matrimonial hopes for her in a serious aspect for a moment. The
light-minded woman had been discovering good matches for her daughter
almost from the year of her birth.
VII
On the morning appointed for her departure Tess was awake before
dawn--at the marginal minute of the dark when the grove is still
mute, save for one prophetic bird who sings with a clear-voiced
conviction that he at least knows the correct time of day, the rest
preserving silence as if equally convinced that he is mistaken. She
remained upstairs packing till breakfast-time, and then came down in
her ordinary week-day clothes, her Sunday apparel being carefully
folded in her box.
Her mother expostulated. 'You will never set out to see your folks
without dressing up more the dand than that?'
'But I am going to work!' said Tess.
'Well, yes,' said Mrs Durbeyfield; and in a private tone, 'at first
there mid be a little pretence o't ... But I think it will be wiser
of 'ee to put your best side outward,' she added.
'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
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
