第90章 At Aldbrickham and Elsewhere(6)

What Arabella has been saying to me has made me feel more than ever how hopelessly vulgar an institution legal marriage is -a sort of trap to catch a man -I can't bear to think of it.I wish I hadn't promised to let you put up the banns this morning!'

'Oh,don't mind me.Any time will do for me.I thought you might like to get it over quickly,now.'

'Indeed,I don't feel any more anxious now than I did before.

Perhaps with any other man I might be a little anxious;but among the very few virtues possessed by your family and mine,dear,I think I may set staunchness.So I am not a bit frightened about losing you,now I really am yours and you really are mine.In fact,I am easier in my mind than I was,for my conscience is clear about Richard,who now has a right to his freedom.I felt we were deceiving him before.'

'Sue,you seem when you are like this to be one of the women of some grand old civilization,whom I used to read about in my bygone,wasted,classical days,rather than a denizen of a mere Christian country.I almost expect you to say at these times that you have just been talking to some friend whom you met in the Via Sacra,about the latest news of Octavia or Livia;or have been listening to Aspasia's eloquence,or have been watching Praxiteles chiselling away at his latest Venus,while Phryne made complaint that she was tired of posing.'

They had now reached the house of the parish clerk.Sue stood back,while her lover went up to the door.His hand was raised to knock when she said:'Jude!'

He looked round.

'Wait a minute,would you mind?'

He came back to her.

'Just let us think,'she said timidly.'I had such a horrid dream one night!...And Arabella --'

'What did Arabella say to you?'he asked 'Oh,she said that when people were tied up you could get the law of a man better if he beat you -and how when couples quarrelled....

Jude,do you think that when you must have me with you by law,we shall be so happy as we are now?The men and women of our family are very generous when everything depends upon their goodwill,but they always kick against compulsion.Don't you dread the attitude that insensibly arises out of legal obligation?Don't you think it is destructive to a passion whose essence is its gratuitousness?'

'Upon my word,love,you are beginning to frighten me,too,with all this foreboding!Well,let's go back and think it over.'

Her face brightened.'Yes -so we will!'said she.And they turned from the clerk's door,Sue taking his arm and murmuring as they walked on homeward:

Can you keep the bee from ranging,Or the ring-dove s neck from changing?

No!Nor fetter'd love ...They thought it over,or postponed thinking.Certainly they postponed action,and seemed to live on in a dreamy paradise.At the end of a fortnight or three weeks matters remained unadvanced,and no banns were announced to the ears of any Aldbrickham congregation.

Whilst they were postponing and postponing thus a letter and a newspaper arrived before breakfast one morning from Arabella.Seeing the handwriting Jude went up to Sue's room and told her,and as soon as she was dressed she hastened down.Sue opened the newspaper;Jude the letter.

After glancing at the paper she held across the first page to him with her finger on a paragraph;but he was so absorbed in his letter that he did not turn awhile.

'Look!'said she.

He looked and read.The paper was one that circulated in South London only,and the marked advertisement was simply the announcement of a marriage at St.John's Church,Waterloo Road,under the names,'CARTLETT-DONN';the united pair being Arabella and the inn-keeper.

'Well,it is satisfactory,'said Sue complacently.'Though,after this,it seems rather low to do likewise,and I am glad.However,she is provided for now in a way,I suppose,whatever her faults,poor thing.

It is nicer that we are able to think that,than to be uneasy about her.

I ought,too,to write to Richard and ask him how he is getting on,perhaps?'

But Jude's attention was still absorbed.Having merely glanced at the announcement he said in a disturbed voice:'Listen to this letter.What shall I say or do?'

The Three Horns,Lambeth.Dear Jude (I won't be so distant as to call you Mr.Fawley),-I send to-day a newspaper,from which useful document you will learn that I was married over again to Cartlett last Tuesday.So that business is settled right and tight at last.But what I write about more particular is that private affair I wanted to speak to you on when I came down to Aldbrickham.I couldn't very well tell it to your lady friend,and should much have liked to let you know it by word of mouth,as I could have explained better than by letter.The fact is,Jude,that,though I have never informed you before,there was a boy born of our marriage,eight months after I left you,when I was at Sydney,living with my father and mother.All that is easily provable.