Tess of the dUrbervilles

She did return upstairs, and put on the gown. Alone, she stood for a

moment before the glass looking at the effect of her silk attire; and

then there came into her head her mother's ballad of the mystic

robe-That never would become that wife

That had once done amiss, which Mrs Durbeyfield had used to sing to her as a child, so blithely

and so archly, her foot on the cradle, which she rocked to the tune.

Suppose this robe should betray her by changing colour, as her robe

had betrayed Queen Guinevere. Since she had been at the dairy she

had not once thought of the lines till now.

XXXIII

Angel felt that he would like to spend a day with her before the

wedding, somewhere away from the dairy, as a last jaunt in her

company while there were yet mere lover and mistress; a romantic day,

in circumstances that would never be repeated; with that other and

greater day beaming close ahead of them. During the preceding week,

therefore, he suggested making a few purchases in the nearest town,

and they started together.

Clare's life at the dairy had been that of a recluse in respect the

world of his own class. For months he had never gone near a town,

and, requiring no vehicle, had never kept one, hiring the dairyman's

cob or gig if he rode or drove.

They went in the gig that day. And then for the first time in their lives they shopped as partners

in one concern. It was Christmas Eve, with its loads a holly and

mistletoe, and the town was very full of strangers who had come in

from all parts of the country on account of the day. Tess paid the

penalty of walking about with happiness superadded to beauty on her

countenance by being much stared at as she moved amid them on his

arm. In the evening they returned to the inn at which they had put up, and

Tess waited in the entry while Angel went to see the horse and gig

brought to the door. The general sitting-room was full of guests,

who were continually going in and out. As the door opened and shut

each time for the passage of these, the light within the parlour fell

full upon Tess's face. Two men came out and passed by her among the

rest. One of them had stared her up and down in surprise, and she

fancied he was a Trantridge man, though that village lay so many

miles off that Trantridge folk were rarities here.

"A comely maid that," said the other.