He moodily reflected with his eyes on the ground. "Married. Married! ... Well, that being so," he added, quite
calmly, tearing the licence slowly into halves and putting them in
his pocket; "that being prevented, I should like to do some good to
you and your husband, whoever he may be. There are many questions
that I am tempted to ask, but I will not do so, of course, in
opposition to your wishes. Though, if I could know your husband, I
might more easily benefit him and you. Is he on this farm?"
"No," she murmured. "He is far away."
"Far away? From YOU? What sort of husband can he be?"
"O, do not speak against him! It was through you! He found out--"
"Ah, is it so! ... That's sad, Tess!"
"Yes."
"But to stay away from you--to leave you to work like this!"
"He does not leave me to work!" she cried, springing to the defence
of the absent one with all her fervour. "He don't know it! It is by
my own arrangement."
"Then, does he write?"
"I--I cannot tell you. There are things which are private to
ourselves."
"Of course that means that he does not. You are a deserted wife, my
fair Tess--" In an impulse he turned suddenly to take her hand; the buff-glove was
on it, and he seized only the rough leather fingers which did not
express the life or shape of those within.
"You must not--you must not!" she cried fearfully, slipping her hand
from the glove as from a pocket, and leaving it in his grasp. "O,
will you go away--for the sake of me and my husband--go, in the name
of your own Christianity!" "Yes, yes; I will," he said abruptly, and thrusting the glove back to
her he turned to leave. Facing round, however, he said, "Tess, as
God is my judge, I meant no humbug in taking your hand!"
A pattering of hoofs on the soil of the field, which they had not
noticed in their preoccupation, ceased close behind them; and a voice
reached her ear: "What the devil are you doing away from your work at this time o'
day?" Farmer Groby had espied the two figures from the distance, and had
inquisitively ridden across, to learn what was their business in his
field. "Don't speak like that to her!" said d'Urberville, his face
blackening with something that was not Christianity.