Jude the Obsure

"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."