Thomas Hardy: Far from the Madding Crowd

Chapter 15: A Morning Meeting--the Letter Again (continued)

Soon parting from Gabriel, the lonely and reserved man returned to his house to breakfast--feeling twinges of shame and regret at having so far exposed his mood by those fevered questions to a stranger. He again placed the letter on the mantelpiece, and sat down to think of the circumstances attending it by the light of Gabriel's information.