exactly, meet me on Grey's Bridge, just out of the town. I'll bring all the money I can muster. You shan't want - I'll see that, Fanny; then I'll get you a lodging somewhere. Good-bye till then. I am a brute - but good-bye!'

After advancing the distance which completed the ascent of the hill, Bathsheba turned her head. The woman was upon her feet, and Bathsheba saw her withdrawing from Troy, and going feebly down the hill by the third milestone from Casterbridge. Troy then came on towards his wife, stepped into the gig, took the reins from her hand, and without making any observation whipped the horse into a trot. He was rather agitated.

`Do you know who that woman was?' said Bathsheba, looking searchingly into his face.

`I do,' he said, looking boldly back into hers.

`I thought you did,' said she, with angry hauteur, and still regarding him. `Who is she?'

He suddenly seemed to think that frankness would benefit neither of the women.

`Nothing to either of us,' he said. `I know her by sight.'

`What is her name?'

`How should I know her name?'

`I think you do.'

`Think if you will, and be--' The sentence was completed by a smart cut of the whip round Poppet's flank, which caused the animal to start forward at a wild pace. No more was said.