He went back to the dancing pavilion.  Farfrae was footing a quaint little dance with Elizabeth-Jane—­an old country thing, the only one she knew, and though he considerately toned down his movements to suit her demurer gait, the pattern of the shining little nails in the soles of his boots became familiar to the eyes of every bystander.  The tune had enticed her into it; being a tune of a busy, vaulting, leaping sort—­some low notes on the silver string of each fiddle, then a skipping on the small, like running up and down ladders—­“Miss M’Leod of Ayr” was its name, so Mr. Farfrae had said, and that it was very popular in his own country.

It was soon over, and the girl looked at Henchard for approval; but he did not give it.  He seemed not to see her.  “Look here, Farfrae,” he said, like one whose mind was elsewhere, “I’ll go to Port-Bredy Great Market to-morrow myself.  You can stay and put things right in your clothes-box, and recover strength to your knees after your vagaries.”  He planted on Donald an antagonistic glare that had begun as a smile.

Some other townsmen came up, and Donald drew aside.  “What’s this, Henchard,” said Alderman Tubber, applying his thumb to the corn-factor like a cheese-taster.  “An opposition randy to yours, eh?  Jack’s as good as his master, eh?  Cut ye out quite, hasn’t he?”

“You see, Mr. Henchard,” said the lawyer, another goodnatured friend, “where you made the mistake was in going so far afield.  You should have taken a leaf out of his book, and have had your sports in a sheltered place like this.  But you didn’t think of it, you see; and he did, and that’s where he’s beat you.”

“He’ll be top-sawyer soon of you two, and carry all afore him,” added jocular Mr. Tubber.

“No,” said Henchard gloomily.  “He won’t be that, because he’s shortly going to leave me.”  He looked towards Donald, who had come near.  “Mr. Farfrae’s time as my manager is drawing to a close—­isn’t it, Farfrae?”

The young man, who could now read the lines and folds of Henchard’s strongly-traced face as if they were clear verbal inscriptions, quietly assented; and when people deplored the fact, and asked why it was, he simply replied that Mr. Henchard no longer required his help.

Henchard went home, apparently satisfied.  But in the morning, when his jealous temper had passed away, his heart sank within him at what he had said and done.  He was the more disturbed when he found that this time Farfrae was determined to take him at his word.

17.

Elizabeth-Jane had perceived from Henchard’s manner that in assenting to dance she had made a mistake of some kind.  In her simplicity she did not know what it was till a hint from a nodding acquaintance enlightened her.  As the Mayor’s step-daughter, she learnt, she had not been quite in her place in treading a measure amid such a mixed throng as filled the dancing pavilion.

Thereupon her ears, cheeks, and chin glowed like live coals at the dawning of the idea that her tastes were not good enough for her position, and would bring her into disgrace.