But his eye was caught by a painting on the wall of one of Tess's ancestors, a proud fierce woman, who looked as if she hated and wanted to deceive all men.
" Stay off the mud, child, " counseled Septon Meribald. " The mud is not fond of strangers. If you walk in the wrong place, it will open up and swallow you" .
They were brief quarrels, short lived because it was impossible to keep a quarrel going with Rhett, who remained coolly indifferent to her hot words and waited his chance to pink her in an unguarded spot.