Thus Tess Walks On

205. walking at his shoulder at first during the uphill parts of the way

206. When they had passed the little town of Stourcastle, dumbly somnolent under its thick brown thatch, they reached higher ground.

232. The mute procession past her of trees and hedges became attached to fantastic scenes outside reality, 

270. Rising early next day she walked to the hill-town called Shaston, 

271. Tess Durbeyfield's route on this memorable morning lay amid the north-eastern undulations of the Vale

276. She alighted from the van at Trantridge Cross, and ascended on foot a hill

277. passing through the side wicket with some trepidation, and onward to a point at which the drive took a turn, 

322. as he accompanied her along the drive till they were out of sight of the house.

328. they were in the turning of the drive, between the tall rhododendrons and conifers,

336. Tess went down the hill to Trantridge Cross,

339. there were several miles of pedestrian descent from that mountain-town into the vale to Marlott and this Tess did, 

425. They followed the way till they reached the beginning of the ascent,

427. and bidding them a hasty goodbye, Tess bent her steps up the hill.

432. In a moment they had passed the slow cart with the box, and disappeared behind the shoulder of the hill.

445. Having mounted beside her, Alec d'Urberville drove rapidly along the crest of the first hill,

445. Thus they reached the verge of an incline down which the road stretched in a long straight descent of nearly a mile.

503. and in this manner, at a slow pace, they advanced towards the village of Trantridge.

582. when the clock-chime sounded a quarter past eleven, they were straggling along the lane which led up the hill towards their homes.

584. They followed the road with a sensation that they were soaring along

586. In the open highway they had progressed in scattered order;

586. but now their route was through a field-gate, 

603. They were all now inside the field, and she was edging back to rush off alone

607. The pair were speeding away into the distant gray 

643. even at this walking pace, and that they were no longer on hard road, but in a mere trackway.

646. "A wood--what wood? Surely we are quite out of the road?"

689. the yellow luminosity upon the horizon behind her back lighted the ridge towards which her face was set

690. Tess went up the remainder of its length without stopping,

690. on reaching the edge of the escarpment gazed over the familiar green world beyond, now half-veiled in mist.

691. Ascending by the long white road that Tess herself had just laboured up,

728. Tess did not look after him, but slowly wound along the crooked lane. 

756. she throbbingly resumed her walk, her eyes fixed on the ground.

801. the other of women, had come down the lane just at the hour when the shadows of the eastern hedge-top struck the west hedge midway,

801. They disappeared from the lane between the two stone posts which flanked the nearest field-gate.

826. Then they all rode home in one of the largest wagons, in the company of a broad tarnished moon that had risen from the ground to the eastwards,

898. she started in a hired trap for the little town of Stourcastle,

898. On the curve of the nearest hill she looked back regretfully

900. She went through Stourcastle without pausing and onward to a junction of highways,

901. Thence she started on foot, basket in hand, to reach the wide upland of heath

904. The journey over the intervening uplands and lowlands of Egdon, when she reached them, was a more troublesome walk than she had anticipated,

904. she found herself on a summit commanding the long-sought-for vale,

914. Tess Durbeyfield, then, in good heart, and full of zest for life, descended the Egdon slopes lower and lower

920. Tess followed slowly in their rear, and entered the barton by the open gate

1043. She went stealthily as a cat through this profusion of growth,

1177. With eyes fixed upon the ground they crept slowly across a strip of the field,

1177. As they crept along, stooping low to discern the plant,

1253. but at last they came to the bend, and the rest of their progress was in full view of the other three.

1510. At last she got away, and did not stop in her retreat till she was in the thicket of pollard willows

1535. with an impression that Clare would soon follow her, went along a little wriggling path,

1575. In the diminishing daylight they went along the level roadway through the meads, 

1576. The lane they followed was so solitary

1589. As they drove on, the fragment of an old manor house of Caroline date rose against the sky

1592. They crept along towards a point in the expanse of shade

1593. They reached the feeble light, which came from the smoky lamp of a little railway station;

1672. Thus, during this October month of wonderful afternoons they roved along the meads by creeping paths

1681. She put her hand in his, and thus they went on, to a place where the reflected sun glared up from the river,

1753. This was mostly a journey to the farmhouse on the slopes above the vale,

1754. Returning from one of these dark walks they reached a great gravel-cliff immediately over the levels,

1853. Passing by the tower with her husband on the path to the gate

1883. They drove by the level road along the valley to a distance of a few miles, 

2037. Away from the house the road wound through the meads, and along these she followed Clare

2060. two lovers in the pastures, walking very slowly, without converse, one behind the other, as in a funeral procession,

2067. they were still not far from the house, and in obeying his direction she only had to reach the large stone bridge across the main river

2066. taking a new hold of her he went onward a few steps till they reached the ruined choir of the Abbey-church. 

2209. Thus she conducted him by the arm to the stone bridge in front of their residence, crossing which they stood at the manor-house door.

2217. they left the carriage by the wicket leading down from the high road to the dairy-house, and descended the track on foot, side by side.

2222. They re-entered the vehicle, and were driven along the roads towards Weatherbury and Stagfoot Lane, 

2222. and entering the Vale were next driven onward towards her home by a stranger

2222. where there were cross-roads, he asked her to accompany him for a few steps on foot along one of the branch roads; she assented,

2237. When Tess had passed over the crest of the hill he turned to go his own way,

2241. As she drove on through Blackmoor Vale, and the landscape of her youth began to open around her,

2242. She reached a turnpike-gate which stood upon the highway to the village.

2244. she dismissed her carriage, and went on to the village alone by a back lane.

2248. leaving her interlocutor, clambered over the garden-hedge,

2433. we see her a lonely woman with a basket and a bundle in her own porterage,

2449. But having once decided to try the higher and drier levels, she pressed back eastward, 

2450. The lane was long and unvaried, and, owing to the rapid shortening of the days, dusk came upon her before she was aware.

2450. She had reached the top of a hill down which the lane stretched its serpentine length in glimpses,

2456. She suddenly took to her heels with the speed of the wind, and, without looking behind her, ran along the road 

2456. Into this she plunged, and did not pause till she was deep enough in its shade to be safe against any possibility of discovery.

2469. It was now broad day, and she started again, emerging cautiously upon the highway.

2470. She reached Chalk-Newton,

2470. As soon as she got out of the village she entered a thicket

2474. Thus Tess walks on; a figure which is part of the landscape;

2480. Thus she went forward from farm to farm in the direction of the place whence Marian had written to her

2481. Towards the second evening she reached the irregular chalk table-land or plateau, 

2482. In the middle distance ahead of her she could see the summits of Bulbarrow and of Nettlecombe Tout, 

2482. Before her, in a slight depression, were the remains of a village. 

2513. They walked on together and soon reached the farmhouse, which was almost sublime in its dreariness.

2538. They trudged onwards with slanted bodies through the flossy fields, keeping as well as they could in the shelter of hedges, 

2596. when the snow had gone, and had been followed by a hard black frost, she took advantage of the state of the roads to try the experiment.

2599. They heard her footsteps tap along the hard road as she stepped out to her full pace.

2601. In time she reached the edge of the vast escarpment below which stretched the loamy Vale of Blackmoor, 

2602. Keeping the Vale on her right, she steered steadily westward; passing above the Hintocks, crossing at right-angles the high-road from Sherton-Abbas 

2602. Still following the elevated way she reached Cross-in-Hand, where the stone pillar stands desolate and silent,

2602. Three miles further she cut across the straight and deserted Roman road called Long-Ash Lane; 

2602. leaving which as soon as she reached it she dipped down a hill by a transverse lane into the small town or village of Evershead,

2603. The second half of her journey was through a more gentle country, 

2603. about noon she paused by a gate on the edge of the basin in which Emminster and its Vicarage lay.

2604. stuffing the former into the hedge by the gatepost where she might readily find them again, descended the hill;

2606. She nerved herself by an effort, entered the swing-gate, and rang the door-bell.

2608. she walked back again quite past the house, looking up at all the windows.

2610. She quickened her pace, and ascended the the road by which she had come, to find a retreat between its hedges

2612. Only one person had preceded Tess up the hill--a ladylike young woman,

2615. Tess beat up the long hill still faster; but she could not outwalk them without exciting notice.

2624. Thereupon she began to plod back along the road by which she had come not altogether full of hope, 

2625. Along the tedious length of Benvill Lane she began to grow tired, and she leant upon gates and paused by milestones.

2626. at the seventh or eighth mile, she descended the steep long hill below which lay the village or townlet of Evershead,

2629. Tess soon went onward into the village, her footsteps echoing against the houses

2635. she came round to the front of the barn, and passed before it.

2655. Thus absorbed, she recrossed the northern part of Long-Ash Lane at right angles, and presently saw before her the road ascending whitely to the upland 

2655. While slowly breasting this ascent Tess became conscious of footsteps behind her,

2669. as she turned away from him to a stile by the wayside, on which she bent herself.

2686. After this their conversation dwindled to a casual remark now and then as they rambled onward,

2686. Frequently when they came to a gate or stile they found painted thereon in red or blue letters some text of Scripture,

2687. At length the road touched the spot called "Cross-in-Hand."

2703. She meanwhile had kept along the edge of the hill by which lay her nearest way home.

2706. It was dusk when she drew near to Flintcomb-Ash, and in the lane at the entrance to the hamlet she approached a girl 

2734. she moved off with d'Urberville across the zebra-striped field.

2734. When they reached the first newly-ploughed section he held out his hand to help her over it;

2734. but she stepped forward on the summits of the earth-rolls as if she did not see him.

2982. She plunged into the chilly equinoctial darkness as the clock struck ten, for her fifteen miles' walk under the steely stars.

2982. Tess pursued the nearest course along by-lanes that she would almost have feared in the day-time;

2982. Thus she proceeded mile after mile, ascending and descending till she came to Bulbarrow,

2982. Having already traversed about five miles on the upland, she had now some ten or eleven in the lowland before her journey would be finished.

2982. The winding road downwards became just visible to her under the wan starlight as she followed it,

2982. and soon she paced a soil so contrasting with that above it that the difference was perceptible to the tread and to the smell.

2983. At Nuttlebury she passed the village inn, whose sign creaked in response to the greeting of her footsteps,

2984. At three she turned the last corner of the maze of lanes she had threaded, and entered Marlott,

2984. passing the field in which as a club-girl she had first seen Angel Clare,

3028. taking the fork in her hand proceeded homewards.

3128. Tess and the next eldest girl walked alongside till they were out of the village.

3142. it was quite late in the afternoon when they turned the flank of an eminence which formed part of the upland called Greenhill.

3148. They moved on into the town, and tried with all their might,

3155. she again ascended the little lane which secluded the church from the townlet. 

3158. she walked about the churchyard, now beginning to be embrowned by the shades of nightfall.

3373. When they were deep among the moaning boughs he stopped and looked at her inquiringly.

3384. They then walked on under the trees,

3385. Each clasping the other round the waist they promenaded over the dry bed of fir-needles, 

3391. Thereupon they quickened their pace, avoiding high roads,

3392. At mid-day they drew near to a roadside inn,

3396. She made no reply to this beyond that of grasping him more tightly, and straight inland they went.

3396. Through the latter miles of their walk their footpath had taken them into the depths of the New Forest,

3396. turning the corner of a lane, they perceived behind a brook and bridge 

3406. They retraced their steps, but it was half an hour before they stood without the entrance-gate as earlier.

3408. Under his escort she went tardily forward to the main front,

3428. When they had got into the Forest she turned to take a last look at the house.

3431. and towards mid-day they found that they were approaching the steepled city of Melchester,

3431. and their night march began, the boundary between Upper and Mid-Wessex being crossed about eight o'clock.

3432. Once out of the town they followed the turnpike-road, which after a few miles plunged across an open plain.

3433. However, they found their way along, keeping as much on the turf as possible that their tread might not resound,

3437. They carefully entered beneath and between; the surfaces echoed their soft rustle;

3441. The couple advanced further into this pavilion of the night till they stood in its midst.