Page:Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891 Volume 3).pdf/177

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dignity which must have graced her grand-dames; and the vision sent that aura through his veins which he had formerly felt, and which left behind it a sense of sickness.

Despite her not inviolate past, what still abode in such a woman as Tess outvalued the freshness of her fellows. Was not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abi-ezer? So spoke love renascent, preparing the way for Tess's devoted outpouring, which was then just being forwarded to him by his father.

Meanwhile the writer, with an enlarging conviction that Angel would come soon in response to the entreaty, addressed her mind to the tender question of what she could do to please him best when he should arrive. Sighs were expended on the wish that she had taken more notice of the tunes he played on his harp, that she had inquired more curiously of him which were his favourite ballads among those the country-girls sang. She indirectly inquired of Amby Seedling, who had followed Izz from Talbothays, and by chance Amby remembered that, amongst the snatches of melody in which they had indulged at the dairy-man's, to induce the cows to let down their milk,