Suppose this robe should betray her by changing colour, as her robe
had betrayed Queen Guinevere. Since she had been at the dairy she
had not once thought of the lines till now.
XXXIII
Angel felt that he would like to spend a day with her before the
wedding, somewhere away from the dairy, as a last jaunt in her
company while there were yet mere lover and mistress; a romantic day,
in circumstances that would never be repeated; with that other and
greater day beaming close ahead of them. During the preceding week,
therefore, he suggested making a few purchases in the nearest town,
and they started together.
Clare's life at the dairy had been that of a recluse in respect the
world of his own class. For months he had never gone near a town,
and, requiring no vehicle, had never kept one, hiring the dairyman's
cob or gig if he rode or drove. They went in the gig that day.
And then for the first time in their lives they shopped as partners
in one concern. It was Christmas Eve, with its loads a holly and
mistletoe, and the town was very full of strangers who had come in
from all parts of the country on account of the day. Tess paid the
penalty of walking about with happiness superadded to beauty on her
countenance by being much stared at as she moved amid them on his
arm.
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