The Art of Seductive Conversation — Far from the Madding Crowd

On the verge of the hay-mead Troy apologises for the plantation encounter, then instantly turns talk into performance. He calls Bathsheba Queen of the Corn-market, cites Casterbridge gossip, and says he would rather have her curses than another woman's kisses. When she tries to leave he blocks her path with comic persistence, comparing loving her to loving a father and then claiming he loves her more. He delivers a stern lecture on how beauty like hers may harm a hundred men who cannot marry her, a performance so grave it momentarily feels like moral instruction. Hardy marks the turning point when her admission that Liddy says people find her handsome becomes capitulation: the seed has taken root. Troy offers a heavy gold watch that once regulated imperial assignations, presses it on her, retreats, then asks permission to work in her fields and speak to her during his remaining month. Bathsheba refuses the watch at last but agrees to conversation, walks home murmuring what she has done and how much of it was true. Staying is Troy's first victory; she has not consented to love, but she has consented to proximity, and the workfolk will soon wonder at her flushed return.