. Yet it must be admitted that
this family formed a very good stock whereon to regraft a name which sadly
wanted such renovation.
    When old Mr. Simon Stoke, latterly deceased, had made his fortune as an
honest merchant (some said money-lender) in the North, he decided to settle as a
county man in the South of England, out of hail of his business district; and in
doing this he felt the necessity of recommencing with a name that would not too
readily identify him with the smart tradesman of the past, and that would be
less commonplace than the original bald stark words. Conning for an hour in the
British Museum the pages of works devoted to extinct, half-extinct, obscured,
and ruined families appertaining to the quarter of England in which he proposed
to settle, he considered that d'Urberville looked and sounded as well as any of
them: and d'Urberville accordingly was annexed to his own name for himself and
his heirs eternally. Yet he was not an extravagant-minded man in this, and in
constructing his family tree on the new basis was duly reasonable in framing his
intermarriages and aristocratic links, never inserting a single title above a
rank of strict moderation.
    Of this work of imagination poor Tess and her parents were naturally in
ignorance - much to their discomfiture; indeed, the very possibility of such
annexations was unknown to them; who supposed that, though to be well-favoured
might be the gift of fortune, a family name came by nature.
    Tess still stood hesitating like a bather about to make his plunge, hardly
knowing whether to retreat or to persevere, when a figure came forth from the
dark triangular door of the tent. It was that of a tall young man, smoking.
    He had an almost swarthy complexion, with full lips, badly moulded, though
red and smooth, above which was a well-groomed black moustache with curled
points, though his age could not be more than three- or four-and-twenty. Despite
the touches of barbarism in his contours, there was a singular force in the
gentleman's face, and in his bold rolling eye.
    »Well, my Beauty, what can I do for you?« said he, coming forward. And
perceiving that she stood quite confounded: »Never mind me. I am Mr.
d'Urberville. Have you come to see me or my mother?«
    This embodiment of a d'Urberville and a namesake differed even more from
what Tess had expected than the house and grounds had differed. She had dreamed
of an aged and
