When Jude had seen the two little boxes--one containing little Jude,
and the other the two smallest--deposited in the earth he hastened
back to Sue, who was still in her room, and he therefore did not
disturb her just then. Feeling anxious, however, he went again
about four o'clock. The woman thought she was still lying down, but
returned to him to say that she was not in her bedroom after all.
Her hat and jacket, too, were missing: she had gone out. Jude
hurried off to the public house where he was sleeping. She had not
been there. Then bethinking himself of possibilities he went along
the road to the cemetery, which he entered, and crossed to where the
interments had recently taken place. The idlers who had followed to
the spot by reason of the tragedy were all gone now. A man with a
shovel in his hands was attempting to earth in the common grave of
the three children, but his arm was held back by an expostulating
woman who stood in the half-filled hole. It was Sue, whose coloured
clothing, which she had never thought of changing for the mourning he
had bought, suggested to the eye a deeper grief than the conventional
garb of bereavement could express.
"He's filling them in, and he shan't till I've seen my little ones
again!" she cried wildly when she saw Jude. "I want to see them once
more. Oh Jude--please Jude--I want to see them! I didn't know you
would let them be taken away while I was asleep! You said perhaps I
should see them once more before they were screwed down; and then you
didn't, but took them away! Oh Jude, you are cruel to me too!"
"She's been wanting me to dig out the grave again, and let her get
to the coffins," said the man with the spade. "She ought to be took
home, by the look o' her. She is hardly responsible, poor thing,
seemingly. Can't dig 'em up again now, ma'am. Do ye go home with
your husband, and take it quiet, and thank God that there'll be
another soon to swage yer grief."
But Sue kept asking piteously: "Can't I see them once more--just
once! Can't I? Only just one little minute, Jude? It would not
take long! And I should be so glad, Jude! I will be so good, and
not disobey you ever any more, Jude, if you will let me? I would go
home quietly afterwards, and not want to see them any more! Can't I?
Why can't I?"