Thus she refrained from bursting out like a water-flower that
spring, and clothing herself in puffings and knick-knacks, as most of
the Casterbridge girls would have done in her circumstances. Her triumph
was tempered by circumspection, she had still that field-mouse fear of
the coulter of destiny despite fair promise, which is common among the
thoughtful who have suffered early from poverty and oppression.
"I won't be too gay on any account," she would say to herself. "It would
be tempting Providence to hurl mother and me down, and afflict us again
as He used to do."
We now see her in a black silk bonnet, velvet mantle or silk spencer,
dark dress, and carrying a sunshade. In this latter article she drew
the line at fringe, and had it plain edged, with a little ivory ring for
keeping it closed. It was odd about the necessity for that sunshade. She
discovered that with the clarification of her complexion and the birth
of pink cheeks her skin had grown more sensitive to the sun's rays.
She protected those cheeks forthwith, deeming spotlessness part of
womanliness.
Henchard had become very fond of her, and she went out with him more
frequently than with her mother now. Her appearance one day was so
attractive that he looked at her critically.
"I happened to have the ribbon by me, so I made it up," she faltered,
thinking him perhaps dissatisfied with some rather bright trimming she
had donned for the first time.
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