me into the open
daylight. Sue sighed.

"The flowers in the bride's hand are sadly like the garland which
decked the heifers of sacrifice in old times!"

"Still, Sue, it is no worse for the woman than for the man. That's
what some women fail to see, and instead of protesting against the
conditions they protest against the man, the other victim; just as a
woman in a crowd will abuse the man who crushes against her, when he
is only the helpless transmitter of the pressure put upon him."

"Yes--some are like that, instead of uniting with the man against
the common enemy, coercion." The bride and bridegroom had by this
time driven off, and the two moved away with the rest of the idlers.
"No--don't let's do it," she continued. "At least just now."

They reached home, and passing the window arm in arm saw the widow
looking out at them. "Well," cried their guest when they entered, "I
said to myself when I zeed ye coming so loving up to the door, 'They
made up their minds at last, then!'"

They briefly hinted that they had not.

"What--and ha'n't ye really done it? Chok' it all, that I should
have lived to see a good old saying like 'marry in haste and repent
at leisure' spoiled like this by you two! 'Tis time I got back again
to Marygreen--sakes if tidden--if this is what the new notions be
leading us to! Nobody thought o' being afeard o' matrimony in my
time, nor of much else but a cannon-ball or empty cupboard! Why when
I and my poor man were married we thought no more o't than of a game
o' dibs!"

"Don't tell the child when he comes in," whispered Sue nervously.
"He'll think it has all gone on right, and it will be better that he
should not be surprised and puzzled. Of course it is only put off
for reconsideration. If we are happy as we are, what does it matter
to anybody?"

V

The purpose of a chronicler of moods and deeds does not require him
to express his personal views upon the grave controversy above given.
That the twain were happy--between their times of sadness--was
indubitable. And when the unexpected apparition of Jude's child
in the house had shown itself to be no such disturbing event as it
had looked, but one that brought into their lives a new and tender
interest of an ennobling and unselfish kind, it rather helped than
injured their happiness.

To be sure, with such pleasing anxious beings as they were, the boy's
coming also brought with it much thought for the future, particu