Casterbridge had known many military and civil episodes; many happy times, and times less happy; and now came the time of her visitation.  The of had been laid on the suffering country, and the low-lying purlieus of this ancient had more than their share of the .  Mixen Lane, in the Durnover quarter, and in Maumbry’s parish, was where the blow fell most heavily.  Yet there was a certain mercy in its choice of a date, for Maumbry was the man for such an hour.  
The spread of the was so rapid that many left the town and took in the villages and farms.  Mr. Maumbry’s house was close to the most infected street, and he himself was occupied morn, noon, and night in endeavours to stamp out the plague and in the sufferings of the victims.  So, as a matter of ordinary precaution, he to his wife somewhere away from him for a while.
 
She suggested a village by the sea, near Budmouth Regis, and lodgings were obtained for her at Creston, a spot divided from the Casterbridge valley by a high that gave it quite another atmosphere, though it lay no more than six miles off.
 
she went.  While she was in this place of safety, and her husband was slaving in the slums, she struck up an acquaintance with a in the ---st Foot, a Mr. Vannicock, who was stationed with his at the Budmouth barracks.  As Laura frequently sat on the shelving beach, watching each thin wave slide up to her, and hearing, without , its at the in its retreat, he often took a walk that way.
 
The acquaintance grew and .  Her situation, her history, her beauty, her age—a year or two above his own—all tended to make an impression on the young man’s heart, and a reckless was soon in progress upon that lonely shore.
 
It was said by her detractors afterwards that she had chosen her to be near this gentleman, but there is reason to believe that she had never seen him till her arrival there.  Just now Casterbridge was so deeply occupied with its own sad affairs—a daily burying of the dead and destruction of contaminated clothes and bedding—that it had little to such gossip as may have reached its ears on the pair.  Nobody long considered Laura in the cloud which overhung all.
 
Meanwhile, on the Budmouth side of the hill the very mood of men was in contrast.  The visitation there had been slight and much earlier, and normal occupations and pastimes had been resumed.  Mr. Maumbry had arranged to see Laura twice a week in the open air, that she might run no risk from him; and, having heard nothing of the faint , he met her as usual one dry and windy afternoon on the summit of the dividing hill, near where the high road from town to town crosses the old Ridge-way at right angles.
 
He waved his hand, and smiled as she approached, shouting to her: ‘We will keep this wall between us, dear.’  (Walls formed the field-fences here.)  ‘You mustn’t be endangered.  It won’t be for long, with God’s help!’
 
‘I will do as you tell me, .  But you are running too much risk yourself, aren’t you?  I get little news of you; but I fancy you are.’
 
‘Not more than others.’
 
Thus somewhat formally they talked, an insulating wind beating the wall between them like a mill-weir.
 
‘But you wanted to ask me something?’ he added.
 
‘Yes.  You know we are trying in Budmouth to raise some money for your sufferers; and the way we have thought of is by a dramatic performance.  They want me to take a part.’
 
His face saddened.  ‘I have known so much of that sort of thing, and all that accompanies it!  I wish you had thought of some other way.’
 
She said lightly that she was afraid it was all settled.  ‘You object to my taking a part, then?  Of course—’
 
He told her that he did not like to say he objected.  He wished they had chosen an , or lecture, or anything more in keeping with the necessity it was to relieve.
 
‘But,’ said she impatiently, ‘people won’t come to or lectures!  They will crowd to comedies and .’
 
‘Well, I cannot to Budmouth how it shall earn the money it is going to give us.  Who is getting up this performance?’
 
‘The boys of the ---st.’
 
‘Ah, yes; our old game!’ replied Mr. Maumbry.  ‘The grief of Casterbridge is the excuse for their .  , dear Laura, I wish you wouldn’t play in it.  But I don’t forbid you to.  I leave the whole to your .’
 
The interview ended, and they went their ways and southward.  Time disclosed to all concerned that Mrs. Maumbry played in the comedy as the heroine, the lover’s part being taken by Mr. Vannicock.