in the kitchen, for she was not a good
housewife, though she tried to be, and grew impatient of domestic
details.

"Lord love 'ee, what do ye do that yourself for, when I've come o'
purpose! You knew I should come."

"Oh--I don't know--I forgot! No, I didn't forget. I did it to
discipline myself. I have scrubbed the stairs since eight o'clock.
I MUST practise myself in my household duties. I've shamefully
neglected them!"

"Why should ye? He'll get a better school, perhaps be a parson, in
time, and you'll keep two servants. 'Tis a pity to spoil them pretty
hands."

"Don't talk of my pretty hands, Mrs. Edlin. This pretty body of mine
has been the ruin of me already!"

"Pshoo--you've got no body to speak of! You put me more in mind
of a sperrit. But there seems something wrong to-night, my dear.
Husband cross?"

"No. He never is. He's gone to bed early."

"Then what is it?"

"I cannot tell you. I have done wrong to-day. And I want to
eradicate it... Well--I will tell you this--Jude has been here this
afternoon, and I find I still love him--oh, grossly! I cannot tell
you more."

"Ah!" said the widow. "I told 'ee how 'twould be!"

"But it shan't be! I have not told my husband of his visit; it is
not necessary to trouble him about it, as I never mean to see Jude
any more. But I am going to make my conscience right on my duty to
Richard--by doing a penance--the ultimate thing. I must!"

"I wouldn't--since he agrees to it being otherwise, and it has gone
on three months very well as it is."

"Yes--he agrees to my living as I choose; but I feel it is an
indulgence I ought not to exact from him. It ought not to have been
accepted by me. To reverse it will be terrible--but I must be more
just to him. O why was I so unheroic!"

"What is it you don't like in him?" asked Mrs. Edlin curiously.

"I cannot tell you. It is something... I cannot say. The mournful
thing is, that nobody would admit it as a reason for feeling as I do;
so that no excuse is left me."

"Did you ever tell Jude what it was?"

"Never."

"I've heard strange tales o' husbands in my time," observed the widow
in a lowered voice. "They say that when the saints were upon the
earth devils used to take husbands' forms o' nights, and get poor
women into all sorts of trouble. But I don't know why that should
come into my head, for it is only a tale... What a wind and rain it
is to-night! Well--don't be in a hurry to alter