Tess of the D'Urbervilles Phase III: "The Rally," Chapter Twenty Summary

  • Time passes at the dairy. Everyone's enjoying the summer weather.
  • Tess and Angel are studying each other day by day—but not quite in love yet.
  • Tess is happier now than she's ever been in recent memory.
  • She and Angel see each other frequently—often they're the first ones up. And dairy farmers have to get up really early in the morning. We're talking 3:30 a.m.
  • Being the first ones up makes them feel like they're the only two people in the world. They're like Adam and Eve.
  • He calls her "Artemis" and "Demeter" (both Greek goddesses), but she prefers to be called Tess (20.10-11).
  • In the pale light of the early morning, Tess's beauty seems almost supernatural to Angel, and he seems the same to her.
  • But then their solitude would be ended by the arrival of the other milkmen and milkmaids, and the milking would begin.