Phase the Second: Maiden No More

Ascending by the long white road that Tess herself had just laboured
up, she saw a two-wheeled vehicle, beside which walked a man, who
held up his hand to attract her attention.

She obeyed the signal to wait for him with unspeculative repose, and
in a few minutes man and horse stopped beside her.

"Why did you slip away by stealth like this?" said d'Urberville, with
upbraiding breathlessness; "on a Sunday morning, too, when people
were all in bed! I only discovered it by accident, and I have been
driving like the deuce to overtake you. Just look at the mare. Why
go off like this? You know that nobody wished to hinder your going.
And how unnecessary it has been for you to toil along on foot, and
encumber yourself with this heavy load! I have followed like a
madman, simply to drive you the rest of the distance, if you won't
come back."

"I shan't come back," said she. "I thought you wouldn't--I said so! Well, then, put up your basket,
and let me help you on." She listlessly placed her basket and bundle within the dog-cart, and
stepped up, and they sat side by side. She had no fear of him now,
and in the cause of her confidence her sorrow lay.

D'Urberville mechanically lit a cigar, and the journey was continued
with broken unemotional conversation on the commonplace objects by
the wayside. He had quite forgotten his struggle to kiss her when,
in the early summer, they had driven in the opposite direction along
the same road. But she had not, and she sat now, like a puppet,
replying to his remarks in monosyllables. After some miles they came
in view of the clump of trees beyond which the village of Marlott
stood. It was only then that her still face showed the least
emotion, a tear or two beginning to trickle down.