too bad!”
Tess, in her start at the words, narrowly missed cutting off a finger with the billhook.
“Is it about my husband?” she stammered.
“Well, yes. Izz said, ‘Don’t ’ee tell her’; but I am sure I can’t help it! It was what he wanted Izz to do. He wanted her to go off to Brazil with him.”
Tess’s face faded as white as the scene without, and its curves straightened. “And did Izz refuse to go?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Anyhow he changed his mind.”
“Pooh—then he didn’t mean it! ’Twas just a man’s jest!”
“Yes he did; for he drove her a good-ways towards the station.”
“He didn’t take her!”
They pulled on in silence till Tess, without any premonitory symptoms, burst out crying.
“There!” said Marian. “Now I wish I hadn’t told ’ee!”
“No. It is a very good thing that you have done! I have been living on in a thirtover, lackaday way, and have not seen what it may lead to! I ought to have sent him a letter oftener. He said I could not go to him, but he didn’t say I was not to write as often as I liked. I won’t dally like this any longer! I have been very wrong and neglectful in leaving everything to be done by him!”
The dim light in the barn grew dimmer, and they could see to work no longer. When Tess had reached home that evening, and had entered into the privacy of her little whitewashed chamber, she began impetuously