"And you
thought I was the mere stone reproduction of one of them. But no.
The old order changeth. The little finger of the sham d'Urberville
can do more for you than the whole dynasty of the real underneath...
Now command me. What shall I do?"
"Go away!" she murmured.
"I will--I'll look for your mother," said he blandly. But in passing
her he whispered: "Mind this; you'll be civil yet!"
When he was gone she bent down upon the entrance to the vaults, and
said--
"Why am I on the wrong side of this door!"
In the meantime Marian and Izz Huett had journeyed onward with the
chattels of the ploughman in the direction of their land of Canaan--
the Egypt of some other family who had left it only that morning.
But the girls did not for a long time think of where they were going.
Their talk was of Angel Clare and Tess, and Tess's persistent lover,
whose connection with her previous history they had partly heard and
partly guessed ere this.
"'Tisn't as though she had never known him afore," said Marian. "His
having won her once makes all the difference in the world. 'Twould
be a thousand pities if he were to tole her away again. Mr Clare can
never be anything to us, Izz; and why should we grudge him to her,
and not try to mend this quarrel? If he could on'y know what straits
she's put to, and what's hovering round, he might come to take care
of his own.
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