sight of the ground, and began her meal; till, by-and-by, she heard
footsteps on the ladder, and immediately after Alec appeared upon the
stack--now an oblong and level platform of sheaves. He strode across
them, and sat down opposite of her without a word.
Tess continued to eat her modest dinner, a slice of thick pancake
which she had brought with her. The other workfolk were by this
time all gathered under the rick, where the loose straw formed a
comfortable retreat.
'I am here again, as you see,' said d'Urberville.
'Why do you trouble me so!' she cried, reproach flashing from her
very finger-ends.
'I trouble YOU? I think I may ask, why do you trouble me?'
'Sure, I don't trouble you any-when!'
'You say you don't? But you do! You haunt me. Those very eyes that
you turned upon my with such a bitter flash a moment ago, they come
to me just as you showed them then, in the night and in the day!
Tess, ever since you told me of that child of ours, it is just as if
my feelings, which have been flowing in a strong puritanical stream,
had suddenly found a way open in the direction of you, and had all at
once gushed through. The religious channel is left dry forthwith;
and it is you who have done it!'
She gazed in silence.
'What--you have given up your preaching entirely?' she asked. She
had gathered from Angel sufficient of the incredulity of modern
thought to despise flash enthusiasm; but, as a woman, she was
somewhat appalled.
In affected severity d'Urberville continued--
'Entirely. I have broken every engagement since that afternoon I was
to address the drunkards at Casterbridge Fair. The deuce only knows
what I am thought of by the brethren. Ah-ha! The brethren! No
doubt they pray for me--weep for me; for they are kind people in
their way. But what do I care? How could I go on with the thing
when I had lost my faith in it?--it would have been hypocrisy of
the basest kind! Among them I should have stood like Hymenaeus and
Alexander, who were delivered over to Satan that they might learn
not to blaspheme. What a grand revenge you have taken! I saw you
innocent, and I deceived you. Four years after, you find me a
Christian enthusiast; you then work upon me, perhaps to my complete
perdition! But Tess, my coz, as I used to call you, this is only
my way of talking, and you must not look so horribly concerned.
Of course you have done nothing except retain your pretty face and
shapely figure. I saw it on the rick before you saw me--that tight
pinafore-thing sets it off, and that wing-bonnet--you field-girls
should never wear those bonnets if you wish to keep out of danger.'
He regarded her silently for a few moments, and with a short cynical
laugh resumed: 'I believe that if the bachelor-apostle, whose deputy
I thought I was, had been tempted by such a pretty face, he would
have let go the plough for her sake as I do!'
Tess attempted to expostulate, but at this juncture all her fluency
failed her, and without heeding he added:
