The d'Urbervilles of Trantridge were not d'Urbervilles at all; a merchant named Stoke had bought the name. The son, Alec, was a tall, swarthy young man with a well-groomed black moustache and a bold rolling eye. He gave Tess a place looking after his blind mother's fowls, and all summer he pursued her. One September night, coming home late from a fair, she accepted a ride on his horse to escape a quarrel. He lost the way in the fog, deliberately, deep in the ancient wood called the Chase, and he left her sleeping on a heap of leaves while he went to find the road. Where was Tess's guardian angel? Perhaps he was sleeping, like the god of whom the ironical Tishbite spoke. What happened there cannot be undone. A few weeks later, in October, Tess walked home to Marlott with her basket, and she did not look back.