Page:Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891 Volume 2).pdf/217

 resume sharply, ‘Why didn’t you tell me before? Ah, yes, you would have told me, in a way—but I hindered you, I remember!’

These and other of his words were nothing but the perfunctory babble of the surface while the depths remained paralyzed. He turned away, bent over a chair, and stood up again. She followed him to the middle of the room where he was, standing there with one hand on a chair-back, staring at him with eyes that did not weep. Presently she slid down upon her knees beside his foot, and from this position she crouched in a heap.

‘In the name of our love, forgive me!’ she whispered with a dry mouth. ‘I have forgiven you for the same.’

And, as he did not answer, she said again—

‘Forgive me as you are forgiven! I forgive you, Angel.’

‘You—yes, you do.’

‘But you do not forgive me?’

‘Forgiveness does not apply to the case. You were one person; now you are another. How can forgiveness meet such a grotesque prestidigitation as that?’