By the time that Wildeve reached her name the blankness with which hehad read the first half of the letter intensified to mortification. Iam made a great fool of, one way and another, he said pettishly. Doyou know what is in this letter?
The reddleman hummed a tune.
Can't you answer me? asked Wildeve warmly.
Ru-um-tum-tum, sang the reddleman.
Wildeve stood looking on the ground beside Venn's feet, till he allowedhis eyes to travel upwards over Diggory's form, as illuminated by thecandle, to his head and face. Ha-ha! Well, I suppose I deserve it,considering how I have played with them both, he said at last, as muchto himself as to Venn. But of all the odd things that ever I knew, theoddest is that you should so run counter to your own interests as tobring this to me.
My interests?
Certainly. 'Twas your interest not to do anything which would send mecourting Thomasin again, now she has accepted you--or something like it.Mrs. Yeobright says you are to marry her. 'Tisn't true, then?
Good Lord! I heard of this before, but didn't believe it. When did shesay so?
Wildeve began humming as the reddleman had done.
I don't believe it now, cried Venn.
Ru-um-tum-tum, sang Wildeve.
O Lord--how we can imitate! said Venn contemptuously. I'll have thisout. I'll go straight to her.
Diggory withdrew with an emphatic step, Wildeve's eye passing over hisform in withering derision, as if he were no more than a heath-cropper.When the reddleman's figure could no longer be seen, Wildeve himselfdescended and plunged into the rayless hollow of the vale.
To lose the two women--he who had been the well-beloved of both--was tooironical an issue to be endured. He could only decently save himselfby Thomasin; and once he became her husband, Eustacia's repentance, hethought, would set in for a long and bitter term. It was no wonder thatWildeve, ignorant of the new man at the back of the scene, should havesupposed Eustacia to be playing a part. To believe that the letter wasnot the result of some momentary pique, to infer that she really gavehim up to Thomasin, would have required previous knowledge of hertransfiguration by that man's influence. Who was to know that she hadgrown generous in the greediness of a new passion, that in coveting onecousin she was dealing liberally with another, that in her eagerness toappropriate she gave way?
Full of this resolve to marry in haste, and wring the heart of the proudgirl, Wildeve went his way.
Meanwhile Diggory Venn had returned to his van, where he stood lookingthoughtfully into the stove. A new vista was opened up to him. But,however promising Mrs. Yeobright's views of him might be as a candidatefor her niece's hand, one condition was indispensable to the favour ofThomasin herself, and that was a renunciation of his present wild modeof life. In this he saw little difficulty.
He could not afford to wait till the next day before seeing Thomasin anddetailing his plan. He speedily plunged himself into toilet operations,pulled a suit of cloth clothes from a box, and in about twenty minutesstood before the van-lantern as a reddleman in nothing but his face, thevermilion shades of which were not to be removed in a day. Closing thedoor and fastening it with a padlock, Venn set off towards Blooms-End.
He had reached the white palings and laid his hand upon the gate whenthe door of the house opened, and quickly closed again. A female formhad glided in. At the same time a man, who had seemingly been standingwith the woman in the porch, came forward from the house till he wasface to face with Venn. It was Wildeve again.
Man alive, you've been quick at it, said Diggory sarcastically.
And you slow, as you will find, said Wildeve. And, lowering hisvoice, you may as well go back again now. I've claimed her, and gother. Good night, reddleman! Thereupon Wildeve walked away.
Venn's heart sank within him, though it had not risen unduly high.He stood leaning over the palings in an indecisive mood for nearly aquarter of an hour. Then he went up the garden path, knocked, and askedfor Mrs. Yeobright.
Instead of requesting him to enter she came to the porch. A discoursewas carried on between them in low measured tones for the space of tenminutes or more. At the end of the time Mrs. Yeobright went in, and Vennsadly retraced his steps into the heath. When he had again regained hisvan he lit the lantern, and with an apathetic face at once began to pulloff his best clothes, till in the course of a few minutes he reappearedas the confirmed and irretrievable reddleman that he had seemed before.