5--Sharp Words Are Spoken, and a Crisis Ensues
When Yeobright was not with Eustacia he was sitting slavishly over hisbooks; when he was not reading he was meeting her. These meetings werecarried on with the greatest secrecy.
One afternoon his mother came home from a morning visit to Thomasin. Hecould see from a disturbance in the lines of her face that something hadhappened.
I have been told an incomprehensible thing, she said mournfully. Thecaptain has let out at the Woman that you and Eustacia Vye are engagedto be married.
We are, said Yeobright. But it may not be yet for a very long time.
I should hardly think it WOULD be yet for a very long time! You willtake her to Paris, I suppose? She spoke with weary hopelessness.
I am not going back to Paris.
What will you do with a wife, then?
Keep a school in Budmouth, as I have told you.
That's incredible! The place is overrun with schoolmasters. You have nospecial qualifications. What possible chance is there for such as you?
There is no chance of getting rich. But with my system of education,which is as new as it is true, I shall do a great deal of good to myfellow-creatures.
Dreams, dreams! If there had been any system left to be invented theywould have found it out at the universities long before this time.
Never, Mother. They cannot find it out, because their teachers don'tcome in contact with the class which demands such a system--thatis, those who have had no preliminary training. My plan is one forinstilling high knowledge into empty minds without first cramming themwith what has to be uncrammed again before true study begins.
I might have believed you if you had kept yourself free fromentanglements; but this woman--if she had been a good girl it would havebeen bad enough; but being----
She is a good girl.
So you think. A Corfu bandmaster's daughter! What has her life been?Her surname even is not her true one.
She is Captain Vye's granddaughter, and her father merely took hermother's name. And she is a lady by instinct.
They call him 'captain,' but anybody is captain.
He was in the Royal Navy!
No doubt he has been to sea in some tub or other. Why doesn't he lookafter her? No lady would rove about the heath at all hours of the dayand night as she does. But that's not all of it. There was somethingqueer between her and Thomasin's husband at one time--I am as sure of itas that I stand here.
Eustacia has told me. He did pay her a little attention a year ago; butthere's no harm in that. I like her all the better.
Clym, said his mother with firmness, I have no proofs against her,unfortunately. But if she makes you a good wife, there has never been abad one.
Believe me, you are almost exasperating, said Yeobright vehemently.And this very day I had intended to arrange a meeting between you. Butyou give me no peace; you try to thwart my wishes in everything.
I hate the thought of any son of mine marrying badly! I wish I hadnever lived to see this; it is too much for me--it is more than Idreamt! She turned to the window. Her breath was coming quickly, andher lips were pale, parted, and trembling.
Mother, said Clym, whatever you do, you will always be dear tome--that you know. But one thing I have a right to say, which is, thatat my age I am old enough to know what is best for me.
Mrs. Yeobright remained for some time silent and shaken, as if she couldsay no more. Then she replied, Best? Is it best for you to injure yourprospects for such a voluptuous, idle woman as that? Don't you see thatby the very fact of your choosing her you prove that you do not knowwhat is best for you? You give up your whole thought--you set your wholesoul--to please a woman.
I do. And that woman is you.
How can you treat me so flippantly! said his mother, turning again tohim with a tearful look. You are unnatural, Clym, and I did not expectit.
Very likely, said he cheerlessly. You did not know the measure youwere going to mete me, and therefore did not know the measure that wouldbe returned to you again.
You answer me; you think only of her. You stick to her in all things.
That proves her to be worthy. I have never yet supported what is bad.And I do not care only for her. I care for you and for myself, andfor anything that is good. When a woman once dislikes another she ismerciless!
O Clym! please don't go setting down as my fault what is your obstinatewrongheadedness. If you wished to connect yourself with an unworthyperson why did you come home here to do it? Why didn't you do it inParis?--it is more the fashion there. You have come only to distress me,a lonely woman, and shorten my days! I wish that you would bestow yourpresence where you bestow your love!
Clym said huskily, You are my mother. I will say no more--beyond this,that I beg your pardon for having thought this my home. I will no longerinflict myself upon you; I'll go. And he went out with tears in hiseyes.
It was a sunny afternoon at the beginning of summer, and the moisthollows of the heath had passed from their brown to their green stage.Yeobright walked to the edge of the basin which extended down fromMistover and Rainbarrow.
By this time he was calm, and he looked over the landscape. In the minorvalleys, between the hillocks which diversified the contour of the vale,the fresh young ferns were luxuriantly growing up, ultimately to reacha height of five or six feet. He descended a little way, flung himselfdown in a spot where a path emerged from one of the small hollows, andwaited. Hither it was that he had promised Eustacia to bring his motherthis afternoon, that they might meet and be friends. His attempt hadutterly failed.
He was in a nest of vivid green. The ferny vegetation round him, thoughso abundant, was quite uniform--it was a grove of machine-made foliage,a world of green triangles with saw-edges, and not a single flower. Theair was warm with a vaporous warmth, and the stillness was unbroken.Lizards, grasshoppers, and ants were the only living things tobe beheld. The scene seemed to belong to the ancient world of thecarboniferous period, when the forms of plants were few, and of the fernkind; when there was neither bud nor blossom, nothing but a monotonousextent of leafage, amid which no bird sang.
When he had reclined for some considerable time, gloomily pondering, hediscerned above the ferns a drawn bonnet of white silk approaching fromthe left, and Yeobright knew directly that it covered the head of herhe loved. His heart awoke from its apathy to a warm excitement, and,jumping to his feet, he said aloud, I knew she was sure to come.
She vanished in a hollow for a few moments, and then her whole formunfolded itself from the brake.
Only you here? she exclaimed, with a disappointed air, whosehollowness was proved by her rising redness and her half-guilty lowlaugh. Where is Mrs. Yeobright?
She has not come, he replied in a subdued tone.
I wish I had known that you would be here alone, she said seriously,and that we were going to have such an idle, pleasant time as this.Pleasure not known beforehand is half wasted; to anticipate it is todouble it. I have not thought once today of having you all to myselfthis afternoon, and the actual moment of a thing is so soon gone.
It is indeed.
Poor Clym! she continued, looking tenderly into his face. You aresad. Something has happened at your home. Never mind what is--let usonly look at what seems.
But, darling, what shall we do? said he.
Still go on as we do now--just live on from meeting to meeting, neverminding about another day. You, I know, are always thinking of that--Ican see you are. But you must not--will you, dear Clym?
You are just like all women. They are ever content to build their liveson any incidental position that offers itself; whilst men would fainmake a globe to suit them. Listen to this, Eustacia. There is a subjectI have determined to put off no longer. Your sentiment on the wisdomof Carpe diem does not impress me today. Our present mode of life mustshortly be brought to an end.
It is your mother!
It is. I love you none the less in telling you; it is only right youshould know.
I have feared my bliss, she said, with the merest motion of her lips.It has been too intense and consuming.
There is hope yet. There are forty years of work in me yet, and whyshould you despair? I am only at an awkward turning. I wish peoplewouldn't be so ready to think that there is no progress withoutuniformity.
Ah--your mind runs off to the philosophical side of it. Well, these sadand hopeless obstacles are welcome in one sense, for they enable us tolook with indifference upon the cruel satires that Fate loves to indulgein. I have heard of people, who, upon coming suddenly into happiness,have died from anxiety lest they should not live to enjoy it. I feltmyself in that whimsical state of uneasiness lately; but I shall bespared it now. Let us walk on.
Clym took the hand which was already bared for him--it was a favouriteway with them to walk bare hand in bare hand--and led her through theferns. They formed a very comely picture of love at full flush, as theywalked along the valley that late afternoon, the sun sloping down ontheir right, and throwing their thin spectral shadows, tall as poplartrees, far out across the furze and fern. Eustacia went with her headthrown back fancifully, a certain glad and voluptuous air of triumphpervading her eyes at having won by her own unaided self a man who washer perfect complement in attainment, appearance, and age. On the youngman's part, the paleness of face which he had brought with himfrom Paris, and the incipient marks of time and thought, were lessperceptible than when he returned, the healthful and energeticsturdiness which was his by nature having partially recovered itsoriginal proportions. They wandered onward till they reached the nethermargin of the heath, where it became marshy and merged in moorland.
I must part from you here, Clym, said Eustacia.
They stood still and prepared to bid each other farewell. Everythingbefore them was on a perfect level. The sun, resting on the horizonline, streamed across the ground from between copper-coloured and lilacclouds, stretched out in flats beneath a sky of pale soft green. Alldark objects on the earth that lay towards the sun were overspread bya purple haze, against which groups of wailing gnats shone out, risingupwards and dancing about like sparks of fire.
O! this leaving you is too hard to bear! exclaimed Eustacia in asudden whisper of anguish. Your mother will influence you too much;I shall not be judged fairly, it will get afloat that I am not a goodgirl, and the witch story will be added to make me blacker!
They cannot. Nobody dares to speak disrespectfully of you or of me.
Oh how I wish I was sure of never losing you--that you could not beable to desert me anyhow!
Clym stood silent a moment. His feelings were high, the moment waspassionate, and he cut the knot.
You shall be sure of me, darling, he said, folding her in his arms.We will be married at once.
O Clym!
Do you agree to it?
If--if we can.
We certainly can, both being of full age. And I have not followed myoccupation all these years without having accumulated money; and if youwill agree to live in a tiny cottage somewhere on the heath, until Itake a house in Budmouth for the school, we can do it at a very littleexpense.
How long shall we have to live in the tiny cottage, Clym?
About six months. At the end of that time I shall have finished myreading--yes, we will do it, and this heart-aching will be over. Weshall, of course, live in absolute seclusion, and our married life willonly begin to outward view when we take the house in Budmouth, where Ihave already addressed a letter on the matter. Would your grandfatherallow you?
I think he would--on the understanding that it should not last longerthan six months.
I will guarantee that, if no misfortune happens.
If no misfortune happens, she repeated slowly.
Which is not likely. Dearest, fix the exact day.
And then they consulted on the question, and the day was chosen. It wasto be a fortnight from that time.
This was the end of their talk, and Eustacia left him. Clym watched heras she retired towards the sun. The luminous rays wrapped her up withher increasing distance, and the rustle of her dress over the sproutingsedge and grass died away. As he watched, the dead flat of the sceneryoverpowered him, though he was fully alive to the beauty of thatuntarnished early summer green which was worn for the nonce by thepoorest blade. There was something in its oppressive horizontality whichtoo much reminded him of the arena of life; it gave him a sense of bareequality with, and no superiority to, a single living thing under thesun.
Eustacia was now no longer the goddess but the woman to him, a beingto fight for, support, help, be maligned for. Now that he had reacheda cooler moment he would have preferred a less hasty marriage; but thecard was laid, and he determined to abide by the game. Whether Eustaciawas to add one other to the list of those who love too hotly to lovelong and well, the forthcoming event was certainly a ready way ofproving.