Gather ye rosebuds while ye may

e maid------Still, if 'twere the doing again, I wouldn't let her go till I had found out whether the gentleman is really a good hearted young man and choice over her as his kinswoman.' ¡¡¡¡`Yes, you ought, perhaps, to ha' done that,' snored Sir John. ¡¡¡¡Joan Durbeyfield always managed to find consolation somewhere: `Well, as one of the genuine stock, she ought to make her way with 'en, if she plays her trump card aright. And if he don't marry her afore he will after. For that he's all afire wi' love for her any eye can see.' ¡¡¡¡`What's her trump card? Her d'Urberville blood, you mean?' ¡¡¡¡`No, stupid; her face - as 'twas mine.' Having mounted beside her, Alec d'Urberville drove rapidly along the crest of the first hill, chatting compliments to Tess as they went, the cart with her box being left far behind. Rising still, an immense landscape stretched around them on every side; behind, the green valley of her birth, before, a gray country of which she knew nothing except from her first brief visit to Trantridge. Thus they reached the verge of an incline down which the road stretched in a long straight descent of nearly a mile.