He listened.The wind, playing upon the edifice, produced a booming tune, like the note of some gigantic one-stringed harp.No other sound came from it, and lifting his hand and advancin g a step or two, Clare felt the vertical surface of the structure.It seemed to be of solid ston e, without joint or moulding.Carrying his fingers onw ard he found that what h e had co me in contact with was a colossal rectangular pillar; by stretching out his left hand he could feel a similar one adjoining.At an ind efinite height ov erhead so mething made the black sky blacker, which had the se mblance of a vast arch itrave uniting th e pillars horizontally.They carefully entered beneath and between; the surfaces echoed their soft rustle; but they seemed to be still out of doors.The place was roofless.Tess drew her breath fearfully, and Angel, perplexed, said—
“What can it be?”
Feeling sideway s they e ncountered a nother tower-like pillar, square and uncompromising as the first, beyond it an other and another.The place was all doors and pillars, some connected above by continuous architraves.
“A very Temple of the Winds, ”he said.
The nex t p illar was iso lated; oth ers co mposed a tr ilithon; others were prostrate, their flanks forming a causeway wide enough for a carriage; an d it was soon ob vious that they made up a forest of monoliths grouped upon the grassy expanse of the plain.The cou ple advanced further into this pavilion of the night till they stood in its midst.
“It is Stonehenge！”said Clare.
“The heathen temple, you mean?”
“Yes, Older than the centuries; older than the d'Urbervilles！Well, what shall we do, darling?We may find shelter further on.”
But Tess, really tired by this time, flung herself upon an ob long slab that lay close at hand, and was shelter ed from the wind by a pillar.Owing to the action o f the sun during the pr eceding day th e stone was war m and d ry, in comforting contrast to the rough and chill grass around, which had damped her skirts and shoes.
“I don't want to go any further, Angel, ”she said stretching out her hand for his.“Can't we bide here?”
“I fear not.This spot is visible for miles by day, although it does not seem so now.”
“One of my mother's people was a shepherd hereabouts, now I think of it.And you used to say at Talbothays that I was a heathen.So now I am at home.”
He knelt down beside her outstretched form, and put his lips upon hers.
“Sleepy are you, dear?I think you are lying on an altar.”
“I like ve ry much to b e her e, ”she murmured.“It is so s olemn and lonely-after my great happiness—with nothing but the sky above my face.It seems as if there were no folk in the world but we two; and I wish there were not—except'Liza-Lu.”
Clare thought she might as well r est here till it should get a little lighter, and he flung his overcoat upon her, and sat down by her side.
“Angel, if a nything happens to me, will you watch over'Liza-Lu for my sake?”she asked, when they had listened a long time to th e wind am ong the pillars.
“I will.”
“She is so g ood and simple and pure.O, Angel—I wish you would marry her if you lose me, as you will do shortly.O, if you would！”
“If I lose you I lose all！And she is my sister-in-law.”
“That's not hing, dear est.People marry sister-laws continually abou t Marlott; and'Liza-Lu is so gentle and sweet, and she is growing so beautiful.O I could share you with her willingly when we are spirits！If you would train her and teach her, Angel, and bring her up for y our own self……She has all the best of me without the bad of me; and if she were to beco me yours it would almost seem as if death had not divided us……Well, I h ave said it.I won't mention it again.”
She ceased, and he fell into thought.In the far north-east sky he could see between the pillars a level streak of light.The uniform concavity of black cloud was lifting bodily like the lid of a pot, letting in at the earth's edge the coming day, against which the to wering monoliths and trilithons began to be blackly defined.