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Updated: May 10, 2025
Henchard, if she chose to tell it. This had brought them hither. "Why are there so many idlers round the Town Hall to-day?" said Lucetta to her servant when the case was over. She had risen late, and had just looked out of the window. "Oh, please, ma'am, 'tis this larry about Mr. Henchard. A woman has proved that before he became a gentleman he sold his wife for five guineas in a booth at a fair."
Finding this, she was much perplexed as to Henchard's motives in opening the matter at all; for in such cases we attribute to an enemy a power of consistent action which we never find in ourselves or in our friends; and forget that abortive efforts from want of heart are as possible to revenge as to generosity. Next morning Lucetta remained in bed, meditating how to parry this incipient attack.
A murmur apparently came from Henchard's lips in which she detected the words, "You refused to see me!" reproachfully addressed to Lucetta. She could not believe that they had been uttered by her stepfather; unless, indeed, they might have been spoken to one of the yellow-gaitered farmers near them.
"You say yes?" "I do." No sooner had she given the promise than she fell back in a fainting state. "What dreadful thing drives her to say this, father, when it is such a pain to her?" asked Elizabeth, kneeling down by Lucetta. "Don't compel her to do anything against her will! I have lived with her, and know that she cannot bear much." "Don't be a no'thern simpleton!" said Henchard drily.
Councillor Farfrae with Lucetta upon his arm, the observed and imitated of all the smaller tradesmen's womankind. Henchard's mouth changed a little, and he continued to turn over the leaves. "Now then," he said, "Psalm the Hundred-and-Ninth, to the tune of Wiltshire: verses ten to fifteen.
"What trees?" said Lucetta, absorbed in watching for Henchard. Elizabeth replied vaguely, for an incident checked her. Behind one of the trees stood Farfrae, briskly discussing a sample-bag with a farmer. Henchard had come up, accidentally encountering the young man, whose face seemed to inquire, "Do we speak to each other?" She saw her stepfather throw a shine into his eye which answered "No!"
Why, if I were to show that to her dear husband pooh!" He threw the letter into the fire. Lucetta took care not to come again among the hay and corn. She would rather have died than run the risk of encountering Henchard at such close quarters a second time. The gulf between them was growing wider every day.
"This promise will leave him free for you, if you want him, won't it?" At this Lucetta seemed to wake from her swoon with a start. "Him? Who are you talking about?" she said wildly. "Nobody, as far as I am concerned," said Elizabeth firmly. "Oh well. Then it is my mistake," said Henchard. "But the business is between me and Miss Templeman. She agrees to be my wife."
Nevertheless, it was known that he would be home that night "for Sunday," as Casterbridge expressed it. Lucetta, in continuing her walk, had at length reached the end of the ranked trees which bordered the highway in this and other directions out of the town. This end marked a mile; and here she stopped.
He had gone on thence into the court, and inquired of a man whom he saw unpacking china from a crate if Miss Le Sueur was living there. Miss Le Sueur had been the name under which he had known Lucetta or "Lucette," as she had called herself at that time. The man replied in the negative; that Miss Templeman only had come. Henchard went away, concluding that Lucetta had not as yet settled in.
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