Tess soon perceiv ed as sh e walked in the flock, sometimes with this on e, sometimes with that, that the fresh night air was producing stagger ings and serpentine courses among the men who had partaken too freely; some of the more careless women also were wandering in their gait—to wit, a dark virago, Car Darch, dubbed Queen of Spades, till lately a favour ite of d'Urberville's; Nancy, her s ister, nicknamed the Queen of D iamonds; and the young married woman who had already tu mbled do wn.Yet ho wever terres trial and lumpy their appearance just now to the mean unglamoured eye, to themselves the case was different.They followed the roa d with a sen sation that they were soarin g along in a s upporting medium, possessed of original and pr ofound thou ghts, themselves and surrounding nature forming an organism of which all the parts harmoniously and joyously interpenetrated each other.They were as sublime as the moon and stars above them, and the moon and stars were as ardent as they.
Tess, however, had undergone such painful experiences of this kind in her father's house, that the discovery of their condition spoilt the pleasure she was beginning to feel in the moonlight journey.Yet she stuck to the party, for reasons above given.
In the open highway they had progressed in scattered order; but now their route was through a field-gate, and the foremost finding a difficulty in opening it they closed up together.
This leading pedes trian was Car the Queen o f Spades, who carr ied a wicker-basket containing her mother's groceries, her own draperies, and o ther purchases for the week.The basket being large and heavy, Car had placed it for convenience of porter age on the top of her head, where it rod e on in jeopardized balance as she walked with arms akimbo.
“Well—whatever is that a-creeping down thy back, Car Darch?”said one of the group suddenly.
All looked at Car.Her gown was a light cotton print, and from the back of her head a kind of rope could b e seen descending to some distance below her waist, like a Chinaman's queue.
“'Tis her hair falling down, ”said another.
No; it was not her hair：it was a black stream of something oozing from her basket, and it glistened like a slimy snake in the cold still rays of the moon.
“'Tis treacle, ”said an observant matron.
Treacle it w as.Car's poor old grandmother had a weakness for the sweet stuff.Honey she h ad in plenty out of her own h ives, but treacle was what her soul des ired, and Car h ad been abou t to g ive her a treat of s urprise.Hastily lowering the basket the dark girl found that the vessel containing the syrup had been smashed within.
By this time th ere h ad arisen a sh out of laughter at the e xtraordinary appearance of Car's back, which irritated the dark queen into getting rid of the disfigurement by the firs t sudden means availab le, and ind ependently of the help of the scoffers.She rushed excitedly into the field they were about to cross, and flinging herself flat on her back upon the grass, began to wipe her gown as well as she could by spinning horizontally on the herbage and dragging herself over it upon her elbows.
The laughter rang louder; they clung to the gate, to the posts, rested on their staves, in the weak ness engendered by their convulsions at the spectacle of Car.Our heroine, w ho had hith erto held h er peace, a t th is wild moment could not help joining in with the rest.
It was a misfortune—in more way s than on e.No sooner did th e dark queen h ear the soberer r icher note o f Tess a mong those o f the oth er wo rk-people than a long s mouldering sense of rivalry inflamed her to madness.She sprang to her feet and closely faced the object of her dislike.
“How darest th'laugh at me, hussy！”she cried.
“I couldn't really help it when t'others did, ”apologized Tess, still tittering.
“Ah, th'st think th'be est ev erybody, destn't, because th'beest firs tfavourite with He just now！But stop a bit, my lady, stop a bit！I'm as good as two of such！Look here—here's at'ee！”
To Tess's h orror the dark queen b egan str ipping off th e bo dice o f her gown—which for the added reason of its ridiculed condition she was only too glad to b e free of—till she had bared her plu mp neck, shoulders, and ar ms to the moonshine, und er w hich they lo oked as lu minous an d b eautiful as s ome Praxitelean creation, in their p ossession of the faultless rotundities of a lusty country girl.She closed her fists and squared up at Tess.
“Indeed, then, I sha ll not fight！”said the latter majestically; ”and if I had known you was of th at sort, I wouldn't have so let myself down as to come with such a whorage as this is！”
The rather too inclusiv e speech b rought down a torr ent of vituperation from other quarters upon fair Tess's unlucky head, particularly from the Queen of Diamonds, who having stood in the relations to d'Urberville that Car had also b een s uspected of, united w ith the latter against th e c ommon enemy.Several o ther wom en also chim ed in, with an an imus which none of th em would have been so fatuous as to sho w but for the rollicking evening they had passed.Thereupon, finding Tess unfairly browbeaten, the husbands and lovers tried to make peace by defending her; but the result of that attempt was directly to increase the war.
Tess was ind ignant and ashamed.She no longer minded the loneliness of the way and the lateness of the hour; her one object was to g et away from thewhole crew as soon as possible.She knew well enough that the better among them would repent of their passion next day.They were all now inside the field, and she was edging back to rush off alone when a horseman emerged almost silently fro m th e co rner of the h edge that s creened th e road, and Alec d'Urberville looked round upon them.
“What the devil is all this row about, work-folk?”he asked.
The exp lanation was no t readily forthco ming; an d, in truth, he did not require any.Having heard their vo ices while y et some way off he had ridden creepingly forward, and learnt enough to satisfy himself.
Tess was standing apart from the rest, near the gate.He bent over towards her.“Jump up behind me, ”he whispered, “and we'll get shot of the screaming cats in a jiffy！”
She felt a lmost ready to faint, so vi vid was her sense of the crisis.At almost any other moment of her life she would have refused such proffered aid and co mpany, as she had refused th em sev eral tim es b efore; and now the loneliness would no t of itself have forced her to do otherwise.But coming as the invitation did at the particular juncture when fear and ind ignation at these adversaries could be transformed by a spring of the foo t into a triumph over them, she abandoned herself to her impulse, climbed the gate, put her toe upon his instep, and scram bled into the saddle behind him.The pair were speed ing away into th e distan t gra y by the time that the co ntentious re vellers beca me aware of what had happened.