 have terminated the conversation there and then by
flatly forbidding the subject, had not her conscious weakness of position
allured her to palter and argue in endeavours to better it.
    »Since this subject has been mentioned,« she said very emphatically, »I am
glad of the opportunity of clearing up a mistake which is very common and very
provoking. I didn't definitely promise Mr. Boldwood anything. I have never cared
for him. I respect him, and he has urged me to marry him. But I have given him
no distinct answer. As soon as he returns I shall do so; and the answer will be
that I cannot think of marrying him.«
    »People are full of mistakes, seemingly.«
    »They are.«
    »The other day they said you were trifling with him, and you almost proved
that you were not; lately they have said that you be not, and you straightway
begin to show --«
    »That I am, I suppose you mean.«
    »Well, I hope they speak the truth.«
    »They do, but wrongly applied. I don't trifle with him; but then, I have
nothing to do with him.«
    Oak was unfortunately led on to speak of Boldwood's rival in a wrong tone to
her after all. »I wish you had never met that young Sergeant Troy, miss,« he
sighed.
    Bathsheba's steps became faintly spasmodic. »Why?« she asked.
    »He is not good enough for 'ee.«
    »Did any one tell you to speak to me like this?«
    »Nobody at all.«
    »Then it appears to me that Sergeant Troy does not concern us here,« she
said intractably. »Yet I must say that Sergeant Troy is an educated man, and
quite worthy of any woman. He is well born.«
    »His being higher in learning and birth than the ruck o' soldiers is
anything but a proof of his worth. It shows his course to be down'ard.«
    »I cannot see what this has to do with our conversation. Mr. Troy's course
is not by any means downward; and his superiority is a proof of his worth!«
    »I believe him to have no conscience at all. And I cannot help begging you,
miss, to have nothing to do with him. Listen to me this once - only this once! I
don't say he's such a bad man as I have fancied - I pray to God he is not. But
