'Ah!' she said to it, 'if it had not been for you this terrible ordeal would have been saved me!' When strapping up the bundle in which she carried a few articles of clothing, she took occasion to say to the servant, 'I take these in case I should not get back to-night from the person I am going to visit.

Don't be alarmed if I am not in by ten, and close up the house as usual.

I shall be at home to-morrow for certain.' She meant then to privately tell her husband: the deed accomplished was not like the deed projected.
He would almost certainly forgive her.
And then the pretty palpitating Gertrude Lodge went from her husband's homestead; but though her goal was Casterbridge she did not take the direct route thither through Stickleford.

Her cunning course at first was in precisely the opposite direction.

As soon as she was out of sight, however, she turned to the left, by a road which led into Egdon, and on entering the heath wheeled round, and set out in the true course, due westerly.