Upon my honour, when I set eyes upon her that day I wondered what I could have been made of to be able to leave her by herself so long. And then I was hampered with that bothering show, which I'm free of at last, thank the stars." He smoked on awhile, and then added, "How did she look when you passed by yesterday?"
"Oh, she took no great heed of me, ye may well fancy; but she looked well enough, far's I know. Just flashed her haughty eyes upon my poor scram body, and then let them go past me to what was yond, much as if I'd been no more than a leafless tree. She had just got off her mare to look at the last wring-down of cider for the year; she had been riding, and so her colours were up and her breath rather quick, so that her bosom plimmed and feli-plimmed and feli-every time plain to my eye. Ay, and there were the fellers round her wringing down the cheese and bustling about and saying, Ware o' the pommy, ma'am: 'twill spoil yer gown. "Never mind me," says she. Then Gabe brought her some of the new cider, and she must needs go drinking it through a strawmote, and not in a nateral way at all. "Liddy," says she, "bring indoors a few gallons, and I'll make some cider-wine." Sergeant, I was no more to her than a morsel of scroffin the fuel house!"
"I must go and find her out at once -- O yes, I see that-i must go. Oak is head man still, isn't he?"
"Yes, 'a b'lieve. And at Little Weatherbury Farm too. He manages everything."
"Twill puzzle him to manage her, or any other man of his compass!"
"I don't know about that. She can't do without him, and knowing it well he's pretty independent.
And she've a few soft corners to her mind, though I've never been able to get into one, the devil's in't!"
"Ah baily she's a notch above you, and you must own it: a higher class of animal-a finer tissue. However, stick to me, and neither this haughty goddess, dashing piece of womanhood, Juno-wife of mine (Juno was a goddess, you know), nor anybody else shall hurt you. But all this wants looking into, I perceive.
What with one thing and another, I see that my work is well cut out for me."
V "How do I look to-night, Liddy?" said Bathsheba, giving a final adjustment to her dress before leaving the glass.
"I never saw you look so well before. Yes-i'll tell you when you looked like it -- that night, a year and a half ago, when you came in so wildlike, and scolded us for making remarks about you and Mr. Troy."