Page:Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891 Volume 3).pdf/133

 A pretty fellow he must be to teach you such scepticism!'

'He never forced my judgment! He would never argue on the subject wi' me! But I looked at it in this way; what he believed, after inquiring deeply into doctrines, was much more likely to be right than what I might believe, who hadn't looked into doctrines at all.'

'What used he to say? He must have said something?'

She reflected; and with her acute memory for the letter of Angel Clare's remarks, even when she did not comprehend their spirit, she recalled a merciless polemical syllogism that she had heard him use when, as it occasionally happened, he indulged in a species of thinking aloud with her at his side. In delivering it she gave also Clare's accent and manner with reverential faithfulness.

'Say that again,' asked D'Urberville, who had listened with the greatest attention.

She repeated the argument, and D'Urberville thoughtfully murmured the words after her.

'Anything else?' he presently asked.