The mere sight of the twain had been enough to suggest to her that the dead young man was Rhoda’s son.  At that time the relatives of an executed convict had the privilege of claiming the body for burial, if they chose to do so; and it was for this purpose that Lodge was awaiting the inquest with Rhoda.  He had been summoned by her as soon as the young man was taken in the crime, and at different times since; and he had attended in court during the trial.  This was the ‘holiday’ he had been indulging in of late.  The two wretched parents had wished to avoid exposure; and hence had come themselves for the body, a waggon and sheet for its conveyance and covering being in waiting outside.

Gertrude’s case was so serious that it was deemed advisable to call to her the surgeon who was at hand.  She was taken out of the jail into the town; but she never reached home alive.  Her delicate vitality, sapped perhaps by the paralyzed arm, collapsed under the double shock that followed the severe strain, physical and mental, to which she had subjected herself during the previous twenty-four hours.  Her blood had been ‘turned’ indeed—­too far.  Her death took place in the town three days after.

Her husband was never seen in Casterbridge again; once only in the old market-place at Anglebury, which he had so much frequented, and very seldom in public anywhere.  Burdened at first with moodiness and remorse, he eventually changed for the better, and appeared as a chastened and thoughtful man.  Soon after attending the funeral of his poor young wife he took steps towards giving up the farms in Holmstoke and the adjoining parish, and, having sold every head of his stock, he went away to Port-Bredy, at the other end of the county, living there in solitary lodgings till his death two years later of a painless decline.  It was then found that he had bequeathed the whole of his not inconsiderable property to a reformatory for boys, subject to the payment of a small annuity to Rhoda Brook, if she could be found to claim it.

For some time she could not be found; but eventually she reappeared in her old parish,—­absolutely refusing, however, to have anything to do with the provision made for her.  Her monotonous milking at the dairy was resumed, and followed for many long years, till her form became bent, and her once abundant dark hair white and worn away at the forehead—­perhaps by long pressure against the cows.  Here, sometimes, those who knew her experiences would stand and observe her, and wonder what sombre thoughts were beating inside that impassive, wrinkled brow, to the rhythm of the alternating milk-streams.

(’Blackwood’s Magazine,’ January 1888.)

FELLOW-TOWNSMEN

CHAPTER I