"I will not desert you! I will protect you by every means in my
power, dearest love, whatever you may have done or not have done!"
They then walked on under the trees, Tess turning her head every now
and then to look at him. Worn and unhandsome as he had become, it
was plain that she did not discern the least fault in his appearance.
To her he was, as of old, all that was perfection, personally and
mentally. He was still her Antinous, her Apollo even; his sickly
face was beautiful as the morning to her affectionate regard on
this day no less than when she first beheld him; for was it not the
face of the one man on earth who had loved her purely, and who had
believed in her as pure! With an instinct as to possibilities, he did not now, as he had
intended, make for the first station beyond the town, but plunged
still farther under the firs, which here abounded for miles. Each
clasping the other round the waist they promenaded over the dry bed
of fir-needles, thrown into a vague intoxicating atmosphere at the
consciousness of being together at last, with no living soul between
them; ignoring that there was a corpse. Thus they proceeded for
several miles till Tess, arousing herself, looked about her, and
said, timidly-"Are we going anywhere in particular?"
"I don't know, dearest. Why?" "I don't know."
"Well, we might walk a few miles further, and when it is evening find
lodgings somewhere or other--in a lonely cottage, perhaps. Can you
walk well, Tessy?"
"O yes! I could walk for ever and ever with your arm round me!"
Upon the whole it seemed a good thing to do. Thereupon they
quickened their pace, avoiding high roads, and following obscure
paths tending more or less northward. But there was an unpractical
vagueness in their movements throughout the day; neither one of them
seemed to consider any question of effectual escape, disguise, or
long concealment. Their every idea was temporary and unforefending,
like the plans of two children.
At mid-day they drew near to a roadside inn, and Tess would have
entered it with him to get something to eat, but he persuaded
her to remain among the trees and bushes of this half-woodland,
half-moorland part of the country till he should come back. Her
clothes were of recent fashion; even the ivory-handled parasol that
she carried was of a shape unknown in the retired spot to which they
had now wandered; and the cut of such articles would have attracted
attention in the settle of a tavern. He soon returned, with food
enough for half-a-dozen people and two bottles of wine--enough to
last them for a day or more, should any emergency arise.