Hetty had been in the habit of hearing her uncle say, "Adam Bede may be
working for a wage now, but he'll be a master-man some day, as sure as I
sit in this chair. Master Burge is in the right on't to want him to go
partners and marry his daughter, if it's true what they say. The woman
as marries him 'ull have a good take, be't Lady Day or Michaelmas," a
remark which Mrs. Poyser always followed up with her cordial assent.

"Ah," she would say, "it's all very fine having a ready-made rich man,
but may happen he'll be a ready-made fool; and it's no use filling your
pocket full of money if you've got a hole in the corner. It'll do you no
good to sit in a spring-cart o' your own if you've got a soft to drive
you; he'll soon turn you over into the ditch."

But Hetty had never given Adam any steady encouragement. She liked to
feel that this strong, keen-eyed man was in her power; but as to
marrying Adam, that was a very different affair.

Hetty's dreams were all of luxuries. She thought if Adam had been rich,
and could have given the things of her dreams--large, beautiful earrings
and Nottingham lace and a carpeted parlour--she loved him well enough to
marry him.

The last few weeks a new influence had come over Hetty; she had become
aware that Mr. Arthur Donnithorne would take a good deal of trouble for
the chance of seeing her. And Dinah Morris was away, preaching and
working in a manufacturing town.


_III.--Adam's First Love_