CHAPTER V
Casterbridge had known many military and civil episodes; many happy
times, and times less happy; and now came the time of her visitation.
The scourge of cholera had been laid on the suffering country, and
the low-lying purlieus of this ancient borough had more than their
share of the infliction. Mixen Lane, in the Durnover quarter, and in
Maumbry's parish, was where the blow fell most heavily. Yet there
was a certain mercy in its choice of a date, for Maumbry was the man
for such an hour.
The spread of the epidemic was so rapid that many left the town and
took lodgings in the villages and farms. Mr. Maumbry's house was
close to the most infected street, and he himself was occupied morn,
noon, and night in endeavours to stamp out the plague and in
alleviating the sufferings of the victims. So, as a matter of
ordinary precaution, he decided to isolate his wife somewhere away
from him for a while.
She suggested a village by the sea, near Budmouth Regis, and lodgings
were obtained for her at Creston, a spot divided from the
Casterbridge valley by a high ridge that gave it quite another
atmosphere, though it lay no more than six miles off.
Thither she went. While she was rusticating in this place of safety,
and her husband was slaving in the slums, she struck up an
acquaintance with a lieutenant in the -st Foot, a Mr. Vannicock, who
was stationed with his regiment at the Budmouth infantry barracks.
As Laura frequently sat on the shelving beach, watching each thin
wave slide up to her, and hearing, without heeding, its gnaw at the
pebbles in its retreat, he often took a walk that way.
The acquaintance grew and ripened. Her situation, her history, her
beauty, her age--a year or two above his own--all tended to make an
impression on the young man's heart, and a reckless flirtation was
soon in blithe progress upon that lonely shore.
It was said by her detractors afterwards that she had chosen her
lodging to be near this gentleman, but there is reason to believe
that she had never seen him till her arrival there. Just now
Casterbridge was so deeply occupied with its own sad affairs--a daily
burying of the dead and destruction of contaminated clothes and
bedding--that it had little inclination to promulgate such gossip as
may have reached its ears on the pair. Nobody long considered Laura
in the tragic cloud which overhung all.
Meanwhile, on the Budmouth side of the hill the very mood of men was
in contrast. The visitation there had been slight and much earlier,
and normal occupations and pastimes had been resumed. Mr. Maumbry
had arranged to see Laura twice a week in the open air, that she
might run no risk from him; and, having heard nothing of the faint
rumour, he met her as usual one dry and windy afternoon on the summit
of the dividing hill, near where the high road from town to town
crosses the old Ridge-way at right angles.
He waved his hand, and smiled as she approached, shouting to her:
'We will keep this wall between us, dear.' (Walls formed the field-
fences here.) 'You mustn't be endangered. It won't be for long,
with God's help!'
'I will do as you tell me, Jack. But you are running too much risk
yourself, aren't you? I get little news of you; but I fancy you
are.'
'Not more than others.'
Thus somewhat formally they talked, an insulating wind beating the
wall between them like a mill-weir.
'But you wanted to ask me something?' he added.
'Yes. You know we are trying in Budmouth to raise some money for
your sufferers; and the way we have thought of is by a dramatic
performance. They want me to take a part.'
His face saddened. 'I have known so much of that sort of thing, and
all that accompanies it! I wish you had thought of some other way.'
She said lightly that she was afraid it was all settled. 'You object
to my taking a part, then? Of course--'
He told her that he did not like to say he positively objected. He
wished they had chosen an oratorio, or lecture, or anything more in
keeping with the necessity it was to relieve.
'But,' said she impatiently, 'people won't come to oratorios or
lectures! They will crowd to comedies and farces.'
'Well, I cannot dictate to Budmouth how it shall earn the money it is
going to give us. Who is getting up this performance?'
'The boys of the -st.'
'Ah, yes; our old game!' replied Mr. Maumbry. 'The grief of
Casterbridge is the excuse for their frivolity. Candidly, dear
Laura, I wish you wouldn't play in it. But I don't forbid you to. I
leave the whole to your judgment.'
The interview ended, and they went their ways northward and
southward. Time disclosed to all concerned that Mrs. Maumbry played
in the comedy as the heroine, the lover's part being taken by Mr.
Vannicock.
