Page:Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891 Volume 3).pdf/233

 a love ‘which alters when it alteration finds.’ He had undergone some strange experiences in his absence; he had seen the virtual Faustina in the literal Cornelia, a spiritual Lucretia in a corporeal Phryne; he had thought of the woman taken and set in the midst as one deserving to be stoned, and of the wife of Uriah being made a queen; and he had asked himself why he had not judged Tess constructively rather than biographically, by the will rather than by the deed?

Day after day passed while he waited at his father’s house for the promised second note from Joan Durbeyfield, and indirectly to recover a little more strength. The strength showed signs of coming back, but there was no sign of the letter. Then the letters that had been sent on to him in Brazil were returned, and he read the one from Tess which she had written from Flintcomb-Ash. The unexpected sentences unmanned him much.

‘I must cry to you in my trouble—I have no one else. I think I must die if you do not come soon, or tell me to come to you. Please, please not to be just; only a little kind to me! If you would come, I could die in your arms! I