"Now," said Tess, flushing and turning quickly, "I'll hear no more o'

that! Mother, how could you ever put such stuff into their heads?"

"Going to work, my dears, for our rich relation, and help get enough

money for a new horse," said Mrs Durbeyfield pacifically. "

Goodbye, father," said Tess, with a lumpy throat.

"Goodbye, my maid," said Sir John, raising his head from his breast

as he suspended his nap, induced by a slight excess this morning in

honour of the occasion. "Well, I hope my young friend will like such

a comely sample of his own blood. And tell'n, Tess, that being sunk,

quite, from our former grandeur, I'll sell him the title--yes, sell

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it--and at no onreasonable figure."

"Not for less than a thousand pound!" cried Lady Durbeyfield.

"Tell'n--I'll take a thousand pound. Well, I'll take less, when

I come to think o't. He'll adorn it better than a poor lammicken

feller like myself can. Tell'n he shall hae it for a hundred. But

I won't stand upon trifles--tell'n he shall hae it for fifty--for

twenty pound! Yes, twenty pound--that's the lowest. Dammy, family

honour is family honour, and I won't take a penny less!"

Tess's eyes were too full and her voice too choked to utter the

sentiments that were in her. She turned quickly, and went out.

So the girls and their mother all walked together, a child on each

side of Tess, holding her hand and looking at her meditatively from

time to time, as at one who was about to do great things; her mother

just behind with the smallest; the group forming a picture of honest

beauty flanked by innocence, and backed by simple-souled vanity.

They followed the way till they reached the beginning of the ascent,

on the crest of which the vehicle from Trantridge was to receive her,

this limit having been fixed to save the horse the labour of the last

slope. Far away behind the first hills the cliff-like dwellings

of Shaston broke the line of the ridge. Nobody was visible in the

elevated road which skirted the ascent save the lad whom they had

sent on before them, sitting on the handle of the barrow that

contained all Tess's worldly possessions.

"Bide here a bit, and the cart will soon come, no doubt," said Mrs

Durbeyfield. "Yes, I see it yonder!"

It had come--appearing suddenly from behind the forehead of the

nearest upland, and stopping beside the boy with the barrow. Her

mother and the children thereupon decided to go no farther, and

bidding them a hasty goodbye, Tess bent her steps up the hill.




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