On a fine afternoon in December, on or about the time of the winter solstice, Humphrey stacks furze faggots for the captain’s use during the winter. Eustacia, in the dining room, enters the recess of the chimney and overhears the conversation between the workers and her grandfather. Clym Yeobright is coming home from Paris where he works in a great shop his mother describes as a “king’s palace” (106). He has developed scholarly interests, and they comment that Eustacia has as much education as anyone in the heath. When the captain leaves, Humphrey tells his worker, Sam, that Clym and Eustacia would make a fine pair. They lament that Clym will come back to the situation with Thomasin, who has “been made such a fool of by a man” (107). The five minutes of eavesdropping fill Eustacia’s imagination for the whole afternoon. She goes out for a walk at her usual time and heads toward Blooms-End, the home of the Yeobright family.

The women in the Yeobright home prepare for Clym’s arrival, and Thomasin climbs into the loft where they store apples. Mrs. Yeobright laments that Thomasin and Clym were not a match.