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the mouth with my glove, that I might do it some day for the wrong he did to me in my simple youth, and to you through me. He has come between us and ruined us, and now he can never do it any more. I never loved him at all, Angel, as I loved you. You know it, don't you? You believe it? You didn't come back to me, and I was obliged to go back to him. Why did you go away—why did you—when I loved you so? I can't think why you did it. But I don't blame you; only, Angel, will you forgive me my sin against you, now I have killed him? I thought as I ran along that you would be sure to forgive me now I have done that. It came to me as an enlightenment that I should get you back that way. I could not bear the loss of 'ee any longer—you don't know how entirely I was unable to bear your not loving me! Say you do now, dear, dear husband; say you do, now I have killed him!'

'I do love you, Tess—O, I do—it is all come back!' he said, tightening his arms round her with fevered pressure. 'But how do you mean—you have killed him?"

'I mean that I have,' she murmured in a reverie.

'What, bodily? Is he dead?'

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