Again he said to himself, `She does not realize what marriage means!'

He passively acquiesced in her wish to go in, and they entered by the western door. The only person inside the gloomy building was a charwoman cleaning. Sue still held Jude's arm, almost as if she loved him. Cruelly sweet, indeed, she had been to him that morning; but his thoughts of a penance in store for her were tempered by an ache:

`... I can find no way
How a blow should fall, such as falls on men,
Nor prove too much for your womanhood!'
They strolled undemonstratively up the nave towards the altar railing, which they stood against in silence, turning then and walking down the nave again, her hand still on his arm, precisely like a couple just married. The too suggestive incident, entirely of her making, nearly broke down Jude.

`I like to do things like this,' she said in the delicate voice of an epicure in emotions, which left no doubt that she spoke the truth.

`I know you do!' said Jude.

`They are interesting, because they have probably never been done before. I shall walk down the church like this with my husband in about two hours, shan't I!'

`No doubt you will!'

`Was it like this when you were married?'

`Good God, Sue - don't be so awfully merciless! ... There, dear one, I didn't mean it!'

`Ah - you are vexed!' she said regretfully, as she blinked away an access of eye moisture. `And I promised never to vex you! ... I suppose I ought not to have asked you to bring me in here. Oh, I oughtn't! I see it now. My curiosity to hunt up a new sensation always leads me into these scrapes. Forgive me! ... You will, won't you, Jude?'

The appeal was so remorseful that Jude's eyes were even wetter than hers as he pressed her hand for Yes.

`Now we'll hurry away, and I won't do it any more!' she continued humbly; and they came out of the building, Sue intending to go on to the station to meet Phillotson. But the first person they encountered on entering the main street was the schoolmaster himself, whose train had arrived sooner than Sue expected. There was nothing really to demur to in her leaning on Jude's arm; but she withdrew her hand, and Jude thought that Phillotson had looked surprised.

`We have been doing such a funny thing!' said she, smiling candidly. `We've been to the church, rehearsing as it were. Haven't we, Jude?'

`How?' said Phillotson curiously.

Jude inwardly deplored what he thought to be unnecessary frankness; but she had gone too far not to explain all, which she accordingly did, telling him how they had marched up to the altar.

Seeing how puzzled Phillotson seemed, Jude said as cheerfully as he could, `I am going to buy her another little present. Will you both come to the shop with me?'

`No,' said Sue, `I'll go on to the house with him'; and requesting her lover not to be a long time she departed with the schoolmaster.

Jude soon joined them at his rooms, and shortly after they prepared for the ceremony. Phillotson's hair was brushed to a painful extent, and his shirt collar appeared stiffer than it had been for the previous


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