"That's the church," said Jude.

"Where I am going to be married?"

"Yes."

"Indeed!" she exclaimed with curiosity. "How I should like to go in

and see what the spot is like where I am so soon to kneel and do it."

Again he said to himself, "She does not realize what marriage means!"

He passively acquiesced in her wish to go in, and they entered by

the western door. The only person inside the gloomy building was

a charwoman cleaning. Sue still held Jude's arm, almost as if she

loved him. Cruelly sweet, indeed, she had been to him that morning;

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but his thoughts of a penance in store for her were tempered by an

ache:

... I can find no way

How a blow should fall, such as falls on men,

Nor prove too much for your womanhood!

They strolled undemonstratively up the nave towards the altar

railing, which they stood against in silence, turning then and

walking down the nave again, her hand still on his arm, precisely

like a couple just married. The too suggestive incident, entirely

of her making, nearly broke down Jude.

"I like to do things like this," she said in the delicate voice of an

epicure in emotions, which left no doubt that she spoke the truth.

"I know you do!" said Jude.

"They are interesting, because they have probably never been done

before. I shall walk down the church like this with my husband in

about two hours, shan't I!"

"No doubt you will!"

"Was it like this when you were married?"

"Good God, Sue--don't be so awfully merciless! ... There, dear one,

I didn't mean it!"

"Ah--you are vexed!" she said regretfully, as she blinked away an

access of eye moisture. "And I promised never to vex you! ... I

suppose I ought not to have asked you to bring me in here. Oh, I

oughtn't! I see it now. My curiosity to hunt up a new sensation

always leads me into these scrapes. Forgive me! ... You will, won't

you, Jude?"

The appeal was so remorseful that Jude's eyes were even wetter than

hers as he pressed her hand for Yes.

"Now we'll hurry away, and I won't do it any more!" she continued

humbly; and they came out of the building, Sue intending to go

on to the station to meet Phillotson. But the first person they

encountered on entering the main street was the schoolmaster himself,

whose train had arrived sooner than Sue expected. There was nothing

really to demur to in her leaning on Jude's arm; but she withdrew her

hand, and Jude thought that Phillotson had looked surprised.




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