"I have thought--I wish this!"
"That's a complaisant spirit--and perhaps you are right. With a
lover hanging about, a half-marriage should be completed. But I
repeat my reminder this third and last time."
"It is my wish! ... O God!"
"What did you say 'O God' for?"
"I don't know!"
"Yes you do! But ..." He gloomily considered her thin and fragile
form a moment longer as she crouched before him in her night-clothes.
"Well, I thought it might end like this," he said presently. "I owe
you nothing, after these signs; but I'll take you in at your word,
and forgive you."
He put his arm round her to lift her up. Sue started back.
"What's the matter?" he asked, speaking for the first time sternly.
"You shrink from me again?--just as formerly!"
"No, Richard--I--I--was not thinking--"
"You wish to come in here?"
"Yes."
"You still bear in mind what it means?"
"Yes. It is my duty!"
Placing the candlestick on the chest of drawers he led her through
the doorway, and lifting her bodily, kissed her. A quick look of
aversion passed over her face, but clenching her teeth she uttered
no cry.
Mrs. Edlin had by this time undressed, and was about to get into bed
when she said to herself: "Ah--perhaps I'd better go and see if the
little thing is all right. How it do blow and rain!"
The widow went out on the landing, and saw that Sue had disappeared. "Ah!
Poor soul! Weddings be funerals 'a b'lieve nowadays. Fifty-five
years ago, come Fall, since my man and I married! Times have changed
since then!"
X
Despite himself Jude recovered somewhat, and worked at his trade for
several weeks. After Christmas, however, he broke down again.
With the money he had earned he shifted his lodgings to a yet more
central part of the town. But Arabella saw that he was not likely
to do much work for a long while, and was cross enough at the turn
affairs had taken since her remarriage to him. "I'm hanged if you
haven't been clever in this last stroke!" she would say, "to get a
nurse for nothing by marrying me!"
Jude was absolutely indifferent to what she said, and indeed, often
regarded her abuse in a humorous light. Sometimes his mood was more
earnest, and as he lay he often rambled on upon the defeat of his
early aims.