Far from the Madding Crowd

by Thomas Hardy

so that he saw her in a bird's-eye view, as Milton's Satan first saw Paradise.

Full of sound and fury, —Signifying nothing— he said no word at all.

"Well, what I mean is that I shouldn't mind being a bride at a wedding, if I could be one without having a husband.

"I shall do one thing in this life—one thing certain—that is, love you, and long for you, and keep wanting you till I die."

But some women only require an emergency to make them fit for one.

There was a wide margin of grass along here, and Gabriel's footsteps were deadened by its softness,

suggestive of romance; common in descriptions, rare in experience.

From the walls an overhanging thatched roof sloped up to a point in the centre, upon which rose a small wooden lantern, fitted with louvre-boards on all the four sides, and from these openings a mist was dimly perceived to be escaping into the night air.

every one ocularly criticised him to the degree expressed by contracting the flesh of their foreheads and looking at him with narrowed eyelids, as if he had been a light too strong for their sight.

Soft brown mosses, like faded velveteen, formed cushions upon the stone tiling,

"People always say that—and we know very well women scarcely ever jilt men; 'tis the men who jilt us.

Adam had awakened from his deep sleep, and behold! there was Eve. The farmer took courage, and for the first time really looked at her.

he trod for the first time the threshold of "the injured lover's hell."

his face showed that he was now living outside his defences for the first time, and with a fearful sense of exposure. It is the usual experience of strong natures when they love.

Gabriel, to whom her face was as the uncertain glory of an April day, was ever regardful of its faintest changes, and instantly discerned thereon the mark of some influence from without, in the form of a keenly self-conscious reddening.

the impetuosity of passion unrequited is bearable, even if it stings and anathematizes—there is a triumph in the humiliation, and a tenderness in the strife.

IDIOSYNCRASY

"And I would rather have curses from you than kisses from any other woman; so I'll stay here."

"Never tell me that a young lady can live in a buzz of admiration without knowing something about it.

And not only those ninety-nine men, but the ninety-nine women they might have married are saddened with them.

"Put shortly, it is not being able to think, hear, or look in any direction except one without wretchedness, nor there without torture."

"Why, you only saw me the other night!" "That makes no difference. The lightning works instantaneously. I loved you then, at once—as I do now."

Her heart erratically flitting hither and thither from perplexed excitement, hot, and almost tearful, she retreated homeward, murmuring, "Oh, what have I done! What does it mean! I wish I knew how much of it was true!"

"You know, mistress, that I love you, and shall love you always.

"I think God likes us to be good friends, don't you?" "Indeed I do."

I have nobody in the world to fight my battles for me; but no mercy is shown. Yet if a thousand of you sneer and say things against me, I will not be put down!"

"Whilst I would have given worlds to touch your hand, you have let a rake come in without right or ceremony and—kiss you!

The air was yet thick with moisture, though somewhat less dense than during the afternoon, and a steady smack of drops upon the fallen leaves under the boughs was almost musical in its soothing regularity.

Bathsheba knew no other way of showing kindness to persons departed than by giving them flowers.

It was very cruel of you, considering I was the first sweetheart that you ever had, and you were the first I ever had; and I shall not forget it!"

Repose had again incarnadined her cheeks; and having, at Gabriel's request, arranged her hair this morning as she had worn it years ago on Norcombe Hill,