The Return of the Native Book 3, Chapter 7 Summary

The Morning and the Evening of a Day

  • It's the day of the wedding and Mrs. Yeobright is wandering around her house by herself, being super emo.
  • She hears the church bells ringing in the distance and knows that Clym is married. She reacts to this like the apocalypse is imminent.
  • Then Wildeve stops by. This is the worst day ever for Mrs. Yeobright.
  • Wildeve says he's here to pick up a package for Thomasin. He's referring to the inheritance money that Mrs. Yeobright planned to give Thomasin that day.
  • Thomasin attended Clym and Eustacia's wedding instead of coming over to see her aunt.
  • Mrs. Yeobright tells Wildeve the package isn't important and she can just give it to Thomasin later. Wildeve is suspicious, but says OK.
  • He leaves and Mrs. Yeobright tries to figure out how to get the money to her niece, who needs it ASAP.
  • While pondering this, Mrs. Yeobright decides to give her son his inheritance as a wedding gift.
  • So she gets Christian Cantle to deliver the money directly to Thomasin and her son.
  • Christian says sure and he heads out in the dark with two bags filled with money.
  • We hope there aren't muggers lurking about the heath...
  • Christian runs into Fairway and some other guys, who are heading over to a raffle (gambling game).
  • Christian gets peer pressured into going and he ends up gambling with the others at the Quiet Woman Inn.
  • This probably won't end well.
  • But Christian actually wins some money.
  • Wildeve chats with Christian, who hints that he has a special delivery of major cash for Thomasin.
  • Christian heads off with his bags of money and Wildeve follows him.
  • Wildeve tries to convince Christian to give him the money. Christian won't because of Mrs. Yeobright's instructions.
  • Then Wildeve convinces Christian to gamble some more since he was so lucky earlier.
  • Wildeve tells Christian all sorts of great stories about people winning tons of money by gambling.
  • Dim-witted as he is, Christian falls for this super obvious manipulation.
  • The two gamble and Damon wins all of the money from Christian, who stupidly started using the Yeobrights' money to keep playing.
  • Christian is horrified and runs off and Damon just laughs.
  • But then Diggory appears. The plot thickens.