Oak's Rise and Boldwood's Desperate Hope — Far from the Madding Crowd

Autumn and winter pass while Bathsheba lives in quietude that is not peace: she regrets Troy only now that she may have lost him, and runs the farm mechanically, raking in profits without joy. Gabriel Oak at last becomes bailiff on both farms, riding two thousand acres daily on Boldwood's cob while sharing receipts from Boldwood's flock; parish gossips call him proud for his Sunday hat and shining boots, but he still mends his own stockings and paring his potatoes. Boldwood's drowned-hope revives when Bathsheba wears mourning and seems chastened; he questions Liddy during haymaking, learning she might consider remarriage after seven years though Troy could return. He seizes on six years as near enough to never, compares himself to Jacob serving for Rachel, and resolves to annihilate the interval as if it were minutes while proving his love's depth through patience rather than haste. Bathsheba returns from a Norcombe visit chastened yet still proud, her exuberance pruned. Hardy sets three solitary figures in motion: Oak surveilling crops with cheerful surveillance, Bathsheba in sad seclusion, Boldwood nourishing a fevered calendar of deferred possession while Greenhill Fair week approaches and Weatherbury folk prepare for the sheep market on the ancient earthwork hill.