13.


The cottage which Michael Henchard hired for his wife Susan under her
name of Newson--in pursuance of their plan--was in the upper or western
part of the town, near the Roman wall, and the avenue which overshadowed
it. The evening sun seemed to shine more yellowly there than anywhere
else this autumn--stretching its rays, as the hours grew later, under
the lowest sycamore boughs, and steeping the ground-floor of the
dwelling, with its green shutters, in a substratum of radiance which the
foliage screened from the upper parts. Beneath these sycamores on the
town walls could be seen from the sitting-room the tumuli and earth
forts of the distant uplands; making it altogether a pleasant spot, with
the usual touch of melancholy that a past-marked prospect lends.

As soon as the mother and daughter were comfortably installed, with a
white-aproned servant and all complete, Henchard paid them a visit,
and remained to tea. During the entertainment Elizabeth was carefully
hoodwinked by the very general tone of the conversation that
prevailed--a proceeding which seemed to afford some humour to Henchard,
though his wife was not particularly happy in it. The visit was repeated
again and again with business-like determination by the Mayor, who
seemed to have schooled himself into a course of strict mechanical
rightness towards this woman of prior claim, at any expense to the later
one and to his own sentiments.

One afternoon the daughter was not indoors when Henchard came, and he
said drily, "This is a very good opportunity for me to ask you to name
the happy day, Susan."