When his proposal of marriage is rejected, Ned, a mechanic, goes to London (in six days' walking; the railway line was being built but was not open) and works there, living in Lambeth.

Ned, after a few days' consideration, replies: he is slightly reproachful and does not volunteer to return to Stickleford; agreeing to marry her, he suggests that she comes to London on the train, the railway line being now open.

At Casterbridge, where they leave the train, Ned makes inquiries about work in the town while Car'line and her daughter Carry walk to Stickleford.

It is supposed that Ollamoor and his daughter emigrated to America, "Mop, no doubt, finding the girl a highly desirable companion when he had trained her to keep him by her earnings as a dancer."

In "The Fiddler of the Reels", he suggests, Ned's return to London to look for Carry, or Ollamoor and his daughter's later adventures, could have been expanded if the writer had wished.

Wain adds, "In such cases the decision to tell the story shortly is evidently an arbitrary choice on the author's part, rather than an artistic necessity inherent in the material chosen.