Page:Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891 Volume 2).pdf/138

‘Yes.’

She had no sooner said it than she burst into a dry hard sobbing, so violent that it seemed to rend her. Tess was not a hysterical girl by any means, and he was surprised.

‘Why do you cry, dearest?’

‘I can’t tell—quite!—I am so glad to think—of being yours, and making you happy!’

‘But this does not seem very much like gladness, my Tessy!’

‘I mean—I cry because I have broken down in my vow! I said I would die unmarried.’

‘But, if you love me you would like me to be your husband?’

‘Yes, yes, yes! But O, I sometimes wish I had never been born!’

‘Now, my dear Tess, if I did not know that you are very much excited, and very inexperienced, I should say that remark was not very complimentary. How came you to wish that if you care for me? Do you care for me? I wish you would prove it in some way.’

‘How can I prove it more than I have done?’ she cried, in a distraction of tenderness, ‘Will this prove it more?’