The Journey of Broken Steps — Far from the Madding Crowd

Fanny Robin walks on after Troy's whip has left her alone on the highway toward Casterbridge, steps weakening until she totters through a gate to a haystack and sleeps. She wakes under moonless cloud with only the weak halo over the union town and thinks she may be in her grave before Monday's meeting at Grey's Bridge. A manor clock strikes one thinly; a late carriage passes, its lamp throwing her young-old face into relief. She reads milestone faces with her fingers, counts two more, leans, pushes on, then when walking fails fashions a crutch from a faggot stick and hobbles forward reading each stone by touch in the black concave. Rain and exhaustion gather; she presses the coins Troy gave her inside her glove and fears spending even a penny that might buy strength. Mile after mile she names the road in darkness until her body fails at the workhouse door, where a man with a light and two women carry her inside. She murmurs about the dog that helped her and learns he was stoned away. Hardy follows the abandoned woman while the gig carries the lawful wife uphill in silence, two fates diverging on the same October hill.