That afternoon Joseph Poorgrass was bringing Fanny's coffin¹ back from Casterbridge. Feeling a little frightened of the dead body behind him in the cart，and de-pressed by the autumn fog，he stopped for some beer at a pub，where he met Jan Coggan and Laban Tall. There Gabriel Oak² found the three men，completely drunk，two hours later. As Joseph was clearly incapable³ of driving the cart，Gabriel drove it to Weatherbury himself. On the way into the village，the vicar stopped him.

‘I'm afraid it's too late now for the burial，’he said，‘but I can arrange for the body to be buried tomorrow. ’

‘I could take the coffin to the church for the night，sir，’offered Gabriel，hoping to prevent Bathsheba from seeing it.

But just then Bathsheba herself appeared. ‘No，Gabriel，’she said. ‘Poor Fanny must rest in her old home for her last night. Bring the coffin into the house. ’

The coffin was carried into a small sitting-room⁴ and Gabriel was left alone with it. In spite⁵ of all his care，the worst had happened，and Bathsheba was about to make a terrible discovery. But suddenly he had an idea. He looked at the words written simply on the coffin lid—Fanny Robin⁶ and child. With a cloth Gabriel carefully removed the last two words. Quietly he left the room.

Bathsheba was in a strange mood. She felt lonely and miser-able，but she had not stopped loving her husband，in spite of her anxiety about his past. She was waiting for him to come home，when Liddy knocked and entered.

‘Ma'am，Maryann has just heard something…’she hesitated a little. ‘Not about you or us，ma'am. About Fanny. There's a story in Weatherbury that…’Liddy whis-pered in her mistress's ear.

Bathsheba trembled from head to foot.

‘I don't believe it！’she cried. ‘There's only one name on the coffin lid！But I suppose it could be true. ’

She said no more，and Liddy went quietly out of the room. Bathsheba felt almost sure she knew the truth about Fanny and Troy，but she wanted to be certain. She entered the sitting-room where the coffin lay. Holding her hot hands to her fore-head she cried，‘Tell me your secret，Fanny！I hope it isn't true there are two of you！If I could only look. at you，I'd know！’

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