Page:Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891 Volume 3).pdf/91

 up that hill like a scorned thing by those—to her—superfine clerics. Innocently as the slight had been inflicted, it was somewhat unfortunate that she had encountered the sons and not the father, who, despite his narrowness, was far less starched and ironed than they, and had to the full the gift of charity. As she again thought of her dusty boots she almost pitied those habiliments for the scorn to which they had been subjected, and felt how hopeless life was for their owner.

'Ah!' she said, still weeping in pity of herself, 'they didn't know that I wore those over the roughest part of the road to save these pretty ones he bought for me—no—they did not know it! And they didn't think that he chose the colour o' my pretty frock—no—how could they? If they had known perhaps they would not have cared, for they don't care much for him, poor thing!'

Then she wept for the beloved man whose conventional standard of judgment had caused her all these latter sorrows; and she went her way without knowing that the greatest misfortune of her life was this feminine loss of