There was no doubt that he himself was the cause of that gun’s discharge; and he rushed into the clump of hollies, beating the bushes furiously with his stick; but nobody was there.  This attack was a more serious matter than the last, and it was some time before Wildeve recovered his equanimity.  A new and most unpleasant system of menace had begun, and the intent appeared to be to do him grievous bodily harm.  Wildeve had looked upon Venn’s first attempt as a species of horse-play, which the reddleman had indulged in for want of knowing better; but now the boundary line was passed which divides the annoying from the perilous.

Had Wildeve known how thoroughly in earnest Venn had become he might have been still more alarmed.  The reddleman had been almost exasperated by the sight of Wildeve outside Clym’s house, and he was prepared to go to any lengths short of absolutely shooting him, to terrify the young innkeeper out of his recalcitrant impulses.  The doubtful legitimacy of such rough coercion did not disturb the mind of Venn.  It troubles few such minds in such cases, and sometimes this is not to be regretted.  From the impeachment of Strafford to Farmer Lynch’s short way with the scamps of Virginia there have been many triumphs of justice which are mockeries of law.

About half a mile below Clym’s secluded dwelling lay a hamlet where lived one of the two constables who preserved the peace in the parish of Alderworth, and Wildeve went straight to the constable’s cottage.  Almost the first thing that he saw on opening the door was the constable’s truncheon hanging to a nail, as if to assure him that here were the means to his purpose.  On inquiry, however, of the constable’s wife he learnt that the constable was not at home.  Wildeve said he would wait.

The minutes ticked on, and the constable did not arrive.  Wildeve cooled down from his state of high indignation to a restless dissatisfaction with himself, the scene, the constable’s wife, and the whole set of circumstances.  He arose and left the house.  Altogether, the experience of that evening had had a cooling, not to say a chilling, effect on misdirected tenderness, and Wildeve was in no mood to ramble again to Alderworth after nightfall in hope of a stray glance from Eustacia.

Thus far the reddleman had been tolerably successful in his rude contrivances for keeping down Wildeve’s inclination to rove in the evening.  He had nipped in the bud the possible meeting between Eustacia and her old lover this very night.  But he had not anticipated that the tendency of his action would be to divert Wildeve’s movement rather than to stop it.  The gambling with the guineas had not conduced to make him a welcome guest to Clym; but to call upon his wife’s relative was natural, and he was determined to see Eustacia.  It was necessary to choose some less untoward hour than ten o’clock at night.  “Since it is unsafe to go in the evening,” he said, “I’ll go by day.”