The Virgin and Child with St Anne

The rooms wherein dozens of infants had wailed at their nursing now resounded with the tapping of nascent chicks. Distracted hens in coops occupied spots where formerly stood chairs supporting sedate agriculturists. The chimney-corner and once blazing hearth was now filled with inverted beehives, in which the hens laid their eggs; while out of doors the plots that each succeeding householder had carefully shaped with his spade were torn by the cocks in wildest fashion. ¡¡¡¡The garden in which the cottage stood was surrounded by a wall, and could only be entered through a door. ¡¡¡¡When Tess had occupied herself about an hour the next morning in altering and improving the arrangements, according to her skilled ideas as the daughter of a professed poulterer, the door in the wall opened and a servant in white cap and apron entered. She had come from the manor-house. ¡¡¡¡`Mrs d'Urberville wants the fowls as usual,' she said; but perceiving that Tess did not quite understand, she explained, `Mis'ess is a old lady, and blind.'