elf."

"Do spare me, Arabella."

Arabella was duly installed in the little attic, and at first she
did not come near Jude at all. She went to and fro about her own
business, which, when they met for a moment on the stairs or in the
passage, she informed him was that of obtaining another place in
the occupation she understood best. When Jude suggested London as
affording the most likely opening in the liquor trade, she shook her
head. "No--the temptations are too many," she said. "Any humble
tavern in the country before that for me."

On the Sunday morning following, when he breakfasted later than on
other days, she meekly asked him if she might come in to breakfast
with him, as she had broken her teapot, and could not replace it
immediately, the shops being shut.

"Yes, if you like," he said indifferently.

While they sat without speaking she suddenly observed: "You seem all
in a brood, old man. I'm sorry for you."

"I am all in a brood."

"It is about her, I know. It's no business of mine, but I could find
out all about the wedding--if it really did take place--if you wanted
to know."

"How could you?"

"I wanted to go to Alfredston to get a few things I left there. And
I could see Anny, who'll be sure to have heard all about it, as she
has friends at Marygreen."

Jude could not bear to acquiesce in this proposal; but his suspense
pitted itself against his discretion, and won in the struggle. "You
can ask about it if you like," he said. "I've not heard a sound from
there. It must have been very private, if--they have married."

"I am afraid I haven't enough cash to take me there and back, or I
should have gone before. I must wait till I have earned some."

"Oh--I can pay the journey for you," he said impatiently. And thus
his suspense as to Sue's welfare, and the possible marriage, moved
him to dispatch for intelligence the last emissary he would have
thought of choosing deliberately.

Arabella went, Jude requesting her to be home not later than by
the seven o'clock train. When she had gone he said: "Why should I
have charged her to be back by a particular time! She's nothing to
me--nor the other neither!"

But having finished work he could not help going to the station to
meet Arabella, dragged thither by feverish haste to get the news
she might bring, and know the worst. Arabella had made dimples
most successfully all the way home, and when she stepped out of the
railway carriage she