The Return of the Native

by Thomas Hardy

  II

  He Is Set Upon by Adversities; but He Sings a Song

  The result of that unpropitious interview was that Eustacia, insteadof passing the afternoon with her grandfather, hastily returned hometo Clym, where she arrived three hours earlier than she had beenexpected.

  She came indoors with her face flushed, and her eyes still showingtraces of her recent excitement. Yeobright looked up astonished; hehad never seen her in any way approaching to that state before. Shepassed him by, and would have gone upstairs unnoticed, but Clym wasso concerned that he immediately followed her.

  "What is the matter, Eustacia?" he said. She was standing on thehearthrug in the bedroom, looking upon the floor, her hands claspedin front of her, her bonnet yet unremoved. For a moment she did notanswer; and then she replied in a low voice--

  "I have seen your mother; and I will never see her again!"

  A weight fell like a stone upon Clym. That same morning, when Eustaciahad arranged to go and see her grandfather, Clym had expressed awish that she would drive down to Blooms-End and inquire for hermother-in-law, or adopt any other means she might think fit to bringabout a reconciliation. She had set out gaily; and he had hoped formuch.

  "Why is this?" he asked.

  "I cannot tell--I cannot remember. I met your mother. And I willnever meet her again."

  "Why?"

  "What do I know about Mr. Wildeve now? I won't have wicked opinionspassed on me by anybody. O! it was too humiliating to be asked if Ihad received any money from him, or encouraged him, or something ofthe sort--I don't exactly know what!"

  "How could she have asked you that?"

  "She did."

  "Then there must have been some meaning in it. What did my mother saybesides?"

  "I don't know what she said, except in so far as this, that we bothsaid words which can never be forgiven!"

  "Oh, there must be some misapprehension. Whose fault was it that hermeaning was not made clear?"

  "I would rather not say. It may have been the fault of thecircumstances, which were awkward at the very least. O Clym--I cannothelp expressing it--this is an unpleasant position that you haveplaced me in. But you must improve it--yes, say you will--for I hateit all now! Yes, take me to Paris, and go on with your old occupation,Clym! I don't mind how humbly we live there at first, if it can onlybe Paris, and not Egdon Heath."

  "But I have quite given up that idea," said Yeobright, with surprise."Surely I never led you to expect such a thing?"

  "I own it. Yet there are thoughts which cannot be kept out of mind,and that one was mine. Must I not have a voice in the matter, now Iam your wife and the sharer of your doom?"

  "Well, there are things which are placed beyond the pale ofdiscussion; and I thought this was specially so, and by mutualagreement."

  "Clym, I am unhappy at what I hear," she said in a low voice; and hereyes drooped, and she turned away.

  This indication of an unexpected mine of hope in Eustacia's bosomdisconcerted her husband. It was the first time that he hadconfronted the fact of the indirectness of a woman's movement towardsher desire. But his intention was unshaken, though he loved Eustaciawell. All the effect that her remark had upon him was a resolve tochain himself more closely than ever to his books, so as to be thesooner enabled to appeal to substantial results from another coursein arguing against her whim.

  Next day the mystery of the guineas was explained. Thomasin paid thema hurried visit, and Clym's share was delivered up to him by her ownhands. Eustacia was not present at the time.

  "Then this is what my mother meant," exclaimed Clym. "Thomasin, doyou know that they have had a bitter quarrel?"

  There was a little more reticence now than formerly in Thomasin'smanner towards her cousin. It is the effect of marriage to engenderin several directions some of the reserve it annihilates in one."Your mother told me," she said quietly. "She came back to my houseafter seeing Eustacia."

  "The worst thing I dreaded has come to pass. Was mother muchdisturbed when she came to you, Thomasin?"

  "Yes."

  "Very much indeed?"

  "Yes."

  Clym leant his elbow upon the post of the garden gate, and covered hiseyes with his hand.

  "Don't trouble about it, Clym. They may get to be friends."

  He shook his head. "Not two people with inflammable natures liketheirs. Well, what must be will be."

  "One thing is cheerful in it--the guineas are not lost."

  "I would rather have lost them twice over than have had this happen."