His sister became abru ptly still, an d lapsed in to a pondering silence.Abraham talked on, rath er for th e pleasure of u tterance than for audition, so that his sister's abstraction was of no account.He leant back against the hives, and with upturned face made observations on the stars, whose cold pulses were beating amid the black hollows above, in serene dissociation from these two wisps of human life.He asked how far away those twinklers were, and whether God was on the o ther side of them.But ever and anon his child ish pr attle recurred to what impressed his imagination even more deeply than the wonders of creation.I f Tess were made rich b y marrying a gentleman, would she hav e money enough to buy a spy-glass so large that it would draw the stars as near to her as Nettlecombe-Tout?
The renewed subject, which seemed to have impregnated the whole family, filled Tess with impatience.
“Never mind that now！”she exclaimed.
“Did you say the stars were worlds, Tess?”
“Yes.”
“All like ours?”
“I don't know; but I think so.They sometimes seem to be like the apples on our srubbard-tree.Most of them splendid and sound—a few blighted.”
“Which do we live on—a splendid one or a blighted one?”
“A blighted one.”
“'Tis very unlucky that we didn't pitch on a sou nd one, when there wer e so many more of'em！”
“Yes.”
“Is it like that really, Tess?”said Abraham, turning to her much impressed, on reconsideration of this rare information.“How would it have been if we had pitched on a sound one?”
“Well, father wouldn't have coughed and creeped about as he does, an d wouldn't have got too tipsy to go this journey; and mother wouldn't have been always washing, and never geeting finished.”
“And you would hav e been a r ich lady ready-made, and no t have to be made rich by marrying a gentleman?”
“O Aby, don't—don't talk of that any more！”
Left to his reflections Abraham soon grew drowsy.Tess was not skilful in the management of a horse, but she thought that she could take upon herself the entire conduct of the load for the pr esent, and allow Abraham to go to sleep if he wished to do so.She made him a sort of nest in front of the hives, in such a manner that he could not fall, and, taking the r eins into her o wn hands, jogged on as before.
Prince requ ired but slight atten tion, lack ing energy for superfluou s movements of any sort.With no longer a co mpanion to d istract her, Tess fell more de eply into reverie than ever, her back le aning ag ainst the h ives.The mute pro cession past her shoulders of trees and hedges becam e attached to fantastic scenes outside r eality, and the occas ional heave of the wind beca me the sigh of some immense sad soul, c onterminous with the universe in space, and with history in time.
Then, examining the mesh of events in her own life, she seemed to see the vanity of he r fath er's pride; th e g entlemanly suitor awa iting herse lf in hermother's fancy; to see him as a gr imacing personage, laughing at her pov erty, and her sh rouded king htly ances try.Every thing grew more and more extravagant, and she no longer knew how time passed.A sudden jerk shook her in her seat, and Tess awoke from the sleep into which she, too, had fallen.
They were a long way further on than when she had lost consciousness, and the wag gon had sto pped.A hollow groan, unlike anything she had ever heard in her life, came from the front, followed by a shout of“Hoi there！”
The lantern hanging at her waggon had gone out, but another was shining in her fac e—much br ighter than her own had been.So mething terrible had happened.The harness was entangled with an object which blocked the way.
In consternation Tess jumped down, and d iscovered the dreadful truth.The gro an h ad proceeded fro m her f ather's poor horse Pr ince.Th e morning mail-cart, with its two n oiseless wheels, sp eeding along these lanes like an arrow, as it always did, had driven into her slow and unlig hted equipage.The pointed shaft of th e cart had entered the breast o f the unhapp y Prince lik e a sword, and from the wo und his life's blood was spouting in a s tream, and falling with a hiss into the road.
In her despair Tess spran g forward an d put her h and upon the hole, with the only result that she became splashed from face to skirt with the crimson drops.Then she stood helplessly looking on.Prince also stood fir m and motionless as long as he could; till he suddenly sank down in a heap.
By this tim e the mail-cart man had joined her, and began dr agging and unharnessing the hot form of Prince.But he was already dead, and, seeing that nothing more cou ld b e done immed iately, th e mail-cart man return ed to his own animal, which was uninjured.
“You was o n the wrong side, ”he said.“I am bo und to go o n with th e mail-bags, so that the best thing for you to do is to bide here with your load.I'll send somebody to help you as soon as I can.It is getting daylight, and you have nothing to fear.”
He m ounted and sped on his way; while Tess stood and waited.Th e atmosphere turned pale, the birds shook them selves in the hedges, arose, and twittered; th e l ane showed a ll i ts wh ite featur es, and Tess sh owed hers, s till whiter.The huge poo l of blood in front of h er was alread y assum ing theiridescence of coagulation; and when the sun ro se a hundred pris matic hues were reflected from it.Prince lay alongside still and stark; his eyes half op en, the hole in his chest look ing scarcely large enough to hav e let out all that had animated him.
“'Tis all my doing—all mine！”the girl cried, gazing at the spectacle.“No excuse for me—none.What will mother and father live on n ow?Aby, Aby！”She shook the child, who had s lept soundly through the whole disaster.“We can't go on with our load—Prince is killed！”
When Abraham realized all, the furrows of fifty years were extemporized on his young face.
“Why, I danced and laughed only yesterday！”she went on to herself.“To think that I was such a fool！”
“'Tis because we be on a blighted star, and no t a sound one, isn't it, Tess?”murmured Abraham through his tears.
In silence they waited through an interval which seemed endless.At length a sound, an d an appro aching object, proved to them th at th e dr iver of the mail-cart had been as good as his wo rd.A farmer's man from near Stourcastle came up, leading a strong cob.He was harnessed to the waggon of beehives in the place of Prince, and the load taken on towards Casterbridge.
The evening of the sam e day saw the em pty waggon reach again the spo t of the ac cident.Prince had lain there in the di tch since th e morning; but the place of the bloodpoo l was still v isible in the middle of the road, tho ugh scratched and scraped over by passing vehicles.All that was left of Prin ce was now hoisted into the waggon he had formerly hauled, and with his hoofs in the air, and h is shoes shinin g in the setting sunligh t, he retraced the eigh t or nin e miles to Marlott.
Tess had go ne back earlier.How to break the news was more th an sh e could think.It was a relief to her tongue to find f rom the faces of her parents that they already knew of their loss, though this did not lessen the selfreproach which she continued to heap upon herself for her negligence.