He wondered a little that she did not enter into
these frivolities with his own zest.
Looking at her silently for a long time; "She is a dear dear Tess,"
he thought to himself, as one deciding on the true construction of
a difficult passage. "Do I realize solemnly enough how utterly and
irretrievably this little womanly thing is the creature of my good
or bad faith and fortune? I think not. I think I could not, unless
I were a woman myself. What I am in worldly estate, she is. What I
become, she must become. What I cannot be, she cannot be. And shall
I ever neglect her, or hurt her, or even forget to consider her? God
forbid such a crime!"
They sat on over the tea-table waiting for their luggage, which the
dairyman had promised to send before it grew dark. But evening began
to close in, and the luggage did not arrive, and they had brought
nothing more than they stood in. With the departure of the sun the
calm mood of the winter day changed. Out of doors there began noises
as of silk smartly rubbed; the restful dead leaves of the preceding
autumn were stirred to irritated resurrection, and whirled about
unwillingly, and tapped against the shutters. It soon began to rain.
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