Far From the Madding Crowd: Chapter 26 Summary & Analysis

Nodding his hat, Troy says he never imagined it was the farm’s mistress he had met the other night, the “Queen of the Corn-market,” as he’s heard. She indifferently thanks him for his help, but, looking hurt, he says there’s no need. He remarks that it’s a shame bad luck should plague a man for telling a woman she’s beautiful. She still would rather he leave, but he claims he’d rather her curses than another woman’s kisses. Bathsheba is left speechless.

Bathsheba simply says, turning away, that she can’t allow strangers to be bold and impudent even in praise—he should have said nothing. Much of the pleasure of a feeling, he replies, lies in being able to express a feeling on the spur of a moment. She says she hopes such strength extends to morals and religion, and Troy continues to joke and tease, while she tries to hide a smile. He asks for her forgiveness and she doesn’t accept it. As he continues, she cries he’s too profane, caught between distress and enjoyment. He says she surely must have heard what everyone thinks of her beauty: at first she demurs, then hesitatingly begins to agree.

Troy cries that the truth has come out, but he says her beauty will do more harm than good, since it makes all men unable to be content with an ordinary woman. He asks if she reads French, then mentions a proverb that translates, “he chastens that loves well.” Bathsheba remarks at his rhetorical skill, but insists that she derives no pleasure from it: he says he isn’t so conceited as to think so. Still, he hopes she won’t judge his “uncontrolled tongue” too harshly. She says she hopes he won’t speak that way again. He says he’s leaving in a month to return to drill, so she’s taking away the small amount of pleasure he has.

Distracted, Bathsheba wonders what time it is: he looks at his watch, then cries that she should have his gold watch as a gift. Troy presses it into her hands, saying it was his father’s. She cries in wonder that she can’t accept it, but he retreats to avoid being handed it. Bathsheba pursues him in distress. He cries that he loves her even more than he loved his father, now in earnest: he had praised her beauty in jest, but his phrases have now moved him to greater sincerity. Bewildered, Bathsheba insists that his generosity is too great. She’s now excited, wild, and more beautiful than ever, and Troy is stunned that he ever joked about it. Finally, he agrees to take it back, as long as she agrees to speak with him while he stays there. Left alone, Bathsheba heart beats as she wonders how much of all this was true.