CHAPTER XVII
IN THE MARKET-PLACE
On Saturday Boldwood was in Casterbridge market house as usual, whenthe disturber of his dreams entered and became visible to him. Adamhad awakened from his deep sleep, and behold! there was Eve. Thefarmer took courage, and for the first time really looked at her.
Material causes and emotional effects are not to be arranged inregular equation. The result from capital employed in the productionof any movement of a mental nature is sometimes as tremendous as thecause itself is absurdly minute. When women are in a freakish mood,their usual intuition, either from carelessness or inherent defect,seemingly fails to teach them this, and hence it was that Bathshebawas fated to be astonished to-day.
Boldwood looked at her--not slily, critically, or understandingly,but blankly at gaze, in the way a reaper looks up at a passingtrain--as something foreign to his element, and but dimly understood.To Boldwood women had been remote phenomena rather than necessarycomplements--comets of such uncertain aspect, movement, andpermanence, that whether their orbits were as geometrical,unchangeable, and as subject to laws as his own, or as absolutelyerratic as they superficially appeared, he had not deemed it his dutyto consider.
He saw her black hair, her correct facial curves and profile, andthe roundness of her chin and throat. He saw then the side of hereyelids, eyes, and lashes, and the shape of her ear. Next he noticedher figure, her skirt, and the very soles of her shoes.
Boldwood thought her beautiful, but wondered whether he was right inhis thought, for it seemed impossible that this romance in the flesh,if so sweet as he imagined, could have been going on long withoutcreating a commotion of delight among men, and provoking more inquirythan Bathsheba had done, even though that was not a little. To thebest of his judgement neither nature nor art could improve thisperfect one of an imperfect many. His heart began to move withinhim. Boldwood, it must be remembered, though forty years of age, hadnever before inspected a woman with the very centre and force of hisglance; they had struck upon all his senses at wide angles.
Was she really beautiful? He could not assure himself that hisopinion was true even now. He furtively said to a neighbour, "IsMiss Everdene considered handsome?"
"Oh yes; she was a good deal noticed the first time she came, if youremember. A very handsome girl indeed."
A man is never more credulous than in receiving favourable opinionson the beauty of a woman he is half, or quite, in love with; a merechild's word on the point has the weight of an R.A.'s. Boldwood wassatisfied now.
And this charming woman had in effect said to him, "Marry me." Whyshould she have done that strange thing? Boldwood's blindness tothe difference between approving of what circumstances suggest, andoriginating what they do not suggest, was well matched by Bathsheba'sinsensibility to the possibly great issues of little beginnings.
She was at this moment coolly dealing with a dashing young farmer,adding up accounts with him as indifferently as if his face had beenthe pages of a ledger. It was evident that such a nature as his hadno attraction for a woman of Bathsheba's taste. But Boldwood grewhot down to his hands with an incipient jealousy; he trod for thefirst time the threshold of "the injured lover's hell." His firstimpulse was to go and thrust himself between them. This could bedone, but only in one way--by asking to see a sample of her corn.Boldwood renounced the idea. He could not make the request; it wasdebasing loveliness to ask it to buy and sell, and jarred with hisconceptions of her.
All this time Bathsheba was conscious of having broken into thatdignified stronghold at last. His eyes, she knew, were following hereverywhere. This was a triumph; and had it come naturally, such atriumph would have been the sweeter to her for this piquing delay.But it had been brought about by misdirected ingenuity, and shevalued it only as she valued an artificial flower or a wax fruit.
Being a woman with some good sense in reasoning on subjects whereinher heart was not involved, Bathsheba genuinely repented that a freakwhich had owed its existence as much to Liddy as to herself, shouldever have been undertaken, to disturb the placidity of a man sherespected too highly to deliberately tease.
She that day nearly formed the intention of begging his pardon onthe very next occasion of their meeting. The worst features of thisarrangement were that, if he thought she ridiculed him, an apologywould increase the offence by being disbelieved; and if he thoughtshe wanted him to woo her, it would read like additional evidence ofher forwardness.