The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy: and you made reply 'GOOD NIGHT, SIR JOHN,' as now."
"I did," said the parson.
"And once before that--near a month ago."
"I may have."
"Then what might your meaning be in calling me
'Sir John' these different times, when I be plain Jack
Durbeyfield, the haggler?"
The parson rode a step or two nearer.
"It was only my whim," he said; and, after a moment's
hesitation: "It was on account of a discovery I made
some little time ago, whilst I was hunting up pedigrees
 Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman |