 ridge, had expressed
impatience; the present was one of triumphant pleasure. She let her joyous eyes
rest upon him without speaking, as upon some wondrous thing she had created out
of chaos.
    »I have come,« said the man, who was Wildeve. »You give me no peace. Why do
you not leave me alone? I have seen your bonfire all the evening.« The words
were not without emotion, and retained their level tone as if by a careful
equipoise between imminent extremes.
    At this unexpectedly repressing manner in her lover the girl seemed to
repress herself also. »Of course you have seen my fire,« she answered with
languid calmness, artificially maintained. »Why shouldn't I have a bonfire on
the Fifth of November, like other denizens of the heath?«
    »I knew it was meant for me.«
    »How did you know it? I have had no word with you since you - you chose her,
and walked about with her, and deserted me entirely, as if I had never been
yours life and soul so irretrievably!«
    »Eustacia! could I forget that last autumn at this same day of the month and
at this same place you lighted exactly such a fire as a signal for me to come
and see you? Why should there have been a bonfire again by Captain Vye's house
if not for the same purpose?«
    »Yes, yes - I own it,« she cried under her breath, with a drowsy fervour of
manner and tone which was quite peculiar to her. »Don't begin speaking to me as
you did, Damon; you will drive me to say words I would not wish to say to you. I
had given you up, and resolved not to think of you any more; and then I heard
the news, and I came out and got the fire ready because I thought that you had
been faithful to me.«
    »What have you heard to make you think that?« said Wildeve, astonished.
    »That you did not marry her!« she murmured exultingly. »And I knew it was
because you loved me best, and couldn't do it. ... Damon, you have been cruel to
me to go away, and I have said I would never forgive you. I do not think I can
forgive you entirely, even now - it is too much for a woman of any spirit to
quite overlook.«
    »If I had known you wished to call me up here only to reproach me, I
wouldn't
