Why should we! Who knows what to-morrow has in
store?"
But it apparently had no sorrow. The morning was wet and foggy, and
Clare, rightly informed that the caretaker only opened the windows
on fine days, ventured to creep out of their chamber and explore the
house, leaving Tess asleep. There was no food on the premises, but
there was water, and he took advantage of the fog to emerge from the
mansion and fetch tea, bread, and butter from a shop in a little
place two miles beyond, as also a small tin kettle and spirit-lamp,
that they might get fire without smoke. His re-entry awoke her; and
they breakfasted on what he had brought.
They were indisposed to stir abroad, and the day passed, and the
night following, and the next, and next; till, almost without their
being aware, five days had slipped by in absolute seclusion, not a
sight or sound of a human being disturbing their peacefulness, such
as it was. The changes of the weather were their only events, the
birds of the New Forest their only company. By tacit consent they
hardly once spoke of any incident of the past subsequent to their
wedding-day. The gloomy intervening time seemed to sink into chaos,
over which the present and prior times closed as if it never had
been.
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