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 It was with a sudden flush that she read and realized what was to be the inscription he was now half-way through—

THOU, SHALT, NOT, COMMIT

Her cheerful friend saw her looking, stopped his brush, and shouted—

‘If you want to ask anything of the sort we was talking about, there’s a very earnest good man going to preach a charity-sermon to-day in the parish you are going to—Mr. Clare, of Emminster. I’m not of his persuasion now, but he’s a good man, and he’ll explain as well as any parson I know. ’Twas he began the work in me.’

But Tess did not answer; she throbbingly resumed her walk, her eyes fixed on the ground. ‘Pooh—I don’t believe any of it!’ she said contemptuously when her flush had died away.

A plume of smoke soared up suddenly from her father’s chimney, the sight of which made her heart ache. The aspect of the interior, when she reached it, made her heart ache more. Her mother, who had just come down stairs, turned to greet her from the fireplace, where she was