When you get down to your house you will see what I have sent there
for you."
"O, Alec, I wish you wouldn't give me anything at all! I cannot take
it from you! I don't like--it is not right!"
"It IS right!" he cried lightly. "I am not going to see a woman whom
I feel so tenderly for as I do for you in trouble without trying to
help her."
"But I am very well off! I am only in trouble about--about--not
about living at all!"
She turned, and desperately resumed her digging, tears dripping upon
the fork-handle and upon the clods.
"About the children--your brothers and sisters," he resumed. "I've
been thinking of them."
Tess's heart quivered--he was touching her in a weak place. He had
divined her chief anxiety. Since returning home her soul had gone
out to those children with an affection that was passionate.
"If your mother does not recover, somebody ought to do something for
them; since your father will not be able to do much, I suppose?"
"He can with my assistance. He must!"
"And with mine."
"No, sir!"
"How damned foolish this is!" burst out d'Urberville. "Why, he
thinks we are the same family; and will be quite satisfied!"
"He don't. I've undeceived him.
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