GEORGE MOORE
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to be the better part of valour, and Mr Hardy's discretion was a rapid retreat into the past indefinite:
"And pressing her forehead against his temple she entered on the story of her acquaintance with Alec D'Urberville and its results, murmuring the words without flinching, and with her eyelids drooping down."Freeman: You are of opinion, then, Mr Moore, that if a man loves a woman he would just ask her: Is it all over? Do you see the man now? And if she said no, that she now loves for the first time, he would say: Don't let's speak about this any more. You have repented of your sin, and I have repented of mine.
Moore: You cast searching glances into my soul, Mr Freeman, and I admit willingly that this is how I think George Eliot would have written the scene; or if she felt she couldn't write it, for one reason or another, she would have contrived a construction of the story that would have enabled her to speak truthfully. I am willing to believe that Mr Hardy felt the story had begun to stagger a little and required some romantic incident to restore the reader's confidence in it. Angel Clare is given to walking in his sleep, and one night picking Tess out of her bed he carries her quite a long way—if my memory does not trip me—several hundred yards, crossing the river by means of a narrow plank. What I am going to say seems incredible, but I remember certainly something about an Abbey and a stone coffin, in which he lays Tess. I have forgotten for how long she lies in the coffin, but remember that she takes her sleep-walking husband by the arm and leads him home. As I read how they approached the house, I said to myself: We are coming to something more original than a wedding night parting due to a confession. He will put Tess into his own bed, and on awakening he will take her in his arms—a daring piece of craftsmanship! and my mind softened towards Mr Hardy. But only for a moment, alas, for Tess persuades Angel Clare to lie down on his bed and retires to her own room. The next morning they drive a little way together; he leaves the carriage, bids her good-bye, and Tess returns home to her mother, and henceforth we see her getting her living as best she can in the fields.
