The banns were put in and published the very next Sunday. The people

of the parish all said what a simple fool young Fawley was. All his

reading had only come to this, that he would have to sell his books

to buy saucepans. Those who guessed the probable state of affairs,

Arabella's parents being among them, declared that it was the sort of

conduct they would have expected of such an honest young man as Jude

in reparation of the wrong he had done his innocent sweetheart. The

parson who married them seemed to think it satisfactory too. And so,

standing before the aforesaid officiator, the two swore that at every

other time of their lives till death took them, they would assuredly

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believe, feel, and desire precisely as they had believed, felt, and

desired during the few preceding weeks. What was as remarkable

as the undertaking itself was the fact that nobody seemed at all

surprised at what they swore.

Fawley's aunt being a baker she made him a bride-cake, saying

bitterly that it was the last thing she could do for him, poor silly

fellow; and that it would have been far better if, instead of his

living to trouble her, he had gone underground years before with his

father and mother. Of this cake Arabella took some slices, wrapped

them up in white note-paper, and sent them to her companions in the

pork-dressing business, Anny and Sarah, labelling each packet "_In

remembrance of good advice_."

The prospects of the newly married couple were certainly not very

brilliant even to the most sanguine mind. He, a stone-mason's

apprentice, nineteen years of age, was working for half wages till

he should be out of his time. His wife was absolutely useless in a

town-lodging, where he at first had considered it would be necessary

for them to live. But the urgent need of adding to income in ever so

little a degree caused him to take a lonely roadside cottage between

the Brown House and Marygreen, that he might have the profits of a

vegetable garden, and utilize her past experiences by letting her

keep a pig. But it was not the sort of life he had bargained for,

and it was a long way to walk to and from Alfredston every day.

Arabella, however, felt that all these make-shifts were temporary;

she had gained a husband; that was the thing--a husband with a lot

of earning power in him for buying her frocks and hats when he should

begin to get frightened a bit, and stick to his trade, and throw

aside those stupid books for practical undertakings.




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