by Thomas Hardy
VII
Arabella was preparing breakfast in the downstairs back room of thissmall, recently hired tenement of her father's. She put her headinto the little pork-shop in front, and told Mr. Donn it was ready.Donn, endeavouring to look like a master pork-butcher, in a greasyblue blouse, and with a strap round his waist from which a steeldangled, came in promptly.
"You must mind the shop this morning," he said casually. "I've togo and get some inwards and half a pig from Lumsdon, and to callelsewhere. If you live here you must put your shoulder to the wheel,at least till I get the business started!"
"Well, for to-day I can't say." She looked deedily into his face."I've got a prize upstairs."
"Oh? What's that?"
"A husband--almost."
"No!"
"Yes. It's Jude. He's come back to me."
"Your old original one? Well, I'm damned!"
"Well, I always did like him, that I will say."
"But how does he come to be up there?" said Donn, humour-struck, andnodding to the ceiling.
"Don't ask inconvenient questions, Father. What we've to do is tokeep him here till he and I are--as we were."
"How was that?"
"Married."
"Ah... Well it is the rummest thing I ever heard of--marrying anold husband again, and so much new blood in the world! He's nocatch, to my thinking. I'd have had a new one while I was about it."
"It isn't rum for a woman to want her old husband back forrespectability, though for a man to want his old wife back--well,perhaps it is funny, rather!" And Arabella was suddenly seized witha fit of loud laughter, in which her father joined more moderately.
"Be civil to him, and I'll do the rest," she said when she hadrecovered seriousness. "He told me this morning that his head achedfit to burst, and he hardly seemed to know where he was. And nowonder, considering how he mixed his drink last night. We must keephim jolly and cheerful here for a day or two, and not let him go backto his lodging. Whatever you advance I'll pay back to you again.But I must go up and see how he is now, poor deary."
Arabella ascended the stairs, softly opened the door of the firstbedroom, and peeped in. Finding that her shorn Samson was asleepshe entered to the bedside and stood regarding him. The feveredflush on his face from the debauch of the previous evening lessenedthe fragility of his ordinary appearance, and his long lashes,dark brows, and curly back hair and beard against the white pillowcompleted the physiognomy of one whom Arabella, as a woman of rankpassions, still felt it worth while to recapture, highly importantto recapture as a woman straitened both in means and in reputation.Her ardent gaze seemed to affect him; his quick breathing becamesuspended, and he opened his eyes.
"How are you now, dear?" said she. "It is I--Arabella."
"Ah!--where--oh yes, I remember! You gave me shelter... I amstranded--ill--demoralized--damn bad! That's what I am!"
"Then do stay here. There's nobody in the house but father and me,and you can rest till you are thoroughly well. I'll tell them atthe stoneworks that you are knocked up."
"I wonder what they are thinking at the lodgings!"
"I'll go round and explain. Perhaps you had better let me pay up, orthey'll think we've run away?"
"Yes. You'll find enough money in my pocket there."
Quite indifferent, and shutting his eyes because he could not bearthe daylight in his throbbing eye-balls, Jude seemed to doze again.Arabella took his purse, softly left the room, and putting on heroutdoor things went off to the lodgings she and he had quitted theevening before.
Scarcely half an hour had elapsed ere she reappeared round thecorner, walking beside a lad wheeling a truck on which were piled allJude's household possessions, and also the few of Arabella's thingswhich she had taken to the lodging for her short sojourn there.Jude was in such physical pain from his unfortunate break-down ofthe previous night, and in such mental pain from the loss of Sue andfrom having yielded in his half-somnolent state to Arabella, thatwhen he saw his few chattels unpacked and standing before his eyes inthis strange bedroom, intermixed with woman's apparel, he scarcelyconsidered how they had come there, or what their coming signalized.
"Now," said Arabella to her father downstairs, "we must keep plentyof good liquor going in the house these next few days. I know hisnature, and if he once gets into that fearfully low state that hedoes get into sometimes, he'll never do the honourable thing by mein this world, and I shall be left in the lurch. He must be keptcheerful. He has a little money in the savings bank, and he hasgiven me his purse to pay for anything necessary. Well, that willbe the licence; for I must have that ready at hand, to catch himthe moment he's in the humour. You must pay for the liquor. A fewfriends, and a quiet convivial party would be the thing, if we couldget it up. It would advertise the shop, and help me too."
"That can be got up easy enough by anybody who'll afford victuals anddrink... Well yes--it would advertise the shop--that's true."
Three days later, when Jude had recovered somewhat from the fearfulthrobbing of his eyes and brain, but was still considerably confusedin his mind by what had been supplied to him by Arabella duringthe interval--to keep him, jolly, as she expressed it--the quietconvivial gathering, suggested by her, to wind Jude up to thestriking point, took place.
Donn had only just opened his miserable little pork and sausageshop, which had as yet scarce any customers; nevertheless that partyadvertised it well, and the Donns acquired a real notoriety among acertain class in Christminster who knew not the colleges, nor theirworks, nor their ways. Jude was asked if he could suggest any guestin addition to those named by Arabella and her father, and in asaturnine humour of perfect recklessness mentioned Uncle Joe, andStagg, and the decayed auctioneer, and others whom he remembered ashaving been frequenters of the well-known tavern during his bouttherein years before. He also suggested Freckles and Bower o' Bliss.Arabella took him at his word so far as the men went, but drew theline at the ladies.
Another man they knew, Tinker Taylor, though he lived in the samestreet, was not invited; but as he went homeward from a late job onthe evening of the party, he had occasion to call at the shop fortrotters. There were none in, but he was promised some the nextmorning. While making his inquiry Taylor glanced into the back room,and saw the guests sitting round, card-playing, and drinking, andotherwise enjoying themselves at Donn's expense. He went home tobed, and on his way out next morning wondered how the party wentoff. He thought it hardly worth while to call at the shop for hisprovisions at that hour, Donn and his daughter being probably not up,if they caroused late the night before. However, he found in passingthat the door was open, and he could hear voices within, though theshutters of the meat-stall were not down. He went and tapped at thesitting-room door, and opened it.
"Well--to be sure!" he said, astonished.
Hosts and guests were sitting card-playing, smoking, and talking,precisely as he had left them eleven hours earlier; the gas wasburning and the curtains drawn, though it had been broad daylightfor two hours out of doors.
"Yes!" cried Arabella, laughing. "Here we are, just the same. Weought to be ashamed of ourselves, oughtn't we? But it is a sort ofhousewarming, you see; and our friends are in no hurry. Come in, Mr.Taylor, and sit down."
The tinker, or rather reduced ironmonger, was nothing loath, andentered and took a seat. "I shall lose a quarter, but never mind,"he said. "Well, really, I could hardly believe my eyes when I lookedin! It seemed as if I was flung back again into last night, all of asudden."
"So you are. Pour out for Mr. Taylor."
He now perceived that she was sitting beside Jude, her arm beinground his waist. Jude, like the rest of the company, bore on hisface the signs of how deeply he had been indulging.
"Well, we've been waiting for certain legal hours to arrive, totell the truth," she continued bashfully, and making her spirituouscrimson look as much like a maiden blush as possible. "Jude and Ihave decided to make up matters between us by tying
the knot again,as we find we can't do without one another after all. So, as abright notion, we agreed to sit on till it was late enough, and goand do it off-hand."
Jude seemed to pay no great heed to what she was announcing, orindeed to anything whatever. The entrance of Taylor infused freshspirit into the company, and they remained sitting, till Arabellawhispered to her father: "Now we may as well go."
"But the parson don't know?"
"Yes, I told him last night that we might come between eight andnine, as there were reasons of decency for doing it as early andquiet as possible; on account of it being our second marriage, whichmight make people curious to look on if they knew. He highlyapproved."
"Oh very well, I'm ready," said her father, getting up and shakinghimself.
"Now, old darling," she said to Jude. "Come along, as you promised."
"When did I promise anything?" asked he, whom she had made so tipsyby her special knowledge of that line of business as almost to havemade him sober again--or to seem so to those who did not know him.
"Why!" said Arabella, affecting dismay. "You've promised to marry meseveral times as we've sat here to-night. These gentlemen have heardyou."
"I don't remember it," said Jude doggedly. "There's only onewoman--but I won't mention her in this Capharnaum!"
Arabella looked towards her father. "Now, Mr. Fawley be honourable,"said Donn. "You and my daughter have been living here together thesethree or four days, quite on the understanding that you were going tomarry her. Of course I shouldn't have had such goings on in my houseif I hadn't understood that. As a point of honour you must do itnow."
"Don't say anything against my honour!" enjoined Jude hotly,standing up. "I'd marry the W---- of Babylon rather than doanything dishonourable! No reflection on you, my dear. It is amere rhetorical figure--what they call in the books, hyperbole."
"Keep your figures for your debts to friends who shelter you," saidDonn.
"If I am bound in honour to marry her--as I suppose I am--thoughhow I came to be here with her I know no more than a dead man--marryher I will, so help me God! I have never behaved dishonourably toa woman or to any living thing. I am not a man who wants to savehimself at the expense of the weaker among us!"
"There--never mind him, deary," said she, putting her cheek againstJude's. "Come up and wash your face, and just put yourself tidy, andoff we'll go. Make it up with Father."
They shook hands. Jude went upstairs with her, and soon came downlooking 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 littlemaid to get the breakfast while we are gone; and when we come backwe'll all have some. A good strong cup of tea will set everybodyright for going home."