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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty nine. Now, who MIDGYI think I've heard news

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her this mornin, said Dairyman Crick as he sat down

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to breakfast next day, with a riddling gaze round the

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munching men and maids. Now, jest, do MIDGYI think one

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guest and another guest? Missus Creak did not guess, because

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she knew already well, said the dairyman. Tis that slack

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twisted or as bird of a feller, Jack Dollop, He's

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lately got married to a widow woman. Not Jack Dullup,

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a villain to think? O that, said a milker. The

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name entered quickly into Tess Durbeyfield's consciousness, for it was

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the name of the lover who had wronged his sweetheart

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and had afterwards been so roughly used by the young

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woman's mother in the butter churn. And has he married

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the valiant matron's daughter as he promised? Asked Angel Clare absently,

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as he turned over the newspaper he was reading at

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the little table to which he was always banished by

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Missus Crick in her sense of his gentility. Not he, sir,

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never meant too, replied the dairyman. As I say tis

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a widow woman, and she had money, it seems, fifty

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pound a year or so, and that was all he

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was after they were married in a great hurry, And

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then she told him that by marrying she had lost

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her fifty pound a year. Just fancy the state of

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my gentleman's mind at the news. Never such a cat

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and dog life as they've been leading ever since, serves him. Well,

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be right, but unlucky. The poor woman gets the worst.

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Aunt well, the silly buddy. She'd had told him sooner

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that the ghost of her first man would trouble him,

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said missus. Craik ay Ay, responded the dairyman indecisively. Still,

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you can see exactly how twas she wanted a home

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and didn't like to run the risk of losing him.

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Don't ye think that was something like it? Maidens? He

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glanced toward the royal girls she h told him just

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before they went out to church, when he could hardly

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have backed out, exclaimed Marian. Yes, she ought agreed. Is

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she must have seen what he was after, and she'd

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have refused him, said Retty sposmatically. And what do you say,

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my dear, asked the dairyman of tess I think she

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ought to have told him the true state of things,

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or else refused him. I don't know, replied Tess. The

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bread and butter choking her be cussed if I'd done either, aunt,

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said beck NIBBs, a married helper from one of the cottages.

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All's fair in love and war. I'd a married him

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just as she did. And if he'd ha said two

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words to me about not telling him beforehand anything whatsoever

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about my first chap that I hadn't choose to tell. Oh,

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i'd a knut em down. We are rolling pin, a

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scrammed little fellow like e any woman could do it.

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The laughter which followed this Sally was supplemented only by

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a sorry smile for form's sake from Tess. What was

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comedy to them was tragedy to her, and she could

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hardly bear the mirth. She soon rose from table, and,

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with an impression that Claire would follow her, went along

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a little wriggling path, now stepping to one side of

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the irrigating channels, and now to the other, till she

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stood by the main stream of the var Men had

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been cutting the water weeds higher up the river, and

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masses of them were floating past her, moving islands of

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green crowfoot, whereupon she might almost have ridden long locks

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of which weed had lodged against the piles, driven to

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keep the cows from crossing. Yes, there was the pain

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of it, This question of a woman telling her story

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the heaviest of crosses to herself seemed but amusement to others.

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It was as if people should laugh at martyrdom. Tessy

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came from behind her, and Claire sprang across the gully,

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alighting beside her feet. My wife soon, No, No, I cannot.

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For your sake, Oh, mister Clare, for your sake, I

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say no. Tess Still, I say no, she repeated, not

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expecting that he had put his arm lightly round her

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waist the moment after speaking beneath her hanging tail of hair.

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The younger dairy maids, including tess breakfasted with their hair

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loose on Sunday mornings, before building it up extra high

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for attending church, a style which they could not adopt

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when milking with their heads against the cows. If she

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had said yes instead of no, he would have kissed her.

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It had evidently been his intention, but had determined negative

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deterred his scrupulous heart. Their condition of domiciliary comradeship put

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her as the woman, to such disadvantage by its enforced

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intercourse that he felt it unfair to her to exercise

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any pressure of blandishment, which he might have honestly employed

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had she been better able to avoid him. He released

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her momentarily imprisoned waist and withheld the kiss. It all

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turned on that release. What had given her strength to

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refuse him this time was solely the tale of the

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widow told by the dairy man, and that would have

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been overcome in another moment. But Angel said no more.

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His face was perplexed. He went away. Day after day

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they met somewhat less constantly than before, and thus two

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or three weeks went by the end of September drew near,

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and she could see in his eye that he might

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ask her again. His plan of procedure was different now,

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as though he had made up his mind that her

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negatives were after all, only coyness and youth. Startled by

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the novelty of the proposal, the fitful evasiveness of her

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manner when the subject was under discussion countenanced the idea.

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So he played a more coaxing game, and while never

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going beyond words, or attempting the renewal of caresses. He

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did his utmost orally. In this way, Claire persistently wooed

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her in undertones like that of the pearling milk at

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the cow's side, at skimmings, at butter makings, at cheese makings,

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among broody poultry, and among farrowing pigs. As no milkmaid

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was ever wooed before by such a man, Tess knew

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that she must break down. Neither a religious sense of

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a certain moral validity in the previous union, nor a

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conscientious wish for candor, could hold out against it much longer.

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She loved him so passionately, and he was so godly

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in her eyes, and, being though untrained, instinctively refined her nature,

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cried for his tutelary guidance. And thus, though Tess kept

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repeating to herself, I can never be his wife, the

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words were in vain. A proof of her weakness lay

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in the very utterance of what calm strength would not

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have taken. The trouble to formulate every sound of his voice,

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beginning on the cold subject, stirred her with a terrifying bliss,

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and she coveted the recantation. She feared his manner was

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what man's is, not so much that of one who

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would love and cherish and defend her under any conditions, changes, charges,

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or revelations, that her gloom lessened as she basked in it.

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The season, meanwhile, was drawing onward to the equinox, and

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though it was still fine, the days were much shorter.

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The dairy had again worked by mourning candlelight for a

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long time, and a fresh renewal of Clare's pleading occurred.

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One morning between three and four. She had run up

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in her bed gown to his door to call him

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as usual, then had gone back to dress and called

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the others, and in ten minutes was walking to the

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head of the stairs with a candle in her hand.

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At the same moment, he came down the steps from

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above in his shirt sleeves and put his arm across

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the stairway. Now, miss Flirt, before you go down, he said, peremptorily.

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It is a fortnight since I spoke, and this won't

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do any longer. You must tell me what you mean,

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or I shall have to leave this house. My door

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was ajar just now and I saw you. For your

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own safety, I must go. You don't know. Well is

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it to be? Yes at last? I'm only just up,

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mister Clare, and it's too early to take me to task,

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she pouted. You need not call me flirt tis cruel

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and untrue. Wait till both, and boy, please wait till

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by and by. I will really think seriously about it

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between now and then let me go downstairs. She looked

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a little like what she said she was, as holding

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the candle sideways, she tried to smile away the seriousness

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of her words. Call me angel, then, and not mister Clare. Angel,

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Angel dearest. Why not twould mean that I agree, wouldn't it?

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It would only mean that you love me, even if

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you cannot marry me, and you were so good as

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to own that long ago. Very well, then, Angel dearest,

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if I must, she murmured, looking at her candle, a

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roguish curl coming upon her mouth. Notwithstanding her suspense, Claire

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had resolved never to kiss her until he had obtained

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her promise. But somehow, as Tess stood there in her

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pretty tu dup milking gown, her hair carelessly heaped upon

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her head till there should be leisure to arrange it.

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When skimming and milking were done, he broke his resolve

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and brought his lips to her cheek for one moment.

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She passed downstairs, very quickly, never looking back at him

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or saying another word. The other maids were already down,

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and the subject was not pursued. Except Marian. They all

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looked wistfully and suspiciously at the pair in the sad

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yellow rays which the morning candles emitted in contrast with

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the first cold signals of the dawn without When skimming

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was done, which as the milk diminished with the approach

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of autumn, was a lessening process day by day, Retty

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and the rest went out. The lovers followed them. Our

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tremulous lives are so different from theirs, are they not?

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He musingly observed her as he regarded the three figures

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tripping before him through the frigid pallor of opening day.

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Not so very different, I think, she said. Why do

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you think that there are very few women's lives that

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are not tremulous? Tess replied, pausing over the new word,

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as if it impressed her. There's more in those three

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than you think. What is in them? Almost either of them,

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she began, would make, perhaps would make a properer wife

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than I, and perhaps they love you as well as I. Almost, Oh, Tessy,

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there were signs that it was almost an exquisite relief

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to her to hear the impatient exclamation. Though she had

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resolved so intrepidly not to let generosity make one beard

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against herself, that was now done, and she had not

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the power to attempt so immolation a second a time.

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Then they were joined by a milker from one of

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the cottages, and no more was said on that which

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concerned them so deeply, But tess knew that this day

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would decide it. In the afternoon, several of the dairy

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man's household and assistants went down to the meads, as usual,

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a long way from the dairy, where many of the

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cows were milked without being driven home. The supply was

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getting less as the animals advanced in calf and the

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supernumerary milkers of the last green season had been dismissed.

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The work progressed leisurely. Each pailful was poured into tall

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cans that stood in a large spring wagon which had

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been brought upon the scene, and when they were milked,

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the cows trailed away. Dairyman Crick, who was there with

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the rest his wrapper gleaming miraculously white against it's the

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leaden evening sky, suddenly looked at his heavy watch. Why

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tis later than a thought? He said, be gad, we

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sha'n't be sowed enough with this milk at the station.

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If we don't mind, there's no time to day to

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take it home and mix it with the bulk afore

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ascending off. It must gold a station straight from here.

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Who drove it across? Mister Clare volunteered to do so,

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though it was none of his business, asking Tess to

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accompany him. The evening, though sunless had been warm and

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muggy for the season, and Tess had come out with

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her milking hood only naked, armed and jacketless, certainly not

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dressed for a drive. She therefore replied by glancing over

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her scant habiliments, but Claire gently urged her. She assented

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by relinquishing her pale and stool to the dairy man

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to take home, and mounted the spring wagon besure side Claire.

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End of Chapter twenty nine