第43章 Chapter XVI(3)

"A man must be a headstrong stunpoll to think folk would go up to that bleak place today."The other answered that people said it was not only in such things as those that the Mayor was wanting. "Where would his business be if it were not for this young fellow? 'Twas verily Fortune sent him to Henchard. His accounts were like a bramblewood when Mr Farfrae came. He used to reckon his sacks by chalk strokes all in a row like gardenpalings, measure his ricks by stretching with his arms, weigh his trusses by a lift, judge his hay by a chaw, and settle the price with a curse. But now this accomplished young man does it all by ciphering and mensuration. Then the wheat - that sometimes used to taste so strong o' mice when made into bread that people could fairly tell the breed - Farfrae has a plan for purifying, so that nobody would dream the smallest four-legged beast had walked over it once.

O yes, everybody is full of him, and the care Mr Henchard has to keep him, to be sure!" concluded this gentleman.

"But he won't do it for long, good-now," said the other.

"No!" said Henchard to himself behind the tree. "Or if he do, he'll be honeycombed clean out of all the character and standing that he's built up in these eighteen year!"He went back to the dancing pavilion. Farfrae was footing a quaint little dance with Elizabeth-Jane - an old country thing, the only one she knew, and though he considerately toned down his movements to suit her demurer gait, the pattern of the shining little nails in the soles of his boots became familiar to the eyes of every bystander. The tune had enticed her into it; being a tune of a busy, vaulting, leaping sort - some low notes on the silver string of each fiddle, then a skipping on the small, like running up and down ladders - "Miss M`Leod of Ayr" was its name, so Mr Farfrae had said, and that it was very popular in his own country.

It was soon over, and the girl looked at Henchard for approval; but he did not give it. He seemed not to see her. "Look here, Farfrae," he said, like one whose mind was elsewhere, "I'll go to Port-Bredy Great Market tomorrow myself. You can stay and put things in your clothes-box, and recover strength to your knees after your vagaries." He planted on Donald an antagonistic glare that had begun as a smile.

Some other townsmen came up, and Donald drew aside. "What's this, Henchard,"said Alderman Tubber, applying his thumb to the corn-factor like a cheese-taster.

"An opposition randy to yours, eh? Jack's as good as his master, eh? Cut ye out quite, hasn't he?""You see, Mr Henchard," said the lawyer, another goodnatured friend, "where you made the mistake was in going so far afield. You should have taken a leaf out of his book, and have had your sports in a sheltered place like this. But you didn't think of it, you see; and he did, and that's where he's beat you.""He'll be top-sawyer soon of you two, and carry all afore him," added jocular Mr Tubber.

"No," said Henchard gloomily. "He won't be that, because he's shortly going to leave me." He looked towards Donald, who had again come near.

"Mr Farfrae's time as my manager is drawing to a close - isn't it, Farfrae?"The young man, who could now read the lines and folds of Henchard's strongly-traced face as if they were clear verbal inscriptions, quietly assented; and when people deplored the fact, and asked why it was, he simply replied that Mr Henchard no longer required his help.

Henchard went home, apparently satisfied. But in the morning, when his jealous temper had passed away, his heart sank within him at what he had said and done. He was the more disturbed when he found that this time Farfrae was determined to take him at his word.

HARDY: The Mayor of Casterbridge - * XVII *