"Yes-I meant it to be. Give me the other."
She took it, and began rending it with all her might, the tears resounding through the house like a screech-owl.
"But my dear, dear!-whatever?"
"It is adulterous! It signifies what I don"t feel-I bought it long ago-to please Jude. It must be destroyed!"
Mrs. Edlin lifted her hands, and Sue excitedly continued to tear the linen into strips, laying the pieces in the fire.
"You med ha" give it to me!" said the widow. "It do make my heart ache to see such pretty open-work as that a-burned by the flames-not that ornamental night-rails can be much use to a" ould "ooman like I. My days for such be all past and gone!"
"It is an accursed thing-it reminds me of what I want to forget!" Sue repeated. "It is only fit for the fire."
"Lord, you be too strict! What do ye use such words for, and condemn to h.e.l.l your dear little innocent children that"s lost to "ee! Upon my life I don"t call that religion!"
Sue flung her face upon the bed, sobbing. "Oh, don"t, don"t! That kills me!" She remained shaken with her grief, and slipped down upon her knees.
"I"ll tell "ee what-you ought not to marry this man again!" said Mrs. Edlin indignantly. "You are in love wi" t" other still!"
"Yes I must-I am his already!"
"Pshoo! You be t" other man"s. If you didn"t like to commit yourselves to the binding vow again, just at first, "twas all the more credit to your consciences, considering your reasons, and you med ha" lived on, and made it all right at last. After all, it concerned n.o.body but your own two selves."
"Richard says he"ll have me back, and I"m bound to go! If he had refused, it might not have been so much my duty to-give up Jude. But-" She remained with her face in the bed-clothes, and Mrs. Edlin left the room.
Phillotson in the interval had gone back to his friend Gillingham, who still sat over the supper-table. They soon rose, and walked out on the green to smoke awhile. A light was burning in Sue"s room, a shadow moving now and then across the blind.
Gillingham had evidently been impressed with the indefinable charm of Sue, and after a silence he said, "Well: you"ve all but got her again at last. She can"t very well go a second time. The pear has dropped into your hand."
"Yes! ... I suppose I am right in taking her at her word. I confess there seems a touch of selfishness in it. Apart from her being what she is, of course, a luxury for a fogy like me, it will set me right in the eyes of the clergy and orthodox laity, who have never forgiven me for letting her go. So I may get back in some degree into my old track."
"Well-if you"ve got any sound reason for marrying her again, do it now in G.o.d"s name! I was always against your opening the cage-door and letting the bird go in such an obviously suicidal way. You might have been a school inspector by this time, or a reverend, if you hadn"t been so weak about her."
"I did myself irreparable damage-I know it."
"Once you"ve got her housed again, stick to her."
Phillotson was more evasive to-night. He did not care to admit clearly that his taking Sue to him again had at bottom nothing to do with repentance of letting her go, but was, primarily, a human instinct flying in the face of custom and profession. He said, "Yes-I shall do that. I know woman better now. Whatever justice there was in releasing her, there was little logic, for one holding my views on other subjects."
Gillingham looked at him, and wondered whether it would ever happen that the reactionary spirit induced by the world"s sneers and his own physical wishes would make Phillotson more orthodoxly cruel to her than he had erstwhile been informally and perversely kind.
"I perceive it won"t do to give way to impulse," Phillotson resumed, feeling more and more every minute the necessity of acting up to his position. "I flew in the face of the Church"s teaching; but I did it without malice prepense. Women are so strange in their influence that they tempt you to misplaced kindness. However, I know myself better now. A little judicious severity, perhaps..."
"Yes; but you must tighten the reins by degrees only. Don"t be too strenuous at first. She"ll come to any terms in time."
The caution was unnecessary, though Phillotson did not say so. "I remember what my vicar at Shaston said, when I left after the row that was made about my agreeing to her elopement. "The only thing you can do to retrieve your position and hers is to admit your error in not restraining her with a wise and strong hand, and to get her back again if she"ll come, and be firm in the future." But I was so headstrong at that time that I paid no heed. And that after the divorce she should have thought of doing so I did not dream."
The gate of Mrs. Edlin"s cottage clicked, and somebody began crossing in the direction of the school. Phillotson said "Good-night."
"Oh, is that Mr. Phillotson," said Mrs. Edlin. "I was going over to see "ee. I"ve been upstairs with her, helping her to unpack her things; and upon my word, sir, I don"t think this ought to be!"
"What-the wedding?"
"Yes. She"s forcing herself to it, poor dear little thing; and you"ve no notion what she"s suffering. I was never much for religion nor against it, but it can"t be right to let her do this, and you ought to persuade her out of it. Of course everybody will say it was very good and forgiving of "ee to take her to "ee again. But for my part I don"t."
"It"s her wish, and I am willing," said Phillotson with grave reserve, opposition making him illogically tenacious now. "A great piece of laxity will be rectified."
"I don"t believe it. She"s his wife if anybody"s. She"s had three children by him, and he loves her dearly; and it"s a wicked shame to egg her on to this, poor little quivering thing! She"s got n.o.body on her side. The one man who"d be her friend the obstinate creature won"t allow to come near her. What first put her into this mood o" mind, I wonder!"
"I can"t tell. Not I certainly. It is all voluntary on her part. Now that"s all I have to say." Phillotson spoke stiffly. "You"ve turned round, Mrs. Edlin. It is unseemly of you!"
"Well. I knowed you"d be affronted at what I had to say; but I don"t mind that. The truth"s the truth."
"I"m not affronted, Mrs. Edlin. You"ve been too kind a neighbour for that. But I must be allowed to know what"s best for myself and Susanna. I suppose you won"t go to church with us, then?"
"No. Be hanged if I can... I don"t know what the times be coming to! Matrimony have growed to be that serious in these days that one really do feel afeard to move in it at all. In my time we took it more careless; and I don"t know that we was any the worse for it! When I and my poor man were jined in it we kept up the junketing all the week, and drunk the parish dry, and had to borrow half a crown to begin housekeeping!"
When Mrs. Edlin had gone back to her cottage Phillotson spoke moodily. "I don"t know whether I ought to do it-at any rate quite so rapidly."
"Why?"
"If she is really compelling herself to this against her instincts-merely from this new sense of duty or religion-I ought perhaps to let her wait a bit."
"Now you"ve got so far you ought not to back out of it. That"s my opinion."
"I can"t very well put it off now; that"s true. But I had a qualm when she gave that little cry at sight of the licence."
"Now, never you have qualms, old boy. I mean to give her away to-morrow morning, and you mean to take her. It has always been on my conscience that I didn"t urge more objections to your letting her go, and now we"ve got to this stage I shan"t be content if I don"t help you to set the matter right."
Phillotson nodded, and seeing how staunch his friend was, became more frank. "No doubt when it gets known what I"ve done I shall be thought a soft fool by many. But they don"t know Sue as I do. Though so elusive, hers is such an honest nature at bottom that I don"t think she has ever done anything against her conscience. The fact of her having lived with Fawley goes for nothing. At the time she left me for him she thought she was quite within her right. Now she thinks otherwise."
The next morning came, and the self-sacrifice of the woman on the altar of what she was pleased to call her principles was acquiesced in by these two friends, each from his own point of view. Phillotson went across to the Widow Edlin"s to fetch Sue a few minutes after eight o"clock. The fog of the previous day or two on the low-lands had travelled up here by now, and the trees on the green caught armfuls, and turned them into showers of big drops. The bride was waiting, ready; bonnet and all on. She had never in her life looked so much like the lily her name connoted as she did in that pallid morning light. Chastened, world-weary, remorseful, the strain on her nerves had preyed upon her flesh and bones, and she appeared smaller in outline than she had formerly done, though Sue had not been a large woman in her days of rudest health.
"Prompt," said the schoolmaster, magnanimously taking her hand. But he checked his impulse to kiss her, remembering her start of yesterday, which unpleasantly lingered in his mind.
Gillingham joined them, and they left the house, Widow Edlin continuing steadfast in her refusal to a.s.sist in the ceremony.
"Where is the church?" said Sue. She had not lived there for any length of time since the old church was pulled down, and in her preoccupation forgot the new one.
"Up here," said Phillotson; and presently the tower loomed large and solemn in the fog. The vicar had already crossed to the building, and when they entered he said pleasantly: "We almost want candles."
"You do-wish me to be yours, Richard?" gasped Sue in a whisper.
"Certainly, dear: above all things in the world."
Sue said no more; and for the second or third time he felt he was not quite following out the humane instinct which had induced him to let her go.
There they stood, five altogether: the parson, the clerk, the couple, and Gillingham; and the holy ordinance was resolemnized forthwith. In the nave of the edifice were two or three villagers, and when the clergyman came to the words, "What G.o.d hath joined," a woman"s voice from among these was heard to utter audibly: