第59章 THE FASCINATION(24)

The vehicle came on and passed before him.It was a hired carriage, and behind the coachman were two persons whom he knew well.There sat Eustacia and Yeobright, the arm of the latter being round her waist.

They turned the sharp corner at the bottom towards the temporary home which Clym had hired and furnished, about five miles to the eastward.

Wildeve forgot the loss of the money at the sight of his lost love, whose preciousness in his eyes was increasing in geometrical progression with each new incident that reminded him of their hopeless division.

Brimming with the subtilized misery that he was capable of feeling, he followed the opposite way towards the inn.

About the same moment that Wildeve stepped into the highway Venn also had reached it at a point a hundred yards further on; and he, hearing the same wheels, likewise waited till the carriage should come up.

When he saw who sat therein he seemed to be disappointed.

Reflecting a minute or two, during which interval the carriage rolled on, he crossed the road, and took a short cut through the furze and heath to a point where the turnpike road bent round in ascending a hill.He was now again in front of the carriage, which presently came up at a walking pace.Venn stepped forward and showed himself.

Eustacia started when the lamp shone upon him, and Clym's arm was involuntarily withdrawn from her waist.He said, "What, Diggory? You are having a lonely walk.""Yes--I beg your pardon for stopping you," said Venn.

"But I am waiting about for Mrs.Wildeve: I have something to give her from Mrs.Yeobright.Can you tell me if she's gone home from the party yet?""No.But she will be leaving soon.You may possibly meet her at the corner."Venn made a farewell obeisance, and walked back to his former position, where the byroad from Mistover joined the highway.Here he remained fixed for nearly half an hour, and then another pair of lights came down the hill.

It was the old-fashioned wheeled nondescript belonging to the captain, and Thomasin sat in it alone, driven by Charley.

The reddleman came up as they slowly turned the corner.

"I beg pardon for stopping you, Mrs.Wildeve," he said.

"But I have something to give you privately from Mrs.Yeobright."He handed a small parcel; it consisted of the hundred guineas he had just won, roughly twisted up in a piece of paper.

Thomasin recovered from her surprise, and took the packet.

"That's all, ma'am--I wish you good night," he said, and vanished from her view.

Thus Venn, in his anxiety to rectify matters, had placed in Thomasin's hands not only the fifty guineas which rightly belonged to her, but also the fifty intended for her cousin Clym.His mistake had been based upon Wildeve's words at the opening of the game, when he indignantly denied that the guinea was not his own.

It had not been comprehended by the reddleman that at halfway through the performance the game was continued with the money of another person; and it was an error which afterwards helped to cause more misfortune than treble the loss in money value could have done.

The night was now somewhat advanced; and Venn plunged deeper into the heath, till he came to a ravine where his van was standing--a spot not more than two hundred yards from the site of the gambling bout.He entered this movable home of his, lit his lantern, and, before closing his door for the night, stood reflecting on the circumstances of the preceding hours.

While he stood the dawn grew visible in the northeast quarter of the heavens, which, the clouds having cleared off, was bright with a soft sheen at this midsummer time, though it was only between one and two o'clock.Venn, thoroughly weary, then shut his door and flung himself down to sleep.