The north Mississippi herald., 1920-12-10


several days they lead formal, iso-
lated existence. Tess, whose sole wish
Is to please her idol, acquiesces in his
attitude, and after a first wild out
burst at the injustice, does nothing to
exonerate herself, and her one chance
for reinstatement is blighted by the
mocking witness of the vindictive por-
traits. No chaste-minded, unsophisti-
Gated peasant maid she, but the last
dregs of a decadent stock A separa-
ton, temporarily at least, is decided
| upon, and while Glare ranges afar, Tess
again creeps home. Joan, after the
| first bitter reproaches for the mad dis
obedience of her repeated injunctions
of secrecy, treats the affair with her
usual fatalistic lightheartedness but
| the harsh words of the father in a
drunken moment of excessive anceS-
trail pride causes dignified departure
with the conciliatory donation of
half her means of subsistence and the
intimat!on that she is rejoining her
! husband
| Determined, however, to make no
appeal to Clare's family, Tess easily
finds summer employment among the
farms; but with the coming of win
ter and too lavish contributions to her
family's support, privation stares her
in the face. Day after day she wan
ders on until at length on the high,
chalky tablelands, IN a great drab
| field of desolat;on, she finds the mean
| est, most arduous of tasks rendered
tenfold difficult by a churlsh boor Of
an employer in all the rancor of an an
cient grudge against her. In the sting
| ing rain and the chilling snow she tolls
increasingly, uncomplainingly, living
| wholly in the hope of her husbands re-
turn. Songs that he loved she prac-
tees; the sweet, gay notes contrasting
sadly with her tragic lips and great,
sorroWing eyes. At length, distraught
| by the continued silence, she bravely
parents, and walks the long tremulOus
miles TO Emminster vicarage. Of rare
spiritual as we'll as physical endow-
ments, she would have undoubtedly
received a welcome at the hands of the
benepOlent old clergyman and his wife,
but an empty house reverberates to her
knocking, and while she unobtrusively
awaits their return from church, she
Overhears a wayside conversation be-
tween Angels two exemplary brothers
that sends her hOmeward with rended
heart.
The voice of 'ranter' triumphant
ly consigning a harmful of rustics to
eternal damnation caused Tess to
pause for a moment in doorway, and
there on a platform of corn bags, in
sanctimonious side whiskers and semi
clerical black, stood Alec D'Urbervilie.
Animalism had yielded to fanaticism,
and the bold, rowing eye now cleaned
with ferocious righteousness AS she
passed down the lane he came after
her, imploring forgiveness and offer
ing redemption. Repulse after repulSe
,..s filled to deter Alec, VII n.rsisted day
ami molly words and then his former
passion uncontrollably revived by
Tess compelling beauty, his new
found religion dropped from him like
a cloak, the convert disappeared and
all the arts of man and devil were en-
Moved to ensnare the girl. AND poor,
homeless Tess, grinding on under a De-
numbing strain, was N more danger
than her scorn of the man could real
ize. Finally her fathers death, result
ing in the eviction of her family from
their home, precipitated Tess DOOM
and as a last desperate reparatlon to
her helpless mother and sisters, sne
Yields. with a fatalistic calm, to the in
evitable.
TO SandbOrne. q gay watering place,
melancholy specter of q man, wasted
hv Illness and regret, comes in search
Of his lost bride, and in fashionable
boarding house Glare finds Tess ana
learns the agonizing truth. Just be-
vond the town she overlook him, her
eyes wild and trancelike, her whole
body as if bereft of soul and will. Il
bava killed him. he tainted
me he called you by foul
name | owed it to you and l
owed it to myself. 1t came TO
me as a shining light that l should get
YOU back that way"
With a final realization of the I'M
mensity of her love and the piteous
plight it had brought upon her, Clare
held out tender, protecting arms, and
together they wandered through the
untrodden ways like two children-the
world and it's retribution quite forgot.
For five days they continued this
idyll.c state and on the sixth night
Tess half jestingly claimed sanctuary
among the conspicuous ruins of the an
cient pagan temple to the sun at Stone
henge. With the dawn came the
guardians of the law, looming dark
against the silver horizon. In grim,
inexorable circle they waited until the
suns level rays, relentlessly reminis-
cent of a bygone sacr:ficial day, fell
full upon another victim, and Tess, de-
serted by the gods, awoke. Quietly
she faced her captors. 81 am ready"
Il