Tess of the dUrbervilles
Page 249"But we have already taken the rooms at Kingsbere!" she declared.
"And we can wait there--"
"Wait--what for? For that nice husband, no doubt. Now look here,
Tess, I know what men are, and, bearing in mind the grounds of
your separation, I am quite positive he will never make it up with
you. Now, though I have been your enemy, I am your friend, even
if you won't believe it. Come to this cottage of mine. We'll get
up a regular colony of fowls, and your mother can attend to them
excellently; and the children can go to school."
Tess breathed more and more quickly, and at length she said-
change--and then--we should be--my mother would be--homeless
again."
"O no--no. I would guarantee you against such as that in writing, if
necessary. Think it over." Tess shook her head. But d'Urberville persisted; she had seldom seen
him so determined; he would not take a negative.
"Please just tell your mother," he said, in emphatic tones. "It is
her business to judge--not yours. I shall get the house swept out
and whitened to-morrow morning, and fires lit; and it will be dry by
the evening, so that you can come straight there. Now mind, I shall
emotion. She could not look up at d'Urberville.
"I owe you something for the past, you know," he resumed. "And you
cured me, too, of that craze; so I am glad--"
"I would rather you had kept the craze, so that you had kept the
practice which went with it!"
"I am glad of this opportunity of repaying you a little. To-morrow I
shall expect to hear your mother's goods unloading... Give me your
hand on it now--dear, beautiful Tess!"
With the last sentence he had dropped his voice to a murmur, and put
the stay-bar quickly, and, in doing so, caught his arm between the
casement and the stone mullion.
"Damnation--you are very cruel!" he said, snatching out his arm.
"No, no!--I know you didn't do it on purpose. Well I shall expect
you, or your mother and children at least."
"I shall not come--I have plenty of money!" she cried. "Where?"
"At my father-in-law's, if I ask for it."
"IF you ask for it. But you won't, Tess; I know you; you'll never
ask for it--you'll starve first!"