第23章

It was a windowless erection used for storage, and from the open door there floated into the obscurity a mist of yellow radiance, which at first Tess thought to be illuminated smoke.But on drawing nearer she perceived that it was a cloud of dust, lit by candies within the outhouse, whose beams upon the haze carried forward the outline of the doorway into the wide night of the garden.

When she came close and looked in she beheld indistinct forms racing up and down to the figure of the dance, the silence of their footfalls arising from their being overshoe in `scroff' - that is to say, the powdery residuum from the storage of peat and other products, the stirring of which by their turbulent feet created the nebulosity that involved the scene.

Through this floating, fusty débris of peat and hay, mixed with the perspirations and warmth of the dancers, and forming together a sort of vegeto-human pollen, the muted fiddles feebly pushed their notes, in marked contrast to the spirit with which the measure was trodden out.

They coughed as they danced, and laughed as they coughed.Of the rushing couples there could barely be discerned more than the high lights - the indistinctness shaping them to satyrs clasping nymphs - a multiplicity of Pans whirling a multiplicity of Syrinxes; Lotis attempting to elude Priapus, and always failing.

At intervals a couple would approach the doorway for air, and the haze no longer veiling their features, the demigods resolved themselves into the homely personalities of her own next door neighbours.Could Trantridge in two or three short hours have metamorphosed itself thus madly!

Some Sileni of the throng sat on benches and hay-trusses by the wall;and one of them recognized her.

`The maids don't think it respectable to dance at "The Flower-de-Luce",'

he explained.`They don't like to let everybody see which be their fancy-men.

Besides, the house sometimes shuts up just when their lints begin to get greased.So we come here and send out for liquor.'

`But when be any of you going home?' asked Tess with some anxiety.

`Now - almost directly.This is all but the last jig.'

She waited.The reel drew to a close, and some of the party were in the mind for starting.But others would not, and another dance was formed.

This surely would end it, thought Tess.But it merged in yet another.She became restless and uneasy; yet, having waited so long, it was necessary to wait longer; on account of the fair the roads were dotted with roving characters of possibly ill intent; and, though not fearful of measurable dangers, she feared the unknown.Had she been near Marlott she would have had less dread.

`Don't ye be nervous, my dear good soul,'expostulated, between his coughs, a young man with a wet face, and his straw hat so far back upon his head that the brim encircled it like the nimbus of a saint.`What's yer hurry?

Tomorrow is Sunday, thank God, and we can sleep it off in church time.

Now, have a turn with me?' She did not abhor dancing, but she was not going to dance here.The movement grew more passionate: the fiddlers behind the luminous pillar of cloud now and then varied the air by playing on the wrong side of the bridge or with the back of the bow.But it did not matter;the panting shapes spun onwards.

They did not vary their partners if their inclination were to stick to previous ones.Changing partners simply meant that a satisfactory choice had not as yet been arrived at by one or other of the pair, and by this time every couple had been suitably matched.It was then that the ecstasy and the dream began, in which emotion was the matter of the universe, and matter but an adventitious intrusion likely to hinder you from spinning where you wanted to spin.

Suddenly there was a dull thump on the ground: a couple had fallen, and lay in a mixed heap.The next couple, unable to check its progress, came toppling over the obstacle.An inner cloud of dust rose around the prostrate figures amid the general one of the room, in which a twitching entanglement of arms and legs was discernible.

`You shall catch it for this, my gentleman, when you get home!' burst in female accents from the human heap - those of the unhappy partner of the man whose clumsiness had caused the mishap; she happened also to be his recently married wife, in which assortment there was nothing unusual at Trantridge as long as any affection remained between wedded couples;and, indeed, it was not uncustomary in their later lives, to avoid making odd lots of the single people between whom there might be a warm understanding.

A loud laugh from behind Tess's back, in the shade of the garden, united with the titter within the room.She looked round, and saw the red coal of a cigar: Alec d'Urberville was standing there alone.He beckoned to her, and she reluctantly retreated towards him.

`Well, my Beauty, what are you doing here?'

She was so tired after her long day and her walk that she confided her trouble to him - that she had been waiting ever since he saw her to have their company home, because the road at night was strange to her.`But it seems they will never leave off, and I really think I will wait no longer.'

`Certainly do not.I have only a saddle-horse here to-day; but come to "The Flower-de-Luce", and I'll hire a trap, and drive you home with me.'

Tess, though flattered, had never quite got over her original mistrust of him, and, despite their tardiness, she preferred to walk home with the work folk.So she answered that she was much obliged to him, but would not trouble him.`I have said that I will wait for 'em, and they will expect me to now.'

`Very well, Miss Independence.Please yourself...Then I shall not hurry...

My good Lord, what a kick-up they are having there!'