"I don't mind telling you, dear mother," he said, "that I always

meant to keep her away from this house till I should feel she could

some with credit to you. But this idea of Brazil is quite a recent

one. If I do go it will be unadvisable for me to take her on this my

first journey. She will remain at her mother's till I come back."

"And I shall not see her before you start?" He was afraid they would not.

His original plan had been, as he had

said, to refrain from bringing her there for some little while--not

to wound their prejudices--feelings--in any way; and for other

reasons he had adhered to it. He would have to visit home in the

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course of a year, if he went out at once; and it would be possible

for them to see her before he started a second time--with her.

A hastily prepared supper was brought in, and Clare made further

exposition of his plans. His mother's disappointment at not seeing

the bride still remained with her. Clare's late enthusiasm for Tess

had infected her through her maternal sympathies, till she had almost

fancied that a good thing could come out of Nazareth--a charming

woman out of Talbothays Dairy. She watched her son as he ate. "Cannot you describe her?

I am sure she is very pretty, Angel." "Of that there can be no question!" he said, with a zest which

covered its bitterness. "And that she is pure and virtuous goes without question?" "Pure and virtuous, of course, she is." "I can see her quite distinctly. You said the other day that she was

fine in figure; roundly built; had deep red lips like Cupid's bow;

dark eyelashes and brows, an immense rope of hair like a ship's

cable; and large eyes violety-bluey-blackish." "I did, mother."

"I quite see her. And living in such seclusion she naturally had

scarce ever seen any young man from the world without till she saw

you." "Scarcely." "You were her first love?" "Of course."

"There are worse wives than these simple, rosy-mouthed, robust girls

of the farm. Certainly I could have wished--well, since my son is to

be an agriculturist, it is perhaps but proper that his wife should

have been accustomed to an outdoor life."

His father was less inquisitive; but when the time came for the

chapter from the Bible which was always read before evening prayers,

the Vicar observed to Mrs Clare-"I think, since Angel has come, that it will be more appropriate to

read the thirty-first of Proverbs than the chapter which we should

have had in the usual course of our reading?"




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