"Have you had any tea, by the by?" he asked presently in a renewed
voice.
"No--yes--never mind," said Gillingham, preoccupied. "Gone, you say
she is?"
"Yes... I would have died for her; but I wouldn't be cruel to her
in the name of the law. She is, as I understand, gone to join her
lover. What they are going to do I cannot say. Whatever it may be
she has my full consent to."
There was a stability, a ballast, in Phillotson's pronouncement which
restrained his friend's comment. "Shall I--leave you?" he asked.
"No, no. It is a mercy to me that you have come. I have some
articles to arrange and clear away. Would you help me?"
Gillingham assented; and having gone to the upper rooms the
schoolmaster opened drawers, and began taking out all Sue's things
that she had left behind, and laying them in a large box. "She
wouldn't take all I wanted her to," he continued. "But when I made
up my mind to her going to live in her own way I did make up my
mind."
"Some men would have stopped at an agreement to separate."
"I've gone into all that, and don't wish to argue it. I was, and
am, the most old-fashioned man in the world on the question of
marriage--in fact I had never thought critically about its ethics
at all. But certain facts stared me in the face, and I couldn't go
against them."
They went on with the packing silently. When it was done Phillotson
closed the box and turned the key.
"There," he said. "To adorn her in somebody's eyes; never again in
mine!"
V
Four-and-twenty hours before this time Sue had written the following
note to Jude:
It is as I told you; and I am leaving to-morrow evening.
Richard and I thought it could be done with less
obtrusiveness after dark. I feel rather frightened, and
therefore ask you to be sure you are on the Melchester
platform to meet me. I arrive at a little to seven. I
know you will, of course, dear Jude; but I feel so timid
that I can't help begging you to be punctual. He has
been so VERY kind to me through it all!
Now to our meeting!
S.
As she was carried by the omnibus farther and farther down from
the mountain town--the single passenger that evening--she regarded
the receding road with a sad face. But no hesitation was apparent
therein.