CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The name of the home the woman moved into was High-Place Hall. It was made entirely of stone. For two years it had been empty. Before that, it was only occasionally lived in, due to its location being so close to the market.

Elizabeth went and stood in front of the home. The front door was open to allow the movers to bring furniture and boxes inside. The whole time she watched, she dreamed about the woman inside.

Later, that evening, Elizabeth approached Henchard and told him about the offer she had received; although, she did not mention whom had made it.

"Fine!" he replied, "I'll give you some money each month, so that you won't have to depend too much on whomever it is you're living with. I hope that you can better educate yourself there than here."

And that was all that was said about it.

Despite the bad weather, Elizabeth left the house immediately to go and accept the woman's offer. It was raining heavily and the streets were very muddy, especially out toward the cemetery. Still, the lady was there, sheltering on the porch of the church that stood next to the grave site.

"Well? What's your decision?" asked the woman.

"I'd like to live with you," Elizabeth answered.

"Excellent. Can you come today?"

"I think so."

"Does your father know where you'll be living?"

"No. He just seemed happy to be rid of me. I didn't bother to tell him."

"Well, maybe it's best that you didn't tell him. By the way, my name is Miss Templeman. Why don't you come this evening at six?"

When Henchard arrived home just before six, he found a moving wagon outside his front door, loaded with Elizabeth's things. He immediately went up to Elizabeth's room and found her putting all kinds of books and maps in boxes. He had no idea that she had such things. It suddenly became clear to him just how hard she had been trying to educate herself. A feeling of regret then came over him for having been so cold to her.

"I didn't think you'd be leaving so soon!" he said, "Why don't you stay a while longer. I don't want you to go. I've been upset with you for a while and I know I've been behaving badly. If you stay, I'll explain it all to you one day."

"I didn't mean to upset you. However, everything's already been arranged and most of my things are packed and on the moving wagon. I can't change my mind now."

"Well, can you at least tell me where you're going?" he asked.

"Of course. If you ever need me, I'll be just down the street at High-Place Hall."

"What did you just say?" he said, suddenly turning white.

Elizabeth, however, was heading down the stairs with her last box and did not hear his question or notice his shock. And within moments she was gone from the house.

Henchard's surprise came from the fact that he had only learned about the woman moving into High-Place Hall the day before. He had been told that a woman named Miss Templeman was relocating to Casterbridge and he assumed that it was a relative of Lucetta's. He went to High-Place Hall to see who exactly this person was, but found only the movers there. It was not until he received a letter from Lucetta, that he realized that it was she herself who was moving to his town. In her letter she explained that after hearing about Mrs Henchard's death, she decided to accept Mr Henchard's earlier offer of marriage. She also explained that her wealthy aunt recently died and left her all of her money. This allowed her to leave Jersey and to change her name to her aunt's, in order to start a new life.

Lastly, in the letter, she wrote:

I have done a funny thing by asking your daughter to live with me. I've done this in order to give you an excuse to come to my home without making people in town talk. See you soon.

Lucetta

(end of section)