from the corner of the room. Having toned her feelings and arranged words on her lips for Mr. Henschard, and for him alone, she was for the moment confounded. Yes, what is it? said the Scotchman, like a man who permanently ruled there. She said she wanted to see Mr. Henschard. Ah, yes. Will you wait a minute? He's engaged just now, said the young man, apparently not recognizing her as the girl at the inn. He handed her a chair, baited her, sit down, and turned to his sample bags again. While Elizabeth Jane sits waiting in great amaze at the young man's presence, we may briefly explain how he came there. When the two new acquaintances had passed out of sight that morning towards the bath and bath, they went on silently, except for a few common places, till they had gone down an avenue on the town walls called the Chalk Walk, leading to an angle where the north and west escarpments met. From this high corner of the square earthworks, a vast extent of country could be seen. A footpath ran steeply down the green slope, conducting from the shady promenade on the walls to a road at the bottom of the scarf. It was by this path the Scotchman had to descend. Well, here's success to he, said Hensherd, holding out his right hand and leaning with his left upon the wicket which protected the descent. In the act, there was the inelegance of one whose feelings are nipped and wishes defeated. I shall often think of this time, and of how you came at the very moment to throw a light upon my difficulty. Still holding the young man's hand, he paused, and then added deliberately, Now I am not the man to let a cause be lost for want of a word, and before you are gone forever I'll speak. Once more will you stay. There it is, flat and plain. You can see that it isn't all selfishness that makes me pressy, for my business is not quite so scientific as to require an intellect entirely out of the common. Others would do for the place with a lot of selflessness, and do for the place without doubt. Some selfishness perhaps there is, but there is more. It isn't for me to repeat what. Come bide with me and name your own terms. I'll agree to them willingly, and without a word of gain saying, for hang it far, for I like thee well. The young man's hand remained steady in Hensherd's for a moment or two. He looked over the fertile country that stretched beneath them, then backward along the shaded walk reaching to the top of the town. His face flushed. I never expected this I did not, he said. It's Providence. Should anyone go against it? No, I'll not go to America. I'll stay and be your man. His hand, which had lain lifeless in Hensherd's, returned the latter's grasp. Done, said Hensherd. Done, said Donald Farfray. The face of Mr. Hensherd beamed forth a satisfaction that was almost fierce in its strength. Now you are my friend, he exclaimed. Come back to my house. Let's clinch it at once by clear terms so as to be comfortable in our minds. Farfray caught up his bag and retraced the Northwest Avenue in Hensherd's company as he had come. Hensherd was all confidence now. I am the most distant fellow in the world when I don't care for a man, he said, but when a man takes my fancy he takes it strong. Now I am sure you can eat another breakfast. You couldn't have eaten much so early even if they had anything at that place together, which they hadn't, so come to my house and we will have a solid staunch tuck-in and saddle terms in black and white if you like, though my words my bond. I can always make a good meal in the morning. I've got a splendid cold pigeon pie going just now. You can have some home brewed if you want to, you know. It is too early in the morning for that, said Farfray with a smile. Well, of course, I didn't know. I don't drink it because of my oath, but I am obliged to brew for my work people. Thus talking they returned and entered Hensherd's premises by the back way or traffic entrance. Here the matter was settled over the breakfast at which Hensherd heaped the young Scotchman's plate to a prodigal fullness. He would not rest satisfied till Farfray had written for his luggage from Bristol and dispatched the letter to the post office. When it was done, this man of strong impulses prepared that his new friend should take up his abode in his house at least till some suitable lodgings could be found. He then took Farfray round and showed him the place and the stores of grain and other stock and finally entered the offices where the younger of them has already been discovered by Elizabeth. End of Chapter 9 Chapter 10 of the Mayor of Casterbridge This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy Chapter 10 While she still sat under the Scotchman's eyes a man came up to the door reaching it as Hensherd opened the door of the inner office to admit Elizabeth. The newcomer stepped forward like the quicker cripple at Bethesda and entered in her stead. She could hear his words to Hensherd Joshua Job, sir, by appointment, the new manager. The new manager. He's in his office, said Hensherd bluntly. In his office, said the man with the stultified air. I mentioned Thursday, said Hensherd, and as you did not keep your appointment I have engaged another manager. At first I thought he must be you. Do you think I can wait when business is in question? You said Thursday or Saturday, sir, said the newcomer, pulling out a letter. Well, you are too late, said the cornfactor. I can say no more. You as good as engaged me, murmured the man. Subject to an interview, said Hensherd, I am sorry for you, very sorry indeed, but it can't be helped. There was no more to be said and the man came out encountering Elizabeth Jane in his passage. She could see that his mouth twitched with anger and that bitter disappointment was written in his face everywhere. Elizabeth Jane now entered and stood before the master of the premises. His dark pupils, which always seemed to have a red spark of light in them, though this could hardly be a physical fact, turned indifferently round under his dark brows until they rested on her figure. Now then, what is it, my young woman? He said blandly. Can I speak to you not on business, sir? Said she. Yes, I suppose. He looked at her more thoughtfully. I am sent to tell you, sir, she innocently went on, that a distant relative of yours by marriage, Susan Neusen, a sailor's widow, is in the town and to ask whether you would wish to see her. The rich rouset noir of his countenance underwent a slight change. Oh, Susan is still alive? He asked with difficulty. Are you her daughter? Yes, sir, her only daughter. What do you call yourself, your Christian name? Elizabeth Jane, sir. Neusen? Elizabeth Jane Neusen. This at once suggested to Henschard that the transaction of his early married life at Wade and Fair was unrecorded in the family history. It was more than he could have expected. His wife had behaved kindly to him in return for his unkindness and had never proclaimed her wrong to her child or to the world. I am a good deal interested in your news, he said, and as this is not a matter of business but pleasure, suppose we go indoors. It was with a gentle delicacy of manners surprising to Elizabeth that he showed her out of the office and through the outer room where Donald Farfray was overhauling bins and samples with the inquiring inspection of a beginner in charge. Henschard proceeded her through the door in the wall to the suddenly changed scene of the garden and flowers and onward into the house. The dining room to which he introduced her still exhibited the remnants of the lavish breakfast laid for Farfray. It was furnished to profusion with heavy mahogany furniture of the deepest red Spanish hues. Pembroke tables with leaves hanging so low that they well now touched the floor, stood against the walls on legs and feet shaped like those of an elephant, and on one lay three huge folio volumes, a family Bible, a Josephus, and a whole duty of man. In the chimney corner was a fire grate with a fluted semi-circular back having urns and festoons cast in relief thereon and the chairs were of the kind which since that day has cast luster upon the names of Chippendale and Sheraton though in point of fact their patterns may have been such as those illustrious carpenters that I have heard of. Sit down, Elizabeth Jane, sit down he said with a shake in his voice as he uttered her name and sitting down himself he allowed his hands to hang between his knees while he looked upon the carpet. Your mother then is quite well? She is rather worn out, sir, with traveling, a sailor's widow. When did he die? Father was lost last spring. Henschard winced at the word father thus applied. Do you and she come from abroad? America or Australia, he asked. No, we have been in England some years. I was twelve when we came here from Canada. Ah, exactly. By such conversation he discovered the circumstances which had enveloped his wife and her child in such total obscurity that he had long ago believed them to be in their graves. These things being clear he returned to the present. And where is your mother staying? At the three mariners. And you are her daughter Elizabeth Jane, repeated Henschard. He arose, came close to her and glanced in her face. I think, he said suddenly, turning away with a wet eye, you shall take a note from me to your mother. I should like to see her. She is not left very well off by her late husband. His eye fell on Elizabeth's clothes which, though a respectable suit of black and her very best were decidedly old fashioned even to castor-bridge eyes. Not very well, she said, glad that he had divined this without her being obliged to express it. He sat down at the table and wrote a few lines next taking from his pocketbook a five pound note which he put in the envelope with the letter adding to it as if by an afterthought five shillings. Sealing the whole up carefully he directed it to Mrs. Neusen, and he handed the packet to Elizabeth. Deliver it to her personally, please, said Henschard. Well, I am glad to see you here, Elizabeth Jane, very glad. We must have a long talk together but not just now. He took her hand at parting and held it so warmly that she, who had known so little friendship was much affected and tears rose to her aerial gray eyes. The instant that she was gone Henschard's state showed itself more distinctly having shut the door he sat in his dining room stiffly erect, gazing at the opposite wall as if he read his history there. Begad, he suddenly exclaimed, jumping up. I didn't think of that. Perhaps these are imposters and Susan and the child dead after all. However, a something in Elizabeth Jane soon assured him that as regarded her at least there could be little doubt. And a few hours would settle the question of her mother's identity where he had arranged in his note to see her that evening. It never rains but it pours, said Henschard. His keenly excited interest in his new friend the Scotchman was now eclipsed by this event and Donald Farfray saw so little of him during the rest of the day that he wondered at the suddenness of his employer's moods. In the meantime, Elizabeth had reached the inn. Her mother, instead of taking the note with the curiosity of a poor woman once was much moved at sight of it. She did not read it at once asking Elizabeth to describe her reception and the very words Mr. Henschard used. Elizabeth's back was turned when her mother opened the letter. It ran thus. Meet me at eight o'clock this evening if you can at the ring on the Budmouth Road. The place is easy to find. I can say no more now. The news upsets me almost. The girl seems to be in ignorance. Keep her so till I have seen you. M.H. He said nothing about the enclosure of five guineas. The amount was significant. It may tacitly have said to her that he bought her back again. She waited restlessly for the close of the day telling Elizabeth Jane that she was invited to see Mr. Henschard that she would go alone. But she said nothing to show that the place of meeting was not at his house nor did she hand the note to Elizabeth. End of chapter 10 Chapter 11 of The Mayor of Casterbridge This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy Chapter 11 The Ring at Casterbridge was merely the local name of one of the finest Roman amphitheaters if not the very finest remaining in Britain. Casterbridge announced old Roman every street, alley, and precinct. It looked Roman, bespoke the art of Rome, concealed dead men of Rome. It was impossible to dig more than a foot or two deep about the town, fields, and gardens without coming upon some tall soldier or other of the empire who had lain there in his silent, unobtrusive rest for a space of 1,500 years. He was mostly found lying on his side in an oval scoop in the chalk like a chicken in its shell. His knees drawn up to his chest, sometimes with the remains of his spear against his arm, a fibular brooch of bronze on his breast or forehead, an urn at his knees, a jar at his throat, a bottle at his mouth, and mystified conjecture pouring down upon him from the eyes of Casterbridge street boys and men who had turned a moment to gaze at the familiar spectacle as they passed by. Imaginative inhabitants who would have felt an unpleasantness at the discovery of a comparatively modern skeleton in their gardens were quite unmoved by these hoary shapes. They had lived so long ago, their time was so unlike the present, their hopes and motives were so widely removed from ours that between them and the living there seemed to stretch a gulf too wide for even a spirit to pass. The amphitheater was a huge circular enclosure with a notch at opposite extremities of its diameter north and south. From its sloping internal form it might have been called the Spatune of the Jotuns. It was to Casterbridge what the ruined Colosseum is to modern Rome, and was nearly of the same magnitude. The dusk of evening was the proper hour at which a true impression of this suggested place could be received. Standing in the middle of the arena at that time, there by degrees became apparent its real vastness, which occurs to review from the summit at Noonday was apt to obscure. Melancholy, impressive, lonely, yet accessible from every part of the town, the historic circle was the frequent spot for appointments of a furtive kind. Intrigues were arranged there, tentative meetings were there experimented after divisions and feuds, but one kind of appointment in itself the most common of any seldom had place in the amphitheater. That of happy lovers. Why, seeing that it was preeminently an airy accessible and sequestered spot for interviews, the cheerfulness form of those occurrences never took kindly to the soil of the ruin would be a curious inquiry. Perhaps it was because its associations had about them something sinister. Its history proved that. Apart from the sanguinary nature of the games originally played therein, such incidents attached to its past as these that for scores of years the town gallows had stood at one corner, that in 1705 a woman who had murdered her husband was half strangled and then burnt there in the presence of ten thousand spectators. Tradition reports that at a certain stage of the burning her heart burst and leapt out of her body to the terror of them all, and that not one of those ten thousand people ever cared particularly for hot roast after that. In addition to these old tragedies, pugilistic encounters almost to the death had come off down to recent dates in that secluded arena, entirely invisible to the outside world saved by climbing to the top of the enclosure, which few townspeople in the daily round of their lives ever took the trouble to do, so that though close to the Turnpike Road, crimes might be perpetrated there unseen at midday. Some boys had laterally tried to impart gaiety to the ruin by using the central arena as a cricket ground, but the game usually languished for the aforesaid reason, the dismal privacy which the earthened circle enforced, shutting out every appreciative passer's vision, every commendatory remark from outsiders, everything except the sky, and to play at games in such circumstances was like acting to an empty house. Possibly too the boys were chimmied, for some old people said that at certain moments in the summertime in broad daylight, persons sitting with a book or dozing in the arena had on lifting their eyes beheld the slopes lined with a gazing legion of Hadrian's soldiery as if watching the gladiatorial combat and had heard the roar of their excited voices, that the scene would remain but a moment like a lightning flash and then disappear. It was related that there still remained under the south entrance excavated cells for the reception of the wild animals and athletes who took part in the games. The arena was still smooth and circular as if used for its original purpose not so very long ago. The sloping pathways by which spectators had ascended to their seats were pathways yet. But the hole was grown over with grass which now at the end of summer was bearded with withered vents that formed waves under the brush of the wind, returning to the attentive ear, aeolian modulations and detaining for moments the flying globes of thisledown. Henschard had chosen this spot as being the safest from observation which he could think of for meeting his long lost wife and at the same time as one easily to be found by a stranger after nightfall. As mayor of the town with a reputation to keep up he could not invite her to come to his house till some definite course had been decided on. Just before eight he approached the deserted earthwork and entered by the south path which descended over the debris of the former dens. In a few moments he could discern a female figure creeping in by the great north gap or public highway. They met in the middle of the arena. Neither spoke just at first. There was no necessity for speech. And the poor woman lent against Henschard who supported her in his arms. I don't drink, he said in a low halting apologetic voice. You hear Susan, I don't drink now. I haven't since that night. Those were his first words. He felt her bow her had an acknowledgement that she understood. After a minute or two he began again. If I had known you were living Susan but there was every reason to suppose you and the child were dead and gone. I took every possible step to find you and traveled advertised. My opinion at last was that you had started for some colony with that man and had been drowned on your voyage. Why did you keep silent like this? Oh Michael, because of him what other reason could there be? I thought I owed him faithfulness to the end of one of our lives. Foolishly I believed there was something solemn and binding in the bargain. I thought that even in honor I dared not desert him when he had paid so much for me in good faith. Now only as his widow I consider myself that and that I have no claim upon you. Had he not died I should never have come. Never of that you may be sure. How could you be so simple? I don't know. Yet it would have been very wicked if I had not thought like that. Said Susan almost crying. Yes, yes so it would. It is only that which makes me an innocent woman. But to lead me into this. What Michael? She asked alarmed. Why this difficulty about our living together again and Elizabeth Jane she cannot be told all. She would so despise us both that I could not bear it. That was why she was brought up in ignorance of you. I could not bear it either. Well we must talk of a plan for keeping her in her present belief You have heard I am in a large way of business here that I am mayor of the town and church warden and I don't know what all. Yes, she murmured. These things as well as the dread of the girl discovering our disgrace makes it necessary to act with extreme caution so that I don't see how you two can return openly to my house as the wife and daughter I once treated badly and banished from me. And there is the rub-out. Well go away at once. I came to see. No, no Susan you are not to go you mistake me. He said with kindly severity I have thought of this plan that you and Elizabeth take a cottage in the town as the widow Mrs. Neuson and her daughter that I meet you, court you and marry you. Elizabeth Jane coming to my house as my stepdaughter. The thing is so natural and easy that it is half done in thinking out. This would leave my shady head strong and my life as a young man absolutely unopened. The secret would be yours and mine only and I should have the pleasure of seeing my own only child under my roof as well as my wife. I am quite in your hands Michael she said meekly. I came here for the sake of Elizabeth for myself if you tell me to leave again tomorrow morning and never come near you more I am content to go. Now, now we don't want to hear that said Henshaw gently. I won't leave again. Think over the plan I have proposed for a few hours and if you can't hit upon a better one we'll adopt it. I have to be away for a day or two on business unfortunately but during that time you can get lodgings the only ones in the town fit for you are those over the china shop in High Street and you can also look for a cottage. If the lodgings are in High Street they are dear I suppose. Never mind you must start gentile if our plan is to be carried out look to me for money. Have you enough till I come back? Quite said she and are you comfortable at the inn? Oh yes and the girl is quite safe from learning the shame of her case and ours that's what makes me most anxious of all. You would be surprised to find how unlikely she is to dream of the truth how could she ever suppose such a thing? True. I like the idea of repeating our marriage said Mrs. Henschard after a pause it seems the only right course after all this now I think I must go back to Elizabeth Jane and tell her that our kinsman Mr. Henschard kindly wishes us to stay in the town. Very well arranged at yourself I'll go some way with you. No, no, don't run any risk said his wife anxiously I can find my way back it is not late please let me go alone. Right said Henschard but just one word do you forgive me Susan? She murmured something but seemed to find it difficult to frame her answer Never mind all in good time said he judge me by my future works goodbye he retreated and stood at the upper side of the amphitheater while his wife passed out through the lower way and descended under the trees to the town then Henschard himself went homeward going so fast that by the time he reached his door he was almost upon the heels of the unconscious woman from whom he had just parted he watched her up the street and turned into his house End of Chapter 11 Chapter 12 of The Mayor of Casterbridge This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy Chapter 12 On entering his own door after watching his wife out of sight the Mayor walked on through the tunnel-shaped passage into the garden and thence by the back door towards the stores and granaries a light shown from the office window and there being no blind to screen the interior Henschard could see Donald Farfray still seated where he had left him initiating himself into the managerial work of the house by overhauling the books Henschard entered, merely observing Don't let me interrupt you if you will stay so late He stood behind Farfray's chair watching his dexterity and clearing up the numerical fogs which had been allowed to grow so thick in Henschard's books as almost to baffle even the Scotchman's perspicacity The corn factor's mien was half admiring and yet it was not without a dash of pity for the tastes of anyone who could care to give his mind to such finnican details Henschard himself was mentally and physically unfit for grubbing subtleties from the soiled paper He had in a modern sense received the education of Achilles and found penmanship a tantalizing art You shall do no more tonight he said at length spreading his great hand over the paper There's time enough tomorrow Come indoors with me and have some supper Now you shall I am determined on it He shut the account books with friendly force Donald had wished to get to his lodgings but he already saw that his friend and employer was a man who knew no moderation in his requests and impulses and he yielded gracefully He liked Henschard's warmth even if it inconvenienced him The great difference in their characters adding to the liking They locked up the office and the young man followed his companion through the private little door and directly into Henschard's garden permitted a passage from the utilitarian to the beautiful at one step The garden was silent, dewy and full of perfume It extended a long way back from the house first as lawn and flower beds then as fruit garden where the long tide of spelliers as old as the house itself had grown so stout and cramped and gnarled that they had pulled their stakes out of the ground and stood distorted and writhing in vegetable agony like leafy lacunes The flowers which smelt so sweetly were not discernible and they passed through them into the house The hospitality of the morning were repeated and when they were over Henschard said Pull your chair round to the fireplace, my dear fellow and let's make a blaze There's nothing I hate like a black great even in September He applied a light to the laden fuel and a cheerful radiant spread around It is odd, said Henschard the two men should meet as we have done on a purely business ground and that at the end of the first day I should wish to speak to him on a family matter But damn it all, I am a lonely man Farfray I have nobody else to speak to and why shouldn't I tell it to you I'll be glad to hear it if I can be of any service said Donald allowing his eyes to travel over the intricate wood carvings of the chimney piece representing garlanded liars, shields and quivers on either side of a draped ox skull and flanked by heads of Apollo and Diana in low relief I've not been always what I am now continued Henschard his firm deep voice being ever so little shaken He was plainly under that strange influence which sometimes prompts men to confide to the newfound friend what they will not tell to the old I began life as a working hay trusser and when I was 18 I married on the strength of my calling Would you think me a married man? I heard in the town that you were a widower Ah yes, you would naturally have heard that Well, I lost my wife 19 years ago or so by my own fault This is how it came about One summer evening I was traveling for employment and she was walking at my side carrying the baby, our only child We came to a booth in a country fair I was a drinking man at that time Henschard paused a moment threw himself back so that his elbow rested on the table his forehead being shaded by his hand which, however, did not hide the marks of introspective inflexibility on his features as he narrated in fullest detail the incidents of the transaction with the sailor The tinge of indifference which had at first been visible on the Scotchman now disappeared Henschard went on to describe his attempts to find his wife, the oath he swore the voluntary life he led during the years which followed I have kept my oath for 19 years, he went on I have risen to what you see me now Hey, well, no wife could I hear of in all that time and being by nature something of a woman-hater I have found it no hardship to keep mostly at a distance from the sex No wife could I hear of, I say, till this very day and now she has come back Come back, has she? This morning, this very morning and what's to be done Can you no take her and live with her and make some amends? That's what I planned and proposed but Farfray said Henschard gloomily by doing right with Susan I wrong another innocent woman You don't say that In the nature of things Farfray it is almost impossible that a man of my sort should have the good fortune to tide through twenty years of life without making more blunders than one It has been my custom for many years to run across to Jersey in the way of business particularly in the potato and root season I do a large trade with them in that line Well, one autumn when stopping there I fell quite ill and in my illness I sank into one of those gloomy fits I sometimes suffer from on account of the loneliness of my domestic life when the world seems to have the blackness of hell and like Job I could curse the day that gave me birth Ah, now I never feel like it said Farfray Then pray to God that you never may a young man While in this state I was taken pity on by a woman a young lady I should call her for she was of good family well bred and well educated the daughter of some harem-scaram military officer who had got into difficulties and had his pay sequestrated He was dead now and her mother too and she was as lonely as I This young creature was staying at the boarding house where I happened to have my lodging and when I was pulled down she took upon herself to nurse me From that she got to have a foolish liking for me heaven knows why for I wasn't worth it but being together in the same house and her feeling warm we got naturally intimate I won't go into particulars of what our relations were it is enough to say that we honestly meant to marry There arose a scandal which did me no harm but was of course ruined to her though far frayed between you and me as man and man I solemnly declare that flandering with woman kind has neither been my vice nor my virtue she was terribly careless of appearances and I was perhaps more because of my dreary state and it was through this that the scandal arose at last I was well and came away when I was gone she suffered much on my account and didn't forget to tell me so in letters one after another till laterally I felt I owed her something and thought that as I had not heard of Susan for so long I would make this other one the only return I could make and ask her if she would run the risk of Susan being alive very slight as I believed and marry me such as I was she jumped for joy and we should no doubt soon have been married but behold Susan appears Donald showed his deep concern at a complication so far beyond the degree of his simple experiences now see what injury a man may cause around him even after that wrong doing at the fair when I was young if I had never been so selfish as to let this giddy girl devote herself to me over at Jersey to the injury of her name all might now be well yet as it stands I must bitterly disappoint one of these women and it is a second my first duty is to Susan there's no doubt about that they are both in a very melancholy position and that's true murmur Donald they are for myself I don't care it will all end one way but these two hence I'd pause in reverie I feel I should like to treat the second no less than the first as kindly as a man can in such a case ah well it cannot be helped said the other with the philosophic woefulness you mon right to the young lady and in your letter you must put it plain and honest that it turns out she cannot be your wife the first having come back that she cannot see her more that you wish her will that won't do odd she's it I must do a little more than that I must though she did always brag about her rich uncle or a rich aunt and her expectations from them I must send a useful sum of money to her I suppose just as a little recompense poor girl now will you help me in this and draw up an explanation to her of all I've told you breaking it as gently as you can I'm so bad at letters and I will now I haven't told you quite all yet my wife Susan has my daughter with her the baby that was in her arms at the fair and this girl knows nothing of me beyond that I am some sort of relation by marriage she has grown up in the belief that the sailor to whom I made over her mother and who is now dead was her father and her mother's husband while her mother has always felt she and I together feel now that we can't proclaim our disgrace to the girl by letting her know the truth now what would you do I want your advice I think I'd run the risk and tell her the truth she'll forgive you both never said henchard I am not going to let her know the truth her mother and I be going to marry again and it will not only help us to keep our child's respect but it will be more proper Susan looks upon herself as the sailor's widow and won't think a living with me is formally without another religious ceremony and she's right Farfray thereupon said no more the letter to the young Jersey woman was carefully framed by him and the interview ended henchard saying as the Scotchman left I feel it a great relief Farfray to tell some friend of this you see now that the mayor of Casterbridge is not so thriving in his mind as it seems he might be from the state of his pocket I do and I'm sorry for you said Farfray when he was gone henchard copied the letter closing a check took it to the post office from which he walked back thoughtfully can it be that it will go off so easily he said poor thing God knows now then to make amends to Susan End of Chapter 12 Chapter 13 of the mayor of Casterbridge this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy Chapter 13 the cottage which Michael henchard hired for his wife Susan under her name of Neusen in pursuance of their plan was in the upper or western part of the town near the Roman wall and the avenue which over shattered it the evening sun seemed to shine more yellowly there than anywhere else this autumn stretching its rays as the hours grew later the city of Sycamore bows and steeping the ground floor of the dwelling with its green shutters in a substratum of radiance which the foliage screened from the upper parts beneath these sycamores on the town walls could be seen from the sitting room the tumuli and earth forts of the distant uplands making it all together a pleasant spot with the usual touch of melancholy that a past marked prospect lends as soon as the mother and daughter of a white aprons servant and all complete henchard paid them a visit and remained to tea during the entertainment Elizabeth was carefully hoodwinked by the very general tone of the conversation that prevailed a proceeding which seemed to afford some humor to henchard though his wife was not particularly happy in it the visit was repeated again and again with business like determination by the mayor who seemed to have schooled himself into a course of strict mechanical rightness towards this woman of prior claim at any expense to the later one and to his own sentiments one afternoon the daughter was not indoors when henchard came and he said dryly this is a very good opportunity for me to ask you to name the happy day Susan the poor woman smiled faintly she did not enjoy pleasantries on a situation into which she had entered solely for the sake of her girl's reputation she liked them so little indeed that there was room for wonder why she had countenance deception at all and had not bravely let the girl know her history but the flesh is weak and the true explanation came in due course oh Michael she said I am afraid all this is taking up your time and giving trouble when I did not expect any such thing and she looked at him and at his dress as a man of affluence and at the furniture he had provided for the room ornate and lavish to her eyes not at all said henchard in rough benignity not only a cottage that cost me next to nothing and as to taking up my time here his red and black visage kindled with satisfaction of a splendid fellow to super intend my business now a man whose like I have never been able to lay hands on before I shall soon be able to leave everything to him and have more time to call my own than I have had for these last 20 years henchard's visits here grew so frequent and so regular that it soon became whispered and then openly discussed in castor bridge that the masterful coercive mayor of the town was raptured and enervated by the gentile widow mrs. newson his well-known haughty indifference to the society of woman kind his silent avoidance of converse with the sex contributed a to what would otherwise have been an unromantic matter enough that such a poor fragile woman should be his choice was inexplicable except on the ground that the engagement was a family affair in which mental passion had no place for it was known that they were related in some way mrs. henchard was so pale that the boys called her the ghost sometimes henchard overheard this epithet when they passed together along the walks as the avenues on the walls were named at which his face would darken with an expression of destructiveness towards the speakers ominous to see but he said nothing he pressed on the preparations for his union a rather dismal union with this pale creature in a dogged unflinching spirit which did credit to his conscientiousness nobody would have conceived from his outward demeanor that there was no amateury fire or pulse of romance acting as stimulant to the bustle going on in his gaunt great house nothing but three large resolves one to make amends to his neglected susan another to provide a comfortable home for elizabeth jane under his paternal eye and a third to castigate himself with the thorns which these restitutory acts brought in their train among them the lowering of his dignity in public opinion by marrying so comparatively humble a woman susan henchard entered a carriage for the first time in her life when she stepped into the plain broom which drew up at the door on the wedding day to take her and elizabeth jane to church it was a windless morning of warm november rain which floated down like meal delaying a powdery form on the nap of hats and coats few people had gathered round the church door though they were well packed within the scotchman who assisted as groomsman was of course the only one present beyond the chief actors who knew the true situation of the contracting parties he however was too inexperienced too thoughtful too judicial too strongly conscious of the serious side of the business to enter into the scene in its dramatic aspect that required the special genius of christopher coney solemn long ways buzzford and their fellows but they knew nothing of the secret though as the time for coming out of church drew on they gathered on the pavement adjoining and expounded the subject according to their lights just five and forty years since i had my settlement in this here town said coney but days me if i ever see a man wait so long before to take so little there's a chance even for the after this nance mockridge the remark was addressed to a woman who stood behind his shoulder the same who had exhibited henchards bad bread in public when elizabeth and her mother entered cast bridge because divide mary any such as he or the either replied that lady as for the christopher we know what you be and the less said the better and as for he well there lowering her voice to said it was a poor perished prentice to begin life with no more belonging to him than a carrion crow and now he's worth ever so much a minute murmured long ways when a man is said to be worth so much a minute he's a man to be considered turning he saw a circular disc reticulated with creases and recognize the smiling countenance of the fat woman who had asked for another song at the three mariners well mother cuckoos me said how's this here's mrs. newson a mere skeleton has got another husband to keep her while a woman of your tonnage have not I have not nor another to beat me ah yes cuckoos gone and so shall leather breeches yes with the blessing of god leather breeches she'll go to sit worth my old while to think of another husband continued mrs. cuckoos and yet I'll lay my life I'm as respectable born as she true your mother was a very good woman I can mind her she were rewarded by the agricultural society for having begot the greatest number of healthy children without parish assistance and other virtuous marvels was that that kept us so low upon ground that great hungry family a where the pigs be many the wash runs thin and dust in mind how mother would sing Christopher continued mrs. cuckoos kindling at the retrospection and how we went with her to the party at Melstock do you mind at old Dame Ledlow's farmer shiners aunt do you mind she we used to call toad skin because her face were so yaller and freckled do you mind I do he I do said Christopher Coney and well do I for I was getting up husband high at that time one half girl and other half woman as one may say and can't mind she prodded solemn and shoulder with her fingertip while her eyes twinkled between the crevices of their lids can't mind the sherry wine and the silver snuffers and how Joan dumb it was took bad when we were coming home and Jack Griggs was forced to carry her through the mud and how a letter fall in dairyman sweet apples cow Barton and we had to clean her down with grass never such a mess as a worry in a that I do he such doggery as there was in them ancient days to be sure of the miles I used to walk then and now I can hardly step over a furrow the reminiscences were cut short by the appearance of the reunited pair henchard looking round upon the idlers with that ambiguous gaze of his which at one moment seemed to mean satisfaction and at another fiery disdain well there's a difference between them though he do call himself a teetotaler said Nancy Mockridge she'll wish her cake dough before she's done of him there's a blue beard he look all out in time stuff he's well enough some folk want their luck buttered if I had a choice as wide as the ocean see I wouldn't wish for a better man a poor twanking woman like her to say God send for her and hardly a pair of jumps or night rail to her name the plain little broom drove off in the mist and the idlers dispersed well we hardly know how to look at things in these times said Solomon there was a man dropped down dead yesterday not so very many miles from here and what with that and this moist weather to scarce worth one's while to begin any work a consequence today I'm in such a low key with drinking nothing but small table nine penny this last week or two that I shall call and warm up at the marners as I pass along I don't know but that I may as well go with you Solomon said Christopher I'm as clammy as a cockles snail end of chapter 13 chapter 14 of the mayor of castor bridge this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the mayor of castor bridge by Thomas Hardie chapter 14 a martin miss summer of mrs. henchard's life set in with her entry into her husband's large house and respectable social orbit and it was as bright as such summers well can be lest she should pine for deeper affection than he could give he made a point of showing some semblance of it in external action among other things he had the iron railings that had smiled sadly in dull rust for the last eighty years painted a bright green and the heavy barred small pain Georgian sash windows and livened with three coats of white he was as kind to her as a man mayer and church warden could possibly be the house was large the rooms lofty and the landings wide and the two unassuming women scarcely made a perceptible addition to its contents to Elizabeth Jane the time was the most triumphant one the freedom she experienced the indulgence with which she was treated went beyond her expectations the reposeful easy absolute life to which her mother's marriage had introduced her was in truth the beginning of a great change in Elizabeth she found she could have nice personal possessions and ornaments for the asking and as the medieval saying puts it take have and keep our pleasant words with peace of mind came development and with development beauty knowledge the result of great natural insight she did not lack learning accomplishment those alas she had not but as the winter and spring passed by her thin face and figure filled out and rounder and softer curves the lines and contractions upon her young brow went away the muddiness of skin which she had looked upon as her lot by nature departed with a change to abundance of good things and a bloom came upon her cheek perhaps to her great thoughtful eyes revealed an arch gaiety sometimes but this was infrequent the sort of wisdom which looked from their pupils did not readily keep company with these lighter moods like all people who have known rough times lightheartedness seemed to her too irrational and inconsequent to be indulged in except as a reckless dram now and then for she had been too early habituated to anxious reasoning to drop the habit suddenly she felt none of those ups and downs of spirit which beset so many people without cause never to paraphrase a recent poet never a gloom in Elizabeth Jane's soul but she well knew how it came there and her present cheerfulness was fairly proportionate to her solid guarantees for the same it might have been supposed that given a girl rapidly becoming good looking comfortably circumstance and for the first time in her life commanding ready money she would go and make a fool of herself by dress but no the reasonableness of almost everything that Elizabeth did was nowhere more conspicuous than in this question of clothes to keep in the rear of opportunity in matters of indulgence is as valuable a habit as to keep abreast of opportunity in matters of enterprise this unsophisticated girl did it by an innate perceptiveness that was almost genius thus she refrained from bursting out like a water flower that spring and clothing herself in puffings and knickknacks as most of the cast to bridge girls would have done in her circumstances her triumph was tempered by circumspection she had still that field mouse fear of the culture of destiny despite fair promise which is common among the thoughtful who have suffered early from poverty and oppression I won't be too gay on any account she would say to herself it would be tempting providence to hurl mother and me down and afflict us again as he used to do we now see her in a black silk bonnet, velvet mantel or silk spencer, dark dress and carrying a sun shade in this latter article she drew the line at fringe and had it plain edged with a little ivory ring for keeping it closed it was odd about the necessity for that sun shade she discovered that with the clarification of her complexion and the birth of pink cheeks her skin had grown more sensitive to the sun's rays she protected those cheeks forthwith deeming spotlessness of womanliness Henshard had become very fond of her and she went out with him more frequently than with her mother now her appearance one day was so attractive that he looked at her critically I happened to have the ribbon by me so I made it up she faltered thinking him perhaps dissatisfied with some rather bright trimming she had donned for the first time ay of course to be sure he replied in his Leonine way do as you like as your mother advises you I'd send I have nothing to say to it indoors she appeared with her hair divided by a parting that arched like a white rainbow from ear to ear all in front of this line was covered with a thick encampment of curls all behind was dressed smoothly and drawn to a knob the three members of the family were sitting at breakfast one day and Henshard was looking silently as he often did at this head of hair which in color was brown rather light than dark I thought Elizabeth Jane's hair didn't you tell me that Elizabeth Jane's hair promised to be black when she was a baby he said to his wife she looked startled jerked his foot warningly and murmured did I? as soon as Elizabeth was gone to her own room Henshard resumed I nearly forgot myself just now what I meant was that the girl's hair certainly looked as if it would be darker maybe it did but they altered so replied Susan their hair gets darker I know but I wasn't aware it lightened ever oh yes and the same uneasy expression came out on her face to which the future held the key it passed as Henshard went on well so much the better now Susan I want to have her called Miss Henshard not Miss Neusen lots of people do it already it is her legal name so it may as well be made her usual name I don't like to other name at all for my own flesh and blood I'll advertise it in the castor bridge paper that's the way they do it she won't object oh no but well then I shall do it surely if she's willing you must wish it as much as I oh yes if she agrees let us do it by all means she replied Henshard acted somewhat inconsistently it might have been called falsely but that her manner was emotional and full of the earnestness of one who wishes to do right at great hazard she went to Elizabeth Jane whom she found sewing in her own sitting room upstairs and told her what had been proposed about her surname can you agree is it not a slight upon Neusen now he's dead and gone Elizabeth reflected I'll think of it mother answered when later in the day she saw Henshard she had worded to the matter at once in a way which showed that the line of feelings started by her mother had been persevered in do you wish this change so very much sir she asked wish it why my blessed fathers what it and do you women make about a trifle I proposed it that's all now Elizabeth Jane just please yourself do now you understand don't you go agreeing to it to please me here the subject dropped and nothing more was said and nothing was done and Elizabeth still passed as Miss Neusen and not by her legal name meanwhile the great corn and hay traffic conducted by Henshard throw under the management of Donald Farfray as it had never thriven before it had formerly moved in jolts now it went on oiled casters the old crude viva voce system of Henshard in which everything depended upon his memory and bargains were made by the tongue alone was swept away letters and ledgers took the place of I'll do it and you shall hate and as in all such cases of advance the rugged picturesqueness of the old method disappeared with its inconveniences the position of Elizabeth Jane's room rather high in the house so that it commanded view of the hay stores and granaries across the garden afforded her opportunity for accurate observation of what went on there she saw that Donald and Mr. Henshard were inseparables when walking together Henshard would lay his arm familiarly on his manager's shoulder as if Farfray were a younger brother bearing so heavily that his slight frame bent under the weight occasionally she would hear a perfect cannonade of laughter from Henshard arising from something Donald had said the latter looking quite innocent and not laughing at all in Henshard's somewhat lonely life he evidently found the young man as desirable for comradeship as he was useful for consultations Donald's brightness of intellect maintained in the corn factor the admiration it had won at the first hour of their meeting the poor opinion and but ill-concealed that he entertained of the slim Farfray's physical girth strength and dash was more than counter balanced by the immense respect he had for his brains her quiet eye discerned that Henshard's tigerish affection for the younger man his constant liking to have Farfray near him now and then resulted in a tendency to domineer which however was checked in a moment when Donald exhibited marks of real offense one day looking down on their figures from on high she heard the latter remark in the doorway between the garden and yard that their habit of walking and driving about together rather neutralized Farfray's value as a second pair of eyes which should be used in places where the principle was not aw damn it cried Henshard what's all the world I like a fellow to talk to now come along and have some supper and don't take too much thought about things or you'll drive me crazy when she walked with her mother on the other hand with a curious interest the fact that he had met her at the three mariners was insufficient to account for it since on the occasions on which she had entered his room he had never raised his eyes besides it was at her mother more particularly than at herself that he looked to Elizabeth Jane's half conscious simple-minded perhaps pardonable disappointment thus she could not account for this interest by her own attractiveness and she decided that it might be apparent only a way of turning his eyes that Mr. Farfray had she did not divine the ample explanation of his manner without personal vanity that was afforded by the fact of Donald being the depository of Henshard's confidence in respect of his past treatment of the pale chastened mother who walked by her side her conjectures on that past never went further than faint ones based on things casually heard and seen mere guesses that Henshard and her mother might were lovers in their younger days who had quarreled and parted Casterbridge as has been hinted was a place deposited in the block upon a cornfield there was no suburb in the modern sense or transitional intermixture of town and down it stood with regard to the wide fertile land adjoining clean cut and distinct like a chess board on a green tablecloth the farmer's boy could sit under his barley mow and pitch a stone into the office window and work Reapers at work among the sheaves nodded to acquaintances standing on the pavement corner the red-robed judge when he condemned a sheepstealer pronounced sentence to the tune of bah that floated in at the window from the remainder of the flock browsing hard by and at executions the waiting crowd stood in a meadow immediately before the drop out of which the cows had been temporarily driven to give the spectators room the girl was garnered by farmers who lived in an eastern pearly called Dernaver here wheat wrecks overhung the old roman street and thrust their eaves against the church tower green-thatched barns with doorways as high as the gates of Solomon's temple opened directly upon the main thoroughfare barns indeed were so numerous as to alternate with every half dozen houses along the way here lived burgesses who daily walked the fallow, shepherds squeezed a street of farmers homesteads a street ruled by a mayor and corporation yet echoing with the thump of the flail the flutter of the winnowing fan and the purr of the milk into the pails a street which had nothing urban in it whatever this was the Dernaver end of castor bridge henchard as was natural dealt largely with this nursery or bed of small farmers close at hand and his wagons were often down that way one day when arrangements were in progress for getting home corn from one of the aforesaid farms Elizabeth Jane received a note by hand asking her to oblige the writer by coming at once to a granary on Dernaver hill as this was a granary whose contents henchard was removing she thought the request had something to do with his business and proceeded thither as soon as she had put on her bonnet the granary was just within the farm yard and stood on stone there were many battles high enough for persons to walk under the gates were open but nobody was within however she entered and waited presently she saw a figure approaching the gate that of Donald Farfray he looked up at the church clock and came in by some unaccountable shyness some wish not to meet him there alone she quickly ascended the stepladder leading to the granary door and entered it before he had seen her Farfray advanced imagining himself in solitude and a few drops of rain beginning to fall he moved and stood under the shelter where she had just been standing here he lent against one of the staddles and gave himself up to patience he too was plainly expecting someone could it be herself if so why in a few minutes he looked at his watch and then pulled out a note a duplicate of the one she had herself received this situation began to be very awkward and the longer she waited the more awkward it became to emerge from a door just above his head and descend the ladder and show she had been in hiding there would look so very foolish that she still waited on a winnowing machine stood close beside her and to relieve her suspense she gently moved the handle where upon a cloud of wheat husks flew out into her face and covered her clothes and bonnet and stuck into the fur of her victorine he must have heard the slight movement for he looked up and then ascended the steps ah it's miss newson he said as soon as he could see into the granary I didn't know you were there I have kept the appointment and a match your service oh Mr. Farfray she faltered so have I but I didn't know it was you who wish to see me otherwise I wish to see you oh no at least that is I'm afraid there may be a mistake didn't you ask me to come here didn't you write this Elizabeth held out her note no indeed at no hand would I have thought of it and for you didn't you ask me this is not your writing and he held up his by no means and is that really so then it's somebody wanting to see us both perhaps we would do well to wait a little longer acting on this consideration they lingered Elizabeth face being arranged to an expression of preternatural composure and the young Scott at every footstep in the street without looking from under the granary to see if the pastor were about to enter and declare himself their summoner they watched individual drops of rain creeping down the thatch of the opposite Rick straw after straw till they reached the bottom but nobody came and the granary roof began to drip is not likely to be coming said far fray it's a trick perhaps and if so it's a great pity to waste our time like this and so much to be done it's a great liberty said Elizabeth it's true miss newson will hear news of this someday depend on and who it was it did it I wouldn't stand for it hindering myself but you miss newson I don't mind much she replied neither do I the laps begin into silence you are anxious to get back to Scotland I suppose mr far fray she inquired oh no miss newson why would I be I only supposed you might be from the song you sang at the three mariners about Scotland and home I mean what you seem to feel so deep down in your heart so that we all felt for you I and I did sing there I did but miss newson and Donald's voice musically undulated between two my tones as it always did when he became earnest it's well you feel a song for a few minutes and your eyes they get quite tearful but you finish it and for all you felt you don't mind it or think of it again for a long while oh no I don't want to go back yet I'll sing the song to you with pleasure whenever you like I could sing it now and not mind at all thank you indeed but I fear I must go rain or no then miss newson you had better say nothing about this hoax and take no heed of it and if the person should say anything to you be civil to him or hers if you did not mind it so you'll take the clever person's laugh away in speaking his eyes became fixed upon her dress still sewn with wheat husks there's husks and dust on you perhaps you don't know it he said in tones of extreme delicacy and it's very bad to let rain come upon clothes when there's chaff on them it washes in and spoils them let me help you blowing is the best as Elizabeth neither assented nor dissented Donald Farfray began blowing her back hair and her side hair and her neck and the crown of her bonnet and the fur of her victorine Elizabeth saying oh thank you at every puff at last she was fairly clean though Farfray having got over his first concern at the situation seemed in no manner of hurry to be gone ah now I'll go and get you an umbrella she declined the offer stepped out and was gone Farfray walked slowly after looking thoughtfully at her diminishing figure and whistling in undertones as they came down through Kenobi End of Chapter 14 Chapter 15 of the mayor of Castor Bridge this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the mayor of Castor Bridge by Thomas Hardy Chapter 15 at first Miss Neuson's budding beauty was not regarded with much interest by anybody in Castor Bridge Donald Farfray's gaze at his true was now attracted by the mayor's so called stepdaughter but he was only one the truth is that she was but a poor illustrative instance of the prophet Baruch's sly definition the virgin that loveth to go gay when she walked abroad she seemed to be occupied with an inner chamber of ideas and to have slight need for visible objects she formed curious resolves on checking gay fancies in the matter of clothes because it was inconsistent with her past life to blossom godly the moment she had become possessed of money but nothing is more insidious than the evolution of wishes from mere fancies and of wants from mere wishes henchard gave Elizabeth Jane a box of delicately tinted gloves one spring day she wanted to wear them to show her appreciation of his kindness but she had no bonnet that would harmonize as an artistic indulgence she thought she would have such a bonnet when she had a bonnet that would go with the gloves she had no dress that would go with the bonnet it was now absolutely necessary to finish she ordered the requisite article and found that she had no sunshade to go with the dress in for a penny in for a pound she bought the sunshade and the whole structure was at last complete everybody was attracted and some said that her bygone simplicity was the art that conceals art the delicate imposition of Rocheford called she had produced an effect, a contrast and it had been done on purpose as a matter of fact this was not true as a result, for as soon as Casterbridge thought her artful it thought her worth notice it is the first time in my life that I have been so much admired, she said to herself though perhaps it is by those whose admiration is not worth having but Donald Farfray admired her too and altogether the time was an exciting one sex had never before asserted itself in her so strongly for in former days she had perhaps been too impersonally human and distinctively feminine after an unprecedented success one day she came indoors, went upstairs and lent upon her bed face downwards quite forgetting the possible creasing and damage good heaven she whispered can it be here am I setting up as the town beauty when she had thought it over her usual fear of exaggerating appearances engendered a deep sadness something wrong in all this she mused if they only knew when an unfinished girl I am that I can't talk Italian or use globes or show any of the accomplishments they learn at boarding schools how they would despise me better sell all this finery and buy myself grammar books and dictionaries and a history of all the philosophies she looked from the window and saw Henshard and Farfray and the reality on the mayor's part and genial modesty on the younger man's there was now so generally observable in their intercourse friendship between man and man what a rugged strength there was in it as evinced by these two and yet the seed that was to lift the foundation of this friendship was at that moment taking root in a chink of its structure it was about six o'clock the men were dropping off homeward one by one he was a round-shouldered blinking young man of nineteen or twenty whose mouth fell ajar on the slightest provocation, seemingly because there was no chin to support it Henshard called aloud to him as he went out of the gate here, Abel Whittle Whittle turned and ran back a few steps yes sir, he said in breathless deprecation as if he knew what was coming next once more, be in time tomorrow morning it's to be done and you hear what I say and you know I'm not going to be trifled with any longer yes sir then Abel Whittle left and Henshard and Farfray and Elizabeth saw no more of them now there was good reason for this command on Henshard's part poor Abel, as he was called had an inveterate habit of oversleeping himself and coming late to his work his anxious will was to be among the earliest but if his comrades admitted to pull the string that he always tied round his great toe and left hanging out the window for that purpose his will was as wind he did not arrive in time as he was often second hand at the hay weighing or at the crane which lifted the sacks or was one of those who had to accompany the wagons into the country to fetch away stacks that had been purchased this affliction of Abels was productive of much inconvenience for two mornings in the present week he had kept the others waiting nearly an hour hence Henshard's threat it now remained to be seen what would happen tomorrow six o'clock struck and there was no Whittle at half past six Henshard entered the yard the wagon was hoarse that Abel was to accompany and the other man had been waiting twenty minutes then Henshard swore and Whittle coming up breathless at that instant the corn factor turned on him and declared with an oath that this was the last time that if he were behind once more by God he would come and drag him out of bed there was somewhat wrong in my make you're worshipful said Abel especially in the inside whereas my poor dumb brain gets as dead as a clot before I've said my few scraggs of prayers yes it came on as a stripling just before I got man's wages whereas I never enjoy my bed at all for no sooner do I lie down than I be asleep I wake I be up I fretted my gizzard green about it maester but what can I do now last night before I went to bed I only had a scantling of cheese and I don't want to hear it roared Henshard tomorrow the wagons must start at four and if you're not here stand clear I'll mortify thy flesh for thee but let me clear out my points you're worshipful Henshard turned away he asked me and he questioned me where my points said Abel to the yard in general now I shall twitch like a moment hand all night tonight for fear of him the journey to be taken by the wagons next day was a long one into Blackmore Vale and at four o'clock lanterns were moving about the yard but Abel was missing before either of the other men could run to Abel's and warn him Henshard appeared in the garden doorway where's Abel little not come after all I've said now I'll carry out my word by my blessed fathers nothing else will do him any good I'm going up that way Henshard went off entered Abel's house a little cottage in back street the door of which was never locked because the inmates had nothing to lose reaching Whittle's bedside the corn factor shouted a base note so vigorously that Abel started up instantly and beholding Henshard standing over him was galvanized into spasmodic movements which had not much relation to getting on his clothes out of bed sir and off to the grainery or you leave my employ today just to teach you a lesson march on never mind your breeches the unhappy Whittle threw on his sleeve waistcoat and managed to get into his boots at the bottom of the stairs while Henshard thrust his hat over his head Whittle then trotted down down back street Henshard walking sternly behind just at this time Farfray who had been to Henshard's house to look for him came out of the back gate and saw something white fluttering in the morning gloom which he soon perceived to be part of Abel's shirt that showed below his waistcoat for Maryssey's sake what objects this said Farfray following Abel into the yard Henshard being some way in the rear by this time you see Mr. Farfray gibbered Abel with a resigned smile of terror he said he'd mortify my flesh if so be I didn't get up sooner and now he's a douanant you see it can't be helped Mr. Farfray things do happen queer sometimes yes I'll go to Blackmore Vale half naked as I be since he do command but I shall kill myself afterwards I can't outlive the disgrace for the women folk will be looking out of their windows at my mortification all the way along and laughing me to scorn as a man without breeches you know how I feel such things Mr. Farfray and how forlorn thoughts get hold upon me yes I shall do myself harm I feel it coming on get back home and slip on your breeches and come to work like a man if you go not you'll have your death standing there I'm afraid I mustn't Mr. Henshard said I don't care what Mr. Henshard said nor anybody else to simple foolishness to do this go and dress yourself instantly Whittle hello hello said Henshard coming up behind who's sending him back all the men look towards Farfray I am said Donald I say this joke has been carried far enough and I say it hasn't get up in the wagon Whittle not if I am manager said Farfray he either goes home or I march out of this yard for good Henshard looked at him with a face stern and red but he paused for a moment and their eyes met Donald went up to him for he saw and Henshard's looked that he began to regret this come said Donald quietly a man of your position should can better sir it is tyrannical and no worthy of you it's not tyrannical murmured Henshard like a sullen boy it is to make him remember he presently added in a tone of one bitterly hurt why did you speak to me before them like that Farfray you might have stopped till we were alone ah I know why I told you the secret of my life fool that I was to do it and you take advantage of me I had forgot it said Farfray simply Henshard looked on the ground said nothing more and turned away during the day Farfray learned from the men that Henshard had kept able the old mother in coals and snuff all the previous winter which made him less antagonistic to the corn factor but Henshard continued moody and silent and when one of the men inquired of him if some oat should be hoisted to an upper floor or not he said shortly ask Mr. Farfray he's master here morally he was there could be no doubt of it Henshard who had hitherto been the most admired man in his circle was the most admired no longer one day the daughters of a deceased farmer in Dernever wanted an opinion of the value of their haystack the messenger to ask Mr. Farfray to oblige them with one the messenger who was a child met in the yard not Farfray but Henshard very well he said I'll come but please will Mr. Farfray come said the child I am going that way why Mr. Farfray said Henshard with the fixed look of thought why do people always want Mr. Farfray I suppose because they like him so that's what they say I see that's what they say hey they like him because he's clever than Mr. Henshard and because he knows more and in short Mr. Henshard can't hold a candle to him hey yes that's just it sir some of it oh there's more of course there's more what besides come here's a six pence for a fairing and he's better tempered and Henshard's a fool to him they say and when some of the women come home they said he's a diamond he's a chap of wax he's the best he's the horse for my money says they and they said he's the most understanding man of them too by long chalk I wish he was the master instead of Henshard they said they'll talk any nonsense Henshard replied with covered gloom well you can go now and I am coming to value the hate you hear I said and Henshard murmured wish he were master here do they he went towards Dernever on his way he overtook Farfrey they walked on together Henshard looking mostly on the ground you know yourself today Donald inquired yes I am very well said Henshard but you are a bit down surely you're down where there's nothing to be angry about to splendid stuff that we've got from Blackmore Vale by the people in Dernever want their hay valued yes I am going there I'll go with you as Henshard did not reply Donald practiced a piece of music Sadovochi till getting near the bereaved people's door he stopped himself with aha as their father is dead I won't go on with such as that how could I forget do you care so very much about hurting folks feelings observed Henshard with a half sneer I know especially mine I am sorry if I have hurt your sir replied Donald standing still with a second expression of the same sentiment and the regretfulness of his face why should you say it think it the cloud lifted from Henshard's brow and as Donald finished the corn merchant turned to him regarding his breast rather than his face I have been hearing things that vexed me he said Twistat made me short in my manner made me overlook what you really are now I don't want to go in here about this hay Farfray you can do it better than I they sent for you too I have to attend the meeting of the town council at eleven and just drawing on for it they parted thus in renewed friendship Donald for bearing to ask Henshard for meanings that were not very plain to him on Henshard's part there was now again repose and yet whenever he thought of Farfray it was with a dim dread and he often regretted that he had told the young man his whole heart and confided to him the secrets of his life end of chapter 15 Chapter 16 of the mayor of Casterbridge this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings were in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy Chapter 16 on this account Henshard's manner towards Farfray insensibly became more reserved he was courteous too courteous and Farfray was quite surprised at the good breeding which now for the first time showed itself among the qualities of a man he had hitherto thought undisciplined if warm and sincere the corn factors seldom or never again put his arm upon the young man's shoulder so as to nearly weigh him down with the pressure of mechanized friendship he left off coming to Donald's lodgings and shouting into the passage Hoy! Fairfray boy! come and have some dinner with us don't sit here in solitary confinement but in the daily routine of their business there was little change thus their lives rolled on till a day of public rejoicing was suggested to the country at large in celebration of a national event that had recently taken place for some time Casterbridge by nature's slow made no response then one day Donald Farfray broached the subject to Henschard by asking if he would have any objection to lend some rick cloths to himself and a few others who contemplated getting up an entertainment of some sort on the day named and required a shelter for the same to which they might charge admission at the rate of so much ahead have as many cloths as you like Henschard replied when his manager had gone about the business Henschard was fired with emulation it certainly had been very remiss of him as mayor he thought to call no meeting ere this to discuss what should be done on this holiday but Farfray had been so cursed quick in his movements as to give old fashioned people in authority no chance of the initiative however it was not too late and on second thoughts he determined to take upon his own shoulders the responsibility of organizing some amusements if the other councilman would leave the matter in his hands to this they quite readily agreed the majority being fine old crusted characters who had a decided taste for living without worry so Henschard said about his preparations for a really brilliant thing such as should be worthy of the venerable town as for Farfray's little affair Henschard nearly forgot it except once now and then when on it coming into his mind he said to himself charge admission at so much ahead just like a scotchman who is going to pay anything ahead the diversions which the mayor intended to provide were to be entirely free he had grown so dependent upon Donald that he could scarcely resist calling him into consult but by sheer self-question he refrained no he thought Farfray would be suggesting such improvements in his damned luminous way that in spite of himself he Henschard would sink to the position of second fiddle and only scrape the harmonies to his manager's talents everybody applauded the mayor's proposed entertainment especially when it became known that he meant to pay for it all himself close to the town was an elevated green spot surrounded by an ancient square earthwork earthwork's square and not square where as common as blackberries hear about a spot where on the Casterbridge people usually held any kind of merry making meeting or sheep fair that required more space than the streets could afford on one side it sloped to the river Froome and from any point a view was obtained of the country round for many miles this pleasant upland was to be the scene of Henschard's exploit he advertised about the town and long posters of a pink color that games of all sorts would take place here and set to work a little battalion of men under his own eye they erected greasy poles for climbing with smoked hams they placed hurdles in rows for jumping over across the river they laid a slippery pole with a live pig of the neighborhood tied at the other end to become the property of the man who could walk over and get it there were also provided wheelbarrows for racing donkeys for the same a stage for boxing wrestling and drawing blood generally sacks for jumping in moreover not forgetting his principles Henschard provided a mammoth tea who lived in a borough was invited to partake without payment the tables were laid parallel with the inner slope of the rampart and awnings were stretched overhead passing to and fro the mayor beheld the unattractive exterior of far-fizz erection in the west walk rick cloths of different sizes and colors being hung up to the arching trees without any regard to appearance he was easy in his mind now for his own preparations far transcended these the morning came the sky which had been remarkably clear down to within a day or two was overcast and the weather threatening the wind having an unmistakable hint of water in it Henschard wished he had not been quite so sure about the continuance of fair season but it was too late to modify or postpone and the proceedings went on at twelve o'clock the rain began to fall small and steady and increasing so insensibly that it was difficult to stay exactly when dry weather ended or wet established itself in an hour the slight moisture resolved itself into a monotonous smiting of earth by heaven in torrents to which no end could be prognosticated a number of people had heroically gathered in the field but by three o'clock Henschard discerned that his project was doomed to end in failure the top of the poles dripped watered smoke in the form of a brown liquor the pig shivered in the wind the grain of the deal-tables showed through the sticking tablecloth for the awning allowed the rain to drift under at its will and to enclose the sides at this hour seemed a useless undertaking the landscape over the river disappeared the wind played on the tent cords in the olean improvisations and at length rose to such a piss that the whole erection slanted to the ground those who had taken shelter within it having to crawl out on their hands and knees but toward six the storm abated and a drier breeze shook the moisture from the grass vents it seemed possible to carry out the program after all the awning was set up again the band was called out from its shelter and ordered to begin and where the tables had stood a place was cleared for dancing but where are the folk said Henschard after the lapse of half an hour during which time only two men and a woman had stood up to dance the shops are all shut why don't they come there at farfrees affair in the west walk answered a councilman who stood in the field with the mayor a few I suppose but where are the body of them all out of doors are there and the more fools they Henschard walked away moodily one or two young fellows gallantly came to climb the poles to save the hams from being wasted but as there were no spectators and the whole scene presented the most melancholy appearance Henschard gave orders that the proceedings were to be suspended and the entertainment closed the food to be distributed among the poor people of the town in a short time nothing was left in the field but a few hurdles the tents and the poles Henschard returned to his house had tea with his wife and daughter and walked out it was now dusk he soon saw that the tendency of all promenaders was towards a particular spot in the walks and eventually proceeded thither himself the notes of a stringed band came from the enclosure that Farfer had erected the pavilion as he called it and when the mayor reached it he perceived that a gigantic tent had been ingeniously constructed without poles or ropes the densest point where most sycamores had been selected where the boughs made a closely interlaced vault overhead to these boughs the canvas had been hung and a barrel roof was the result the end towards the wind was enclosed the other end was open Henschard went round and saw the interior in form it was like the nave of a cathedral with one gable removed but the scene within was anything but devotional a reel or fling of some sort was in progress and the usually sedate Farfer was in the midst of the other dancers in the costume of a wild highlander flinging himself about and spinning to the tune for a moment Henschard could not help laughing then he perceived the immense admiration for the Scotchman that revealed itself in the women's faces and when this exhibition was over and a new dance proposed and Donald had disappeared for a time to return in his natural garments he had an unlimited choice of partners every girl being in a coming on disposition towards one who so thoroughly understood the poetry of motion as he all the town crowded to the walk such a delightful idea of a ballroom never having occurred to the inhabitants before among the rest of the onlookers were Elizabeth and her mother the former thoughtful yet much interested her eyes beaming with a longing lingering light as if nature had been advised by Corregio in their creation the dancing progressed with unabated spirit and Henschard walked and waited till his wife should be disposed to go home he did not care to keep in the light and when he went into the dark it was worse for there he heard remarks of a kind which were becoming too frequent Mr. Henschard's rejoicings couldn't say good morning to this said one a man must be a headstrong stun pole to think folk would go up to that bleak place today the other answered that people said it was not only in such things as those that the mayor was wanting where would his business be if it were not for this young fellow it was fairly fortunate sent him to Henschard his accounts were like a bramble wood when Mr. Farfrey came he used to reckon his sacks by chalk strokes all in a row like garden palinks measure his ricks by stretching with his arms weigh his trusses by a lift judge his hay by a chaw and settle the price with a curse but now this accomplished young man does it all by ciphering and menstruation then the wheat that sometimes used to taste so strong a mice when made into bread that people could fairly tell the breed Farfrey has a plan for purifying so that nobody would dream the smallest four-legged beast had walked over at once oh yes everybody is full of him and the care Mr. Henschard has to keep him to be sure concluded this gentleman but he won't do it for long good now said the other no said Henschard to himself behind the tree or if he do he'll be honeycombed clean out of all the character and standing that he's built up in these eighteen years he went back to the dancing pavilion Farfrey was footing a quaint little dance with Elizabeth Jane an old country thing the only one she knew and though he considerably toned down his movements to suit her demure gate the shining little nails in the soles of his boots became familiar to the eyes of every bystander the tune had enticed her into it being a tune of a busy vaulting leaping sort some low notes on the silver string of each fiddle then a skipping on the small like running up and down ladders Miss meleud of air was its name so Mr. Farfrey had said and that it was very popular in his own country it was soon over the girl looked at Henschard for approval but he did not give it he seemed not to see her look here Farfrey he said like one whose mind was elsewhere I'll go to poor Breedy great market tomorrow myself you can stay and put things right in your clothes box and recover strength to your knees after your vagaries he planted on Donald an antagonistic glare that had begun as a smile some other townsmen came up and Donald threw aside what's this Henschard said Alderman Tubber applying his thumb to the corn factor like a cheese taster an opposition Randy to yours eh Jacks as good as his master eh cut you out quite hasn't he you see Mr. Henschard said the lawyer another good natured friend where you made the mistake was in going so far afield you should have taken a leaf out of his book and have had your sports in a sheltered place like this but you didn't think of it you see and he did and that's where he's beat you he'll be top Sawyer soon of you two and carry all of for him added Jocular Mr. Tubber no said Henschard gloomily he won't be that because he's shortly going to leave me he looked towards Donald who had come near Mr. Farfrey's time as my manager is drawing to a close isn't it Farfrey the young man who could now read the lines and folds strongly traced face as if they were clear verbal inscriptions quietly assented and when people deplored the fact and asked why it was he simply replied that Mr. Henschard no longer required his help Henschard went home apparently satisfied but in the morning when his jealous temper had passed away his heart sank within him at what he had said and done he was the more disturbed when he found that this time Farfrey was determined to take him at his word End of Chapter 16