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Rolliver’s and The Pure Drop will say to me! How they’ll squint and glane, and say, “This is yer mighty match is it; this is yer getting back to the true level of yer forefathers in King Norman’s time!” I feel this too much, Joan; I shall put an end to myself, title and all—I can bear it no longer! . . . . But she can make him keep her if he’s married her?’

‘Why, yes. But she won’t think o’ doing that.’

‘D’ye think he really have married her?—or is it like the first——’

Poor Tess, who had heard as far as this, could not bear to hear more. The perception that her word could be doubted even here, in her own parental house, set her mind against the spot as nothing else could have done. How unexpected were the attacks of destiny! And if her father doubted her a little, would not strangers and acquaintance doubt her much? O, she could not live long at home!

A few days, accordingly, were all that she allowed herself here, at the end of which time she received a short note from Clare, informing her that he had gone to the North of England