The cottage accommodation at Marlott having been in this manner

considerably curtailed by demolitions, every house which remained

standing was required by the agriculturist for his work-people. Ever

since the occurrence of the event which had cast such a shadow over

Tess's life, the Durbeyfield family (whose descent was not credited)

had been tacitly looked on as one which would have to go when their

lease ended, if only in the interests of morality. It was, indeed,

quite true that the household had not been shining examples either of

temperance, soberness, or chastity. The father, and even the mother,

had got drunk at times, the younger children seldom had gone to

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church, and the eldest daughter had made queer unions. By some means

the village had to be kept pure. So on this, the first Lady-Day

on which the Durbeyfields were expellable, the house, being roomy,

was required for a carter with a large family; and Widow Joan,

her daughters Tess and 'Liza-Lu, the boy Abraham, and the younger

children had to go elsewhere.

On the evening preceding their removal it was getting dark betimes by

reason of a drizzling rain which blurred the sky. As it was the last

night they would spend in the village which had been their home and

birthplace, Mrs Durbeyfield, 'Liza-Lu, and Abraham had gone out to

bid some friends goodbye, and Tess was keeping house till they should

return. She was kneeling in the window-bench, her face close to the casement,

where an outer pane of rain-water was sliding down the inner pane of

glass. Her eyes rested on the web of a spider, probably starved long

ago, which had been mistakenly placed in a corner where no flies

ever came, and shivered in the slight draught through the casement.

Tess was reflecting on the position of the household, in which she

perceived her own evil influence. Had she not come home, her mother

and the children might probably have been allowed to stay on as

weekly tenants. But she had been observed almost immediately on her

return by some people of scrupulous character and great influence:

they had seen her idling in the churchyard, restoring as well as she

could with a little trowel a baby's obliterated grave. By this means

they had found that she was living here again; her mother was scolded

for "harbouring" her; sharp retorts had ensued from Joan, who had

independently offered to leave at once; she had been taken at her

word; and here was the result.

"I ought never to have come home," said Tess to herself, bitterly.

She was so intent upon these thoughts that she hardly at first took

note of a man in a white mackintosh whom she saw riding down the

street. Possibly it was owing to her face being near to the pane

that he saw her so quickly, and directed his horse so close to the

cottage-front that his hoofs were almost upon the narrow border for

plants growing under the wall. It was not till he touched the window

with his riding-crop that she observed him. The rain had nearly

ceased, and she opened the casement in obedience to his gesture.




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