He listened.The wind, playing upon the edifice, produced a booming tune, like the note of some gigantic one-stringed harp.No other sound came from it, and lifting his hand and advancing a step or two, Clare felt the vertical surface of the structure.It seemed to be of solid stone, without joint or moulding.Carrying his fingers onward he found that what he had come in contact with was a colossal rectangular pillar; by stretching out his left hand he could feel a similar one adjoining.At an indefinite height overhead something made the black sky blacker, which had the semblance of a vast architrave uniting the pillars horizontally.They carefully entered beneath and between; the surfaces echoed their soft rustle; but they seemed to be still out of doors.The place was roofless.Tess drew her breath fearfully, and Angel, perplexed, said--`What can it be?'
Feeling sideways they encountered another tower-like pillar, square and uncompromising as the first; beyond it another and another.The place was all doors and pillars, some connected above by continuous architraves.
`A very Temple of the Winds,' he said.
The next pillar was isolated; others composed a trilithon; others were prostrate, their flanks forming a causeway wide enough for a carriage;and it was soon obvious that they made up a forest of monoliths grouped upon the grassy expanse of the plain.The couple advanced further into this pavilion of the night till they stood in its midst.
`It is Stonehenge!' said Clare.
`The heathen temple, you mean?'
`Yes.Older than the centuries; older than the d'Urbervilles! Well, what shall we do, darling? We may find shelter further on.' But Tess, really tired by this time, flung herself upon an oblong slab that lay close at hand, and was sheltered from the wind by a pillar.Owing to the action of the sun during the preceding day the stone was warm and dry, in comforting contrast to the rough and chill grass around, which had damped her skirts and shoes.
`I don't want to go any further, Angel,' she said stretching out her hand for his.`Can't we bide here?'
`I fear not.This spot is visible for miles by day, although it does not seem so now.'
`One of my mother's people was a shepherd hereabouts, now I think of it.And you used to say at Talbothays that I was a heathen.So now I am at home.'
He knelt down beside her outstretched form, and put his lips upon hers.
`Sleepy are you, dear? I think you are lying on an altar.'
`I like very much to be here,' she murmured.`It is so solemn and lonely - after my great happiness - with nothing but the sky above my face.It seems as if there were no folk in the world but we two; and I wish there were not - except 'Liza-Lu.'
Clare thought she might as well rest here till it should get a little lighter, and he flung his overcoat upon her, and sat down by her side.
`Angel, if anything happens to me, will you watch over 'Liza-Lu for my sake?' she asked, when they had listened a long time to the wind among the pillars.
`I will.'
`She is so good and simple and pure.O, Angel - I wish you would marry her if you lose me, as you will do shortly.O, if you would!'
`If I lose you I lose all! And she is my sister-in-law.'
`That's nothing, dearest.People marry sister-laws continually about Marlott; and 'Liza-Lu is so gentle and sweet, and she is growing so beautiful.
O I could share you with her willingly when we are spirits! If you would train her and teach her, Angel, and bring her up for your own self!...
She has all the best of me without the bad of me; and if she were to become yours it would almost seem as if death had not divided us....Well, I have said it.I won't mention it again.'
She ceased, and he fell into thought.In the far north-east sky he could see between the pillars a level streak of light.The uniform concavity of black cloud was lifting bodily like the lid of a pot, letting in at the earth's edge the coming day, against which the towering monoliths and trilithons began to be blackly defined.
`Did they sacrifice to God here?' asked she.
`No,' said he.
`Who to?'
`I believe to the sun.That lofty stone set away by itself is in the direction of the sun, which will presently rise behind it.'
`This reminds me, dear,' she said.`You remember you never would interfere with any belief of mine before we were married? But I knew your mind all the same, and I thought as you thought - not from any reasons of my own, but because you thought so.Tell me now, Angel, do you think we shall meet again after we are dead? I want to know.'
He kissed her to avoid a reply at such a time.
`O, Angel - I fear that means no!' said she, with a suppressed sob.
`And I wanted so to see you again - so much, so much! What not even you and I, Angel, who love each other so well?' Like a greater than himself, to the critical question at the critical time he did not answer; and they were again silent.In a minute or two her breathing became more regular, her clasp of his hand relaxed, and she fell asleep.The band of silver paleness along the east horizon made even the distant parts of the Great Plain appear dark and near; and the whole enormous landscape bore that impress of reserve, taciturnity, and hesitation which is usual just before day.The eastward pillars and their architraves stood up blackly against the light, and the great flame-shaped Sun-stone beyond them; and the Stone of Sacrifice midway.Presently the night wind died out, and the quivering little pools in the cup-like hollows of the stones lay still.At the same time something seemed to move on the verge of the dip eastward - a mere dot.It was the head of a man approaching them from the hollow beyond the Sun-stone.Clare wished they had gone onward, but in the circumstances decided to remain quiet.The figure came straight towards the circle of pillars in which they were.
