Much of the corn he had
never seen; it had not even been moved from the ricks in which it lay
stacked miles away. Thus he lost heavily.
In the blaze of an early August day he met Farfrae in the market-place.
Farfrae knew of his dealings (though he did not guess their intended
bearing on himself) and commiserated him; for since their exchange
of words in the South Walk they had been on stiffly speaking terms.
Henchard for the moment appeared to resent the sympathy; but he suddenly
took a careless turn.
"Ho, no, no!--nothing serious, man!" he cried with fierce gaiety. "These
things always happen, don't they? I know it has been said that figures
have touched me tight lately; but is that anything rare? The case is not
so bad as folk make out perhaps. And dammy, a man must be a fool to mind
the common hazards of trade!"
But he had to enter the Casterbridge Bank that day for reasons which
had never before sent him there--and to sit a long time in the partners'
room with a constrained bearing. It was rumoured soon after that much
real property as well as vast stores of produce, which had stood
in Henchard's name in the town and neighbourhood, was actually the
possession of his bankers.
Coming down the steps of the bank he encountered Jopp. The gloomy
transactions just completed within had added fever to the original sting
of Farfrae's sympathy that morning, which Henchard fancied might be a
satire disguised so that Jopp met with anything but a bland reception.
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