Tess of the dUrbervilles - Page 206/283

XL

At breakfast Brazil was the topic, and all endeavoured to take a

hopeful view of Clare's proposed experiment with that country's soil,

notwithstanding the discouraging reports of some farm-labourers who

had emigrated thither and returned home within the twelve months.

After breakfast Clare went into the little town to wind up such

trifling matters as he was concerned with there, and to get from

the local bank all the money he possessed. On his way back he

encountered Miss Mercy Chant by the church, from whose walls she

seemed to be a sort of emanation. She was carrying an armful of

Bibles for her class, and such was her view of life that events which

produced heartache in others wrought beatific smiles upon her--an

enviable result, although, in the opinion of Angel, it was obtained

by a curiously unnatural sacrifice of humanity to mysticism. S

he had learnt that he was about to leave England, and observed what

an excellent and promising scheme it seemed to be. "Yes; it is a likely scheme enough in a commercial sense, no doubt,"

he replied. "But, my dear Mercy, it snaps the continuity of

existence. Perhaps a cloister would be preferable."

"A cloister! O, Angel Clare!" "Well?"

"Why, you wicked man, a cloister implies a monk, and a monk Roman

Catholicism." "And Roman Catholicism sin, and sin damnation. Thou art in a parlous

state, Angel Clare."

"I glory in my Protestantism!" she said severely.

Then Clare, thrown by sheer misery into one of the demoniacal moods

in which a man does despite to his true principles, called her close

to him, and fiendishly whispered in her ear the most heterodox ideas

he could think of. His momentary laughter at the horror which

appeared on her fair face ceased when it merged in pain and anxiety

for his welfare. "Dear Mercy," he said, "you must forgive me. I think I am going

crazy!" She thought that he was; and thus the interview ended, and Clare

re-entered the Vicarage. With the local banker he deposited the

jewels till happier days should arise. He also paid into the bank

thirty pounds--to be sent to Tess in a few months, as she might

require; and wrote to her at her parents' home in Blackmoor Vale to

inform her of what he had done. This amount, with the sum he had

already placed in her hands--about fifty pounds--he hoped would be

amply sufficient for her wants just at present, particularly as in

an emergency she had been directed to apply to his father.