After Tess is married to Angel Clare, he tells her a 48 hours affair he had once, and she him the dark secret from the unread letter. He can't accept it, but as it happened before their wedding the law doesn't accept it as ground for divorce. Angel sets off for Brazil alone. Mercy won't have a bar of him, Retti would follow him but by her own admission she can't love him as much as Tess, so he makes up his mind to go alone. Tess returns home, then seeks another farm maid employ, accepting the worst job at Groby's, under his cruel, jealous bailiff. On the road she meets Alec D'Urberville, now a traveling preacher, who claims to be converted. She tells him about their later son but refuses to stay with him. He proposes marriage, insisting even after he learns she's already wed but abandoned. She keeps writing to Angel, who can't answer as he is gravely ill.
—KGF Vissers