第74章

He loved her dearly, though perhaps rather ideally and fancifully than with the impassioned thoroughness of her feeling for him.He had entertained no notion, when doomed as he had thought to an unintellectual bucolic life, that such charms as he beheld in this idyllic creature would be found behind the scenes.Unsophistication was a thing to talk of; but he had not known how it really struck one until he came here.Yet he was very far from seeing his future track clearly, and it might be a year or two before he would be able to consider himself fairly started in life.The secret lay in the tinge of recklessness imparted to his career and character by the sense that he had been made to miss his true destiny through the prejudices of his family.

`Don't you think 'twould have been better for us to wait till you were quite settled in your midland farm?' she once asked timidly.(A midland farm was the idea just then.)`To tell the truth, my Tess, I don't like you to be left anywhere away from my protection and sympathy.'

The reason was a good one, so far as it went.His influence over her had been so marked that she had caught his manner and habits, his speech and phrases, his likings and his aversions.And to leave her in farmland would be to let her slip back again out of accord with him.He wished to have her under his charge for another reason.His parents had naturally desired to see her once at least before he carried her off to a distant settlement, English or colonial; and as no opinion of theirs was to be allowed to change his intention, he judged that a couple of months' life with him in lodgings whilst seeking for an advantageous opening would be of some social assistance to her at what she might feel to be a trying ordeal - her presentation to his mother at the Vicarage.

Next, he wished to see a little of the working of a flour-mill, having an idea that he might combine the use of one with corn-growing.The proprietor of a large old water-mill at Wellbridge - once the mill of an Abbey - had offered him the inspection of his time-honoured mode of procedure, and a hand in the operations for a few days, whenever he should choose to come.

Clare paid a visit to the place, some few miles distant, one day at this time, to inquire particulars, and returned to Talbothays in the evening.

She found him determined to spend a short time at the Wellbridge flour-mills.

And what had determined him? Less the opportunity of an insight into grinding and bolting than the casual fact that lodgings were to be obtained in that very farmhouse which, before its mutilation, had been the mansion of a branch of the d'Urberville family.This was always how Clare settled practical questions; by a sentiment which had nothing to do with them.They decided to go immediately after the wedding, and remain for a fortnight, instead of journeying to towns and inns.

`Then we will start off to examine some farms on the other side of London that I have heard of,' he said, `and by March or April we will pay a visit to my father and mother.'

Questions of procedure such as these arose and passed, and the day, the incredible day, on which she was to become his, loomed large in the near future.The thirty-first of December, New Year's Eve, was the date.

His wife, she said to herself.Could it ever be? Their two selves together, nothing to divide them, every incident shared by them; why not? And yet why?

One Sunday morning Izz Huett returned from church, and spoke privately to Tess.

`You was not called home this morning.'

`What?'

`It should ha' been the first time of asking to-day,' she answered, looking quietly at Tess.`You meant to be married New Year's Eve, deary?'

The other returned a quick affirmative.

`And there must be three times of asking.And now there be only two Sundays left between.'

Tess felt her cheek paling; Izz was right; of course there must be three.

Perhaps he had forgotten! If so, there must be a week's postponement, and that was unlucky.How could she remind her lover? She who had been so backward was suddenly fired with impatience and alarm lest she should lose her dear prize.

A natural incident relieved her anxiety.Izz mentioned the omission of the banns to Mrs Crick, and Mrs Crick assumed a matron's privilege of speaking to Angel on the point.

`Have ye forgot 'em, Mr Clare? The banns, I mean.'

`No, I have not forgot 'em,' says Clare.

As soon as he caught Tess alone he assured her:

`Don't let them tease you about the banns.A licence will be quieter for us, and I have decided on a licence without consulting you.So if you go to church on Sunday morning you will not hear your own name, if you wished to.'

`I didn't wish to hear it, dearest,' she said proudly.

But to know that things were in train was an immense relief to Tess notwithstanding, who had well-nigh feared that somebody would stand up and forbid the banns on the ground of her history.How events were favouring her!

`I don't quite feel easy,' she said to herself.`All this good fortune may be scourged out of me afterwards by a lot of ill.That's how Heaven mostly does.I wish I could have had common banns!'

But everything went smoothly.She wondered whether he would like her to be married in her present best white frock, or if she ought to buy a new one.The question was set at rest by his forethought, disclosed by the arrival of some large packages addressed to her.Inside them she found a whole stock of clothing, from bonnet to shoes, including a perfect morning costume, such as would well suit the simple wedding they planned.He entered the house shortly after the arrival of the packages, and heard her upstairs undoing them.

A minute later she came down with a flush on her face and tears in her eyes.

`How thoughtful you've been!' she murmured, her cheek upon his shoulder.

`Even to the gloves and handkerchief! My own love - how good, how kind!'

`No, no, Tess; just an order to a tradeswoman in London - nothing more.'