Chapter 55 Chapter Fifty-Four

In less than a quarter of an hour Claire had left the parsonage, and his mother watched him from home, watching his emaciated figure slowly disappearing down the street.He declined the offer to lend him his father's old mare because he knew the family needed her too.He went to the inn to hire a small buggy, and waited impatiently for it to be harnessed.After a while, he went up the mountain in a carriage and out of the town. Just three or four months ago this year, Tess also went down this road with full of hope, and later went up this road with a broken heart. . Presently the Benville Hedge Road lay before him, with hedges and trees on either side, already sprouting purple shoots; but Claire had no heart to look at the sights, he only needed to remember them, and not let himself be distracted by the way. He made a mistake, and in less than an hour and a half he was at the southern end of the royal family's Shintok estate, toward the lonely place of the Hand-shaped Cross on the hill.Near the sinful pillar Alec d'Urberville, driven by an impulse to reform, had compelled Tess to swear a strange oath that she would never mean to seduce him.The gray and white stubble of last year's nettles still lay bare on the hillside, and this spring new green ones are growing from their roots.

So he walked along the edge of the plateau overlooking the other New Tok, and turned back into the limey country of the cool Flint Hills, from which Tess wrote him one of her letters. , so he thinks this is where Tess mentioned by Tess's mother is staying temporarily.Of course he couldn't find Tess here; and what made him even more dismayed was that although the farmers here and the farmers themselves were very familiar with Tess' given name Tess, they had never heard of it. "Mrs. Claire".Apparently Tess had never used his name since their separation.Tess, being a self-respecting being, considered their parting to be complete disassociation, so she gave up her husband's name, and chose to suffer (it was the first time he had heard of her suffering) than to suffer. to ask his father for money.

They told him that Tess had left the place without formal notice to her employer, and had gone home to her parents in the Vale of Blackmoor, and that he must therefore go to Mrs. Durbeyfield.Mrs. Durbeyfield told him in the letter that she no longer lived in Marlot Village, but it was strange that she avoided telling her real address, and the only thing she could do now was to go to Marlot Village to find out up.The farmer who had been rude to Tess, kept saying nice things to Claire, lent him a horse, and sent him to drive him to the village of Marlott, the carriage he had hired when he came here, and went away. Enough for a day's journey, and now I have gone back to Aimin Temple.

Claire took the farmer's car to the outside of the Black Moor Valley, and he got out of the car, sent his coachman to drive the car back, and stayed in an inn by himself.The next day he walked into the valley of Blackmoor and found the place where his dear Tess was born.It was still early in the season, and the gardens and leaves had lost their rich spring color; the so-called spring was only a thin layer of green covered by winter.It was exactly where he had expected it to be. In this house Tess had spent her childhood, but it was now inhabited by another family, who knew nothing of Tess.The new occupants of the house were in the garden, minding their own business, as if it had never occurred to the family that the most important history of the house was connected with that of other people but their own. It's just a story told by an idiot.They walked the garden paths, thinking entirely of their own chief concerns, and their every moment of activity was not in harmony but in conflict with the phantoms of those who had lived here before; they talked and laughed as Tess from the In all the time I've lived here, nothing more exciting has happened.Even the spring birds that sang above their heads never seemed to feel that a special person was missing.

Ask these precious ignorant people, and they don't even remember the names of the previous occupants.When Clare inquired, she learned that John Durbeyfield was dead, and that his widow and children had left Marlotte, saying they were going to live in Kingsborough, but instead of going there, they went to to another place; they told Claire the name of that place.Since Tess did not live in this house, Claire hated it, and hastily left the place he was beginning to hate, without looking back. The way he was going passed through the field where he had first seen Tess dancing.He hated the field as much as he hated the house, if not more.He passed through the churchyard, and among the newly erected tombstones he saw one more elaborately designed than the others.The tombstone bears the following inscription:

Therefore, John Durbeyfield, whose original name was d'Urberville, was a prominent family in those days, descendants of famous families, whose distant ancestry began with Sir Pagan Durbeyfield, a former knight of King William the Conqueror.Died March 10, 1811. Hero through the ages A man who was evidently a deacon, seeing Clare standing there, came up to him and said: "Ah, sir, the dead man did not intend to be buried here, but in Kingsbury, because his The ancestral grave is over there." "Then why didn't they respect his wishes?" "Ah—they have no money. God bless you, sir, ah—I tell you, I won't say elsewhere—it's this tombstone, don't look at it, and the money for the tombstone It hasn't been paid yet."

"Who carved the tombstone?" The deacon told Claire the name of the stonemason in the village, and Claire left the churchyard and went to the stonemason's house.As soon as he asked, and what the deacon said was true, he paid the money, and when he had done this, he turned and walked towards the new place where Tess's family had moved. That place was too far to go there, but Claire wanted to go alone, so at first she didn't hire a carriage or take a train. Although the train took a detour, she could eventually reach that place.But when he got to Shaston, he couldn't walk anymore, and he thought he must hire a car; he hired a car, and the road was difficult, and he didn't get to Joan's place until seven o'clock in the evening, from the village of Marlott. , he has walked more than twenty miles.

The village was small, and he had no difficulty in finding Mrs Durbeyfield's lodgings, which stood in the middle of a walled garden, well set back from the road, and where Mrs Durbeyfield had packed as much of her heavy furniture as possible. in the house.It was obvious that she must have had a reason for not wanting to see him, so he found his visit rather abrupt.Mrs. Durbeyfield came to meet him at the door, the evening sun falling on her face. This was the first time Clare saw her, but he was too preoccupied to pay any attention to it, and saw her as a beautiful woman in a decent widow's gown.He had to explain to her that he was Tess's husband, and the purpose of his coming here, and he was very embarrassed when he spoke. "I hope to see her immediately," he added. "You said you would write to me again, but you didn't."

"Because she didn't come home!" said Joan. "You know she's all right?" "I don't know. But you ought to know, sir!" she said. "You're right. Where does she live now?" From the beginning of the conversation, Joan looked embarrassed, holding her face with one hand. "I—I don't know where she lives," she replied. "She was—but—" "Where did she live?" "Oh, she doesn't live there." She evasively spoke, then fell silent again; and at this moment some of the little children came up to the door and looked at their mother's dress with their hands, and the youngest of them murmured——

"Is this the gentleman who is going to marry Tess?" "He's married to Tess!" whispered Joan. "Go into the house." Seeing her trying not to tell him, Claire asked— "Do you think Tess would like me to go to her? If she doesn't want me to go to her, of course—" "I don't think she wants you to go to her." "Are you sure?" "I'm sure she doesn't want you to go to her." He turned and was about to go away when he remembered the affectionate letter Tess had written him. "I'm sure she wants me to go find her!" he retorted passionately. "I know her better than you do."

"That's quite possible, sir; for I've never made it clear." "Please tell me where she lives, Mrs. Durbeyfield, and have pity on a lonely and sad creature!" Tess's mother, seeing his distress, began again to touch her face restlessly up and down with her hand, and at last told him in a low voice-- "She lives in Sandborn." "Ah—where's Sandborn? They say Sandborn has become a big place." "I don't know any more details than what I said about Sandborn. I've never been there myself." Obviously, what Joan said was true, so he didn't press her further. "What are you missing now?" He asked with concern. "There's nothing wanting, sir," she answered, "and we're doing pretty well." Claire turned and left without entering the door.There was a railway station three miles ahead, and he paid for the carriage, and walked towards it on foot.The train to Sandborn soon left, and Claire was on board.