Page 369 - tess-of-the-durbervilles

in their adieux as ‘we’, and yet sundered like the poles. Per-
haps something unusually stiff and embarrassed in their
attitude, some awkwardness in acting up to their profession
of unity, different from the natural shyness of young cou-
ples, may have been apparent, for when they were gone Mrs
Crick said to her husband—
‘How onnatural the brightness of her eyes did seem, and
how they stood like waxen images and talked as if they were
in a dream! Didn’t it strike ‘ee that ‘twas so? Tess had al-
ways sommat strange in her, and she’s not now quite like the
proud young bride of a well-be-doing man.’
They re-entered the vehicle, and were driven along the
roads towards Weatherbury and Stagfoot Lane, till they
reached the Lane inn, where Clare dismissed the fly and
man. They rested here a while, and entering the Vale were
next driven onward towards her home by a stranger who
did not know their relations. At a midway point, when Nut-
tlebury had been passed, and where there were cross-roads,
Clare stopped the conveyance and said to Tess that if she
meant to return to her mother’s house it was here that he
would leave her. As they could not talk with freedom in the
driver’s presence he asked her to accompany him for a few
steps on foot along one of the branch roads; she assented,
and directing the man to wait a few minutes they strolled
away.
‘Now, let us understand each other,’ he said gently. ‘There
is no anger between us, though there is that which I cannot
endure at present. I will try to bring myself to endure it. I
will let you know where I go to as soon as I know myself.

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