第64章

`Then I ought not to hold you in this way - ought I? I have no right to you - no right to seek out where you are, or to walk with you! Honestly, Tess, do you love any other man?'

`How can you ask?' she said, with continued self-suppression.

`I almost know that you do not.But then, why do you repulse me?'

`I don't repulse you.I like you to - tell me you love me; and you may always tell me so as you go about with me - and never offend me.'

`But you will not accept me as a husband?'

`Ah - hat's different - it is for your good, indeed my dearest! O, believe me, it is only for your sake! I don't like to give myself the great happiness o' promising to be yours in that way - because - because I am sure I ought not to do it.'

`But you will make me happy!'

`Ah - you think so, but you don't know!'

At such times as this, apprehending the grounds of her refusal to be her modest sense of incompetence in matters social and polite, he was wonderfully well-informed and versatile - which was certainly true, her natural quickness, and her admiration for him, having led her to pick up his vocabulary, his accent, and fragments of his knowledge, to a surprising extent.After these tender contests and her victory she would go away by herself under the remotest cow, if at milking-time, or into the sedge, or into her room, if at a leisure interval, and mourn silently, not a minute after an apparently phlegmatic negative.

The struggle was so fearful; her own heart was so strongly on the side of his - two ardent hearts against one poor little conscience - that she tried to fortify her resolution by every means in her power.She had come to Talbothays with a made-up mind.On no account could she agree to a step which might afterwards cause bitter rueing to her husband for his blindness in wedding her.And she held that what her conscience had decided for her when her mind was unbiased ought not to be overruled now.

`Why don't somebody tell him all about me?' she said.`It was only forty miles off - why hasn't it reached here? Somebody must know!'

Yet nobody seemed to know; nobody told him.

For two or three days no more was said.She guessed from the sad countenances of her chamber companions that they regarded her not only as the favourite, but as the chosen; but they could see for themselves that she did not put herself in his way.

Tess had never before known a time in which the thread of her life was so distinctly twisted of two strands, positive pleasure and positive pain.

At the next cheese-making the pair were again left alone together.The dairyman himself had been lending a hand; but Mr Crick, as well as his wife, seemed latterly to have acquired a suspicion of mutual interest between these two; though they walked so circumspectly that suspicion was but of the faintest.Anyhow, the dairyman left them to themselves.

They were breaking up the masses of curd before putting them into the vats.The operation resembled the act of crumbling bread on a large scale;and amid the immaculate whiteness of the curds Tess Durbeyfield's hands showed themselves of the pinkness of the rose.Angel, who was filling the vats with his handfuls, suddenly ceased, and laid his hands flat upon hers.

Her sleeves were rolled far above the elbow, and bending lower he kissed the inside vein of her soft arm.

Although the early September weather was sultry, her arm, from her dabbling in the curds, was as cold and damp to his mouth as a new-gathered mushroom, and tasted of the whey.But she was such a sheaf of susceptibilities that her pulse was accelerated by the touch, her blood driven to her finger-ends, and the cool arms flushed hot.Then, as though her heart had said, `Is coyness longer necessary? Truth is truth between man and woman, as between man and man, ` she lifted her eyes, and they beamed devotedly into his, as her lip rose in a tender half-smile.

`Do you know why I did that, Tess?' he said.

`Because you love me very much!'

`Yes, and as a preliminary to a new entreaty.'

`Not again !'

She looked a sudden fear that her resistance might break down under her own desire.

`O, Tessy!' he went on, `I cannot think why you are so tantalizing.

Why do you disappoint me so? You seem almost like a coquette, upon my life you do - a coquette of the first urban water! They blow hot and blow cold, just as you do; and it is the very last sort of thing to expect to find in a retreat like Talbothays....And yet, dearest, `he quickly added, observing how the remark had cut her, `I know you to be the most honest, spotless creature that ever lived.So how can I suppose you a flirt? Tess, why don't you like the idea of being my wife, if you love me as you seem to do?'

`I have never said I don't like the idea, and I never could say it;because - it isn't true!'

The stress now getting beyond endurance her lip quivered, and she was obliged to go away.Clare was so pained and perplexed that he ran after and caught her in the passage.

`Tell me, tell me!' he said, passionately clasping her, in forgetfulness of his curdy hands: `do tell me that you won't belong to anybody but me!'

`I will, I will tell you!' she exclaimed.`And I will give you a complete answer, if you will let me go now.I will tell you my experiences - all about myself - all!'

`Your experiences, dear; yes, certainly; any number.' He expressed assent in loving satire, looking into her face.`My Tess has, no doubt, almost as many experiences as that wild convolvulus out there on the garden hedge, that opened itself this morning for the first time.Tell me anything, but don't use that wretched expression any more about not being worthy of me.'

`I will try - not! And I'll give you my reasons to-morrow - next week.'

`Say on Sunday?'

`Yes, on Sunday.'