THOMAS HARDY: Far from the Madding Crowd Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it. He looked hard into her eyes when she raised them for a moment; Bathsheba looked down again, for his gaze was too strong to be received point-blank with her own. But she had obliquely noticed that he was young and slim, and that he wore three chevrons upon his sleeve. Bathsheba pulled again. 'You are a prisoner, miss; it is no use blinking the matter,' said the soldier drily. 'I must cut your dress if you are in such a hurry.' 'Yes - please do!' she exclaimed helplessly. 5 'It wouldn't be necessary if you could wait a moment'; and he unwound a cord from the little wheel. She withdrew her own hand, but, whether by 10 accident or design, he touched it. Bathsheba was vexed; she hardly knew why. His unravelling went on, but it nevertheless seemed coming to no end. She looked at him again. 'Thank you for the sight of such a beautiful face!' said the young sergeant, 15 without ceremony. She coloured with embarrassment. ‘'Twas unwillingly shown,' she replied stiffly, and with as much dignity – which was very little as she could infuse into a position of captivity. 'I like you the better for that incivility, miss,' he said. 'I should have liked – I wish – you had never shown yourself to me by intruding here!' She pulled again, and the gathers of her dress began to give way like lilliputian musketry. 'I deserve the chastisement your words give me. But why should such a fair and dutiful girl have such an aversion to her father's sex?' 'Go on your way, please.' 'What, Beauty, and drag you after me? Do but look; I never saw such a tangle!' 'O, 'tis shameful of you; you have been making it worse on purpose to keep me here – you have!' 'Indeed, I don't think so,' said the sergeant, with a merry twinkle. 'I tell you you have!' she exclaimed, in high temper. 'I insist upon undoing it. Now, allow me!' 'Certainly, miss; I am not of steel.' He added a sigh which had as much archness in it as a sigh could possess without losing its nature altogether. 35 'I am thankful for beauty, even when 'tis thrown to me like a bone to a dog. These moments will be over too soon!' She closed her lips in a determined silence. 20 25 30 Explore the ways in which Hardy strikingly presents Sergeant Troy in this passage.