once, she stamped passionately on the floor with one foot, and tears crowded to her eyes again.
"It means simply a pledge—no sentiment—the seal of a practical compact," he said more quietly, but still retaining her hand in his firm grasp. "Come, now!" And Boldwood slipped the ring on her finger.
"I cannot wear it," she said, weeping as if her heart would break. "You frighten me, almost. So wild a scheme! Please let me go home!"
"Only to-night wear it just to-night, to please me."
Bathsheba sat down in a chair, and buried her face in her handkerchief, though Boldwood kept her hand yet. At length she said, in a sort of hopeless whisper,—
"Very well, then, I will to-night, if you wish it so earnestly. Now loosen my hand; I will, indeed I will wear it to-night."
"And it shall be the beginning of a pleasant secret courtship of six years, with a wedding at the end?"
"It must be, I suppose, since you will have it so!" she said, fairly beaten into non-resistance.
Boldwood pressed her hand, and allowed it to drop in her lap. "I am happy now," he said. "God bless you!"
He left the room, and when he thought she
