Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1920-12-09

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 decadent stock 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 .njunctions
of secrecy, treats the affair with her
usual fatallstic lightheartedness; but
the harsh words of the father In a
drunken moment of excessive ances-
trail pride causes a 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 churllsh 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 prae-
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 a welcome at the hands of the
beneYOlent 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 q moment in a doorway, and
there on a platform Of corn bags in
sanctimoniOus side wh.skers and semi
clerical black, stood Alec D'Urberville.
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, imporing forgiveness and offer
ing redemption. Repulse after repulse
failed to deter Alec, who persisted day
by day, at first with a marriage license
and holy words and then his former
passion uncontrollably revived by
Tess compelling beauty, his new
found religion dropped from him like
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-
numbing 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 a last desperate reparation to
her helpless mother and sisters, she
yields, with fatalistic calm, to the in
evitable.
To Sandborne. a gay watering place,
melancholy specter of man, wasted
by illness and regret, comes in search
Of his lost bride, and in fashionable
boarding house Clare 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. II
have killed him. he tainted
I me ne caIleu you by Ioul
name / owed it to you and |
owed ii to myself. It came TO
me as a shining light that 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, ard
together they wandered through the
untrodden ways like two children-the
world and its 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 a grim,
memorable circle they waited until the
SUMS level rays, relentlessly reminis-
cent of bygone sacr.ficial day, fell
full upon another victim. and Tess, de-
serted by the gods, awoke. Quietly
she faced her captors. II am ready"
she said.
! Eight metallic strokes shiver the
/ morning air and from q nearby hill