Tess of the d'Urbervilles Chapter 51

As Tess and her family are moving the next day, she sees Marian and Izz at an inn. Both girls are leaving Flintcomb Ash. They ask her if the gentleman who kept coming to see her at the farm found her, and she tells him that he has found her, but she tells them nothing else. Marian and Izz are suspicious about Alec because they have heard rumors about what happened to Tess at Tantridge. They worry that Alec is trying to steal Tess away from Angel although they know Tess still loves Angel. They write an anonymous letter to Angel at his parents' home warning him that someone is trying to tempt Tess away from him.

Tess and her family get to Kingsbere and learn that the rooms they've rented were given to someone else, and the cart they rented to move their possessions has to be returned. The cart driver dumps their furniture and belongings on the side of the road near the abandoned church where the d'Urbervilles are buried. Tess prepares the bed for the children to sleep in that night while her mother, Liza Lu, and Abraham go look for food.

Alec approaches Joan and the children and they direct him to where Tess is. Joan doesn't like him much, but she sees that he may be the person who provides for their family, so she cooperates with him. When Alec finds Tess, she is in the darkened church looking at the tombs of her ancestors. She tells him to go away again, but he goes to talk with her mother instead, knowing that Joan will take him up on the offer of the cottage and the job tending the birds at Tantridge. That is how he will get Tess, and he knows it. So does she. When he leaves, she sits in the church and envies her ancestors on the other side of the tomb walls.