She musingly turned to withdraw, passing near an altar-tomb, the oldest of them all, on which was a recumbent figure.In the dusk she had not noticed it before, and would hardly have noticed it now but for an odd fancy that the effigy moved.As soon as she drew close to it she discovered all in a moment that the figure was a living person; and the shock to her sense of not having been alone was so violent that she was quite overcome, and sank down nigh to fainting, not however till she had recognized Alec d'Urberville in the form.
He leapt off the slab and supported her.
`I saw you come in,' he said smiling, `and got up there not to interrupt your meditations.A family gathering, is it not, with these old fellows under us here? Listen.'
He stamped with his heel heavily on the floor; whereupon there arose a hollow echo from below.
`That shook them a bit, I'll warrant!' he continued.`And you thought I was the mere stone reproduction of one of them.But no.The old order changeth.The little finger of the sham d'Urberville can do more for you than the whole dynasty of the real underneath....Now command me.What shall I do?'
`Go away!' she murmured.
`I will - I'll look for your mother,' said he blandly.But in passing her he whispered: `Mind this; you'll be civil yet!'
When he was gone she bent down upon the entrance to the vaults, and said--`Why am I on the wrong side of this door!'
In the meantime Marian and Izz Huett had journeyed onward with the chattels of the ploughman in the direction of their land of Canaan - the Egypt of some other family who had left it only that morning.But the girls did not for a long time think of where they were going.Their talk was of Angel Clare and Tess, and Tess's persistent lover, whose connection with her previous history they had partly heard and partly guessed ere this.
`'Tisn't as though she had never known him afore,' said Marian.`His having won her once makes all the difference in the world.'Twould be a thousand pities if he were to tole her away again.Mr Clare can never be anything to us, Izz; and why should we grudge him to her, and not try to mend this quarrel? If he could only know what straits she's put to, and what's hovering round, he might come to take care of his own.'
`Could we let him know?'
They thought of this all the way to their destination; but the bustle of re-establishment in their new place took up all their attention then.
But when they were settled, a month later, they heard of Clare's approaching return, though they had learnt nothing more of Tess.Upon that, agitated anew by their attachment to him, yet honourably disposed to her, Marian uncorked the penny ink-bottle they shared, and a few lines were concocted between the two girls.HONOUR'D SIR - Look to your Wife if you do love her as much as she do love you.For she is sore put to by an Enemy in the shape of a Friend.Sir, there is one near her who ought to be Away.A woman should not be try'd beyond her Strength, and continual dropping will wear away a Stone - ay, more - a Diamond.
FROM TWO WELL-WISHERS.This they addressed to Angel Clare at the only place they had ever heard him to be connected with, Emminster Vicarage; after which they continued in a mood of emotional exaltation at their own generosity, which made them sing in hysterical snatches and weep at the same time.END OF PHASE THE SIXTH PHASE THE SEVENTH Fulfilment Chapter 53 It was evening at Emminster Vicarage.The two customary candles were burning under their green shades in the Vicar's study, but he had not been sitting there.Occasionally he came in, stirred the small fire which sufficed for the increasing mildness of the spring, and went out again; sometimes pausing at the front door, going on to the drawing-room, then returning again to the front door.
It faced westward, and though gloom prevailed inside, there was still light enough without to see with distinctness.Mrs Clare, who had been sitting in the drawing-room, followed him hither.
`Plenty of time yet,' said the Vicar.`He doesn't reach Chalk-Newton till six, even if the train should be punctual, and ten miles of country-road, five of them in Crimmercrock Lane, are not jogged over in a hurry by our old horse.'
`But he has done it in an hour with us, my dear.'
`Years ago.'
Thus they passed the minutes, each well knowing that this was only waste of breath, the one essential being simply to wait.
At length there was a slight noise in the lane, and the old pony-chaise appeared indeed outside the railings.They saw alight therefrom a form which they affected to recognize, but would actually have passed by in the street without identifying had he not got out of their carriage at the particular moment when a particular person was due.
Mrs Clare rushed through the dark passage to the door, and her husband came more slowly after her.
The new arrival, who was just about to enter, saw their anxious faces in the doorway and the gleam of the west in their spectacles because they confronted the last rays of day; but they could only see his shape against the light.
`O, my boy, my boy - home again at last!' cried Mrs Clare, who cared no more at that moment for the stains of heterodoxy which had caused all this separation than for the dust upon his clothes.What woman, indeed, among the most faithful adherents of the truth, believes the promises and threats of the Word in the sense in which she believes in her own children, or would not throw her theology to the wind if weighed against their happiness?
As soon as they reached the room where the candies were lighted she looked at his face.
`O, it is not Angel - not my son - the Angel who went away!' she cried in all the irony of sorrow, as she turned herself aside.