The entire dairy is paralyzed when the milk does not begin to turn to butter. It is suggested that the butter won’t come because “Perhaps somebody in the house is in love.” Mr. Crick doesn’t believe the superstition but instead tells a rather raucous story about a man who had gotten a young girl pregnant. Tess hears the tale, and while others laugh at the story, she rushes outside because the story of Jack Dollop is too real for her.
Eventually, the butter begins to form in the churn, and all settles down at the farm. The resident milkmaids, Retty Priddle, Izz Huett, and Marian, take turns gawking at Angel by peeking at him from their room as he moves through the farmyard. Tess does not engage in the girls’ sport, and Marian suggests that Angel is in love with Tess, that “he likes Tess Durbeyfield best.” All the maids are in love with Angel, but even they seem to sense that Tess and Angel are beginning to show signs of love for each other.
It is mid-July, and the weather has turned quite warm, both morning and night, in the Blackmoor Valley. One Sunday, the four maids ready themselves for church. On their way, as a heavy summer downpour had flooded the rivers and creeks, an overflowing creek stops them. Coming from the direction opposite the church is Angel. He volunteers to carry each girl across the swollen current so that their Sunday frocks are not ruined. All of them, including Tess, are shocked and delighted that Angel would spontaneously extend an opportunity for each of them to be held so close to their “ideal man.”
As Angel crosses the creek with Tess, he hints at his feelings for her, telling her that “he has undergone three-quarters of the labour entirely for the sake of the fourth-quarter” (meaning that he carried the other three girls across so that he could carry Tess across, too) and that he “did not expect such an event today.” When Tess replies that she also had not anticipated the heavy rains and swollen creek, Angel realizes that Tess does not realize his meaning. Feeling that he is taking unfair advantage of an accidental situation, Angel carries her the rest of the way across and deposits her with her friends. When Angel again leaves, Tess’ companions tell her that, although Angel likes her best, he is meant to marry another woman, chosen by his family.
During the hot summer at Talbothays, the relationship between Tess and Angel grows as Hardy notes “It was impossible that the most fanciful love should not grow passionate. The ready bosoms existing there were impregnated by their surroundings.” Angel secretly watches Tess as she works and musters the courage to tell her of his love for her.
