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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty seven. An up hill and down dale ride

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of twenty odd miles through a garish midday atmosphere brought

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him in the afternoon to a detached knoll a mile

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or two west of Talbothays, whence he again looked into

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that green trough of sappiness and humidity, the veil of

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the var or froom. Immediately he began to descend from

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the upland to the fat alluvial soil below. The atmosphere

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grew heavier, the languid perfume of the summer fruits, the mists,

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the hay, the flowers formed therein a vast pool of odor,

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which at this hour seemed to make the animals, the

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very bees and butterflies drowsy. Claire was now so familiar

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with the spot that he knew the individual cows by

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their names, when a long distance off he saw them

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dotted about the meads. It was with a sense of

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luxury that he recognized his power of viewing life here

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from its inner side in a way that had been

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quite forgotten to him in his student days. And much

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as he loved his parents, he could not help being

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aware that to come here as now after an experience

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of home life affected him like throwing off splints and bandages,

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even the one customary curb on the humors of English

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rural society being absent in this place. Talbothays having no

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resident landlord, the denizens were all enjoying the usual afternoon

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nap of an hour or so, which the exceedingly early

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hours kept in summer time rendered a necessity. At the door,

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the wood hooped pails, sodden and bleached by infinite scrubbings,

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hung like hats on a stand upon the forked and

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peeled limb of an oak fixed there for that purpose,

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all of them ready and dry for the evening milking.

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Angel entered and went through the silent passages of the

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house to the back quarters, where he listened for a moment.

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Sustained snores came from the cart house, where some of

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the men were lying down. The grunt and squeal of

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sweltering pigs arose from the still further distance. The large

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leaved rhubarb and cabbage plants slept too, their broad limp

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surfaces hanging in the sun like half closed umbrellas. He

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unbridled and fed his horse, and as he re entered

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the house, the clock struck three three was the afternoon's

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skimming hour, and with the stroke Claire heard the creaking

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of the floorboards above, and then the touch of a

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descending foot on the stairs. It was Tess's, who, in

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another moment, came down before his eyes. She had not

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heard him enter and hardly realized his presence. There. She

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was yawning, and he saw the red interior of her

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mouth as if it had been a snake's. She had

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stretched one arm so high above her coiled up cable

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of hair that he could see it satin delicacy above

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the auban. Her face was flushed with sleep, and her

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eyelids hung heavy over their pupils. The brim fullness of

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her nature breathed from her. It was a moment when

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a woman's soul is more incarnate than at any other time,

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when the most spiritual beauty bespeaks itself. Flesh and sex

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takes the outside place in the presentation. Then those eyes

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flashed brightly through their filmy heaviness, before the remainder of

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her face was well awake, with an oddly compounded look

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of gladness, shyness, and surprise. She exclaimed, Oh, mister Clare,

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how you frightened me. I there had not at first

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been time for her to think of the changed relifeations

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which his declaration had introduced, But the full sense of

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the matter rose up in her face when she encountered

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Claire's tender look as he stepped forward to the bottom stair.

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Dear darling Tessy, he whispered, putting his arm round her

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and his face to her flushed cheek, don't, for Heaven's sake,

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mister me any more, I've hastened back so soon because

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of you. Tess's excitable heart beat against his by way

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of reply. And there they stood upon the red brick

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floor of the entry, the sun slanting in by the window,

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upon his back, as he held her tightly to his breast,

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upon her inclining face, upon the blue veins of her temple,

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upon her naked arm and her neck, and into the

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depths of her hair, having been dying down in her clothes,

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she was warm as a sunned cat. At first she

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would not look straight up at him, but her eyes

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soon lifted, and his plumb the deepness of the ever

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varying pupils, with their radiating fibrils of blue and black

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and gray and Violet, while she regarded him as Eve

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at her second wakening, might have regarded Adam. I've got

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to go a skim in, she pleaded, And I've only

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old deb to help me to day. Missus Krik is

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gone to market with mister Krick, and Retty is not well,

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and the others are gone out somewhere and won't be

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home till milkin. As they retreated to the milk house,

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Deborah Fireander appeared on the stairs. I've come back, Deborah, said,

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mister Clare upwards, so I can help Tess with the skimming.

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And as you're very tired, I am sure you needn't

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come down till milking time. Possibly Talbothay's milk was not

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very thoroughly skimmed. That afternoon, Tess was in a dream

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wherein familiar objects appeared as having light and shade and position,

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but no particular outline. Every time she held the skimmer

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under the pump to cool it for the work, her

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hand trembled, the ardor of his affection, being so palpable

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that she seemed to flinch under it, like a plant

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in too burning a sun. Then he pressed her again

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to his side, and when she had done running her

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forefinger round the leads to cut off the cream edge.

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He cleaned it in nature's way. For the unconstrained manners

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of Talbothay's dairy came convenient. Now I may as well

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say it now as later, dearest, he resumed gently. I

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wish to ask you something of a very practical nature,

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which I have been thinking of ever since that day

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last week in the Meads. I shall soon want to marry,

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and being a farmer, you see, I shall require for

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my wife a woman who knows all about the management

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of farms. Will you be that woman, Tessy. He put

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it in the way that she might not think he

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had yielded to an impulse of which his head would disapprove.

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She turned quite careworn. She had bowed to the inevitable

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result of proximity the necessity of loving him. But she

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had not calculated upon this sudden corollary, which indeed Claire

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had put before her without quite meaning himself to do

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it so soon. With pain that was like the bitterness

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of dissolution, she murmured the words of her indispensable and

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sworn answer, as an honorable woman, Oh, mister Clare, I

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cannot be your wife. I cannot be the sound of

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her own decision seemed to break Tess's very heart, and

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she bowed her face in her grief. But Tess, he said,

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amazed at her reply, and holding her still more greedily close,

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do you say no? Surely you love me? Oh? Yes, yes,

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and I would rather be yours than anybody is in

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the world, returned the sweet and honest voice of the

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distressed girl. But I cannot marry you, Tess, he said,

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holding her at arm's length. You are engaged to marry

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some one else. No, no, then why do you refuse me?

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I don't want to marry I have not thought of

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doing it. I cannot. I only want to love you.

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But why driven to sob defuse? She stammered, Your father

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is a parson, and your mother wouldn't like you to

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marry such as me. She will want you to marry

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a lady. Nonsense. I've spoken to them both. That is

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partly why I went home. I feel I cannot never never,

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she echoed. Is it too sudden to be asked? Thus,

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my pretty Yes, I did not expect it. If you

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will let it pass, please, Tessy, I will give you time,

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he said. It was very abrupt to come home and

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speak to you all at once. I'll not allude to

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it again for a while. She again took up the

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shining skimmer, held it beneath the pump, and began anew.

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But she could not, as at other times, hit the

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exact undersurface of the cream with the delicate dexterity required,

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try as she might. Sometimes she was cutting down into

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the milk. Sometimes in the air she could hardly see,

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her eyes, having filled with two blurring tears, drawn forth

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by a grief which, to this her best friend and

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dear advocate, she could never explain. I can't skim, I can't,

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she said, turning away from him, not to agitate and

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hinder her longer. The considerate Claire began talking in a

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more general way. You quite misapprehend me. My parents. They

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are the most simple mannered people alive, and quite unambitious.

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They are two of the few remaining evangelical school. Tessy,

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are you an evangelical? I don't know. You go to

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church very regularly, and our parson here is not very high.

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They tell me. Tess's ideas on the view of the

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parish clergyman, whom she had heard every week seemed to

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be rather more vague than Claire's, who had never heard

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him at all. I wish I could fix my mind

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on what I hear there more firmly than I do,

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she remarked, as a safe generality is often a great

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sorrow to me. She spoke so unaffectedly that Angel was

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sure in his heart that his father could not object

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to her on religious grounds. Even though she did not

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know whether her principles were high, low, or broad. He

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himself knew that, in reality, the confused beliefs which she held,

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apparently imbibed in childhood were, if anything, tractarian as to phraseology,

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and pantheistic as to essence. Confused or otherwise to disturb

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them was his last desire. Leave thou, thy sister, when

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she prays her early heaven, her happy views, nor thou,

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with shadowed hint confuse a life that leads melodious days.

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He had occasionally thought the council less honest than musical,

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but he gladly conformed to it. Now. He spoke further

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of the incidents of his visit, of his father's mode

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of life, of his zeal for his principles. She grew serener,

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and the undulations disappeared from her skimming as she finished

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one lead after another. He followed her and drew the

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plugs for letting down the milk. I fancied you looked

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a little downcast when you came in, She ventured to observe,

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anxious to keep away from the subject of herself. Yes, well,

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my father has been talking a good deal to me

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of his troubles and difficulties, and the subject always tends

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to depress me. He is so zealous that he gets

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many snubs and buffetings from people in a different way

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of thinking from himself. And I don't like to hear

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of such humiliations to a man of his age, the

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more particularly as I don't think earnestness does any good

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when carried. So far, he has been telling me of

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a very unpleasant scene in which he took part. Quite recently,

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he went as the deputy to some missionary society to

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preach in the neighborhood of Trantridge, a place forty miles

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from here, and made it his business to expostulate with

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a lax young cynic. He met with somewhere about there,

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son of some landowner up that way, and who has

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a mother afflicted with blindness. My father addressed himself to

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the gentleman point blank, and there was quite a disturbance.

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It was very foolish of my father, I must say,

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to intrude his conversation upon a stranger when the probabilities

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were so obvious that it would be useless. But whatever

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he thinks to be his duty, that he'll do, in

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season or out of season. And of course he makes

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many enemies, not only among the absolutely vicious, but among

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the easy going who hate to be bothered. He says

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he glories in what happened, and that good may be

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done indirectly. But I wish he would not so wear

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himself out now he's getting old, and would leave such

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pigs to their wallowing. Tess's look had grown hard and worn,

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and her ripe mouth tragical, and she no longer showed

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any tremulousness. Claire's revived thoughts of his father prevented his

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noticing her particularly, And so they went on down the

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white row of liquid rectangles till they had finished, and

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drained them off. When the other maids returned and took

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their pails, and deb came to schoold out the leads

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for the new milk. As Tess withdrew to go afield

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to the cows, he said to her softly, and my question, Tessy,

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oh no, no, replied she with grave hopelessness, as one

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who had heard anew the turmoil of her own past

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in the illusion of Alec d'urberville. It can't be. She

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went out toward the mead, joining the other milkmaids with

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a bound, as if to try to make the open

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air drive away her sad constraint. All the gulls drew

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onward to the spot where the cows were grazing in

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the further mead, the bevy advancing with the bold grace

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of wild animals, the reckless, unchastened motion of women accustomed

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to unlimited space, in which they abandoned themselves to the

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air as a swimmer to the wave. It seemed natural

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enough to him now that was again in sight, to

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choose a mate from unconstrained nature, and not from the

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abodes of art. End of Chapter twenty seven