at a distance from the sex. No wife could I hear of, I say, till this
very day. And now--she has come back."

"Come back, has she!"

"This morning--this very morning. And what's to be done?"

"Can ye no' take her and live with her, and make some amends?"

"That's what I've planned and proposed. But, Farfrae," said Henchard
gloomily, "by doing right with Susan I wrong another innocent woman."

"Ye don't say that?"

"In the nature of things, Farfrae, it is almost impossible that a man
of my sort should have the good fortune to tide through twenty years o'
life without making more blunders than one. It has been my custom
for many years to run across to Jersey in the the way of business,
particularly in the potato and root season. I do a large trade wi' them
in that line. Well, one autumn when stopping there I fell quite ill, and
in my illness I sank into one of those gloomy fits I sometimes suffer
from, on account o' the loneliness of my domestic life, when the world
seems to have the blackness of hell, and, like Job, I could curse the
day that gave me birth."

"Ah, now, I never feel like it," said Farfrae.

"Then pray to God that you never may, young man. While in this state I
was taken pity on by a woman--a young lady I should call her, for she
was of good family, well bred, and well educated--the daughter of some