第52章

Tess was woman enough to realize from their avowals to herself that Angel Clare had the honour of all the dairymaids in his keeping, and her perception of his care to avoid compromising the happiness of either in the least degree bred a tender respect in Tess for what she deemed, rightly or wrongly, the self-controlling sense of duty shown by him, a quality which she had never expected to find in one of the opposite sex, and in the absence of which more than one of the simple hearts who were his housemates might have gone weeping on her pilgrimage.Chapter 23 The hot weather of July had crept upon them unawares, and the atmosphere of the flat vale hung heavy as an opiate over the dairy-folk, the cows, and the trees.Hot steaming rains fell frequently, making the grass where the cows fed yet more rank, and hindering the late haymaking in the other meads.

It was Sunday morning; the milking was done; the outdoor milkers had gone home.Tess and the other three were dressing themselves rapidly, the whole bevy having agreed to go together to Mellstock Church, which lay some three or four miles distant from the dairy-house.She had now been two months at Talbothays, and this was her first excursion.

All the preceding afternoon and night heavy thunderstorms had hissed down upon the meads, and washed some of the hay into the river; but this morning the sun shone out all the more brilliantly for the deluge, and the air was balmy and clear.

The crooked lane leading from their own parish to Mellstock ran along the lowest levels in a portion of its length, and when the girls reached the most depressed spot they found that the result of the rain had been to flood the lane over-shoe to a distance of some fifty yards.This would have been no serious hindrance on a week-day; they would have clicked through it in their high pattens and boots quite unconcerned; but on this day of vanity, this Sun's-day, when flesh went forth to coquet with flesh while hypocritically affecting business with spiritual things; on this occasion for wearing their white stockings and thin shoes, and their pink, white, and lilac gowns, on which every mud spot would be visible, the pool was an awkward impediment.They could hear the church-bell calling - as yet nearly a mile off.

`Who would have expected such a rise in the river in summertime!' said Marian, from the top of the roadside-bank on which they had climbed, and were maintaining a precarious footing in the hope of creeping along its slope till they were past the pool.

`We can't get there anyhow, without walking right through it, or else going round the Turnpike way; and that would make us so very late!' said Retty, pausing hopelessly.

`And I do colour up so hot, walking into church late, and all the people staring round,' said Marian,' that I hardly cool down again till we get into the That-it-may-please-Thees.'

While they stood clinging to the bank they heard a splashing round the bend of the road, and presently appeared Angel Clare, advancing along the lane towards them through the water.

Four hearts gave a big throb simultaneously.

His aspect was probably as un-Sabbatarian a one as a dogmatic parson's son often presented; his attire being his dairy clothes, long wading boots, a cabbage-leaf inside his hat to keep his head cool, with a thistle-spud to finish him off.

`He's not going to church,' said Marian.

`No - I wish he was!' murmured Tess.

Angel, in fact, rightly or wrongly (to adopt the safe phrase of evasive controversialists), preferred sermons in stones to sermons in churches and chapels on fine summer days.This morning, moreover, he had gone out to see if the damage to the hay by the flood was considerable or not.On his walk he observed the girls from a long distance, though they had been so occupied with their difficulties of passage as not to notice him.He knew that the water had risen at that spot, and that it would quite check their progress.So he had hastened on, with a dim idea of how he could help them - one of them in particular.

The rosy-cheeked, bright-eyed quartet looked so charming in their light summer attire, clinging to the roadside bank like pigeons on a roof-slope, that he stopped a moment to regard them before coming close.Their gauzy skirts had brushed up from the grass innumerable files and butterflies which, unable to escape, remained caged in the transparent tissue as in an aviary.Angel's eye at last fell upon Tess, the hindmost of the four;she, being full of suppressed laughter at their dilemma, could not help meeting his glance radiantly.

He came beneath them in the water, which did not rise over his long boots; and stood looking at the entrapped flies and butterflies.

`Are you trying to get to church?' he said to Marian, who was in front, including the next two in his remark, but avoiding Tess.

`Yes, sir; and 'tis getting late; and my colour do come up so--'

`I'll carry you through the pool - every Jill of you.'

The whole four flushed as if one heart beat through them.

`I think you can't, sir,' said Marian.

`It is the only way for you to get past.Stand still.Nonsense - you are not too heavy! I'd carry you all four together.Now, Marian, attend,'

he continued, `and put your arms round my shoulders, so.Now! Hold on.

That's well done.'

Marian had lowered herself upon his arm and shoulder as directed, and Angel strode off with her, his slim figure, as viewed from behind, looking like the mere stem to the great nosegay suggested by hers.They disappeared round the curve of the road, and only his sousing footsteps and the top ribbon of Marian's bonnet told where they were.In a few minutes he reappeared.

Izz Huett was the next in order upon the bank.

`Here he comes,' she murmured, and they could hear that her lips were dry with emotion.`And I have to put my arms round his neck and look into his face as Marian did.'

`There's nothing in that,' said Tess quickly.

`There's a time for everything,' continued Izz, unheeding.`A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; the first is now going to be mine.'