"Will you kiss 'em all, once, poor things, for the first and last

time?" Clare had not the least objection to such a farewell formality--which

was all that it was to him--and as he passed them he kissed them in

succession where they stood, saying "Goodbye" to each as he did so.

When they reached the door Tess femininely glanced back to discern

the effect of that kiss of charity; there was no triumph in her

glance, as there might have been. If there had it would have

disappeared when she saw how moved the girls all were. The kiss had

obviously done harm by awakening feelings they were trying to subdue.

Of all this Clare was unconscious. Passing on to the wicket-gate he

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shook hands with the dairyman and his wife, and expressed his last

thanks to them for their attentions; after which there was a moment

of silence before they had moved off. It was interrupted by the

crowing of a cock. The white one with the rose comb had come and

settled on the palings in front of the house, within a few yards of

them, and his notes thrilled their ears through, dwindling away like

echoes down a valley of rocks. "Oh?" said Mrs Crick. "An afternoon crow!" Two men were standing by the yard gate, holding it open. "That's bad," one murmured to the other, not thinking that the words

could be heard by the group at the door-wicket. The cock crew again--straight towards Clare. "Well!" said the dairyman. "I don't like to hear him!" said Tess to her husband. "Tell the man

to drive on. Goodbye, goodbye!" The cock crew again.

"Hoosh! Just you be off, sir, or I'll twist your neck!" said the

dairyman with some irritation, turning to the bird and driving him

away. And to his wife as they went indoors: "Now, to think o' that

just to-day! I've not heard his crow of an afternoon all the year

afore." "It only means a change in the weather," said she; "not what you

think: 'tis impossible!"

XXXIV

They drove by the level road along the valley to a distance of a few

miles, and, reaching Wellbridge, turned away from the village to the

left, and over the great Elizabethan bridge which gives the place

half its name. Immediately behind it stood the house wherein they

had engaged lodgings, whose exterior features are so well known to

all travellers through the Froom Valley; once portion of a fine

manorial residence, and the property and seat of a d'Urberville, but

since its partial demolition a farmhouse.




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