What would have happened if Tess's bad luck had changed at Wintoncester? It seems quite likely she would have received a reprieve and possibly even a parole after a number of years (see here) No doubt Angel would have hired a good lawyer to defend her case. Would he have stuck by her though, or would he have divorced her while she was in prison? He would not know how long she would be in jail, and he had the grounds for divorce. Surely he would not divorce Tess and then marry her sister (especially as marrying a sisten-in-law was illegal). I read in the library that Thomas Hardy said that Angel would eventually have started taunting Tess for her second fall if she had lived.