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That he had sported with their deepest feelings, while knowing the rumour to be baseless, was soon apparent to all. 'Beat him black and blue with the flat of our blades! shouted two or three, turning their horses' heads to drop back upon Derriman, in which move they were followed by most of the party.
Loveday after some hesitation agreed to take care of anything that Derriman should bring, whereupon the farmer said he would call with the parchments and papers alluded to in the course of a week. Derriman then went away by the garden gate, mounted his pony, which had been tethered outside, and rode on till his form was lost in the shades.
Some of the guests then spoke of Fess Derriman as not such a bad young man if you took him right and humoured him; others said that he was nobody's enemy but his own; and the elder ladies mentioned in a tone of interest that he was likely to come into a deal of money at his uncle's death.
Cripplestraw came up in a trot, moved a lock of his hair and replaced it, and said, 'Yes, Maister Derriman. He was old Mr. Derriman's odd hand in the yard and garden, and like his employer had no great pretensions to manly beauty, owing to a limpness of backbone and speciality of mouth, which opened on one side only, giving him a triangular smile.
The young man drank without the least reluctance, and said, 'Yes, miller, I am called out. 'Tis ticklish times for us soldiers now; we hold our lives in our hands What are those fellows grinning at behind the table? I say, we do! 'Staying with your uncle at the farm for a day or two, Mr. Derriman? 'No, no; as I told you, six mile off. Billeted at Casterbridge.
I have settled in my mind that it is all right. 'What's all right? said Anne. 'That you do not care for Derriman, and mean to encourage John Loveday. What's all the world so long as folks are happy! Child, don't take any notice of what I have said about Festus, and don't meet him any more. 'What a weathercock you are, mother! Why should you say that just now?
Anne, too, forgot the little peculiarities of speech and manner in Bob and his father, which sometimes jarred for a moment upon her more refined sense, and was thankful for their love and protection in this looming trouble. On going upstairs she remembered the paper which Farmer Derriman had given her, and searched in her bosom for it. She could not find it there.
Here the grey, weather-worn front of a building edged from behind the trees. It was Oxwell Hall, once the seat of a family now extinct, and of late years used as a farmhouse. Benjamin Derriman, who owned the crumbling place, had originally been only the occupier and tenant-farmer of the fields around.
At length one day in the spring, when the mill-house was about to be cleaned throughout, the chimney-board of Anne's bedroom, concealing a yawning fire-place, had to be taken down. In the chasm behind it stood the missing deed-box of Farmer Derriman. Many were the conjectures as to how it had got there.
The trumpet-major replied civilly, though not without grimness, for he seemed hardly to like Derriman's motion towards Anne. 'Widow Garland's daughter! yes, 'tis! surely. You remember me? I have been here before. Festus Derriman, Yeomanry Cavalry. Anne gave a little curtsey. 'I know your name is Festus that's all.
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