omb? Why did i not give up the ghost when
I came out of the belly? ... For now should I have lain still and
been quiet. I should have slept: then had I been at rest!"_

("Hurrah!")

_"There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the
oppressor... The small and the great are there; and the servant is
free from his master. Wherefore is light given to him that is in
misery, and life unto the bitter in soul?"_

Meanwhile Arabella, in her journey to discover what was going on,
took a short cut down a narrow street and through an obscure nook
into the quad of Cardinal. It was full of bustle, and brilliant
in the sunlight with flowers and other preparations for a ball
here also. A carpenter nodded to her, one who had formerly been a
fellow-workman of Jude's. A corridor was in course of erection from
the entrance to the hall staircase, of gay red and buff bunting.
Waggon-loads of boxes containing bright plants in full bloom were
being placed about, and the great staircase was covered with red
cloth. She nodded to one workman and another, and ascended to the
hall on the strength of their acquaintance, where they were putting
down a new floor and decorating for the dance.

The cathedral bell close at hand was sounding for five o'clock
service.

"I should not mind having a spin there with a fellow's arm round my
waist," she said to one of the men. "But Lord, I must be getting
home again--there's a lot to do. No dancing for me!"

When she reached home she was met at the door by Stagg, and one or
two other of Jude's fellow stoneworkers. "We are just going down
to the river," said the former, "to see the boat-bumping. But we've
called round on our way to ask how your husband is."

"He's sleeping nicely, thank you," said Arabella.

"That's right. Well now, can't you give yourself half an hour's
relaxation, Mrs. Fawley, and come along with us? 'Twould do you
good."

"I should like to go," said she. "I've never seen the boat-racing,
and I hear it is good fun."

"Come along!"

"How I WISH I could!" She looked longingly down the street. "Wait
a minute, then. I'll just run up and see how he is now. Father is
with him, I believe; so I can most likely come."

They waited, and she entered. Downstairs the inmates were absent
as before, having, in fact, gone in a body to the river where the
procession of boats was to pass. When she reached the bedroom she
found that her father had not e