"No, I wasn't, Jude. Oh how can you think so! And you have taken me
in, even if you didn't intend to." She was so mortified that he was
obliged to take her into her room and close the door lest the people
should hear. "Was it this room? Yes it was--I see by your look it
was! I won't have it for mine! Oh it was treacherous of you to have
her again! _I_ jumped out of the window!"
"But Sue, she was, after all, my legal wife, if not--"
Slipping down on her knees Sue buried her face in the bed and wept.
"I never knew such an unreasonable--such a dog-in-the-manger
feeling," said Jude. "I am not to approach you, nor anybody else!"
"Oh don't you UNDERSTAND my feeling! Why don't you! Why are you so
gross! _I_ jumped out of the window!"
"Jumped out of window?"
"I can't explain!"
It was true that he did not understand her feelings very well. But
he did a little; and began to love her none the less.
"I--I thought you cared for nobody--desired nobody in the world but
me at that time--and ever since!" continued Sue.
"It is true. I did not, and don't now!" said Jude, as distressed as
she.
"But you must have thought much of her! Or--"
"No--I need not--you don't understand me either--women never do! Why
should you get into such a tantrum about nothing?"
Looking up from the quilt she pouted provokingly: "If it hadn't been
for that, perhaps I would have gone on to the Temperance Hotel, after
all, as you proposed; for I was beginning to think I did belong to
you!"
"Oh, it is of no consequence!" said Jude distantly.
"I thought, of course, that she had never been really your wife since
she left you of her own accord years and years ago! My sense of it
was, that a parting such as yours from her, and mine from him, ended
the marriage."
"I can't say more without speaking against her, and I don't want
to do that," said he. "Yet I must tell you one thing, which would
settle the matter in any case. She has married another man--really
married him! I knew nothing about it till after the visit we made
here."
"Married another? ... It is a crime--as the world treats it, but
does not believe."
"There--now you are yourself again. Yes, it is a crime--as you don't
hold, but would fearfully concede. But I shall never inform against
her! And it is evidently a prick of conscience in her that has led
her to urge me to get a divorce, that she may remarry this man
legally. So you perceive I shall not be likely to see her again."