Just as he used to be about birds and things.
However, as it happens, it is just as well as if I had made it up, and I forgive you.
And, as I say, I'd advise you to get the business legally done as soon as possible. You'll find it an awful bother later on if you don't."
"I have told you he is asking me to marry him—to make our natural marriage a legal one," said Sue, with yet more dignity.
"It was quite by my wish that he didn't the moment I was free."
"Ah, yes—you are a oneyer too, like myself," said Arabella, eyeing her visitor with humorous criticism.
"Bolted from your first, didn't you, like me?"
"Good morning!—I must go," said Sue hastily.
"And I, too, must up and off!" replied the other, springing out of bed so suddenly that the soft parts of her person shook.
Sue jumped aside in trepidation.
"Lord, I am only a woman—not a six-foot sojer! … Just a moment, dear," she continued, putting her hand on Sue's arm.
"I really did want to consult Jude on a little matter of business, as I told him. I came about that more than anything else.
Would he run up to speak to me at the station as I am going?
You think not.
Well, I'll write to him about it.
I didn't want to write it, but never mind—I will."
III
When Sue reached home Jude was awaiting her at the door to take the initial step towards their marriage.
She clasped his arm, and they went along silently together, as true comrades oft-times do.
He saw that she was preoccupied, and forbore to question her.
"Oh Jude—I've been talking to her," she said at last. "I wish I hadn't!
And yet it is best to be reminded of things."
"I hope she was civil."
"Yes. I—I can't help liking her—just a little bit!
She's not an ungenerous nature; and I am so glad her difficulties have all suddenly ended."
She explained how Arabella had been summoned back, and would be enabled to retrieve her position.
"I was referring to our old question.
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?