“Well!—my dear Tess!” exclaimed her surprised mother, jumping up and kissing the girl. “How be ye? I didn’t see you till you was in upon me! Have you come home to be married?”
“No, I have not come for that, mother.”
“Then for a holiday?”
“Yes—for a holiday; for a long holiday,” said Tess.
“What, isn’t your cousin going to do the handsome thing?”
“He’s not my cousin, and he’s not going to marry me.”
Her mother eyed her narrowly.
“Come, you have not told me all,” she said.
Then Tess went up to her mother, put her face upon Joan’s neck, and told.
“And yet th’st not got him to marry ’ee!” reiterated her mother. “Any woman would have done it but you, after that!”
“Perhaps any woman would except me.”
“It would have been something like a story to come back with, if you had!” continued Mrs. Durbeyfield, ready to burst into tears of vexation. “After all the talk about you and him which has reached us here, who would have expected it to end like this! Why didn’t ye think of doing some good for your family instead o’ thinking only of yourself? See how