They waited more than an hour, and have now gone home."
Gabriel had his reasons for thinking the latter a most objectionable plan, notwithstanding that Fanny had been an inmate of the farm-house for several years in the lifetime of Bathsheba's uncle.
Visions of several unhappy contingencies which might arise from this delay flitted before him.
But his will was not law, and he went indoors to inquire of his mistress what were her wishes on the subject.
He found her in an unusual mood: her eyes as she looked up to him were suspicious and perplexed as with some antecedent thought.
Troy had not yet returned.
At first Bathsheba assented with a mien of indifference to his proposition that they should go on to the church at once with their burden; but immediately afterwards, following Gabriel to the gate, she swerved to the extreme of solicitousness on Fanny's account, and desired that the girl might be brought into the house.
Oak argued upon the convenience of leaving her in the waggon, just as she lay now, with her flowers and green leaves about her, merely wheeling the vehicle into the coach-house till the morning, but to no purpose,
"It is unkind and unchristian." she said, "to leave the poor thing in a coach-house all night."
Very well, then." said the parson.
"And I will arrange that the funeral shall take place early tomorrow.
Perhaps Mrs. Troy is right in feeling that we cannot treat a dead fellow-creature too thoughtfully We must remember that though she may have erred grievously in leaving her home, she is still our sister: and it is to be believed that God's uncovenanted mercies are extended towards her, and that she is a member of the flock of Christ."
The parson's words spread into the heavy air with a sad yet unperturbed cadence, and Gabriel shed an honest tear.
Bathsheba seemed unmoved.
Mr. Thirdly then left them, and Gabriel lighted a lantern.
Fetching three other men to assist him, they bore the unconscious truant indoors, placing the coffin on two benches in the middle of a little sitting-room next the hall, as Bathsheba directed.
Every one except Gabriel Oak then left the room.
He still indecisively lingered beside the body.
He was deeply troubled at the wretchedly ironical aspect that circumstances were putting on with regard to Troy's wife, and at his own powerlessness to counteract them, (n spite of his careful manoeuvring all this day, the very worst event that could in any way have happened in connection with the burial had happened now.
Oak imagined a terrible discovery resulting from this afternoon's work that might cast over Bathsheba's life a shade which the interposition of many lapsing years might but indifferently lighten, and which nothing at all might altogether remove.
Suddenly, as in a last attempt to save Bathsheba from, at any rate, immediate anguish, he looked again, as he had looked before, at the chalk writing upon the coffinlid. The scrawl was this simple one, " Fanny Robin and child."
Gabriel took his handkerchief and carefully rubbed out the two latter words, leaving visible the inscription
"Fanny Robin" only.
He then left the room, and went out quietly by the front door.
CHAPTER XLIII
FANNY'S REVENGE
"DO you want me any longer ma'am? " inquired Liddy, at a later hour the same evening, standing by the door with a chamber candlestick in her hand and addressing Bathsheba, who sat cheerless and alone in the large parlour beside the first fire of the season.
"No more tonight, Liddy."
"I'll sit up for master if you like, ma'am.
I am not at all afraid of Fanny, if I may sit in my own room and have a candle.
She was such a childlike, nesh young thing that her spirit couldn't appear to anybody if it tried, I'm quite sure."
"O no, no!
You go to bed.
I'll sit up for him myself till twelve o'clock, and if he has not arrived by that time, I shall give him up and go to bed too."
It is half-past ten now."
"Oh! is it?"
Why don't you sit upstairs, ma'am?"
"Why don't I?" said Bathsheba, desultorily.
"It isn't worth while — there's a fire here, Liddy."
She suddenly exclaimed in an impulsive and excited whisper, Have you heard anything strange said of Fanny?"
The words had no sooner escaped her than an expression of unutterable regret crossed her face, and she burst into tears.
"No — not a word!" said Liddy, looking at the weeping woman with astonishment.
"What is it makes you cry so, ma'am; has anything hurt you?"
She came to Bathsheba's side with a face full of sympathy.
"No, Liddy-I don't want you any more.
I can hardly say why I have taken to crying lately: I never used to cry.
Good night."
Liddy then left the parlour and closed the door.
Bathsheba was lonely and miserable now; not lonelier actually than she had been before her marriage; but her loneliness then was to that of the present time as the solitude of a mountain is to the solitude of a cave.
And within the last day or two had come these disquieting thoughts about her husband's past.