Chapter 23 - Page 2

"Your numerous fairs and markets keep me interested. How
many things I think of while I watch from here!"

He seemed in doubt how to answer, and the babble without
reached them as they sat--voices as of wavelets on a looping
sea, one ever and anon rising above the rest. "Do you look
out often?" he asked.

"Yes--very often."

"Do you look for any one you know?"

Why should she have answered as she did?

"I look as at a picture merely. But," she went on, turning
pleasantly to him, "I may do so now--I may look for you.
You are always there, are you not? Ah--I don't mean it
seriously! But it is amusing to look for somebody one knows
in a crowd, even if one does not want him. It takes off the
terrible oppressiveness of being surrounded by a throng, and
having no point of junction with it through a single
individual."

"Ay! Maybe you'll be very lonely, ma'am?"

"Nobody knows how lonely."

"But you are rich, they say?"

"If so, I don't know how to enjoy my riches. I came to
Casterbridge thinking I should like to live here. But I
wonder if I shall."

"Where did ye come from, ma'am?"

"The neighbourhood of Bath."

"And I from near Edinboro'," he murmured. "It's better to
stay at home, and that's true; but a man must live where his
money is made. It is a great pity, but it's always so! Yet
I've done very well this year. O yes," he went on with
ingenuous enthusiasm. "You see that man with the drab
kerseymere coat? I bought largely of him in the autumn when
wheat was down, and then afterwards when it rose a little I
sold off all I had! It brought only a small profit to me;
while the farmers kept theirs, expecting higher figures--
yes, though the rats were gnawing the ricks hollow. Just
when I sold the markets went lower, and I bought up the corn
of those who had been holding back at less price than my
first purchases. And then," cried Farfrae impetuously, his
face alight, "I sold it a few weeks after, when it happened
to go up again! And so, by contenting mysel' with small
profits frequently repeated, I soon made five hundred
pounds--yes!"--(bringing down his hand upon the table, and
quite forgetting where he was)--"while the others by keeping
theirs in hand made nothing at all!"

Lucetta regarded him with a critical interest. He was quite
a new type of person to her. At last his eye fell upon the
lady's and their glances met.

"Ay, now, I'm wearying you!" he exclaimed.

She said, "No, indeed," colouring a shade.

"What then?"

"Quite otherwise. You are most interesting."

It was now Farfrae who showed the modest pink.

"I mean all you Scotchmen," she added in hasty