The Water lily Pond

The Water lily Pond
The Sacrifice of Abraham painting
The Three Ages of Woman
The Virgin and Child with St Anne
Yet they did not feel the wetness so much as might be supposed. They were both young, and they were talking of the time when they lived and loved together at Talbothays Dairy, that happy green tract of land where summer had been liberal in her gifts; in substance to all, emotionally to these. Tess would fain not have conversed with Marian of the man who was legally, if not actually, her husband; but the irresistible fascination of the subject betrayed her into reciprocating Marian's remarks. And thus, as has been said, though the damp curtains of their bonnets flapped smartly into their faces, and their wrappers clung about them to wearisomeness, they lived all this afternoon in memories of green, sunny, romantic Talbothays. ¡¡¡¡`You can see a gleam of a hill within a few miles o' Froom Valley from here when 'tis fine,' said Marian. ¡¡¡¡`Ah! Can you!' said Tess, awake to the new value of this locality. ¡¡¡¡So the two forces were at work here as everywhere, the inherent will to enjoy, and the circumstantial will against enjoyment. Marian's will had a method of assisting itself by taking from her pocket as the afternoon wore on a pint bottle corked with white rag, from which she invited Tess to drink. Tess's unassisted power of dreaming, however, being enough for her sublimation at present, she declined except the merest sip, and then Marian took a pull herself from the spirits. ¡¡¡¡`I've got used to it,' she said, `and can't leave it off now. 'Tis my only comfort - You see I lost him: you didn't; and you can do without it, perhaps.' ¡¡¡¡Tess thought her loss as great as Marian's, but upheld by the dignity of being Angel's wife, in the letter at least, she accepted Marian's differentiation.