The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1920-12-10

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several days they lead a 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
moeking witness of the vindIctiye Dor
traits. No chaste-minded, unsophistf-
Gated peasant maid she, but the last
dregs of decadent stockl A separa-
ton, temporarily at least, is decided
upon, and while Clare ranges afar, Tess
again creeps home. Joan, after the
first bitter reproaches for the mad dis
obedience of her repeated injuuctions
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 a dignifled departure
with the conciliatory donation of
half her means of subsistence and the
intimation 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
famEy'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 desolation, she finds the mean
est, most arduous of tasks rendered
tenfold difficult by a churlfsh 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
decides to seek news of him from his
parents, and walks the long, tremulous
miles to Emminster vicarage. Of rare
spiritual as well as physical endow-
ments, she would have undoubtedly
received welcome at the hands Of the
benevolent 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 harmful of rustics to
eternal damnation caused Tess to
pause for moment in a doorway, and
there on a platform of corn bags, in
sanctimonious side whiskers and semi
clerical black, stood Alec D'Urberville.
Animalism had yielded to fanaticism,
and the bold, rowing eye now cleaned
with a feroCous righteousness. As she
passed down the lane he came after
her, imploring forgiveness and offer
ing redemption. Repulse after repulse
failed to deter Alec, who persisted day
by day, at first with marriage license
and holy 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-
ployed to ensnare the girl. And poor,
hopeless Tess, grinding on under a be-
strain, was in 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 last desperate reparation to
her helpless mother and sisters, she
yields, with fatalistic calm, to the in
evitable.
To Sandborne. gay watering place,
a melancholy specter of a man, wasted
BY illness and regret, comes in search
Of his lost bride, and in a fashionable
boarding house Glare finds Tess and
learns the agonizing truth. Just be-
yond the town she overlook him, her
eyes wild and trancelike, her whole
body as if bereft of soul and will. ST
have killed him. he tainted
ne he called you by a foul
name owed it to you and
owed it to myself. II came to
ne as a shining light that should get
you back that way"
With a final realization of the i'm
nensity of her love and the piteous
blight it had brought upon her, Glare
held out tender, protecting arms, and
ogether they wandered through the
ways like two children-the
world and its retribution quite forgot.
For five days they continued this
dyllic state and on the sixth night |
Tess half jestingly claimed sanctuary
Imong the conspicuous ruins of the an
lent pagan temple to the sun at Stone
Ienge. With the dawn came the
Guardians of the law, looming dark
gainst the silver horizon. In a grim,
nexorable circle they waited until the
un's level rays, re1entlessly reminis-
ent of a bygone sacrificfal day, fell |