The Mayor of Casterbridge Chapter 14

In which Mrs. Henchard’s entrance into a respectable household ushers a bright season of comfort and cautious prosperity for Elizabeth-Jane, whose growing grace is tempered by an instinctive prudence born of early hardship. Meanwhile, amid the orderly bustle of the corn trade and the town’s pastoral environs, an unexpected meeting between Elizabeth-Jane and Donald Farfrae in a granary unfolds with an air of gentle awkwardness and unspoken understanding.