The householder said he could not recall her features. "But still,
if you are a friend of Mr. Fawley's we'll do what we can for a day
or two--if he'll make himself answerable?"
"Yes, yes," said Jude. "She has really taken me quite unawares; but
I should wish to help her out of her difficulty." And an arrangement
was ultimately come to under which a bed was to be thrown down in
Jude's lumber-room, to make it comfortable for Arabella till she
could get out of the strait she was in--not by her own fault, as she
declared--and return to her father's again.
While they were waiting for this to be done Arabella said: "You know
the news, I suppose?"
"I guess what you mean; but I know nothing."
"I had a letter from Anny at Alfredston to-day. She had just heard
that the wedding was to be yesterday: but she didn't know if it had
come off."
"I don't wish to talk of it."
"No, no: of course you don't. Only it shows what kind of woman--"
"Don't speak of her I say! She's a fool! And she's an angel, too,
poor dear!"
"If it's done, he'll have a chance of getting back to his old
position, by everybody's account, so Anny says. All his well-wishers
will be pleased, including the bishop himself."
"Do spare me, Arabella."
Arabella was duly installed in the little attic, and at first she
did not come near Jude at all. She went to and fro about her own
business, which, when they met for a moment on the stairs or in the
passage, she informed him was that of obtaining another place in
the occupation she understood best. When Jude suggested London as
affording the most likely opening in the liquor trade, she shook her
head. "No--the temptations are too many," she said. "Any humble
tavern in the country before that for me."
On the Sunday morning following, when he breakfasted later than on
other days, she meekly asked him if she might come in to breakfast
with him, as she had broken her teapot, and could not replace it
immediately, the shops being shut.
"Yes, if you like," he said indifferently.
While they sat without speaking she suddenly observed: "You seem all
in a brood, old man. I'm sorry for you."
"I am all in a brood."
"It is about her, I know. It's no business of mine, but I could find
out all about the wedding--if it really did take place--if you wanted
to know."