"
"I shan't ask you to let me live with you, Angel, because I have
no right to! I shall not write to mother and sisters to say we be
married, as I said I would do; and I shan't finish the good-hussif'
I cut out and meant to make while we were in lodgings."
"Shan't you?"
"No, I shan't do anything, unless you order me to; and if you go away
from me I shall not follow 'ee; and if you never speak to me any more
I shall not ask why, unless you tell me I may."
"And if I order you to do anything?"
"I will obey you like your wretched slave, even if it is to lie down
and die."
"You are very good. But it strikes me that there is a want of
harmony between your present mood of self-sacrifice and your past
mood of self-preservation."
These were the first words of antagonism. To fling elaborate
sarcasms at Tess, however, was much like flinging them at a dog or
cat. The charms of their subtlety passed by her unappreciated, and
she only received them as inimical sounds which meant that anger
ruled. She remained mute, not knowing that he was smothering his
affection for her. She hardly observed that a tear descended slowly
upon his cheek, a tear so large that it magnified the pores of the
skin over which it rolled, like the object lens of a microscope.
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