smiled. He merely said "Well?" with the very
reverse of a smile.

"They are married."

"Yes--of course they are!" he returned. She observed, however, the
hard strain upon his lip as he spoke.

"Anny says she has heard from Belinda, her relation out at Marygreen,
that it was very sad, and curious!"

"How do you mean sad? She wanted to marry him again, didn't she?
And he her!"

"Yes--that was it. She wanted to in one sense, but not in the
other. Mrs. Edlin was much upset by it all, and spoke out her mind
at Phillotson. But Sue was that excited about it that she burnt her
best embroidery that she'd worn with you, to blot you out entirely.
Well--if a woman feels like it, she ought to do it. I commend her
for it, though others don't." Arabella sighed. "She felt he was her
only husband, and that she belonged to nobody else in the sight of
God A'mighty while he lived. Perhaps another woman feels the same
about herself, too!" Arabella sighed again.

"I don't want any cant!" exclaimed Jude.

"It isn't cant," said Arabella. "I feel exactly the same as she!"

He closed that issue by remarking abruptly: "Well--now I know all I
wanted to know. Many thanks for your information. I am not going
back to my lodgings just yet." And he left her straightway.

In his misery and depression Jude walked to well-nigh every spot
in the city that he had visited with Sue; thence he did not know
whither, and then thought of going home to his usual evening meal.
But having all the vices of his virtues, and some to spare, he turned
into a public house, for the first time during many months. Among
the possible consequences of her marriage Sue had not dwelt on this.

Arabella, meanwhile, had gone back. The evening passed, and Jude
did not return. At half-past nine Arabella herself went out, first
proceeding to an outlying district near the river where her father
lived, and had opened a small and precarious pork-shop lately.

"Well," she said to him, "for all your rowing me that night, I've
called in, for I have something to tell you. I think I shall get
married and settled again. Only you must help me: and you can do
no less, after what I've stood 'ee."

"I'll do anything to get thee off my hands!"

"Very well. I am now going to look for my young man. He's on the
loose I'm afraid, and I must get him home. All I want you to do
to-night is not to fasten the door, in case I should want to sleep
here, and should be l