The hot weather of July had crept upon them unawares, and the atmosphere of the flat vale hung heavy as an opiate over the dairy-folk, the cows, and the trees. Hot steaming rains fell frequently, making the grass where the cows fed yet more rank, and hindering the late haymaking in the other meads.

It was Sunday morning; the milking was done; the outdoor milkers had gone home. Tess and the other three were dressing themselves rapidly, the whole bevy having agreed to go together to Mellstock Church, which lay some three or four miles distant from the dairy-house. She had now been two months at Talbothays, and this was her first excursion.

All the preceding afternoon and night heavy thunderstorms had hissed down upon the meads, and washed some of the hay into the river; but this morning the sun shone out all the more brilliantly for the deluge, and the air was balmy and clear.

The crooked lane leading from their own parish to Mellstock ran along the lowest levels in a portion of its length, and when the girls reached the most depressed spot they found that the result of the rain had been to flood the lane over-shoe to a distance of some fifty yards. This would have been no serious hindrance on a week-day; they would have clicked through it in their high pattens and boots quite unconcerned; but on this day of vanity, this Sun's-day, when flesh went forth to coquet with flesh while hypocritically affecting business with spiritual things; on this occasion for wearing their white stockings and thin shoes, and their pink, white, and lilac gowns, on which every mud spot would be visible, the pool was an awkwardimpediment. They could hear the church-bell calling - as yet nearly a mile off.

`Who would have expected such a rise in the river in summertime!' said Marian, from the top of the roadside-bank on which they had climbed, and were maintaining a precariousfooting in the hope of creeping along its slope till they were past the pool.

`We can't get there anyhow, without walking right through it, or else going round the Turnpike way; and that would make us so very late!' said Retty, pausing hopelessly" title="ad.无希望地，绝望地">hopelessly.

`And I do colour up so hot, walking into church late, and all the people staring round,' said Marian,' that I hardly cool down again till we get into the That-it-may-please-Thees.'

While they stood clinging to the bank they heard a splashing round the bend of the road, and presently appeared Angel Clare, advancing along the lane towards them through the water.

Four hearts gave a big throb simultaneously.

His aspect was probably as un-Sabbatarian a one as a dogmatic parson's son often presented; his attire being his dairy clothes, long wading boots, a cabbage-leaf inside his hat to keep his head cool, with a thistle-spud to finish him off.

`He's not going to church,' said Marian.

`No - I wish he was!' murmured Tess.

Angel, in fact, rightly or wrongly (to adopt the safe phrase of evasive controversialists), preferred sermons in stones to sermons in churches and chapels on fine summer days. This morning, moreover, he had gone out to see if the damage to the hay by the flood was considerable or not. On his walk he observed the girls from a long distance, though they had been so occupied with their difficulties of passage as not to notice him. He knew that the water had risen at that spot, and that it would quite check their progress. So he had hastened on, with a dim idea of how he could help them - one of them in particular.

The rosy-cheeked, bright-eyed quartet looked so charming in their light summer attire, clinging to the roadside bank like pigeons on a roof-slope, that he stopped a moment to regard them before coming close. Their gauzy skirts had brushed up from the grass innumerable files and butterflies which, unable to escape, remained caged in the transparenttissue as in an aviary. Angel's eye at last fell upon Tess, the hindmost of the four; she, being full of suppressed laughter at their dilemma, could not help meeting his glance radiantly.

He came beneath them in the water, which did not rise over his long boots; and stood looking at the entrapped flies and butterflies.

`Are you trying to get to church?' he said to Marian, who was in front, including the next two in his remark, but avoiding Tess.

`Yes, sir; and 'tis getting late; and my colour do come up so--'

`I'll carry you through the pool - every Jill of you.'

The whole four flushed as if one heart beat through them.

`I think you can't, sir,' said Marian.

`It is the only way for you to get past. Stand still. Nonsense - you are not too heavy! I'd carry you all four together. Now, Marian, attend,' he continued, `and put your arms round my shoulders, so. Now! Hold on. That's well done.'

Marian had lowered herself upon his arm and shoulder as directed, and Angel strode off with her, his slim figure, as viewed from behind, looking like the mere stem to the great nosegay suggested by hers. They disappeared round the curve of the road, and only his sousing footsteps and the top ribbon of Marian's bonnet told where they were. In a few minutes he reappeared. Izz Huett was the next in order upon the bank.

`Here he comes,' she murmured, and they could hear that her lips were dry with emotion. `And I have to put my arms round his neck and look into his face as Marian did.'

`There's nothing in that,' said Tess quickly.

`There's a time for everything,' continued Izz, unheeding. `A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; the first is now going to be mine.'

`Fie - it is Scripture, Izz!'

`Yes,' said Izz, `I've always a' ear at church for pretty verses.' Angel Clare, to whom three-quarters of this performance was a commonplace act of kindness, now approached Izz. She quietly and dreamily lowered herself into his arms, and Angel methodically marched off with her. When he was heard returning for the third time Retty's throbbing heart could be almost seen to shake her. He went up to the red-haired girl, and while he was seizing her he glanced at Tess. His lips could not have pronounced more plainly, `It will soon be you and J.' Her comprehension appeared in her face; she could not help it. There was an understanding between them.

Poor little Retty, though by far the lightest weight, was the most troublesome of Clare's burdens. Marian had been like a sack of meal, a dead weight of plumpness under which he had literally staggered. Izz had ridden sensibly and calmly. Retty was a bunch of hysterics.

However, he got through with the disquieted creature, deposited her, and returned. Tess could see over the hedge the distant three in a group, standing as he had placed them on the next rising ground. It was now her turn. She was embarrassed to discover that excitement at the proximity of Mr Clare's breath and eyes, which she had contemned in her companions, was intensified in herself; and as if fearful of betraying her secret she pattered with him at the last moment.

`I may be able to clim' along the bank perhaps - I can clim' better than they. You must be so tired, Mr Clare!'

`No, no, Tess,' said he quickly. And almost before she was aware she was seated in his arms and resting against his shoulder.

`Three Leahs to get one Rachel,' he whispered.

`They are better women than I,' she replied, magnanimously sticking to her resolve.

`Not to me,' said Angel.

He saw her grow warm at this; and they went some steps in silence.

`I hope I am not too heavy?' she said timidly. `O no. You should lift Marian! Such a lump. You are like an undulating billow warmed by the sun. And all this fluff of muslin about you is the froth.'

`It is very pretty - if I seem like that to you.'

`Do you know that I have undergone three-quarters of this labour entirely for the sake of the fourth quarter?'

`No.'

`I did not expect such an event to-day.'

`Nor I... The water came up so sudden.'

That the rise in the water was what she understood him to refer to, the state of her breathing belied. Clare stood still and inclined his face towards hers.

`O Tessy!' he exclaimed.

The girl's cheeks burned to the breeze, and she could not look into his eyes for her emotion. It reminded Angel that he was somewhat unfairly taking advantage of an accidental position; and he went no further with it. No definite words of love had crossed their lips as yet, and suspension at this point was desirable now. However, he walked slowly, to make the remainder of the distance as long as possible; but at last they came to the bend, and the rest of their progress was in full view of the other three. The dry land was reached, and he set her down.

Her friends were looking with round thoughtful eyes at her and him, and she could see that they had been talking of her. He hastily bade them farewell, and splashed back along the stretch of submerged road.

The four moved on together as before, till Marian broke the silence by saying--

`No - in all truth; we have no chance against her!' She looked joylessly at Tess.

`What do you mean?' asked the latter.

`He likes 'ee best - the very best! We could see it as he brought 'ee. He would have kissed 'ee, if you had encouraged him to do it, ever so little.'

`No, no,' said she.

The gaiety with which they had set out had somehow vanished; and yet there was no enmity or malice between them. They were generous young souls; they had been reared in the lonely country nooks where fatalism is a strong sentiment, and they did not blame her. Such supplanting was to be.

Tess's heart ached. There was no concealing from herself the fact that she loved Angel Clare, perhaps all the more passionately from knowing that the others had also lost their hearts to him. There is contagion in this sentiment, especially among women. And yet that same hungry heart of hers compassionated her friends. Tess's honest nature had fought against this, but too feebly, and the natural result had followed.

`I will never stand in your way, nor in the way of either of you!' she declared to Retty that night in the bedroom (her tears running down). `I can't help this, my dear! I don't think marrying is in his mind at all; but if he were even to ask me I should refuse him, as I should refuse any man.'

`Oh! would you? Why?' said wondering Retty.

`It cannot be! But I will be plain. Putting myself quite on one side, I don't think he will choose either of you.'

`I have never expected it - thought of it!'moaned Retty. `But O! I wish I was dead!'

The poor child, torn by a feeling which she hardly understood, turned to the other two girls who came upstairs just then.

`We be friends with her again,' she said to them. `She thinks no more of his choosing her than we do.'

So the reserve went off, and they were confiding and warm.

`I don't seem to care what I do now,' said Marian, whose mood was tuned to its lowest bass. `I was going to marry a dairyman at Stickleford, who's asked me twice; but - my soul - I would put an end to myself rather'n be his wife now! Why don't ye speak, Izz?'

`To confess, then,' murmured Izz, `I made sure to-day that he was going to kiss me as he held me; and I lay still against his breast, hoping and hoping, and never moved at all. But he did not. I don't like biding here at Talbotbays any longer! I shall go hwome.'

The air of the sleeping-chamber seemed to palpitate with the hopeless passion of the girls. They writhed feverishly under the oppressiveness of an emotion thrust on them by cruel Nature's law - an emotion which they had neither expected nor desired. The incident of the day had fanned the flame that was burning the inside of their hearts out, and the torture was almost more than they could endure. The differences which distinguished them as individuals were abstracted by this passion, and each was but portion of one organism called sex. There was so much frankness and so little jealousy because there was no hope. Each one was a girl of fair common sense, and she did not delude herself with any vain conceits, or deny her love, or give herself airs, in the idea of outshining the others. The full recognition of the futility of their infatuation, from a social point of view; its purposeless beginning; its self-bounded outlook; its lack of everything to justify its existence in the eye of civilization (while lacking nothing in the eye of Nature); the one fact that it did exist, ecstasizing them to a killing joy; all this imparted to them a resignation, a dignity, which a practical and sordidexpectation of winning him as a husband would have destroyed.

They tossed and turned on their little beds, and the cheese-wring dripped monotonously downstairs.

`B' you awake, Tess?' whispered one, half-an-hour later.

It was Izz Huett's voice.

Tess replied in the affirmative, whereupon also Retty and Marian suddenly flung the bedclothes off them, and sighed--

`So be we!'

`I wonder what she is like - the lady they say his family have looked out for him!'

`I wonder,' said Izz.

`Some lady looked out for him?' gasped Tess, starting. `I have never heard o' that!'

`O yes--'tis whispered; a young lady of his own rank, chosen by his family; a Doctor of Divinity's daughter near his father's parish of Emminster; he don't much care for her, they say. But he is sure to marry her.'

They had heard so very little of this; yet it was enough to build up wretched dolorous dreams upon, there in the shade of the night. They pictured all the details of his being won round to consent, of the wedding preparations, of the bride's happiness, of her dress and veil, of her blissful home with him, when oblivion would have fallen upon themselves as far as he and their love were concerned. Thus they talked, and ached, and wept till sleep charmed their sorrow away.

After this disclosure Tess nourished no further foolish thought that there lurked any grave and deliberate import in Clare's attentions to her. It was a passing summer love of her face, for love's own temporary sake - nothing more. And the thorny crown of this sad conception was that she whom he really did prefer in a cursory way to the rest, she who knew herself to be more impassioned in nature, cleverer, more beautiful than they, was in the eyes of propriety far less worthy of him than the homelier ones whom he ignored.

七月的炎热天气在不知不觉中来到了人们身边，平坦山谷中的大气好像麻醉剂一样，既沉重又沉闷，笼罩着奶牛场的人们、奶牛和树木。热气腾腾的绵绵大雨，使得供奶牛放牧的牧草长得更加茂盛了，但是也妨碍了其它牧场上晚期收割牧草的工作。

　　那是一个礼拜天的早晨；牛奶已经挤完了；住在场外的挤奶工人也回家了。梅尔斯托克教堂离奶牛场大约有三四英里远近，苔丝和另外三个挤奶的女工已经商量好了，打算一块儿去那儿作礼拜，所以她们就迅速换好了衣服。到现在为止，苔丝来泰波塞斯已经两个月了，这还是她第一次出门去玩。在头一天的整个下午和晚上，雷阵雨哗哗地倾倒在牧场上，牧场上有些干草也被冲进河里去了；但是今天早上，大地经过雨水的冲洗，太阳照射在牧场上，显得更加明亮，空气清新而芬芳。

　　从她们的教区通往梅尔斯托克的那条弯弯曲曲的小路，有一段是沿着谷中最低洼的地方通过的。那几个姑娘走到那段最低洼的地方时，发现大雨过后有一段大约五十码长的路面被淹没了，积水深过脚面。在平常的日子里，这并不是什么大不了的障碍；她们都是穿的高底木头套鞋和靴子，可以满不在乎地从水中蹚过去；但是这天是礼拜天，是她们抛头露面的日子，她们口头说的是去进行精神上的陶冶，而实际上是去进行肉体征服肉体的谈情说爱；这个时候她们都会穿上白色的袜子和轻俏的鞋，有的穿粉红的连衣裙，有的穿白色的连衣裙，有的穿淡紫色的连衣裙，只要上面溅上了一点儿泥都能被人看见；这片水塘把她们挡住了，叫她们犯了难。她们能够听见教堂的钟声已经敲响了--可是她们差不多还在一英里路以外。

　　"谁能够想到在夏天这条河里还会涨这样大的水呢！"玛丽安说，她们已经爬到了路边的坡顶上，犹豫不定地站在那儿，希望沿着山坡爬过去，绕过那个水塘。"如果不从水里蹚过去，或者另外从征收通行税的路上绕过去，我们是过不了这个水塘的；要是绕过去的话，我们一定很晚才能到！"莱蒂毫无办法地站在那儿说。

　　"我们要是进教堂晚了，让所有的人看着，我一定要难堪不过的。"玛丽安说，"不等到'求主这个，求主那个'的时候，我是恢复不过来的。"

　　正当她们挤在斜坡上站着的时候，她们听见了路边拐弯的地方传来一阵水声，接着安琪尔·克莱尔就在眼前出现了，他正在水中沿着那条被水淹的小路走来。

　　她们四个人的心脏都不约而同地猛跳了一下。

　　他的外表不像是过礼拜的，这大概是那个严守教条的牧师教育出来的儿子的样子吧；他穿的衣服还是在奶牛场挤奶时穿的衣服，脚上穿着走泥泞道路的靴子，帽子里面还塞了一片卷心菜叶，以保持头部的凉爽，手里拿一把小草铲，这就是他全身的装束。

　　"他不是上教堂去的，"玛丽安说。

　　"不是的--但我希望他是上教堂去的！"苔丝低声说。

　　实际上，对也好错也罢（借用巧舌如簧的辩论家的话），在夏季天气晴朗的日子里，安琪尔与其说在大小教堂里听人讲道，不如说是在大自然里接受教训。而且这天早晨，他还出门去了解过洪水冲走干草是不是带来了巨大的损失。他在路上老远就望见了那几个姑娘们，尽管她们把心思集中在途中的困难上而没有注意到他。他知道那个地点的水位已经升高了，也知道那片积水完全有可能成为她们路上的障碍。所以，他就急急忙忙地赶来，心里模模糊糊地想着怎样才能帮助她们--尤其是要帮助她们中间的某一个人。

　　四个姑娘的面颊红扑扑的，明亮的大眼睛水汪汪的，身穿轻盈的夏装站在路边的土坡上，就像鸽子挤在屋脊上一样，看上去是那样迷人，因此他在走到她们跟前之前，就停下来把她们端详了一番。姑娘们穿着细纱长裙，长裙的下摆从草丛中赶出来无数的飞虫和蝴蝶，它们被关在透明的裙摆之中飞不出来，就像关在笼中的小鸟一样。安琪尔的眼光终于落在了苔丝的身上。苔丝站在四人队伍的最后，正为她们进退两难而忍不住要笑的时候，接触到他的目光，不禁变得容光焕发。

　　积水不比安琪尔的靴子深，他就从水中走到了她们的下边；他站在那儿，看着网罗在长裙中的飞虫和蝴蝶。

　　"你们是想去教堂吗？"他对站在最前面的玛丽安说，说话里也包括了后面的两个，但是却把苔丝排除在外。