Eustacia overhears her grandfather and Humphrey and Sam discussing the kind of life Clym Yeobright has been living in Paris. Humphrey suggests, when Captain Vye leaves, that Eustacia and Clym would make a fine couple. The conversation sets her to daydreaming about Clym, and she walks down to look at the Yeobright house.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Yeobright and Thomasin are preparing for Clym's arrival: getting apples from the loft of the fuel house and gathering holly on the heath. Thomasin refuses to answer Mrs. Yeobright's question about whether she still loves Wildeve and makes the older woman promise not to tell Clym of her troubles.
On the night Clym is to arrive, Eustacia waits on the heath for a glimpse of him as he goes by. When he does, with Mrs. Yeobright and Thomasin, Eustacia is unable to see him but can hear his voice. This causes her to dream an unusual dream about him. For the next few days, she goes out in the hope of meeting him but does not.
