Tess of the dUrbervilles - Page 195/283

He had ordered by letter a vehicle from the nearest town, and

soon after breakfast it arrived. She saw in it the beginning of

the end--the temporary end, at least, for the revelation of his

tenderness by the incident of the night raised dreams of a possible

future with him. The luggage was put on the top, and the man drove

them off, the miller and the old waiting-woman expressing some

surprise at their precipitate departure, which Clare attributed to

his discovery that the mill-work was not of the modern kind which he

wished to investigate, a statement that was true so far as it went.

Beyond this there was nothing in the manner of their leaving to

suggest a fiasco, or that they were not going together to visit

friends. Their route lay near the dairy from which they had started with such

solemn joy in each other a few days back, and as Clare wished to wind

up his business with Mr Crick, Tess could hardly avoid paying Mrs

Crick a call at the same time, unless she would excite suspicion of

their unhappy state. To make the call as unobtrusive as possible, they left the carriage

by the wicket leading down from the high road to the dairy-house, and

descended the track on foot, side by side. The withy-bed had been

cut, and they could see over the stumps the spot to which Clare had

followed her when he pressed her to be his wife; to the left the

enclosure in which she had been fascinated by his harp; and far away

behind the cow-stalls the mead which had been the scene of their

first embrace. The gold of the summer picture was now gray, the

colours mean, the rich soil mud, and the river cold.

Over the barton-gate the dairyman saw them, and came forward,

throwing into his face the kind of jocularity deemed appropriate

in Talbothays and its vicinity on the re-appearance of the

newly-married. Then Mrs Crick emerged from the house, and several

others of their old acquaintance, though Marian and Retty did not

seem to be there. Tess valiantly bore their sly attacks and friendly humours, which

affected her far otherwise than they supposed. In the tacit

agreement of husband and wife to keep their estrangement a secret

they behaved as would have been ordinary. And then, although she

would rather there had been no word spoken on the subject, Tess had

to hear in detail the story of Marian and Retty. The later had gone

home to her father's, and Marian had left to look for employment

elsewhere. They feared she would come to no good.