He rang
the bell so softly that it only sounded a single full note and a
small one; and then he was informed that Mrs. Henchard was dead--just
dead--that very hour.
At the town-pump there were gathered when he passed a few old
inhabitants, who came there for water whenever they had, as at present,
spare time to fetch it, because it was purer from that original fount
than from their own wells. Mrs. Cuxsom, who had been standing there for
an indefinite time with her pitcher, was describing the incidents of
Mrs. Henchard's death, as she had learnt them from the nurse.
"And she was white as marble-stone," said Mrs. Cuxsom. "And likewise
such a thoughtful woman, too--ah, poor soul--that a' minded every little
thing that wanted tending. 'Yes,' says she, 'when I'm gone, and my last
breath's blowed, look in the top drawer o' the chest in the back room
by the window, and you'll find all my coffin clothes, a piece of
flannel--that's to put under me, and the little piece is to put under my
head; and my new stockings for my feet--they are folded alongside, and
all my other things. And there's four ounce pennies, the heaviest I
could find, a-tied up in bits of linen, for weights--two for my right
eye and two for my left,' she said. 'And when you've used 'em, and my
eyes don't open no more, bury the pennies, good souls and don't ye go
spending 'em, for I shouldn't like it.
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