before the invalid saw her again after her leave-taking that day.



CHAPTER V


Casterbridge had known many military and civil episodes; many happy
times, and times less happy; and now came the time of her visitation. The
scourge of cholera had been laid on the suffering country, and the low-
lying purlieus of this ancient borough had more than their share of the
infliction. Mixen Lane, in the Durnover quarter, and in Maumbry's
parish, was where the blow fell most heavily. Yet there was a certain
mercy in its choice of a date, for Maumbry was the man for such an hour.

The spread of the epidemic was so rapid that many left the town and took
lodgings in the villages and farms. Mr. Maumbry's house was close to the
most infected street, and he himself was occupied morn, noon, and night
in endeavours to stamp out the plague and in alleviating the sufferings
of the victims. So, as a matter of ordinary precaution, he decided to
isolate his wife somewhere away from him for a while.

She suggested a village by the sea, near Budmouth Regis, and lodgings
were obtained for her at Creston, a spot divided from the Casterbridge
valley by a high ridge that gave it quite another atmosphere, though it
lay no more than six miles off.

Thither she went. While she was rusticating in this place of safety, and
her husband was slaving in the slums, she struck up an acquaintance with
a lieutenant in the ---st Foot, a Mr. Vannicock, who was stationed with