Seventeen: Far From The Madding Crowd: Thomas Hardy: Bathsheba repents her prank

Saturday. 
Market-house. Boldwood as usual was present, when Bathsheba entered the market-house. Unlike the previous occasion, the farmer took a look at her. It was the look of a reaper at a passing train -- something foreign to his perception. 

He saw her black hair, her curves and profile, her eyelids, eyes and eyelashes, and the shape of her ear. He noticed her skirt and the very sole of her shoes. To the best of his judgement she was a perfect one of an imperfect many.
His heart began to move within him.

Though forty years of age, Boldwood had never before scrutinized a woman so sharply and at wide angles. 

Was her beauty real? He was not sure of himself. He furtively said to a neighbour, "Is Miss Everdene considered handsome?" 
"Oh, yes; she was a good deal noticed the first time she came, you remember. A very handsome girl indeed." 

It satisfied Boldwood very much. He wanted no more evidence. And this woman had sent him a missive "Marry me". Those two words seemed to dance before his eyes. Why should she has done that strange thing?

Bathsheba at this moment had been dealing with a dashing young farmer, adding up accounts with him as indifferently as if his face had been the pages of a ledger. It was evident that such a nature as his had no attraction for a woman of her taste. But Boldwood grew hot down to his hands with an incipient jealousy; he trod for the first time the threshold of the injured lover's hell. His first impulse was to go and thrust himself between them. This could be done only by asking to see a sample of her corn. This he felt debasing: it was painful to see her as a business woman . So he renounced his attempt to ask for a sample. 

Bathsheba was aware of having broken that dignified stronghold.  His eyes she knew were following her everywhere. This was a triumph; and had it come naturally it would have been sweeter.

Being a woman with some good sense in reasoning on subjects wherein her heart was not involved Bathsheba genuinely repented that.a freak made jointly by herself and Liddy disturbed the peace of a man she respected very much.

She wanted to beg his pardon the very next day. But if he thought that she ridiculed him, an apology would increase the offence. But if he thought that she wanted him, it would be an additional evidence of her forwardness.

End of the Chapter 





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