Page:Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891 Volume 2).pdf/153

‘No,’ she said, becoming grave; ‘I have so many things to think of first.’

‘But———’

He drew her gently nearer to him.

The reality of marriage was startling when it loomed so near. Before discussion of the question had proceeded further there walked round the corner of the settle into the full firelight of the apartment Mr. Dairyman Crick, Mrs. Crick, and two of the milkmaids.

Tess sprang like an elastic ball from his side to her feet, while her face flushed and her eyes shone in the fire-light.

‘I knew how it would be if I sat so close to him!’ she cried, with vexation. ‘I said to myself, they are sure to come and catch us! But I wasn’t really sitting on his knee, though it might have seemed as if I was almost.’

‘Well—if so be you hadn’t told us, I am sure we shouldn’ ha’ noticed that you had been sitting anywhere at all in this light,’ replied the dairyman. He continued to his wife, with the stolid mien of a man who understood nothing of the emotions relating to matrimony—‘Now, Christianer, that shows that folks should never