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Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, CHAPTER II

CHAPTER II

The village of Marlott lay amid the north-eastern undulations of the beautiful Vale of Blakemore, or Blackmoor, aforesaid, an engirdled and secluded region, for the most part untrodden as yet by tourist or landscape-painter, though within a four hours' journey from London. It is a vale whose acquaintance is best made by viewing it from the summits of the hills that surround it—except perhaps during the droughts of summer. An unguided ramble into its recesses in bad weather is apt to engender dissatisfaction with its narrow, tortuous, and miry ways.

This fertile and sheltered tract of country, in which the fields are never brown and the springs never dry, is bounded on the south by the bold chalk ridge that embraces the prominences of Hambledon Hill, Bulbarrow, Nettlecombe-Tout, Dogbury, High Stoy, and Bubb Down. The traveller from the coast, who, after plodding northward for a score of miles over calcareous downs and corn-lands, suddenly reaches the verge of one of these escarpments, is surprised and delighted to behold, extended like a map beneath him, a country differing absolutely from that which he has passed through. Behind him the hills are open, the sun blazes down upon fields so large as to give an unenclosed character to the landscape, the lanes are white, the hedges low and plashed, the atmosphere colourless. Here, in the valley, the world seems to be constructed upon a smaller and more delicate scale; the fields are mere paddocks, so reduced that from this height their hedgerows appear a network of dark green threads overspreading the paler green of the grass. The atmosphere beneath is languorous, and is so tinged with azure that what artists call the middle distance partakes also of that hue, while the horizon beyond is of the deepest ultramarine. Arable lands are few and limited; with but slight exceptions the prospect is a broad rich mass of grass and trees, mantling minor hills and dales within the major. Such is the Vale of Blackmoor.

The district is of historic, no less than of topographical interest. The Vale was known in former times as the Forest of White Hart, from a curious legend of King Henry III's reign, in which the killing by a certain Thomas de la Lynd of a beautiful white hart which the king had run down and spared, was made the occasion of a heavy fine. In those days, and till comparatively recent times, the country was densely wooded. Even now, traces of its earlier condition are to be found in the old oak copses and irregular belts of timber that yet survive upon its slopes, and the hollow-trunked trees that shade so many of its pastures.

The forests have departed, but some old customs of their shades remain. Many, however, linger only in a metamorphosed or disguised form. The May-Day dance, for instance, was to be discerned on the afternoon under notice, in the guise of the club revel, or "club-walking," as it was there called. It was an interesting event to the younger inhabitants of Marlott, though its real interest was not observed by the participators in the ceremony. Its singularity lay less in the retention of a custom of walking in procession and dancing on each anniversary than in the members being solely women. In men's clubs such celebrations were, though expiring, less uncommon; but either the natural shyness of the softer sex, or a sarcastic attitude on the part of male relatives, had denuded such women's clubs as remained (if any other did) or this their glory and consummation. The club of Marlott alone lived to uphold the local Cerealia. It had walked for hundreds of years, if not as benefit-club, as votive sisterhood of some sort; and it walked still.

The banded ones were all dressed in white gowns—a gay survival from Old Style days, when cheerfulness and May-time were synonyms—days before the habit of taking long views had reduced emotions to a monotonous average. Their first exhibition of themselves was in a processional march of two and two round the parish. Ideal and real clashed slightly as the sun lit up their figures against the green hedges and creeper-laced house-fronts; for, though the whole troop wore white garments, no two whites were alike among them. Some approached pure blanching; some had a bluish pallor; some worn by the older characters (which had possibly lain by folded for many a year) inclined to a cadaverous tint, and to a Georgian style.

In addition to the distinction of a white frock, every woman and girl carried in her right hand a peeled willow wand, and in her left a bunch of white flowers. The peeling of the former, and the selection of the latter, had been an operation of personal care.

There were a few middle-aged and even elderly women in the train, their silver-wiry hair and wrinkled faces, scourged by time and trouble, having almost a grotesque, certainly a pathetic, appearance in such a jaunty situation. In a true view, perhaps, there was more to be gathered and told of each anxious and experienced one, to whom the years were drawing nigh when she should say, "I have no pleasure in them," than of her juvenile comrades. But let the elder be passed over here for those under whose bodices the life throbbed quick and warm.

The young girls formed, indeed, the majority of the band, and their heads of luxuriant hair reflected in the sunshine every tone of gold, and black, and brown. Some had beautiful eyes, others a beautiful nose, others a beautiful mouth and figure: few, if any, had all. A difficulty of arranging their lips in this crude exposure to public scrutiny, an inability to balance their heads, and to dissociate self-consciousness from their features, was apparent in them, and showed that they were genuine country girls, unaccustomed to many eyes.

And as each and all of them were warmed without by the sun, so each had a private little sun for her soul to bask in; some dream, some affection, some hobby, at least some remote and distant hope which, though perhaps starving to nothing, still lived on, as hopes will. They were all cheerful, and many of them merry.

They came round by The Pure Drop Inn, and were turning out of the high road to pass through a wicket-gate into the meadows, when one of the women said—

"The Load-a-Lord! Why, Tess Durbeyfield, if there isn't thy father riding hwome in a carriage!" A young member of the band turned her head at the exclamation. She was a fine and handsome girl—not handsomer than some others, possibly—but her mobile peony mouth and large innocent eyes added eloquence to colour and shape. She wore a red ribbon in her hair, and was the only one of the white company who could boast of such a pronounced adornment. As she looked round Durbeyfield was seen moving along the road in a chaise belonging to The Pure Drop, driven by a frizzle-headed brawny damsel with her gown-sleeves rolled above her elbows. This was the cheerful servant of that establishment, who, in her part of factotum, turned groom and ostler at times. Durbeyfield, leaning back, and with his eyes closed luxuriously, was waving his hand above his head, and singing in a slow recitative—

"I've-got-a-gr't-family-vault-at-Kingsbere—and knighted-forefathers-in-lead-coffins-there!" The clubbists tittered, except the girl called Tess—in whom a slow heat seemed to rise at the sense that her father was making himself foolish in their eyes.

"He's tired, that's all," she said hastily, "and he has got a lift home, because our own horse has to rest to-day." "Bless thy simplicity, Tess," said her companions. "He's got his market-nitch. Haw-haw!" "Look here; I won't walk another inch with you, if you say any jokes about him!" Tess cried, and the colour upon her cheeks spread over her face and neck. In a moment her eyes grew moist, and her glance drooped to the ground. Perceiving that they had really pained her they said no more, and order again prevailed. Tess's pride would not allow her to turn her head again, to learn what her father's meaning was, if he had any; and thus she moved on with the whole body to the enclosure where there was to be dancing on the green. By the time the spot was reached she has recovered her equanimity, and tapped her neighbour with her wand and talked as usual.

Tess Durbeyfield at this time of her life was a mere vessel of emotion untinctured by experience. The dialect was on her tongue to some extent, despite the village school: the characteristic intonation of that dialect for this district being the voicing approximately rendered by the syllable UR, probably as rich an utterance as any to be found in human speech. The pouted-up deep red mouth to which this syllable was native had hardly as yet settled into its definite shape, and her lower lip had a way of thrusting the middle of her top one upward, when they closed together after a word.

Phases of her childhood lurked in her aspect still. As she walked along to-day, for all her bouncing handsome womanliness, you could sometimes see her twelfth year in her cheeks, or her ninth sparkling from her eyes; and even her fifth would flit over the curves of her mouth now and then.

Yet few knew, and still fewer considered this. A small minority, mainly strangers, would look long at her in casually passing by, and grow momentarily fascinated by her freshness, and wonder if they would ever see her again: but to almost everybody she was a fine and picturesque country girl, and no more.

Nothing was seen or heard further of Durbeyfield in his triumphal chariot under the conduct of the ostleress, and the club having entered the allotted space, dancing began. As there were no men in the company, the girls danced at first with each other, but when the hour for the close of labour drew on, the masculine inhabitants of the village, together with other idlers and pedestrians, gathered round the spot, and appeared inclined to negotiate for a partner.

Among these on-lookers were three young men of a superior class, carrying small knapsacks strapped to their shoulders, and stout sticks in their hands. Their general likeness to each other, and their consecutive ages, would almost have suggested that they might be, what in fact they were, brothers. The eldest wore the white tie, high waistcoat, and thin-brimmed hat of the regulation curate; the second was the normal undergraduate; the appearance of the third and youngest would hardly have been sufficient to characterize him; there was an uncribbed, uncabined aspect in his eyes and attire, implying that he had hardly as yet found the entrance to his professional groove. That he was a desultory tentative student of something and everything might only have been predicted of him.

These three brethren told casual acquaintance that they were spending their Whitsun holidays in a walking tour through the Vale of Blackmoor, their course being south-westerly from the town of Shaston on the north-east.

They leant over the gate by the highway, and inquired as to the meaning of the dance and the white-frocked maids. The two elder of the brothers were plainly not intending to linger more than a moment, but the spectacle of a bevy of girls dancing without male partners seemed to amuse the third, and make him in no hurry to move on. He unstrapped his knapsack, put it, with his stick, on the hedge-bank, and opened the gate.

"What are you going to do, Angel?" asked the eldest.

"I am inclined to go and have a fling with them. Why not all of us—just for a minute or two—it will not detain us long?" "No—no; nonsense!" said the first. "Dancing in public with a troop of country hoydens—suppose we should be seen! Come along, or it will be dark before we get to Stourcastle, and there's no place we can sleep at nearer than that; besides, we must get through another chapter of A Counterblast to Agnosticism before we turn in, now I have taken the trouble to bring the book." "All right—I'll overtake you and Cuthbert in five minutes; don't stop; I give my word that I will, Felix." The two elder reluctantly left him and walked on, taking their brother's knapsack to relieve him in following, and the youngest entered the field. "This is a thousand pities," he said gallantly, to two or three of the girls nearest him, as soon as there was a pause in the dance. "Where are your partners, my dears?" "They've not left off work yet," answered one of the boldest. "They'll be here by and by. Till then, will you be one, sir?" "Certainly. But what's one among so many!" "Better than none. 'Tis melancholy work facing and footing it to one of your own sort, and no clipsing and colling at all. Now, pick and choose." "'Ssh—don't be so for'ard!" said a shyer girl.

The young man, thus invited, glanced them over, and attempted some discrimination; but, as the group were all so new to him, he could not very well exercise it. He took almost the first that came to hand, which was not the speaker, as she had expected; nor did it happen to be Tess Durbeyfield. Pedigree, ancestral skeletons, monumental record, the d'Urberville lineaments, did not help Tess in her life's battle as yet, even to the extent of attracting to her a dancing-partner over the heads of the commonest peasantry. So much for Norman blood unaided by Victorian lucre.

The name of the eclipsing girl, whatever it was, has not been handed down; but she was envied by all as the first who enjoyed the luxury of a masculine partner that evening. Yet such was the force of example that the village young men, who had not hastened to enter the gate while no intruder was in the way, now dropped in quickly, and soon the couples became leavened with rustic youth to a marked extent, till at length the plainest woman in the club was no longer compelled to foot it on the masculine side of the figure.

The church clock struck, when suddenly the student said that he must leave—he had been forgetting himself—he had to join his companions. As he fell out of the dance his eyes lighted on Tess Durbeyfield, whose own large orbs wore, to tell the truth, the faintest aspect of reproach that he had not chosen her. He, too, was sorry then that, owing to her backwardness, he had not observed her; and with that in his mind he left the pasture.

On account of his long delay he started in a flying-run down the lane westward, and had soon passed the hollow and mounted the next rise. He had not yet overtaken his brothers, but he paused to get breath, and looked back. He could see the white figures of the girls in the green enclosure whirling about as they had whirled when he was among them. They seemed to have quite forgotten him already.

All of them, except, perhaps, one. This white shape stood apart by the hedge alone. From her position he knew it to be the pretty maiden with whom he had not danced. Trifling as the matter was, he yet instinctively felt that she was hurt by his oversight. He wished that he had asked her; he wished that he had inquired her name. She was so modest, so expressive, she had looked so soft in her thin white gown that he felt he had acted stupidly.

However, it could not be helped, and turning, and bending himself to a rapid walk, he dismissed the subject from his mind.


CHAPTER II KAPITEL II CAPÍTULO II 第二章 CAPÍTULO II ГЛАВА II 第二章

The village of Marlott lay amid the north-eastern undulations of the beautiful Vale of Blakemore, or Blackmoor, aforesaid, an engirdled and secluded region, for the most part untrodden as yet by tourist or landscape-painter, though within a four hours' journey from London. Le village de Marlott se trouvait au milieu des ondulations du nord-est de la belle vallée de Blakemore, ou Blackmoor, susmentionnée, une région enclavée et isolée, pour la plupart inexplorée jusqu'à présent par les touristes ou les peintres paysagistes, bien qu'à quatre heures de voyage de Londres. 말로 트 마을은 아름다운 블레이크 모어 골짜기 (Valkemore Vale) 또는 블랙 무어 (Blackmoor)의 북동쪽 기복의 한가운데에 놓여 있지만, 대부분은 관광객이나 풍경화가에 의해 아직까지도 4 시간 이내에 여행되지 않은 채 대부분 런던에서. It is a vale whose acquaintance is best made by viewing it from the summits of the hills that surround it—except perhaps during the droughts of summer. C'est une vallée que l'on fait mieux connaître en l'observant des sommets des collines qui l'entourent, sauf peut-être pendant les sécheresses de l'été. An unguided ramble into its recesses in bad weather is apt to engender dissatisfaction with its narrow, tortuous, and miry ways. Une promenade non guidée dans ses recoins par mauvais temps est susceptible d'engendrer le mécontentement de ses voies étroites, tortueuses et bourbeuses.

This fertile and sheltered tract of country, in which the fields are never brown and the springs never dry, is bounded on the south by the bold chalk ridge that embraces the prominences of Hambledon Hill, Bulbarrow, Nettlecombe-Tout, Dogbury, High Stoy, and Bubb Down. Cette étendue de pays fertile et abritée, dans laquelle les champs ne sont jamais bruns et les sources jamais sèches, est délimitée au sud par la crête de craie audacieuse qui embrasse les proéminences de Hambledon Hill, Bulbarrow, Nettlecombe-Tout, Dogbury, High Stoy, et Bubb Down. The traveller from the coast, who, after plodding northward for a score of miles over calcareous downs and corn-lands, suddenly reaches the verge of one of these escarpments, is surprised and delighted to behold, extended like a map beneath him, a country differing absolutely from that which he has passed through. Le voyageur de la côte, qui, après avoir marché vers le nord pendant une vingtaine de milles sur des dunes calcaires et des terres à maïs, atteint soudain le bord de l'un de ces escarpements, est surpris et ravi de voir, étendu comme une carte sous lui, un pays différant absolument de celui qu'il a traversé. Behind him the hills are open, the sun blazes down upon fields so large as to give an unenclosed character to the landscape, the lanes are white, the hedges low and plashed, the atmosphere colourless. Derrière lui, les collines sont ouvertes, le soleil embrase des champs si grands qu'il donne au paysage un caractère non clos, les ruelles sont blanches, les haies basses et plantées, l'atmosphère incolore. Here, in the valley, the world seems to be constructed upon a smaller and more delicate scale; the fields are mere paddocks, so reduced that from this height their hedgerows appear a network of dark green threads overspreading the paler green of the grass. Ici, dans la vallée, le monde semble se construire à une échelle plus petite et plus délicate ; les champs ne sont que de simples enclos, si réduits que de cette hauteur leurs haies apparaissent comme un réseau de filets vert foncé recouvrant le vert plus pâle de l'herbe. The atmosphere beneath is languorous, and is so tinged with azure that what artists call the middle distance partakes also of that hue, while the horizon beyond is of the deepest ultramarine. L'atmosphère en dessous est langoureuse et si teintée d'azur que ce que les artistes appellent le demi-fond participe aussi de cette teinte, tandis que l'horizon au-delà est de l'outremer le plus profond. Arable lands are few and limited; with but slight exceptions the prospect is a broad rich mass of grass and trees, mantling minor hills and dales within the major. Les terres arables sont peu nombreuses et limitées ; à de légères exceptions près, la perspective est une vaste et riche masse d'herbe et d'arbres, recouvrant des collines et des vallons mineurs à l'intérieur de la majeure. Such is the Vale of Blackmoor.

The district is of historic, no less than of topographical interest. Le quartier est d'intérêt historique autant que topographique. The Vale was known in former times as the Forest of White Hart, from a curious legend of King Henry III's reign, in which the killing by a certain Thomas de la Lynd of a beautiful white hart which the king had run down and spared, was made the occasion of a heavy fine. La vallée était connue autrefois sous le nom de forêt de White Hart, d'après une curieuse légende du règne du roi Henri III, dans laquelle le meurtre par un certain Thomas de la Lynd d'un beau cerf blanc que le roi avait abattu et épargné, a été fait l'occasion d'une lourde amende. In those days, and till comparatively recent times, the country was densely wooded. À cette époque, et jusqu'à une période relativement récente, le pays était densément boisé. Even now, traces of its earlier condition are to be found in the old oak copses and irregular belts of timber that yet survive upon its slopes, and the hollow-trunked trees that shade so many of its pastures. Même maintenant, des traces de son état antérieur se trouvent dans les vieux bosquets de chênes et les ceintures irrégulières de bois qui survivent encore sur ses pentes, et les arbres au tronc creux qui ombragent tant de ses pâturages.

The forests have departed, but some old customs of their shades remain. Les forêts ont disparu, mais quelques vieilles coutumes de leurs ombres subsistent. Many, however, linger only in a metamorphosed or disguised form. Beaucoup, cependant, ne s'attardent que sous une forme métamorphosée ou déguisée. The May-Day dance, for instance, was to be discerned on the afternoon under notice, in the guise of the club revel, or "club-walking," as it was there called. La danse du 1er mai, par exemple, devait être discernée l'après-midi sous le couvert de la fête du club, ou « marche du club », comme on l'appelait là-bas. It was an interesting event to the younger inhabitants of Marlott, though its real interest was not observed by the participators in the ceremony. C'était un événement intéressant pour les plus jeunes habitants de Marlott, bien que son intérêt réel n'ait pas été remarqué par les participants à la cérémonie. Its singularity lay less in the retention of a custom of walking in procession and dancing on each anniversary than in the members being solely women. Sa singularité résidait moins dans le maintien d'une coutume de marcher en procession et de danser à chaque anniversaire que dans le fait que les membres étaient uniquement des femmes. In men's clubs such celebrations were, though expiring, less uncommon; but either the natural shyness of the softer sex, or a sarcastic attitude on the part of male relatives, had denuded such women's clubs as remained (if any other did) or this their glory and consummation. Dans les clubs d'hommes, de telles célébrations étaient, bien qu'expirantes, moins rares ; mais soit la timidité naturelle du sexe doux, soit une attitude sarcastique de la part des parents masculins, avaient dépouillé les clubs de femmes qui restaient (s'il en restait d'autres) ou leur gloire et leur consommation. The club of Marlott alone lived to uphold the local Cerealia. Seul le club de Marlott vivait pour faire vivre la Cerealia locale. It had walked for hundreds of years, if not as benefit-club, as votive sisterhood of some sort; and it walked still. Il avait marché pendant des centaines d'années, sinon comme club-bénéfice, comme une sorte de fraternité votive ; et il marchait encore.

The banded ones were all dressed in white gowns—a gay survival from Old Style days, when cheerfulness and May-time were synonyms—days before the habit of taking long views had reduced emotions to a monotonous average. Les bagués étaient tous vêtus de robes blanches – une survivance gaie de l'époque de l'ancien style, lorsque la gaieté et le temps de mai étaient synonymes – des jours avant que l'habitude de prendre de longues vues n'ait réduit les émotions à une moyenne monotone. Their first exhibition of themselves was in a processional march of two and two round the parish. Leur première exposition d'eux-mêmes était dans une marche processionnelle de deux et deux autour de la paroisse. Ideal and real clashed slightly as the sun lit up their figures against the green hedges and creeper-laced house-fronts; for, though the whole troop wore white garments, no two whites were alike among them. L'idéal et le réel s'entrechoquaient légèrement lorsque le soleil éclairait leurs silhouettes contre les haies vertes et les façades de maisons aux lianes ; car, bien que toute la troupe portait des vêtements blancs, il n'y avait pas deux Blancs pareils parmi eux. Some approached pure blanching; some had a bluish pallor; some worn by the older characters (which had possibly lain by folded for many a year) inclined to a cadaverous tint, and to a Georgian style. Certains se sont approchés du blanchiment pur; certains avaient une pâleur bleuâtre; certains portés par les personnages plus anciens (qui étaient peut-être restés pliés pendant de nombreuses années) penchaient pour une teinte cadavérique et pour un style géorgien.

In addition to the distinction of a white frock, every woman and girl carried in her right hand a peeled willow wand, and in her left a bunch of white flowers. En plus de la distinction d'une robe blanche, chaque femme et fille portait dans sa main droite une baguette de saule pelée et dans sa gauche un bouquet de fleurs blanches. The peeling of the former, and the selection of the latter, had been an operation of personal care.

There were a few middle-aged and even elderly women in the train, their silver-wiry hair and wrinkled faces, scourged by time and trouble, having almost a grotesque, certainly a pathetic, appearance in such a jaunty situation. Il y avait quelques femmes d'âge moyen et même âgées dans le train, leurs cheveux en fil d'argent et leurs visages ridés, flagellés par le temps et les ennuis, ayant une apparence presque grotesque, certainement pathétique, dans une situation aussi désinvolte. In a true view, perhaps, there was more to be gathered and told of each anxious and experienced one, to whom the years were drawing nigh when she should say, "I have no pleasure in them," than of her juvenile comrades. À vrai dire, peut-être, il y avait plus à recueillir et à raconter de chaque personne anxieuse et expérimentée, à qui les années approchaient quand elle dirait : « Je n'ai aucun plaisir en elles », que de ses jeunes camarades. But let the elder be passed over here for those under whose bodices the life throbbed quick and warm. Mais que l'aîné soit passé ici pour ceux sous les corsages desquels la vie palpitait vite et chaudement. Але нехай старший пропустить сюди тих, під чиїми ліфами життя пульсувало швидко і тепло.

The young girls formed, indeed, the majority of the band, and their heads of luxuriant hair reflected in the sunshine every tone of gold, and black, and brown. Les jeunes filles formaient en effet la majorité du groupe, et leurs chevelures luxuriantes reflétaient au soleil tous les tons d'or, de noir et de brun. Some had beautiful eyes, others a beautiful nose, others a beautiful mouth and figure: few, if any, had all. Certains avaient de beaux yeux, d'autres un beau nez, d'autres une belle bouche et une belle silhouette : peu, voire aucun, avaient tout. A difficulty of arranging their lips in this crude exposure to public scrutiny, an inability to balance their heads, and to dissociate self-consciousness from their features, was apparent in them, and showed that they were genuine country girls, unaccustomed to many eyes. Une difficulté à arranger leurs lèvres dans cette exposition grossière à l'examen public, une incapacité à équilibrer leur tête et à dissocier la gêne de leurs traits, était apparente en elles et montrait qu'elles étaient de véritables filles de la campagne, peu habituées à beaucoup d'yeux. У них було помітно, що їм важко скласти губи під цим грубим поглядом публіки, що вони не можуть врівноважити голову і відокремити самосвідомість від рис обличчя, що свідчило про те, що вони були справжніми сільськими дівчатами, які не звикли до численних поглядів.

And as each and all of them were warmed without by the sun, so each had a private little sun for her soul to bask in; some dream, some affection, some hobby, at least some remote and distant hope which, though perhaps starving to nothing, still lived on, as hopes will. Et comme chacun d'eux était réchauffé à l'extérieur par le soleil, ainsi chacun avait un petit soleil privé pour que son âme se prélasse; quelque rêve, quelque affection, quelque passe-temps, au moins quelque espoir lointain et lointain qui, bien que peut-être affamé de rien, vivait toujours, comme le feront les espoirs. І як кожна з них була без сонця, так і кожна мала власне маленьке сонце для своєї душі, на якому грілася; якусь мрію, якусь прихильність, якесь хобі, принаймні якусь далеку-далеку надію, яка, можливо, вмирала з голоду, але все ж жила, як і належить надіям. They were all cheerful, and many of them merry.

They came round by The Pure Drop Inn, and were turning out of the high road to pass through a wicket-gate into the meadows, when one of the women said— Ils passèrent par The Pure Drop Inn, et tournèrent de la grande route pour passer par un guichet dans les prairies, quand l'une des femmes dit :

"The Load-a-Lord! « La charge-un-Seigneur ! Why, Tess Durbeyfield, if there isn't thy father riding hwome in a carriage!" Pourquoi, Tess Durbeyfield, s'il n'y a pas ton père qui rentre chez lui en calèche ! » A young member of the band turned her head at the exclamation. She was a fine and handsome girl—not handsomer than some others, possibly—but her mobile peony mouth and large innocent eyes added eloquence to colour and shape. C'était une belle et belle fille – pas plus belle que d'autres, peut-être – mais sa bouche de pivoine mobile et ses grands yeux innocents ajoutaient de l'éloquence à la couleur et à la forme. She wore a red ribbon in her hair, and was the only one of the white company who could boast of such a pronounced adornment. Elle portait un ruban rouge dans les cheveux et était la seule de la société blanche à pouvoir se vanter d'une parure aussi prononcée. As she looked round Durbeyfield was seen moving along the road in a chaise belonging to The Pure Drop, driven by a frizzle-headed brawny damsel with her gown-sleeves rolled above her elbows. Alors qu'elle regardait autour d'elle, on a vu Durbeyfield se déplacer le long de la route dans une chaise appartenant à The Pure Drop, conduite par une demoiselle musclée à la tête crépue avec ses manches de robe roulées au-dessus de ses coudes. Коли вона озирнулася, то побачила, що Дурбейфілд рухається дорогою у шезлонгу, що належить "Чистій краплі", за кермом якого сиділа кучерява м'язиста дівчина з рукавами сукні, засуканими вище ліктів. This was the cheerful servant of that establishment, who, in her part of factotum, turned groom and ostler at times. C'était la joyeuse servante de cet établissement, qui, dans sa partie de factotum, devenait parfois palefrenier et ostler. Це була весела служниця того закладу, яка, виконуючи свою частину фактотуму, час від часу ставала нареченим і остлером. Durbeyfield, leaning back, and with his eyes closed luxuriously, was waving his hand above his head, and singing in a slow recitative— Durbeyfield, penché en arrière, et avec ses yeux fermés luxueusement, agitait sa main au-dessus de sa tête, et chantait dans un récitatif lent :

"I've-got-a-gr't-family-vault-at-Kingsbere—and knighted-forefathers-in-lead-coffins-there!" "J'ai une famille de grands-parents, voûtée à Kingsbere et anoblie par des cercueils de chefs de famille là-bas !" The clubbists tittered, except the girl called Tess—in whom a slow heat seemed to rise at the sense that her father was making himself foolish in their eyes. Les clubbistes ricanaient, à l'exception de la fille appelée Tess – chez qui une lente chaleur semblait monter à la sensation que son père se ridiculisait à leurs yeux.

"He's tired, that's all," she said hastily, "and he has got a lift home, because our own horse has to rest to-day." « Il est fatigué, c'est tout, dit-elle précipitamment, et il a un ascenseur pour rentrer chez lui, parce que notre cheval doit se reposer aujourd'hui. "Bless thy simplicity, Tess," said her companions. « Bénis ta simplicité, Tess », dirent ses compagnons. "He's got his market-nitch. "Il a son marché. Haw-haw!" "Look here; I won't walk another inch with you, if you say any jokes about him!" « Regardez ici ; je ne marcherai pas un pouce de plus avec vous, si vous dites des blagues sur lui ! » Tess cried, and the colour upon her cheeks spread over her face and neck. Tess s'est écriée, et la couleur de ses joues s'est répandue sur son visage et son cou. In a moment her eyes grew moist, and her glance drooped to the ground. En un instant, ses yeux s'humidifièrent et son regard tomba sur le sol. Perceiving that they had really pained her they said no more, and order again prevailed. S'apercevant qu'ils l'avaient vraiment peinée, ils ne dirent plus rien et l'ordre régna de nouveau. Tess's pride would not allow her to turn her head again, to learn what her father's meaning was, if he had any; and thus she moved on with the whole body to the enclosure where there was to be dancing on the green. L'orgueil de Tess ne lui permettrait pas de tourner la tête à nouveau, d'apprendre ce que voulait dire son père, s'il en avait un ; et ainsi elle se dirigea avec tout le corps jusqu'à l'enclos où l'on devait danser sur le green. By the time the spot was reached she has recovered her equanimity, and tapped her neighbour with her wand and talked as usual. Au moment où l'endroit a été atteint, elle a retrouvé son équanimité et a tapoté son voisin avec sa baguette et a parlé comme d'habitude.

Tess Durbeyfield at this time of her life was a mere vessel of emotion untinctured by experience. Tess Durbeyfield à cette époque de sa vie était un simple vaisseau d'émotion non teinté par l'expérience. The dialect was on her tongue to some extent, despite the village school: the characteristic intonation of that dialect for this district being the voicing approximately rendered by the syllable UR, probably as rich an utterance as any to be found in human speech. Le dialecte était dans une certaine mesure sur sa langue, malgré l'école du village : l'intonation caractéristique de ce dialecte pour ce district étant l'expression approximativement rendue par la syllabe UR, un énoncé probablement aussi riche que n'importe quel autre langage humain. The pouted-up deep red mouth to which this syllable was native had hardly as yet settled into its definite shape, and her lower lip had a way of thrusting the middle of her top one upward, when they closed together after a word. La bouche boudeuse d'un rouge profond à laquelle cette syllabe était originaire avait à peine pris sa forme définitive, et sa lèvre inférieure avait le moyen de pousser le milieu de sa lèvre supérieure vers le haut, lorsqu'elles se fermaient ensemble après un mot.

Phases of her childhood lurked in her aspect still. Des phases de son enfance se cachaient encore dans son aspect. As she walked along to-day, for all her bouncing handsome womanliness, you could sometimes see her twelfth year in her cheeks, or her ninth sparkling from her eyes; and even her fifth would flit over the curves of her mouth now and then. Alors qu'elle marchait aujourd'hui, malgré toute sa belle féminité rebondissante, on pouvait parfois voir sa douzième année dans ses joues, ou sa neuvième scintiller de ses yeux ; et même son cinquième voletait de temps en temps sur les courbes de sa bouche.

Yet few knew, and still fewer considered this. A small minority, mainly strangers, would look long at her in casually passing by, and grow momentarily fascinated by her freshness, and wonder if they would ever see her again: but to almost everybody she was a fine and picturesque country girl, and no more. Une petite minorité, principalement des étrangers, la regardait longuement en passant par là, et devenait momentanément fascinée par sa fraîcheur, et se demandait s'ils la reverraient jamais : mais pour presque tout le monde, c'était une belle et pittoresque fille de la campagne, et non. Suite.

Nothing was seen or heard further of Durbeyfield in his triumphal chariot under the conduct of the ostleress, and the club having entered the allotted space, dancing began. On n'a plus rien vu ni entendu de Durbeyfield dans son char triomphal sous la conduite de l'ostleresse, et la massue étant entrée dans l'espace alloué, la danse a commencé. As there were no men in the company, the girls danced at first with each other, but when the hour for the close of labour drew on, the masculine inhabitants of the village, together with other idlers and pedestrians, gathered round the spot, and appeared inclined to negotiate for a partner.

Among these on-lookers were three young men of a superior class, carrying small knapsacks strapped to their shoulders, and stout sticks in their hands. Parmi ces spectateurs se trouvaient trois jeunes gens d'une classe supérieure, portant de petits sacs à dos attachés à leurs épaules, et de gros bâtons à la main. Серед цих роззяв було троє молодих людей вищого класу, з невеликими рюкзаками на плечах і товстими палицями в руках. Their general likeness to each other, and their consecutive ages, would almost have suggested that they might be, what in fact they were, brothers. Leur ressemblance générale les uns avec les autres et leurs âges consécutifs auraient presque suggéré qu'ils pourraient être, ce qu'ils étaient en fait, des frères. The eldest wore the white tie, high waistcoat, and thin-brimmed hat of the regulation curate; the second was the normal undergraduate; the appearance of the third and youngest would hardly have been sufficient to characterize him; there was an uncribbed, uncabined aspect in his eyes and attire, implying that he had hardly as yet found the entrance to his professional groove. L'aînée portait la cravate blanche, le gilet montant et le chapeau à bords fins du vicaire réglementaire ; le second était le premier cycle normal; l'apparence du troisième et du plus jeune aurait à peine suffi à le caractériser ; il y avait dans ses yeux et dans ses vêtements un aspect non criblé et sans cabine, ce qui impliquait qu'il avait à peine encore trouvé l'entrée de son groove professionnel. Старший носив білу краватку, високий жилет і крислатий капелюх куратора; другий був звичайним студентом; зовнішнього вигляду третього і наймолодшого навряд чи було б достатньо, щоб охарактеризувати його; в його очах і одязі був якийсь неписаний, розкутий аспект, що вказував на те, що він навряд чи ще знайшов вхід у свою професійну колію. That he was a desultory tentative student of something and everything might only have been predicted of him. Qu'il était un étudiant hésitant et hésitant de quelque chose et de tout n'aurait pu être prédit que de lui.

These three brethren told casual acquaintance that they were spending their Whitsun holidays in a walking tour through the Vale of Blackmoor, their course being south-westerly from the town of Shaston on the north-east. Ces trois frères ont dit à une connaissance occasionnelle qu'ils passaient leurs vacances de Pentecôte dans une visite à pied à travers la vallée de Blackmoor, leur parcours étant au sud-ouest de la ville de Shaston au nord-est.

They leant over the gate by the highway, and inquired as to the meaning of the dance and the white-frocked maids. Ils se penchèrent par-dessus la porte de la grande route et s'enquirent de la signification de la danse et des servantes en robes blanches. The two elder of the brothers were plainly not intending to linger more than a moment, but the spectacle of a bevy of girls dancing without male partners seemed to amuse the third, and make him in no hurry to move on. Les deux aînés des frères n'avaient manifestement pas l'intention de s'attarder plus d'un instant, mais le spectacle d'une ribambelle de filles dansant sans partenaires masculins sembla amuser le troisième, et ne l'empressa pas de passer à autre chose. He unstrapped his knapsack, put it, with his stick, on the hedge-bank, and opened the gate.

"What are you going to do, Angel?" asked the eldest.

"I am inclined to go and have a fling with them. "Je suis enclin à aller faire une aventure avec eux. "Я схильний до того, щоб піти і закрутити з ними роман. Why not all of us—just for a minute or two—it will not detain us long?" "No—no; nonsense!" said the first. "Dancing in public with a troop of country hoydens—suppose we should be seen! « Danser en public avec une troupe d'hoydens campagnards, supposons que nous soyons vus ! Come along, or it will be dark before we get to Stourcastle, and there's no place we can sleep at nearer than that; besides, we must get through another chapter of A Counterblast to Agnosticism before we turn in, now I have taken the trouble to bring the book." Venez, ou il fera nuit avant d'arriver à Stourcastle, et il n'y a pas d'endroit où dormir plus près que ça ; en outre, nous devons parcourir un autre chapitre de A Counterblast to Agnosticism avant de nous rendre, maintenant j'ai pris la peine d'apporter le livre. » "All right—I'll overtake you and Cuthbert in five minutes; don't stop; I give my word that I will, Felix." The two elder reluctantly left him and walked on, taking their brother's knapsack to relieve him in following, and the youngest entered the field. "This is a thousand pities," he said gallantly, to two or three of the girls nearest him, as soon as there was a pause in the dance. — C'est mille fois dommage, dit-il galamment à deux ou trois des filles les plus proches de lui, dès qu'il y eut une pause dans la danse. "Where are your partners, my dears?" "They've not left off work yet," answered one of the boldest. "Ils n'ont pas encore quitté le travail", a répondu l'un des plus audacieux. "They'll be here by and by. "Ils seront bientôt là. Till then, will you be one, sir?" "Certainly. But what's one among so many!" "Better than none. 'Tis melancholy work facing and footing it to one of your own sort, and no clipsing and colling at all. C'est un travail mélancolique face à l'un des vôtres, et pas de clipping ni de colling du tout. "Це меланхолійна робота, коли ти стоїш обличчям до себе і ставиш його на ногу, і ніяких зачісок чи застібок. Now, pick and choose." "'Ssh—don't be so for'ard!" said a shyer girl.

The young man, thus invited, glanced them over, and attempted some discrimination; but, as the group were all so new to him, he could not very well exercise it. Le jeune homme, ainsi invité, les parcourut d'un coup d'œil et tenta quelque discernement ; mais, comme le groupe était tout nouveau pour lui, il ne pouvait pas très bien l'exercer. He took almost the first that came to hand, which was not the speaker, as she had expected; nor did it happen to be Tess Durbeyfield. Il prit presque le premier qui lui tomba sous la main, qui n'était pas l'orateur, comme elle s'y attendait ; ce n'était pas non plus Tess Durbeyfield. Pedigree, ancestral skeletons, monumental record, the d'Urberville lineaments, did not help Tess in her life's battle as yet, even to the extent of attracting to her a dancing-partner over the heads of the commonest peasantry. Pedigree, squelettes ancestraux, archives monumentales, les linéaments d'Urberville, n'aidèrent pas encore Tess dans le combat de sa vie, au point même d'attirer à elle un partenaire de danse au-dessus des têtes de la paysannerie la plus commune. So much for Norman blood unaided by Victorian lucre. Voilà pour le sang normand sans l'aide du gain victorien.

The name of the eclipsing girl, whatever it was, has not been handed down; but she was envied by all as the first who enjoyed the luxury of a masculine partner that evening. Le nom de la fille qui s'éclipse, quel qu'il soit, n'a pas été transmis ; mais elle était enviée par tous comme la première qui savoura le luxe d'un partenaire masculin ce soir-là. Yet such was the force of example that the village young men, who had not hastened to enter the gate while no intruder was in the way, now dropped in quickly, and soon the couples became leavened with rustic youth to a marked extent, till at length the plainest woman in the club was no longer compelled to foot it on the masculine side of the figure. Pourtant, la force de l'exemple était telle que les jeunes gens du village, qui ne s'étaient pas empressés d'entrer par la porte tant qu'aucun intrus n'était sur le chemin, s'y arrêtèrent rapidement, et bientôt les couples devinrent levés d'une jeunesse rustique dans une mesure marquée, jusqu'à ce qu'à En longueur, la femme la plus simple du club n'était plus obligée de le poser du côté masculin de la silhouette. Однако пример был настолько силен, что деревенские юноши, которые не спешили входить в ворота, пока на пути не было посторонних, теперь быстро заходили туда, и вскоре пары заметно поредели, и в конце концов самая простая женщина в клубе уже не была вынуждена ступать на мужскую половину фигуры. Але сила прикладу була такою, що сільські юнаки, які не поспішали входити у ворота, поки на їхньому шляху не було сторонніх, тепер швидко забігали, і незабаром пари помітно поповнилися сільською молоддю, аж доки найпростіша жінка в клубі більше не була змушена ставити ногу на ногу з чоловічим боком фігури.

The church clock struck, when suddenly the student said that he must leave—he had been forgetting himself—he had to join his companions. L'horloge de l'église sonna, quand soudain l'étudiant dit qu'il devait partir — il s'était oublié — qu'il devait rejoindre ses compagnons. As he fell out of the dance his eyes lighted on Tess Durbeyfield, whose own large orbs wore, to tell the truth, the faintest aspect of reproach that he had not chosen her. Alors qu'il tombait hors de la danse, ses yeux se posèrent sur Tess Durbeyfield, dont les grands orbes portaient, à vrai dire, le moindre aspect de reproche qu'il ne l'avait pas choisie. He, too, was sorry then that, owing to her backwardness, he had not observed her; and with that in his mind he left the pasture. Lui aussi regrettait alors de ne pas l'avoir observée à cause de son retard ; et avec cela dans son esprit, il quitta le pâturage.

On account of his long delay he started in a flying-run down the lane westward, and had soon passed the hollow and mounted the next rise. En raison de son long retard, il s'élança dans une course volante le long de la voie vers l'ouest, et avait bientôt dépassé le creux et gravi la prochaine montée. He had not yet overtaken his brothers, but he paused to get breath, and looked back. He could see the white figures of the girls in the green enclosure whirling about as they had whirled when he was among them. Il pouvait voir les silhouettes blanches des filles dans l'enclos vert tournoyer comme elles l'avaient fait lorsqu'il était parmi elles. They seemed to have quite forgotten him already.

All of them, except, perhaps, one. This white shape stood apart by the hedge alone. Cette forme blanche se distinguait par la haie seule. From her position he knew it to be the pretty maiden with whom he had not danced. Trifling as the matter was, he yet instinctively felt that she was hurt by his oversight. Aussi insignifiant que soit l'affaire, il sentit pourtant instinctivement qu'elle était blessée par son oubli. He wished that he had asked her; he wished that he had inquired her name. She was so modest, so expressive, she had looked so soft in her thin white gown that he felt he had acted stupidly.

However, it could not be helped, and turning, and bending himself to a rapid walk, he dismissed the subject from his mind. Cependant, il ne pouvait pas être aidé, et se retournant et se penchant sur une marche rapide, il écarta le sujet de son esprit.