Rolliver's inn, the single alehouse at this end of the long and broken village, could only boast of an off-license; licence, as nobody could legally drink on the premises, the amount of overt accommodation for consumers was strictly limited to a little board about six inches wide and two yards long, fixed to the garden palings by pieces of wire, so as to form a ledge. On this board thirsty strangers deposited their cups as they stood in the road and drank, and threw the dregs on the dusty ground to the pattern of Polynesia, and wished they could have a restful seat inside.
Thus the strangers. But there were also local customers who felt the same wish; and where there's a will there's a way.
In a large bedroom upstairs, the window of which was thickly curtained with a great woollen shawl lately discarded by the landlady Mrs Rolliver, were gathered on this evening nearly a dozen persons, all seeking beatitude; all old inhabitants of the nearer end of Marlott, and frequenters of this retreat. Not only did the distance to The Pure Drop, the fully-licensed tavern at the further part of the dispersed village, render its accommodation practically unavailable for dwellers at this end; but the far more serious question, the quality of the liquor, confirmed the prevalent opinion that it was better to drink with Rolliver in a corner of the housetop than with the other landlord in a wide house.
A gaunt four-post bedstead which stood in the room afforded sitting-space for several persons gathered round three of its sides; a couple more men had elevated themselves on a chest of drawers; another rested on the oak-carved `cwoffer'; two on the washstand; another on the stool; and thus all were, somehow, seated at their ease. The stage of mental comfort to which they had arrived at his hour was one wherein their souls expanded beyond their skins, and spread their personalities warmly through the room. In this process the chamber and its furniture grew more and more dignified and luxurious; the shawl hanging at the window took upon itself the richness of tapestry; the brass handles of the chest of drawers were as golden knockers; and the carved bed-posts seemed to have some kinship with the magnificent pillars of Solomon's temple.
Mrs Durbeyfield, having quickly walked hitherward after parting from Tess, opened the front door, crossed the downstairs room, which was in deep gloom, and then unfastened the stair-door like one whose fingers knew the tricks of the latches well. Her ascent of the crooked staircase was a slower process, and her face, as it rose into the light above the last stair, encountered the gaze of all the party assembled in the bedroom.
`------Being a few private friends I've asked in to keep up club walking at my own expense,' the landlady exclaimed at the sound of footsteps, as glibly as a child repeating the Catechism, while she peered over the stairs. `Oh, `tis you, Mrs Durbeyfield - Lard - how you frightened me！ I thought it might be some gaffer sent by Government.'
Mrs Durbeyfield was welcomed with glances and nods by the remainder of the conclave, and turned to where her husband sat. He was humming absently to himself, in a low tone: `I be as good as some folks here and there！ I've got a great family vault at Kingsbere-sub-Greenhill, and finer skillentons than any man in Wessex！'
`I've something to tell `ee that's come into my head about that a grand projick！' whispered his cheerful wife. `Here, John, don't `ee see me?' She nudged him, while he, looking through her as through a windowpane, went on with his recitative.
`Hush！ Don't `ee sing so loud, my good man,'said the landlady; in case any member of the Government should be passing, and take away my license.'
`He's told `ee what's happened to us, I suppose?' asked Mrs Durbeyfield.
`Yes - in a way. D'ye think there's any money hanging by it?'
`Ah, that's the secret,' said Joan Durbeyfield sagely. `However, tis well to be kin to a coach, even if you don't ride in `en.' She dropped her public voice, and continued in a low tone to her husband: `I've been thinking since you brought the news that there's a great rich lady out by Trantridge, on the edge o' The Chase, of the name of d'Urberville.'
`Hey - what's that?' said Sir John.
She repeated the information. `That lady must be our relation,'she said. `And my projick is to send Tess to claim kin.'
`There is a lady of the name, now you mention it,'said Durbeyfield. `Pa'son Tringham didn't think of that. But she's nothing beside we - a junior branch of us, no doubt, hailing long since King Norman's day.'
While this question was being discussed neither of the pair noticed, in their preoccupation, that little Abraham had crept into the room, and was awaiting an opportunity of asking them to return.
`She is rich, and she'd be sure to take notice o' the maid,' continued Mrs Durbeyfield; `and `twill be a very good thing. I don't see why two branches o' one family should not be on visiting terms.'
`Yes; and we'll all claim kin！' said Abraham brightly from under the bedstead. `And we'll all go and see her when Tess has gone to live with her; and we'll ride in her coach and wear black clothes！'
`How do you come here, child? What nonsense be ye talking！ Go away, and play on the stairs till father and mother be ready！ Well, Tess ought to go to this other member of our family. She'd be sure to win the lady - Tess would; and likely enough It would lead to some noble gentleman marrying her. In short, I know it.'
`How?'
`I tried her fate in the Fortune-Teller, and it brought out that very thing！ You should ha' seen how pretty she looked today; her skin is as sumple as a duchess's.'
`What says the maid herself to going?'
`I've not asked her. She don't know there is any such lady relation yet. But it would certainly put her in the way of a grand marriage, and she won't say nay to going.'
`Tess is queer.'
`But she's tractable at bottom. Leave her to me.'
Though this conversation had been private, sufficient of its import reached the understandings of those around to suggest to them that the Durbeyfields had weightier concerns to talk of now than common folks had, and that Tess, their pretty eldest daughter had fine prospects in store.
`Tess is a fine figure o' fun, as I said to myself today when I zeed her vamping round parish with the rest,' observed one of the elderly boozers in an undertone.'But Joan Durbeyfield must mind that she don't get green malt in floor.' It was a local phrase which had a peculiar meaning, and there was no reply.
The conversation became inclusive, and presently other footsteps were heard crossing the room below.
`------Being a few private friends asked in tonight to keep up club-walking at my own expense.' The landlady had rapidly reused the formula she kept on hand for intruders before she recognized that the newcomer was Tess.
Even to her mother's gaze the girl's young features looked sadly out of place amid the alcoholic vapours which floated here as no unsuitable medium for wrinkled middle-age; and hardly was a reproachful f lash f rom Tess's dark eyes needed to make her father and mother rise from their seats, hastily finish their ale, and descend the stairs behind her, Mrs Rolliver's caution following their footsteps.
`No noise, please, if yell be so good, my dears or I mid lose my license, and be summons'd, and I don't know what all！ `Night t'ye！'
They went home together, Tess holding one arm of her father, and Mrs Durbeyfield the other. He had, in truth, drunk very little - not a fourth of the quantity which a systematic tippler could carry to church on a Sunday afternoon without a hitch in his eastings or genuflections; but the weakness of Sir John's constitution made mountains of his petty sins in this kind. On reaching the fresh air he was sufficiently unsteady to incline the row of three at one moment as if they were marching to London, and at another as if they were marching to Bath - which produced a comical effect, frequent enough in families on nocturnal home goings; and, like most comical effects, not quite so comic after all. The two women valiantly disguised these forced excursions and countermarches as well as they could from Durbeyfield their cause, and from Abraham, and from themselves; and so they approached by degrees their own door, the head of the family bursting suddenly into his former refrain as he drew near, as if to fortify his soul at sight of the smallness of his present residence--
`I've got a fam - ily vault at Kingsbere！'
`Hush - don't be so silly, Jacky,' said his wife. `Yours is not the only family that was of `count in wold days. Look at the Anktells, and Horseys, and the Tringhams themselves gone to seed almost as much as you - though you was bigger folks than they, that's true. Thank God, I was never of no family, and have nothing to be ashamed of in that way！'
`Don't you be so sure o' that. From your father `tis my belief you've disgraced yourselves more than any o' us, and was kings and queens outright at one time.'
Tess turned the subject by saying what was far more prominent in her own mind at the moment than thoughts of her ancestry--
`I am afraid father won't be able to take the journey with the beehives tomorrow so early.'
`I? I shall be all right in an hour or two,' said Durbeyfield.
It was eleven o'clock before the family were all in bed, and two o'clock next morning was the latest hour for starting with the beehives if they were to be delivered to the retailers in Caster-bridge before the Saturday market began, the way thither lying by bad roads over a distance of between twenty and thirty miles, and the horse and waggon being of the slowest. At half-past one Mrs Durbeyfield came into the large bedroom where Tess and all her little brothers and sisters slept.
`The poor man can't go,' she said to her eldest daughter, whose great eyes had opened the moment her mother's hand touched the door.
Tess sat up in bed, lost in a vague interspace between a dream and this information.
`But somebody must go,' she replied. `It is late for the hives already. Swarming will soon be over for the year; and if we put off taking `em till next week's market the call for'em will be past, and they'll be thrown on our hands.'
Mrs Durbeyfield looked unequal to the emergency. `Some young feller, perhaps, would go? One of them who were so much after dancing with `ee yesterday,' she presently suggested.
`O no - I wouldn't have it for the world！'declared Tess proudly. `And letting everybody know the reason such a thing to be ashamed of！ I think I could go if Abraham could go with me to kip me company.'
Her mother at length agreed to this arrangement. little Abraham was aroused from his deep sleep in a corner of the same apartment, and made to put on his clothes while still mentally in the other world. Meanwhile Tess had hastily dressed herself; and the twain, lighting a lantern, went out to the stable. The rickety little waggon was already laden, and the girl led out the horse Prince, only a degree less rickety than the vehicle.
The poor creature looked wonderingly round at the night, at the lantern, at their two figures, as if he could not believe that at that hour, when every living thing was intended to be in shelter and at rest, he was called upon to go out and labour. They put a stock of candle ends into the lantern, hung the latter to the off side of the load, and directed the horse onward, walking at his shoulder at first during the uphill parts of the way, in order not to overload an animal of so little vigour. To cheer themselves as well as they could, they made an artificial morning with the lantern, some bread and butter, and their own conversation, the real morning being far from come. Abraham, as he more fully awoke （for he had moved in a sort of trance so far）， began to talk of the strange shapes assumed by the various dark objects against the sky; of this tree that looked like a raging tiger springing from a lair; of that which resembled a giant's head.
When they had passed the little town of Stourcastle, dumbly somnolent under its thick brown thatch, they reached higher ground. Still higher, on their left, the elevation called Bulbarrow or Bealbarrow, well-nigh the highest in South Wessex, swelled into the sky, engirdled by its earthen trenches. From hereabout the long road was fairly level for some distance onward. They mounted in front of the waggon, and Abraham grew reflective.
在疏落狭长的村子的这一头只有一家酒店，名叫罗利弗酒店，但它只有准许外卖酒类的执照；因此，不能够答应人在酒店里饮酒，而可以公然招待顾客前来饮酒的地方，则被严格限制在一小块大约六英寸宽两码长的木板那儿，木板被铁丝固定在花园的栅栏上，因此也就算是饮酒的台面。从路边走过的好酒的行人把羽觞放在木板上，就站在路上饮酒，喝完了就把羽觞内的沉渣倒在满是尘土的地上，堆成玻利尼西亚群岛的图样，心里头却希看能在酒店里面有一个舒适的座位。
既然过路的客人有这样的愿看，因此本地的顾客也就有相同的愿看；于是有志者事竟成。
在楼上有一间大卧室，卧室的窗户被罗利弗太太最近淘汰的一条大羊毛披肩遮得严严实实，室内差未几有十来个人聚集在一起，他们都是来这儿饮酒寻乐的；他们都是靠近马洛特村这一头的老住户，也是罗利弗酒店的常客。在这个住户稀落的村子的更远一些的地方，纯酒酒店是一家有全副执照的酒店，但是间隔太远，村子这一头的住户实际上不往那家酒店饮酒；而且还有一个更为严重的题目，就是酒的品质的好坏决定了大多数人的倾向，就是大家宁肯挤在罗利弗酒店楼顶的角落里饮酒，也不到纯酒酒店老板的宽敞的屋子里往。
卧室里摆放着一张四柱床，床柱又细又长，这张床的三面给好几个聚集在那儿的人当了座位；还有两个人高踞在五十橱上；另一个坐在雕花橡木小柜上；还有两个坐在盥洗架上，一个坐在小凳上；那儿所有的人，就都这样给自己找到了舒服的座位。在这个时候，他们达到了心灵欢快的阶段，灵魂超脱了躯壳，热情洋溢，全屋子一片火热。在饮酒的过程中，房间和房间里的家具变得越来越富丽堂皇；窗户上悬挂的披肩添上了织花帷幔的华贵；五斗橱上的铜把手就像是黄金做成的门环；四柱床的雕花床柱，同所罗门庙宇的宏伟廊柱也有了几分相似。
德北菲尔德太太离开苔丝以后，就急急忙忙赶到这里，打开前门，穿过楼下阴沉沉的房间，然后就似乎是一个十分熟悉楼梯门栓机关的人，用手指打开了楼门。她在弯弯曲曲的楼梯上慢慢地走上往，当她走上最后一节楼梯，脸从灯光里一露出来，所有挤在卧室里的人都一起把目光转到了她的身上。
“——这是我的几个私人朋友，会社游行他们没有尽兴，我花钱请他们来的，”酒店老板娘一闻声脚步声，就一边瞟着楼梯一边大声喊，熟练得就像一个背诵教义问答的孩子。 “噢，原来是你呀，德北菲尔德太太——我的老天——你把我吓了一大跳！——我还以为是政府派来的官员呢。”
卧室里其他的人看着德北菲尔德太太，向她点头，对她表示欢迎，然后德北菲尔德太太就转身向她丈夫坐的地方走往。她的丈夫在那儿出神地低声哼着：“天底下有些富贵的人，我也同他们一样呀！在青山脚下的金斯伯尔，有我们大家族的地下墓室呀，看威塞克斯的众多人物，数我们家族最高贵呀！”
“我想起来一个尽妙的主意，特地来告诉你的，”一脸兴奋的德北菲尔德太太小声说。“喂，约翰，你看见我没有？”她用胳膊肘推推她丈夫，她丈夫仿佛隔着窗玻璃看着她，嘴里继续哼着歌儿。
“嘘！声音不要唱得这样大，我的好人！”酒店老板娘说，“要是碰巧政府里有什么人从这儿途经，就会把我的执照没收了。”
“我们家发生的事他已经告诉你们了，我想是吧？”德北菲尔德太太问。
“是的——说过一点儿。你说你们会不会因此而发财？”
“哦，这可是秘密，”德北菲尔德太太貌似聪明地说，“不过，即使没有大马车坐，能和坐大马车的人是近亲也不错呀。”接着她改换了对大家说话的口气，继续小声对她的丈夫说：“自从你把那件事告诉了我，我一直在想，在特兰里奇那边，就在猎苑的边上，有一个高贵的有钱夫人，名字叫德贝维尔。”
“啊——你说什么？”约翰说。
她把刚才说的消息又重复了一遍。“那个夫人肯定是我们的近亲，”她说。“我的计划就是派苔丝往认这门亲戚。”
“你刚才一说，我倒想起来了，是有一位夫人姓我们的姓，”德北菲尔德说。“特林汉姆牧师倒没有想到这件事。不过她同我们没法比——用不着怀疑，她只是我们家族的一个小支脉，从诺曼王时代传下来的。”
两口子一心在那儿讨论题目，谁也没有留意到小亚伯拉罕已经溜进了房间，正等在那儿寻找机会请他们回往。
“她很有钱，她肯定会看上我们家姑娘的，”德北菲尔德太太接着说。“这是一件非常好的事情。我不明白一个家族的两房人为什么就不能往来。”
“对，我们都认本家往！”亚伯拉罕在床沿下自作聪明地说，“等苔丝往了，住在那儿，我们就都往看她；我们还会坐上她的大马车，穿上黑礼服呀！”
“孩子，你怎么来这儿来了？你在这儿胡说什么呀！走开，到楼梯那儿往玩，等你爸爸和妈把事情说完！……我说呀，苔丝应该到我们家族的另一房那儿往。她一定会讨那位夫人的欢心的——苔丝一定会的；还完全有可能碰上一个高贵的名流娶了她。简而言之，我知道这件事。”
“你怎么知道的？”
“我在《算命大全》的书里查找过她的命运，书里头这件事说得明明白白的啦！……你应该看到她今天是多么漂亮呀；她的皮肤娇嫩得就像公爵夫人的一个样呀。”
“我们的姑娘自己说往不往呢？”
“我还没有问过她。现在她还不知道我们有这样一个贵夫人亲戚。不过，假如到那儿往肯定能给她结上一门好亲事，她是不会说不的。”
“苔丝可是脾气古怪呀。”
“不过实在她还是听话的。把她交给我好了。”
固然这场谈话是私下进行的，可是这场谈话的意义已足已使四周的人明白，猜想出德北菲尔德家现在商谈的是一件十分重要的大事，非寻凡人能比，猜想出他们漂亮的大女儿苔丝，已经有了美好的前途。
“今天我看见苔丝和别的女孩子一起在教区游行，我就在心里对自己说，苔丝真是一个逗人喜爱的漂亮人儿。”一个老酒鬼低声说，“不过约翰·德北菲尔德可要当心她，不要让地上的大麦发了芽。”这是当地的一句土话，有它特殊的意思，但是没有人回答这句话。
这场谈话内容变得广出现来，过了不久，又闻声楼下有脚步声走过房问。
“——这是我的几个私人朋友，会社游行他们没有尽兴，我花钱请他们来的。”老板娘又迅速地把嘴边应付外来人的现成话重新背了一遍，才看见进来的人是苔丝。
室内弥漫着酒气，有了皱纹的中年人逗留在这儿并没有什么分歧适，但是姑娘年轻的面孔出现在这个地方，就叫人感到难受了，即使姑娘的母亲也能够看出这一点。苔丝的玄色眼睛里还没有显露出来责备的神气，她的父母亲就从座位上站起来，急忙把酒喝干，跟在女儿的身后走下了楼梯，随着他们的脚步声传来罗利弗太太的叮嘱声。
“亲爱的，请千万不要声张；要不然我就要丢掉我的执照了，把我传唤往，还不知道有什么麻烦呢！再见吧！”
苔丝挽起父亲的一只胳膊，她的母亲挽起父亲的另一只，一起回家往。说实在的，她的父亲酒喝得很少——一个经常饮酒的人，星期天下午喝完酒上教堂，转身向东下跪，一点也不踉跄，她父亲喝的酒还不到这种人喝的四分之一；但是约翰爵士的身体虚弱，在当时的情景下，饮酒这种小罪恶就让他受不了啦。一接触到新鲜空气，他就开始跌跌撞撞的，一会儿他们一行三人似乎正向伦敦走往，一会儿又似乎朝巴斯走往——看上往叫人感到滑稽可笑，尽管一家人晚上回家是常有的事；不过，像大多数滑稽可笑的事情一样，实在是又不能叫人完全感到滑稽可笑。母女俩尽量把主要来自德北菲尔德的跌跌撞撞以及他所引起的亚伯拉罕和她们自己的跌跌撞撞掩饰起来；他们就这样一步一步地接近了他们的家门口，这家人的家长在走近家门口时，忽然放声唱起他先前唱过的歌来，仿佛看见他现在的住所太狭小，要增强自己的信心似的——
“在金斯伯尔我有一个家族墓室！”
“嘘——不要犯傻了，杰克，”他的妻子说，“先前的大户人家又不是你一户。你看有安克特尔家，有霍尔斯家，还有特林汉姆家——不都和你们家一样衰败了吗——尽管你们家族比他们的人些，也确实要大些。谢天谢地，我个是什么大家族的出身，但是我从来不觉得我的出身丢人。”
“不要把事情说得太肯定了。从你的天性看来，我敢说你比我们谁都要丢进丢得厉害，你们家曾经出过国王和王后。”
苔丝说的话改变了话题，由于这时候她心里想到了比她的祖先更为重要的事——
“我担心父亲明天起不了那么早，不能上路往送蜂箱啦。”
“我？一两个小时我就会好了，”德北菲尔德说。
已经十一点了，全家人才上床睡觉，假如要在星期六的集市开始前把蜂箱送到卡斯特桥的零售商手里，最晚明天凌晨两点钟就得动身，通往那儿的道路不好走，有二三十英里远近，而且他们家送货的又是走得最慢的马车。一点半钟的时候，德北菲尔德太太走进苔丝和她的弟弟妹妹们睡觉的那间大卧室。
“你可怜的爸爸往不了啦。”她对她的大女儿说，而女儿的大眼睛早在她母亲开门时就已经睁开了。
苔丝在床上坐起来，朦朦胧胧地闻声母亲的话，一时不知如何是好。
“可是总得有人往呀，”她回答说。“现在往卖蜂箱已经晚了。今年蜜蜂分群的时候很快就要过往了；要是我们推迟到下个星期的集市，就没有人要啦，蜂箱也就要积存在我们的手上了。”
看来德北菲尔德太太没有能力应付这种紧急事情。“也许可以找个年轻的小伙子，让他送往行吗？昨天有很多人和你一起舞蹈，在他们中间找一个。”她立即提议说。
“啊，不行——无论如何我也不会同意！”苔丝骄傲地大声说，“这不是要让所有的人都知道这个原因吗——这样一件让人感到羞耻的事情！要是亚伯拉罕能陪着我一起往，我想我可以往送”
苔丝的母亲最后同意了这种安排。她把睡在同一个屋子里的小亚伯拉罕从熟睡中叫起来，让他在模模糊糊中把衣服穿上。这时候，苔丝已经急急忙忙地把衣服穿好了；姐弟俩点起一盏提灯，就出门向马厩走往。那辆摇摇摆晃的小马车已经装好了，苔丝把那匹名叫王子的马牵了出来，同那辆马车比起来，它摇摆的程度也好不了多少。
那头可怜的牲口茫然四顾，看看夜空，看看提灯，看看姐弟俩的身影，仿佛它难以相信在那个时刻，当一切生物还在它们的居住之处歇息的时候，会把它叫出来干活。他们把一些烛炬头放进提灯，把提灯挂在车右边，就牵着马向前走，最初的一段路是向上走的坡路，他们就走在马的旁边，免得这匹缺少力气的老马负载过重。为了尽量使自己兴奋起来，他们就用提灯制造出人造的黎明，吃着黄油面包，谈天说地，实在真正的黎明还远没有到来。亚伯拉罕已经完全清醒过来（由于他刚才一直是模模糊糊的），就开始讲在夜空的映衬下各种不同的玄色物体所表现出来的奇形怪状，说这棵树像一只从洞中扑出来的发怒猛虎，又说那棵树很像一个巨人的头。
他们走过斯图尔堡小镇的时候，小镇内覆盖着褐色厚茅草的茅屋还在静静地沉睡着，他们走到了一块更高的地方。在左边还要高一些的地方，是一处被叫做野牛坟或比尔坟的高地，它几乎就是南威塞克斯的最高点，迎天耸立，四周被土沟围绕着。从这儿再往前，这条漫长的道路就有一段比较平坦。他们上了车，坐在马车的前面，亚伯拉罕开始沉思起来。