In a still suspense she waited on. It seemed as if the whole time

had nearly elapsed when the door was opened again, and Jude appeared.

Sue gave a little ecstatic cry. "Oh, I knew I could trust you!--how

good you are!"--she began.

"I can't find her anywhere in this street, and I went out in my

slippers only. She has walked on, thinking I've been so hard-hearted

as to refuse her requests entirely, poor woman. I've come back for

my boots, as it is beginning to rain."

"Oh, but why should you take such trouble for a woman who has served

you so badly!" said Sue in a jealous burst of disappointment.

Advertisement..

"But, Sue, she's a woman, and I once cared for her; and one can't be

a brute in such circumstances."

"She isn't your wife any longer!" exclaimed Sue, passionately

excited. "You MUSTN'T go out to find her! It isn't right! You

CAN'T join her, now she's a stranger to you. How can you forget such

a thing, my dear, dear one!"

"She seems much the same as ever--an erring, careless, unreflecting

fellow-creature," he said, continuing to pull on his boots. "What

those legal fellows have been playing at in London makes no

difference in my real relations to her. If she was my wife while

she was away in Australia with another husband she's my wife now."

"But she wasn't! That's just what I hold! There's the absurdity!--

Well--you'll come straight back, after a few minutes, won't you,

dear? She is too low, too coarse for you to talk to long, Jude, and

was always!"

"Perhaps I am coarse too, worse luck! I have the germs of every

human infirmity in me, I verily believe--that was why I saw it was

so preposterous of me to think of being a curate. I have cured

myself of drunkenness I think; but I never know in what new form a

suppressed vice will break out in me! I do love you, Sue, though I

have danced attendance on you so long for such poor returns! All

that's best and noblest in me loves you, and your freedom from

everything that's gross has elevated me, and enabled me to do what

I should never have dreamt myself capable of, or any man, a year

or two ago. It is all very well to preach about self-control, and

the wickedness of coercing a woman. But I should just like a few

virtuous people who have condemned me in the past, about Arabella

and other things, to have been in my tantalizing position with

you through these late weeks!--they'd believe, I think, that I

have exercised some little restraint in always giving in to your

wishes--living here in one house, and not a soul between us."




Most Popular