第119章

In affected severity d'Urberville continued--`Entirely.I have broken every engagement since that afternoon I was to address the drunkards at Casterbridge Fair.The deuce only knows what I am thought of by the brethren.Ah-ha! The brethren! No doubt they pray for me - weep for me; for they are kind people in their way.But what do I care? How could I go on with the thing when I had lost my faith in it?

- it would have been hypocrisy of the basest kind! Among them I should have stood like Hymenaeus and Alexander, who were delivered over to Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme.What a grand revenge you have taken!

I saw you innocent, and I deceived you.Four years after, you find me a Christian enthusiast; you then work upon me, perhaps to my complete perdition!

But Tess, my coz, as I used to call you, this is only my way of talking, and you must not look so horribly concerned.Of course you have done nothing except retain your pretty face and shapely figure.I saw it on the rick before you saw me - that tight pinafore-thing sets it off, and that wing-bonnet - you field-girls should never wear those bonnets if you wish to keep out of danger.' He regarded her silently for a few moments, and with a short cynical laugh resumed: `I believe that if the bachelor-apostle, whose deputy I thought I was, had been tempted by such a pretty face, he would have let go the plough for her sake as I do!'

Tess attempted to expostulate, but at this juncture all her fluency failed her, and without heeding he added:

`Well, this paradise that you supply is perhaps as good as any other, after all.But to speak seriously, Tess.' D'Urberville rose and came nearer, reclining sideways amid the sheaves, and resting upon his elbow.`Since I last saw you, I have been thinking of what you said that he said.

I have come to the conclusion that there does seem rather a want of commonsense in these threadbare old propositions; how I could have been so fired by poor Parson Clare's enthusiasm, and have gone so madly to work, transcending even him, I cannot make out! As for what you said last time, on the strength of your wonderful husband's intelligence - whose name you have never told me - about having what they call an ethical system without any dogma, Idon't see my way to that at all.'

`Why, you can have the religion of loving-kindness and purity at least, if you can't have - what do you call it - dogma.'

`O no! I'm a different sort of fellow from that! If there's nobody to say, "Do this, and it will be a good thing for you after you are dead;do that, and it will he a bad thing for you," I can't warm up.Hang it, I am not going to feel responsible for my deeds and passions if there's nobody to be responsible to; and if I were you, my dear, I wouldn't either!'

She tried to argue, and tell him that he had mixed in his dull brain two matters, theology and morals, which in the primitive days of mankind had been quite distinct.But owing to Angel Clare's reticence, to her absolute want of training, and to her being a vessel of emotions rather than reasons, she could not get on.

`Well, never mind,' he resumed.`Here I am, my love, as in the old times!'

`Not as then - never as then--'tis different!' she entreated.`And there was never warmth with me! O why didn't you keep your faith, if the loss of it has brought you to speak to me like this!'

`Because you've knocked it out of me; so the evil be upon your sweet head! Your husband little thought how his teaching would recoil upon him!

Ha-ha - I'm awfully glad you have made an apostate of me all the same!

Tess, I am more taken with you than ever, and I pity you too.For all your closeness, I see you are in a bad way - neglected by one who ought to cherish you.'

She could not get her morsels of food down her throat; her lips were dry, and she was ready to choke.The voices and laughs of the workfolk eating and drinking under the rick came to her as if they were a quarter of a mile off.

`It is cruelty to me!' she said.`How - how can you treat me to this talk, if you care ever so little for me?'

`True, true,' he said, wincing a little.`i did not come to reproach you for my deeds.I came, Tess, to say that I don't like you to be working like this, and I have come on purpose for you.You say you have a husband who is not I.Well, perhaps you have; but I've never seen him, and you've not told me his name; and altogether he seems rather a mythological personage.

However, even if you have one, I think I am nearer to you than he is.I, at any rate, try to help you out of trouble, but he does not, bless his invisible face! The words of the stern prophet Hosea that I used to read come back to me.Don't you know them, Tess? - "And she shall follow after her lover, but she shall not overtake him; and she shall seek him, but shall not find him; then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now!"...Tess, my trap is waiting lust under the hill, and - darling mine, not his! - you know the rest.'

Her face had been rising to a dull crimson fire while he spoke; but she did not answer.

`You have been the cause of my backsliding,' he continued, stretching his arm towards her waist; `you should be willing to share it, and leave that mule you call husband for ever.'

One of her leather gloves, which she had taken off to eat her skimmer-cake, lay in her lap, and without the slightest warning she passionately swung the glove by the gauntlet directly in his face.It was heavy and thick as a warrior's, and it struck him flat on the mouth.Fancy might have regarded the act as the recrudescence of a trick in which her armed progenitors were not unpractised.Alec fiercely started up from his reclining position.

A scarlet oozing appeared where her blow had alighted, and in a moment the blood began dropping from his mouth upon the straw.But he soon controlled himself, calmly drew his handkerchief from his pocket, and mopped his bleeding lips.

She too had sprung up, but she sank down again.