"Don't say anything against my honour!" enjoined Jude hotly,
standing up. "I'd marry the W---- of Babylon rather than do
anything dishonourable! No reflection on you, my dear. It is a
mere rhetorical figure--what they call in the books, hyperbole."
"Keep your figures for your debts to friends who shelter you," said
Donn.
"If I am bound in honour to marry her--as I suppose I am--though
how I came to be here with her I know no more than a dead man--marry
her I will, so help me God! I have never behaved dishonourably to
a woman or to any living thing. I am not a man who wants to save
himself at the expense of the weaker among us!"
"There--never mind him, deary," said she, putting her cheek against
Jude's. "Come up and wash your face, and just put yourself tidy, and
off we'll go. Make it up with Father."
They shook hands. Jude went upstairs with her, and soon came down
looking tidy and calm. Arabella, too, had hastily arranged herself,
and accompanied by Donn away they went.
"Don't go," she said to the guests at parting. "I've told the little
maid to get the breakfast while we are gone; and when we come back
we'll all have some. A good strong cup of tea will set everybody
right for going home."
When Arabella, Jude, and Donn had disappeared on their matrimonial
errand the assembled guests yawned themselves wider awake, and
discussed the situation with great interest. Tinker Taylor, being
the most sober, reasoned the most lucidly.
"I don't wish to speak against friends," he said. "But it do seem a
rare curiosity for a couple to marry over again! If they couldn't
get on the first time when their minds were limp, they won't the
second, by my reckoning."
"Do you think he'll do it?"
"He's been put upon his honour by the woman, so he med."
"He'd hardly do it straight off like this. He's got no licence nor
anything."
"She's got that, bless you. Didn't you hear her say so to her
father?"
"Well," said Tinker Taylor, relighting his pipe at the gas-jet.
"Take her all together, limb by limb, she's not such a bad-looking
piece--particular by candlelight. To be sure, halfpence that have
been in circulation can't be expected to look like new ones from
the mint. But for a woman that's been knocking about the four
hemispheres for some time, she's passable enough. A little bit thick
in the flitch perhaps: but I like a woman that a puff o' wind won't
blow down."