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 ‘A very easy way to feel ’em go,’ continued Tess, ‘is to lie on the grass at night and look straight up at some big bright star; and, by fixing your mind upon it, you will soon find that you are hundreds and hundreds o’ miles away from your body, which you don’t seem to want at all.’

The dairyman removed his hard gaze from Tess, and fixed it on his wife.

‘Now that’s a rum thing, Christianner—hey? To think o’ the miles I’ve vamped o’ nights these last thirty year, courting, or trading, or for doctor, or for nurse, and yet never had the least notion o’ that till now.’

The general attention being drawn to her, including that of the dairyman’s pupil, Tess flushed, and remarking indifferently that it was only a fancy, resumed her breakfast.

Clare continued to observe her. She soon finished her eating, and having a consciousness that Clare was regarding her, began to trace imaginary patterns on the tablecloth with her forefinger with the constraint of a domestic animal that perceives itself to be watched.

‘What a genuine daughter of Nature that milkmaid is!’ he said to himself.