"And Izz?" asked Tess. "Izz is about house as usual; but 'a do say 'a can guess how it

happened; and she seems to be very low in mind about it, poor maid,

as well she mid be. And so you see, sir, as all this happened just

when we was packing your few traps and your Mis'ess's night-rail and

dressing things into the cart, why, it belated me."

"Yes. Well, Jonathan, will you get the trunks upstairs, and drink a

cup of ale, and hasten back as soon as you can, in case you should be

wanted?" Tess had gone back to the inner parlour, and sat down by the fire,

looking wistfully into it. She heard Jonathan Kail's heavy footsteps

up and down the stairs till he had done placing the luggage, and

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heard him express his thanks for the ale her husband took out to him,

and for the gratuity he received. Jonathan's footsteps then died

from the door, and his cart creaked away. Angel slid forward the massive oak bar which secured the door, and

coming in to where she sat over the hearth, pressed her cheeks

between his hands from behind. He expected her to jump up gaily and

unpack the toilet-gear that she had been so anxious about, but as she

did not rise he sat down with her in the firelight, the candles on

the supper-table being too thin and glimmering to interfere with its

glow. "I am so sorry you should have heard this sad story about the girls,"

he said. "Still, don't let it depress you. Retty was naturally

morbid, you know."

"Without the least cause," said Tess. "While they who have cause to

be, hide it, and pretend they are not."

This incident had turned the scale for her. They were simple and

innocent girls on whom the unhappiness of unrequited love had fallen;

they had deserved better at the hands of Fate. She had deserved

worse--yet she was the chosen one. It was wicked of her to take all

without paying. She would pay to the uttermost farthing; she would

tell, there and then. This final determination she came to when she

looked into the fire, he holding her hand. A steady glare from the now flameless embers painted the sides

and back of the fireplace with its colour, and the well-polished

andirons, and the old brass tongs that would not meet. The underside

of the mantel-shelf was flushed with the high-coloured light, and

the legs of the table nearest the fire. Tess's face and neck

reflected the same warmth, which each gem turned into an Aldebaran

or a Sirius--a constellation of white, red, and green flashes, that

interchanged their hues with her every pulsation.




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