, meant to go to some strange
place, not a dairy; for milkmaids were not in request now calving-time was
coming on; to go to some arable farm where no divine being like Angel Clare was.
She hated the thought, and she hated more the thought of going home.
    »So that, seriously, dearest Tess,« he continued, »since you will probably
have to leave at Christmas, it is in every way desirable and convenient that I
should carry you off then as my property. Besides, if you were not the most
uncalculating girl in the world you would know that we could not go on like this
for ever.«
    »I wish we could. That it would always be summer and autumn, and you always
courting me, and always thinking as much of me as you have done through the past
summer-time!«
    »I always shall.«
    »O, I know you will!« she cried, with a sudden fervour of faith in him.
»Angel, I will fix the day when I will become yours for always!«
    Thus at last it was arranged between them, during that dark walk home, amid
the myriads of liquid voices on the right and left.
    When they reached the dairy Mr. and Mrs. Crick were promptly told - with
injunctions to secrecy; for each of the lovers was desirous that the marriage
should be kept as private as possible. The dairyman, though he had thought of
dismissing her soon, now made a great concern about losing her. What should he
do about his skimming? Who would make the ornamental butter-pats for the
Anglebury and Sand-bourne ladies? Mrs. Crick congratulated Tess on the
shilly-shallying having at last come to an end, and said that directly she set
eyes on Tess she divined that she was to be the chosen one of somebody who was
no common outdoor man; Tess had looked so superior as she walked across the
barton on that afternoon of her arrival; that she was of a good family she could
have sworn. In point of fact Mrs. Crick did remember thinking that Tess was
graceful and good-looking as she approached; but the superiority might have been
a growth of the imagination aided by subsequent knowledge.
    Tess was now carried along upon the wings of the hours, without the sense of
a will. The word had been given; the number of the day written down. Her
naturally bright intelligence had begun to admit the fatalistic convictions
common to field - folk and those who associate more extensively with natural
phenomena than with their fellow-