
appreciation of his kindness, but she had no bonnet that would harmonize. As an
artistic indulgence she thought she would have such a bonnet. When she had a
bonnet that would go with the gloves she had no dress that would go with the
bonnet. It was now absolutely necessary to finish; she ordered the requisite
article, and found that she had no sunshade to go with the dress. In for a penny
in for a pound; she bought the sunshade, and the whole structure was at last
complete.
    Everybody was attracted, and some said that her bygone simplicity was the
art that conceals art, the »delicate imposition« of Rochefoucauld; she had
produced an effect, a contrast, and it had been done on purpose. As a matter of
fact this was not true, but it had its result; for as soon as Casterbridge
thought her artful it thought her worth notice. »It is the first time in my life
that I have been so much admired,« she said to herself; »though perhaps it is by
those whose admiration is not worth having.«
    But Donald Farfrae admired her, too; and altogether the time was an exciting
one; sex had never before asserted itself in her so strongly, for in former days
she had perhaps been too impersonally human to be distinctively feminine. After
an unprecedented success one day she came indoors, went upstairs, and leant upon
her bed face downwards, quite forgetting the possible creasing and damage. »Good
Heaven,« she whispered, »can it be? Here am I setting up as the town beauty!«
    When she had thought it over, her usual fear of exaggerating appearances
engendered a deep sadness. »There is something wrong in all this,« she mused.
»If they only knew what an unfinished girl I am - that I can't talk Italian, or
use globes, or show any of the accomplishments they learn at boarding-schools,
how they would despise me! Better sell all this finery and buy myself
grammar-books and dictionaries and a history of all the philosophies!«
    She looked from the window and saw Henchard and Farfrae in the hay-yard
talking, with that impetuous cordiality on the Mayor's part, and genial modesty
on the younger man's, that was now so generally observable in their intercourse.
Friendship between man and man; what a rugged strength there was in it, as
evinced by these two. And yet the seed that was to lift the foundation of this
friendship was at that moment taking root in a chink of its structure.
    It was
