Page:Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891 Volume 2).pdf/66

 ‘Oh no,’ said Dairyman Crick. ‘Mr. Clare has gone home to Emminster to spend a few days wi’ his kinsfolk.’

For four impassioned ones around that table the sunshine of the morning went out at a stroke, and the birds muffled their song. But neither girl by word or gesture revealed her blankness.

‘He’s getting on towards the end of his time wi’ me,’ added the dairyman, with a phlegm which unconsciously was brutal; ‘and so I suppose he is beginning to see about his plans elsewhere.’

‘How much longer is he to bide here?’ asked Izz Huett, the only one of the gloom-stricken bevy who could trust her voice with the question.

The others waited for the dairyman’s answer as if their lives hung upon it; Retty, with parted lips, gazing on the table-cloth, Marian with heat added to her redness, Tess throbbing and looking out at the meads.

‘Well, I can’t mind the exact day without looking at my memorandum-book,’ replied Crick, with the same intolerable unconcern. ‘But even that may be altered a bit. He’ll bide to get a little practice in the calving out at the straw-yard,