The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1920-12-03

several days they lead a formal, is0-
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 n chance
for reinstatement is blighted by the
hooking witness of the vindictive p0r-
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 Clare ranges afar, Tess
| again creeps home. Joan, after the
| first bitter ~reprOaches for the mad dis
| obedience of her repeated .njunctfOns
| Of secrecy, treats the affair with her
usual fatalistic lightheartedness; but
| the harsh words of the father in q
| drunken moment of excessive ances-
trail pride causes a dignified departure
with the con~ciliatory 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 a
ders on until at length on the high.
chalky tablelands, in a great drab
field of d~esolat,oa, she finds the mean
est, most arduous of tasks rendered
tenfOld difficult by a churlish 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.r OF rare
spiritual as well as physical endow-
ments, she would have undoubtedly
received a welcome at the hands of the
benevolent old clergyman and his wife,
but an empty house reverberates to her
knocking, and whiIess she unObtrusiveIy |
awaits their return from church, she
O%verhears a wayside conversation be-
tween Angels two exemplary brothers |
that sends her hOmeward with rended
heart.
The voice of a "ranter'' triumphant
ly cOnSigning a harmful of rustics to
eternal damnatiOn caused Tess to
pause for a 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 row cleaned
with a ferociOus righteousness. AS she
passed down the lane he came after
her, imploring forgiveness and offer
ing redemption. Repulse after .repulSe
to deter Alec, who persisted day
by day, at first with a marriage license
and holy words and them his former
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-
numbing strain. wss in more danger
than her scOrn of the man could real
ize. Finally her fathers death, result
ing in the eviction IF her family from
their home, precipitated Tess doom,
and as a last desperate r%eparatiOn to
her helpless mother and sisters, she
evitable.
To SandbOrne. a gay watering place,
melancholy specter of a man, wasted
BY illness and regret. comes in search
IF his lost bride, and in a fashionable
boarding house Glare finds Tess and
earns the agonizing truth. Just be-
yond the town she overlook him. her
yes wild and trancelike, her whole
,ody as if bereft Of soul and will. Il
killed him. he tainted
D.. he called you by a foul
,ame . I owed it to you and 1
wed it to myself. 1t came to
as a shining light that I should get
'Ou back that way"
With a final realization of the inn
Of her love and the piteOuS
light it had brought upon her, Clare
leld out tender, protecting arms, and
ogether they wandered through the
Introdden ways like two children-the
world and it's %retribution quite forgot.
For five days they. continued this
dyll:c state and on the sixth night
less half jestingly claimed sanctuary
mong the conspicuous ruins Of the an
lent pagan temple to the u at Stone
With the dawn came the
uardians of the law, looming dark
gainst the silver horizon. In a grim.
nexorable circle they waited until the
un's level rays, relentlessly reminis-
ent of'a bygone sacr.ficial day, fell