 might stay a little longer if he chose. Then she
hastened off to Eustacia, moved by a much less promising emotion towards her
daughter-in-law than she had felt half an hour earlier, when planning her
journey. At that time it was to inquire in a friendly spirit if there had been
any accidental loss; now it was to ask plainly if Wildeve had privately given
her money which had been intended as a sacred gift to Clym.
    She started at two o'clock, and her meeting with Eustacia was hastened by
the appearance of the young lady beside the pool and bank which bordered her
grandfather's premises, where she stood surveying the scene, and perhaps
thinking of the romantic enactments it had witnessed in past days. When Mrs.
Yeobright approached, Eustacia surveyed her with the calm stare of a stranger.
    The mother-in-law was the first to speak. »I was coming to see you,« she
said.
    »Indeed!« said Eustacia with surprise, for Mrs. Yeobright, much to the
girl's mortification, had refused to be present at the wedding. »I did not at
all expect you.«
    »I was coming on business only,« said the visitor, more coldly than at
first. »Will you excuse my asking this - Have you received a gift from
Thomasin's husband?«
    »A gift?«
    »I mean money!«
    »What - I myself?«
    »Well, I meant yourself, privately - though I was not going to put it in
that way.«
    »Money from Mr. Wildeve? No - never! Madam, what do you mean by that?«
Eustacia fired up all too quickly, for her own consciousness of the old
attachment between herself and Wildeve led her to jump to the conclusion that
Mrs. Yeobright also knew of it, and might have come to accuse her of receiving
dishonourable presents from him now.
    »I simply ask the question,« said Mrs. Yeobright. »I have been -«
    »You ought to have better opinions of me - I feared you were against me from
the first!« exclaimed Eustacia.
    »No. I was simply for Clym,« replied Mrs. Yeobright, with too much emphasis
in her earnestness. »It is the instinct of every one to look after their own.«
    »How can you imply that he required guarding against me?« cried Eustacia,
passionate tears in her eyes. »I have not injured him by marrying him! What sin
have I done that you should think so ill of
