Tess of the d'Urbervilles Chapter 33

Tess feels more urgently that she must tell Angel about Alec when they are shopping together and some man from Tantridge recognizes her. The stranger makes a comment about the rumors about Tess's reputation and Angel punches him. The man then says that he had mistaken her for someone else to make peace, but he knows that he's right about her.

Topic Tracking: Coincidence 10

When they return to the dairy, Tess writes a letter explaining what happened with Alec d'Urberville and slips it under Angel's door before she can change her mind. She waits to see what he has to say about it, but he never brings it up and the way he treats her does not change at all. As a result, she thinks he has forgiven her and she is relieved. It only occurs to her on the morning of their wedding that he might not have gotten the letter, so she goes up to his room to look for it. The letter is stuck beneath the carpet at the edge of the door. He never got it, and it is too late to tell him because they are preparing to leave for the wedding. She tries to tell him that she needs to tell him all her flaws, and he promises that they'll talk about it after the wedding.

They have their small wedding, and Tess notices that the carriage that is taking them back to the dairy and then to their new rooms at the manor is dark and scary-looking. Angel makes some reference to a legend about the d'Urberville family and carriages, but she doesn't know the story. Angel thinks it's a bad time to tell her that one of her ancestors killed someone in a carriage and the story is that d'Urbervilles see the carriage before something bad happens to them, so Tess goes on ignorant of the story but dreading having to tell Angel about Alec and her past.

As Tess and Angel are leaving the dairy, a rooster crows in the afternoon, and all the dairy workers are disturbed because country people believe that to be a bad omen.