Page:Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891 Volume 2).pdf/99

The sound of her own decision seemed to break Tess’s very heart, and she bowed her face in her grief.

‘But, Tess!’ he said, amazed at her reply, and holding her still more greedily close. ‘Do you say no? Surely you love me?’

‘O yes, yes! And I would rather marry you than anybody in the world,’ returned the honest voice of the distressed girl, ‘But I cannot marry you!’

‘Tess,’ he said, holding her at arm’s length, ‘you are engaged to marry some one else!’

‘No, no!’

‘Then why do you refuse me?’

‘I don’t want to marry. I have not thought o’ doing it. I cannot. I only want to love you.’

‘But why?’

Driven to subterfuge, she stammered—

‘Your father is a parson, and your mother wouldn’ like you to marry such as me. She will want you to marry a lady.’

‘Nonsense—I have spoken to them both. That was partly why I went home.’

‘I feel I cannot—never, never!’ she echoed.

‘Is it too sudden to be asked thus, my Pretty?’