The apparition of Newson haunted
him. He would surely return.
Yet Newson did not arrive. Lucetta had been borne along the churchyard
path; Casterbridge had for the last time turned its regard upon her,
before proceeding to its work as if she had never lived. But Elizabeth
remained undisturbed in the belief of her relationship to Henchard, and
now shared his home. Perhaps, after all, Newson was gone for ever.
In due time the bereaved Farfrae had learnt the, at least, proximate
cause of Lucetta's illness and death, and his first impulse was
naturally enough to wreak vengeance in the name of the law upon the
perpetrators of the mischief. He resolved to wait till the funeral was
over ere he moved in the matter. The time having come he reflected.
Disastrous as the result had been, it was obviously in no way foreseen
or intended by the thoughtless crew who arranged the motley procession.
The tempting prospect of putting to the blush people who stand at the
head of affairs--that supreme and piquant enjoyment of those who writhe
under the heel of the same--had alone animated them, so far as he could
see; for he knew nothing of Jopp's incitements. Other considerations
were also involved. Lucetta had confessed everything to him before her
death, and it was not altogether desirable to make much ado about her
history, alike for her sake, for Henchard's, and for his own.
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