Their hands were still joined. The ashes under the grate were lit
by the fire vertically, like a torrid waste. Imagination might have
beheld a Last Day luridness in this red-coaled glow, which fell on
his face and hand, and on hers, peering into the loose hair about her
brow, and firing the delicate skin underneath. A large shadow of her
shape rose upon the wall and ceiling. She bent forward, at which
each diamond on her neck gave a sinister wink like a toad's; and
pressing her forehead against his temple she entered on her story of
her acquaintance with Alec d'Urberville and its results, murmuring
the words without flinching, and with her eyelids drooping down.
END OF PHASE THE FOURTH
Phase the Fifth: The Woman Pays
XXXV
Her narrative ended; even its re-assertions and secondary
explanations were done. Tess's voice throughout had hardly risen
higher than its opening tone; there had been no exculpatory phrase of
any kind, and she had not wept.
But the complexion even of external things seemed to suffer
transmutation as her announcement progressed. The fire in the grate
looked impish--demoniacally funny, as if it did not care in the least
about her strait.
Pages:
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377