been told. They began to pass together nearly every day. Hitherto Mrs.
Maumbry, in fashionable walking clothes, had usually been her husband's
companion; but this was less frequent now. The close and singular
friendship between the two men went on for nearly a year, when Mr.
Sainway was presented to a living in a densely-populated town in the
midland counties. He bade the parishioners of his old place a reluctant
farewell and departed, the touching sermon he preached on the occasion
being published by the local printer. Everybody was sorry to lose him;
and it was with genuine grief that his Casterbridge congregation learnt
later on that soon after his induction to his benefice, during some
bitter weather, he had fallen seriously ill of inflammation of the lungs,
of which he eventually died.

We now get below the surface of things. Of all who had known the dead
curate, none grieved for him like the man who on his first arrival had
called him a 'lath in a sheet.' Mrs. Maumbry had never greatly
sympathized with the impressive parson; indeed, she had been secretly
glad that he had gone away to better himself. He had considerably
diminished the pleasures of a woman by whom the joys of earth and good
company had been appreciated to the full. Sorry for her husband in his
loss of a friend who had been none of hers, she was yet quite unprepared
for the sequel.

'There is something that I have wanted to tell you lately, dear,' he said
one morning at breakfast with hesitation. 'Have you guessed what it is?'

She had guessed nothing.

'That I think of retiring from the army.'