 they not been dark, would have
seemed mistiness; as they were, it lowered an expression that might have been
piercing to simple clearness.
    Strange to say of a woman in full bloom and vigour, she always allowed her
interlocutors to finish their statements before rejoining with hers. In arguing
on prices she held to her own firmly, as was natural in a dealer, and reduced
theirs persistently, as was inevitable in a woman. But there was an elasticity
in her firmness which removed it from obstinacy, as there was a naïveté in her
cheapening which saved it from meanness.
    Those of the farmers with whom she had no dealings (by far the greater part)
were continually asking each other, »Who is she?« The reply would be -
    »Farmer Everdene's niece; took on Weatherbury Upper Farm; turned away the
baily, and swears she'll do everything herself.«
    The other man would then shake his head.
    »Yes, 'tis a pity she's so headstrong,« the first would say. »But we ought
to be proud of her here - she lightens up the old place. 'Tis such a shapely
maid, however, that she'll soon get picked up.«
    It would be ungallant to suggest that the novelty of her engagement in such
an occupation had almost as much to do with the magnetism as had the beauty of
her face and movements. However, the interest was general, and this Saturday's
débût in the forum, whatever it may have been to Bathsheba as the buying and
selling farmer, was unquestionably a triumph to her as the maiden. Indeed, the
sensation was so pronounced that her instinct on two or three occasions was
merely to walk as a queen among these gods of the fallow, like a little sister
of a little Jove, and to neglect closing prices altogether.
    The numerous evidences of her power to attract were only thrown into greater
relief by a marked exception. Women seem to have eyes in their ribbons for such
matters as these. Bathsheba, without looking within a right angle of him, was
conscious of a black sheep among the flock.
    It perplexed her first. If there had been a respectable minority on either
side, the case would have been most natural. If nobody had regarded her, she
would have taken the matter indifferently - such cases had occurred. If
everybody, this man included, she would have taken it as a matter of course -
people had done so before. But the smallness of the exception made the mystery.
    She soon knew thus much of the recusant's
