When Venn calls on Eustacia and is unable to persuade her to help Thomasin, he plays his trump card of telling Eustacia that he has overheard her and Wildeve. The more Venn tries to argue her out of her relationship with Wildeve, the more determined Eustacia is to maintain it. Defeated here, Venn offers himself to Mrs. Yeobright as a suitor for Thomasin, asserting that he has loved her longer than Wildeve; but Mrs. Yeobright rejects his offer.
Mrs. Yeobright, in turn, tells Wildeve that another suitor is interested in her niece. Refusing to be hurried into a commitment, Wildeve rushes off to call on Eustacia, wanting her to decide right away if she will accept his offer to go off with him. She will not do so, now wondering if she really wants a man that a woman who is her social inferior has rejected.
Eustacia learns from her grandfather that Clym Yeobright is coming home to Egdon Heath for Christmas.
