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 bursting suddenly into his former refrain as he drew near, as if to fortify his soul at sight of the smallness of his present residence—

‘I’ve got a fam—ily vault at Kingsbere!’

‘Hush—don’t be so silly, Jacky,’ said his wife. ‘Yours is not the only family that was of ’count in wold days. Look at the Anktells, and Horseys, and the Tringhams themselves—gone to seed a’most as much as you—though you was bigger folks than they, that’s true. Thank God, I was never of no family, and have nothing to be ashamed of in that way!’

‘Don’t you be so sure o’ that. From your nater ’tis my belief you’ve disgraced yourselves more than any o’ us, and was kings and queens outright at one time.’

Tess turned the subject by saying what was far more prominent in her own mind at the moment than thoughts of her ancestry—

‘I am afraid father won’t be able to take the journey with the beehives to-morrow so early.’

‘I? I shall be all right in an hour or two,’ said Durbeyfield.

It was eleven o’clock before the family were