She could not help
suspecting that the gloom which seemed to have come over Casterbridge
in Lucetta's eyes might be partially owing to the fact that Farfrae was
away from home.
Elizabeth saw her friend depart for Port-Bredy, and took charge of
High-Place Hall till her return. After two or three days of solitude and
incessant rain Henchard called at the house. He seemed disappointed to
hear of Lucetta's absence and though he nodded with outward indifference
he went away handling his beard with a nettled mien.
The next day he called again. "Is she come now?" he asked.
"Yes. She returned this morning," replied his stepdaughter. "But she
is not indoors. She has gone for a walk along the turnpike-road to
Port-Bredy. She will be home by dusk."
After a few words, which only served to reveal his restless impatience,
he left the house again.
29.
At this hour Lucetta was bounding along the road to Port-Bredy just as
Elizabeth had announced. That she had chosen for her afternoon walk the
road along which she had returned to Casterbridge three hours earlier
in a carriage was curious--if anything should be called curious in
concatenations of phenomena wherein each is known to have its accounting
cause. It was the day of the chief market--Saturday--and Farfrae
for once had been missed from his corn-stand in the dealers' room.
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