Chapter 3 Summary

Susan and Elizabeth-Jane return to Weydon Priors eighteen years later. Susan has been widowed, searching for Michael, although she has not told Elizabeth-Jane that he is her father. Elizabeth-Jane is described as looking very similar to her mother, although she is younger and more innocent. Susan tells Elizabeth that they are in the town where she met Newson, and that she hopes she may find news of Michael there.

Susan finds the old furmity woman and asks if she remembers a man selling his wife in her tent. The old woman says that she does, but only because Michael had come back to tell her that if the wife ever came looking for him she should tell her that he had settled in Casterbridge. Susan rejoins Elizabeth-Jane, who expresses disdain for the "low" furmity woman, and the two set off to find Michael...