Page:Hardy - Jude the Obscure, 1896.djvu/293

 woman has ever wished more than I that Eve had not fallen, so that (as the primitive Christians believed) some harmless mode of vegetation might have peopled Paradise. But I won't trifle! Be kind to me—even though I have not been kind to you! I will go away, go abroad, anywhere, and never trouble you."

Nearly an hour passed, and then he returned an answer:

"I do not wish to pain you. How well you know I don't! Give me a little time. I am disposed to agree to your last request."

One line from her:

"Thank you from my heart, Richard. I do not deserve your kindness."

All day Phillotson bent a dazed regard upon her through the glazed partition; and he felt as lonely as when he had not known her.

But he was as good as his word, and consented to her living apart in the house. At first, when they met at meals, she had seemed more composed under the new arrangement; but the irksomeness of their position worked on her temperament, and the fibres of her nature seemed strained like harp-strings. She talked vaguely and indiscriminately to prevent his talking pertinently.