"Very well; I suppose you know best," replied Tess with calm

abandonment. And to please her parent the girl put herself quite in Joan's hands,

saying serenely--"Do what you like with me, mother."

Mrs Durbeyfield was only too delighted at this tractability.

First she fetched a great basin, and washed Tess's hair with such

thoroughness that when dried and brushed it looked twice as much as

at other times. She tied it with a broader pink ribbon than usual.

Then she put upon her the white frock that Tess had worn at the

club-walking, the airy fulness of which, supplementing her enlarged

coiffure, imparted to her developing figure an amplitude which

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belied her age, and might cause her to be estimated as a woman when

she was not much more than a child.

"I declare there's a hole in my stocking-heel!" said Tess.

"Never mind holes in your stockings--they don't speak! When I was a

maid, so long as I had a pretty bonnet the devil might ha' found me

in heels." Her mother's pride in the girl's appearance led her to step back,

like a painter from his easel, and survey her work as a whole.

"You must zee yourself!" she cried. "It is much better than you was

t'other day." As the looking-glass was only large enough to reflect a very small

portion of Tess's person at one time, Mrs Durbeyfield hung a black

cloak outside the casement, and so made a large reflector of the

panes, as it is the wont of bedecking cottagers to do. After this

she went downstairs to her husband, who was sitting in the lower

room. "I'll tell 'ee what 'tis, Durbeyfield," said she exultingly; "he'll

never have the heart not to love her. But whatever you do, don't zay

too much to Tess of his fancy for her, and this chance she has got.

She is such an odd maid that it mid zet her against him, or against

going there, even now. If all goes well, I shall certainly be for

making some return to pa'son at Stagfoot Lane for telling us--dear,

good man!" However, as the moment for the girl's setting out drew nigh, when the

first excitement of the dressing had passed off, a slight misgiving

found place in Joan Durbeyfield's mind. It prompted the matron to

say that she would walk a little way--as far as to the point where

the acclivity from the valley began its first steep ascent to

the outer world. At the top Tess was going to be met with the

spring-cart sent by the Stoke-d'Urbervilles, and her box had already

been wheeled ahead towards this summit by a lad with trucks, to be in

readiness. Seeing their mother put on her bonnet, the younger children clamoured

to go with her. "I do want to walk a little-ways wi' Sissy, now she's going to marry

our gentleman-cousin, and wear fine cloze!"




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