Durbeyfield's tenement, which was a house in a walled garden,
remote from the main road, where she had stowed away her clumsy old
furniture as best she could. It was plain that for some reason or
other she had not wished him to visit her, and he felt his call to
be somewhat of an intrusion. She came to the door herself, and the
light from the evening sky fell upon her face.
This was the first time that Clare had ever met her, but he was too
preoccupied to observe more than that she was still a handsome woman,
in the garb of a respectable widow. He was obliged to explain that
he was Tess's husband, and his object in coming there, and he did it
awkwardly enough. 'I want to see her at once,' he added. 'You said
you would write to me again, but you have not done so.'
'Because she've not come home,' said Joan.
'Do you know if she is well?'
'I don't. But you ought to, sir,' said she.
'I admit it. Where is she staying?'
From the beginning of the interview Joan had disclosed her
embarrassment by keeping her hand to the side of her cheek.
'I--don't know exactly where she is staying,' she answered. 'She
was--but--'
'Where was she?'
'Well, she is not there now.'
In her evasiveness she paused again, and the younger children had by
this time crept to the door, where, pulling at his mother's skirts,
the youngest murmured--
'Is this the gentleman who is going to marry Tess?'
'He has married her,' Joan whispered. 'Go inside.'
Clare saw her efforts for reticence, and asked--
'Do you think Tess would wish me to try and find her? If not, of
course--'
'I don't think she would.'
'Are you sure?'
'I am sure she wouldn't.'
He was turning away; and then he thought of Tess's tender letter.
'I am sure she would!' he retorted passionately. 'I know her better
than you do.'
'That's very likely, sir; for I have never really known her.'
'Please tell me her address, Mrs Durbeyfield, in kindness to a lonely
wretched man!' Tess's mother again restlessly swept her cheek with
her vertical hand, and seeing that he suffered, she at last said, is
a low voice--
'She is at Sandbourne.'
'Ah--where there? Sandbourne has become a large place, they say.'
'I don't know more particularly than I have said--Sandbourne. For
myself, I was never there.'
It was apparent that Joan spoke the truth in this, and he pressed her
no further.
'Are you in want of anything?' he said gently.
'No, sir,' she replied. 'We are fairly well provided for.'
