He prospers in the grain-business and becomes a prominent figure of the town. After wandering about different places, he comes to the ancient town of Casterbridge (Dorchester), and settles down there. He feels repentant, and takes a vow never to touch drink for the next twenty-one years. Regaining his senses, Henchard realizes the gravity of his act of selling his wife, but finds himself unable to do anything because his search for her and her daughter at a seaport town ends in his coming to know that they have emigrated from England with the man who had bought them. Later he takes the woman and the child to Canada where they live with him for a few years. Taking pity on the downcast woman, Susan, Richard Newson a sailor who happens to be present there on that occasion, buys her for five guineas, and walks away with her. He curses himself for having married at too young, an age to be able to earn enough to support his family, and offers to sell his wife and the small girl to the highest bidder. In his drunken state, Henchard becomes abusive and aggressive. There, Henchard gets some rum mixed up in furmity, and drinking it gets intoxicated. Fatigued because of their long journey, they come to a refreshment-tent where a woman is selling furmity, a type of milk punch relished by villagers. They arrive in time for an agricultural fair being held in the village.
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