A Changed Man and Other Tales | Page 9

watching each thin wave slide up
to her, and hearing, without heeding, its gnaw at the pebbles in its
retreat, he often took a walk that way.
The acquaintance grew and ripened. Her situation, her history, her
beauty, her age--a year or two above his own--all tended to make an
impression on the young man's heart, and a reckless flirtation was soon
in blithe progress upon that lonely shore.
It was said by her detractors afterwards that she had chosen her lodging
to be near this gentleman, but there is reason to believe that she had
never seen him till her arrival there. Just now Casterbridge was so
deeply occupied with its own sad affairs--a daily burying of the dead
and destruction of contaminated clothes and bedding--that it had little
inclination to promulgate such gossip as may have reached its ears on
the pair. Nobody long considered Laura in the tragic cloud which

overhung all.
Meanwhile, on the Budmouth side of the hill the very mood of men
was in contrast. The visitation there had been slight and much earlier,
and normal occupations and pastimes had been resumed. Mr. Maumbry
had arranged to see Laura twice a week in the open air, that she might
run no risk from him; and, having heard nothing of the faint rumour, he
met her as usual one dry and windy afternoon on the summit of the
dividing hill, near where the high road from town to town crosses the
old Ridge-way at right angles.
He waved his hand, and smiled as she approached, shouting to her: 'We
will keep this wall between us, dear.' (Walls formed the field- fences
here.) 'You mustn't be endangered. It won't be for long, with God's
help!'
'I will do as you tell me, Jack. But you are running too much risk
yourself, aren't you? I get little news of you; but I fancy you are.'
'Not more than others.'
Thus somewhat formally they talked, an insulating wind beating the
wall between them like a mill-weir.
'But you wanted to ask me something?' he added.
'Yes. You know we are trying in Budmouth to raise some money for
your sufferers; and the way we have thought of is by a dramatic
performance. They want me to take a part.'
His face saddened. 'I have known so much of that sort of thing, and all
that accompanies it! I wish you had thought of some other way.'
She said lightly that she was afraid it was all settled. 'You object to my
taking a part, then? Of course--'
He told her that he did not like to say he positively objected. He wished
they had chosen an oratorio, or lecture, or anything more in keeping
with the necessity it was to relieve.
'But,' said she impatiently, 'people won't come to oratorios or lectures!
They will crowd to comedies and farces.'
'Well, I cannot dictate to Budmouth how it shall earn the money it is
going to give us. Who is getting up this performance?'
'The boys of the -st.'
'Ah, yes; our old game!' replied Mr. Maumbry. 'The grief of
Casterbridge is the excuse for their frivolity. Candidly, dear Laura, I
wish you wouldn't play in it. But I don't forbid you to. I leave the whole

to your judgment.'
The interview ended, and they went their ways northward and
southward. Time disclosed to all concerned that Mrs. Maumbry played
in the comedy as the heroine, the lover's part being taken by Mr.
Vannicock.

CHAPTER VI

Thus was helped on an event which the conduct of the mutually-
attracted ones had been generating for some time.
It is unnecessary to give details. The --st Foot left for Bristol, and this
precipitated their action. After a week of hesitation she agreed to leave
her home at Creston and meet Vannicock on the ridge hard by, and to
accompany him to Bath, where he had secured lodgings for her, so that
she would be only about a dozen miles from his quarters.
Accordingly, on the evening chosen, she laid on her dressing-table a
note for her husband, running thus:-
DEAR JACK--I am unable to endure this life any longer, and I have
resolved to put an end to it. I told you I should run away if you
persisted in being a clergyman, and now I am doing it. One cannot help
one's nature. I have resolved to throw in my lot with Mr. Vannicock,
and I hope rather than expect you will forgive me.--L.
Then, with hardly a scrap of luggage, she went, ascending to the ridge
in the dusk of early evening. Almost on the very spot where her
husband had stood at their last tryst she beheld the outline of
Vannicock, who had come all the way from