proffered aid and company, as she had refused them several times
before; and now the loneliness would not of itself have forced her
to do otherwise. But coming as the invitation did at the particular
juncture when fear and indignation at these adversaries could be
transformed by a spring of the foot into a triumph over them, she
abandoned herself to her impulse, climbed the gate, put her toe upon
his instep, and scrambled into the saddle behind him. The pair were
speeding away into the distant gray by the time that the contentious
revellers became aware of what had happened.
The Queen of Spades forgot the stain on her bodice, and stood
beside the Queen of Diamonds and the new-married, staggering young
woman--all with a gaze of fixity in the direction in which the
horse's tramp was diminishing into silence on the road.
'What be ye looking at?' asked a man who had not observed the
incident.
'Ho-ho-ho!' laughed dark Car.
'Hee-hee-hee!' laughed the tippling bride, as she steadied herself on
the arm of her fond husband.
'Heu-heu-heu!' laughed dark Car's mother, stroking her moustache as
she explained laconically: 'Out of the frying-pan into the fire!'
Then these children of the open air, whom even excess of alcohol
could scarce injure permanently, betook themselves to the field-path;
and as they went there moved onward with them, around the shadow of
each one's head, a circle of opalized light, formed by the moon's
rays upon the glistening sheet of dew. Each pedestrian could see
no halo but his or her own, which never deserted the head-shadow,
whatever its vulgar unsteadiness might be; but adhered to it, and
persistently beautified it; till the erratic motions seemed an
inherent part of the irradiation, and the fumes of their breathing
a component of the night's mist; and the spirit of the scene, and
of the moonlight, and of Nature, seemed harmoniously to mingle with
the spirit of wine.
XI
The twain cantered along for some time without speech, Tess as she
clung to him still panting in her triumph, yet in other respects
dubious. She had perceived that the horse was not the spirited one
he sometimes rose, and felt no alarm on that score, though her seat
was precarious enough despite her tight hold of him. She begged him
to slow the animal to a walk, which Alec accordingly did.
'Neatly done, was it not, dear Tess?' he said by and by.
'Yes!' said she. 'I am sure I ought to be much obliged to you.'
'And are you?'
She did not reply.
'Tess, why do you always dislike my kissing you?'
'I suppose--because I don't love you.'
'You are quite sure?'
'I am angry with you sometimes!'
'Ah, I half feared as much.' Nevertheless, Alec did not object to
that confession. He knew that anything was better then frigidity.
'Why haven't you told me when I have made you angry?'
