 and what you lost by it in thinking too little of yourself and too
much of me; to say that you can fix the day or month, with my full consent,
whenever in your opinion it would be seemly: you know more of these things than
I.«
    »It is full early yet,« she said evasively.
    »Yes, yes; I suppose it is. But you know, Lucetta, I felt directly my poor
ill-used Susan died, and when I could not bear the idea of marrying again, that
after what had happened between us it was my duty not to let any unnecessary
delay occur before putting things to rights. Still, I wouldn't call in a hurry,
because - well, you can guess how this money you've come into made me feel.« His
voice slowly fell; he was conscious that in this room his accents and manner
wore a roughness not observable in the street. He looked about the room at the
novel hangings and ingenious furniture with which she had surrounded herself.
    »Upon my life I didn't know such furniture as this could be bought in
Casterbridge,« he said.
    »Nor can it be,« said she. »Nor will it till fifty years more of
civilization have passed over the town. It took a waggon and four horses to get
it here.«
    »H'm. It looks as if you were living on capital.«
    »O no, I am not.«
    »So much the better. But the fact is, your setting up like this makes my
bearing towards you rather awkward.«
    »Why?«
    An answer was not really needed, and he did not furnish one. »Well,« he went
on, »there's nobody in the world I would have wished to see enter into this
wealth before you, Lucetta, and nobody, I am sure, who will become it more.« He
turned to her with congratulatory admiration so fervid that she shrank somewhat,
notwithstanding that she knew him so well.
    »I am greatly obliged to you for all that,« said she, rather with an air of
speaking ritual. The stint of reciprocal feeling was perceived, and Henchard
showed chagrin at once - nobody was more quick to show that than he.
    »You may be obliged or not for't. Though the things I say may not have the
polish of what you've lately learnt to expect for the first time in your life,
they are real, my lady Lucetta.«
    »That's rather
