But Henchard stared, and quite forgot what was evidence and what was not.

“A man and a woman with a little child came into my tent,” the woman continued.  “They sat down and had a basin apiece.  Ah, Lord’s my life!  I was of a more respectable station in the world then than I am now, being a land smuggler in a large way of business; and I used to season my furmity with rum for them who asked for’t.  I did it for the man; and then he had more and more; till at last he quarrelled with his wife, and offered to sell her to the highest bidder.  A sailor came in and bid five guineas, and paid the money, and led her away.  And the man who sold his wife in that fashion is the man sitting there in the great big chair.”  The speaker concluded by nodding her head at Henchard and folding her arms.

Everybody looked at Henchard.  His face seemed strange, and in tint as if it had been powdered over with ashes.  “We don’t want to hear your life and adventures,” said the second magistrate sharply, filling the pause which followed.  “You’ve been asked if you’ve anything to say bearing on the case.”

“That bears on the case.  It proves that he’s no better than I, and has no right to sit there in judgment upon me.”

“’Tis a concocted story,” said the clerk.  “So hold your tongue!”

“No—­’tis true.”  The words came from Henchard. “’Tis as true as the light,” he said slowly.  “And upon my soul it does prove that I’m no better than she!  And to keep out of any temptation to treat her hard for her revenge, I’ll leave her to you.”

The sensation in the court was indescribably great.  Henchard left the chair, and came out, passing through a group of people on the steps and outside that was much larger than usual; for it seemed that the old furmity dealer had mysteriously hinted to the denizens of the lane in which she had been lodging since her arrival, that she knew a queer thing or two about their great local man Mr. Henchard, if she chose to tell it.  This had brought them hither.

“Why are there so many idlers round the Town Hall to-day?” said Lucetta to her servant when the case was over.  She had risen late, and had just looked out of the window.

“Oh, please, ma’am, ’tis this larry about Mr. Henchard.  A woman has proved that before he became a gentleman he sold his wife for five guineas in a booth at a fair.”

In all the accounts which Henchard had given her of the separation from his wife Susan for so many years, of his belief in her death, and so on, he had never clearly explained the actual and immediate cause of that separation.  The story she now heard for the first time.

A gradual misery overspread Lucetta’s face as she dwelt upon the promise wrung from her the night before.  At bottom, then, Henchard was this.  How terrible a contingency for a woman who should commit herself to his care.

During the day she went out to the Ring and to other places, not coming in till nearly dusk.  As soon as she saw Elizabeth-Jane after her return indoors she told her that she had resolved to go away from home to the seaside for a few days—­to Port-Bredy; Casterbridge was so gloomy.