30.
Farfrae's words to his landlady had referred to the removal of his boxes
and other effects from his late lodgings to Lucetta's house. The work
was not heavy, but it had been much hindered on account of the frequent
pauses necessitated by exclamations of surprise at the event, of which
the good woman had been briefly informed by letter a few hours earlier.
At the last moment of leaving Port-Bredy, Farfrae, like John Gilpin,
had been detained by important customers, whom, even in the exceptional
circumstances, he was not the man to neglect. Moreover, there was a
convenience in Lucetta arriving first at her house. Nobody there as yet
knew what had happened; and she was best in a position to break the news
to the inmates, and give directions for her husband's accommodation. He
had, therefore, sent on his two-days' bride in a hired brougham, whilst
he went across the country to a certain group of wheat and barley ricks
a few miles off, telling her the hour at which he might be expected
the same evening. This accounted for her trotting out to meet him after
their separation of four hours.
By a strenuous effort, after leaving Henchard she calmed herself in
readiness to receive Donald at High-Place Hall when he came on from his
lodgings. One supreme fact empowered her to this, the sense that, come
what would, she had secured him.
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