 he had arrived at an age at
which all superfluous barking was cynically avoided as a waste of breath - in
fact, he never barked even at the sheep except to order, when it was done with
an absolutely neutral countenance, as a sort of Commination-service which,
though offensive, had to be gone through once now and then to frighten the flock
for their own good.
    A voice came from behind some laurel-bushes into which the cat had run:
    »Poor dear! Did a nasty brute of a dog want to kill it; - did he, poor
dear!«
    »I beg yer pardon,« said Oak to the voice, »but George was walking on behind
me with a temper as mild as milk.«
    Almost before he had ceased speaking Oak was seized with a misgiving as to
whose ear was the recipient of his answer. Nobody appeared, and he heard the
person retreat among the bushes.
    Gabriel meditated, and so deeply that he brought small furrows into his
forehead by sheer force of reverie. Where the issue of an interview is as likely
to be a vast change for the worse as for the better, any initial difference from
expectation causes nipping sensations of failure. Oak went up to the door a
little abashed: his mental rehearsal and the reality had had no common grounds
of opening.
    Bathsheba's aunt was indoors. »Will you tell Miss Everdene that somebody
would be glad to speak to her?« said Mr. Oak. (Calling one's self merely
Somebody, without giving a name, is not to be taken as an example of the
ill-breeding of the rural world: it springs from a refined modesty of which
townspeople, with their cards and announcements, have no notion whatever.)
    Bathsheba was out. The voice had evidently been hers.
    »Will you come in, Mr. Oak?«
    »Oh, thank 'ee,« said Gabriel, following her to the fireplace. »I've brought
a lamb for Miss Everdene. I thought she might like one to rear; girls do.«
    »She might,« said Mrs. Hurst musingly; »though she's only a visitor here. If
you will wait a minute Bathsheba will be in.«
    »Yes, I will wait,« said Gabriel, sitting down. »The lamb isn't really the
business I came about, Mrs. Hurst. In short, I was going to ask her if she'd
like to be married.«
    »And were you indeed?«
    »Yes. Because if she would
