________________________________________________
_
CHAPTER LIII - CONCURRITUR -- HORAE MOMENTO
OUTSIDE the front of Boldwood's house a group of men stood
in the dark, with their faces towards the door, which
occasionally opened and closed for the passage of some guest
or servant, when a golden rod of light would stripe the
ground for the moment and vanish again, leaving nothing
outside but the glowworm shine of the pale lamp amid the
evergreens over the door.
"He was seen in Casterbridge this afternoon -- so the boy
said," one of them remarked in a whisper. "And I for one
believe it. His body was never found, you know."
"'Tis a strange story," said the next. "You may depend
upon't that she knows nothing about it."
"Not a word."
"Perhaps he don't mean that she shall," said another man.
"If he's alive and here in the neighbourhood, he means
mischief," said the first. "Poor young thing: I do pity
her, if 'tis true. He'll drag her to the dogs."
"O no; he'll settle down quiet enough," said one disposed to
take a more hopeful view of the case.
"What a fool she must have been ever to have had anything to
do with the man! She is so self-willed and independent too,
that one is more minded to say it serves her right than pity
her."
"No, no. I don't hold with 'ee there. She was no otherwise
than a girl mind, and how could she tell what the man was
made of? If 'tis really true, 'tis too hard a punishment,
and more than she ought to hae. -- Hullo, who's that?" This
was to some footsteps that were heard approaching.
"William Smallbury," said a dim figure in the shades, coming
up and joining them. "Dark as a hedge, to-night, isn't it?
I all but missed the plank over the river ath'art there in
the bottom -- never did such a thing before in my life. Be
ye any of Boldwood's workfolk?" He peered into their faces.
"Yes -- all o' us. We met here a few minutes ago."
"Oh, I hear now -- that's Sam Samway: thought I knowed the
voice, too. Going in?"
"Presently. But I say, William," Samway whispered, "have ye
heard this strange tale?"
"What -- that about Sergeant Troy being seen, d'ye mean,
souls?" said Smallbury, also lowering his voice.
"Ay: in Casterbridge."
"Yes, I have. Laban Tall named a hint of it to me but now --
but I don't think it. Hark, here Laban comes himself, 'a
b'lieve." A footstep drew near.
"Laban?"
"Yes, 'tis I," said Tall. "Have ye heard any more about
that?"
"No," said Tall, joining the group. "And I'm inclined to
think we'd better keep quiet. If so be 'tis not true,
'twill flurry her, and do her much harm to repeat it; and if
so be 'tis true, 'twill do no good to forestall her time o'
trouble. God send that it mid be a lie, for though Henery
Fray and some of 'em do speak against her, she's never been
anything but fair to me. She's hot and hasty, but she's a
brave girl who'll never tell a lie however much the truth
may harm her, and I've no cause to wish her evil."
"She never do tell women's little lies, that's true; and
'tis a thing that can be said of very few. Ay, all the harm
she thinks she says to yer face: there's nothing underhand
wi' her."
They stood silent then, every man busied with his own
thoughts, during which interval sounds of merriment could be
heard within. Then the front door again opened, the rays
streamed out, the well-known form of Boldwood was seen in
the rectangular area of light, the door closed, and Boldwood
walked slowly down the path.
"'Tis master," one of the men whispered, as he neared them.
"We'd better stand quiet -- he'll go in again directly. He
would think it unseemly o' us to be loitering here."
Boldwood came on, and passed by the men without seeing them,
they being under the bushes on the grass. He paused, leant
over the gate, and breathed a long breath. They heard low
words come from him.
"I hope to God she'll come, or this night will be nothing
but misery to me! Oh my darling, my darling, why do you
keep me in suspense like this?"
He said this to himself, and they all distinctly heard it.
Boldwood remained silent after that, and the noise from
indoors was again just audible, until, a few minutes later,
light wheels could be distinguished coming down the hill.
They drew nearer, and ceased at the gate. Boldwood hastened
back to the door, and opened it; and the light shone upon
Bathsheba coming up the path.
Boldwood compressed his emotion to mere welcome: the men
marked her light laugh and apology as she met him: he took
her into the house; and the door closed again.
"Gracious heaven, I didn't know it was like that with him!"
said one of the men. "I thought that fancy of his was over
long ago."
"You don't know much of master, if you thought that," said
Samway.
"I wouldn't he should know we heard what 'a said for the
world," remarked a third.
"I wish we had told of the report at once," the first
uneasily continued. "More harm may come of this than we
know of. Poor Mr. Boldwood, it will be hard upon en. I
wish Troy was in ---- Well, God forgive me for such a wish!
A scoundrel to play a poor wife such tricks. Nothing has
prospered in Weatherbury since he came here. And now I've
no heart to go in. Let's look into Warren's for a few
minutes first, shall us, neighbours?"
Samway, Tall, and Smallbury agreed to go to Warren's, and
went out at the gate, the remaining ones entering the house.
The three soon drew near the malt-house, approaching it from
the adjoining orchard, and not by way of the street. The
pane of glass was illuminated as usual. Smallbury was a
little in advance of the rest when, pausing, he turned
suddenly to his companions and said, "Hist! See there."
The light from the pane was now perceived to be shining not
upon the ivied wall as usual, but upon some object close to
the glass. It was a human face.
"Let's come closer," whispered Samway; and they approached
on tiptoe. There was no disbelieving the report any longer.
Troy's face was almost close to the pane, and he was looking
in. Not only was he looking in, but he appeared to have
been arrested by a conversation which was in progress in the
malt-house, the voices of the interlocutors being those of
Oak and the maltster.
"The spree is all in her honour, isn't it -- hey?" said the
old man. "Although he made believe 'tis only keeping up o'
Christmas?"
"I cannot say," replied Oak.
"Oh 'tis true enough, faith. I cannot understand Farmer
Boldwood being such a fool at his time of life as to ho and
hanker after this woman in the way 'a do, and she not care a
bit about en."
The men, after recognizing Troy's features, withdrew across
the orchard as quietly as they had come. The air was big
with Bathsheba's fortunes to-night: every word everywhere
concerned her. When they were quite out of earshot all by
one instinct paused.
"It gave me quite a turn -- his face," said Tall, breathing.
"And so it did me," said Samway. "What's to be done?"
"I don't see that 'tis any business of ours," Smallbury
murmured dubiously.
"But it is! 'Tis a thing which is everybody's business,"
said Samway. "We know very well that master's on a wrong
tack, and that she's quite in the dark, and we should let
'em know at once. Laban, you know her best -- you'd better
go and ask to speak to her."
"I bain't fit for any such thing," said Laban, nervously.
"I should think William ought to do it if anybody. He's
oldest."
"I shall have nothing to do with it," said Smallbury. "'Tis
a ticklish business altogether. Why, he'll go on to her
himself in a few minutes, ye'll see."
"We don't know that he will. Come, Laban."
"Very well, if I must I must, I suppose," Tall reluctantly
answered. "What must I say?"
"Just ask to see master."
"Oh no; I shan't speak to Mr. Boldwood. If I tell anybody,
'twill be mistress."
"Very well," said Samway.
Laban then went to the door. When he opened it the hum of
bustle rolled out as a wave upon a still strand -- the
assemblage being immediately inside the hall -- and was
deadened to a murmur as he closed it again. Each man waited
intently, and looked around at the dark tree tops gently
rocking against the sky and occasionally shivering in a
slight wind, as if he took interest in the scene, which
neither did. One of them began walking up and down, and
then came to where he started from and stopped again, with a
sense that walking was a thing not worth doing now.
"I should think Laban must have seen mistress by this time,"
said Smallbury, breaking the silence. "Perhaps she won't
come and speak to him."
The door opened. Tall appeared, and joined them.
"Well?" said both.
"I didn't like to ask for her after all," Laban faltered
out. "They were all in such a stir, trying to put a little
spirit into the party. Somehow the fun seems to hang fire,
though everything's there that a heart can desire, and I
couldn't for my soul interfere and throw damp upon it -- if
'twas to save my life, I couldn't!"
"I suppose we had better all go in together," said Samway,
gloomily. "Perhaps I may have a chance of saying a word to
master."
So the men entered the hall, which was the room selected and
arranged for the gathering because of its size. The younger
men and maids were at last just beginning to dance.
Bathsheba had been perplexed how to act, for she was not
much more than a slim young maid herself, and the weight of
stateliness sat heavy upon her. Sometimes she thought she
ought not to have come under any circumstances; then she
considered what cold unkindness that would have been, and
finally resolved upon the middle course of staying for about
an hour only, and gliding off unobserved, having from the
first made up her mind that she could on no account dance,
sing, or take any active part in the proceedings.
Her allotted hour having been passed in chatting and looking
on, Bathsheba told Liddy not to hurry herself, and went to
the small parlour to prepare for departure, which, like the
hall, was decorated with holly and ivy, and well lighted up.
Nobody was in the room, but she had hardly been there a
moment when the master of the house entered.
"Mrs. Troy -- you are not going?" he said. "We've hardly
begun!"
"If you'll excuse me, I should like to go now." Her manner
was restive, for she remembered her promise, and imagined
what he was about to say. "But as it is not late," she
added, "I can walk home, and leave my man and Liddy to come
when they choose."
"I've been trying to get an opportunity of speaking to you,"
said Boldwood. "You know perhaps what I long to say?"
Bathsheba silently looked on the floor.
"You do give it?" he said, eagerly.
"What?" she whispered.
"Now, that's evasion! Why, the promise. I don't want to
intrude upon you at all, or to let it become known to
anybody. But do give your word! A mere business compact,
you know, between two people who are beyond the influence of
passion." Boldwood knew how false this picture was as
regarded himself; but he had proved that it was the only
tone in which she would allow him to approach her. "A
promise to marry me at the end of five years and three-
quarters. You owe it to me!"
"I feel that I do," said Bathsheba; "that is, if you demand
it. But I am a changed woman -- an unhappy woman -- and not
-- not ----"
"You are still a very beautiful woman," said Boldwood.
Honesty and pure conviction suggested the remark,
unaccompanied by any perception that it might have been
adopted by blunt flattery to soothe and win her.
However, it had not much effect now, for she said, in a
passionless murmur which was in itself a proof of her words:
"I have no feeling in the matter at all. And I don't at all
know what is right to do in my difficult position, and I
have nobody to advise me. But I give my promise, if I must.
I give it as the rendering of a debt, conditionally, of
course, on my being a widow."
"You'll marry me between five and six years hence?"
"Don't press me too hard. I'll marry nobody else."
"But surely you will name the time, or there's nothing in
the promise at all?"
"Oh, I don't know, pray let me go!" she said, her bosom
beginning to rise. "I am afraid what to do! I want to be just
to you, and to be that seems to be wronging myself, and
perhaps it is breaking the commandments. There is
considerable doubt of his death, and then it is dreadful;
let me ask a solicitor, Mr. Boldwood, if I ought or no!"
"Say the words, dear one, and the subject shall be
dismissed; a blissful loving intimacy of six years, and then
marriage -- O Bathsheba, say them!" he begged in a husky
voice, unable to sustain the forms of mere friendship any
longer. "Promise yourself to me; I deserve it, indeed I do,
for I have loved you more than anybody in the world! And if
I said hasty words and showed uncalled-for heat of manner
towards you, believe me, dear, I did not mean to distress
you; I was in agony, Bathsheba, and I did not know what I
said. You wouldn't let a dog suffer what I have suffered,
could you but know it! Sometimes I shrink from your knowing
what I have felt for you, and sometimes I am distressed that
all of it you never will know. Be gracious, and give up a
little to me, when I would give up my life for you!"
The trimmings of her dress, as they quivered against the
light, showed how agitated she was, and at last she burst
out crying. "And you'll not -- press me -- about anything
more -- if I say in five or six years?" she sobbed, when she
had power to frame the words.
"Yes, then I'll leave it to time."
She waited a moment. "Very well. I'll marry you in six
years from this day, if we both live," she said solemnly.
"And you'll take this as a token from me."
Boldwood had come close to her side, and now he clasped one
of her hands in both his own, and lifted it to his breast.
"What is it? Oh I cannot wear a ring!" she exclaimed, on
seeing what he held; "besides, I wouldn't have a soul know
that it's an engagement! Perhaps it is improper? Besides,
we are not engaged in the usual sense, are we? Don't
insist, Mr. Boldwood -- don't!" In her trouble at not being
able to get her hand away from him at once, she stamped
passionately on the floor with one foot, and tears crowded
to her eyes again.
"It means simply a pledge -- no sentiment -- the seal of a
practical compact," he said more quietly, but still
retaining her hand in his firm grasp. "Come, now!" And
Boldwood slipped the ring on her finger.
"I cannot wear it," she said, weeping as if her heart would
break. "You frighten me, almost. So wild a scheme! Please
let me go home!"
"Only to-night: wear it just to-night, to please me!"
Bathsheba sat down in a chair, and buried her face in her
handkerchief, though Boldwood kept her hand yet. At length
she said, in a sort of hopeless whisper --
"Very well, then, I will to-night, if you wish it so
earnestly. Now loosen my hand; I will, indeed I will wear
it to-night."
"And it shall be the beginning of a pleasant secret
courtship of six years, with a wedding at the end?"
"It must be, I suppose, since you will have it so!" she
said, fairly beaten into non-resistance.
Boldwood pressed her hand, and allowed it to drop in her
lap. "I am happy now," he said. "God bless you!"
He left the room, and when he thought she might be
sufficiently composed sent one of the maids to her.
Bathsheba cloaked the effects of the late scene as she best
could, followed the girl, and in a few moments came
downstairs with her hat and cloak on, ready to go. To get
to the door it was necessary to pass through the hall, and
before doing so she paused on the bottom of the staircase
which descended into one corner, to take a last look at the
gathering.
There was no music or dancing in progress just now. At the
lower end, which had been arranged for the work-folk
specially, a group conversed in whispers, and with clouded
looks. Boldwood was standing by the fireplace, and he, too,
though so absorbed in visions arising from her promise that
he scarcely saw anything, seemed at that moment to have
observed their peculiar manner, and their looks askance.
"What is it you are in doubt about, men?" he said.
One of them turned and replied uneasily: "It was something
Laban heard of, that's all, sir."
"News? Anybody married or engaged, born or dead?" inquired
the farmer, gaily. "Tell it to us, Tall. One would think
from your looks and mysterious ways that it was something
very dreadful indeed."
"Oh no, sir, nobody is dead," said Tall.
"I wish somebody was," said Samway, in a whisper.
"What do you say, Samway?" asked Boldwood, somewhat sharply.
"If you have anything to say, speak out; if not, get up
another dance."
"Mrs. Troy has come downstairs," said Samway to Tall. "If
you want to tell her, you had better do it now."
"Do you know what they mean?" the farmer asked Bathsheba,
across the room.
"I don't in the least," said Bathsheba.
There was a smart rapping at the door. One of the men
opened it instantly, and went outside.
"Mrs. Troy is wanted," he said, on returning.
"Quite ready," said Bathsheba. "Though I didn't tell them
to send."
"It is a stranger, ma'am," said the man by the door.
"A stranger?" she said.
"Ask him to come in," said Boldwood.
The message was given, and Troy, wrapped up to his eyes as
we have seen him, stood in the doorway.
There was an unearthly silence, all looking towards the
newcomer. Those who had just learnt that he was in the
neighbourhood recognized him instantly; those who did not
were perplexed. Nobody noted Bathsheba. She was leaning on
the stairs. Her brow had heavily contracted; her whole face
was pallid, her lips apart, her eyes rigidly staring at
their visitor.
Boldwood was among those who did not notice that he was
Troy. "Come in, come in!" he repeated, cheerfully, "and
drain a Christmas beaker with us, stranger!"
Troy next advanced into the middle of the room, took off his
cap, turned down his coat-collar, and looked Boldwood in the
face. Even then Boldwood did not recognize that the
impersonator of Heaven's persistent irony towards him, who
had once before broken in upon his bliss, scourged him, and
snatched his delight away, had come to do these things a
second time. Troy began to laugh a mechanical laugh:
Boldwood recognized him now.
Troy turned to Bathsheba. The poor girl's wretchedness at
this time was beyond all fancy or narration. She had sunk
down on the lowest stair; and there she sat, her mouth blue
and dry, and her dark eyes fixed vacantly upon him, as if
she wondered whether it were not all a terrible illusion.
Then Troy spoke. "Bathsheba, I come here for you!"
She made no reply.
"Come home with me: come!"
Bathsheba moved her feet a little, but did not rise. Troy
went across to her.
"Come, madam, do you hear what I say?" he said,
peremptorily.
A strange voice came from the fireplace -- a voice sounding
far off and confined, as if from a dungeon. Hardly a soul
in the assembly recognized the thin tones to be those of
Boldwood. Sudden dispaire had transformed him.
"Bathsheba, go with your husband!"
Nevertheless, she did not move. The truth was that
Bathsheba was beyond the pale of activity -- and yet not in
a swoon. She was in a state of mental GUTTA SERENA; her
mind was for the minute totally deprived of light at the
same time no obscuration was apparent from without.
Troy stretched out his hand to pull her her towards him,
when she quickly shrank back. This visible dread of him
seemed to irritate Troy, and he seized her arm and pulled it
sharply. Whether his grasp pinched her, or whether his mere
touch was the cause, was never known, but at the moment of
his seizure she writhed, and gave a quick, low scream.
The scream had been heard but a few seconds when it was
followed by sudden deafening report that echoed through the
room and stupefied them all. The oak partition shook with
the concussion, and the place was filled with grey smoke.
In bewilderment they turned their eyes to Boldwood. At his
back, as stood before the fireplace, was a gun-rack, as is
usual in farmhouses, constructed to hold two guns. When
Bathsheba had cried out in her husband's grasp, Boldwood's
face of gnashing despair had changed. The veins had
swollen, and a frenzied look had gleamed in his eye. He had
turned quickly, taken one of the guns, cocked it, and at
once discharged it at Troy.
Troy fell. The distance apart of the two men was so small
that the charge of shot did not spread in the least, but
passed like a bullet into his body. He uttered a long
guttural sigh -- there was a contraction -- an extension --
then his muscles relaxed, and he lay still.
Boldwood was seen through the smoke to be now again engaged
with the gun. It was double-barrelled, and he had,
meanwhile, in some way fastened his hand-kerchief to the
trigger, and with his foot on the other end was in the act
of turning the second barrel upon himself. Samway his man
was the first to see this, and in the midst of the general
horror darted up to him. Boldwood had already twitched the
handkerchief, and the gun exploded a second time, sending
its contents, by a timely blow from Samway, into the beam
which crossed the ceiling.
"Well, it makes no difference!" Boldwood gasped. "There is
another way for me to die."
Then he broke from Samway, crossed the room to Bathsheba,
and kissed her hand. He put on his hat, opened the door,
and went into the darkness, nobody thinking of preventing
him.
Content of CHAPTER LIII - CONCURRITUR -- HORAE MOMENTO [Thomas Hardy's novel: Far From The Madding Crowd]
_
Read next: CHAPTER LIV - AFTER THE SHOCK
Read previous: CHAPTER LII - CONVERGING COURSES
Table of content of Far From The Madding Crowd
GO TO TOP OF SCREEN
Post your review
Your review will be placed after the table of content of this book
